Happy Thursday! Happy Blackjack Thursday at that! First of the year, hurrah. Okay, that aside, I need to make an addendum to last week's note. My policy seems to be Thursday over, pens down. But I definitely forgot FORGOT some important things that happened last week:
My new roommate Nikki went away! Moved back home. It's really sad, she was sorta awesome. So now it's just the two of us, but friends are over a lot and they're like honorary roommates. And also I'm not there very much, either, unless I'm sleeping. I love sleeping.
The other thing, less important but still exciting, is that I got my Zune back. More or less. Kinda less. Did you know that I named my first one Sora? That means "sky" in Japanese, and it was a reference to the wireless capabilities of the device. It was also for Sora from Kingdom Hearts, because I always name stuff after game/anime things. So Sora freaked out, and we sent it in to get fixed/replaced, and finally I got one back. Looks the same (except no smashed corners because I haven't thrown this one on the sidewalk), but apparently there's a different harddrive, too. So it's like new, but it looks the same. So I named him Roxas, which is a hilarious joke if you've played Kingdom Hearts II. (Roxas is like Sora, but the reborned version. It's hilarious)
Unfortunately, much like Roxas, my new Zune is messed up. Same exact problems, but just slightly not as bad. Don't know what to do about it! Still think that maybe wiping my drive and starting over miiiiight help (being the only thing in common between Sora and Roxas), but I still haven't been into IMT. Sigh.
So for this week I have been told to Not Leave Important Things Out! So right now before I forget, I'm going to mention Crabby Chad's.
Crabby Chad's is a seafood restaurant on Citrus, which we've passed kinda often. It's fun to shout CRABBY CHAAAAD'S upon passing. So we finally went, me Beth and Brianna. It was...disappointing. That's about it.
Beth would like me to let you know she is amazing, and that Brianna is going to save the world.
So last weekend I helped out on the set of Bound, one of the student studio films. I didn't really do much, I basically followed around the producer as he shopped for lunch and dinner, and then helped cook the first night. And then I just sat around and watched! It was cool. It's a pretty trippy story, and there were some creepy performances. In a luminescent white room. Yay.
This weekend, though, I'm helping script supervise on Stealing Jesus, one of the others. I hear it involves keeping track of shot details. Paperwork, really. So my helping-on-set experience will include carrying, cooking, and script suping. Hahah yay. Go expertise!
But in between these two, I worked on my own. Finished it, really. Order Up is officially done--but it decided to have a last-ditch attempt to ruin us, by not exporting the whole movie. So it's not even technically turned in. But there's nothing we can do at the moment because it's being all weird and ornery. But it looks real nice. Sounds nice. We were up til 4 and 3 in the morning the past two days, trying to beat it into submission. But it was fun because everyone was there, doing the same thing. Just need to write my own script now! Haha.
Okay, they're making me add more. They sound very angry.
After Crabby Chad's (and Target) we went to Baking Fairy, which me and Beth drove by on a previous adventure (on Friday--to Claremont and beyond, then to Pamona to my bakery). It was really cute, and she kept giving us samples, and Beth got a 25 cent discount. We'll go back!
And before editing yesterday, Beth and Jenn and me went out to Arcadia to Tokyo Wako, which I can afford from not spending money on food this weekend and last (hooray student film budgets). It was really good, although the people at the far side of the table were the sort who really shouldn't be ordering that wine in public. And then like fifty old folks fro Iowa took over the place. They all had on the same yellow shirt, and we're pretty sure they'd just come from a The Price is Right shooting. I just wonder how they ended up in Arcadia.
Oh yeah, we just had a Lost party (well, me and Brianna, and Beth watches and has no idea what's going on). This week....okay. I called the twist ending like half-way through. Kate and Sawyer were way cute. Everything else was kinda blah. I think Desmond is #5.
Oh, also today I got mail from Carolyn, and that's always a day-brightener. ^^
Okay, I'm being told that I didn't leave anything important out. So I will see you another day!
-Steph
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Busy Yet Uneventful
Happy Thursday! I suppose by default I should also say Happy Valentine's Day, since I've highlighted much more obscure holidays that fall on Thursday. Remember Australian Independence Day? Or something like that. Not that I have anything against Valentine's Day, although from Facebook I get the impression that the rest of the school does. Silly rest of the school.
So this weekend Carolyn was here! And we seriously watched all the movies. The Incredibles, The Italian Job, Casino Royale, Star Trek Nemesis, Juno, the last half of a Steven Segal movie, an old horror movie, bits of the new Willie Wonka. Plus some fun opera music videos on PBS, and like the Twilight Zone and Get Smart. Also, Of Mice and Men at the school theater. But we also did a lot of walking - to KFC, to West, over to Citrus and around in it, and then back home. Trust me, that's a lot of walking. It was a fun and lazy weekend.
Monday and Wednesday I spent in the ER some more, because today "picture lock" was due. That means that the way we want the footage is set more or less in stone, so that we know where for sure the audio goes. Which we should be having composed? I forgot to bring the DVD to Kelly to get to her music friend....he should really have it this weekend because the finished finished product is due next Thursday! Eep.
But no, it's looks pretty decent, especially with the beautiful beautiful old film style effects. Could use some varied speed and some of the effects didn't export properly, so there is still a touch of editing yet to be done. But everyone else's films look pretty sharp and I can't wait for them all to be done and have pretty sound and be like real movies. I should really be writing mine about now, to have something to shoot next month! And the process begins again.
What I started writing, though, is something I've been thinking about since last semester. A show about these kids who see the future in their dreams, and band together like superheroes to use their power for good. What I've started writing isn't precisely that, but that's the gist. It's not just kids, and of course there's a government conspiracy and now it's just a six episode mini-series. It's called Dreamers. I have five pages. w00t!
The thing I wrote today was the homework/paper due at 4:20. Got there a half hour late because I finished it at 4:20, and the trolley would Just Not Go. But it was okay, and the movie wasn't as bad as last week (The Band Wagon), and he graded the papers during it and I got an A AND a smiley face. Go me. No class tomorrow!!
Got myself assigned to help on craft services (food) for one of the student films this weekend. Haha, there goes my vacation. And next weekend I'm thinking I'll be helping on one of the others! But then the weekend after that, I get to meet the dentist again. BUT THE WEEKEND AFTER THAT is my last weekend as being 20.
Lost today was actually very good, I thought. It's probably just because I love Sayid. Love Love Love. Happy Valentine's Day, Sayid! OH. GUYS. The strike ended this week!!! New episodes of The Office April 3rd!! They're gonna try and push out six more before the season ends. Let's all rejoice.
The downside to this week was that I took a nap while I was backing up my computer onto my drive (*) and somehow managed to get sick again. I might be allergic to the couch. So now I have one of those squeaky cough voices that make me sound like an alien. But after that goes away, I'll be fine again.
* I've been meaning to take my computer to IMT to get it wiped because all the spyware on it. It's slow and awful and really does just shut down for the fun of it. And it's blocking my antivirus update, and I need to update in order to have full access to the school internet, so I get kicked off every 45 minutes and can't load things like Yahoo. But this morning when I turned it on, the automatic update friend told me that some malicious spyware had been removed, and the obnoxious "Your Computer is Infected Click Here To Install Some More Viruses" balloon is gone! So at least that's a relief. So maybe I don't have to get it wiped, just thoroughly scanned.
That's all I got! See you next week!
-Steph
So this weekend Carolyn was here! And we seriously watched all the movies. The Incredibles, The Italian Job, Casino Royale, Star Trek Nemesis, Juno, the last half of a Steven Segal movie, an old horror movie, bits of the new Willie Wonka. Plus some fun opera music videos on PBS, and like the Twilight Zone and Get Smart. Also, Of Mice and Men at the school theater. But we also did a lot of walking - to KFC, to West, over to Citrus and around in it, and then back home. Trust me, that's a lot of walking. It was a fun and lazy weekend.
Monday and Wednesday I spent in the ER some more, because today "picture lock" was due. That means that the way we want the footage is set more or less in stone, so that we know where for sure the audio goes. Which we should be having composed? I forgot to bring the DVD to Kelly to get to her music friend....he should really have it this weekend because the finished finished product is due next Thursday! Eep.
But no, it's looks pretty decent, especially with the beautiful beautiful old film style effects. Could use some varied speed and some of the effects didn't export properly, so there is still a touch of editing yet to be done. But everyone else's films look pretty sharp and I can't wait for them all to be done and have pretty sound and be like real movies. I should really be writing mine about now, to have something to shoot next month! And the process begins again.
What I started writing, though, is something I've been thinking about since last semester. A show about these kids who see the future in their dreams, and band together like superheroes to use their power for good. What I've started writing isn't precisely that, but that's the gist. It's not just kids, and of course there's a government conspiracy and now it's just a six episode mini-series. It's called Dreamers. I have five pages. w00t!
The thing I wrote today was the homework/paper due at 4:20. Got there a half hour late because I finished it at 4:20, and the trolley would Just Not Go. But it was okay, and the movie wasn't as bad as last week (The Band Wagon), and he graded the papers during it and I got an A AND a smiley face. Go me. No class tomorrow!!
Got myself assigned to help on craft services (food) for one of the student films this weekend. Haha, there goes my vacation. And next weekend I'm thinking I'll be helping on one of the others! But then the weekend after that, I get to meet the dentist again. BUT THE WEEKEND AFTER THAT is my last weekend as being 20.
Lost today was actually very good, I thought. It's probably just because I love Sayid. Love Love Love. Happy Valentine's Day, Sayid! OH. GUYS. The strike ended this week!!! New episodes of The Office April 3rd!! They're gonna try and push out six more before the season ends. Let's all rejoice.
The downside to this week was that I took a nap while I was backing up my computer onto my drive (*) and somehow managed to get sick again. I might be allergic to the couch. So now I have one of those squeaky cough voices that make me sound like an alien. But after that goes away, I'll be fine again.
* I've been meaning to take my computer to IMT to get it wiped because all the spyware on it. It's slow and awful and really does just shut down for the fun of it. And it's blocking my antivirus update, and I need to update in order to have full access to the school internet, so I get kicked off every 45 minutes and can't load things like Yahoo. But this morning when I turned it on, the automatic update friend told me that some malicious spyware had been removed, and the obnoxious "Your Computer is Infected Click Here To Install Some More Viruses" balloon is gone! So at least that's a relief. So maybe I don't have to get it wiped, just thoroughly scanned.
That's all I got! See you next week!
-Steph
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Too Many Words
Happy Thursday! Today was sunny and great, and I actually wandered around without my sweatshirt! I'd say that's a wonderful sign for a Thursday. I declare it the First Day of Spring Thursday.
Busy week! Friday me and Brianna and Jenn saw 27 Dresses. I give it a solid C largely based on its writing, which was uninspired and downright plagiarized at times. The acting was lackluster and stilted; and coming from otherwise bright performers, I say the script was at fault. Overall cute, but entirely forgettable. Poor even by chick flick standards.
Saturday was really weird. Me and Kelly had to do the last of our shooting, but Campus Safety is dumb. Woke up before seven to truck out to Heritage to shoot in the kitchen there, right? But no one's there and everything is locked and Campus Safety (I named him Leo after a certain Veronica Mars deputy) was too busy to call it in. But over all it didn't work, and we ended up going and basically hanging out in Stater Bros and then Big Lots, where we bought some cereal and some poster board and a marker to make a sign (sign didn't include cereal). Which we subsequently taped up in an alley across the street and filmed really fast before the motorcycle drug dealer came.
And we did this early in the morning because Kelly was going to be busy the rest of the day, and I was going to help out on the last day of the Reclamation shoot, which I was way excited about. Buuuuut most people with cars were inexplicably out of town for the day, and Brianna was going to take me but then she got deathly ill. So instead, I had a four hour nap in my beanbag chair. And then in the evening me and Beth and her friend Christy went to Hurry Curry but it tasted different and was weird. So it was a very very very very weird day.
Sunday was almost worse, but we gave Campus Safety the slip and got into Heritage and shot some very good footage and everyone in there was very nice. This was like, from 11:30 to say 12? I don't know, right in the middle of the day. And as I'm walking back across my court, I got to chat with some of the guys from Reclamation, so that kinda made up for not being able to go the day before. They're very nice. And then sometime between that and the Super Bowl, I spontaneously got sick. I was very cold but it was super hot what with the heater and the sweatshirts and the poncho. Unpleasant. But then later Beth came over and then Kelly came over and started a game of Kingdom Hearts. I forgot how silly the graphics/camera movement were. XD
Gosh, Monday. Editor's cut of our film due first thing Tues, so I spent all day Monday in the ER. Which does not stand for Emergency Room (I mean, not in this case). I always thought it was for Editing Room, but it could very feasibly also represent Equipment Room. But the imacs don't recognize my drive, does anyone have a drive I could borrow? Tiny fiasco in procuring one, but soon enough I'm on my way, and the paperwork he had us do really really came in handy. The bluescreen also works fantastically (I mean, when you consider I don't really know what I'm doing), with the exception of a ginormous shelf in the foreground--we'll have to reshoot this weekend, but asides from that the movie's basically done. I'd say it looks pretty good--okay, really. The titles need polishing, and I could shave it down time-wise, and Jeremy has some neat effects to make it more old-timey. Needs music. But I was in that room for 12 hours. It was fun. Jeremy's from this same class, and he and his group were in there editing right at the end, so I got to see a master at work.
Well that was a giant paragraph.
Tuesday we watched the rough edits. Pretty good work, across the board. Two thriller/chases and two comedies. If you guys are free ...April 24th I think it is, that's the screening of all the movies our class will have made this semester. You should really come and check them out.
Wednesday was yesterday, and basically I didn't come home after class--I got stolen away by my roommates and Beth and taken to this cafe/restaurant Panera, and then Pasadena. Nikki had wanted to go to "21 places today!!" meaning 21 Choices, the frozen yogurt place, so I said "we can go to school and the bank and the gas station and the store...." And I did keep track, and sadly we only made it to 14 places. Oddly enough, in Urban Outfitters, we found Shelby and Torie and Jess. It was also cold there and I was really really tired and I still am.
But today it was warm and something worth my ultimate while happened this morning but I don't remember what. It was on Kelly's computer. We also went to lunch at Arigatou. You can speculate as you wish about the type of establishment it was.
We watched An American In Paris today, and I was unimpressed. Loved Gene Kelly though. I'd watch anything he was in, even if it was pretty awful like this was. Then Brianna picked me up and we watched LOST, which was also weird. Somewhat disappointing. Don't really like these new people. Nothing I really wanted to know about was discussed. Although me and Brianna thought out some of our questions, and I don't think their true answers will be very surprising. They don't really know what they're doing anymore.
Now it's time for homework and then sleep and then Carolyn's coming to visit for the weekend!!
-Steph
Busy week! Friday me and Brianna and Jenn saw 27 Dresses. I give it a solid C largely based on its writing, which was uninspired and downright plagiarized at times. The acting was lackluster and stilted; and coming from otherwise bright performers, I say the script was at fault. Overall cute, but entirely forgettable. Poor even by chick flick standards.
Saturday was really weird. Me and Kelly had to do the last of our shooting, but Campus Safety is dumb. Woke up before seven to truck out to Heritage to shoot in the kitchen there, right? But no one's there and everything is locked and Campus Safety (I named him Leo after a certain Veronica Mars deputy) was too busy to call it in. But over all it didn't work, and we ended up going and basically hanging out in Stater Bros and then Big Lots, where we bought some cereal and some poster board and a marker to make a sign (sign didn't include cereal). Which we subsequently taped up in an alley across the street and filmed really fast before the motorcycle drug dealer came.
And we did this early in the morning because Kelly was going to be busy the rest of the day, and I was going to help out on the last day of the Reclamation shoot, which I was way excited about. Buuuuut most people with cars were inexplicably out of town for the day, and Brianna was going to take me but then she got deathly ill. So instead, I had a four hour nap in my beanbag chair. And then in the evening me and Beth and her friend Christy went to Hurry Curry but it tasted different and was weird. So it was a very very very very weird day.
Sunday was almost worse, but we gave Campus Safety the slip and got into Heritage and shot some very good footage and everyone in there was very nice. This was like, from 11:30 to say 12? I don't know, right in the middle of the day. And as I'm walking back across my court, I got to chat with some of the guys from Reclamation, so that kinda made up for not being able to go the day before. They're very nice. And then sometime between that and the Super Bowl, I spontaneously got sick. I was very cold but it was super hot what with the heater and the sweatshirts and the poncho. Unpleasant. But then later Beth came over and then Kelly came over and started a game of Kingdom Hearts. I forgot how silly the graphics/camera movement were. XD
Gosh, Monday. Editor's cut of our film due first thing Tues, so I spent all day Monday in the ER. Which does not stand for Emergency Room (I mean, not in this case). I always thought it was for Editing Room, but it could very feasibly also represent Equipment Room. But the imacs don't recognize my drive, does anyone have a drive I could borrow? Tiny fiasco in procuring one, but soon enough I'm on my way, and the paperwork he had us do really really came in handy. The bluescreen also works fantastically (I mean, when you consider I don't really know what I'm doing), with the exception of a ginormous shelf in the foreground--we'll have to reshoot this weekend, but asides from that the movie's basically done. I'd say it looks pretty good--okay, really. The titles need polishing, and I could shave it down time-wise, and Jeremy has some neat effects to make it more old-timey. Needs music. But I was in that room for 12 hours. It was fun. Jeremy's from this same class, and he and his group were in there editing right at the end, so I got to see a master at work.
Well that was a giant paragraph.
Tuesday we watched the rough edits. Pretty good work, across the board. Two thriller/chases and two comedies. If you guys are free ...April 24th I think it is, that's the screening of all the movies our class will have made this semester. You should really come and check them out.
Wednesday was yesterday, and basically I didn't come home after class--I got stolen away by my roommates and Beth and taken to this cafe/restaurant Panera, and then Pasadena. Nikki had wanted to go to "21 places today!!" meaning 21 Choices, the frozen yogurt place, so I said "we can go to school and the bank and the gas station and the store...." And I did keep track, and sadly we only made it to 14 places. Oddly enough, in Urban Outfitters, we found Shelby and Torie and Jess. It was also cold there and I was really really tired and I still am.
But today it was warm and something worth my ultimate while happened this morning but I don't remember what. It was on Kelly's computer. We also went to lunch at Arigatou. You can speculate as you wish about the type of establishment it was.
We watched An American In Paris today, and I was unimpressed. Loved Gene Kelly though. I'd watch anything he was in, even if it was pretty awful like this was. Then Brianna picked me up and we watched LOST, which was also weird. Somewhat disappointing. Don't really like these new people. Nothing I really wanted to know about was discussed. Although me and Brianna thought out some of our questions, and I don't think their true answers will be very surprising. They don't really know what they're doing anymore.
Now it's time for homework and then sleep and then Carolyn's coming to visit for the weekend!!
-Steph
Thursday, January 31, 2008
LOST
HAPPY THURSDAY! LOST WAS BACK ON. IT WAS ALRIGHT BUT I WANT TO SEE MOAR. Me and Brianna had a Lost party, and I ate waaaay too much popcorn.
Gosh, my computer is acting up like crazy. So crazy. I worry about getting a connection when I'm done with this. Grar. And I don't have time to take it to the help peoples. Not tomorrow, not the weekend, Monday I'll be editing all day, and then it's class all week again. Errrrrr.
I'll be editing because Saturday me and Kelly shot our first Motion Picture product. It went really well! I THINK. We magically got Kory to be in it, as the menacing mob boss--we caught him by the trolley like two days before the shoot, and if he couldn't make it, we woulda had nobody. XD Hooray, planning! The other two characters Kelly wrangled from her life, but even so we were short one guy so she had to be IN the show. Hahaha, it was fun.
The class/professor had some ideas/constructive criticism about making it better, but we have neither the time or energy (or ability! the actors, they disperse so fast XD) to make all these massive changes. So we're gonna do the best we can, and then I'm going to go help on the last day of the Reclamation shoot! (I think.)
Okay, so now let me tell you about my trip to the dentist. I went home Sunday, because at 11 AM Monday I had an appointment with the lovely doctor. No one could drive me, so Carolyn was my best bud and last-minute transportation. I asked them how long it would be, and they said 40 minutes, so she hung around.
He gave me the option of numbing me up, but I don't like that sort of thing, so I said we could try without. So he starts yanking on the temporary cap, and shoot do I need some drugs. So I get shot up. And then the temporary still won't come off, so he has to drill it ("You wouldn't have let me do that if you hadn't been numb!" he says cheerfully). So they clean the stub and dry it and whatever, and then he spends like 20 minutes trying to jam the permanent crown onto it. Long story short, it won't go.
Crown doesn't fit. Made wrong. Have to make a new one; I need a new temporary; I need to come in again on March 3rd and repeat the experience.
So, I hate the dentist. Poor Carolyn waited like an hour and a half. But then we went to her house and played Beautiful Katamari! I rolled up the universe!
Then I went to my mom's classroom and got asked cute questions by the kids. "What's your favorite movie?!" Casablanca. "WHAT's THAT?" and "Who's your favorite actor?!" Geoffrey Rush. "WHO?" They're so young, they've got a lot to learn.
And then school started again. And the class liked our footage (so do I, but Kory's wearing black against a black booth...I'm a little worried about that XD -- I do think the bluescreen will work out if I plan it good) But again, Prof. Smith had a lot of suggestions that we just can't do. Well, we could, but it's not realistic. Well, I suppose it would be if we had the full two days of the weekend, but Saturday is pre-used by both of us, and Sunday is the Super Bowl, so who's gonna wanna be at a film shoot??
Also, Motion Picture is fun now (because we learn neat stuff) but also we get out of class early and then we go and have lunch together. It's way cute.
Had a test today in Mass Comm, I think I did pretty good. And then we watched The Pirate in Musical class, and that was random. Some parts were ridiculously amazing, and some were ridiculously stupid. But Gene Kelly was amazing, and I need to hunt down everything he's been in. Gosh. Also, many wardrobe inspirations for my Spanish pirate Dante. Oh, Dante. He's gonna be a dancer.
I think I'm going to need to use the rest of today in trying to post this successfully, so I'm going to start to make sure it happens. Hope your Thursdays were as fun!
-Stephanie
Gosh, my computer is acting up like crazy. So crazy. I worry about getting a connection when I'm done with this. Grar. And I don't have time to take it to the help peoples. Not tomorrow, not the weekend, Monday I'll be editing all day, and then it's class all week again. Errrrrr.
I'll be editing because Saturday me and Kelly shot our first Motion Picture product. It went really well! I THINK. We magically got Kory to be in it, as the menacing mob boss--we caught him by the trolley like two days before the shoot, and if he couldn't make it, we woulda had nobody. XD Hooray, planning! The other two characters Kelly wrangled from her life, but even so we were short one guy so she had to be IN the show. Hahaha, it was fun.
The class/professor had some ideas/constructive criticism about making it better, but we have neither the time or energy (or ability! the actors, they disperse so fast XD) to make all these massive changes. So we're gonna do the best we can, and then I'm going to go help on the last day of the Reclamation shoot! (I think.)
Okay, so now let me tell you about my trip to the dentist. I went home Sunday, because at 11 AM Monday I had an appointment with the lovely doctor. No one could drive me, so Carolyn was my best bud and last-minute transportation. I asked them how long it would be, and they said 40 minutes, so she hung around.
He gave me the option of numbing me up, but I don't like that sort of thing, so I said we could try without. So he starts yanking on the temporary cap, and shoot do I need some drugs. So I get shot up. And then the temporary still won't come off, so he has to drill it ("You wouldn't have let me do that if you hadn't been numb!" he says cheerfully). So they clean the stub and dry it and whatever, and then he spends like 20 minutes trying to jam the permanent crown onto it. Long story short, it won't go.
Crown doesn't fit. Made wrong. Have to make a new one; I need a new temporary; I need to come in again on March 3rd and repeat the experience.
So, I hate the dentist. Poor Carolyn waited like an hour and a half. But then we went to her house and played Beautiful Katamari! I rolled up the universe!
Then I went to my mom's classroom and got asked cute questions by the kids. "What's your favorite movie?!" Casablanca. "WHAT's THAT?" and "Who's your favorite actor?!" Geoffrey Rush. "WHO?" They're so young, they've got a lot to learn.
And then school started again. And the class liked our footage (so do I, but Kory's wearing black against a black booth...I'm a little worried about that XD -- I do think the bluescreen will work out if I plan it good) But again, Prof. Smith had a lot of suggestions that we just can't do. Well, we could, but it's not realistic. Well, I suppose it would be if we had the full two days of the weekend, but Saturday is pre-used by both of us, and Sunday is the Super Bowl, so who's gonna wanna be at a film shoot??
Also, Motion Picture is fun now (because we learn neat stuff) but also we get out of class early and then we go and have lunch together. It's way cute.
Had a test today in Mass Comm, I think I did pretty good. And then we watched The Pirate in Musical class, and that was random. Some parts were ridiculously amazing, and some were ridiculously stupid. But Gene Kelly was amazing, and I need to hunt down everything he's been in. Gosh. Also, many wardrobe inspirations for my Spanish pirate Dante. Oh, Dante. He's gonna be a dancer.
I think I'm going to need to use the rest of today in trying to post this successfully, so I'm going to start to make sure it happens. Hope your Thursdays were as fun!
-Stephanie
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Rainyface Thursday
Happy Thursday! For the title, I was going to go with Sadface Thursday, but I thought that might give off the wrong impression. Besides, it's hard to be simultaneously sad and Happy, even for a Thursday.
Last Friday was my first field trip for Art, and that was crazy. Like the exhibit was called "Bees and Meat," and it was a collection of things she had come up with after "Not a Cornfield," a previous art thing where she turned abandoned track lines in downtown LA into a cornfield. She's crazy. This has pictures and stuff of the artz.
My favorite was the room of corn, titled Corn Crypt. It was majestically, magically beautiful. While I was standing there, I felt moved to write some poems. Whut! And in the effort to digitize my experience, I started typing out an intro to them. It goes like this:
I saw this today, January 18, 2008. Kinda creepy. I wrote some poems whilst in the corn room, because I guess it spoke to me. It was called the Corn Crypt, and there was a cement walkway going from the doorway, taking a turn halfway in, and ending in the middle of all the corn. It must have been a good two+ feet deep, filling up the whole room, pressing against the windows and stacking up in the corners, spilling (controlled, artfully) onto the walkway, too.
Standing on the edge
Of a sea of corn kernels
I want to dive in
Walking to the end of the path was dramatic, because suddenly it’s like you’re stuck in the middle of all of it, no where to go. With my toes practically to the corn itself, it was easy to pretend there was no walkway, and the only choice was to step out into this white/orange sea. It was an urge I carefully restrained.
It was so quiet in there, too, at the far end of a hallway at the far end of the exhibit. It was just me and corn and my imagination. The walls were blank and white, the corn was pebbly and unbelievably everywhere.
Hills of corn as if
wind blown, desert-like
roll serenely, funereally
to the horizon
A landscape of golden silence
And I'm happy I wrote that because it's definitely now the first half of my paper I'm turning in for that trip. I hope my poetic outbursts impress (or at least don't irritate) him. My thoughts on the Bee Box have yet to be recorded. You know what in the Bee Box?
Bees.
Saturday I took Brianna and Jenn to see Joe. Again, when I get that DVD, I am going to show it to you. That is both a promise and a threat.
Sunday and Monday were collectively the best filmic adventure I've ever been on. When I took my video production class, I learned that out of all things, I did not want to be involved in the production process. But being production assistant on a shoot where everyone else has already made all the decisions and knows exactly what they are doing, and all I have to do is help carry stuff and then watch the movie magic--that was really my sort of thing. I have all sorts of fun stories about it, but I've already told most of you. If anyone else is interested, I'll tell ya!
And there's only been three days since then, and it's like so much has happened but really nothing at all has happened. I've been busy with class and homework and setting up my own shoot for this weekend. Gosh, have I told you that I don't really like production? It's going to be the most disorganized thing you've ever seen. But Motion Picture is really helping, because he's very knowledgeable and I feel at least adequately prepared to be Cinematographer on my first semi-official film. And even Producing last semester gave us some good practice, although it came too late to get decent grades on anything. The shoot this last weekend was also HIGHLY educational, and I feel all kinds of prepared just from the stuff I saw there.
But production pretty much has all my time for many many weeks. This weekend is the start of our shoot, but then I have to go home and get my crown finished. And then by the time I get back, my block of classes has already started, and the next weekend is the second and last chance to shoot. And there needs to be a fully-edited film by that Tuesday. Then that weekend is friends-time/pickup shooting, and the two weekends after that I think I'll be PAing on another student film. It's so intense. And during all this I have to do all my other homework and get my own script ready and then suddenly it's going to be my turn to direct.
Grar. Wish me luck.
Also, it's rainy and cold, and that makes me sad. I wish it was summertime. Or even spring. Or just sunny again.
Well, I'm going back to that Art paper, and then probably shoot details. Oh, our movie. It's a short (less than five and a half minutes) silent film about a bossy pizza chef and the little guy who saves the day. Also, mobsters. It should be cheesy and lame. That's what I'm shooting for. Gosh, I hope you guys don't even notice the puns in those sentences. I really didn't mean them.
-Steph
Last Friday was my first field trip for Art, and that was crazy. Like the exhibit was called "Bees and Meat," and it was a collection of things she had come up with after "Not a Cornfield," a previous art thing where she turned abandoned track lines in downtown LA into a cornfield. She's crazy. This has pictures and stuff of the artz.
My favorite was the room of corn, titled Corn Crypt. It was majestically, magically beautiful. While I was standing there, I felt moved to write some poems. Whut! And in the effort to digitize my experience, I started typing out an intro to them. It goes like this:
I saw this today, January 18, 2008. Kinda creepy. I wrote some poems whilst in the corn room, because I guess it spoke to me. It was called the Corn Crypt, and there was a cement walkway going from the doorway, taking a turn halfway in, and ending in the middle of all the corn. It must have been a good two+ feet deep, filling up the whole room, pressing against the windows and stacking up in the corners, spilling (controlled, artfully) onto the walkway, too.
Standing on the edge
Of a sea of corn kernels
I want to dive in
Walking to the end of the path was dramatic, because suddenly it’s like you’re stuck in the middle of all of it, no where to go. With my toes practically to the corn itself, it was easy to pretend there was no walkway, and the only choice was to step out into this white/orange sea. It was an urge I carefully restrained.
It was so quiet in there, too, at the far end of a hallway at the far end of the exhibit. It was just me and corn and my imagination. The walls were blank and white, the corn was pebbly and unbelievably everywhere.
Hills of corn as if
wind blown, desert-like
roll serenely, funereally
to the horizon
A landscape of golden silence
And I'm happy I wrote that because it's definitely now the first half of my paper I'm turning in for that trip. I hope my poetic outbursts impress (or at least don't irritate) him. My thoughts on the Bee Box have yet to be recorded. You know what in the Bee Box?
Bees.
Saturday I took Brianna and Jenn to see Joe. Again, when I get that DVD, I am going to show it to you. That is both a promise and a threat.
Sunday and Monday were collectively the best filmic adventure I've ever been on. When I took my video production class, I learned that out of all things, I did not want to be involved in the production process. But being production assistant on a shoot where everyone else has already made all the decisions and knows exactly what they are doing, and all I have to do is help carry stuff and then watch the movie magic--that was really my sort of thing. I have all sorts of fun stories about it, but I've already told most of you. If anyone else is interested, I'll tell ya!
And there's only been three days since then, and it's like so much has happened but really nothing at all has happened. I've been busy with class and homework and setting up my own shoot for this weekend. Gosh, have I told you that I don't really like production? It's going to be the most disorganized thing you've ever seen. But Motion Picture is really helping, because he's very knowledgeable and I feel at least adequately prepared to be Cinematographer on my first semi-official film. And even Producing last semester gave us some good practice, although it came too late to get decent grades on anything. The shoot this last weekend was also HIGHLY educational, and I feel all kinds of prepared just from the stuff I saw there.
But production pretty much has all my time for many many weeks. This weekend is the start of our shoot, but then I have to go home and get my crown finished. And then by the time I get back, my block of classes has already started, and the next weekend is the second and last chance to shoot. And there needs to be a fully-edited film by that Tuesday. Then that weekend is friends-time/pickup shooting, and the two weekends after that I think I'll be PAing on another student film. It's so intense. And during all this I have to do all my other homework and get my own script ready and then suddenly it's going to be my turn to direct.
Grar. Wish me luck.
Also, it's rainy and cold, and that makes me sad. I wish it was summertime. Or even spring. Or just sunny again.
Well, I'm going back to that Art paper, and then probably shoot details. Oh, our movie. It's a short (less than five and a half minutes) silent film about a bossy pizza chef and the little guy who saves the day. Also, mobsters. It should be cheesy and lame. That's what I'm shooting for. Gosh, I hope you guys don't even notice the puns in those sentences. I really didn't mean them.
-Steph
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Jampacked!
Happy Thursday! It's crazy cold outside, I'm so sad. Gosh, you know how this is the introductionary paragraph? I'm sick of it, I want to jump right in.
This week had a pair of culinary adventures as well as a pair of high culture events. And by culinary, I mean, Japanese food related, and by high culture I mean school theater.
Friday me and Beth trucked out to Pasadena for some reason, where we discovered new parking and also Noodle World. We've walked by that place plenty of times, but there's so many other good Japanese places in that area, that we'd never had the chance to try it. It looks fast-foody from the outside, but it's like a real restaurant once you get past the gelato bar.
The menu? Noodles. Noodles by genre. Thai soup noodles? Chinese soup noodles? Pan fried noodles? Noodles from everywhere, and if you think all noodles are the same, then you haven't had very many noodles, my friend. And, on the back, rice dishes. I literally want to try fifty things there. I settled on curry noodles, since we did have to pass up Hurry Curry for Noodle World. I was surprised that it wasn't Japanese-style curry, but I don't really know why I expected it to be. It was yellow and light, and noodles aren't really a good receptor for curry. XD But the chicken was very good; well, the whole thing was good, but a little overwhelming for one sitting. Go back there with me sometime, yeah?
Then, Monday I guess, Beth stole me away and drove me to Covina where there's this giant Japanese grocery store, Marukai. And I'm not talking Mama-ya-style deli, here. It's a full-fledged Vons. With separate Hawaiian and Japanese fast food outlets and a movie rental alcove. I bought so much stuff (among this, curry. duh) Candy I've been looking for for years. Apple flavored tea! Pretty cheap, too, if only I didn't buy all of it at once. Next time I stock up, it's coming all from there.
Nikki's really new to Japanese things, so I keep having to explain everything I do to her. Haha. So when I make curry, it'll be a family dinner sort of thing. Also new to her, matzo ball soup. Which I made for Beth 'cause she got sick. I'm finishing it right now, and I'm very happy with it. I made them bite-sized this time, and it cut down on the cooking time soooooo much. I'll make it for you some time, too. (Nikki also is freaked out by mochi. Sadday)
(haha, she just ate my last matzo ball)
Speaking of roommates, Jenn broke three of her fingers on Friday! A subwoofer attacked them at work. Setting up for chapel. Apparently she finally got splints today, but I haven't seen her yet. Wonder where she is, actually. XD Kid can play a mean Mario Kart with a sling, though. Sure gave me a run for my money. It's great, we basically have Tetris time, where we all just break down from whatever we're doing and play Tetris for like hours. We're so awesome.
So, back to the story! Saturday me and Beth (hmmmm, she seems to be following me) went to Joe: the Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, the current main stage play. It was like, amazing. Written and directed by the Theater guy, and I'm impressed. It was written for the traveling Drama Ministry group like years ago, and he brought it back. Two casts, different on Thursday/Friday and Saturday. Ordered the DVD, which was of the Saturday cast. I will show it to you all. I'm dragging some people to see the matinee, I think, too. I still need to ask around.
APU theater is the one exciting thing at this school that I have not taken good enough advantage of until this year. Now I want to go to everything, and I think I've got Megan to thank for that. And Sitcom, for putting me in the theater for even just those few days. It's like the movies but more once-in-a-lifetime. It's pretty magical. Hahahah, took me long enough to figure that out, eh?
So in the TFT department, there's this thing called Capstone where seniors do a crazy project relating to what they want to do in their life. Like for me, I'd write a screenplay. Lots of people write/produce student films. For Theater kids, it's Capstone Theater, which is student produced (written, directed, acted) shows. I don't remember if I mentioned seeing Lucky Stiff last semester (I probably did), but that was a Capstone production. This week is Reflections, a musical review of songs from animated films. It was really cute. I saw the little flyer for it in my Joe program, and I dragged Beth, Brianna, and Nikki to it (Jenn was feeling not-well enough, sadday). The little theater is tiny, and we sat in the front, and at times I coulda punched those kids in the face, they were singing so close to us. I saw the one kid today, and I told him "good show!" and he was startled and then said "...oh, thanks!" It was cute.
If you're able, you should come to a show. I know all the dates. Main stage shows are Thursday, Friday, Saturdays, and the Capstones I think are Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays.
Speaking of Capstones, this weekend I'm going to PA for one. Student film. I really know nothing about it. XD But a few of my friends/acquaintances are leading it, and they needed PA volunteers, so I offered. Should be fun/hard. I really don't know? I'll let you into the student PA world after it's all over.
I won't be helping them next weekend, though, because that's when my own film is starting production. WHAT. Kelly wrote it, and it's pretty awesome, but we still need to cast, find locations, and, like, learn how to use cameras and stuff. It's a pretty tight schedule, and it'll probably be a disaster. XD We only have two weekends to shoot, but she can't do Sundays because of prior and standing commitments, and this first weekend I'm going home anyway to get my crown finished.
Gah. When you add to this the fact that I've been in class all day, you can see how this is so very jampacked.
-Stephanie
This week had a pair of culinary adventures as well as a pair of high culture events. And by culinary, I mean, Japanese food related, and by high culture I mean school theater.
Friday me and Beth trucked out to Pasadena for some reason, where we discovered new parking and also Noodle World. We've walked by that place plenty of times, but there's so many other good Japanese places in that area, that we'd never had the chance to try it. It looks fast-foody from the outside, but it's like a real restaurant once you get past the gelato bar.
The menu? Noodles. Noodles by genre. Thai soup noodles? Chinese soup noodles? Pan fried noodles? Noodles from everywhere, and if you think all noodles are the same, then you haven't had very many noodles, my friend. And, on the back, rice dishes. I literally want to try fifty things there. I settled on curry noodles, since we did have to pass up Hurry Curry for Noodle World. I was surprised that it wasn't Japanese-style curry, but I don't really know why I expected it to be. It was yellow and light, and noodles aren't really a good receptor for curry. XD But the chicken was very good; well, the whole thing was good, but a little overwhelming for one sitting. Go back there with me sometime, yeah?
Then, Monday I guess, Beth stole me away and drove me to Covina where there's this giant Japanese grocery store, Marukai. And I'm not talking Mama-ya-style deli, here. It's a full-fledged Vons. With separate Hawaiian and Japanese fast food outlets and a movie rental alcove. I bought so much stuff (among this, curry. duh) Candy I've been looking for for years. Apple flavored tea! Pretty cheap, too, if only I didn't buy all of it at once. Next time I stock up, it's coming all from there.
Nikki's really new to Japanese things, so I keep having to explain everything I do to her. Haha. So when I make curry, it'll be a family dinner sort of thing. Also new to her, matzo ball soup. Which I made for Beth 'cause she got sick. I'm finishing it right now, and I'm very happy with it. I made them bite-sized this time, and it cut down on the cooking time soooooo much. I'll make it for you some time, too. (Nikki also is freaked out by mochi. Sadday)
(haha, she just ate my last matzo ball)
Speaking of roommates, Jenn broke three of her fingers on Friday! A subwoofer attacked them at work. Setting up for chapel. Apparently she finally got splints today, but I haven't seen her yet. Wonder where she is, actually. XD Kid can play a mean Mario Kart with a sling, though. Sure gave me a run for my money. It's great, we basically have Tetris time, where we all just break down from whatever we're doing and play Tetris for like hours. We're so awesome.
So, back to the story! Saturday me and Beth (hmmmm, she seems to be following me) went to Joe: the Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, the current main stage play. It was like, amazing. Written and directed by the Theater guy, and I'm impressed. It was written for the traveling Drama Ministry group like years ago, and he brought it back. Two casts, different on Thursday/Friday and Saturday. Ordered the DVD, which was of the Saturday cast. I will show it to you all. I'm dragging some people to see the matinee, I think, too. I still need to ask around.
APU theater is the one exciting thing at this school that I have not taken good enough advantage of until this year. Now I want to go to everything, and I think I've got Megan to thank for that. And Sitcom, for putting me in the theater for even just those few days. It's like the movies but more once-in-a-lifetime. It's pretty magical. Hahahah, took me long enough to figure that out, eh?
So in the TFT department, there's this thing called Capstone where seniors do a crazy project relating to what they want to do in their life. Like for me, I'd write a screenplay. Lots of people write/produce student films. For Theater kids, it's Capstone Theater, which is student produced (written, directed, acted) shows. I don't remember if I mentioned seeing Lucky Stiff last semester (I probably did), but that was a Capstone production. This week is Reflections, a musical review of songs from animated films. It was really cute. I saw the little flyer for it in my Joe program, and I dragged Beth, Brianna, and Nikki to it (Jenn was feeling not-well enough, sadday). The little theater is tiny, and we sat in the front, and at times I coulda punched those kids in the face, they were singing so close to us. I saw the one kid today, and I told him "good show!" and he was startled and then said "...oh, thanks!" It was cute.
If you're able, you should come to a show. I know all the dates. Main stage shows are Thursday, Friday, Saturdays, and the Capstones I think are Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays.
Speaking of Capstones, this weekend I'm going to PA for one. Student film. I really know nothing about it. XD But a few of my friends/acquaintances are leading it, and they needed PA volunteers, so I offered. Should be fun/hard. I really don't know? I'll let you into the student PA world after it's all over.
I won't be helping them next weekend, though, because that's when my own film is starting production. WHAT. Kelly wrote it, and it's pretty awesome, but we still need to cast, find locations, and, like, learn how to use cameras and stuff. It's a pretty tight schedule, and it'll probably be a disaster. XD We only have two weekends to shoot, but she can't do Sundays because of prior and standing commitments, and this first weekend I'm going home anyway to get my crown finished.
Gah. When you add to this the fact that I've been in class all day, you can see how this is so very jampacked.
-Stephanie
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Academia Strikes Again
Happy Thursday! Thursdays are very long now. -_-
Where to start? Classes? New roommates? The fact that there are new episodes of tv on tonight? (so yes, this will be one of those awful distracted blogs. hooray)
I actually have one class left to taste. DID YOU KNOW that I have FOUR three hour classes?? And one of those meets twice a week. What was I thinking?? Oh well, it seems to be okay, I'll tell you why!
Monday is nothing. Weird. Tuesday is Motion Picture Production for three hours in the morning. We're gonna be making two five-minute movies, in groups of two. Like, Kelly's probably going to be writing and directing this first one, and I'll shoot and edit. Then we'll switch. Been learning all about production things that somehow I haven't learned yet. Like, about forms and stuff. XD But no, it's been really interesting.
Then there's Communication Theory, which for sure sounded so boring. But the prof is very hip for his age (although laptops and Wikipedia are still the devil), you should have seen him not only make an Avril Lavigne reference and then give the title of the song. Another highlight: the use of the phrase "dirt nap" in relation to old people. Oh, and Kelly's in that class, too, so it's like a crazy day.
Wednesday is probaby going to be my favorite day, 'cause I've got Story and Character for three hours and that's it. It's like the sitcom writing staff together again, but only the three of us and Jack. I'm really looking forward to what he's gonna be teaching us.
TODAY, though, I have the first two, and RIGHT AFTER Comm Theory is three hours with Hammy in American Film Musical. Saw Singin in the Rain today! (which is also what he showed on the first day of Film History) I wish I could dance. Shoot. So I'm betting this class'll be alright, too, just a couple of papers on the reading. So I guess I'll have to read. But, plus side: movies.
Tomorrow is Contemporary Art Trends right after chapel, but that's it. No idea at all what that'll be like. But guys, next semester I need to take 19 units and that's it. I only need three more classes to graduate, but I'll need some fluff to get those units. Graaahhrhrh.
Roommates! Jenn and Nikki! I'mma talk about them behind their backs. Haha. They're fun. Makes the apartment completely different, but it's fun. Like, we have a coffee table now. And a pretty tripped out gaming/audio/visual system. And it's like, clean in here. XD It's amazing. DUDE ther'es a Lost preview on.... .. ....Oh, whoa. Whoa.......crazy. Sawyer!! I miss you!!! HAHAH Jack's awful fake beard. Can not wait.
Grey's is back on but I thought it was over. And Jenn is back 'cause she thought it was over, too. XD Oh, my George. Oh, have I told you that I dig the Demps now? It's all Enchanted's fault. So now I watch Grey's again. Except it's really just today because this was the last ep they made before the strike closed everything down. 30 Rock was pretty trippy; loved the end. Can't wait for the strike to be over. They're slowly starting to make deals individually with production companies, and that feels to me like it's the beginning of the end.
Guys, so when TV comes back on, this day will be super long. XD
Okay, it's off to play video games! See you later!
Where to start? Classes? New roommates? The fact that there are new episodes of tv on tonight? (so yes, this will be one of those awful distracted blogs. hooray)
I actually have one class left to taste. DID YOU KNOW that I have FOUR three hour classes?? And one of those meets twice a week. What was I thinking?? Oh well, it seems to be okay, I'll tell you why!
Monday is nothing. Weird. Tuesday is Motion Picture Production for three hours in the morning. We're gonna be making two five-minute movies, in groups of two. Like, Kelly's probably going to be writing and directing this first one, and I'll shoot and edit. Then we'll switch. Been learning all about production things that somehow I haven't learned yet. Like, about forms and stuff. XD But no, it's been really interesting.
Then there's Communication Theory, which for sure sounded so boring. But the prof is very hip for his age (although laptops and Wikipedia are still the devil), you should have seen him not only make an Avril Lavigne reference and then give the title of the song. Another highlight: the use of the phrase "dirt nap" in relation to old people. Oh, and Kelly's in that class, too, so it's like a crazy day.
Wednesday is probaby going to be my favorite day, 'cause I've got Story and Character for three hours and that's it. It's like the sitcom writing staff together again, but only the three of us and Jack. I'm really looking forward to what he's gonna be teaching us.
TODAY, though, I have the first two, and RIGHT AFTER Comm Theory is three hours with Hammy in American Film Musical. Saw Singin in the Rain today! (which is also what he showed on the first day of Film History) I wish I could dance. Shoot. So I'm betting this class'll be alright, too, just a couple of papers on the reading. So I guess I'll have to read. But, plus side: movies.
Tomorrow is Contemporary Art Trends right after chapel, but that's it. No idea at all what that'll be like. But guys, next semester I need to take 19 units and that's it. I only need three more classes to graduate, but I'll need some fluff to get those units. Graaahhrhrh.
Roommates! Jenn and Nikki! I'mma talk about them behind their backs. Haha. They're fun. Makes the apartment completely different, but it's fun. Like, we have a coffee table now. And a pretty tripped out gaming/audio/visual system. And it's like, clean in here. XD It's amazing. DUDE ther'es a Lost preview on.... .. ....Oh, whoa. Whoa.......crazy. Sawyer!! I miss you!!! HAHAH Jack's awful fake beard. Can not wait.
Grey's is back on but I thought it was over. And Jenn is back 'cause she thought it was over, too. XD Oh, my George. Oh, have I told you that I dig the Demps now? It's all Enchanted's fault. So now I watch Grey's again. Except it's really just today because this was the last ep they made before the strike closed everything down. 30 Rock was pretty trippy; loved the end. Can't wait for the strike to be over. They're slowly starting to make deals individually with production companies, and that feels to me like it's the beginning of the end.
Guys, so when TV comes back on, this day will be super long. XD
Okay, it's off to play video games! See you later!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
2008 Whut!
Happy Thursday! All I did this week was watch Veronica Mars with my mom and play video games at Carolyn's house. Srsly. That's it. Let me think and see if I did anything else.
Well, the end of the week was Mexico and coming home... Tijuana's not my favorite. Got some pictures, though. Still need to get them off the camera.
And I guess really since then I've been watching VM with my mom, shooting off to Carolyn's for Viva Pinata and Rock Band in the afternoon, and then coming back and watching more VM until the wee hours of the morning.
See, that's cold hard proof that Veronica Mars is a worthwhile show. My mom staying up till two AM? That's dedication. We started the thing on New Year's Eve, I guess? Finished it today. Three, four days to watch a 22 episode season? Honestly, it's a great show. One day I'll write an episode, for fun. It won't be half as good but I know it'll be fun.
Viva Pinata is different than I thought it would be. It's like, farming. Farming pinatas on a farm. You have this land, and you make it nice and wild pinatas come to visit, and if they like it, they stay and you get to name them and breed them and sell their offspring for cash. Or feed them to other pinatas. And you also plant seeds, like for trees and flowers and stuff. And as far as I can tell, that's it. XD I suppose the goal is to collect all the pinatas? Gotta catch 'em all? But that sounds crazy. I'd much rather have a nice little farm full of Pretztails, Mousemallows, Bunnycombs, and a Horstachio. Maybe Sparrowmints, too. They're cute.
And Rock Band! Way fun. And since I was never very good at Guitar Hero, this is good news for me, since I can play bass! Which is just like a simpler version of guitar. And I'm getting okay at drums, although it's super hard for me to separate the movements of both hands and a foot. Haven't tried singing, I'm shy.
Oh, I forgot about Tales of the Crystals. NOT a video game! A real, imagination game! My sister and our neighbor and I played it when we were littler; you listen to this tape and it tells you how to save Collingwood with these crystals and whatever. Then you run out into your backyard and play. It was great, until we lost the tape. But I found it on Ebay and got it for my sister for Christmas, so we played it again! Some of the charm is lost on us old people, but it's still just about how we remember it. We made a fort and everything, but mom made us take it down. Sadface. Oh, childhood.
Also this week I found the time to go to the dentist to get a crown on my stunty tooth. Unpleasant. I'm not a big fan of the dentist. (There were a lot of dental shops in TJ--coincidence???) but this new fake tooth is too short. But it's okay, it's not the finished version. Gotta come back at the end of the month. Too bad I couldn't get it in silver. I'd love a silver tooth. XD
I suppose the other momentous thing of the week is that me and Carolyn decided to go as ANBU to the AX this year. I was going to go as Yamato, and Carolyn was going to be Sai, but Jennifer was being first-season Temari, so we couldn't be Shippuuden style characters. I know that doesn't make any sense to you, but it's the truth. ANBU is a special division of ninja, equal to or higher than jounin level, and they go on special or more dangerous missions. They're like the ninja among ninja. And they all have these animal masks which we'll have to make. But other than that, it's pretty simple. And not flowing, and it should be too hot. So yeah! Hooray.
Okay, I'll let you go now. I'm going back to school this weekend, so I'll update you on my class schedule and rooming circumstances next week. Gah. I like watching tv and playing video games all day all week. ._.
-Steph
Well, the end of the week was Mexico and coming home... Tijuana's not my favorite. Got some pictures, though. Still need to get them off the camera.
And I guess really since then I've been watching VM with my mom, shooting off to Carolyn's for Viva Pinata and Rock Band in the afternoon, and then coming back and watching more VM until the wee hours of the morning.
See, that's cold hard proof that Veronica Mars is a worthwhile show. My mom staying up till two AM? That's dedication. We started the thing on New Year's Eve, I guess? Finished it today. Three, four days to watch a 22 episode season? Honestly, it's a great show. One day I'll write an episode, for fun. It won't be half as good but I know it'll be fun.
Viva Pinata is different than I thought it would be. It's like, farming. Farming pinatas on a farm. You have this land, and you make it nice and wild pinatas come to visit, and if they like it, they stay and you get to name them and breed them and sell their offspring for cash. Or feed them to other pinatas. And you also plant seeds, like for trees and flowers and stuff. And as far as I can tell, that's it. XD I suppose the goal is to collect all the pinatas? Gotta catch 'em all? But that sounds crazy. I'd much rather have a nice little farm full of Pretztails, Mousemallows, Bunnycombs, and a Horstachio. Maybe Sparrowmints, too. They're cute.
And Rock Band! Way fun. And since I was never very good at Guitar Hero, this is good news for me, since I can play bass! Which is just like a simpler version of guitar. And I'm getting okay at drums, although it's super hard for me to separate the movements of both hands and a foot. Haven't tried singing, I'm shy.
Oh, I forgot about Tales of the Crystals. NOT a video game! A real, imagination game! My sister and our neighbor and I played it when we were littler; you listen to this tape and it tells you how to save Collingwood with these crystals and whatever. Then you run out into your backyard and play. It was great, until we lost the tape. But I found it on Ebay and got it for my sister for Christmas, so we played it again! Some of the charm is lost on us old people, but it's still just about how we remember it. We made a fort and everything, but mom made us take it down. Sadface. Oh, childhood.
Also this week I found the time to go to the dentist to get a crown on my stunty tooth. Unpleasant. I'm not a big fan of the dentist. (There were a lot of dental shops in TJ--coincidence???) but this new fake tooth is too short. But it's okay, it's not the finished version. Gotta come back at the end of the month. Too bad I couldn't get it in silver. I'd love a silver tooth. XD
I suppose the other momentous thing of the week is that me and Carolyn decided to go as ANBU to the AX this year. I was going to go as Yamato, and Carolyn was going to be Sai, but Jennifer was being first-season Temari, so we couldn't be Shippuuden style characters. I know that doesn't make any sense to you, but it's the truth. ANBU is a special division of ninja, equal to or higher than jounin level, and they go on special or more dangerous missions. They're like the ninja among ninja. And they all have these animal masks which we'll have to make. But other than that, it's pretty simple. And not flowing, and it should be too hot. So yeah! Hooray.
Okay, I'll let you go now. I'm going back to school this weekend, so I'll update you on my class schedule and rooming circumstances next week. Gah. I like watching tv and playing video games all day all week. ._.
-Steph
Thursday, December 27, 2007
San Diego Thursday!
Happy Thursday! I am so very tired! I have pictures but I'm too tired to find my camera and plug it in and copy the pictures and look at them and then try to fit them into here. Maybe later.
Order of business:
Weekend.
Christmas.
San Diego.
Oh gosh, I don't remember the weekend anymore. I guess one of those days.....Friday? I went to Carolyn's house 'cause Steven was having some sort of party with all his tiny friends. They watched Hot Fuzz in the freezing outside, and me and Carolyn watched Acacia, a pretty bad Korean horror movie. And then I went back the next day and watched Hot Fuzz with her. I think that's how it went down. I'm almost entirely positive about this.
Sunday I guess I just played FFXII all day. I'm soooo close to being done, plot-wise (I've had it for a year, after all), but I'm sticking it out to finish all the side quests because the world is so great and vast and I know I won't have the energy to do it all ever again. Also, church that day.
Monday we baked. Michelle made pumpkin cookies, mom I guess did some breads, I made an apple pie and maple cookies. I put waaaay too much flower in the apples this time, and I need to NOT cut them so thin! But the crust turned out rather well, so I'm keeping my new adaptations for that. I also remember looking up trivia for things I am a fan of, and writing a very very strange bit of Kingdom Hearts/Naruto fanfiction.
Christmas!
Got everything wrapped more or less on time, but my sister's awesome present didn't show up. I suppose it's waiting for us back home, unless someone's stolen it off the porch.
I got lots of neat stuff, like the stuff I picked out, like the special editions of Hot Fuzz and Hairspray; but I also got cool surprises like the Batman steering wheel cover I've always wanted, and a TV! So thanks, everybody!
Later my uncle and aunt came over and brought their cute dog and we had a nice lunch of Christmas fashion. And then we had a nice walk around the park, aaand then most of us had a nap. Hooray. And I guess I made them watch Hairspray.
And then the next day we went to San Diego!
Well, first, we went to school and cleaned my apartment and like moved the TV in there and stuff. (It looks like I'm only getting one new roommate, and we've been talking on Facebook and she's totally cool) And Then we went to Taco King and then San Diego.
The terrain right before the incorporated cities start (when I woke up) is like a vast, flat, undeveloped Ventura. That's what I like about California, you can always tell when you're in it. I love me my So Cal scrub brush. And the ocean was right there and there were rivers and bays and all sorts of nice things. And we passed Oceanside and I waved to Megan, who resides thereabouts.
San Diego itself is like the small-town Ventura meets the classy/vast Santa Barbara. It sprawls pretty dang wide, as far as I can tell, but there's these tiny rolling hills all about, and freeways and stuff, but it doesn't feel crowded. And the downtown has these cool tall buildings but there's still a lot of space. Not like San Francisco, where you can't see what the weather's like up there. And not like LA; it seems really clean and nice, and not cheesy like say Hollywood, either. I suppose that's just what the touristy bits look like, though.
We went on this narrated trolley (just like school, eh guys?) that took us around the downtown area. But the first stop was at the harbor, so we got off and wandered around and then got on this Seal Tours which drove us around some more and then into the harbor. Remember the Duck Tour we went on in Boston? It was like that. But a seal. With Captain Mark and Tosh. It was SUPER cold, especially out on the water, but it was really neat. We saw sea lions and also a hover craft. Tosh was all "sorry for geeking out about it," but apparently it's really rare to "see one in action" on the harbor.
And then we went inside to lunch before I froze to death. And then we went back on the trolley and took it to um, what is it.... C...Coronado? Wich is an island and a city right off from San Diego. Giant bridge to it. Could see Mexico from it. And then around the island and back off, and then through a bit of Balboa Park which is where the zoo and a lot of other stuff is, and then back to Old Town, which is where we got off and also it was night now.
Old Town is where the city was before it became a city, and it's got tiny buildings for your touristing pleasure. Bought a tin star light at the TinSmith store, a Thursday poncho (Brown and Red!!) at some other store, and a two-dollar cactus at yet another. Went over to the, uh, Waverly? House. Supposedly haunted. The, what do you call it, curator? This youngish guy was so funny, in a really bored sort of way. It wasn't scary and I didn't see the doll's eyes move or anything. Took some pictures, though. Maybe when I upload them I'll see the ghosts.
Randomly went to Mimi's for desert, and then crashed back here. My sister and I were going to watch Hot Fuzz (she hasn't seen it), but I got to writing (back to my new roommate, on peoples' walls, this) and I think she's more or less asleep now. As am I, for that matter. I don't know where I got the energy to write all this. Hope it was interesting.
Tomorrow I think we're headed for TJ. I brought my passport but I hope they take it because it went through the was a few years ago and totally looks fake. I really don't want to get stuck in Mexico. But I hope I'll find a little sombrero for Riko; I've been looking for one of those for years.
-Steph
Order of business:
Weekend.
Christmas.
San Diego.
Oh gosh, I don't remember the weekend anymore. I guess one of those days.....Friday? I went to Carolyn's house 'cause Steven was having some sort of party with all his tiny friends. They watched Hot Fuzz in the freezing outside, and me and Carolyn watched Acacia, a pretty bad Korean horror movie. And then I went back the next day and watched Hot Fuzz with her. I think that's how it went down. I'm almost entirely positive about this.
Sunday I guess I just played FFXII all day. I'm soooo close to being done, plot-wise (I've had it for a year, after all), but I'm sticking it out to finish all the side quests because the world is so great and vast and I know I won't have the energy to do it all ever again. Also, church that day.
Monday we baked. Michelle made pumpkin cookies, mom I guess did some breads, I made an apple pie and maple cookies. I put waaaay too much flower in the apples this time, and I need to NOT cut them so thin! But the crust turned out rather well, so I'm keeping my new adaptations for that. I also remember looking up trivia for things I am a fan of, and writing a very very strange bit of Kingdom Hearts/Naruto fanfiction.
Christmas!
Got everything wrapped more or less on time, but my sister's awesome present didn't show up. I suppose it's waiting for us back home, unless someone's stolen it off the porch.
I got lots of neat stuff, like the stuff I picked out, like the special editions of Hot Fuzz and Hairspray; but I also got cool surprises like the Batman steering wheel cover I've always wanted, and a TV! So thanks, everybody!
Later my uncle and aunt came over and brought their cute dog and we had a nice lunch of Christmas fashion. And then we had a nice walk around the park, aaand then most of us had a nap. Hooray. And I guess I made them watch Hairspray.
And then the next day we went to San Diego!
Well, first, we went to school and cleaned my apartment and like moved the TV in there and stuff. (It looks like I'm only getting one new roommate, and we've been talking on Facebook and she's totally cool) And Then we went to Taco King and then San Diego.
The terrain right before the incorporated cities start (when I woke up) is like a vast, flat, undeveloped Ventura. That's what I like about California, you can always tell when you're in it. I love me my So Cal scrub brush. And the ocean was right there and there were rivers and bays and all sorts of nice things. And we passed Oceanside and I waved to Megan, who resides thereabouts.
San Diego itself is like the small-town Ventura meets the classy/vast Santa Barbara. It sprawls pretty dang wide, as far as I can tell, but there's these tiny rolling hills all about, and freeways and stuff, but it doesn't feel crowded. And the downtown has these cool tall buildings but there's still a lot of space. Not like San Francisco, where you can't see what the weather's like up there. And not like LA; it seems really clean and nice, and not cheesy like say Hollywood, either. I suppose that's just what the touristy bits look like, though.
We went on this narrated trolley (just like school, eh guys?) that took us around the downtown area. But the first stop was at the harbor, so we got off and wandered around and then got on this Seal Tours which drove us around some more and then into the harbor. Remember the Duck Tour we went on in Boston? It was like that. But a seal. With Captain Mark and Tosh. It was SUPER cold, especially out on the water, but it was really neat. We saw sea lions and also a hover craft. Tosh was all "sorry for geeking out about it," but apparently it's really rare to "see one in action" on the harbor.
And then we went inside to lunch before I froze to death. And then we went back on the trolley and took it to um, what is it.... C...Coronado? Wich is an island and a city right off from San Diego. Giant bridge to it. Could see Mexico from it. And then around the island and back off, and then through a bit of Balboa Park which is where the zoo and a lot of other stuff is, and then back to Old Town, which is where we got off and also it was night now.
Old Town is where the city was before it became a city, and it's got tiny buildings for your touristing pleasure. Bought a tin star light at the TinSmith store, a Thursday poncho (Brown and Red!!) at some other store, and a two-dollar cactus at yet another. Went over to the, uh, Waverly? House. Supposedly haunted. The, what do you call it, curator? This youngish guy was so funny, in a really bored sort of way. It wasn't scary and I didn't see the doll's eyes move or anything. Took some pictures, though. Maybe when I upload them I'll see the ghosts.
Randomly went to Mimi's for desert, and then crashed back here. My sister and I were going to watch Hot Fuzz (she hasn't seen it), but I got to writing (back to my new roommate, on peoples' walls, this) and I think she's more or less asleep now. As am I, for that matter. I don't know where I got the energy to write all this. Hope it was interesting.
Tomorrow I think we're headed for TJ. I brought my passport but I hope they take it because it went through the was a few years ago and totally looks fake. I really don't want to get stuck in Mexico. But I hope I'll find a little sombrero for Riko; I've been looking for one of those for years.
-Steph
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Smiling's My Favorite
Happy Thursday! The beautiful thing about Thursdays during break is that I had TWO naps today! I'm just so tired, I dunno why. It must be all the strenuous shopping and wrapping and stuff. Also, making. Been crafting a few presents, as well. In any case, I have my trusty Original Blend UCC coffee with milk, and that seems to be bringing me back to life.
I was going to talk about Facebook...but I thought I was going to enlighten you all about something else first... hmmm. Don't you wish I prepared and thought these out before hand? I bet they'd be a lot more punchy if I tried.
While we wait, here is my neat-o link for this week: http://www.totalleh.com/index.php?id=387
Ah, I think it was this. Around Thanksgivingtime or so, I reached my 100 post count according to Blogger. Now, that counts some of the old ones that my dad was posting here while I was still emailing this out to all y'all (you can tell because there's weird pictures adoring the top of each one). But still, 100 posts? That's over two years of me whining at you week after week. I still can't believe I haven't even missed one, yet. AND I've physically SAID Happy Thursday to someone each of those Thursdays, too. What do you guys have to say about your own commitments?
So this was the segue into Facebook. See, at one point, I had a mailing list, and my family and a lot of kids in the Buena orchestra got an email about Thursday 'cause they all swore they'd miss me saying it to them each week. Yeah, well, I don't think any of those kids remember this. XD But my family still does, and my good friends (well, they at least pretend to), and really that's about it. But, for a while now, they've been imported in Facebook as notes, so that potentially bumps my readership up by like a hundred people, despite the fact that we all know no one ever really reads peoples' notes on Facebook. But I can mention people and then tag them in it, like, say, Aubrey Reynolds, and then they might take a peek to see what I've been saying about them.
So I think that my tone has taken on a wider tone, as if I'm writing for the Facebook audience. Which is WAY different from the blog audience, because it's college kids who, for the most part, know what I'm talking about when I say stuff about West Campus, or trolleys....(but then, it's the home crowd who's hip to stuff like "I wish the AX was at Anaheim again," and it's even a very specific crowd who gets the title of this post.)
In any case, let's talk about Facebook now.
So, I dunno if you guys know, but I live at Facebook. Different people have accosted me with keeping the window open all day and just refreshing it to poke back. This is very true. But when I was thinking about writing this today, I was thinking how I update on my life so much more easily there. So! Here's a walk down memory lane of this week, of all my status updates since last Thursday:
December 13
Stephanie is SO cold.
9:27pm
Stephanie wishes you all a Happy Thursday.
5:25pm
Stephanie needs a new battery!
9:24am
Stephanie almost misses the "is".
12:51am
December 14
Stephanie has finished it all!
5:36pm
December 17
Stephanie is sho shleepy.
9:54pm
December 18
Stephanie got a B+ in producing! How about you guys?
2:14pm
Stephanie is confined to the office until the danger passes...0o.
1:45pm
Yesterday
Stephanie is a bad speller.
11:27am
Stephanie is gallavanting.
11:25am
Stephanie has to go to the dentist ;_;.
12:46am
Today
Stephanie is hair-cutted.
6:06pm
Stephanie wishes you all a Happy Thursday.
3:43pm
Except, yesterday we went to the dentist, but our appointment was for today. It was a sad morning.
So today we went to the dentist for real, and that was alright, not great, you know, it's the dentist. But then I took a nap! And then I got a hair cut. And, wait. First I had lunch at Mama-ya. THEN I got a hair cut. And then I had another nap. And now I'm watching Scrubs, and it's so funny if you haven't been keeping up and you get to see them for the first time. I heart the Janitor.
Okay, peace out, kiddies.
-Steph
Ah, and Merry Christmas!
I was going to talk about Facebook...but I thought I was going to enlighten you all about something else first... hmmm. Don't you wish I prepared and thought these out before hand? I bet they'd be a lot more punchy if I tried.
While we wait, here is my neat-o link for this week: http://www.totalleh.com/index.php?id=387
Ah, I think it was this. Around Thanksgivingtime or so, I reached my 100 post count according to Blogger. Now, that counts some of the old ones that my dad was posting here while I was still emailing this out to all y'all (you can tell because there's weird pictures adoring the top of each one). But still, 100 posts? That's over two years of me whining at you week after week. I still can't believe I haven't even missed one, yet. AND I've physically SAID Happy Thursday to someone each of those Thursdays, too. What do you guys have to say about your own commitments?
So this was the segue into Facebook. See, at one point, I had a mailing list, and my family and a lot of kids in the Buena orchestra got an email about Thursday 'cause they all swore they'd miss me saying it to them each week. Yeah, well, I don't think any of those kids remember this. XD But my family still does, and my good friends (well, they at least pretend to), and really that's about it. But, for a while now, they've been imported in Facebook as notes, so that potentially bumps my readership up by like a hundred people, despite the fact that we all know no one ever really reads peoples' notes on Facebook. But I can mention people and then tag them in it, like, say, Aubrey Reynolds, and then they might take a peek to see what I've been saying about them.
So I think that my tone has taken on a wider tone, as if I'm writing for the Facebook audience. Which is WAY different from the blog audience, because it's college kids who, for the most part, know what I'm talking about when I say stuff about West Campus, or trolleys....(but then, it's the home crowd who's hip to stuff like "I wish the AX was at Anaheim again," and it's even a very specific crowd who gets the title of this post.)
In any case, let's talk about Facebook now.
So, I dunno if you guys know, but I live at Facebook. Different people have accosted me with keeping the window open all day and just refreshing it to poke back. This is very true. But when I was thinking about writing this today, I was thinking how I update on my life so much more easily there. So! Here's a walk down memory lane of this week, of all my status updates since last Thursday:
December 13
Stephanie is SO cold.
9:27pm
Stephanie wishes you all a Happy Thursday.
5:25pm
Stephanie needs a new battery!
9:24am
Stephanie almost misses the "is".
12:51am
December 14
Stephanie has finished it all!
5:36pm
December 17
Stephanie is sho shleepy.
9:54pm
December 18
Stephanie got a B+ in producing! How about you guys?
2:14pm
Stephanie is confined to the office until the danger passes...0o.
1:45pm
Yesterday
Stephanie is a bad speller.
11:27am
Stephanie is gallavanting.
11:25am
Stephanie has to go to the dentist ;_;.
12:46am
Today
Stephanie is hair-cutted.
6:06pm
Stephanie wishes you all a Happy Thursday.
3:43pm
Except, yesterday we went to the dentist, but our appointment was for today. It was a sad morning.
So today we went to the dentist for real, and that was alright, not great, you know, it's the dentist. But then I took a nap! And then I got a hair cut. And, wait. First I had lunch at Mama-ya. THEN I got a hair cut. And then I had another nap. And now I'm watching Scrubs, and it's so funny if you haven't been keeping up and you get to see them for the first time. I heart the Janitor.
Okay, peace out, kiddies.
-Steph
Ah, and Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
I Should Be Writing My Script
Happy Thursday! Here's a cute story courtesy of Megan:
"Making fudge in our family is a tradition. My mom used to make the fudge, and then I took over making it, and someday my children will take over and kill your children."
And an epilogue:
"There is no 'our' in sandwich."
Truer words were never spoken.
SO TODAY I TOOK MY LAST/ONLY FINAL. HAPPPy Thursday! It was World Lit, my only normal academic class. So lots of writing. It was.... eh. I tried for all the extra questions. XD It should be okay, but it'll definitely be the lowest grade outta the batch. But hey! A in Sitcom! Shocking. I see an A in art for sure (you should see my snazzy letterhead). Writing? If I get enough of my script done today/tomorrow morning....definitely at least an A-. I totally turned in everything in that class, man. Producing? Hm. That class was awful, and we're still not entirely done with the notebook.....but I guess mid B to low A. But we'll see.
So I'm trying to write this, but it's really hard because the TV is distracting me so bad. Right now it's Private Practice and it is SO BAD. SO BAD. SO BAD. And that's what's distracting me, because I have to stop every four seconds and complain. Chris Lowell is even in it but STILL I'll never be watching this again.
But speaking of Chris Lowell, Beth got me Veronica Mars season one for Christmas! GAH! So unexpected! (Chris isn't in season one, but that's okay) Man do I love that show. It's way better than this CRUD I'm watching now.
So Megan started really packing today, 'cause she's off to Oxford next semester. Whut! Dunno if we're getting a new roomie, but prolly. BUT I SHALL HAVE THE BOTTOM BUNK. I shall have it. It will be my precious. But it's going to be strange.
But I have fun CBA (rather, TFT?) friends for next semester, like I've got a class with Kelly and Aaron (and maybe Ashley? grrr), and another with I think Yuko and maybe Aaron again? And that second one is with Jack! Who is not a classmate at all, but a darn good sitcomy prof, and I think I'll really enjoy this class. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Up next is Christmas Break!
I'm gonna hang out with Carolyn and probably Steven, and Jennifer, and I think Jacqi! And I'm pretty sure my sister! And I won't go to class! But I'll probably work on my movie because I like it and I hope I finish it!
Gah, I dunno what I'm saying anymore. I just can't wait for Private Practice to be over, 'cause it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Yeah. Now it's over. Good. Good riddance.
I guess I'll sign off, too. And I will see some of you soon! Merry Christmas!
-Steph
"Making fudge in our family is a tradition. My mom used to make the fudge, and then I took over making it, and someday my children will take over and kill your children."
And an epilogue:
"There is no 'our' in sandwich."
Truer words were never spoken.
SO TODAY I TOOK MY LAST/ONLY FINAL. HAPPPy Thursday! It was World Lit, my only normal academic class. So lots of writing. It was.... eh. I tried for all the extra questions. XD It should be okay, but it'll definitely be the lowest grade outta the batch. But hey! A in Sitcom! Shocking. I see an A in art for sure (you should see my snazzy letterhead). Writing? If I get enough of my script done today/tomorrow morning....definitely at least an A-. I totally turned in everything in that class, man. Producing? Hm. That class was awful, and we're still not entirely done with the notebook.....but I guess mid B to low A. But we'll see.
So I'm trying to write this, but it's really hard because the TV is distracting me so bad. Right now it's Private Practice and it is SO BAD. SO BAD. SO BAD. And that's what's distracting me, because I have to stop every four seconds and complain. Chris Lowell is even in it but STILL I'll never be watching this again.
But speaking of Chris Lowell, Beth got me Veronica Mars season one for Christmas! GAH! So unexpected! (Chris isn't in season one, but that's okay) Man do I love that show. It's way better than this CRUD I'm watching now.
So Megan started really packing today, 'cause she's off to Oxford next semester. Whut! Dunno if we're getting a new roomie, but prolly. BUT I SHALL HAVE THE BOTTOM BUNK. I shall have it. It will be my precious. But it's going to be strange.
But I have fun CBA (rather, TFT?) friends for next semester, like I've got a class with Kelly and Aaron (and maybe Ashley? grrr), and another with I think Yuko and maybe Aaron again? And that second one is with Jack! Who is not a classmate at all, but a darn good sitcomy prof, and I think I'll really enjoy this class. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Up next is Christmas Break!
I'm gonna hang out with Carolyn and probably Steven, and Jennifer, and I think Jacqi! And I'm pretty sure my sister! And I won't go to class! But I'll probably work on my movie because I like it and I hope I finish it!
Gah, I dunno what I'm saying anymore. I just can't wait for Private Practice to be over, 'cause it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Yeah. Now it's over. Good. Good riddance.
I guess I'll sign off, too. And I will see some of you soon! Merry Christmas!
-Steph
Thursday, December 06, 2007
One Year Left
Happy Thursday! Today was actually really great, right off the bat. Sure I woke up at 7 to finish off a paper due later, but after that it was really great. For example, something ridiculously cute happened right in the morning. (If you want to know, you can ask me about it and I might tell ya) And then I only had one more class! You know what that means? Just a few finals and then a year from now I'll be outta college.
@@! AHH!
Instead of class (it was cancelled, ask anybody), me and Megan went out and saw No Country for Old Men. It started off really strong, it was beautiful and I was really digging the one-step-ahead/cat-n-mousing going on....but then it took a turn that I don't think was very cinematically smart. It's based on a book, right? And apparently it follows it word-for-word.....which may be a perfect adaptation, but in my opinion it doesn't make for a perfect movie. But it started out good, and the characters were really solid and motivated and performed brilliantly.
So last Friday it rained. Just woke up and it was raining, and it rained All Day Long. The days before and after were not the least bit rainy, and most of this week has been rather hot. Until today, it started raining again right before ...I guess it was 9, before Grey's. Weird. Crazy winter.
Friday and Saturday was the sitcom taping, of course, but I don't have any more pictures other than what I posted last week from the rehearsal. It went really well! A pretty full house both nights, and the audience was sooo cooperative! Got a lot of laughs (even repeatedly), even at the political jokes, which was really a surprise. But the writing was far from the star of the show--mad props to the cast for putting up with our re-writes Saturday night and really pulling the whole thing off; and hooray for a smashing set and a crew who knew what they were doing. It was a pretty awesome experience. Good job, everyone. I'm gonna miss it and you all.
What else is new? I got my Hot Fuzz poster, and it is living quite merrily over my desk. Bought some pretty brown wrapping paper today. Ummm and. I feel like I should tell you a cute story. Let me think of one. Once upon a time, there was a little bed. Then it died. The end. Hahah, that was by my niece, I think it's the best story ever.
Oh, how did I forget?! We went and saw Enchanted Tuesday, me and Megan and Beth. That was pretty cute and had some LOL moments. Yes, it was ridiculous, but don't let the Dempsey fool you! It's a Disney movie, after all, and once you remember that, then you can fully enjoy it. Speaking of wacky fun, we caught the last half of Ugly Betty today. First time either of us had seen it ever, and we were both really surprised at how bizarrely weird it was. It's hilarious, guys. XD Probably going to keep that up from now on. If only the strike would end (I'm whining now) I want my tv back!!
Oh, I'm going to see if the internet is good enough to watch Chuck now. 'Cause of the strike I didn't even check to see if it was new this week--lucky for me it is!
C'mooooooon Christmas break!!
-Steph
@@! AHH!
Instead of class (it was cancelled, ask anybody), me and Megan went out and saw No Country for Old Men. It started off really strong, it was beautiful and I was really digging the one-step-ahead/cat-n-mousing going on....but then it took a turn that I don't think was very cinematically smart. It's based on a book, right? And apparently it follows it word-for-word.....which may be a perfect adaptation, but in my opinion it doesn't make for a perfect movie. But it started out good, and the characters were really solid and motivated and performed brilliantly.
So last Friday it rained. Just woke up and it was raining, and it rained All Day Long. The days before and after were not the least bit rainy, and most of this week has been rather hot. Until today, it started raining again right before ...I guess it was 9, before Grey's. Weird. Crazy winter.
Friday and Saturday was the sitcom taping, of course, but I don't have any more pictures other than what I posted last week from the rehearsal. It went really well! A pretty full house both nights, and the audience was sooo cooperative! Got a lot of laughs (even repeatedly), even at the political jokes, which was really a surprise. But the writing was far from the star of the show--mad props to the cast for putting up with our re-writes Saturday night and really pulling the whole thing off; and hooray for a smashing set and a crew who knew what they were doing. It was a pretty awesome experience. Good job, everyone. I'm gonna miss it and you all.
What else is new? I got my Hot Fuzz poster, and it is living quite merrily over my desk. Bought some pretty brown wrapping paper today. Ummm and. I feel like I should tell you a cute story. Let me think of one. Once upon a time, there was a little bed. Then it died. The end. Hahah, that was by my niece, I think it's the best story ever.
Oh, how did I forget?! We went and saw Enchanted Tuesday, me and Megan and Beth. That was pretty cute and had some LOL moments. Yes, it was ridiculous, but don't let the Dempsey fool you! It's a Disney movie, after all, and once you remember that, then you can fully enjoy it. Speaking of wacky fun, we caught the last half of Ugly Betty today. First time either of us had seen it ever, and we were both really surprised at how bizarrely weird it was. It's hilarious, guys. XD Probably going to keep that up from now on. If only the strike would end (I'm whining now) I want my tv back!!
Oh, I'm going to see if the internet is good enough to watch Chuck now. 'Cause of the strike I didn't even check to see if it was new this week--lucky for me it is!
C'mooooooon Christmas break!!
-Steph
Thursday, November 29, 2007
American U
Happy Thursday! I only have a bit of time because I'll explain in a bit. First, the best recipe I ever created today:
The Best I'm-A-Cheap-College-Student-And-I-Live-Out-Of-My-Freezer Between-Classes Lunch: Waffle Tuna Melt
Serves 1-2
You will need:
A can of tuna
2-4 frozen waffles
2-4 prepackaged cheese slices
(you can use whatever type you want/have)
And
Mayo
Pickle relish
Salt & pepper
To taste
Materials you will need:
2 plates (paper ok)
1 fork (plastic ok)
Appliances you will need:
1 Toaster
First, prepare the tuna however you like to make it. I use enough mayo to coat, and then enough pickle relish on top of that until it's not too moist. Then salt and pepper however it happens to come out that time.
Toast the waffles two at a time. Dangle two cheese slices over the toaster while it is on, to start the melt.
When the waffles are done to your preference, lay the cheese over each of them and allow the extra waffle heat to transfer into the cheeses. Then lay in the tuna mix on one of them—you can probably get all the tuna onto one waffle, but I used half and ended up making two sandwiches, and that's what the other two cheeses and waffles are for.
It's very good, I promise you.
So RIGHT NOW I am sitting in a red chair next to an outlet in the hallway outside the theater. Why? Because this weekend is the taping of the American U sitcom we've been writing, and today is the last-minute fixes and dress rehearsal. I've been here since 4! And it's pretty much the coolest thing ever, the way this works.
We're in the theater 'cause that's where a stage is, but other than that it just about approximates a professional sitcom set. That, and the fact there's a bunch of students and three professors. I took some pictures!
This is what the Student Union set looks like from the front row. Cameras! And because you can't see anything.....
Screens!
It's been so fun and funny and intense--I keep feeling like my comedy game is trying to be raised, that everything I say I have to think about first--what do I say next that is really really funny? I like it a lot. I wish you all could be here. One day I hope I get a copy of the finished version to show you all. It's not going to be the best half hour of television you've ever seen, but it will be something special.
Okay, I can hear they're about to get rolling in there, so I'll roll outta here! Hope your Thursdays were as great as mine!!
-Steph
The Best I'm-A-Cheap-College-Student-And-I-Live-Out-Of-My-Freezer Between-Classes Lunch: Waffle Tuna Melt
Serves 1-2
You will need:
A can of tuna
2-4 frozen waffles
2-4 prepackaged cheese slices
(you can use whatever type you want/have)
And
Mayo
Pickle relish
Salt & pepper
To taste
Materials you will need:
2 plates (paper ok)
1 fork (plastic ok)
Appliances you will need:
1 Toaster
First, prepare the tuna however you like to make it. I use enough mayo to coat, and then enough pickle relish on top of that until it's not too moist. Then salt and pepper however it happens to come out that time.
Toast the waffles two at a time. Dangle two cheese slices over the toaster while it is on, to start the melt.
When the waffles are done to your preference, lay the cheese over each of them and allow the extra waffle heat to transfer into the cheeses. Then lay in the tuna mix on one of them—you can probably get all the tuna onto one waffle, but I used half and ended up making two sandwiches, and that's what the other two cheeses and waffles are for.
It's very good, I promise you.
So RIGHT NOW I am sitting in a red chair next to an outlet in the hallway outside the theater. Why? Because this weekend is the taping of the American U sitcom we've been writing, and today is the last-minute fixes and dress rehearsal. I've been here since 4! And it's pretty much the coolest thing ever, the way this works.
We're in the theater 'cause that's where a stage is, but other than that it just about approximates a professional sitcom set. That, and the fact there's a bunch of students and three professors. I took some pictures!
This is what the Student Union set looks like from the front row. Cameras! And because you can't see anything.....
Screens!
It's been so fun and funny and intense--I keep feeling like my comedy game is trying to be raised, that everything I say I have to think about first--what do I say next that is really really funny? I like it a lot. I wish you all could be here. One day I hope I get a copy of the finished version to show you all. It's not going to be the best half hour of television you've ever seen, but it will be something special.
Okay, I can hear they're about to get rolling in there, so I'll roll outta here! Hope your Thursdays were as great as mine!!
-Steph
Thursday, November 22, 2007
The Culinary Week!
Happy Thursgivingday! That's Happy Thursday + Happy Thanksgiving! I almost forgot to remember to write this, so I'm going to do it now.
Friday Beth and Brianna stole me away from Japanese Kids to go to (of all places) Dai Shogun. So-called Happy Hour, where there's a bunch of really great food for lunch prices. That was fun because I haven't really spent too much time with Brianna this semester, after living with her for two years. Did you know the kid is engaged now? CRAZYness.
Saturday there was this Media Arts Festival, where Chip Fields spoke to us. It was pretty neat. And then after that I dropped in with Beth and Kirstie as they went to Pasadena to Hurry Curry. It was very good, and I had strawberry-flavored tea. I recommend it if you're a curry fan.
So Sunday we went BACK to Pasadena (needed some art supplies from Blick) and had lunch at Kansai, which is literally across the street from Hurry Curry. Love that place. Been there once with my dad and always wanted to go back. I had an onigiri and a half-bowl of udon, and the tea was free like at A'Float. And then I had red bean ice cream, which I haven't had in a loooong time. It's so good. Go there.
Also, Beth has introduced me to Famima!! It's a Japanese mini-mart that they're testing out in LA area. When we were coming back from Hurry Curry, we found the second location in Pasadena, so we checked it out after Kansai. It's way bigger than the first one AND AND they've got a case of steamed buns. !!! So even though we'd just ate, I bought an anman! A bun with my favorite red bean paste inside! I finally had one!! It was unexpectedly fudgey, but not in a bad way. It was fun. Gonna drop by there again on the way back to school.
Monday was all homework, but Tuesday was all hanging out. Sitcom class turned into hanging out time 'cause we didn't actually have to be there. But then there was a run-through of 90% of the show at 6, and that was pretty awesome. I can't wait for the taping. But then I had dinner with Yuko (from Sitcom). We were adventurous and went to Pho 777 across the street. That was really good, too. Definitely going back there. But it was funny because we definitely had to order off of the pictures 'cause we didn't know what anything was. ^^
Wednesday! Beth drove me home to home-town. Traffic wasn't so bad, just there were a few accidents. Gave her an in-depth tour of the house and then an in-the-dark tour of Ventura. Came back and made a pie while watching Colbert and up through Craig Ferguson who is now my favorite person ever. I'm also very sneezy.
So then today was Thursgiving, and there was all the food you can imagine. Just me and my folks and Beth since all the other kids are out of state. All two of them. It was good, and then there was a nice walk downtown (which was eerily empty) and out along the pier and back. It was cool and breezy, but not as cold as it could have been. Then we came home and watched Little Miss Sunshine and saw that exact area where we'd just been, hee hee. But according to the writer, filming in Ventura was a unfortunate accident, because they found out they couldn't shoot in Long Beach halfway through the scene. Oh well.
And after that we had my pie, which was all right. The apples seemed a little undercooked. Well. There's always Christmas. XD
Wow, guys, I am way impressed with Steve Carell today. Want to see him do something that is completely dramatic. 'Cause he could do it. He could do it and it would amazing.
Also, the Incredibles is amazing. I really love that movie.
OH AND CHUCK. This week's episode had a lot A LOT of bits in it that I just did not like. Just, the basics of writing and understanding your characters. BUT. What they achieved with their forced setup was rather remarkable, and I love/appreciate it muchly. Super excited for next week's episode.
Beth Voge is amazing.
-Steph
Friday Beth and Brianna stole me away from Japanese Kids to go to (of all places) Dai Shogun. So-called Happy Hour, where there's a bunch of really great food for lunch prices. That was fun because I haven't really spent too much time with Brianna this semester, after living with her for two years. Did you know the kid is engaged now? CRAZYness.
Saturday there was this Media Arts Festival, where Chip Fields spoke to us. It was pretty neat. And then after that I dropped in with Beth and Kirstie as they went to Pasadena to Hurry Curry. It was very good, and I had strawberry-flavored tea. I recommend it if you're a curry fan.
So Sunday we went BACK to Pasadena (needed some art supplies from Blick) and had lunch at Kansai, which is literally across the street from Hurry Curry. Love that place. Been there once with my dad and always wanted to go back. I had an onigiri and a half-bowl of udon, and the tea was free like at A'Float. And then I had red bean ice cream, which I haven't had in a loooong time. It's so good. Go there.
Also, Beth has introduced me to Famima!! It's a Japanese mini-mart that they're testing out in LA area. When we were coming back from Hurry Curry, we found the second location in Pasadena, so we checked it out after Kansai. It's way bigger than the first one AND AND they've got a case of steamed buns. !!! So even though we'd just ate, I bought an anman! A bun with my favorite red bean paste inside! I finally had one!! It was unexpectedly fudgey, but not in a bad way. It was fun. Gonna drop by there again on the way back to school.
Monday was all homework, but Tuesday was all hanging out. Sitcom class turned into hanging out time 'cause we didn't actually have to be there. But then there was a run-through of 90% of the show at 6, and that was pretty awesome. I can't wait for the taping. But then I had dinner with Yuko (from Sitcom). We were adventurous and went to Pho 777 across the street. That was really good, too. Definitely going back there. But it was funny because we definitely had to order off of the pictures 'cause we didn't know what anything was. ^^
Wednesday! Beth drove me home to home-town. Traffic wasn't so bad, just there were a few accidents. Gave her an in-depth tour of the house and then an in-the-dark tour of Ventura. Came back and made a pie while watching Colbert and up through Craig Ferguson who is now my favorite person ever. I'm also very sneezy.
So then today was Thursgiving, and there was all the food you can imagine. Just me and my folks and Beth since all the other kids are out of state. All two of them. It was good, and then there was a nice walk downtown (which was eerily empty) and out along the pier and back. It was cool and breezy, but not as cold as it could have been. Then we came home and watched Little Miss Sunshine and saw that exact area where we'd just been, hee hee. But according to the writer, filming in Ventura was a unfortunate accident, because they found out they couldn't shoot in Long Beach halfway through the scene. Oh well.
And after that we had my pie, which was all right. The apples seemed a little undercooked. Well. There's always Christmas. XD
Wow, guys, I am way impressed with Steve Carell today. Want to see him do something that is completely dramatic. 'Cause he could do it. He could do it and it would amazing.
Also, the Incredibles is amazing. I really love that movie.
OH AND CHUCK. This week's episode had a lot A LOT of bits in it that I just did not like. Just, the basics of writing and understanding your characters. BUT. What they achieved with their forced setup was rather remarkable, and I love/appreciate it muchly. Super excited for next week's episode.
Beth Voge is amazing.
-Steph
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Live from Azusa Pacific, it's Thursday Night!
Happy Thursday! Tonight was Mexican Thanksgiving (it only happens once...or twice!) so I am ridiculously stuffed and slow-moving at the moment. Mexican Thanksgiving is a day where Megan decided to cook a bunch of Mexican food for everyone, and I helped, and it happened to be near Real Thanksgiving. There was enchiladas, barbacoa, tortillas, chips, rice, and beans! And then cookies. Gosh. I'm gonna die.
This week went by too fast for me to remember it.
Over the weekend, I was at home. Went to the zoo with Carolyn and Melissa! Went to class with them, which turned into going to the zoo. Because the class was at the zoo.
And then I hung out with my folks! We had good foods and then shopped some. And then it sorta rained, but all this week it's been 90s hot. So strange.
Also, the lady (?) who drove me home and back just started working at APU, and she's the daughter of my mom's old working buddy, right? But she also went to all the same schools as me and indeed had a class with my brother! So we talked all about the teachers there (we had a lot of the same ones, dude) and stuff. It was neat.
Right now there are some CBAers over, and we're reminiscing about all the horrible classes we had to take and the awful movies we've made. They're so bad. I laugh.
And I can't remember what else happened this week! Saw a play. That was fun. And funny. But what else.....I dunno! Huh. I guess I'll stop, then. ^^
-Steph
This week went by too fast for me to remember it.
Over the weekend, I was at home. Went to the zoo with Carolyn and Melissa! Went to class with them, which turned into going to the zoo. Because the class was at the zoo.
And then I hung out with my folks! We had good foods and then shopped some. And then it sorta rained, but all this week it's been 90s hot. So strange.
Also, the lady (?) who drove me home and back just started working at APU, and she's the daughter of my mom's old working buddy, right? But she also went to all the same schools as me and indeed had a class with my brother! So we talked all about the teachers there (we had a lot of the same ones, dude) and stuff. It was neat.
Right now there are some CBAers over, and we're reminiscing about all the horrible classes we had to take and the awful movies we've made. They're so bad. I laugh.
And I can't remember what else happened this week! Saw a play. That was fun. And funny. But what else.....I dunno! Huh. I guess I'll stop, then. ^^
-Steph
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Standing up to the Man
In honor of the Writer's Guild of America strike, I'm airing a rerun this week. It's a good one, it's called "Not the Happiest Thursday," and it's from last season.
Before I pop the tape in, though, I'd like to say that I'm going home for the weekend. Yay. And today they performed a bit of the sitcom for us, and it's really coming along. Hooray for on-the-spot corrections!
And, as a writer, I'm on the WGA's side. As a human, I hate that the Union is Striking, as I hate Unions and Strikes. I think both sides are being pretty childish, and I'm upset that economic issues are going to (eventually) effect my canon universes negatively. Boo on you, Hollywood. Boo.
* * *
Not The Happiest Thursday
1/25/07
But still a Happy Thursday. I mean, c'mon, if it was the Happiest Thursday EVAR, what would you do with yourself on the rest of 'em? Knowing that none would ever reach this level of awesomeness? So Happy Thursday!
Sunny, high 70s. Nice. Well. Not sunny anymore, it's night. And, got a little breezy. Actually, I don't know, it was starting to get breezy when I came home from class, but then I took a nap so I really have no idea what the world is like.
I really do like that we can feel the revving of people's engines in the street through the floor of our house.
I just taught Brianna how to say 6:01 (rokuji ippun). Also today we re-learned the days of the week, and I realized that Mokuyoubi (Thursday) is written with the kanji for "tree," and trees are brown. Although, just yesterday I was looking at some trees and realizing that trees actually aren't brown, but more of a mottled gray. Some were white, and those looked really cool. Mokuyoubi was already cool, since the Go Club mascot was the little cow Moku.
My Jesus class professor is totally awesome. I said his name was Tim Robbins in a comment last week or so, but I don't know why 'cause his name is Mike. He was telling us about different forms of studying...the gospels, I guess, the parables, right? We were on Source Criticism, and then suddenly he was telling us about how he's got epilepsy, and then we were learning about how epilepsy felt like, and then it was about his college, and then about this one professor that he loved (who looked like an egg and paced back and forth in front of the class), and then about his roommate Mike who fell asleep in that class....and on and on and it was hilarious and very interesting and had absolutely no relevance to Source Criticism.
Roommmate Alex is going out to teach old people yatzee. Apparently she has to do it every week. Hahahaha, old people.
This week was too full of the Office. I was introduced to a site that has like every episode of everything, and I went there to catch up on those episodes I missed, right? Ended up watching every episode ever made in two sittings. SO. I'm super-obsessed. Like, I only talk about it to people, and re-watch episodes at the drop of a hat, and write about it in homework assignments. It spurred me to write three separate pieces of fanfiction (one in script form) and to buy a sitcom writing book from the internet. It definitely rekindled the "I wanna write for TV!!" feeling that had become a little dormant. It's also great because in the media class I'll be writing a paper on how it messes with reality (or something), and in my Film & Lit class I used Michael Scott as an example for a comedy concept. I want to show off my fanfics, can I?
Mixed Berry
The first I did, just a little short thing on Jim's attraction to Pam. If you've seen even just the first ep, you'll understand it.
One Is the Loneliest Number
K, you can't read this one unless you know how season 2 ends. 'Cause, like, for spoilers and stuff. I think this one is slightly better. It's longer, and way angsty. Jim-centric.
Hooray Jim. It's on tonight, but it's not new. New next week!!!! YAY.
Ok, well, I gotta run to food-area before it closes or my roommate drags me away.
-Steph
* * *
-Steph
Before I pop the tape in, though, I'd like to say that I'm going home for the weekend. Yay. And today they performed a bit of the sitcom for us, and it's really coming along. Hooray for on-the-spot corrections!
And, as a writer, I'm on the WGA's side. As a human, I hate that the Union is Striking, as I hate Unions and Strikes. I think both sides are being pretty childish, and I'm upset that economic issues are going to (eventually) effect my canon universes negatively. Boo on you, Hollywood. Boo.
* * *
Not The Happiest Thursday
1/25/07
But still a Happy Thursday. I mean, c'mon, if it was the Happiest Thursday EVAR, what would you do with yourself on the rest of 'em? Knowing that none would ever reach this level of awesomeness? So Happy Thursday!
Sunny, high 70s. Nice. Well. Not sunny anymore, it's night. And, got a little breezy. Actually, I don't know, it was starting to get breezy when I came home from class, but then I took a nap so I really have no idea what the world is like.
I really do like that we can feel the revving of people's engines in the street through the floor of our house.
I just taught Brianna how to say 6:01 (rokuji ippun). Also today we re-learned the days of the week, and I realized that Mokuyoubi (Thursday) is written with the kanji for "tree," and trees are brown. Although, just yesterday I was looking at some trees and realizing that trees actually aren't brown, but more of a mottled gray. Some were white, and those looked really cool. Mokuyoubi was already cool, since the Go Club mascot was the little cow Moku.
My Jesus class professor is totally awesome. I said his name was Tim Robbins in a comment last week or so, but I don't know why 'cause his name is Mike. He was telling us about different forms of studying...the gospels, I guess, the parables, right? We were on Source Criticism, and then suddenly he was telling us about how he's got epilepsy, and then we were learning about how epilepsy felt like, and then it was about his college, and then about this one professor that he loved (who looked like an egg and paced back and forth in front of the class), and then about his roommate Mike who fell asleep in that class....and on and on and it was hilarious and very interesting and had absolutely no relevance to Source Criticism.
Roommmate Alex is going out to teach old people yatzee. Apparently she has to do it every week. Hahahaha, old people.
This week was too full of the Office. I was introduced to a site that has like every episode of everything, and I went there to catch up on those episodes I missed, right? Ended up watching every episode ever made in two sittings. SO. I'm super-obsessed. Like, I only talk about it to people, and re-watch episodes at the drop of a hat, and write about it in homework assignments. It spurred me to write three separate pieces of fanfiction (one in script form) and to buy a sitcom writing book from the internet. It definitely rekindled the "I wanna write for TV!!" feeling that had become a little dormant. It's also great because in the media class I'll be writing a paper on how it messes with reality (or something), and in my Film & Lit class I used Michael Scott as an example for a comedy concept. I want to show off my fanfics, can I?
Mixed Berry
The first I did, just a little short thing on Jim's attraction to Pam. If you've seen even just the first ep, you'll understand it.
One Is the Loneliest Number
K, you can't read this one unless you know how season 2 ends. 'Cause, like, for spoilers and stuff. I think this one is slightly better. It's longer, and way angsty. Jim-centric.
Hooray Jim. It's on tonight, but it's not new. New next week!!!! YAY.
Ok, well, I gotta run to food-area before it closes or my roommate drags me away.
-Steph
* * *
-Steph
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Hello November Friends!
Happy Thursday! October went away quite suddenly, did it not? I'm definitely doing one of those distracted-watching-tv blogs today, sorry in advance.
Saturday I went to a CRAZY expensive sushi place in Hollywood. I was duped into it, actually. But it was worth it to see all the loonies in their costumes at their Halloween parties. The best best best best pair was Siegfried and Roy with these stuffed white tigers, and Roy with this nice blood stain all down his neck. Hilarious.
I had to turn in an outline for my movie for Writing class Monday, so now I finally know what's going to happen in it. It's a heist spoof! It's going to be fun.
Other than classes and homework, I've watched a lot of movies! Moulin Rogue I guess on Sunday, Dinosaurs on TV on Sunday. And yesterday, Halloween? We watched Alien and the Exorcist and Shaun of the Dead. The first two I hadn't seen, and neither was especially scary. Exorcist was definitely more creepy/intense, and Alien was just mostly boring and old. Shaun was of course very good as always.
There was a court event right outside our door, "Holla-Ween." Everyone was there, dressed up, doing fun carnival type stuff, the RAs attempt to lure us kids away from the evils of drinking parties or whatev. There was also a bouncehouse with a sign "Adventures with Batman & Robin" taped on the front--it was literally in front of our apartment. I wandered in my werewolf mask for a bit, but we were in the middle of Shaun so I didn't spend my whole night there.
I really need to clean off my desk. That's something that's on my mind.
So I registered for classes, and it was dumb because things didn't work out perfectly, so as it stands I'm taking Story and Character, Comm Theory, Contemporary Art Trends, American Film Musical, and Motion Picture Production I. That's 16 units, which means next year I'm taking Senior Sem, Broadcast Performance, Capstone (?), Motion Picture Production II, Intermediate Screenwriting, and I guess a "directed research" study in screenwriting. And then I'll be done. @@! Yeah. Two more semesters. It's pretty much a done deal. Gosh.
Me and Beth and Megan are taking about living in Hollywood this summer. Or Burbank. Or Van Nuys. If I intern for this program, then I'd have to live there. If I don't intern, I can get a job to actually pay for the apartment. So either way I think that we're close to seriously thinking about it. And if I intern this summer, then I'll have a foot in the door to actually enroll in the program next next summer, and then I suppose I'll be on my way to stardom.
You know, more or less.
Guys, how great was the Office tonight? So great? Yeah, I thought so. Jim, Jim, trodden on for once. Chin up, it'll build character.
-Stephers
Saturday I went to a CRAZY expensive sushi place in Hollywood. I was duped into it, actually. But it was worth it to see all the loonies in their costumes at their Halloween parties. The best best best best pair was Siegfried and Roy with these stuffed white tigers, and Roy with this nice blood stain all down his neck. Hilarious.
I had to turn in an outline for my movie for Writing class Monday, so now I finally know what's going to happen in it. It's a heist spoof! It's going to be fun.
Other than classes and homework, I've watched a lot of movies! Moulin Rogue I guess on Sunday, Dinosaurs on TV on Sunday. And yesterday, Halloween? We watched Alien and the Exorcist and Shaun of the Dead. The first two I hadn't seen, and neither was especially scary. Exorcist was definitely more creepy/intense, and Alien was just mostly boring and old. Shaun was of course very good as always.
There was a court event right outside our door, "Holla-Ween." Everyone was there, dressed up, doing fun carnival type stuff, the RAs attempt to lure us kids away from the evils of drinking parties or whatev. There was also a bouncehouse with a sign "Adventures with Batman & Robin" taped on the front--it was literally in front of our apartment. I wandered in my werewolf mask for a bit, but we were in the middle of Shaun so I didn't spend my whole night there.
I really need to clean off my desk. That's something that's on my mind.
So I registered for classes, and it was dumb because things didn't work out perfectly, so as it stands I'm taking Story and Character, Comm Theory, Contemporary Art Trends, American Film Musical, and Motion Picture Production I. That's 16 units, which means next year I'm taking Senior Sem, Broadcast Performance, Capstone (?), Motion Picture Production II, Intermediate Screenwriting, and I guess a "directed research" study in screenwriting. And then I'll be done. @@! Yeah. Two more semesters. It's pretty much a done deal. Gosh.
Me and Beth and Megan are taking about living in Hollywood this summer. Or Burbank. Or Van Nuys. If I intern for this program, then I'd have to live there. If I don't intern, I can get a job to actually pay for the apartment. So either way I think that we're close to seriously thinking about it. And if I intern this summer, then I'll have a foot in the door to actually enroll in the program next next summer, and then I suppose I'll be on my way to stardom.
You know, more or less.
Guys, how great was the Office tonight? So great? Yeah, I thought so. Jim, Jim, trodden on for once. Chin up, it'll build character.
-Stephers
Thursday, October 25, 2007
No Two People Are Not On Fire. Awww.
Happy Thursday! So we're all on fire! It's mostly very sad, but it makes the sun look really cool, like a neon pink sticker in the sky. It hasn't gotten to us here in A-town, and it seems as though they've started to get a handle on it, for the most part.
Another strangely busy week. Friday my mom came and hung out with me and took me on some driving adventures. Brought some proof from the bountiful garden I left behind. Did the dishes. You know, mom stuff. ^^
I think on the weekend I didn't get dressed. Right. I watched youtube all Saturday without my glasses and got my eye all bloodshot. That was actually rather uncomfortable. Oh, but I also started writing my movie! Which I thought up for fun, and now it looks like it's going to be my big project for Writing. So it's good that I've got at least 10 pages for a start.
Murnday....class got out early.....and then I went to Art....we're doing typography, and I finally started getting creative with my letters. I'll show them to you some day. OH. But that was the day I got back from class late (because I stayed and kept working, silly addictive art class) and tried to finish the ep of Heroes I had loaded, but then I got distracted by my sister so I ended up not sleeping until way late, and I had to wake up at 7 or 8 for to do my homework. So that wasn't very nice. But it turns out that I'd already done it, he just had moved around all the deadlines so I hadn't turned it in yet. Silly Thom.
But I was kind of dead the rest of the day, even in Sitcom. But then again, we just looked at the script for no good reason and got nothing done at all. I invented some little wiggly cartoony friends I named WOOBLS. Their names are Plu, Cham, Iz, and the outcast's name is Gree. He's got crazy eyes. But then I had a weird nap....and I've napped all the days since then.
Wednesday I did reading and writings and stuff like that, and then art again where I continued in my arts. Yup. (Yeah, if this is sounding weird today, it's because not sleeping well for a few days makes me weird and feuax-grouchy.) Wednesday's nap was brought about by my watching Chuck. It dropped again, to being just okay, and then my compy overheated so I decided to sleep instead of start it back up. I just finished it just now, and there was a pretty good bit at the end but overall it was a definite Eh.
Also, Wednesday's chapel had a really great speaker, because he was born without arms or legs. He was very charismatic. You can download it here: http://live.apu.edu/watch.php?id=1510&codec=1&live=0
Wednesday night we had a "mandatory meeting" for Sitcom, because suddenly the final version of the script was due today. But we didn't do anything useful on Tuesday.....me and Megan went over and combined scene A and B, and some of the others did things on their own, but then we had to compile it into the new-and-improved script. But we met, and no one of us actually had the program to format it...so we complained amongst ourselves for a bit, said we'd say we did the best we could, and headed out......but then the one of us who did have the program (and was out of town) emailed saying we could email her the corrections and she'd format it and get it to the printers in time for class today. So we had to stick it out. It wasn't so bad, and by then it was just three of us, so we just slammed it out and asked questions later. But it was for sure one of those up-till-one writer's meetings our profs are always telling us about.
Today I had better sleep, and I didn't have to get up at 7. And we watched bits of Jurassic Park. And later talked about Dante's Inferno, which is pretty trippy. And in Sitcom, where we had actually met our deadline against all odds, we looked at the script (draft 19, that's our second official final draft. gosh.) and made notes of the corrections still needed to be made......but basically we're done with that rewrite. We're still "on call" to spot correct, but now we're going to pitch our own ideas and start developing our own sitcom. I don't see that getting very far, considering our group, but at least we don't have to work with dead Weston and his stupid Democratic Women's Rally Debates.
I have academic advising tomorrow morning, but at the moment my schedule is far from cohesive. Classes I need to take, to appease my general studies, major, and minor requirements, amount to ten. Ten different classes. That's 32 units, and I actually need 34 more to graduate. And there's like no more classes to take. There's only four left for my major, and two of those are a I and II class, so that's next year for sure. Another is Fall only, and I said I'd take it with Megan, so that's next year. For my minor, only one class out of the four is being offered, and that's actually okay, because I can put intermediate screenwriting into next year and advanced screenwriting and intro to film in the last semester, to fill up my unit quota both those semesters. The last two classes are those senior-only classes for GE and my major, so.
So right now, my next semester looks like this:
Typography. Intro to Astronomy. Communication Theory. Story and Character.
And I still need another one!!!! ARRG. And even though my art prof said that I should really look into typography, the catalog says ART 130 is a prereq...and I've certainly not taken that. So this is why I'm going to academic advising tomorrow. Because my schedule needs some advice.
So 30 Rock was pretty good. Didn't get to watch The Office OR Scrubs, because Megan decided that it would actually be worthwhile to watch Grey's today. Let me tell you, I think she was wrong. *pouts* Carpoolers this week was very very odd, and Marmaduke and Dougie are still holding a far lead as favorite characters. (Marmaduke for bartering, every kid's dream, and Dougie for asking a question I had actually just asked) I'm scouring the internets for Heroes, because now Kristen Bell is in the show, giving me an incentive to catch up.
Oh, and me and Beth also went on a night drive in which we found amazing lights on a road that does not in fact suddenly drop off, a park in the middle of noplace, and the home of wild firetrucks.
-Steph
Another strangely busy week. Friday my mom came and hung out with me and took me on some driving adventures. Brought some proof from the bountiful garden I left behind. Did the dishes. You know, mom stuff. ^^
I think on the weekend I didn't get dressed. Right. I watched youtube all Saturday without my glasses and got my eye all bloodshot. That was actually rather uncomfortable. Oh, but I also started writing my movie! Which I thought up for fun, and now it looks like it's going to be my big project for Writing. So it's good that I've got at least 10 pages for a start.
Murnday....class got out early.....and then I went to Art....we're doing typography, and I finally started getting creative with my letters. I'll show them to you some day. OH. But that was the day I got back from class late (because I stayed and kept working, silly addictive art class) and tried to finish the ep of Heroes I had loaded, but then I got distracted by my sister so I ended up not sleeping until way late, and I had to wake up at 7 or 8 for to do my homework. So that wasn't very nice. But it turns out that I'd already done it, he just had moved around all the deadlines so I hadn't turned it in yet. Silly Thom.
But I was kind of dead the rest of the day, even in Sitcom. But then again, we just looked at the script for no good reason and got nothing done at all. I invented some little wiggly cartoony friends I named WOOBLS. Their names are Plu, Cham, Iz, and the outcast's name is Gree. He's got crazy eyes. But then I had a weird nap....and I've napped all the days since then.
Wednesday I did reading and writings and stuff like that, and then art again where I continued in my arts. Yup. (Yeah, if this is sounding weird today, it's because not sleeping well for a few days makes me weird and feuax-grouchy.) Wednesday's nap was brought about by my watching Chuck. It dropped again, to being just okay, and then my compy overheated so I decided to sleep instead of start it back up. I just finished it just now, and there was a pretty good bit at the end but overall it was a definite Eh.
Also, Wednesday's chapel had a really great speaker, because he was born without arms or legs. He was very charismatic. You can download it here: http://live.apu.edu/watch.php?id=1510&codec=1&live=0
Wednesday night we had a "mandatory meeting" for Sitcom, because suddenly the final version of the script was due today. But we didn't do anything useful on Tuesday.....me and Megan went over and combined scene A and B, and some of the others did things on their own, but then we had to compile it into the new-and-improved script. But we met, and no one of us actually had the program to format it...so we complained amongst ourselves for a bit, said we'd say we did the best we could, and headed out......but then the one of us who did have the program (and was out of town) emailed saying we could email her the corrections and she'd format it and get it to the printers in time for class today. So we had to stick it out. It wasn't so bad, and by then it was just three of us, so we just slammed it out and asked questions later. But it was for sure one of those up-till-one writer's meetings our profs are always telling us about.
Today I had better sleep, and I didn't have to get up at 7. And we watched bits of Jurassic Park. And later talked about Dante's Inferno, which is pretty trippy. And in Sitcom, where we had actually met our deadline against all odds, we looked at the script (draft 19, that's our second official final draft. gosh.) and made notes of the corrections still needed to be made......but basically we're done with that rewrite. We're still "on call" to spot correct, but now we're going to pitch our own ideas and start developing our own sitcom. I don't see that getting very far, considering our group, but at least we don't have to work with dead Weston and his stupid Democratic Women's Rally Debates.
I have academic advising tomorrow morning, but at the moment my schedule is far from cohesive. Classes I need to take, to appease my general studies, major, and minor requirements, amount to ten. Ten different classes. That's 32 units, and I actually need 34 more to graduate. And there's like no more classes to take. There's only four left for my major, and two of those are a I and II class, so that's next year for sure. Another is Fall only, and I said I'd take it with Megan, so that's next year. For my minor, only one class out of the four is being offered, and that's actually okay, because I can put intermediate screenwriting into next year and advanced screenwriting and intro to film in the last semester, to fill up my unit quota both those semesters. The last two classes are those senior-only classes for GE and my major, so.
So right now, my next semester looks like this:
Typography. Intro to Astronomy. Communication Theory. Story and Character.
And I still need another one!!!! ARRG. And even though my art prof said that I should really look into typography, the catalog says ART 130 is a prereq...and I've certainly not taken that. So this is why I'm going to academic advising tomorrow. Because my schedule needs some advice.
So 30 Rock was pretty good. Didn't get to watch The Office OR Scrubs, because Megan decided that it would actually be worthwhile to watch Grey's today. Let me tell you, I think she was wrong. *pouts* Carpoolers this week was very very odd, and Marmaduke and Dougie are still holding a far lead as favorite characters. (Marmaduke for bartering, every kid's dream, and Dougie for asking a question I had actually just asked) I'm scouring the internets for Heroes, because now Kristen Bell is in the show, giving me an incentive to catch up.
Oh, and me and Beth also went on a night drive in which we found amazing lights on a road that does not in fact suddenly drop off, a park in the middle of noplace, and the home of wild firetrucks.
-Steph
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Thursday really is the best day, you guys.
Happy Thursday! Today heralds in the weekend, as always, and caps off a wholly satisfying week. Stroll with me.
Last Friday I got around to seeing our school production of Beauty and the Beast. Not to sound overly full of school spirit or anything, but our drama department totally rocks. (Not to mention that the theater department is technically my department since it's now TFT for Theater, Film, and Television, and that I had more than one friend in the show) There's a funny story involving the show and Facebook, but since this is actually imported into Facebook each week, I don't feel like I need to go into it and tag specific people in a creepy and stalkerish way. ^^
OH. Also on Friday*, me and Beth went on a culinary/geographic adventure. Which meant we drove in the general direction of Monrovia for lunch and ended up coming home like four hours later. The original destination was India Sweets N Spices, this Indian restaurant/deli that some of my group project members* had visited the day before. I was feeling brave (and hungry) so I enlisted Beth. It was pretty trippy. The menu was full of words I had no idea of their meaning, and the food was literally unidentifiable. So we got the Combo 1 and hoped for the best. It wasn't all bad, mostly different. And we were totally the only white people there, which is always a unique experience. Oh, and the drinks? They came in the biggest fountain cup you've ever seen, and I kid you not, the soda was flat as the horizon. So at first you're all Holy Shoes I can't drink all that--and then you start drinking it because of the curry, and then you're all GEEZ this is flat--but then you can chug it like water because it doesn't burn. And since you need to chug it, you end up drinking the whole half gallon in a matter of moments. It was rather neat.
Mm. New paragraph. Then we went for a stroll around this park we saw many years ago on a different random drive in the direction of Monrovia. It was really very pretty and we found the tree from which all squirrels come (on kids Jeopardy the day before, the kid had said that all sqirrels come from one tree. We found it. It's in a park in Monrovia). And then we explored by the tennis courts** and the empty swimming pools and the crazy broken cement bleachers for them and then the ghetto playground and then the lawn bowling court. That's a fun park to hang out in, and I will return there someday.
Then, instead of going home, we headed up the canyon! Straight up into the mountains towards the dam. And we parked at the shoulder and looked at the lake and the cigarette butts and the thrown-away beer cases and listened to the silence. It was pretty magical.
And then we went back down into civilization and headed for the cute main street in Glendora, which has this coffee shop that's really popular amongst my peers. I got a "maple spice latte" on the spur of the moment, but it really just tasted like coffee. But it was okay! Because outside there was--NO JOKE--a little jazz quartet from Citrus. So we hung out behind them and partook in the ambience. And then I went back and saw Beauty and the Beast. So all in all it was a magical day.
*It was also a Study Day, the freedom of which I celebrated by rising at 9 AM. No fair! It's a study day! Shouldn't have to get up at all! And whyyyy did I greet the morning? To study. Gosh. It was actually to meet with my group about our presentation on India for World Lit. My job was to edit the movies they'd taken when they interviewed the people working at India Sweets N Spices. I was also given an authentic Indian dress to wear at the presentation. More on this later.
**It's a semi-quest of mine to find a fabled tennis court of my past. When my brother still lived here, me and my sister spent a week of the summer with him. One of these summers, we woke up super early and played tennis. I remember this morning for many reasons, one of which because it was TOO EARLY (but it was Azusa in the summer, so that's what you have to do), because I had just been reading Shade's Children (checked out from the APU library) in the car and had to stop because we'd arrived, and because I at one point it the ball out of the court and we had to go out into the neighborhood street to find it. So I have to check any tennis courts I find to see if they match my memories. Unless, of course, Kevin or Gretchen can just tell me.
Also, Kev, every time I go in the theater I look for the Fiddler on the Roof photo. It's a mid-show shot, not like a cast shot, so I'm not sure if you're in it. You could be the guy behind the other guy. But I look for you all the same. (Also, they turned most of the warehouse into Duke Version 2, and it's very bizarre.)
Um, then Saturday. Not much going on. Played some FFXII. Fought Gilgamesh for like half an hour, because all I could do was heal and reheal and revive my people. So. Gonna level up some more before I revisit that battle. Megan's family came up to see Beauty and the Beast, so I saw them briefly.
Sunday I spent not doing my work. Literally. Because, you see, Monday I didn't have anything due, but by Tuesday I had to have edited that movie, researched the religion of India, wrote notes about it, sent said notes to be added to the powerpoint, type up my assignment for Writing, rewrite the scene for Sitcom that should have had been done last Thursday, finish my sister's birthday presents, and fix up something cool for Carolyn for Boss' Day.
Ya. You guessed it. I did all these things sometime on Tuesday. Well, most of them. Monday I rewrote that scene and made this:
But so Tuesday was chock full of waking up early (that thing for Writing? not even due ><) and throwing notes together and running out the door full of unease. But the presentation went okay, we played a Bollywood video from Youtube (you all can thank my International Channel days for that), and passed out some curry, and played that horrible interview video and sang a Beatles song and did some Yoga. And there was some factual information in there, too. So it wasn't so bad. And then it was over! Yeah!
For Sitcom, we worked quietly on our own things for a while. Oh, here's what happened. A new, finished (if not polished) draft of our re-written script had to be in yesterday so the actors could read it today. So our head writers farmed out the scenes to each of us to re-do, and then they pieced them back together. But this hadn't happened yet.......so there were some fun writing parties in the library Monday and Tuesday nights until the librarians kicked us out because it was 1. The life of a writer. But the almost-mostly-finished script is...eh. Not bad. Got a few big laughs at the read today, which was nice. But now we have to have version 2 done by next Thursday!
Ugh, but after Tuesday was over, everything was anti-stress! Slept in on Wednesday but then jetted right off to Heritage to help finish finish the re-write/compiling. But then there was nothing to do until Art later, so me and Megan went out and saw 3:10 to Yuma. Very, very, very good. Solid story, beautiful, just a piece of cinematic art. Go see it!
And then @ Art, I stayed until there were only me and the guy next to me and the prof! Just doing art. Moving around the letters S J and A in artistic manner. Stayed there for three hours! She really likes me, last we she said if I wasn't a junior she'd try to steal me away into the art program. So I hope I get an A XD Oh, and I think if I don't have enough classes to fill up my next three semesters (which I don't!) I'll look into taking the typography class. I like letters. And art.
And then I got to sleep until 10 because there was no class this morning! I don't know what a Comp Day is, but ain't it great to have 'em? But then I had a midterm for World Lit and I think I probably got a C. Oh well. But then we went to Sitcom and all the actors read the new script like I said before, and that was fun.
And then I came back and made falafel pitas. And the other day I made matzo ball soup, which is so good. I also had a delicious muffin yesterday morning. Mmm, food. NOW I'M WATCHING THE OFFICE AND PAM AND JIM ARE SO CUTE AND I ACTUALLY KINDA FEEL BAD FOR MICHAEL. And 30 Rock was pretty pretty good, too. AND CHUCK. Was A+ this week, I feel really proud for it. Missed Carpoolers. Forgot allll about it. Eh.
And my mum is coming to visit tomorrow! Yayz. So I guess that's all. I'm off to do nothing for four three days straight.
-Steph
Last Friday I got around to seeing our school production of Beauty and the Beast. Not to sound overly full of school spirit or anything, but our drama department totally rocks. (Not to mention that the theater department is technically my department since it's now TFT for Theater, Film, and Television, and that I had more than one friend in the show) There's a funny story involving the show and Facebook, but since this is actually imported into Facebook each week, I don't feel like I need to go into it and tag specific people in a creepy and stalkerish way. ^^
OH. Also on Friday*, me and Beth went on a culinary/geographic adventure. Which meant we drove in the general direction of Monrovia for lunch and ended up coming home like four hours later. The original destination was India Sweets N Spices, this Indian restaurant/deli that some of my group project members* had visited the day before. I was feeling brave (and hungry) so I enlisted Beth. It was pretty trippy. The menu was full of words I had no idea of their meaning, and the food was literally unidentifiable. So we got the Combo 1 and hoped for the best. It wasn't all bad, mostly different. And we were totally the only white people there, which is always a unique experience. Oh, and the drinks? They came in the biggest fountain cup you've ever seen, and I kid you not, the soda was flat as the horizon. So at first you're all Holy Shoes I can't drink all that--and then you start drinking it because of the curry, and then you're all GEEZ this is flat--but then you can chug it like water because it doesn't burn. And since you need to chug it, you end up drinking the whole half gallon in a matter of moments. It was rather neat.
Mm. New paragraph. Then we went for a stroll around this park we saw many years ago on a different random drive in the direction of Monrovia. It was really very pretty and we found the tree from which all squirrels come (on kids Jeopardy the day before, the kid had said that all sqirrels come from one tree. We found it. It's in a park in Monrovia). And then we explored by the tennis courts** and the empty swimming pools and the crazy broken cement bleachers for them and then the ghetto playground and then the lawn bowling court. That's a fun park to hang out in, and I will return there someday.
Then, instead of going home, we headed up the canyon! Straight up into the mountains towards the dam. And we parked at the shoulder and looked at the lake and the cigarette butts and the thrown-away beer cases and listened to the silence. It was pretty magical.
And then we went back down into civilization and headed for the cute main street in Glendora, which has this coffee shop that's really popular amongst my peers. I got a "maple spice latte" on the spur of the moment, but it really just tasted like coffee. But it was okay! Because outside there was--NO JOKE--a little jazz quartet from Citrus. So we hung out behind them and partook in the ambience. And then I went back and saw Beauty and the Beast. So all in all it was a magical day.
*It was also a Study Day, the freedom of which I celebrated by rising at 9 AM. No fair! It's a study day! Shouldn't have to get up at all! And whyyyy did I greet the morning? To study. Gosh. It was actually to meet with my group about our presentation on India for World Lit. My job was to edit the movies they'd taken when they interviewed the people working at India Sweets N Spices. I was also given an authentic Indian dress to wear at the presentation. More on this later.
**It's a semi-quest of mine to find a fabled tennis court of my past. When my brother still lived here, me and my sister spent a week of the summer with him. One of these summers, we woke up super early and played tennis. I remember this morning for many reasons, one of which because it was TOO EARLY (but it was Azusa in the summer, so that's what you have to do), because I had just been reading Shade's Children (checked out from the APU library) in the car and had to stop because we'd arrived, and because I at one point it the ball out of the court and we had to go out into the neighborhood street to find it. So I have to check any tennis courts I find to see if they match my memories. Unless, of course, Kevin or Gretchen can just tell me.
Also, Kev, every time I go in the theater I look for the Fiddler on the Roof photo. It's a mid-show shot, not like a cast shot, so I'm not sure if you're in it. You could be the guy behind the other guy. But I look for you all the same. (Also, they turned most of the warehouse into Duke Version 2, and it's very bizarre.)
Um, then Saturday. Not much going on. Played some FFXII. Fought Gilgamesh for like half an hour, because all I could do was heal and reheal and revive my people. So. Gonna level up some more before I revisit that battle. Megan's family came up to see Beauty and the Beast, so I saw them briefly.
Sunday I spent not doing my work. Literally. Because, you see, Monday I didn't have anything due, but by Tuesday I had to have edited that movie, researched the religion of India, wrote notes about it, sent said notes to be added to the powerpoint, type up my assignment for Writing, rewrite the scene for Sitcom that should have had been done last Thursday, finish my sister's birthday presents, and fix up something cool for Carolyn for Boss' Day.
Ya. You guessed it. I did all these things sometime on Tuesday. Well, most of them. Monday I rewrote that scene and made this:
But so Tuesday was chock full of waking up early (that thing for Writing? not even due ><) and throwing notes together and running out the door full of unease. But the presentation went okay, we played a Bollywood video from Youtube (you all can thank my International Channel days for that), and passed out some curry, and played that horrible interview video and sang a Beatles song and did some Yoga. And there was some factual information in there, too. So it wasn't so bad. And then it was over! Yeah!
For Sitcom, we worked quietly on our own things for a while. Oh, here's what happened. A new, finished (if not polished) draft of our re-written script had to be in yesterday so the actors could read it today. So our head writers farmed out the scenes to each of us to re-do, and then they pieced them back together. But this hadn't happened yet.......so there were some fun writing parties in the library Monday and Tuesday nights until the librarians kicked us out because it was 1. The life of a writer. But the almost-mostly-finished script is...eh. Not bad. Got a few big laughs at the read today, which was nice. But now we have to have version 2 done by next Thursday!
Ugh, but after Tuesday was over, everything was anti-stress! Slept in on Wednesday but then jetted right off to Heritage to help finish finish the re-write/compiling. But then there was nothing to do until Art later, so me and Megan went out and saw 3:10 to Yuma. Very, very, very good. Solid story, beautiful, just a piece of cinematic art. Go see it!
And then @ Art, I stayed until there were only me and the guy next to me and the prof! Just doing art. Moving around the letters S J and A in artistic manner. Stayed there for three hours! She really likes me, last we she said if I wasn't a junior she'd try to steal me away into the art program. So I hope I get an A XD Oh, and I think if I don't have enough classes to fill up my next three semesters (which I don't!) I'll look into taking the typography class. I like letters. And art.
And then I got to sleep until 10 because there was no class this morning! I don't know what a Comp Day is, but ain't it great to have 'em? But then I had a midterm for World Lit and I think I probably got a C. Oh well. But then we went to Sitcom and all the actors read the new script like I said before, and that was fun.
And then I came back and made falafel pitas. And the other day I made matzo ball soup, which is so good. I also had a delicious muffin yesterday morning. Mmm, food. NOW I'M WATCHING THE OFFICE AND PAM AND JIM ARE SO CUTE AND I ACTUALLY KINDA FEEL BAD FOR MICHAEL. And 30 Rock was pretty pretty good, too. AND CHUCK. Was A+ this week, I feel really proud for it. Missed Carpoolers. Forgot allll about it. Eh.
And my mum is coming to visit tomorrow! Yayz. So I guess that's all. I'm off to do nothing for four three days straight.
-Steph
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Relevant Title
Happy Thursday! I just now remembered that I ABSOLUTELY forgot about last week, how the 4th was in fact a Blackjack Thursday. Because it was the error of my own memory that caused this regrettable ignorance, I am opening up today for proper blackjacky observances. That is, if it doesn't get in the way of your National Coming Out Day celebrations.
Beth: Guess what I did Saturday!
Me: Went to Hollywood and hung out with bikers?
(I forget how the rest of the story goes, but as it turns out, she was in fact in Hollywood that day, too.) That's what I did! Me and Megan, we drove down to the Kodak Theater and helped bikers sign in for this charity ride. Megan gave them their wristbands for food, and I gave them the sticker for parking. In retrospect, neither of these duties were at all necessary. There was some famous people there, like the guy who made/owns the Paul Mitchell hair products/Patron tequila (John Paul DeJoria). And an someone who I think name is Michele Smith, of former Playboy fame. Aaand. Um. Later Robbie Knievel showed up. I'm getting ahead of myself.
After we checked in all the bikers, we drove down to Malibu, which was where the ride was going. And then we passed the place we were trying to get to like three times, because we couldn't find the way to get into it, and that town's darn skinny. And then we parked at the far end of a motorcycle gang because we thought it was our people, but it wasn't. It was a motorcycle gang. And then we hung out with the bikers for a few minutes after they all arrived, because there really wasn't anything else for us to do.
So then we set off again, to find this elusive "Pie Festival!" we saw advertised on some signs we saw while maneuvering earlier. We followed the signs to a big set up of tents on a dirt/grass/straw field, and the girl said she didn't know what the pie festival was, and that it was seven dollars to park. So we parked and strolled over to the tents and luckily enough, there was NO PIE, it was a HIPPY-MAKE-MALIBU-GREEN fair. So we left and then saw the tiny tiny pie festival in the next parking lot. Which was full. So we went home. But then once we followed Sunset back to Hollywood, we couldn't find the freeway, so we actually ended up on the 101 west for a little while. Where's the 134?! The map says we should hit the 134!! I don't see it!! I don't see any signs!!
There was a sign for it, however, on the eastbound side. And we eventually made it home. Where we promptly hit up the Marie Callenders for pie. Three years here and I've never stepped foot in that building. And I still have half a pie left, I like to cut a slice and then eat it like a sandwich.
The only other amazing and outstanding news from my week was how addicted I got to Photoshop. For Computer Graphics class, we had to take a picture of somebody, and then make it grayscale, and then add back three colors, and then make a negative/positive version, and then take either the black or white and add a texture to it and so on and so on. The finished version is a book with the final nine images in it. It was due Wednesday, but honestly I was done with it Sunday night because I couldn't stop. I had to print them all out and bind it all on Monday, though. But I was so obsessed I ended up making another version for the cover--
for the mutilation process, I had to physically mess up the image some how, rescan it, and add one color. So I cut out the background, cut that up into squares, taped them back down haphazardly around her picture, and drew some lines on it (to know the dimensions of how it should be when I rescanned) that made it look designy. I've been kind of hung up on this powder blue/brown dynamic for a while, so I threw a sepia tone on it and filled the background with the blue.....but I was only supposed to add ONE color! So I left out the sepia for the project, and then started in for myself. 'Cause Megan did say that it would look cool like as a wallpaper or something. So I set out to make a wallpaper. Oh, and my model was Beth.
I kept the sepia and splashed the blue into the background, but I also pulled the brown across the full length of the screen (since desktops are wider than tall, yes) and then added some text that spontaneously popped into my mind. And then after I was "done," I went back and made a blueprint pattern underlayed that onto the blue parts and that was that. And then I realized I liked it so much that it should be the cover of my book, so I moved some stuff around to make it 6x9, and then I made up a back cover to match. I don't have pictures of the actual book, since I turned it in yesterday, but I do in fact have the original images (gasp!) so I'll pop them up in here to show off.
And the wallpaper, if anyone wants Beth's face adorning their desktop:
Beth: Guess what I did Saturday!
Me: Went to Hollywood and hung out with bikers?
(I forget how the rest of the story goes, but as it turns out, she was in fact in Hollywood that day, too.) That's what I did! Me and Megan, we drove down to the Kodak Theater and helped bikers sign in for this charity ride. Megan gave them their wristbands for food, and I gave them the sticker for parking. In retrospect, neither of these duties were at all necessary. There was some famous people there, like the guy who made/owns the Paul Mitchell hair products/Patron tequila (John Paul DeJoria). And an someone who I think name is Michele Smith, of former Playboy fame. Aaand. Um. Later Robbie Knievel showed up. I'm getting ahead of myself.
After we checked in all the bikers, we drove down to Malibu, which was where the ride was going. And then we passed the place we were trying to get to like three times, because we couldn't find the way to get into it, and that town's darn skinny. And then we parked at the far end of a motorcycle gang because we thought it was our people, but it wasn't. It was a motorcycle gang. And then we hung out with the bikers for a few minutes after they all arrived, because there really wasn't anything else for us to do.
So then we set off again, to find this elusive "Pie Festival!" we saw advertised on some signs we saw while maneuvering earlier. We followed the signs to a big set up of tents on a dirt/grass/straw field, and the girl said she didn't know what the pie festival was, and that it was seven dollars to park. So we parked and strolled over to the tents and luckily enough, there was NO PIE, it was a HIPPY-MAKE-MALIBU-GREEN fair. So we left and then saw the tiny tiny pie festival in the next parking lot. Which was full. So we went home. But then once we followed Sunset back to Hollywood, we couldn't find the freeway, so we actually ended up on the 101 west for a little while. Where's the 134?! The map says we should hit the 134!! I don't see it!! I don't see any signs!!
There was a sign for it, however, on the eastbound side. And we eventually made it home. Where we promptly hit up the Marie Callenders for pie. Three years here and I've never stepped foot in that building. And I still have half a pie left, I like to cut a slice and then eat it like a sandwich.
The only other amazing and outstanding news from my week was how addicted I got to Photoshop. For Computer Graphics class, we had to take a picture of somebody, and then make it grayscale, and then add back three colors, and then make a negative/positive version, and then take either the black or white and add a texture to it and so on and so on. The finished version is a book with the final nine images in it. It was due Wednesday, but honestly I was done with it Sunday night because I couldn't stop. I had to print them all out and bind it all on Monday, though. But I was so obsessed I ended up making another version for the cover--
for the mutilation process, I had to physically mess up the image some how, rescan it, and add one color. So I cut out the background, cut that up into squares, taped them back down haphazardly around her picture, and drew some lines on it (to know the dimensions of how it should be when I rescanned) that made it look designy. I've been kind of hung up on this powder blue/brown dynamic for a while, so I threw a sepia tone on it and filled the background with the blue.....but I was only supposed to add ONE color! So I left out the sepia for the project, and then started in for myself. 'Cause Megan did say that it would look cool like as a wallpaper or something. So I set out to make a wallpaper. Oh, and my model was Beth.
I kept the sepia and splashed the blue into the background, but I also pulled the brown across the full length of the screen (since desktops are wider than tall, yes) and then added some text that spontaneously popped into my mind. And then after I was "done," I went back and made a blueprint pattern underlayed that onto the blue parts and that was that. And then I realized I liked it so much that it should be the cover of my book, so I moved some stuff around to make it 6x9, and then I made up a back cover to match. I don't have pictures of the actual book, since I turned it in yesterday, but I do in fact have the original images (gasp!) so I'll pop them up in here to show off.
And the wallpaper, if anyone wants Beth's face adorning their desktop:So, I think photoshopping is way fun and I think I have a new hobby. It's just obnoxious to obsess over, because I can't take it with me to class (like I can writing). Oh, and Blogger has a ridiculously inefficient process of uploading pictures, so I hope you appreciate all I've done for you. And I'm running out of time because I started too late and that always makes me edgy.
Oh, also, me and Megan explored out to Bishamon yesterday, that Japanese restaurant that my brother was always trying to take me to and it was always closed in our faces. For the record, Sexy Albacore Rolls are not very tasty. But luckily, my food was. XD
-Steph
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Computers are about trying to murder you in a lake
Happy Thursday! My head hurts a little, so this probably won't be crazy long. I've just been holding out for the wonders of Thursday prime time television, and soon I will be having the Office dreams.
TV update!
Forgot about Cavemen (which I hear is really dumb), and while trying to at least catch the end of it, I managed to tune in right on time for Carpool. I think I've heard of it maybe once way back sometime ago, but I really hadn't heard anything about it recently. But man, was that unexpectedly funny. The kind of crazy, unexpected, RANDOM things that you just don't see ever. Not so crazy about the actors, but Dougie was pretty good. Him and the black guy. And that other guy's son, who never wore any pants. When he was trying to think of the word "tie," he held the toast up to his neck and wiggled it around. That's just great. Gonna try to remember to watch that.
I also seem to accidentally be watching ER now. Oops. And this, children, is what we call a lead-in audience. My inability to turn off the tv or change the channel after the Office is what gives ER its great ratings. It's pretty nifty.
Hmm, and Moonlight. I actually turned down a party (what! Me! not go to a party!) to stay and watch this new LA-crime-fighting-vampire show. With Jason Dohring, of Veronica Mars fame (with which I spent my weekend--season two. mmm) as the oldest vampire in LA, Josef. Realized I'd never heard of it because I thought we didn't get channel 2 - CBS. And we almost don't. So between the colorless fuzz and the horrible acting, it's probably the cruddy writing that makes it not worth the while. Jason.....I'll wait for you to move on to something I can watch without wanting to die.
30 Rock premiered today! Many laughs. They certainly know the meaning of consistency. I'm sensing a future between Jack and Lemon, does anybody else? Not much else to say about it, 'cause it was pretty solid, but not outstanding. Wasn't really digging the Seinfeld, but the Seinfeld Vision bit was pretty classy.
Chuck! Chuck is very not living up to my standards. Biggest offense in this week's episode is hands down the portrayal of driving a helicopter. You CANNOT learn how to fly a helicopter from video games, because I don't know of any controllers that come with helicopter pedals in addition to the "stick" and "parking brake." But I suppose I'm just being hypocritical, since the thing is not taking itself seriously and fully intends for you to do the same. But still, the writing....not very smooth. And the acting just barely makes it palatable. Hope hope hope hope it gets better, and soon.
Missed Pushing Up Daisies, 'cause of class. It's been lauded as the best new show, but my prof said he fell asleep during it. And that his roommate fell asleep during it WHILE eating dinner. But I dunno. Maybe I'll make an effort to find it online. Don't really know.
I still need to see season one of Heroes, so I can watch season two with Kristen Bell. I also want to own all the seasons of Veronica Mars, for the same reason. Watching season two means I've finally finished the series, after introducing myself to it last year. Season two....met my needs, but it really doesn't stand up to season one. And three, being an entirely different animal, is allowed to be judged on a different scale. But I still wish there was more. Sadday.
Movie-wise, I finally saw Silence of the Lambs over the weekend. Hmmm. Overrated, in my opinion. Sure, Hopkins as Lecter is creepifying and brilliant, but he was grossly overshadowed by the hideous acting of Foster. She won an OSCAR for that $%^^@^$%#. I just didn't believe her character, the way she was all IMMEDIATELY open to Lecter, getting all emotional about her freaking boring past. Utterly unbelievable. Horrible. Bleck.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, was Hot Fuzz. I remember wanting to see it from the trailers (and it's actually pretty rare that a trailer really interests me), and let me tell you it was worth it. I've been asking around at people, if they've seen it, and the majority of them tell me that they "heard it sucked." Which is fairly shocking to me because I absolutely loved it. Every moment. It was so funny, and then had so many cute and then intense bits, and the climactic firefight sequence was just great fun. And don't even get me started on the cinematic/theoretical aspects of it. In my opinion, a definite Must See. I've been told Shaun of the Dead (made by the same people, a few years earlier) is actually better, and so I'll be seeing that soon enough. I want the crazy extended DVD so bad.
Hm. I guess that just about sums up my media intake for this week. Except for that we watched Scrubs in class this morning. AND I finished my paper on time. But that's not related to media. Unless you count the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid as media. Which, in all fairness, you can.
The other exciting schoolish news is our project for art, Computer Graphics, that is. We're photoshopping! I used to be really frustrated any time I wandered into the murky woods that is Photoshop, but now I'm only mildly frustrated on occasion. I'll be putting up the finished works on the internets when it's done. Gonna be a cute book of pictures. It's a lot of fun. I get to go to class, listen to my Zune and mess around on the computer for three hours. Sigh. My life is sooooo hard.
For Sitcom, the rewrites are finally starting to commence smoothly. So far we've just been talking about the new spins to put on the characters, to make them better and more interesting. And also to fix the plot, to make this pilot have something to be about. It was kind of ridiculous, the way it was originally. Tuesday after class, those of us who lingered about moved over to Heritage and hung out for ANOTHER hour and a half and knocked out some more details. That was fun, but it was a little awkward, just the three of us and Gilbert. XD He's a very interesting man. Today we had a table read with the actors, reading the "revised" teaser. Jack (Gilbert) typed it up yesterday based on our discussion, but it didn't end up so perfect. So there's work yet to be done. Hahaha. Sitcom Writing.
Oh, the Office. Was on tonight. Pam and Jim are great, but I'm actually pretty glad that their normal format is half an hour. These hour longs, while beautiful for giving me my fix, are really not this team's forte. Felt pretty bad for Dwight, thought Ryan was being silly, couldn't believe Creed (XD printer ink), and admitted that Michael looked pretty good with that lake-water hair.
Happy Birthday, Sputnik!
Yeah, I really want to sleep now? I'll see you around.
-Steph
TV update!
Forgot about Cavemen (which I hear is really dumb), and while trying to at least catch the end of it, I managed to tune in right on time for Carpool. I think I've heard of it maybe once way back sometime ago, but I really hadn't heard anything about it recently. But man, was that unexpectedly funny. The kind of crazy, unexpected, RANDOM things that you just don't see ever. Not so crazy about the actors, but Dougie was pretty good. Him and the black guy. And that other guy's son, who never wore any pants. When he was trying to think of the word "tie," he held the toast up to his neck and wiggled it around. That's just great. Gonna try to remember to watch that.
I also seem to accidentally be watching ER now. Oops. And this, children, is what we call a lead-in audience. My inability to turn off the tv or change the channel after the Office is what gives ER its great ratings. It's pretty nifty.
Hmm, and Moonlight. I actually turned down a party (what! Me! not go to a party!) to stay and watch this new LA-crime-fighting-vampire show. With Jason Dohring, of Veronica Mars fame (with which I spent my weekend--season two. mmm) as the oldest vampire in LA, Josef. Realized I'd never heard of it because I thought we didn't get channel 2 - CBS. And we almost don't. So between the colorless fuzz and the horrible acting, it's probably the cruddy writing that makes it not worth the while. Jason.....I'll wait for you to move on to something I can watch without wanting to die.
30 Rock premiered today! Many laughs. They certainly know the meaning of consistency. I'm sensing a future between Jack and Lemon, does anybody else? Not much else to say about it, 'cause it was pretty solid, but not outstanding. Wasn't really digging the Seinfeld, but the Seinfeld Vision bit was pretty classy.
Chuck! Chuck is very not living up to my standards. Biggest offense in this week's episode is hands down the portrayal of driving a helicopter. You CANNOT learn how to fly a helicopter from video games, because I don't know of any controllers that come with helicopter pedals in addition to the "stick" and "parking brake." But I suppose I'm just being hypocritical, since the thing is not taking itself seriously and fully intends for you to do the same. But still, the writing....not very smooth. And the acting just barely makes it palatable. Hope hope hope hope it gets better, and soon.
Missed Pushing Up Daisies, 'cause of class. It's been lauded as the best new show, but my prof said he fell asleep during it. And that his roommate fell asleep during it WHILE eating dinner. But I dunno. Maybe I'll make an effort to find it online. Don't really know.
I still need to see season one of Heroes, so I can watch season two with Kristen Bell. I also want to own all the seasons of Veronica Mars, for the same reason. Watching season two means I've finally finished the series, after introducing myself to it last year. Season two....met my needs, but it really doesn't stand up to season one. And three, being an entirely different animal, is allowed to be judged on a different scale. But I still wish there was more. Sadday.
Movie-wise, I finally saw Silence of the Lambs over the weekend. Hmmm. Overrated, in my opinion. Sure, Hopkins as Lecter is creepifying and brilliant, but he was grossly overshadowed by the hideous acting of Foster. She won an OSCAR for that $%^^@^$%#. I just didn't believe her character, the way she was all IMMEDIATELY open to Lecter, getting all emotional about her freaking boring past. Utterly unbelievable. Horrible. Bleck.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, was Hot Fuzz. I remember wanting to see it from the trailers (and it's actually pretty rare that a trailer really interests me), and let me tell you it was worth it. I've been asking around at people, if they've seen it, and the majority of them tell me that they "heard it sucked." Which is fairly shocking to me because I absolutely loved it. Every moment. It was so funny, and then had so many cute and then intense bits, and the climactic firefight sequence was just great fun. And don't even get me started on the cinematic/theoretical aspects of it. In my opinion, a definite Must See. I've been told Shaun of the Dead (made by the same people, a few years earlier) is actually better, and so I'll be seeing that soon enough. I want the crazy extended DVD so bad.
Hm. I guess that just about sums up my media intake for this week. Except for that we watched Scrubs in class this morning. AND I finished my paper on time. But that's not related to media. Unless you count the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid as media. Which, in all fairness, you can.
The other exciting schoolish news is our project for art, Computer Graphics, that is. We're photoshopping! I used to be really frustrated any time I wandered into the murky woods that is Photoshop, but now I'm only mildly frustrated on occasion. I'll be putting up the finished works on the internets when it's done. Gonna be a cute book of pictures. It's a lot of fun. I get to go to class, listen to my Zune and mess around on the computer for three hours. Sigh. My life is sooooo hard.
For Sitcom, the rewrites are finally starting to commence smoothly. So far we've just been talking about the new spins to put on the characters, to make them better and more interesting. And also to fix the plot, to make this pilot have something to be about. It was kind of ridiculous, the way it was originally. Tuesday after class, those of us who lingered about moved over to Heritage and hung out for ANOTHER hour and a half and knocked out some more details. That was fun, but it was a little awkward, just the three of us and Gilbert. XD He's a very interesting man. Today we had a table read with the actors, reading the "revised" teaser. Jack (Gilbert) typed it up yesterday based on our discussion, but it didn't end up so perfect. So there's work yet to be done. Hahaha. Sitcom Writing.
Oh, the Office. Was on tonight. Pam and Jim are great, but I'm actually pretty glad that their normal format is half an hour. These hour longs, while beautiful for giving me my fix, are really not this team's forte. Felt pretty bad for Dwight, thought Ryan was being silly, couldn't believe Creed (XD printer ink), and admitted that Michael looked pretty good with that lake-water hair.
Happy Birthday, Sputnik!
Yeah, I really want to sleep now? I'll see you around.
-Steph
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