Home Alone

Happy Thursday! Today my folks flew off in a plane to visit their other, fancier daughter in France. They left me alone to fend for myself. I have already learned something fantastic!

A tip for if you want to make something delicious:
a good place to start is to not microwave celery.

The reason this blog comes so late in the day when recently I've been pretty good at getting it in before 11 is because I just put in all my pictures from Space Trains Day! and i was too busy looking at them. They're going into Facebook right after this.

Space Trains Day! was slightly different than expected. Trains museum WAS as uninteractive as you might imagine, which made some people antsy. I'd like to go back, but I'm not sure what I would do there. Maybe go on the train ride.

I drove all day long, with no deaths. Yay! Carolyn went with me, and we met Sam, Gareth, and Jake at the Trains. Beth was late because she got lost? And then we tried to find Famima!! but everything broke right about then.

I drew a vague map for the boys to follow, but they got lost and we very nearly never saw them again. Us girls ended up at the right place but alas there was no Famima!! to be found. We ended up at San Sai, where Brianna found us! San Sai was fun, what with its sketchy restrooms and second-hand salads.

We all met back up at the Observatory, where parking was almost nonexistent. We found the boys, but evidently their lunchtime adventures were even more sketchy than ours, and they had to go home. So that was a sadface. Maybe another day for an adventure, guys!

I ended up being pretty distracted at the Observatory, probably from driving stress and too many people and having read all the signs before. So I didn't really pay attention to anything or learn anything. Ended up singing "We love the moon!" for half an hour. ('Cause it is close to us.) Liked the planetarium show, but next time I'm going to remember that I've seen that one already, and try to see a different show. Also need to remember to go on a weekday. (But afternoon, so all the kids have gone home?)

I also drove home without any fatalities, too. Good jorb!

The rest of this week has been mainly sewing oriented. I made two matching pillowcases out of the cheapo deal fabric I got from the thrift store, and made some throw pillow cases from overly expensive designer scraps from Michael's. Want to buy one? I'll put pictures of those on Facebook, too.

Today I brought Subway to my mom for lunch and we sat in my car like the cool kids. And then I came home and played FFXII. Balthier is level 99 now! That's my boy.

OH. Balthier reminded me, because all day I've been calling him Baltar.

BSG ended! And what an ending. I really loved it, until I read some whiners' comments on the internet. I mean, I still love it, but they were obnoxious. The sickeningly sweet happy ending they evidently expected would have tarnished whatever this show might have stood for. Oh my gosh you guys, grow up and stop being fools. That was directed to the whiners.

It was a good ending. And ending worthy of the show that preceded it. I want to say I laughed, I cried, but really it wasn't big on the comedy. I did, however, have to pry my claw-like hands from my Leoben toaster at commercials. The anxiety/excitement ramped me up more than any television event has. I could feel my pulse in my hands. AND I got sick from the adrenaline after it was all over and couldn't sleep for hours. It was great.

I can't wait to watch it all over again.

-Steph

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Happy Thursday! It was a day bookended in fog, and it was just splendid. I took pictures of the creepy morning, but I'm too lazy to get them out of my camera. They'll end up on Facebook eventually. It was an unexpected change from the last two hottish days, but a magical one. You couldn't see the mountains from downtown and it was like some mythical place hidden from the outside world.

I highly enjoyed my day, because in addition to the mystical weather, I spent it wandering around the town, going where I wanted to go and doing what I wanted to do. Now, yes, I do that every day, but usually it doesn't involve going outside. To places where other people are, anyway.

There's this Mediterranean/Argentinian/Italian deli just on the downtown side of midtown, and first I went there for lunch. The last and first time I went there, I had the curry chicken salad sandwich, which arguably may be my first introduction to the concept. I got that again! But this time on a pita. And with a Greek salad (a real one, no lettuce) and a baklava for after. This all sound delicious, but actually it was all just regular tasting, nothing special. OH WELL. It was still fun.

From there I walked over to Fabric Town because Jo-Ann's has gone out of business. Fabric Town is where all the old ladies go to buy yarn. Fabric Town (, USA!) is the imperious, over-cultivated, under-accessible, senile old great-aunt of the textile etc. retail family. I bought safety pins. And a yard of 7-inch wide brown poplin scrap on sale for $1.31, which we'll come back to later.

Then I tried to find the Asian market I've seen around there but never been to. I failed. It was another block up. But I got distracted by the crazy intersection between me and it, and the used book store across the street saying EVERYTHING 20% OFF. So I went there instead.

Now there are two things I always look for in used book stores, thrift stores, anywhere that they have cheap books. These are anything from the Shannara series by Terry Brooks, and anything in the Ender's Game series (Orson Scott Card). I love the way the old books look, because I first read the Shannara books on loan from my brother's collection, and I don't know where he got them, but their condition was second-hand. So that's how my collection has to be. They just have a character that comes through in creased binding and bent pages. So at this bookstore, what do I find but ONE OF EACH?! And that I don't already own. Finds!! Absolute finds. I also picked up a book on space, because who doesn't love space!

It was getting a little chilly by then, the later it was getting and the closer I was getting to the ocean. But I decided to head out to the end of Main St., where all the good thrifting is. But I only hit up one place, the only place that regularly stocks military fatigues. (For my BSG cosplay) But they only had one jacket that wasn't in camo, and it was way humongous. So I wandered over to the books to see if my good luck was going to hold out.

No Brooks or Card, but I did see Dune. I picked it up but I put it back when I found THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN RAILROAD in a giant book that came in a case like a VHS. It was nine dollars, so that's why I put Dune back. But I also picked up an old hiking/tourism book for lesser-known points of interest in Israel, which is a beautiful place. In the side room of the thrift store, I found great amounts of green fabric, and pretty plaid for two dollars apiece. Thanks for the rip-off, Fabric Town!

I bought this fabric because I couldn't sleep last night and (impossibly?) dreamt up this idea that I want to sew pillows and/or pillowcases. That green/plaid combo is going to make some beautiful matching pillowcases. And maybe even some pillows with the left overs! (seriously, that tiny scrap from Fabric Town is a tenth the size, for three-fourths the price)

If I make cute pillows, will you buy them?

What if they're quillows? Pillows with quilted cases? I WILL START A MAJOR TEXTILE TREND!

So that was my beautiful day. Then I went to work and it was dead, dead, dead. Ugh. And we can't sell Rewards anymore because they're updating the membership laws or something, and don't want to confuse people when they change up everything. OH ALSO: Good News! Our stock is going back up. I shoulda bought some when we bottomed out. Darn.

Speaking of thrifting, me and Carolyn went Adventure!Thrifting on Saturday. In Oxnard! The strange thing about our sister city is that there's really no reason to ever go there, so there's this perfectly good city sitting right there that's virtually a complete mystery. Unfortunate! We only found two thrift stores, and one was ginormous and full of stuff (I got shoes to use in cosplay, FOUR TAPES FOR A DOLLAR, and a Batman mug) and the other one was cramped and chaotic. The rest of the adventure was dangerous! I mean, fun.

Then we went to Carolyn's house and she played Portal through while I napped/watched/helped. Funny, funny game. I enjoyed it a lot.

I didn't watch any tv this week except for HIMYM. Strange episode, although Barney's "I've never seen it," "never seen it," "I already said," bits while everyone else is saying that they watch Robin's show made me laugh so much. Anyway, was there a new CHUCK? LOST? HEROES wasn't new, I know. I do think my Thurs sitcoms were new, but I was at work. And instead of CASTLE I watched the BSG "Last Frakking Special," which will also be on tomorrow. Let's move on to BSG.

So tomorrow is a special day. At 7, they're showing that special again. At 8, last week's episode. 9-11 is the two hour series finale EVENT. Deep breath. It will be ending, but there are so many of you who must prepare yourselves for when I get it on blu-ray and force you into marathons. Wait, who am I kidding. I'll only have to force you through the opening credits. You'll marathon under your own will, I promise you that.

Me and my mom are going to party it up. Snacks, and, you know, whatever else makes something a party. I think I'll pop out and find the first season soundtrack, too, 'cause I still want that something fierce. And then we'll sit back and let history happen.

One last note, you may find my purchasing books on space and trains somewhat odd, or perhaps original. But let me assure you, these are deep-seated interests. Profound interests, even. Things I love but don't talk about very much I like to call my secret loves (like I love Japanese food but Greek food is my secret love, or I love the arts but physics is my secret love). Maybe space and trains aren't necessarily secret loves, but still. This weekend, for my birthday (I know, lol), I'm making everyone go with me on Space Trains Day! which is a day outing to the train museum I always pass on the freeway and say I neeeeed to gooooo theeeerrrrrreee and the Griffith Observatory, which I hands down flat out LOVED when I went last.

So I'm looking forward to that.

I hope all of you had an equally beautiful Thursday, and I hope you didn't crash in the fog.

-Steph

--DARY. Legendary.

Happy Thursday! I really didn't mean to leave that hanging from last week, I just forgot to finish it. So let's pretend like I did it on purpose (I'm referring to the "legendary").

I'm 22 now! As of Tuesday. There was a full moon that day, and as everyone knows the full moon depicts a rabbit grinding mochi. I was also born in the year of the rabbit, and in the spring the Easter Bunny makes an appearance. Here's another gem: A group of rabbits or hares is often called a fluffle in parts of Northern Canada.

I spent the majority of my birthday sleeping, a secondary amount photoshopping, and a third amount cooking. You've all seen my new Facebook picture, right? That took a while. Let me tell you about cooking!

I made some red beans-not-quite-paste the day before, and was making the mochi for them by the time my birthday started. That was not really a success, on the whole. The mochi is the right consistency but tastes hella strange, and the beans were not exactly cooked to perfection. Better luck next time.

For dinner I made the best curry I've ever made. I usually get the mild box, right? But last time I tried adding an apple to it, but that cut the flavor out almost entirely. So this time I got the medium hot box, and the apple cut it down to perfect flavor. And the potatoes! Never before have I cooked potatoes to such a fine consistency! Usually I cook them too long and when I'm stirring in the curry they mash up and make the whole thing a sludgy brick. But I cut them big this time and added them late, so I thought maybe they'd end up undercooked--but seriously, this curry was a birthday miracle.

Which is great, since I'm pretty certain Japanese curry is my favorite food.

I also made a batch of bao dough, but I misread the directions and neglected to add the half-cup of sugar that would have made it light and fluffy. It's still delicious, but about a third of the amount it should have made. Filled half of it with some red bean, and the other half with curry, haha! Multitasking my food. The threads of my plan come together.

My mom made me a strawberry cake, which you may have seen on Facebook. It's delicious. She also got me this fantastic costume (yes, the pants are as ridiculous as they look), but now I just gotta find a set of fatigues in my size and I'm basically set to crew the Galactica.

She also got me a Cylon toaster, whose handiwork you can also find in my Facebook birthday album. I named him Leoben, and he loves me.

Carolyn dropped by after school and had cake with us, and brought me a book on writing comics and the IN BRUGES soundtrack. Collection complete! (Movie, screenplay, soundtrack) It's a very beautiful soundtrack~

So thanks, everybody!

I also got a speakerphone call from the roomies at the very start of my birthday, which was unintelligibly hilarious. And a birthday song from Sam and Gareth, which I missed due to the party line nonsense. And then I called Beth at the second nighttime of my birthday, inquiring about the make of a vodka martini, and received appropriate instruction on that matter. Not very delicious, but much less disgusting than I'd expected.

So that was my birthday! I also listened to a bunch of podcasts. And took a walk to the store.

I spent most of today writing a story, with a nine hour sleep break in between. (Much like how my week starts midway through the contemporary week, my day starts at a comparable mid-point to the contemporary day.) It's sure to be epic! Or at least not-fail. I'll have to look at it again tomorrow. Then you all can see it!

With a few exceptions, everything I saw this week was better than average. Particular props to THE OFFICE and 30 ROCK today, and I enjoyed CHUCK a lot more than I'd expected to. BSG I don't remember (sad) and its second-to-last episode is tomorrow. Deep breath. HEROES was of course sub-par, although I have to say I thought the end was super adorable. In a slightly creepy way.

DOLLHOUSE? Don't remember. HIMYM? Plain. LOST? Not new this week? CASTLE? Eh. And KINGS is up and running this weekend. I'll let you know how that goes.

I also saw MOMENTO today, but it was ruined for me by conversation about it, so I'll discuss it no further.

I would also like to say that I have six Pokemon sitting on my desk watching me, and I feel no shame at all for it.

-Steph

A Home Depot Waits in Barstow

Happy Thursday! I am going to tell you all about my super fun weekend in Azusa!

It started Friday night, when I packed up my green sixties suitcase and went to work. Then, after work at like 10PM, I drove across the freeway to Oxnard. Why?! Because my blinker was broken. Oh well. Then I drove to Azusa.

Once there I hung out with Megan in our bittersweet old room, looking at all the free promotional dvds she'd acquired from her hookup aka internship. We watched the secret, unlabeled disc, which spawned my new trademark slogan, "wanna bullet?" and trademark gangsta arm wave.

Then we locked the door to keep out the other roommate and former roommates (it was the unfortunate reunion of the former roommates night) and tried to go to sleep. Except for the aforementioned party having a half hour conversation with the neighbors on the deck right outside our window. Just like the good ol' days.

On Saturday I woke up just in time for Sam to come over. We went to Rolling Rice, which is one of the things they built to spite me when I left. He was in shows that day, and he alerted us to the existence of the matinee show at 2. We went to that. I sat next to Jake!

The show was "A Night of One Acts," and there were four little shows in it. The first one was ...a show, the second was Sam's and super cute, the third was well acted but contextless, and the fourth was racy. I liked it.

Then me and Megan and Beth drove to Barstow.

We were heading to "the desert" and Beth "knew where it was." Then we turned around and went to Victorville for dinner. Olive Garden! Did you know, children, that when they sing the birthday song there, an angel dies? True story! They fall straight out of heaven and smash into the restaurant. We heard it all night. I can only imagine that the roof of the Olive Garden is littered with angel bodies in various states of decay.

Saturday night we tried to go to sleep because the call time for Megan's shoot was at like six in the morning. It didn't work. I ended up having a frustrating dream (highlights include witnessing the new Godzilla show -- "this show is really unsafe. What if someone gets hit with a fireball?" -- arguing with my mom about the last time I visited the school -- "I went to the giant stapler YESTERDAY, mom!!" -- and trying to take a test with a fraying orange marker -- "I'm using a PEN!!") I got maybe like a half hour of sleep and was pretty happy when Megan's alarm went off at 5:30.

Shooting was fun, but also not fun. This is for the class I would have taken if they'd offered it last semester but they didn't so I had to do Ink-Man instead. It was cool to see people again, and to loiter behind a camera (and momentarily in front of it). It was also fun to schlep equipment back into the trailer. I was always good at that.

My all time favorite part of being on set? Free food. Tell your friends.

But the last few hours of the day were pretty, what, lingering. It was a 12-hour day, I reckon. And since I didn't actually have an assigned job, I spent a lot of time at the second location just sitting. We didn't get out of there when we thought we were going to, so there was no time for naps directly following. Oh, let me mention another fun story: a crew member wore a "got your tickets to the gun show?" shirt, with arrows pointing in the direction of his arms. For some reason, when it came up, he said that it was a funny joke--if he were a big guy wearing it, he'd be a tool. So that's where Megan got her trademark catchphrase, "I'm a tool!" and the accompanying gangsta shoulder pop (and lock and jam and break).

We didn't get naps because Sam was done with his daytime activities by the time we got home. So we caught each other up on youtube videos and went to get dinner. They went to Rolling Rice again, and I went to the Greek place.

We ended up back at our place (now gifted with Gareth's presence) and watched BLACKADDER II, which is a British period sitcom from '86. Wacky! I especially got a kick out of Queen Elizabeth I, who often and in lieu of an actual response, would just emit a brief, shrill yelp. We followed that up with some HIMYM, the episode "Slap Bet" which features Robin Sparkle's smash hit Let's Go To the Mall!

I probably watched that another two or three times before the night was up.

Monday morning was chapel, of course, and the hilarity usually associated with that. Then me and Sam hung out in Heritage and listened to Let's Go To The mall! seventeen times and had lunch. Then he went to class and I went to the ER to look at INK-MAN.

No news there. It's still not done.

Then I went to Megan's class for which the filming was occurring. Saw the assembly cut for the other film, too, which looked crazy. They had all night shoots, five to five. So I'm pretty glad I was on the one I was on.

Then Megan and I went home to watch some BSG (she's only on season THREE), but we only got in one episode and then it was nap time. It was still naptime when Beth got back from class at 6:30. Then we noodled around and did nothing, and then Brianna came home. SHE is only starting season TWO. And don't even get me started on Beth.

The plan was, I was going to stick around and watch HIMYM and HEROES at their place and then bug out. And that's mostly what happened. HIMYM was the new episode I'd already seen on the internet, and Megan "did not approve" of me watching HEROES. So me and Beth went out to get dinner while that was going on.

Rolling Rice just closed, so they had to get Panda. I went to the Greek place.

And then we made fun of HEROES until it was over and I went home.

Work's okay. Blockbuster's probably going to file bankruptcy, but they're going to try not to. Go rent a movie.

And today I doodled around with my HIMYM spec, and sorta helped my mom set up for her open house. Free dinner (for me).

I'll finish up with a brief Media Circus because there were one or two pretty exciting things.

DOLLHOUSE
Finally watched the second and third episodes and I don't hate it. I mean, I don't even think it's bad like most people do. It's certainly not at the level I naturally expect from a Whedon project, but it's not like each episode is worse than the last. It's just kinda slow getting to the punch. Tahmoh doesn't shine like he does in BSG, but I was literally surprised speechless at the Mark Sheppard scene. I think I knew he was on board, but I'd forgotten.

Fun game: six degrees to Joss Whedon. Gets easier by the day.

CHUCK
This show is starting to lose some of its sparkle. Chuck likes Sarah and Sarah knows and Sarah likes Chuck and Chuck knows and Casey is basically trying to set them up. This is not a situation that can continue indefinitely (although it's worked pretty well so far; so I could be wrong).

HEROES
I watched it for reals on Tuesday. Zachary Quinto had a breathtaking moment, mixing hardcore Sylar face with a glint of repressed emotion at an act break. Don't remember what else happened other than Claire was forty five years old and Nathan loves Peter.

HIMYM!
Now I'm caught up and I can give you weekly impressions. Not next ep, but two eps from now I call Barney coming clean. It's gonna be legen -- wait for it --

LOST
Whoa. What's going on. I think I'm in love with Daniel Faraday. Other than that, now the show can get moving. All this skipping around from time to time and character posse to character posse made the season so far feel like the prologue to the main event. As if only now is the story about to start. I hope it does.

THE OFFICE
Cute, cute episode. I knew something was different when I found that I'd been grinning foolishly at my tv for no less than the first ten minutes straight. Jim scaring people off by pretending to be Michael? And succeeding? Great! Everything else that happened! Great! Whaat! I luv it.

30 ROCK
Solid. Not extraordinary. Funny. A little bit of thematic overkill. But I enjoyed it.

OKAY NOW BSG
OMG YOU GUYS THIS LATEST EPISODE IS THE GREATEST EPISODE OF TELEVISION I HAVE EVER SEEN.
I'm sure that's not true, but it might be. I may look back at it and see it as a fine piece of narrative television, but not the ultimate--in the present time, however, and certainly within the duration of my initial viewing, it shocked and awed me. I don't know how many times you've literally been made speechless, you know, physically unable to speak due to whatever it is that you've just experienced, but it happened to me. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

Next week on Monday (too bad mine is already overbooked--hello internet ratings boost), some new shows are starting. ABC's CASTLE (Nathan Fillion ftw (what did I tell you about that Joss Whedon game?)) and ... something else I forget. Can't be KINGS, that's going to be on Sundays. I think I might mean HIMYM. So nm. Just CASTLE.

Me and Megan are going to record a rap/techno song that goes like this: "wanna bullet/ I'm a tool/ wanna bullet/ I'm a tool." We're going to lay our own beats, too. And it will end with a "whaat! I luv it."

We're going to be famous.

Later on,

-Stephanie

Everyone's Birthday is Today

Happy Thursday! And a Happy Thursday Birthday to Megan and Jennifer (and Ryan, the random guy who messaged me on Facebook a half hour ago)!! I hope today was as fantastic as you'd always dreamt it would be. Fantasticer, even. Fantasticker. A Fanta Sticker. Great!

So in my Media Circus last week I totally forgot to even mention that DOLLHOUSE is now on. Third episode is tomorrow! But I've only seen the first and I won't be able to catch the third on the tv. If it were a really great show, that would bother me. But really, I wasn't won over by the pilot. I hope it doesn't end up like FRINGE and I just forget to ever watch it again. That would just be sad.

Didn't catch BSG on tv last week, either, and when I tried to watch it on my mom's computer, I killed it with evil internet viruses. Oops. Sorry. It's fine now. But I wouldn't say that episode was absolutely worth it. Helo wasn't even in it.

HSM3 is out on DVD. Gave that puppy a rent. A classic example of something I cannot physically sit through without lampooning, yet I not-so-secretly love every moment. Huh! I want to see it again.

The DEAD LIKE ME movie, on the other hand, was not particularly worthwhile. Due to scheduling conflicts, they wrote out one character and recast -- I repeat RECAST - what year is this, 1994???? -- another, and that was just the start of its failures. Honestly, if I was in charge, I would have waited. Better wait than to resort to that. Better make no movie at all. The other major fault was the tv-esque writing. Characters didn't play scenes so much as vignettes. And sure, in a season worth of consecutive episodes maybe you don't want to give too much away all at once. But they seemed to go at this as if maybe there would be more--not giving us enough in the limited time they had for sure. Too loose, too inconsequential. Not as poignant or impacting as the show was at all. Like a cheap caricature of itself. Color me disappointed.

CHUCK didn't have me enthralled this week, and I found myself flipping between it and HIMYM during the second half. I don't know what's going to happen when the latter starts putting out new content in a couple weeks and the two have to throw down. Don't make me choose! Or, this is a warning, CHUCK. Your nemesis is riding over the horizon as we speak.

HEROES. That show is lucky that Jack Coleman is attractive enough to run a whole episode. Especially in grayscale. There wasn't a single frame of Sylar, which would have been a fantastic Fail if it hadn't have been for the compensating Bennet time. HEROES, your challenge is to not to become a SMALLVILLE for me. But even if you do, that'd be enough reason for me to keep watching.

LOST? Very interesting. My mom hates Ben. She's all "and you think he's a good guy?!" To which I replied, "No. Of course he isn't." No offense, Mom, but bad characters can be likable, too. He's the most three-dimensional character out there at the moment, and I admire him for his multi of facets. They write him right and that guy (Michael? Michael Emerson is it?) plays him perfectly. What's he gonna do next? How much of what he's saying is the truth? YOU NEVER KNOW. That's why he's so cool.

OFFICE. Old. Watched it anyway.

30 ROCK. I like Kenneth. I don't know if he meant to refer to Liz as "it," but I laughed anyway.

YOUTUBE.
Jacksfilms
Toby Turner
The latter appeals to me more, over all, but I think Jack has just as much of a chance to make something of himself in the real world.

Okay, twenty minutes until tomorrow. Oh, today!

Today I drove over to Carolyn's house and on the way I stopped at a red light. In the lane next to me was Steven and his buddies. "HEY. HEY." I said to them.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Your house," I said.

And then we all watched a RIDICULOUS episode of the old Spider-Man cartoon and they played Street Fighter IV for like five minutes. And then we played some LPB, and then I had to pick my mom up from school.

Oh yeah. We drove to Camarillo to go to the Vans outlet, but they didn't have the right size. LOL they informed us there was a Vans store in the mall which is like two minutes away from my house. On the way there, there was a loud impact sound. Dunno what that was! We made it to the mall and then to the Vans store and then to the Old Navy store and then to the cookie store and when we revisited our car, the tire was flat. Oops! So we walked across the street to where my dad happened to be parked at the church, stole his car, drove to my mom's school to pick up my car, go back to the church and park my dad's car in a different spot, and then drive home in my car. I think the withered husk of the van is still forgotten at the top of the parking structure.

I also just started writing a HIMYM spec, and can anyone tell me if there is or is not a tree in front of MacLaren's? Concurrently, I am writing a story for Beth which involves Sylar and I can't tell you much more. This weekend I am going back to A-town to help Megan do her shooty shoot film, and I will see everyone AGAIN. But not Brianna, she has better things to do. But hopefully Sam, because I didn't see him last time.

Okay. Thursday is drawing to a close. I had better post this sucker. The whoooole internet was out for a while yesterday. I'm glad today is not yesterday.

-Steph

Adventuretime

Happy Thursday! I'm crazy sleepy and have like six HIMYMs loaded, so this will likely be short.

Laaaaaast weekend I trucked out to A-town and had a fun fun time with the ol' roomies. We did fun things like drive nowhere and turn around and come back! We went to A'float in Pasadena (dude, guys, we didn't make it to Famima!!) and to Circuit City (MIMYM seasons one AND two for like $40), and to CVS a bunch, and to the cheap theater to see PUSH (more on that later) and then we watched an entire disc of HIMYM.

AND ON SUNDAY. We all woke up at one, and we went to breakfast at the new Greek place by the cheap theater. We got baklava! And we took it to the secretive park which we had never seen in the daylight. It was eerily quiet there. And then we were going to walk along the river trail but we got distracted by the canyon and ended up driving super far up into it. We could see the snowmountains really well. I put my hand in a creek! It was freezing. We also gazed upon antelope-like jeeps playing down in the river. A bird tried to kill a man.

Then we went to Baskin Robbins. Then we. Then we watched some UGLY BETTY? And after that, RUN, FATBOY, RUN. It was a cute movie. Not the Pegg's best, but still awfully cute. And then I went home? No wait. Somewhere in there we also went to Barnes & Noble because I also ended up buying STARGATE on blu-ray for ten bucks, and a Glenn Miller cd to keep me awake on the drive home.

I didn't take any pictures, but the others did, so maybe those exist. It was super fun, and I wish I had the gas money to do that all the time. I went and picked up my last check from the Blockbuster there, and that basically covered what I spent over the weekend. Oh well.

See you all again soon!

Today I woke up super early (8:30) and went to the harbor with Carolyn. Drove, didn't walk. She had to go look at the Channel Islands museum thing for school. We saw island foxes and a golden eagle and starfish and echidnaporcupinepincushion sea urchins. I can't remember what those are called for the life of me. Only the last two were still alive. Then we went to Andria's but it wasn't open yet so we walked around the Harbor Village a few times and said hi to Josh, and then we had fishandchips. Fosh and Chops. A little girl literally put her face to the window and stared creepily at Carolyn for a while, which was hilarious. Then we went to my house and looked at trailers on my PS3.

Then she had to go to school and I had to go to work.

Work was crazy empty the last two days. Not much else to say about it.

Now for the Media Circus.

DEJA VU
One of those movies on my list from Sci-Fi class, not because it was assigned but because we met the guy who wrote it. That was the day I presented on BLADERUNNER and said I hated it, and was going to feel really bad when the presenter got up and told us all the things he loved it for--only the presenter was Bill Marsilli and he hated it, too. And his movie had more going for it than I had thought--it was initially a movie with a fixed timeline, and the device (narrative, not scientific) presented to explain the altered timeline was new to me and I mostly accepted it. Also Val Kilmer ftw.

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK
There was so much in this movie that I loved with my mind but not with my heart. It was a clinically good piece, but it didn't incite passionate response in me. I want to love it. I should love it. There's nothing in either concept or execution I can find fault in. I just. I don't know. It's a good movie. It's a beautiful movie. It's an important movie. I'm glad I saw it. It just didn't move me.

BSG
Aphasia is a disorder with just the right amount of dramatic flair. The actor challenged with delivering the "word salad" lines has just cemented himself in my book of people I respect. But what's going to happen next?! I want to know more. I give them one thumbs up and one thumbs down for their rewriting an unknown history to fill in a plot hole. Their resolution makes sense but it's obvious that it's a cover up, not a self-standing piece of the puzzle. Thumbs sideways for that.

CHUCK
Poor kid. Doesn't he know that if he wins, the show's over? I love how it's up to him to save the day nowadays. I saw Zachary Levi online again, but I didn't talk to him.

HEROES
What is UP with this show. Do I even care any more? What even happened this week? Hiro and Ando got in a fight about nothing that was resolved by nothing. Bennet was trying to be a good dad. OMG he's soooo evil. Claire was a jerk. Moira Kelly should not have been so easily convinced--when someone held against her will breaks free and injures someone in her attempt to escape, wouldn't you blame the captors for putting her in that position? Nooo of course you'd immediately understand that EVERY PERSON must be similarly rounded up and imprisoned so that something like that never happens again. Faulty reasoning, ur doin it rite.

LOST
Not quite so exciting this week. Also somewhat...well, it left me feeling cheated since they forgot to set up their mysteries. They deliberately withheld information, but not in a mysterious way, just in a "I didn't think you needed to know this" way. Which was somewhat disappointing. I assume that they'll eventually tell us what happened, but they didn't promise to. A minor fail. Butwhathappensnext?! We already have theories and I'm pretty sure I'm right.

HIMYM
Finally finished season three. wewt. Britney Spears was in some episodes, and she was absolutely delightful. No joke! NPH FTW as always, and that guy who plays Ted it so completely adorable when he smiles. I'm excited to start season four, so I'll go do that now!

See you all again at another time!
(aka I'm very tired and you're just lucky any of this is spelled correctly)
-Steph

Aw, man, I was actually looking at this again and I realize that I didn't talk about PUSH.

Well, there's not much to say. Worse than JUMPER? I don't know, maybe comparable. The overarching problem was the inability of the writer to pare out the non-essentials--too much was introduced too quickly. The second problem is that the writer never learned to structure a screenplay. There's a sequence maybe forty minutes in where I leaned over and said, "wait, are we in act 3 now?" Unfortunately, we still had the second half of the movie to go. The third problem was characters as three-dimensional as a weak coat of white-wash, and the last was awkward casting. Plusses? The effects weren't laughable--except for when they were. Dakoto with guns was cute. I can't think of anything else that was worthwhile.

Later on, for reals this time.

Thursday Thursday Yayday!

Happy Thursday! I have some GREAT NEWS for you. I found season two of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (HIMYM) on the interwebs, so that's going along fine. AND Barney, who has a suit army, has several variations on the, wait for it, Thursday suit. That is, a brown suit (I believe it's pinstriped, too) with a red shirt. He also has a number of Thursday ties, which I envy. In fact, the red/brown theme pervades the coloring of the show, and it makes my heart glow every time I see it.

Last weekend me and Carolyn and Steven and Sam went thrifting! It was highly successful for us all. I, for one, obtained a shirt for my BSG cosplay, the fourth book in the Ender's Game series, and VHSs of DIGIMON and the MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS. If only it had been TIME FORCE. Here's a note to you ALL: if you ever EVER come across a tape or whatever containing episodes of POWER RANGERS: TIME FORCE, buy it. I'll pay you back.

That's a good enough segue into THINGS I WANT EVERYONE TO KEEP IN MIND AND I'M NOT JOKING AT ALL.

I got my renewed driver's license today, and it has the donor dot on it. Item the first: please to be donating my organs. If I am dead, I really do not need them any more. Someone else does.

Item the second: I want to be cremated and put in a pretty urn in a shelf in a cemetery. I feel as this is something that is done. There isn't enough space in the ground for everyone, and I don't want to be scattered anywhere or shoved on the top shelf of someone's closet.

Item the third: On the anniversary of my death, those who survive me are to commemorate the day by having cake. There are too few occasions in the year for which cake is needed, so here's another. No particular type is mandated, just your favorite. And if you don't like cake, then you can have whatever dessert is your fave.

Not that I feel like these are timely instructions, it's just that I'm deadly serious about it (lol pun). I do, after a time, tell these things to everyone I know, so that when the time comes, maybe one of you will take it seriously. NOW YOU ALLLLLL KNOW BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

Sorry, I'm trying out EXCESSIVE CAPS USAGE in today's post. How is it?

Now some lol owls cats.

Okay, TV/movie ratings time.

BSG
Two episodes that stressed me out so bad. I'm glad it's resolved, and I'm glad that maybe things will start to turn around, but I wonder at the cost. All through that last ep I thought at any second one of the main guys would get killed off, but I guess I forgot it wasn't that sort of show. It's still great, though.

CHUCK
Old this week.

HEROES
WAY DUMB this week. I didn't bother to remember it. Except for that I started making up a lot more romantic interests between the characters, because it was too easy. Sylar got himself a sidekick with a dumb power--let me spoil it for you. So Sylar's drinking some tea while torturing a family, right? Then the kid turns a wacky ray power on him which EXPLODES the tea!! "Microwave powers?" I ask my tv with great disdain. Come back to them later and the kid demonstrates his power for papa Sylar. Melts an action figure. "Somethings melt, some burn. Water boils," he explains, "LIKE A MICROWAVE." Emphasis mine. That was the high point of the episode.

LOST
Crazy interesting!! I liked everything about it, especially French Robert. My long-awaited dream finally came true, but it was a hollow victory. Accursed manipulation of my emotions! They get a thumbs up.

THE OFFICE
Avs. That's short for average. It was kind of nice to see Jim getting honestly angry, since he doesn't ever get there. Angela and the hairball, though.....well, you know how I am about hair.

30 ROCK
All the funniest parts were in the preview that played twenty times an hour. Another thing I like about the show, though, is its edgy humor. A blind girl who judges on looks? Edgy! Only 30 ROCK can pull that off.

HIMYM
When I first heard of this show, I was utterly disinterested. Sitcoms are not really my thing. I watched the first disc and was pleasantly surprised, though not suddenly and completely won over. But it's a really charming show, smarter than most, and definitely more random. It has distinctly sitcommy moments, jokes, and staging, but on the whole it's much like real entertainment. And Neil Patrick Harris for the win (NPH FTW). I'm hooked.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
I was underwhelmed. I blame the way it's bandied about as a learning tool in the education of my field. I feel about it much the same as I feel about CITIZEN KANE--great filmmaking, boring film. I'm a writer, not a filmmaker. I need a narrative, and a cohesive one at that. It's beautiful on blu-ray, though.

STARSHIP TROOPERS
This, the prior, and the following, were all in my Sci-Fi syllabus, but I'm only getting around to watching them now. And while it had NPH FTW, I was so disinterested that I watched it all at 1.5 speed, and 10x in action scenes. Got through it in an hour. Eh.

THE TERMINATOR
I was looking at the tv, wondering what to start next, and the Terminator show caught my eye. "Guess I'd better catch up first," I said to myself, and checked out THE TERMINATOR instead. Ehhhhh. What a dumb movie. You may not know this, but I abhor most of the 80s. Particularly their filmmaking. Hello, fast forward! The only only only thing I liked about it was the actors it shared with ALIENS.

To wrap up, tonight I helped my mom grade some papers at school, and then we went to the talent show. Ohhh gosh. Every little girl thinks she can dance, doesn't she? And every parent tells her she can.

But she cannot.

Here are my recommendations for the week:
Culinary: curry chicken salad (sandwich)
Internet: lolcats
Youtube: Just click and thank me later
Articles: History of the Internet
Scientific concept: Dark matter

Later on!

-Steph

PS
I'm visiting A-town this weekend, so I'll say hi to it for you.

Televisor

Happy Thursday! It was a crazy television day today. Okay, what day isn't? But today we had a wide range of samples from across the buffet, not just a binge of the old standbys. We'll get to that soon.

I know there was something about this weekend that I was supposed to remember. I think...I think on Saturday I ended up hanging out with Carolyn. Because we rented Little Big Planet for the PS3. And it was due on Weds, so it must have been Saturday. We also...

I gotta start a memory exercise regimen.

Edit: (I was reminded that I also saw CLOVERFIELD on that day. Looks nice on Blu-Ray. It didn't affect me as much, which I expected, so I stand by my original conclusion: average monster movie, outstanding filmmaking.)

Sunday was work (and no one told me about the special Superbowl ep of the OFFICE! But more on that later), and on Monday I did something ridiculous. Here is a map of it http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2539579 . The unnumbered marker is my house. Each number is a mile farther and farther away. Until I turned around and went back. From my house to the beach took about an hour and a half. Then I sat there for I don't remember how long...maybe like 45 minutes, had a cute lunch, and hobbled back. It was kind of an intense day because I'd downloaded the podcasts for a set of BSG writer's meetings, and I was all up in their hypothetical end of season two world for most of the day. Very informative! Podcasts + walking is a perfect combination. It's the only thing that is unconscious and time consuming enough to warrant listening to three hours of whatever at a time, and being distracted by the podcasts keeps the three hours of walking from being deathly boring.

Needless to say, I'm still recovering from that adventure, but I have full mobility returned to my left leg!

Monday was also brand new CHUCK and HEROES! CHUCK was very nice, although the 3D aspect was distracting. I don't have any other complaints. There were also a couple of hilarious ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT tributes (three if you count Tony Hale), which just made my day. Followed up by HEROES, though.... Sigh. That show. Throwing a character out of a plane as a cliffhanger is one thing. But when that character can fly? I mean COME ON. No points for morally indistinguishable Nathan and Bennet, half points for Sylar fighting off people like a wild animal. I think that's what it's going to be for a while. Solid F show, earning half points for Sylar alone. Hopefully I will be wrong.

Tuesday? That might have been the day I went and saw QUANTUM OF SOLACE at the cheap theater. Entertaining. Not as impacting as CASINO ROYALE, but in their case I think that might not be a bad thing. I found it an appealing blend of the superficiality the franchise is known for and the substance that gave weight to its immediate predecessor. Not too meaningless, not too meaningful. An action movie that utilizes its sets and situations to the fullest. And always a thumbs up for Daniel Craig, my personal Bond. Definitely worth the $5.75 ($2.75 box of Junior Mints).

After that I went to the library and picked up an assortment of books on genetics, comics, short stories by Arthur C. Clarke, and "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. Then I took Steven home because I went to the movie at 12 and Steven lives by the library circa 2 PM. Steven also lives at Carolyn's house, so that's where I spent the rest of my day!

Yesterday I caught ALIENS on tv, which had been an assignment for Sci-fi class and is now on my list of movies to watch in life because I didn't watch anything for that class. I liked it so much more than ALIEN, which I thought was pretty dumb. But then I went to pick up Steven again. Then I came home and watched about the last of the disc of UGLY BETTY me and my mom were on, and then I returned all of season two. Work was stressed because the Regional Director of Operations was supposed to be coming in today to kill whoever's in charge if things aren't perfect. So we did a lot of cleaning. Then I rerented the last two discs of UGLY BETTY and also 2001 and GATTACA on Blu-Ray (not gonna lie, those were both for sci-fi class as well).

Now to sampler day. Caught the last half of STARGATE on the same channel as ALIENS. That's a good movie. Then I caught up on the long OFFICE--that teaser was one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. This show is not an absurdist comedy, and this pushed a fine line, I thought. I do admit, however, that seeing a cat hurled up into the ceiling cavity to come crashing down a few feet over, is a sight I will cherish until my last moments. Overall, I think this hour long episode succeeded where the last batch of hour longs did not; it didn't seem stretched or watered down. It wasn't the OFFICE at its best, but it didn't fall short, either.

LOST from last night. I was disappointed to see that that stupid girl is not about to be killed off, and that her hopeful cause of death might kill everyone else, too. Glad to see they're not mucking about with the timeline. I hate when people do that, so I was really grateful for Farraday's "you can't change the past, whatever happened, happened" speech. That was previously, not this week, though. Overall I thought it dragged a little, but I look forward to what's to come.

UGLY BETTY season two disc three. This includes the paintball episode which was in fact the first episode I ever saw that inspired me to one day seek this series out as televised nutrition. It was a very good disc and I don't have anything negative to say about it! It's just so funny and so heartfelt. And increasingly and increasingly wacky, what with post-mortem childrens and toxic perfumes. I love it.

Took a slight detour and caught the end of SMALLVILLE--what can I say, Thursday is comedy night--and was not disappointed. Inexplicable is the word I would use. Lana absorbs kryptonite powers! Clark wants to kill Lex! A truck explodes! And then there was this little gem: Lana, trying to dissuade Clark from his inexplicable intended murder, imparts true wisdom, "you won't just lose this or that. You'll Lose Yourself." But then the truck exploded and did the deed for him??!?!???? I could make neither heads nor tails of it. But then at the very end there was an unexpectedly heartbreaking sequence where Clark refuses to let Lana out of his life even though her very presence could very well kill him. I found it poignant and inspiring. That show is like a grab bag of surprises.

New OFFICE. Shrug. I remember I laughed, but I don't remember at what. I liked Pam listlessly throwing the candies at the audience. I liked the to be continued. Edgy new territory!

New 30 ROCK. The strength of this show, which I may have said before, lies in its ability to form a coherent plot out of extraneous information. WAIT. I previously said that about CHUCK. Oh well, 30 ROCK does it, too. The melding of the A, B, and C plots is convoluted and masterful. And hilarious, yet meaningful. It's a very smart show, top to bottom.

Now that I think about it, I must have also watched the new BSG on Saturday--I did, at like 1 in the morning. Ah. It spawned my Facebook status, "Stephanie is oh Gaeta honey no," which will remain a mystery until you get to that episode. All I can say is hopefully the darkest hour will in fact be followed by the dawn.

So that's my media week! I dub myself a televisor. You can be one, too!

The other thing I did was cook dinner today, which I think was one of my rare and complete successes. A menu: meatloaf from a recipe off foodnetwork.com. Garlic mashed potatoes from a cardboard tube. Green beans and pine nuts in sesame oil from my mind. A romaine salad with walnuts, feta, and golden raisins, also from my mind because the meatloaf was still cooking and I had nothing else to do. Hooray cooking!

And the other day I made a curry tuna salad sandwich: tuna, curry powder, goldens, walnuts, pinenuts, celery, and mayo to keep it all together. Curry is like, my favoritest thing. Here, let me give you a list of recommendations for the week:

Curry powder
a dash of cinnamon in your cocoa
The Middle by Jimmy Eat World
This sketch by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry

Have a Happy Thursday!

Storytime

Happy Thursday! I had a whole opening paragraph already thought out, but I forgot it. I think it went something like this: You know when you have those really cool dreams that you know will make terrific stories, but when you wake up you're all, "wow, I musta been on the good crack?" I had one of those, but the more I think about it in my waking hours, the more and more I think it could be a really good disaster/horror movie. Huh!

I've been having these really solid dreams this week, full of narrative value. Not like the weird dreams I had last year where the characters were very detailed, these ones are plot-heavy. Some parts, I dream dually in images and prose. Like this one, I remember very clearly:

Setting: somewhere on the Battlestar Galactica. They need to find a new planet to live on. Starbuck, for some reason, is heading the charge. She, and a few nameless others (and Apollo, who is named) have gathered near a locked door leading to a room full of secret nav charts or some such clues. The hierarchy would have them leave it, but Starbuck is persevering. She makes an impassioned argument for bucking authority and getting in that room. The group, not entirely loyal to one side or the other, is silent.

Suddenly, the security person who my mind labels as Racetrack but my intellect tells me is no such person, drops the keys to the door on the deck. "I've got you halfway there," she says, referring to the keys. The other half is deciding whether or not to use them.

Apollo leaps up (they're all sitting on these ephemeral stairwells built into the surrounding hallway) and snatches the keys before anyone else can. "Let's think about this," he says, "Before we start thinking about new planets, we have to remember New Caprica. (and this part happened visually and also in text, so I know this is actually what he said:) Before it went to s*** six ways from Sunday, we had some good times down there," he said, and didn't look at her [Starbuck]. And then it went back to movie town and there was a shot of Starbuck regarding him thoughtfully. What good times were had, and why didn't he look at Starbuck?? You just have to watch season three.

Later, it turned militaristic, and nonsense happened. A spearman was trying to train these native...creatures into an army, but they were divided into three ranks. The highest ones were most competent, and they worked for "vetnies" which were very expensive. The middle ones wanted "vinties," and the third group wanted "vetties." Don't ask me what those are, they were just very specific about it.

Lastly, there was a part where Sylar himself showed up and offered his services to the people in charge. He was all, "I know people think I'm evil, but I can really help you guys out." He was also late season-one Sylar, in the cool hoodie jacket combo and good hair. It was nice to see some NBC-Universal solidarity to the dream saga, as well.

Speaking of, both the OFFICE and 30 ROCK were old tonight, for no apparent reason. Disappointment! But everything starts back up next week, so I'll just have to wait. [Side note. Last night I chatted with Zachary Levi about things we have in common--Blockbuster, my brother. Who knew? He's very polite and a swell speller. I'm totally also tagging him in this as soon as it gets imported to Facebook.] Have to work tomorrow night, so I'll have to catch BSG Saturday online. Also next week.

So today was mostly an ABC day, since I rented season two of UGLY BETTY and me and my mom started that today. And since I worked last night, I still have to catch up on LOST.

Well so this turned into a tv Thursday. That's fine by me. I wish I had had more tv instruction included in my film education. These days, the idea of sitting down and watching a movie for an hour and a half seems so unwieldy. Yet, I'll go right ahead and watch disc after disc of whatever show I have on hand. I think I mentally psyche myself out for the journey of meeting characters, investing in characters, and saying goodbye to them in a typical movie setting. In television, if you're lucky, you don't have to say goodbye for a long long time. And that's why television is the place for me.

btw, UGLY BETTY is very worthwhile. There's been more than a couple jokes that have had me laughing through the entirety of the following scene. It also suckerpunches you in the gut when it comes to unexpected emotional impact. Season one finale anyone? I give it a thumbs up (but not a fake one).

Okay, sorry for blathering about tv this whole time. And crazy dream ramblings! Gosh, what was that all about. Just trying to keep things interesting.

Who wants tags?? Megan, Brianna, Beth, Sam, Carolyn, Jake! Michelle. Cathy? Jennifer! And Jacqi. Ummm and other Zack.

-Stephanie

Coming up with a new title every week is harder than you might imagine

Happy Thursday! A hearty Happy Thursday to each one of my Thursday friends, individually. You can pay me later.

These weeks are very similar to each other. I guess it was last Friday that I finished up the last of BSG that I hadn't seen, all set in time for the season premiere that night. Since then I've re-seen season three and half of 4.0, with my mom. As of this evening she's all caught up to watch tomorrow's new episode. I've also seen every additional video on the scifi.com page and read a healthy dose of fic. Will I write my own? Nah. Oh wait, I already did. Oops.

So that's the drill. Pack in BSG around work, like sea-damp sand around rocks. To build a strong base for the sand castle. Work is the foundation upon which I build my castle of BSG. That's actually kind of accurate. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I get a real job and have to give up my free rentals. That's like an extra hundred bucks a month in perks.

There aren't any other memories strong enough to ascend from the blurry soup that is my visualization of this last week. And the memories themselves are supposed to look like withered translucent specters with empty eyes and hooked claw-hands and bodies that fade to shreds of ectoplasm that whip around like the torn ends of some ancient ballgown. And the soup is swirling, a blur of course, made up of the composite goo from which these ghouls tear free. There are, in an inexplicable yet necessary manner, giant hunks of potato mixed throughout.

If I focus really hard, I get images of going for walks. Ah. Day before last was a lovely summer day, and I went out to some thrift stores and ended up at Old Navy. Oh well. Thrifting because there are two within walking distance and I needed a destination, and also because I'm getting a head start on when I go to Comic Con this summer and cosplay a Viper pilot. Believe it.

And today it was post-rainy, and I went down to the bank to deposit my checks I finally picked up. I also listened to some podcasts on screenwriting, which I believe I've mentioned before. They are like mini classes, but free and entertaining. And then today I was going to watch some scary movies in the middle of the day, but I got distracted and ended up playing Oblivion for the rest of the day. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

I still have to watch LOST tonight!!! Stupid thing about work is that now they've started scheduling me in the nights, right over pretty much every tv I watch. Which wasn't a problem over the hiatus, but now I'm feeling myself lucky to get off work tomorrow at 9:30 and get home to watch BSG at 10.

I also spent a good portion of some days.....yesterday and today? Day before last and yesterday? playing The Movies! a PC game my brother got me for Christmas. It's like the Sims but you have to run a movie studio to glory. It's all kinds of addictive. And they make some pretty ridiculous movies, and you can share them online. It oddly felt like something I should be doing, to further my career.

I would impart another writing-based musing for this week, but I don't think that sort of thing is really targeting my audience. Also because the one I've been thinking about is long and turns out to be a question that I don't think you can answer. It has to do with forming a premise (as defined by Lajos Egri), and what that means in a multi-story format like television. What I really need are books on writing for television. There's so much I don't know.

OH. OFFICE was random tonight, but I liked 30 ROCK. I like what the latter does in the area of human moments that aren't raucous or strange--just poignant. I mean, within context. Liz saying to Jack, "uh doi" isn't poignant at all, but this show finds the way to make it that way. The OFFICE debate plot I found adorable but distant. Like a poor man's "Office Olympics" which managed to be 4/5s random hilarity and 1/5 pure heart, which was something tonight's episode didn't quite reach.

I'm out. The Island is waiting for me.

-Steph

Jump

Happy Thursday! In good ol' So Cal, it's summer again! I couldn't be happier. Could do with a bit less wind, but I'll take what I can get. Although it may rain again soon. Ohs well.

The week rundown is still pretty sparse, containing (as you might expect) predominantly BSG and work. But there were at least a few diversions that I can mention.

Last Saturday, me and Carolyn went to the LA zoo. I hadn't been there since like fourth grade, so it was new to me. She had a zoo class a while ago, so she was super knowledgeable. It was a nice day, at the start of this warm period. We walked and walked and walked all the day long. We saw many many animals, also some non-animals, and animals we could see in our own back yard (like the alligator and the monkeyowl).

My favorites were the forest god and the wolf and the cat otter and possibly the prairie dogs. I have pictures, but they're still on my camera (along with stuff from months ago when my computer was dead). You can see hers, though, on Facebook. Where things might start to look like goats, deer, and fossa instead of the items listed above. Well, I don't remember what the wolf actually was. Looked like a wolf to me.

There were also tigers! Which are great. And a creepy man in barbershop quartet attire and a cup of liquor wandering about with his cane. Got some pictures of him, too. My least favorite were the alien deer.

And then we used my FORMIDABLE knowledge of LA roadways (in addition to helpful street signs) and made it to downtown and went to the Famima!! we discovered during the AX. Parking was too expensive, and there's a lot of one-way streets. But it was fun. Not too many people in the world can just go to LA and hang out for a day.

And then I think on Sunday me and the folks tripped up to Ojai and looked at antiques and bought overly expensive hippie food and ate it in the park next to hippie drummers. My favorite thing about the antiques was the box of old photos. There was one that opened up and inside there was a picture of a nice-looking young man, possibly a red-head. The inscription read, "To keep reminding you of that tanker full of martinis. Dan." I almost bought it.

On the trip I also listened to some podcasts about screenwriting, so it was fun. The organic store also sold weird non-soda soda, and there was such a thing as "Dr. Becker" with like four ingredients, which was probably one of the best Dr Peppers I've ever had. And for 89 cents!

And literally other than that up until today, I've either been watching BSG or at work. In order to catch up before the new season airs tomorrow, I ended up renting nine dvds on Tuesday, from two different stores. (Razor and season three discs 2-5 for free at my store, season three discs 1 and 6 and season four discs 1&2 and 3 from the other store--cost me $10.06 altogether. I love working the system) Aaaaaaaand as of now I've watched every episode on all those dvds. Just got three episodes left in season 4.0, but those are online. And I have until 9 PM tomorrow to fully catch up. I can do it!

So today I broke out of my entrenchment and went to Carolyn's house for some socializing. We looked at her new hamster and then hung out in the park after dark. But when we returned, I was informed that the OFFICE and 30 ROCK were in fact new tonight, so I abandoned her and jetted home literally in time to turn on the tv and start watching. Neither episode was bad, but neither really hit home for me. I think BSG may have spoiled me for any other narrative entertainment.

Season three of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has turned my world upside down. I remember at the end of season one, lamenting the changes I knew to be upcoming, hoping I wouldn't look back at the initial season with a melancholy nostalgia. And I started two, in season 2.0 and 2.5, and don't even get me started on Razor (inauthentic and irrelevant, I wish I hadn't watched it). Season two was that "worst-case scenario" that I'd seen in my past that made me not want to watch the show. The oppressive darkness that I once used as a comparison for that future episode of HEROES, where I said that HEROES jumped to that dark place with a hope that it could be avoided, where for BSG that's just all it is. (I admit to not having enough information to make a statement like that)

But season three? Turned back my way. Of course better than season two, and, shockingly, much better than season one. Better, I dare proclaim, than pretty much anything I've ever seen. Different than season one, of course. But different in a this-is-what-must-come, a natural progression and a necessary evolution. Which is thematic on so many levels. I'm one who tends to grab a hold of something and not let it go, like a brilliant season one, but in this matter I have no choice but to succumb to the unrelenting poetry and vision of this show as it barrels onward and upward.

I learned in sci-fi class that the point or trend in great science fiction is the way it tackles contemporary issues in the safe arena of someone else's circumstance. BSG hits hard on so many things, unconditional love, the nature of identity (personal and cultural), the relativity of good and evil actions--what it means to stand for what you believe in, the idea that surviving at all costs may be a flawed articulation. What does it mean to love someone when they suddenly turn out to be something you hate? How do you justify the crimes of some and judge the same of others? What does it mean to fight for survival if in the process you become unworthy of success?

Guys, I love pure entertainment, I love the ridiculous and the inconsequential. But I think, at this point in time, this sort of transcendent program is what I want to focus on. I think that there's a place for both, both entertainment for entertainment's sake as well as three dimensional narratives that push the envelope of human conscience.

That's why I get so distressed when inane questions or interruptions distract me while I'm watching this show. I'm not watching it to pass the time. This is not a show to me. This is an experience. And it's one I wish more people would give a chance.

-Stephanie

A Burbank Day

Happy Thursday! Try saying "Blurblank." It's fun. So driving on unfamiliar freeways and streets is, um, great. I didn't crash. I didn't run any lights that mattered. I only thought we were going north when we were going east once.

So pretty much the only thing I did this week was play Oblivion and watch BSG. Finished season one of PUSHING DAISIES and got halfway through UGLY BETTY. Started re-reading Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing.

Let's talk today about qualifying value in narrative entertainment. We've previously discussed how I used to be pretty narrow in terms of It's Good or It's Bad. Recently, I've developed the It's Poorly Made and I Hate it to It's Well Made and I Love it spectrum (where you can like something even though it's "bad" and hate something that wins awards).

My current system allows for relativity of taste, accounts for the viewer's emotional response separate from the critical one. But I've been wondering, why is it that I'll hate something, and quote the reason as being "because it's awful," while at the same time I can love something that has the same faults. (e.g. hate 21 for it's flawed script and poor acting, and love HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL despite of those complaints.)

I used to say that the first thing I looked for in a narrative was the writing. The story, and also how it was written (which are actually two different things). Then I went to character (which to me are a subset of the writing), and then acting and then cinematography and so on. So that I could appreciate the art behind the cinematography and acting of THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES, but since the story didn't interest me, I can't claim to love it.

In Sound Design, of all places, he presented us with a new hierarchy of values. I don't remember them because that class was dumb, but I do know that it started with Emotion. I remember because I immediately fought that and said that the number one value was the writing.

But now I see that he was right. In watching BSG, I've come to absolutely realize that it is emotional response that drives my commitment to the show. Every other episode literally tears me up, which is saying a lot. I feel very deeply about the fate of the characters, to the point where I don't notice the writing or the story or the characters or the acting or the cinematography. If the scene is sad, then I'm sad. If it's bittersweet, then I feel bittersweet. If it's exultant, I am exultant. If it's not an emotion-driven scene, then I'm simply interested, which I dare to qualify as an emotion.

I like HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL because it makes me feel something. I like any number of poorly made or ridiculous or pointless things because there's a spark of something in them that I care about. And while I can intellectually look at things like NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and understand why they win awards, I can honestly tell you that I don't like the movie because there's nothing there that makes me care.

So I think emotion is the most important. What I need to do is write things that I find emotionally important, and hope there's an audience out there who feels the same. And I won't hold grudges against those who don't care, because everyone has different tastes. It's a matching game. And please don't hold it against me when I fawn over something you don't understand. I'll try not to hold it against you, either.

-Stephanie

Introducing the Year of Thursday

Happy Thursday! Secondarily, happy 2009! 2009 will be the Year of Thursday, it starts and ends on a Thursday, and I already looked and there are three Blackjack Thursdays. Each Thursday this year will be even more glorious than the last.

Ohhh now I don't know what to write. Oblivion. That is the game that will take me to my grave. Or something. So many options! I've logged three days into that game and I haven't even finished exploring the first city yet. Fought some wolves. Gonna join the Thieves Guild. I'm a Journeyman at Acrobatics and Sneak.

Blockbuster yesterday was time and a half, and I even sold a Rewards, while Larry was standing right there, no less. He said it was worth the three hours he spent fighting the system to transfer me. So hooray!

So at Playstation Home, which is like an online fake sims game on the PS3 which is less like a sims game and more like a glorified chat room, you can customize a full-person avatar and have them run around and go bowling and what have you. I befriended Carolyn over the interwaves and we celebrated the new year with a dance party in a courtyard. We tried to make friends, but no one cared for our dance party. It was fun. My computer keyboard plugs right into the front of the PS3 and we were chatting away until two in the morning. Yay!

So today I woke up super late, and we went out to lunchish at this restaurant on the pier, and it was crazy foggy and great. Also cold, but whatever. I started formulating some kind of story about a fog-draped village with a lighthouse and crusty mariners.

Then I went to Carolyn's and watched/helped set up her surround sound, and then we watched THE FIFTH ELEMENT on blu-ray. Very sharp. But that movie is just not as old as I thought it was. Then we watched a hecka lot of MYTHBUSTERS, but there were several wonderful explosions and launching of flaming items.

So. BSG. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, but from now on I'll be calling it BSG. Kinda amazing. Kinda I regret judging it previously in my life. Makes me laugh, makes me tear up, makes me seriously think about story structure. I never in a million years expected to like it as much as I do, not to mention the majority of its characters. Five episodes away from finishing season one. I look forward to it.

PUSHING DAISIES. Solid. I'm still not in love with it, but it does make me laugh. I like Ned and Olive and the other two are okay.

UGLY BETTY. Disc one was not as good as other episodes I've seen, so maybe they work up to that. Not bad by any means, but it wasn't as snappy as I was expecting it to be. Much more heartfelt, though. I love that her boss is just as much the underdog as she is, having him go from villain to sidekick (metaphorically) in one episode was sort of great. I was under the impression, though, that the other assistant was on her side, so maybe times will change, or I just read that random episode wrong. We'll see.

THE FALL. Movie. Starring Lee Pace and a Romanian girl. Go see it. It's on the new release wall still. Just see it. Please.

Okay, I'm outs, gotta get in my Oblivion quota for the day. Next week: job hunt begins.

Later on,
-Stephanie

It's a Christmas day!

Happy Thursday! I've been saying that all day, and I think I said "Merry Christmas" like maybe three times. I even wore my new Classy Thursday pants, because they were classy and also because they were brown. Still are! In fact. I also got this sweet gray camo shirt. I guess I really like gray camo.

FULLTIME KILLER from Carolyn! Finally! Now we can all enjoy it!!

Along the same lines, SMOKIN' ACES from my folks, although I picked it out of the 7.99 rack at Blockbuster last week. Darn, I just realized I should have bought it on my discount. Silly me.

The entire series of SUPER FRIENDS from my brother. So wacky. Invisible planes? Bars of gold turning into doves?? Apache Chief??? I love it.

Got a cute little Mach 6 and the U.S.S. Reliant from Steven and Jacqi, respectively. They had a race but the Reliant won 'cause it could go in space and all.

Oh yeah, and a PS3.



WHAT! YES. YES I DID.

Here I come, world of Blu-Ray. Didn't actually get anything to play on it, but my and my bro ran over to Blockbuster and rented Lego Batman (for free, of course). It's pretty fun. I get to smash a lot of stuff, and who doesn't love that? Now we gotta get the wireless network up and running again, and I'll be in business. I feel technologically wealthy today.

So my brother and all the little ones that belong to him are here to visit. And my uncle and aunt came over for the day. And I stopped by at Carolyn's house to drop off Jacqi's present (yes), but she wasn't there. It was a good day. I'm sleepy but I think I'll watch another episode of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

Okay so I've got my free rentals again, yeah? I'm going to watch tv with them. I've started PUSHING DAISIES and BSG, and I've got the first disc of UGLY BETTY. The first I've heard good things about, and a lot of people are sad it's canceled, and I really love DEAD LIKE ME which was created by the same guy. From the first episode, I was like ehhhhh what is this?! But by the third I was totally warmed up to it. It's funny.

BSG and me go way back. Back like two summers, the summer where I watched, on average, five hours of STAR TREK a day (three TNG and two DS9 courtesy of Sci-Fi channel). In the midst of all this, I said to myself, You should really try that BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. And somewhere, somehow, the clouds of TREK parted and what came floating down but an episode of BSG. So I watched it. And decided I hated it more than somewhat.

Dr. P is sorta crazy about it, and since then I've watched two separate episodes in two separate classes. The first, confirmed my opinion. Another was assigned but I didn't have time to watch it (it was this semester) so I Wiki'd it, and something in those pages caught my eye. So then in class we watched another episode, and hmmmmmm I said, maybe this isn't so bad after all.

So last week we rented the miniseries pilot and now I'm on disc two and I'm going to watch another after I'm done with this. Oh, how the times have changed.

UGLY BETTY I've only seen two episodes of ever, but both times I've been pleasantly surprised.

I'm going to start 30 ROCK over, too, fill in the gaps, but Carolyn has those so I don't need to rent it.

So that's what I've been doing. TV, wrapping presents. Hanging out at Carolyn's. Cleaning my room. It's quite clean now. Ripping music onto my new computer because now I have the space for it. What else. Started work again yesterday. Been trying to organize my superhero serial, but I made the most cryptic notes last time I tried to think about it.

I feel like I did something special in particular on one of the days since last Thursday, but you know me, at this time of the night I can't remember anything worthwhile. I need to start writing in a calendar again. My sister got me one with star charts updated monthly (and the phase of the moon daily--full moon on my next birthday!), so I will have to use that. For great justice.

So Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your days were jolly and safe and not as windy as mine.

-Steph

Late Thursday

Happy Thursday! I cannot for the life of me believe that Christmas is in a week. We don't even have a tree yet. I don't even have any presents in mind for anyone. Bah.

Hey, so, I graduated! I even passed all my classes (C+ in Sr. Sem. but hey, that's passing!)! So that's utterly over with. Last Friday (gosh, it was just last Friday) we tried to export what was done on Ink-Man, but it wouldn't get past 11 minutes. I must have some kind of curse, always having the most bizarre, inexplicable, and unfixable technical problems on my projects. Do you remember when Order Up! wouldn't export out of the special effects program, and we had to export it as THREE THOUSAND JPGS and recompile them in Final Cut? Doesn't happen to anyone else but me.

But it got graded and I got a B in the class. Good enough! Dan said he'd keep working on it, and evidently it's in the running for the year-end premiere night, so hopefully it'll at least be finished by then.

Saturday was graduation, and I had to get up at 7:45. :< I'm so so so glad I graduated in the winter because the ceremony was in the Event Center and was like an hour long. When I got my diploma case, Jon Wallace said "I got this one for you," which appealed immensely to my sense of humor. But I forgot to put my middle name on the name card or the diploma, and that's sad.

I had a mental lapse and didn't ask Carolyn if she'd like to come to graduation (since all my other so-called friends up and left before Saturday), but I did end up asking Friday night and luckily she was able to hitch a ride with my folks the next morning! Lucky! She took all them pictures you might have noticed on Facebook already. And we went to DJs for the best pita plate, and then we cleaned my apartment! And now I can't find anything because I didn't pack it, Carolyn did, and I'm unpacking very slowly. And then I drove us home, and luckily it didn't rain and luckily I didn't do a barrel roll.

Sunday was Steven's birthday and I got invited to his funtime lunchtime thing. City Buffet in Oxnard. It's good! That kid is 18 now. I've known him half his life. Geez.

Monday me and Carolyn...did something. Lemme ask. Oh, right. It rained! And we went to Burger King and got pretty amusing Mario toys: A chain chomp that smashes into things, and a drug-addled Princess Peach who spins and also smashes into things/falls off the table. The Charn Champ came with Wario and Bowser cutouts to knock down, but we put those up for Peach to run into, and I with the Chimp Charmp aimed at her to protect the villagers. RIDICULOUSLY FUN.

Then we went over to Buena, actually got visitors' passes so we wouldn't be arrested as child molesters, and visited Mrs. Lyans. Except class wasn't out yet, so first we went to the library. (This blog started after senior year, but that year we all spent 6th period in the library, and when we go back to visit we try to get them to rope off our table, or at least put up a plaque) But then Mrs. Lyans class came into the library!

But after school was out we went over to her class, which had moved rooms but still managed to look precisely the same, and loitered and wouldn't let her leave. I think I promised to show Ink-Man to her class. We had Film Studies and Creative Writing with her that glorious penultimate year, and they were literally my favorite classes of high school. Big surprise. She's still teaching them, and so now I have some kind of authority in being a guest. I'm cool. Kevin Costner and Zachary Levi went to my high school.

And then we tried to go home, but I had locked us out. So we went to Joann's instead, because they're going out of business. Then we went to L&L and got spam musubi and did a crossword. It was an awfully rainy day, and I really did not want to be locked out. It was sorta fun playing hobo, though.

Then we discovered Jacqi was secretly back in town, and the next day we all went to Carolyn's house and did I-don't-remember what and then played Mario Party. I had to be Waluigi because they haven't unlocked Squiddy yet. Then I left them early to go to a play at church. It was alright.

Then yesterday they both came over to my house and helped me throw stuff away in my room. I'm trying to clean it, but I'm really just making more of a mess. Then we went to Korean food with Dorothy.

Today I really did nothing, but I meant to clean so much. I started laundry, but the most thing I did was set up my Zune on my new computer and subscribe to podcasts. I also walked to the post office (and back), and listened to a CHUCK podcast and then a "Zero Hour with Rod Serling" radio show. The former was better than the latter, although there was a priceless oldtimey line in the radio show: "This woman had a certain girl scout quality about her. Delicate yet determined." Oh, old fashioned times. You're fantastic.

I also updated my Facebook!

OH so. I have a new computer! His name is Keith and he is the envy of the village. My monitor? We watched SPEED RACER on it instead of the TV. And it has a webcam which can watch my room and tell me if anyone uses my computer while I'm gone. I have fake surround sound because I also plugged in my old set of speakers. I can install whatever I want and rip all my music because I have five times as much space as I ever had before. It has Vista, though, and I'm still having some heated arguments with it. Honestly, Microsoft. Windows Media Player 11? Are you trying to make me switch to iTunes? At least I'd already made the switch to Firefox.

Also, "life without walls?" What an awful slogan for a product called windows. Where are you going to put your windows if you don't have any walls? Honestly, Microsoft.

Review time!

SOMEHOW I FORGOT THAT MONDAYS EXIST AND DIDN'T REMEMBER TO WATCH HEROES OR CHUCK UNTIL JACQI TOLD ME TO AT LIKE 12:30 TUESDAY MORNING. But I caught up. (Full screen on this monitor? Sweetness)

HEROES.
Well, we really didn't care about that half of the cast, now did we?
Sylar pulled out all the stops and finally became the villain he was meant to be.
Now what are they gonna do?

CHUCK
Yvonne Strahovski (who I heard interviewed on the podcast today) is a really wonderful actress when it comes to expressing complex emotions with her face. Really. Watch her. She'll take your breath away.
Zachary Levi went to my high school.
What the heck was that Anna/Lester?? WHY did that even happen??

I don't know why those came out as middling reviews. I actually liked both episodes quite a bit. Can't wait for everything to start up again after the winter hiatus!

Next stop: Christmas.

-Steph

The Last Studentious Thursday

Happy Thursday! I really hope it is, anyway. My last studentious Thursday. That is, the last Thursday in which I am a student. Did you know graduation is the day after tomorrow? Scratch that, that was a sucky movie. Did you know graduation is Saturday?

Well it is!

For some of us.

I spent the last few days probably the busiest and most miserable I've ever been. But I'm fairly confident in the quality of the grades I might receive. Or, have earned. But every point is in, every final behind me. Well, not entirely true, INK-MAN is due tomorrow at five, but I've been over that for a long time now. Not over-over it, just letting it exist outside of the forefront of my mind, as it did for so long. Letting it rise, if you will. I am a baker of movies.

Finished a short screenplay for screenwriting (shocker) and it's alright. Once I get a working version of Final Draft back I'll touch it up. The TFT computers only had the demo mode so after 15 pages I couldn't save anymore. And I had to copy it into Word anyhow 'cause it would save to .pdf with a giant watermark. So I had to fight stupid Word 3000 formatting and somehow it became two pages longer than it was in Final Draft. And it numbered the title page. Life is so hard for me.

Also finished my sr. sem paper, on how technology is impossible to judge. I think it's an interesting point, but not entirely relevant or well-argued. I'm just glad it's over.

Acting is also over! We all did our scenes in a sort of performance this morning, and I invited people like Megan and Sam. I still think Christina and Tyler's scene was outstanding, though. They're why I invited people at all. (no offense to the rest of the class, of course)

Sci-fi final I was half an hour late to because I was finishing my term paper after work the other morning. THAT is the crappiest paper ever written. But all I need is to pass the class, not exceed in it.

And Sound Design. THAT IS OVER NOW KPLZTHNX.

Brianna and Megan already went home, and Beth might leave before graduation. :< Sam, too, I think. I am not looking forward to packing. So much stuff!!! First thing I do when I get home is to get rid of everything I don't want to have. Like, for serious. Second thing is to set up a schedule of watching movies/writing/reading books on screenwriting. Third is stock the trunk of my car with a survival kit.

So I was driving the other day and it hit me like a handful of gravel that I want to keep my car forever. That's the car I want to drive around Hollywood and people who know me will be able to spot what building I'm inside because my car's there in the parking lot. I want my car to run forever. I don't another, not a Mini or even a Chrysler Crossfire Roadster (2005).

Yeahp, so, I don't know what direction this blog will take from now on. I'd like it to become more cinematically-minded, but I might just want to make up a new blog for that. I'll have the time.

Oh gosh, guys. Who knows what will happen next?!

-Stephanie 08

Um. Last Day Of School.

Happy Thursday!!! This is my last full day of classes EVER. Just final periods next week. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!

Got all my ministry units cleared. That's a fun story, if you ever want to hear it.

Just need to pass some classes, finish some papers. Probably not in that order. The movie is cut, hours away from picture lock and starting sound. Should be done on time. Looks nice. My acting scene is average. My half-way-done Sr. Sem draft came back with good marks, just need to find some more references to fill it out. No idea if my HEROES paper is ever going to make sense. My script is outlined, I just need to sit down and write it. I'll be spending the rest of tonight and next Wednesday finishing all my sound projects.

For some reason wasn't scheduled to work yesterday--but I went in to ask for it off because TFT Senior Banquet was yesterday evening. It was lovely and full of deliciousness and funny.

Working Friday and Saturday for some reason, leaving Sunday open for Mexican Christmas (since Thanksgiving this year was already pretty Mexicoed out). Also have a "Remembering Mexico" meeting Saturday afternoon. Yay.

Saw MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA yesterday or the day before and DUDE was it funny. King Julien. Disgustingly cute baby Alex. Alec Baldwin.

Oh yeah, so I went to Mexico.

It did rain on Wednesday on the drive out of LA, and that night, which was in fact very muddy. There were lightning storms all over. A couple of potentially catastrophic driving situations. I copiloted, and I had to deal with some of the most entirely useless maps ever created. Left late, got there after dark. The ground is hard. It was cold at night, but nice and hottish during the day. Thursday it drizzled a bit, but after that it was clear.

6:30 AM, wake up! Breakfast at 7 and chapel at..8? We left for our site at about 9. We were supposed to be out there until 6:30, back for dinner at 7 and chapel at 8:30, but we ended up staying for dinner at the orphanage and one night half of our team went to church with the older boys so we didn't get back to camp until like 10. Lights out at 11! Or as soon as possible, in my case.

Our site was Bethesda orphanage in Mexicali. (The camp was in Ejido Cuernavaca, about 25 minutes south-east.) The kids were great! There was Matilda and Jose and Estaban and Itzel and Carlos and Oscar and Mauricio and Jose and Julio and Juanita and Jessica and Rigo and Jose and Samuel and Raul and a few more whose names I didn't learn. That list, though, is approximately youngest to oldest, starting at 4ish and going up to I think 18. I spent most of my time with middle Jose (he drew lovely pictures on my hands) and Rigo (he's pretty good at the DRAGON BALL style of drawing).

We'd planned things to do, story, craft, snack, game, but basically we threw that aside and played with them. They ended up having school from 1-4 (the young ones, 1-7 for the older boys), so we had some down time, too. By down time I mean, time to buy paint and paint the orphanage. We went to the park, we played fútbol, we decorated cookies and shirts, we learned about Noah. One day we went and saw NAVIDAD, S.A. at a movie theater. It was cute.

I also helped make tortillas on the second day, which was great because I didn't have to interact with the kids. XD Not that I hated interacting with the kids, but after the first day, not really being able to talk to them (it seems everyone else had at least taken Spanish in school) but having to be social made me remember my introverted side and I severely needed the time to recoup. So the painting day/hanging out in the kitchen day was nice. And then on Saturday most of the kids had gone to other homes that they have (like aunts' and stuff??) so it was pretty low-key. Watched Julio and Carlos and Jose (and Calvin, one of our own) play marbles. What an intense game. Tried to talk with "the older boys" (they're like 13 and up, so) and didn't suck at it. Thanks to cognates, Spanish is not an outstandingly foreign language. So it's more like I listened to other people's conversations. And then I talked to Rigo a bit about tv, haha.

They really wanted us all to come back. I can't, not on a missions trip because I'm graduating, but it would be pretty cool to roadtrip down there again some day.

Sunday it was up at 6:30, packed up and magically on the road by 8......waited in line at the border for over two hours.....drove at an average of 10 MPH in Thanksgiving weekend traffic through Palm Springs for four, five, six hours? At that point, if we had kept up that pace, it would have taken another five hours to get home. Luckily right about then it cleared up and we were home in like an hour. So we got in at around 6, I think. It was a long day.

I love indoor plumbing.

Okay, I'm going to go learn some stuff. Hopefully. Instead of working on papers last time I was at the computer, I ended up reading Greg Beeman's blog (the HEREOES behind the scenes) instead, and had a very very compelling feeling that that was actually what I was supposed to be doing in that moment. Reading about how it's done. One day I want to read a blog about that, except that it's written by a good friend, or about a show I have a hand in. That's my dream.

Also, HEROES this week. WTF, mate?? I knew it was coming, but COME ON. Not like that, guys. That was Not Cool. All you're doing is validating every complaint I've ever had about you. Every single one.

What a creepy night of tv that was, too. Even most of CHUCK wigged me out. What a creeper you've become, NBC.

-Steph

The Distant Future. The Year 2000.

Happy Thursday! This message is coming at you from the future! Thanks to time travel!

See, I exist in a moment in time where I have access to a computer. However, when you will be reading this, probably on a Thursday, I will not, at any moment of that day, have access to a computer.

So it's not so much as this message is coming from the future rather than it's going to the future, but in either case it strikes me as being unstuck in time. And that's always worthy of note.

So apparently this is the first time in four years that I haven't been in contact with a computer on a Thursday. Presumably longer. That's kind of crazy, but it also is our culture; there was another time and place where someone might have been shocked to be similarly separated from say a horse. If one considers a horse to be a technology. It's not better or worse, just different!!!! And that's my senior sem paper in a nutshell.

I would like to tell you about my all-nighter from Sunday night. I camped out in the ER after work (which ended at 11:30), hijacking their computers for Word and Final Draft and Final Cut (which I wouldn't have had anyhow). I made progress on my senior sem paper (it's 11 pages now!) and my short screenplay (5 pages!) and my sound design project (tedious) and tried to work on my HEROES paper, but I was too foggy and this time travel business wasn't making any sense at all.

I took a short nap on one of the couches at the back of the office from like 6 - 7 in the morning, because I had to move my car out of it's nearby faculty spot at that second time. And then I came back and did some more Sound, and then I went and got a tea from Heritage and came back and enjoyed the morning, and then I went to chapel!

The day was pretty fine, but I was noticeably loopy. Loopier. And I didn't hear the second half of Sr. Sem because I was starting to drift into another world--a place, which, incidentally, I haven't experienced since high school. Why was I so tired in high school? I feel like I was that tired all four years.

So, in the past 62 hours, I've had about 7 hours of sleep. This is as of approximately midnight on Tuesday. Which is the past, but hey.

Going to Mexico tomorrow. Gonna sleep in and then go to Mexico. I gotta finish packing.

Also, Carolyn came to visit me on Saturday and that was so fun. I drove us on the freeway to Pasadena and we didn't die!!! We went to no less than three eating establishments. We played Star Wars Battlefront all day and watched SPEED RACER which I undoubtedly love. The colors, Duke, the colors! (I'm colorblind, kid) We also tried to play Brianna's "My Horse and Me" Wii game, but we couldn't figure out how to turn left. Try chasing the chickens out of the corn, or trying to sort the butterflies with only well-planned right turns. It's awful.

I like the show CHUCK and I like the show HEROES and I like the show THE OFFICE. I like Sylar/Elle. I like the show VERONICA MARS. I like stuff like that and mid-sentence I realized that some day soon this blog will likely be only about tv stuff. How awesome is that.

Also, it's raining. Mexico is going to be a mud puddle.

Have a lovely Thursgiving Day. I'm sorry I'm going to miss out. (Or will I? Mexican Thanksgiving Part 2????)

-Steph