Love Me Dead

There's a book out there in the world called 642 Things to Write About.  I saw it at Barnes and Noble the other day, and because I'm a cheapskate and because I bought a bunch of Sharpie pens that I didn't need, I didn't get this book.  But I DID shamelessly Google it and find a bunch of Tumblr posts from it, which conveniently provided me with a couple ideas for things I could write about here.  Go figure, right?

Today's prompt:  Write a story based on the title of your favorite song.

My favorite song is currently Neon Trees' "Everybody Talks," but I wasn't really feeling it...so I'm using another one of my top favorite songs, Ludo's "Love Me Dead."

Thump.  Draaaaaag.  Thump.  Draaaaaag.  Thump.  Draaaaaaag.

This is the soundtrack of the afterlife.  When you're the only one wandering the burnt out streets of your hometown and you've suddenly lost all desire to speak more than a couple syllables, this is the sound you have to accompany your travel.

Thump.  Draaaaaag.

And that's because I twisted my ankle in some strange direction, and because the bone didn't heal right, or at all, I'm just dragging my sad left foot along through the dust and ash.  I feel like a weird cliche, but the shriveled remains of my brain can barely wrap itself around the concept of marbles let alone a cliche.

Westley whispered into my ear, "Death cannot stop true love, all it can do is delay it a little while."  And I believed him.  I believed that we would be together and we would love so much and so deeply it would embarrass the neighbors.  I believed that no matter how many times I received word that he had died, he would show up at the door that evening for dinner.

And I should have suspected somehow that his attachment was deeper than mine because he's gone off and died, and I'm stuck here.  He loved me just so much, his love isn't letting me die properly.  Which is great for me, I guess.  Prince Humperdinck doesn't really mind that I can't speak well or the limp I've got going on, and he's desperately wanted me for some time now.  Well, Westley, you had your chance, and now you screwed it up for all of us.  Thanks, thanks a lot.

"Kill me romantically, fill my soul with vomit, then ask me for a piece of gum.  Bitter and dumb, you're my sugarplum."

- Ludo, "Love Me Dead"

Day Off

Whenever I feel like death, I typically announce, "I'm dying."  Not only is this an over dramatic presentation of how I feel, but it is also a reference to one of my favorite movies of all time: Ferris Bueller's Day Off. So needless to say the only logical and appropriate response to this announcement of my impending doom is, "You're not dying, you just can't think of anything good to do." And so far there is only one person in my life who consistently gives that correct answer, something that tells me a lot about the company I keep.

I don't particularly like comparing myself to Cameron, mostly because he doesn't possess the natural glamor of a character like Ferris. I mean really, who would willingly cast themself as Cameron? I suspect my disdain for Cameron is rooted in his directionlessness. Not only is he unwilling to pursue The Future, but he would rather hide away in bed and pretend that it's not going to find him or call him out like Ferris does. At the same time, Ferris is cavalier about The Future, but accepts a certain amount of inevitability while he also lives "in the now. In thinking about my own Future, and remembering how I always wanted to be Ferris Bueller, I'm not really sure I'm doing it right. I haven't stolen a car and gone cruising around downtown with my best friends. At the same time, I have gone on mini adventures like the day trip to House on the Rock where our toes froze. So maybe my day off is spread out further, leaving boring days in between the real adventures.

"The key to faking out the parents is the clammy hands. It's a good, non-specific symptom and I'm a big believer in it."

- Ferris Bueller

Life as a Pixar Movie

There was a time when my friend posed the question:

If your life was a Pixar movie, what movie would your's be?

I struggled with this question mostly because the best Pixar movies had been taken, and I couldn't think of a way to relate my life to Toy Story or Up, which was sad.  And there was no way I was going to use A Bug's Life.

The conclusion I came to was that my life is Ratatouille. 

And now is when I put up the obligatory ***SPOILER ALERT*** because I'm going to talk about plot, characters, and other things.  And though I'm not sure if there are people who would care if I spoil...but you know...just making sure.

Anyway.

I definitely feel like Remy in that I feel like I have a talent, but I'm in an environment that isn't exactly fostering that talent or encouraging it.  One might say that I feel creatively stifled by where I am in my life.  So in that way, I'm faced with the challenge of finding a means through which I can use my gifts.

Then again, I also feel like Linguini because I don't always have Remy's confidence in my own talents, and sometimes I just feel like everything I'm doing is going wrong and subsequently leading me in the completely wrong direction.  But I'm eager to learn and develop as an artist, I just need a mentor of sorts.

Plus I feel like I'm surrounded by Colettes, the people who know exactly what they're doing and where they're going.  They're unflappable, and they're so staggeringly confident in themselves that I fall over myself to please them or prove that I'm even a little okay.  Then again, when I do that, I'm less true to myself and I end up coming up with art that's not too great because I'm making it for someone that's not me.  Some of my best friends are Colettes.  Or I feel like they're Colettes because I have a huge inferiority [hush] complex.

And that's all I really have because I need to think more.  Basically the gist is that I'm still coming to terms with my own talent and gifts, so I'm mixing things up a bit as I figure things out.

"I know this sounds insane, but... well, the truth sounds insane sometimes, but that doesn't mean it's not. Uh, the, the truth. And the truth is, I have no talent at all." 

- Linguini, 'Ratatouille'

Stranger than Fiction

Today after having finished all of my homework for my classes tomorrow, I decided to settle down to watch a movie and I picked Stranger than Fiction.

I love this movie quite a bit.  It's one of the few movies that I can tolerate Will Farrell in because he's not doing stupid and painful things, and it actually seems like he creates a character, which I appreciate.  Plus Emma Thompson is my hero.  And it's about writing.  As a writer, I feel compelled to fall in love with anything related to or dealing with writing.  Plus I understand the depths of writer's block that Karen Eiffel feels.  No joke.  As demonstrated by my blogging of late.

I'm intrigued by the idea of meeting a character that I've written.  Maybe not discovering that I've killed them, mostly because I don't think I've ever killed a character in my life, but maybe talking to them.  So I'm going to write a little about that.  We'll see how it goes.

-------------------------------------------------

It was mid-afternoon in Chicago, and a young woman sat in a large room, the walls lined with bookshelves.  The young woman had golden blonde hair and green eyes hidden behind black plastic rimmed glasses.  She wore an overlarge cream old man sweater and she sat in an armchair behind a large desk covered with papers.  The papers were strewn across the desk in no particular order, some scribbled on in strange corners and others completely blank.  Bent over the desk's surface, the young woman looked up only when she heard a knock at the door.

"Come in."

The young woman watched as the door opened to reveal a girl in her mid-teens who seemed to be wearing every article of clothing she could find on the floor of her closet.  The girl was clad in about seven layers of clothing, all covered by a tan trench coat.  A maroon beret sat jauntily atop the girl's mousy brown hair.  The writer watched as the girl looked around the room, taking in the stacks of books, the paper strewn across the desk, and the carousel horse standing in the corner on its wooden hooves.

"Have a seat," the writer said, gesturing to the chair across the desk from her.  The girl sat down without a word, realizing only then that her mouth was still wide open from her journey across the room to that very seat.

"Um, hello," the girl said, looking up at the writer who had been as captivated with the girl as the girl had been with the room.

"Hi, yeah, remind me again, who are you?" the writer asked, pulling a beaten up composition notebook from the haphazardly arranged papers and notes.  She opened it to a fresh page and poised the tip of her cheap pen over the white.

"I'm Marcella, I thought you knew me already," the girl replied, folding her hands in her lap.  She wore mismatched gloves, one without fingers and the other that was made from a thin material that allowed her free movement.

"Oh, uh, yeah, I do, don't I?" the writer sputtered, a nervous smile creeping onto her face as she wrote out notes about the girl's attire and general attitude towards their meeting.

"I love the carousel horse, how did you get him to follow you home?"

"Excuse me?"

"The carousel horse.  Usually they don't like being cooped up in one place for very long, and they only ever go places if they follow someone there, so how'd you get him here?" Marcella asked, blinking her midnight blue eyes.  There was no sign of jest in her face, she was dead serious.

"Oh, aaah, well I'm not really sure, actually," the writer admitted with a slight shrug.  "About why you came here..."

"I wanted to ask you for a story," Marcella said.  She delivered this statement with the same seriousness with which she asked about the carousel horse.  She blinked at the writer and nodded pointedly.

"A story."

"Yes.  You see, you wrote me, but I don't have a story, so I'm kind of stuck," Marcella explained, her face scrunching up a little as she described her predicament.  "I'm not really sure how these things work, so I thought I'd ask and see what you can do about it."

"Well, I don't really know what to tell you, I don't have a story for you right now," the writer said apologetically.  She had abandoned her notebook a couple bullet points ago and had lost her place in her own notes.  "I honestly have no idea what to do with you."

"Well, let's start from ridiculous and go from there."

- Stranger than Fiction

Favorite Lines

Q:  So what's your favorite movie quote?

A:  Um.  My favorite?  Of all time?  Do I have to pick one?

Q:  You mean you have more than one?  How do you know more than one movie quote?

A:  I watch a lot of movies...?

Q:  Fine...write a list...

A:  Awesome!  In no particular order...

1.  "I love this plan!  I'm excited to be a part of it!" - Dr. Venkman (Ghostbusters)

A big reason I love this quote is because it's so applicable to my real life.  I use it all the time.  It's always really great to see who gets the reference.  Luckily my boyfriend gets this one every time.  I get the feeling it's because we've seen Ghostbusters far too many times.

2. "Life moves pretty fast.  If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)

This is a really good sign off for a yearbook.  I know this because I spent a good four years signing yearbooks with this quote.  Mostly because it's one of my favorite movies of all time, and also because it's insightful yet simple.  Besides, my uncle looks like Matthew Broderick.  Something I'll explain at a later date.

3. "But you know the thing about romance is people only get together right at the very end." - Love Actually

So this isn't one of my favorite quotes because I use it like the first two quotes, but I do quite enjoy this quote because it's so true.  It's said by the eleven year old adorableness who learns how to play the drums so the girl he loves will know he exists.  I adore that character and so there's really no reason not to like this quote...

4. "Inconceivable!" - Vizzini (The Princess Bride)

Classic.  This one shows up in casual conversation for me all the time, as do other quotes from this movie, but I couldn't quite bring myself to write "The Princess Bride in its entirety" as one of my favorite quotes.  This is my favorite movie of all time, and I can definitely quote it.  LOVE so much.

5. "She's safe just like I promised.  And she's all set to marry Norrington just like SHE promised, and you get to die for her just like YOU promised.  So we're all men of our word, really, except for Elizabeth who is, in fact, a woman." - Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl)

I love this quote.  I love this character.  So much.  So I have a friend named Elizabeth, and I was just dying for someone to ask me where she was so I could answer with this quote.  One day in Best Buy, someone finally asked me, and I may have made a scene as I was replying with this quote.  Elizabeth's reaction was also priceless.

6. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." - Rhett Butler (Gone with the Wind)

I really wish this would come up in casual conversation more often, because then I would be as cool as Rhett Butler who really had a lot on his plate when it came to Scarlet.  Scarlette?  However you spell her name.  Yeah.  Famous line, really wish I could use it more often.  I think I may have used it properly once.  Hm.

7. "She doesn't even go here!" and "Four for you, Glenn Coco!  You go, Glenn Coco!" - Mean Girls

This movie is so quotable, which I never would have thought going in to watch it in the theatre back in the day.  But no, this movie is a lot more awesome than I thought it was back then, and these are definitely the two quotes I hear used/use myself the most often.  Or variations of these.

8. "It's just a flesh wound!" - The Black Knight (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

Love.  So much love.  There's really nothing to explain here.

9. "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark out, and we're wearing sunglasses." "Hit it." - The Blues Brothers

This is one of the few movies that my father will watch with me and my brother, so by default I love it.  I also frequently use this quote regardless of how far from Chicago I am.  Yup.  Used all the time.

10. "You stuck up, half-witted, scruffy looking Nerf herder!" - Princess Leia (Empire Strikes Back)

I couldn't resist.  I can't say that I use this quote, but I love it.  It's a fantastic insult, up there with the insults from The Princess Bride insults at the end of the movie, and if I ever get the chance to use this insult, I may do a happy dance.

World's End

Today's Oxford English Dictionary word of the day is "world's end."  Really.  I thought that would have been considered two separate words, but fun fact...it's not!  How cool!

There are two separate definitions of the word which won't really surprise you when I paraphrase them:
1) The end of the world.  As in The Day of Judgement.  Apocalypse (fun fact, I had to spell "apocalypse" backwards for a game once, or maybe that was "hippopotamus"...)
2) The end of the world.  As in the furthest reaches of the world.  Where the sidewalk ends, as it were.

Thanks, Google!

This is really intriguing to me because "world's end" reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.  So this word of the day is really timely because my building's staff and others are planning on watching all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies on Friday.  Which is going to be super intense, but I've done it before, and it's just one extra movie, so is it really that bad?  Besides, people watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy in one sitting all the time.  And there's nothing stopping me from falling asleep mid-sentence uttered by Captain Beckett.  Or just taking a walk.

As a rule At World's End isn't my favorite Pirates movie, but it's in second place to the first one because Dead Man's Chest is too much of a cliffhanger to hold my attention for long enough.  I resent that I went to see the second movie so many times in the theatre because all it was was a gigantic cliffhanger.  I don't meant to spoil it for anyone, but nothing resolves at the end of that movie.  It's a huge set-up for number three.

Bright side, number four wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I was worried about paying for a movie ticket, but luckily it was worth it.  Even though I don't really like the female lead with Johnny Depp...not enough chemistry if you ask me.

Anyway....I'm going to go take a final.  Two, actually, so we'll see how this goes.  Ta!

Barbossa: The world used to be a bigger place.

Sparrow: World's still the same.  There's just less in it.

- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Use the Force

A:  I went through at least three prompts today before I could decide on something that I wanted to write about.

Q:  That's because you're indecisive.

A:  Yes.  But quiet, you.  Did you really want to hear about my first job?  Or "something you've always been good at"?  I didn't think so.

Q:  Actually---

A:  No.  So let's talk about Star Wars.

Thank you, Google!

Q:  That trilogy that you're a geek over?

A:  Well first.  Let's clarify.  Trilogy yes.  Geek no.  We discovered only fairly recently that a "geek" is a circus performer who bites the heads off of live chickens.  Though I occasionally do so in my spare time, that's hardly something I want to advertise to the populous.

Q:  Fine.  Nerd.

A:  That's better.  Anyway.

I first saw Star Wars (the original trilogy) at my grandparents' lake house.  My uncle was really super excited to show us these movies, and we sat down and watched them.  I remember sitting on the floor with my brother, staring up at the TV, but I don't remember any of my reactions or anything.  I do remember that the carpet was sulfur yellow.  If I'm not mistaken.  I was little, but I know my brother was around.  I want to say I was about eight-ish.  We'll go with that.

It was always a big deal going to the lake house, but for the sake of watching Star Wars, it was an even bigger deal.  It became part of our tradition.  We would go to the Memorial Day flea market type deal in this pine tree forest, buy kettle corn, swim in the lake with our life jackets, go on the boat with Grandpa, and watch Star Wars.

My grandpa on the other side of the family had the box set of Star Wars too, if I'm not mistaken, as well as Indiana Jones.  So my brother and I borrowed those from him ALL the time.  When the lake house was getting sold, or once our uncle got the DVD box set of Star Wars, we were allowed to take the VHS set from the lake house for our own.  And now we actually owned Star Wars and could watch it all the time at home instead of waiting until the summer when we went to the lake house.

With the Blu-ray version of Star Wars coming out soon, I'm seeing a lot of information about things that are being changed especially for that version.  I only just learned about the "Greedo shoots first" thing last year while I was writing my series of nerd poems, and I thought that was dumb.  Han clearly shot first because Greedo never shot.  I understand the reasoning behind trying to make Han a victim and his killing of Greedo a self defense mechanism, but honestly?  Part of what makes Han such a great character is that you can't tell if he's a good guy or a bad guy.  And he is a criminal at the beginning, so he would shoot a bounty hunter to save his own skin.  Makes sense.  Stupid DVD changes.  io9 explains some of the changes that are being made for the Blu-ray version.  My favorite being "No...NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"  Which is so ridiculously unnecessary, I don't even know what to do with it.

One of my RAs and I geeked out (we're still using that term despite the chicken thing because there's no better way to say it) about Star Wars yesterday, and it was just about one of the most exciting things ever.  Although we mourned the changes to the Blu-ray version of the original trilogy.  Which also include adding blinking Ewok eyes?  Why is that necessary?!?!  I don't understand these additions because they add absolutely nothing to the film.  I understand.  Make it HD, make it pretty, but don't change the 70s effects and don't change the Muppets, that's what distinguishes the originals from the over computerized new trilogy.  Which we're not going to talk about.

And then my friend Katie and I were having a conversation via text as she continues to compel me to "join the Dark Side" aka Twitter.  An entire text conversation featuring Star Wars references.  My life is complete.

"Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy."

- Darth Vader

House Pride

I'm a Hufflepuff.
The last couple times I told people I was a Hufflepuff, the response I got was "aw!"   And that's not a "oh how cute!" aw, it was a "aw, that's so sad," aw.  Because there are very few people who actually want to be a Hufflepuff.  And Second City acknowledges that in its own way:

When the Harry Potter books first came out, I classified myself as a Gryffindor.  Hell, everyone was a Gryffindor in those days.  When I grew older, I started identifying myself as a Ravenclaw.  Because I was smart, and I liked to read, but I wasn't as brave as the Gryffindor I thought I was.  Since the books have stopped coming out and I've stopped waiting on my doorstep for them to arrive, I've come to the conclusion that I'm a Hufflepuff.  After taking countless Sorting Hat quizzes it was time I came to terms with my Hufflepuff-ness.  I've found that this quiz: http://www.personalitylab.org/tests/ccq_hogwarts.htm is a lot more reliable than those quizzes where all you have to do is answer "What's your favorite color?  Red?  Green?  Yellow?  Blue?" or "What would you do?  Save them?  Kick them in the face?  Study with them?  Or do nothing?".  Mostly because this quiz gives a percentage of each house that you are.  Usually I'm 90% or higher on Hufflepuff.  So there's really no denying it anymore.

Team Starkid's A Very Potter Musical took a fun take on Hufflepuff, so by the time I had watched the entire musical, I was feel a bit better about it.  Especially since the "good guy bad guy" thing characterizes Gryffindor and Slytherin really well.  Well, stereotypes, but it's true...so is it still a stereotype?  I've taken to answering people with "Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders!" whenever I get the pity "aw," so it's only a matter of time until I find someone who will answer me correctly.

Okay.  But let's think about this.

You might belong in Hufflepuff,Where they are just and loyal,Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,And unafraid of toil.- The Sorting Hat (book 1)

Now tell me what's so bad about being hard working and loyal and just?  In the last Sorting Hat song that we witness in Order of the Phoenix, we learn that Helga Hufflepuff basically took in all the strays and taught the lot of them.  So is Hufflepuff the misfit house?  And is that really a bad thing?  Hufflepuffs can be finders, they can be helpers, they can be completely off the wall crazy, and they still fit into their house category.  One Ravenclaw slacks off on a test and the whole category goes to shit.  Hufflepuff seems to me to be the non-category category.  The miscellany house where they have a tendency to be "nice."  As opposed to the other houses that aren't?  It's really not true.  There's a whole community of Hufflepuffs in the Harry Potter Alliance, and you can find their discussion about Hufflepuff awesomeness HERE.

My most recent theory about the Hogwarts houses goes a little like this.  Ravenclaws and Slytherins are fairly similar, leading me to believe that Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors are as well.  My theory is that Slytherins (excluding the "bad guy evilness" assumption) are just applied Ravenclaws.  While Ravenclaws are studious, they're more of theory people and Slytherins are more of action people who put their plans into motion.  Ravenclaws might do the research, but Slytherins are the ones who get it done.  Same with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.  I get the feeling that because they both have "good" assumptions (even though Hufflepuffs are more "goody two shoes" and Gryffindors are "good guys but rebels"), but that Gryffindors are the extroverts and Hufflepuffs are the introverts.  Yeah, it's a broad theory and it might take a little stretching to fit, but that's where I'm at right now.  Though I can totally live with not being an introverted Gryffindor...I'm fine with just being a happy Hufflepuff!

Ministry of Magic suggests that Hufflepuffs want to have a good time and stick around with their friends, and I can live with that.  (I only know about this song because a friend of mine sent it to me after getting really excited about my being Hufflepuff because that meant she could rally enough people to sing this song!  Because it's totally awesome.)  And that doesn't merit a pity "aw."

This song that I found posted on another friend's Facebook wall (because I'm a class A Facebook stalker) pretty much sums it up.

So what I'm trying to say is that there's no shame in being a Hufflepuff.  We're not the outcasts and we're not the misfits, and even if we are, that just makes us ten times cooler than we already were.  We're friendly, kind, brave, loyal, witty, everything that makes a good friend.  So if you're a Hufflepuff, raise your wands and show some pride!

Movie Likes

Q:  What movies do you enjoy watching?

A:  I like to flatter myself by calling myself a movie buff, if only because I can quote a multitude of obscure movies, and some that I've never even seen before.  Although that might be a testament to my watching too many AFI specials/countdowns.  So the short answer is that I enjoy a lot of different types of movies.  Although it depends on who I'm watching them with.  If that makes any sense.

I'm a big fan of 80s movies, and I find myself watching them with my mother a lot of the time, maybe because those were the movies she went to see in high school or heard about while she was there.  Last year I went on a really long kick during which I watched all the Bill Murray/Dan Ackroyd movies I could think of: Stripes, Caddyshack, Animal House...and I feel like there was another one, but I can't remember.  The Blues Brothers might have been in there.  Anyway.  There was also my "F-inn 80s" marathon during which I watched: Footloose, Flashdance, and Fame.  Although I only really liked Footloose.  I LOVE John Hughes movies, but I've only ever seen the Molly Ringwald trio: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and  Sixteen Candles.  And I think one of those wasn't John Hughes.  Oh well.

At school, I tend to watch a lot of romantic comedies, or just comedies.  Our "go-to" movie tends to be Love Actually because it is the quintessential romantic movie, it's filmed really well, and it's something that all of us can agree on.  Even if we saw it earlier in the week, Love Actually is a movie you can definitely handle seeing again.

I have another group of friends at school that enjoys action/superhero movies, and they're the reason I've seen Kickass and V for Vendetta.  Both of which I enjoyed.  I also watch a lot of action movies with my little brother, or we just watch and re-watch the action/heist/military/superhero movies on our home movie shelf.

Then there are the kid's movies.  The Disney movies, and other animated or non-animated awesomeness.  I LOVE these so much that I'll probably watch them with just about anyone.  That and it's another genre that nearly everyone can agree on.  Which brings me to why I'm writing this post.  It's really just a ploy to announce that I'm going to my friends house to watch How to Train Your Dragon!  A movie that's completely adorable, beautifully animated, and so beyond fantastic that I can't wait to share it with our one friend who's never seen it.  Yes, I'm 21 years old and I'm going over to a friend's house to watch an animated movie.  You have to admit that that's pretty awesome.

"You just gestured to all of me..."

- How to Train Your Dragon

Disney Favorites

Q:  What is your favorite Disney movie of all time and why?/Who is your favorite Disney character?

A:  My favorite Disney movie for some time was Sleeping Beauty, and I think that might have been because it was Mom's favorite Disney movie, and I wanted to be just like her.  I'm also a fan of Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and Brother Bear (though my mother laughs at me every time I say the last one).

Since about sophomore year of high school, or whenever it was that I got the movie for my birthday, I have LOVED Lilo and Stitch, making my favorite character(s) the two title characters.  I love the animation with all the rounded bubbly edges, and I love the script (because it's absolutely brilliant).

Lilo: It's Sandwich Day.
Hula Instructor: .....
Lilo: (deep breath) Every Thursday I bring Pudge the Fish a peanut butter sandwich.  But today we were out of peanut butter!  So I asked my sister what I should give him and she said a tuna sandwich!  Do you know what tuna is?
Hula Instructor:  Fish?
Lilo:  It's fish!  If I gave Pudge tuna, I'd be an abomination!  So I'm late because I had to go to the store to get peanut butter because all we had was...was stinking tuna!!!
Hula Instructor:  Lilo, why is this so important to you?
Lilo:  Pudge controls the weather.

Most of all I enjoy how absolutely adorable the relationship between Lilo and Stitch is.  It's fascinating to see the relationship between a small Elvis-loving Hawaiian girl and a convict from outer space develop.  Plus the aliens are pretty cool.  I'm always a sucker for a good alien.  (See Doctor Who.  I rest my case.)  I genuinely enjoy watching Lilo and Stitch every single time I watch the movie because I always manage to forget something about the plot or the little things that happen in between scenes, and it opens my eyes to the magical experience all over again.  I may or may not have a new appreciation for Elvis all because of this movie.  I feel that I should like at least a good part of his music if I'm going to watch Lilo and Stitch because so much of the soundtrack features The King.

So right now (even though I haven't seen it in a while), my favorite is Lilo and Stitch.  I even dressed up as Lilo and brought my Stitch to a Disney themed birthday party while I was in high school (back when I had super long hair):

Myself on the left, and Belle on the right!

Plus it's such a comfy outfit, it's hard to resist wearing it on a daily basis.  If I had enough floral dresses, maybe I would.  There's really no telling.

And it's a smart, touching movie.  Really beautiful.  Love!

But recently, since I only just saw Tangled, I'm growing to like that quite a bit too.  I wanted so much to make The Princess and the Frog my favorite, but it didn't hold the same magic for me that Lilo and Stitch does.  Anyway, I love Tangled, and I'll have to purchase it and watch it over and over and over again to see if it lasts like Lilo and Stitch.

"Ohana means family.  Family means no one gets left behind.  Or forgotten."

- Lilo and Stitch

Practically Perfect in Every Way

Q:  Has anyone ever called you "perfect" before?

A:  Not that I recall.  The most common adjective that I've heard people use when describing me is "nice."  Or "happy."  Both of which illustrate the amazing creativity of the people responsible for the description because "nice" and "happy" are two of the blandest words in the English language.  When those words are used, I usually just growl inside my head and try to think of alternatives.  But then I think that I'm being self-centered or self-absorbed by thinking of positive words to describe myself.

In fact, I loathe "perfect" people.  Those people that are described as "perfect" are usually insufferable.  Maybe I'm petty, but every time I've encountered someone who's "perfect," I've hated them instantly.  Because they can't do wrong.  Everyone loves them: teachers, parents, peers, employers, etc.  And they usually get away with anything because they're "perfect."  No one expects them to do anything horrible, and chances are they won't do anything horrible.  It's safe to say that they'll make things better.  They're the people who dress up as angels for Halloween because it's an accurate portrayal of their inner selves.  Or maybe they dress up as hookers, but then they're described as "cute."  And who can ever honestly say that they've seen a "cute" hooker?  Well, if you're perfect, you probably would be one.

Q:  What are you doing today?

A:  There are a number of things that I'm supposed to do today, so I can only hope that I'll actually do them.  Today I need to write a rehearsal schedule for the fairy tale show that I'm directing so my actors know when they have to come to my house to run lines, learn blocking and do activities.  Hopefully it'll make things a lot easier for them because they actually have things to do with their lives whereas I am unemployed and a bum.

I'm also going to my local library to get some movies and music.  Just for an excuse to leave the house, considering I haven't left the house for a while.  Okay, that's not right, I left the house yesterday to buy a Father's Day present for my dad.  I should also return some of the books that I got that I probably won't read.  Like The Interrogative Mood.  Probably not this time around, but it will definitely stay on my list.

And then there's my room.  That big pile of stuff that I don't want that I need to move from that big pile to a bag or box to get ride of.  Clothes, a couple books (including Reading with Lincoln and Malone Dies), and then the gel pens that I will probably never use again.

Finally, I should get a move on reading Jane Eyre.  I've started, and I'm in a pretty good place, but I need to just commit and read instead of spending my entire day on Stumble Upon like I've been doing for the past couple of days.  Because that's my life.

"Love isn't finding a perfect person.  It's seeing an imperfect person perfectly."

- Sam Keen

Hitchkratz's Guide to the Galaxy: Adventures

Adventure, according to the Hitchkratz's Guide to the Galaxy is a popular film genre which usually stars a rough-edged hero played by any number of A-list actors.  The Guide goes on to explain that adventures also feature fairly predictable plotlines segmented by chase scenes, thereby leading to the phrase "cut to the chase."  The second entry in the Guide under "adventure" explains that an adventure is any exciting event, outing or action that increases levels of adrenaline in the adventure-seeker's body.  Common adventures include (but are not limited to): skydiving, bungee jumping, ding-dong-ditching and cow tipping.

In the extended version of the Hitchkratz's Guide to the Galaxy, it cites an example of an adventure written by one of the fieldworkers of the Guide:

Just the other day, I found an event on Facebook called "The MP3 Experiment."  For those who are not familiar with Improv Everywhere, it's coordinated by them.  Though I wasn't placed in New York for my field work for the Guide, I found out that the group had organized an MP3 Experiment for Chicago.  Which was perfect.  This is just some of the craziness that can ensue from an MP3 Experiment:

 So I had no idea what to expect.  After a couple hastily sent text messages, I had three friends to go with me to Millennium Park, all accompanied by our own MP3 players, having donned blue and yellow t-shirts.  At precisely 1:30 PM, we were sitting near the Bean and pressed "play."  For the next half an hour, we were lead by our omnipotent voice "Steve" through a series of activities that included stretching out, waving to other participants, giving the thumbs up to people who were just watching, walking around and freezing for one minute, playing a game of "follow the person who's not participating," hug inanimate objects, animals and other participants, engage in a spontaneous thumb war, power nap for 15 seconds, and journey to the field where concerts are held under the guise of finger mustaches.  Once at the field, we created a gigantic human dart board.  The dart board was gigantic, not the humans.  All the people in red t-shirts created the bulleseye, then they were surrounded by the greens and then the blues.  I was in yellow, so I got to be a dart and try to get as close as I could to the bullseye.  I made it to the border between green and red, and then we played a version of squished up "Twister," using each other as the dots on the board.  Then we were instructed to play Freeze Tag, and yellows were "it" first.  Somehow my MP3 player had gotten ahead of everyone else's, so I had a good five second headstart when I was "it".  After Freeze Tag, we had a 15 second power nap in the middle of the field, and then we had a slow motion celebration, running around, giving high fives and hugs...all in slow motion.  It was pretty much the highlight of my summer so far, which probably isn't saying much, it was definitely a once in a lifetime thing, and I'm glad to say that I did it!  ---- Field Agent 425830

 The Guide goes on to explain the origin of flash mobs and "urban pranks" as well as the wonders of brainwashing.  The Guide hypothesizes that a person could conceivably stage a coup merely by instructing people via an MP3 track to do ridiculous or subversive things.  And then the Guide digresses and disappears into a puff of distraction.

Pirates or Ninjas?

Q:  So.  Pirates or ninjas?

A:  Okay, so.  Back in the day when Pirates of the Caribbean first came out, I couldn't care less about pirates.  I knew about the whole skull and crossed bones thing, the raid, pillage and plunder thing, the wooden leg, eyepatch and parrot thing, but that was about it.  I had been on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney Land a couple times, and that's still about it.

I didn't even want to see the movie because I thought that it would be super creepy.  I'm not really a fan of scary movies, and when I saw the trailer while at the theatre for another movie, the whole "not really dead" skeleton thing was a little much.  I was pretty much convinced that I would have nightmares if I saw the movie.  Somehow, that must have passed, because I went to see the movie in theatres.  And I pretty much fell in love with it.  When I met one of my best friends from high school, I learned that falling in love wasn't nearly as crazy as you could get when it came to Pirates.  She had dressed up as Jack Sparrow for Halloween, owned multiple t-shirts sporting skulls, wore hoop earrings every now and again, and planned on getting an Aztec gold coin someday if her brother could swing the cost to purchase a replica.

Being around her made me a lot more excited about pirates in general.  So I picked up books that were about pirates or had pirates in them.  I'm pretty sure I read about half a dozen books about pirates during that phase of my life.  All fictional, of course.  But I also Google searched so I could learn about the Jolly Roger and other pirate flags.  (Did you know that each pirate captain had his own signature flag?  But they didn't fly their colors unless they were about to take a ship.)  I took quizzes which told me what my pirate name would be.  And I anxiously awaited the second movie after it was announced.  I did not, however, go to see The Pirate Queen when it came to town, I drew the line there.  Even though it looked like a decent show, I was iffy about it, but I digress.

In short, all through high school, I would answer your question with "pirate."  Actually, up until this year, I would unabashedly answer with "pirate."  This year, however, one of my residents is training me to be a ninja. I suspect that she hopes to convert me from piracy, but pirate is in my blood, mate, and she'll have to square with that some day.  Perhaps on the day when I advance to full ninja level, my true pirate nature will reveal itself.  Or hopefully not.  Because if it doesn't, I can use those ninja secrets so I might become a pinja.  Or a nirate.

The short answer is "pirate."  Because I know even less about ninjas.  I haven't read anything about ninjas, and yes, they're pretty amazing, but I'm not impressed.  Ninjas are assassins, if I'm understanding this correctly, but pirates are the rebels of their time.  Sure, a good deal of them died out from scurvy or were run through with a rusty cutlass, but they dedicated their lives to the sea.  Sometimes the sea took their lives, but it just sounds so romantic.  Yes, dirty, icky, bearded men sailing around the open sea is romantic, get used to it.  I just don't see the romance in ninjas.

Thank you, Google, for helping me find this.
Fun fact, this is actually the flag of John Rackham or Calico Jack.

P.S. I apologize for neglecting Poetry Friday, yesterday was a really hectic day what with class and my friend coming in to visit, and a staff meeting, etc.  So I might make it up this weekend, elsewise there just won't be a poem read this week.

"Pirates could happen to anyone."

- Tom Stoppard

Take Me Out to the Movies

Q: So.  What do you think about movies?

A: I love movies.  A lot.  Mostly because I grew up with them.  When I was little, maybe I was around 8, or maybe a little younger, I can't remember, my family used to go to my grandparents' lake house at Little Swan Lake.  I remember it being the most exciting part of my summer because we would all pile into the car for the long drive, my brother and I each getting a separate bench in our family's gray mini van.  Though I don't remember what time we left, we always got to the lake house in the dark because we'd have to be careful so we didn't trip over the gravel driveway or the shallow steps leading up to the door.  How this relates to movies?  Well, my uncle had left his boxed set of the Star Wars trilogy at the lake house, and my mother (being the nerd she is) introduced us to Star Wars very early in our lives.  I remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching Darth Vader enter the Rebel ship for the first time in Star Wars: A New Hope.  If I remember correctly, the carpet was sulfur yellow.

But it didn't stop there.  My mother continued to introduce us (us being myself and my brother) to movies that we still hold dear now.  Mostly trilogies, and mostly from the 80s, bringing us to Back to the Future and Indiana Jones.

Part of the reason (I think) I'm so drawn to movies is also because when I was so young, we went to my grandparents' house a lot.  My grandparents on my father's side.  There in the basement of cold tile, stale cigarette smoke and the laundry room was the most extensive collection of movies I had ever encountered.  Right next to Blockbuster or the little drug store that used to be down the street.  In those days they were all VHS (my grandpa has since then updated to DVD), and I remember going down there with my brother and just looking through all of them.  Mom would come with and we would pick out movies that we wanted to see.  That's how we ended up seeing Indiana Jones and Back to the Future, if I'm not mistaken.  We would take the movies we wanted to borrow upstairs to Grandma, and she wrote down the titles so we wouldn't forget that we had them.  She said that it was like we were renting the movies and we had to remember to bring them back.  And my grandma has the smallest handwriting I know.  Aside from my one friend, but that's another story.  My grandma's handwriting looks literally like a spider strung out its web and curled it around just a little bit to form words.  So basically my brother and I couldn't read it back in the day, but we trusted her.

When I got older, I continued to re-watch the same three trilogies and branch out into other 80s classics including (but not limited to): Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ghostbusters and The Blues Brothers.  And by the time I got to high school, I considered myself at least semi-knowledgeable on all things movie related.  Well, movie quote related.  As it turns out, I wasn't the hotshot that I thought I was, so I needed to watch more movies, leading to my Watch Before I Die list of movies.  By senior year of high school, I was in a Cinematography class.  Not only were we taught how to make movies and clap the clapboard at the appropriate moments, but we learned about the elements of cinematography and what (artistically) makes a good movie.  I absorbed as much as I could in that single semester, and now I  can't watch a pretty movie (like American Beauty or The Hangover, bet you never thought you'd see those two movies mentioned together...) without gasping, "CINEMATOGRAPHY!"  I kid you not.  I do that.  A lot.  I'm sure my friends get annoyed.  Ah well.

What's weird is that those people who seem closest to the movie fanatics in my life are actually the furthest away from movies themselves.  My grandma, for instance, doesn't watch movies.  She also doesn't read books, but that's another thing entirely.  My dad also doesn't really watch movies.  This is weird to me because if my parents were all about movies, I would be all over them so that I had something to relate to them about.  That, and my mom likes movies so much, I don't understand...did my dad ever take my mom to the movies?!  I wonder...

Q: So what was the last movie you watched?

A: Branching out from my usual 80s movie/chick flick/Netflix Instant Watch, I watched King Kong.  That's right, the 1933 original.  Because I'm just that awesome.

Thank you, Google!

I was watching it for research, actually.  And I have determined that the Loch Ness Monster only appears for a good 5 minutes, tops.  The movie itself was pretty good, this coming from a girl who was raised on decent special effects mostly hailing from the 1980s and being based on Star Wars.  Anyway, the battle against the T-Rex could have been shortened, and Ann Darrow REALLY needed to stop screaming for 10 seconds, but it was definitely worth watching.  I enjoyed it.

"You know what your problem is, it's that you haven't seen enough movies - all of life's riddles are answered in the movies."

- Steve Martin