Snippets
So I had toast this morning. My toaster is a wimp and usually only gets the bread slightly stiff, nothing near what would normally be considered "toast," and then doesn't even let me toast it again. But this morning when I again pushed the button on the toaster, it stayed down. Yay, right?
But I also have a wonky fire alarm. So when did I know my bread reached toasty perfection? When the fire alarm went off.
*
I fell asleep around 1 a.m., and woke up 3 hours later and couldn't get back to sleep. So I am up very unusually early, which my dad seemed impressed with when he panicked ran over to check out the fire alarm. (Me: "Now we know it works!")
I was struggling earlier with the age-old question: "To go back to bed and wake up at, like, 5 p.m., or to try to stay up all day and likely be incoherent and sarcastic and bleary-eyed?" Considering it is now 8 a.m., and while I feel an undercurrent of "mmmmmm sleeeeeep", I am fully awake and functional. So. Staying up it is.
*
I mentioned my friend's Oscar pool a few days ago. Well, I was thrilled to find out that I tied with four people for 6th place!! ^.^ So paying attention to the hype and voting on who I thought would win worked. Intriguing. I'll have to try that strategy again in the future. ;)
*
One of my ongoing goals is to watch more movies, and it's one at which I always fail miserably. A couple of times of year I might go on a movie spree where I rent 5 or so and watch them all in one week, but inevitably the number of movies I would like to see far outstrips the number of movies I actually see. I do admit I am complicit in this failure.
In residence in first year grad school, I had access to around 50 recent and popular movies (which you could borrow for free from the res desk) and didn't take advantage of it at all. My floormates would regularly watch 1-2 of these movies a week, and I would usually skip these movie fests while declaring I would watch a bunch "when I got time." So time came in the form of no April exams (yay grad school!) and I marched down to the res desk, intending to watch as many of those movies as I could in the next three weeks. But the movies were no longer available. I guess they really wanted us to study during exams!. So for 7 months I could have watched those movies for free, but I fell victim to the "Oh, I'll do it later" mentality.
I learned really well on my backpacking trip that the "Oh, I'll do it later" thinking is severely flawed. Perhaps my experience was heightened while travelling, flitting from place to place to place, but I realized you can't do it later. It's like seeing the perfect photo opportunity -- like me walking into an amazing indoor shopping area in Brussels, Belgium, where the interior resembled a train station full of beautiful crystal chandeliers, and thinking that I would take a photo on the way out. But at the end of the area was an exit, and kind strangers directed my friend and me to the next place we wanted to go, and before I knew it we were gone and I was kicking myself for not taking a picture. I had many, many more experiences like that before I started catching myself and making myself listen to my gut more so I wouldn't regret missed opportunities later.
So now I'd like to think I've learned that lesson well. And, on the movie front, I'm doing pretty well! I got some video store coupons for Christmas, which I thought odd until it occurred to me I could use them to rent new releases (a rare pleasure I almost never allow myself because they are so ridiculously expensive; instead I make myself go through the older and cheaper movies, and I get frustrated with going through so many boring movies to get to the ones I'd actually want to see). Also oddly enough, my local video store has been having a nice special on since January - rent 2 new releases, get one free. So I've been renting lots of movies and loving it, and planning to just keep on going.
I saw Napolean Dynamite and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle yesterday, and La grande séduction the night before. I have another rental, White Chicks, that I'll watch tonight, and I'm going to see Million Dollar Baby in the theatre Thursday with my exstepmom (belated birthday celebration -- see? I DID have a birthday week! :D).
As for reviews, which no one will read, because this is way too fucking long, here you go:
Napolean Dynamite:
Um. That's my review right there: "Um."
I really really was looking forward to this, and heard that some people loved it, and some thought it was really weird. And I was expecting the weirdness, I really was. But this just exploded all over my expectations. It was really awkward and painful and strange. Are they in, like, grade 7? (No, they're definitely in high school.) This must be set in the 70s, right? (Nope. Two characters are trying to go back in time to 1982 and have bought a time machine over the internet.)
I actually stopped the movie after the first half an hour to have supper. My 13-year-old brother went on and on about how amazing the movie was (he loved the randomness), while I said I now understood why my 16-year-old brother and his girlfriend had no interest in watching the whole thing (they'd seen bits and pieces of the movie and just about went green when I invited them to watch it with me yesterday). So maybe the break did me good, because I enjoyed the second half of the movie much better. There were a number of times I laughed out loud (especially at the cow and the schoolkids) and I really liked the characters of Deb and La Fawnda.
Overall, I think what I liked best was the fact that even the cool kids were unthinkably lame. Which is refreshing and more realistic than most movies.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle:
This is another movie I've really been wanting to see, and it met my expectations. I loved it for the most part - it was hilarious and outrageous, a great stoner film, but there were parts that were a little too ridiculous even for me (the boil-covered truck driver, the cheetah ride). It was nice to see them poke fun at racial stereotypes, though gender stereotypes remained firmly in place. And if White Castle is indeed a real restaurant, that's a genius bit of product placement. Sigh. But overall it was a lot of fun for a light, cheesy, teen(/20-something) flick.
La grande séduction (Seducing Dr. Lewis in English; no that's not a literal translation, heh):
I loved this movie. It's very solid, lighthearted and fun, and a great example of how Quebec differs from English Canada. I kept saying "Only in Quebec!" at all the sexual innuendo and people would laugh. (A child watching his parents have sex; a night scene showcasing an entire town's orgasmic screams and then sighs of delight.) I was also excited by the CanCon (Canadian content) which I so rarely see in movies. ("Ooh, look, Canada Post!")
This movie was very successful in Quebec last year, on par with the Oscar-winning The Barbarian Invasions/Les Invasions barbares. According to the Globe and Mail I read today, it's the ninth top-grossing film of all time in Quebec. I highly recommend you check it out!
(Yes, it has English subtitles. In fact, I found that a lot of fun. Usually when I watch subtitled movies I just read the text and don't pay much attention to the spoken dialogue. But my French has progressed to the point where I can understand most of what the characters are saying - which was interesting when the translation wasn't the greatest or when the line was delivered in a way completely different than what I expected.)
*
See what happens when I don't sleep? I ramble. (Great, NOW I want to go back to bed...)
But I also have a wonky fire alarm. So when did I know my bread reached toasty perfection? When the fire alarm went off.
*
I fell asleep around 1 a.m., and woke up 3 hours later and couldn't get back to sleep. So I am up very unusually early, which my dad seemed impressed with when he panicked ran over to check out the fire alarm. (Me: "Now we know it works!")
I was struggling earlier with the age-old question: "To go back to bed and wake up at, like, 5 p.m., or to try to stay up all day and likely be incoherent and sarcastic and bleary-eyed?" Considering it is now 8 a.m., and while I feel an undercurrent of "mmmmmm sleeeeeep", I am fully awake and functional. So. Staying up it is.
*
I mentioned my friend's Oscar pool a few days ago. Well, I was thrilled to find out that I tied with four people for 6th place!! ^.^ So paying attention to the hype and voting on who I thought would win worked. Intriguing. I'll have to try that strategy again in the future. ;)
*
One of my ongoing goals is to watch more movies, and it's one at which I always fail miserably. A couple of times of year I might go on a movie spree where I rent 5 or so and watch them all in one week, but inevitably the number of movies I would like to see far outstrips the number of movies I actually see. I do admit I am complicit in this failure.
In residence in first year grad school, I had access to around 50 recent and popular movies (which you could borrow for free from the res desk) and didn't take advantage of it at all. My floormates would regularly watch 1-2 of these movies a week, and I would usually skip these movie fests while declaring I would watch a bunch "when I got time." So time came in the form of no April exams (yay grad school!) and I marched down to the res desk, intending to watch as many of those movies as I could in the next three weeks. But the movies were no longer available. I guess they really wanted us to study during exams!. So for 7 months I could have watched those movies for free, but I fell victim to the "Oh, I'll do it later" mentality.
I learned really well on my backpacking trip that the "Oh, I'll do it later" thinking is severely flawed. Perhaps my experience was heightened while travelling, flitting from place to place to place, but I realized you can't do it later. It's like seeing the perfect photo opportunity -- like me walking into an amazing indoor shopping area in Brussels, Belgium, where the interior resembled a train station full of beautiful crystal chandeliers, and thinking that I would take a photo on the way out. But at the end of the area was an exit, and kind strangers directed my friend and me to the next place we wanted to go, and before I knew it we were gone and I was kicking myself for not taking a picture. I had many, many more experiences like that before I started catching myself and making myself listen to my gut more so I wouldn't regret missed opportunities later.
So now I'd like to think I've learned that lesson well. And, on the movie front, I'm doing pretty well! I got some video store coupons for Christmas, which I thought odd until it occurred to me I could use them to rent new releases (a rare pleasure I almost never allow myself because they are so ridiculously expensive; instead I make myself go through the older and cheaper movies, and I get frustrated with going through so many boring movies to get to the ones I'd actually want to see). Also oddly enough, my local video store has been having a nice special on since January - rent 2 new releases, get one free. So I've been renting lots of movies and loving it, and planning to just keep on going.
I saw Napolean Dynamite and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle yesterday, and La grande séduction the night before. I have another rental, White Chicks, that I'll watch tonight, and I'm going to see Million Dollar Baby in the theatre Thursday with my exstepmom (belated birthday celebration -- see? I DID have a birthday week! :D).
As for reviews, which no one will read, because this is way too fucking long, here you go:
Napolean Dynamite:
Um. That's my review right there: "Um."
I really really was looking forward to this, and heard that some people loved it, and some thought it was really weird. And I was expecting the weirdness, I really was. But this just exploded all over my expectations. It was really awkward and painful and strange. Are they in, like, grade 7? (No, they're definitely in high school.) This must be set in the 70s, right? (Nope. Two characters are trying to go back in time to 1982 and have bought a time machine over the internet.)
I actually stopped the movie after the first half an hour to have supper. My 13-year-old brother went on and on about how amazing the movie was (he loved the randomness), while I said I now understood why my 16-year-old brother and his girlfriend had no interest in watching the whole thing (they'd seen bits and pieces of the movie and just about went green when I invited them to watch it with me yesterday). So maybe the break did me good, because I enjoyed the second half of the movie much better. There were a number of times I laughed out loud (especially at the cow and the schoolkids) and I really liked the characters of Deb and La Fawnda.
Overall, I think what I liked best was the fact that even the cool kids were unthinkably lame. Which is refreshing and more realistic than most movies.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle:
This is another movie I've really been wanting to see, and it met my expectations. I loved it for the most part - it was hilarious and outrageous, a great stoner film, but there were parts that were a little too ridiculous even for me (the boil-covered truck driver, the cheetah ride). It was nice to see them poke fun at racial stereotypes, though gender stereotypes remained firmly in place. And if White Castle is indeed a real restaurant, that's a genius bit of product placement. Sigh. But overall it was a lot of fun for a light, cheesy, teen(/20-something) flick.
La grande séduction (Seducing Dr. Lewis in English; no that's not a literal translation, heh):
I loved this movie. It's very solid, lighthearted and fun, and a great example of how Quebec differs from English Canada. I kept saying "Only in Quebec!" at all the sexual innuendo and people would laugh. (A child watching his parents have sex; a night scene showcasing an entire town's orgasmic screams and then sighs of delight.) I was also excited by the CanCon (Canadian content) which I so rarely see in movies. ("Ooh, look, Canada Post!")
This movie was very successful in Quebec last year, on par with the Oscar-winning The Barbarian Invasions/Les Invasions barbares. According to the Globe and Mail I read today, it's the ninth top-grossing film of all time in Quebec. I highly recommend you check it out!
(Yes, it has English subtitles. In fact, I found that a lot of fun. Usually when I watch subtitled movies I just read the text and don't pay much attention to the spoken dialogue. But my French has progressed to the point where I can understand most of what the characters are saying - which was interesting when the translation wasn't the greatest or when the line was delivered in a way completely different than what I expected.)
*
See what happens when I don't sleep? I ramble. (Great, NOW I want to go back to bed...)