Last night, I went to see The Artist, and OMG I LOVED IT SO MUCH. Not only is it a marvelous film in its own right, but the experience of watching it is quite fascinating. The entire movie is silent, though with a great soundtrack and a sparing use of those old-timey intertitles to show dialogue. You really have to pay attention in a totally ( Read more... )

1. Lovely day! A friend invited me to see Red Riding: 1974, the first of the trilogy that was on Channel 4 in the U.K. and in theaters here. ( A few non-spoilery reactions to the movie. )

Well. I am officially halfway through the school year. Overall, it's been a fairly good one -- certainly better than last year. The past week was quite a challenge, though. The next time someone jokes/snarks about how many vacations teachers get, I'll challenge them to spend the week before winter break with a hundred and fifty 11-12 year olds ( Read more... )

1. As I've mentioned before, I'm currently taking one of three classes needed for ESOL certification. It's touted as "graduate-level", and it meets every Monday evening for four hours. The school district offers the class for free, and there's no real consequence if I fail or drop out. All voluntary. So why the hell is the instructor making me ( Read more... )

Roland Emmerich owns my disaster-movie-loving soul. It's like he took the best parts of Independence Day, but this time it's wacky ancient Mayans blowing shit up instead of wacky aliens! World-famous landmarks get destroyed while about-to-die people gawk at the oncoming dooooom even though they should be running for their pitiful lives! Except ( Read more... )

I think I'll kick things off this year by talking about some books and movies I've seen/read recently. No spoilers in any of these -- just general reactions!

Books:
( The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell )

Just got home from seeing Juno -- and on the correct night! Didn't fall madly in love, but it's a cute movie. Mostly, it makes me want to pull out my Arrested Development DVDs.* I did score a cute promo t-shirt that's like the HS shirt Michael Cera's character wears; however, it's a medium, and my cleavage is ... not a medium. (A curse, not a ( Read more... )

Had a bit of a scare earlier! While hanging out with a friend, I tried a sip of the smoothie she'd brought with her. The package had said it was made with berries, but it turned out to have some banana in it. ( Me and my banana allergy. )

This afternoon, I headed to Publix for baking supplies, and of course I forgot to get some butter. The woman in front of me at checkout bought three fresh lobsters for a total of $97. Wow. I had to restrain myself from boggling. I'm finally at a place in my life where I'm making a decent income -- at least, for a public school teacher. Still, ( Read more... )

One of the amusing side-effects of Adderall is that it makes me want to clean. Given my usual tendency toward mess, that alone is worth the price of the prescription. (Amusing aside: did you know that the generic version of Adderall is simply called "Amphetamine Salts"? I have prescription speed! Whee!) It also helped me sit through TWO movies ( Read more... )