Mandy's Art Studio: V

Okay, this is stuff that I did in class last year. I have to say, I hate working in class. As you see, much of it is only partially completed. I love drapery, I hate faces. And I give you one guess which one of these was the "imagination" project. Draw anything, she said. Oh, and these are pretty large scale things. Not small.

Daemon Generator!

To give input on my personality, and whether or not this is my correct daemon, go here.

Crap, I messed up and lost the HTML for my sidebar to show you my gorgeous Daemon, which means that you really have to follow that link to see my gorgeous Daemon, a lion named Zotius.

And...

I'm all done. I'll wait to hear that everyone else is finished until saying anything. Anne isn't getting her book until Tuesday, so this could be a while. And Ben K doesn't really care about it, so he might spend a couple of weeks, reading a bit before bed every night...yeah, I'm going to say that there's an expiration time on my not talking about the book. Next Sunday, I'm going to start talking about it, though I'll warn that Harry Potter talking is about to happen, so have no fear, just feel left out.

I can tell I'm on the pudgy side 'cause I feel really strong and muscular. That's the extra pudge lying to me.

Well, here's some news that not everyone has heard. I've found someone to take over my lease for next year, so I won't be living with my freshman roomie, her boyfriend, and Tim next year. I'm finding a new place kind of difficult to lay hands on, and after some weeks of no luck, I've submitted an application to the residence office, to see if there's an empty room available. Chances are there is not, but no harm trying. I have to admit that I find the idea of going back on campus kind of...daunting.

What is it that makes mosquito bites so itchy?

I might post some art later.

ohmanohmanohman

I've been sitting around, twiddling my thumbs, thinking about the book 7 release, what word to play in Scrabble, and just what to do with myself. I've been doing this fairly often, feeling something I've been forgetting to do nagging in hte back of my mind. And just now, it hit me. Post! What have I been thinking, not posting about the inane, insignificant happenings of my life??

So here we go.

A day or two ago (no sense of time), someone pointed out to me that I titled an entry "tummy ache...too much peanut butter fudge..." or something, and then proceeded to not mention my tummy ache or peanut fudge anywhere in the entry. I laughed a little, at the expectation of such sense and reason. I believe all such expectations have since been soundly destroyed, undoubtedly to that reader's benefit.

Ben K and Sam, I started individual games of Scrabble with you in Facebook, and either neither of you have noticed, or neither wants to play. If you don't want to play, cancel the game. If you just hadn't noticed, go to the top right of your Facebook homepage and click where it says that you have new notifications. Well, actually, to cancel the game you need to go there too, so go there either way. Or just click on your Scrabulous application.

I think many will recall that before my last trip to Ohio, I tiled a countertop, but never grouted it. Well, last week (or sometime) I fiiiinally got around to doing it. The grout was an apoxy, which I was kind of leery of using. Leery? Anyways, my ...leeriness... turned out to be correct. A little while after I started applying the grout, it became increasingly apparent that this countertop was completely ruined.

Here I am in the process of ruining the countertop

And here it is, ruined.
Luckily, I'm slow and inefficient, and only covered a little more than half of the countertop in my first go, so there's a little that has been salvaged. Dad bought some regular grout, and I've been grouting that little that remains without a hitch.

For the first time, I understand the way Julie feels towards chicken. Jennie's been cooking up some excellent meals, and two so far have contained boned chicken. And, for some reason that is entirely unconnected with Jennie's cooking (seriously), as I cut into the chicken and eat it, I am just grossed out. I'm so repelled that I can't eat it; I've had to throw my chicken out.

The camera case that I had was all bulky and thick, with a pocket on the front. It took my slim camera and made it cumbersome. So I thought, why not knit it a soft little case? While rummaging around in the basement, I found this button which I thought was really cute, and went well with my yarn. And here is the end product. It's a little stretchy, and I'm tempted to do it again just to perfect it, but I like it.

Well, in the morning, I'll stand in line, buy the Harry Potter book (if she doesn't run out), and there will be no more. That will be it. I just seriously hope that I like this book. There's an awful feeling in my stomach, though, that I won't. Wish me luck!! I don't think any of us should post about it until we've all said that we've read it. :-P Nah, go ahead, but warn me! Oh my goodness, Itens, you must be reading it right now. Don't tell me, Jaime, don't tell me!!!!!

The former countdown on this blog reminds me of Lost, flicking through all of the numbers. We just need some hieroglyph action.

Not Quite Simpsons Me

tummy ache...too much peanut butter fudge...

I hope there are Harry Potter conventions. And then you and I are going to them, Jaime. We can wear capes.

I'll go out into the woods and make you a wand. That's what I should do. I'll become a wand maker, like Ollivander, but less creepy. Everyoen can specify their wood, length, core, and how springy or firm it is. Of course, there will be no core, so you can just have fun imagining, and I don't know the different trees, adn will honestly just pick a twig up from off the ground, so you'll just be in the dark about what wood it is. So really, the only thing you can pick will be length and how slender/thick it is. I'll be taking orders. :)

I went to the local book store two days ago. Calais didn't have a book store in that year that I lived here. WalMart was as close as Calais came to selling books, and even for a WalMart, our WalMart's book selection was skimpy. Anyways. Shortly after I left, this woman opened up shop, originally named Calais Bookstore. For an area like Calais, this store is a true gem. The woman is competent, enjoys talking about books, and has a reading group once a month. I found an adorable little hardback copy of Jane Eyre when I went in.

Anyways, you all know what I was actually in that bookstore for. I asked her about her shipment of Harry Potter books. She isn't doing any presales, and is ordering a limited supply, and won't be reordering after those sell out. :( Booh. So I will be there Saturday morning, waiting her to open her doors, doubtlessly with lots of little kids waiting with me. I hope I can get one!

There is a Q-Tip

on my bathroom floor. It's been there for quite some time. It sits there, not explaining itself, and not moving.
I got in my car at night, turned on the lights, and as I turned on the road, noticed that the lighting on my dashboard was really dim. I turned my lights off and back on really quickly, to see if they would come on full power, but on the contrary, this time they were entirely dark, and I couldn't see a thing on the dashboard. A minute of worried fidgeting around with my light pull thing later, and I realized with relief and chagrin that the light pull thing rotates, and this controls the dashboard lighting. Silly me! But still, that was a mildly worrying moment.

I really, really hate the phone. It's not as though I used to chatter away on the phone and then became a recluse once IMing became common. You know how there's a time when you're supposed to get chatty and chummy with a friend and talk on the phone a lot or something? The rise of IMing in popularity coincided nicely with me coming to that age, and I completely bypassed the phone altogether. If you call me, sure, I'll chat and enjoy it, but don't be offended when I never call you, and when I give a rude, abrupt, ungraceful ending to a conversation. "Well, okay, yeah, I'm going. Loveyoubye!"

I've mistyped Brad's blog address a couple of times, as blogpsot instead of blogspot. Coincidentally (?), it takes you to web site on "...Bible, Christian and religious information and studies. By God's mercy, one of the largest Bible-centered sites on the web." Hallelujah. Anyways, I just found that coincidence amusing.

Well, Harry Potter's release date has come and gone, and I still haven't seen the movie. Feel free to post about it, everyone. It's not as though there can be any spoilers. I have to say, I'm pretty excited for Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, and I hope they make Umbridge's character as evil as she ought to be!

nothing.

Ben K may dislike it when Netflix thinks he won't like something as much, but I'm taking the glass is half full approach. When I see that they think I'm going to like a movie less than the average viewer, I get warm fuzzies.

Just saw Transformers. Let me first say that I do not have the wonderful background that it seems just abotu anyone ten years older than me does. The bottom line of Transformers: Fun. See it in a theater, 'cause I just don't think it'd be the same if you only have a basic home theater system. Whatever you do, don't go see it for the acting or writing.

Well, the time has come, the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is being released. For those of you who see it, please don't talk about it too much, 'cause I won't be seeing it until Thursday at the earliest. For those of you who are in Ohio, and don't feel an intense urge to see it as soon as possible, wait for me!! That's right, I'm coming to Ohio July 30th, only twenty days away, and I'm happy to see it as many times as I can make it to the theater. So feel free to wait and have a grand outing. :-P

I want to say interesting things in my blog, but at the moment I just can't stop playing Final Fantasy I. This is horrifying and sad.

Dream Babble

First off. For those who didn’t happen to go to dinner with us at… the SantaCafe, in Santa Fe, there was a thrilling part of the evening that I think perhaps only Brad and I appreciated. While waiting for our table, staring at the well in the floor that you could walk on (thanks to thick plastic covering it), a man who was certainly no waiter came in to show us to our table. Truly, my jaw dropped upon seeing him. And anyone familiar with Final Fantasy would have been equally (perhaps more so) shocked. This man had incredibly long silver hair, bound in a loose ponytail, with spiky bits around his face. His face itself was angular, and he was very tall and lanky. His clothes, while technically normal, were very chic distressed, but his jacket emphasized really sharp, broad shoulders and a slim waist.

What I’m saying is, Sephiroth had walked into the room.

Seriously.

Jennie and I are having a weigh off while she’s in Connecticut. Results will be determined once she’s back. This should be fun.

I really enjoy listening to NPR while working around the house. It’s so perfect, and I’m really enjoying it. I looove Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. I listened to Fresh Air some, but found the topics of some shows…drab. Or the people who were talking about them made them drab. So I default to the amusing and lighthearted Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. Give me recommendations for other NPR shows to watch. ‘Cause I really don’t know anything about them.

I love, when playing Minesweeper, uncovering a square that’s a seven. I say, “Ooh, seven.”

Okay, and now for the bulk of this entry. End here, all you who hate my dream babbling, ‘cause I’m not going to abbreviate this. (While, there will be some slight cropping of the story. For my privacy. ‘Cause I’m not just going to reveal absolutely everything about my dreams. Anyways.)

I’m happy that I posted that M.C. Escher quote earlier, because how true it turned out to be last night. This dream really isn’t going to make any sense, or be dramatic at all like it was in my sleep, but oh well, I will still try.

I was in Antigonish (my university’s town), and it was the night before classes were going to start. I took all my stuff to my dorm room, but after getting it in there, remembered that I had turned down on campus housing, and had no apartment, and this room must have been given to someone else by now. However, I thought, I’ll just leave my stuff here until I can find an apartment to move it all into. So, while wandering around Antigonish, looking for a place, I run into my friends Kenny and Olivia with some of their friends, and they all agree to help me find a place. Kenny and the rest get distracted by something and move on (I’m fairly certain they were drunk), but Olivia, who was wearing this cute little coat, and had a notepad and pen, continued to help me. I found three promising houses with empty rooms on St. Ninian St. (a great location) and Olivia walked with me up to the first house. It looked like it was partially run as a B&B, and was very old-fashioned old lady doily-ish. (doily? sp?)

So we knock on the door. This fortyish woman opens the door, but she ages to seventy-five as she steps onto the porch. I thought that was weird, but asked about the room. As she was talking, this old man steps outside onto the porch to see what was going on, and sat quietly listening. Olivia has been taking notes about the information the old lady has been giving this entire time. A couple of minutes later, this thirty-five year old well-dressed man in a suit (1950s-style) steps outside, with neatly combed hair, wearing thick-rimmed, black glasses. The neatly dressed man, the old lady tells us, is a serial killer, and is her nephew, but he’s a dear boy. I start getting freaked out, and Olivia is giving me weird looks. I look on the house, and there are three papers, each with one of these people’s photos on it, warning that they are very dangerous. I get more freaked out, the neatly dressed man sees this, and goes inside. The old lady says he’s probably just going to get his knife, and he’ll be back outside in a moment. So I run away from the house screaming, and Olivia slowly follows, still with a concerned look on her face.

When we are far enough away from the house, I stop running, turn to Olivia, and ask if she could believe how insane and freaky those people were. She tells me that I’m the one she’s concerned about being insane. Apparently I had walked up to that house, someone came out and was talking to me about it, and I had been hallucinating this old woman, old man, and their nephew. And she was going to have me committed to an institution, because I was insane, and she’d been taking notes to document the entire thing.

As you can imagine, I was sad to find out in my dream that I was, in fact, insane. Since when does your mind lie to you like that in your dream???? Come on.

Just before bed

I like to type in rhythm to music when I have a song in my head. Like the gummi bears song.

The questions what's up, what are you doing, and how are you all seem to mean the same thing now.

Sometimes, I feel completely sexy and beautiful and confident, and other times, I can't stand to look at myself in the mirror. It's almost a minute to minute thing.

I cannot believe how expensive bathing suits are. I'm sorry, there's just no way that I'm going to pay $98 for a one piece. Or $45 each for a bikini top and bottom.

I've downloaded Final Fantasy I, and I feel sooo cool. :) Now I have to actually play it.

Toilet Paper.

Jennie is right, the current state of the bathroom is due to kids.

And she says that adults put the toilet paper on the top of the toilet, where you have to reach behind to get it--I don't do that at all. I hate reaching back. And now I know why it keeps reappearing on top of the toilet.

Anyways. My complaint about two unfinished rolls of toilet paper is a general one, independent of the presence of kids. Why do people start new rolls of toilet paper before hte last one is finished???

Okay, after an intense debate about what the accurate time is, I need to go outside and take a breather. Wheew.

the secret of gummi-berry(beary?) juice!!

Honestly, who doesn't want their own Quidditch gear and Firebolt? I'd feel so badass. Badass-->

Beneath this cynical, mean exterior (hah), I'm a total romantic. It's so sad. I can't watch a movie with any sort of a romance plot without getting all mushy. Mush!

That gummi bear song is awesome, Jaime. Not to mention forbidding the use of any Unforgivable Curses. I laughed so hard when I read that.

Why do some people get out a new roll of toilet paper when the current one hasn't been finished? Why??? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

I like the smooth areas that frequently used keys get on keyboards.

I'm agnostic. (what a surprise!) And I get the impression that when someone who has faith in their religion is around me, and knows my views on religion, they get this look in their eye, like they're expecting me to come down hard on religion. Or like, "I'm talking about my religion, and here comes the agnostic, to criticize it." Far from it!! While I may not be subscribing to anything myself, I have such amazing respect for people who can have enough faith to be religious. I mean, people aren't stupid, they've thought about things logically, considered, pondered, had personal crises, and come through with faith. That's astounding, and I take my hat off to that feat. I do the same thing, and I fall short. Respect, yo. So if you're religious, and you know I'm agnostic, I'm not going to get up in your face, and be aggressive about things.

On a side note, for those who don't consider and ponder...I am critical of you. Sorry! :)

My blogging's been so dry, that I decided to throw a serious thought in to mix things up a bit. So, that's my serious thought. Respect for those who can have faith! Yo.

Gummi Bears...Dashing and daring, courageous and caring...Gummi Bears! Bouncing here and there and everywhere, high adventure that's beyond compare!! They are the Gummi Bears! Yes.

Dry as a bone

I have been a dry well, blogging-wise.

It's very difficult, as an immoral heathen, being around little kids who are still fresh-faced and dewey-eyed from Sunday School. When Jennie stepped on a toy, I laughed, since I had stepped on that toy so many times myself, and was called rude, immoral, and something else I can't remember by Inga. Also, my shirts are cut too low, apparently. I really don't think that I dress very immodestly, though.

Brad says that Edward Norton is an arrogant jerk, but he's is abotu as close as I come to a "celebrity crush" (except for Hugh Laurie, but that's not actually a crush). But honestly, I think I need a little arrogance with my handsome intelligence. By the end of The Illusionist, I actually found facial hair attractive. And that, my friends, is a feat. Attractive in spite of facial hair:I saw The Last Mimzy. I blame that on Wayne, and really it was such a traumatizing experience that I'm not even going to talk about it. Except to warn you away. Even your kids.

"Do you have any girl friends?"-Inga's question to me. Any time I mention a friend, she asks if it's a guy or girl.

"Why are you wearing a watch? You're a girl." -Andrei
"And only men can wear watches?"-Me
"Yes."

"I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough." -M.C. Escher <--love it

...or the little dipper?

Moments before, while sitting in the bath, some bubbles precisely formed the Big Dipper on the surface of my bath water. It's times like these that I need my camera with me.

I had nightmares last night that I was in J.Crew, and found all these things that I wanted. I took up hours of these saleswomens' time, and when Anne Marie came in to see what I was considering, everything suddenly looked hideous. So I walked out buying nothing, ashamed of my taste. :-P But seriously, the moment Anne walked in, everything transformed from cuteness into hideousness.

I'm trying out a new IMing program right now, Pidgin. I guess it's the latest version of gaim. I'm pretty torn about it, though. To some extent, I don't like how the screen names are presented. But it has my MSN and AIM contacts combined, and fun little features. Like pounce, when you can send a message you've typed earlier (or plenty of other options), when a specified contact does a specified action (like signing on, sending a message, going idle, typing, pausing in typing, etc.). It's just all very customizable, which is nice.

Irresistible, just like me

Wow, RottenTomatoes killed Evan Almighty. And I liked it. Bruce Almighty got 49% and Evan Almighty ended up 24%. Those two numbers should be switched, because even though neither one of these was a particularly good movie, I thought that Evan Almighty was eeeeasily better than Bruce Almighty. Come on, Steve Carell versus Jim Carrey???

I've had a strange hankering to play Final Fantasy I.

Last night, I had a dream that I was attending my high school graduation, and allll the people I felt really insecure around were there, making me feel insecure. And then, Ben K and I went to an Aqualung concert with some guy from work who was very sad, and I tried to get a soy chai from Starbucks, but they kept messign things up, until two hours of us waiting around later, I gave up. And a brick building was burning in the thunderstorm, there were all of these electric cars in the street, and when I was back in Maine, I couldn't get home, because there was a huge blizzard, and walls of ice were now blocking my way.

Oh. my. goodness. Two things. One: Harry Potter for the Wii. Suhweet! And apparently you can have wizard duels and everything. I wonder if Unforgivable Curses are allowed. Second: The night before last, I finally had a Hugh Laurie dream. There was this whole mysterious amnesia thing going on, and he woke up from a coma after five years, and I took him back to his apartment, which Wilson had kept for him. Fabulous dream.

I watched The Corpse Bride last night. And I liked it. Not as much as I expected to, but it was short and sweet, and had a nice story, and was wonderfully Tim Burton. My favorite thing about it: The fantastic, over the top characters. Mainly, Victoria's parents.

Inga: "Do you want to be pregnant like me?"
Yelena: "Yes!"

I'm finding it hard to not waste my days sitting on the couch reading Mansfield Park. It's irresistible!

Bum badum badum

Well, I watched Dreamgirls, and I have to say: Meh. I heard really good things about it, and was pretty excited to see it. But the plot dragged through the first half, and I didn't care at all abotu the characters until at least halfway through. The singing that was musical-y was really awkwardly done, and the songs weren't very catchy or enjoyable. Best part about the movie: Eddie Murphy did an awesome job with his character. Props. At the end, it came together a bit, and I experienced what might have been an emotion. Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike it. I was just so psyched up about it that I guess I was expecting more.

After seeing Ben and Jaime's high movie count on Netflix, I started to wonder how many movies I've actually watched. So every movie that I come across on Netflix that I've seen, I've been rating, to try and get a Movies Watched number. So far I've rated 528, and I'm pretty certain there are a lot missing yet. ... This is a sad realization that I've watched so many movies.

Actually, not at all. I love movies.

Megatokyo, a web comic I used to read (until Piro got so mushy and melodramatic a year ago) had some nice leetspeak/1337-5p34k, which can be pretty funny. This guy's character only speaks leet, and has some nice strips where he's explaining gaming tactics to Piro and Largo. I really want to get my hair cut. I had a dream last night that I was Harry Potter, attending StFX with Ron. We were fooling around, and I burned the Dark Mark tattoo on Ron's arm as a joke with my wand, accidentally summoning all the deatheaters. Dumbledore was so pissed.

A Post

A modest title, for such brilliant thoughts.

:)

I see that Blogger has added a poll option--fabulous. I didn't take the time to read on before signing in, so I don't know anything abotu the other stuff they've added. I bet that none of it is as good as the poll feature, though.

Dan, Jennie, and I watched A Conversation With Other Women. I really liked it. I felt angsty the whole time, and in the end just deflated. I liked the stitching together of the past and present, and the idea of being different women at different times. 'Cause sometimes that really feels so true. And I liked the music. I don't know if I like Aaron Eckhart, though. I do know that I like SmartPop mini bags and pickles (dill, not bread and butter--yuck!).

So, a new Batman movie is being made for 2008? And Christian Bale is once again on board? Interesting. Additional cast members: Maggie Gyllenhaal (replacing Katie Holmes), Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Anthony Michael Hall, Aaron Eckhart, and there's a rumor of William Fichtner? This sounds like a comedy. Especially when you throw in the returning Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman to the mix.

Well. I've heard that a couple of people don't know about this little watercolor of the Stanwood house. It's been sitting around in a large envelope for years, and it is still sitting in a large envelope.

It is an excellent addition to the Former Homes Series, which began with the watercolor fo the lake at the farm: I enjoy putting makeup on when no one else is going to see me. If someone comes in, I'll wipe it off really quickly, and look guilty.

Ben and Jaime, you have rated 801 movies on your Netflix account. You have rated 801 movies on your Netflix. Eight hundred. And one. Have you seen 801 movies??? Seriously??? I don't think I've seen 801 movies, and I looove movies. Approximately 1,602 hours of movie watching. Hmm...that's only about an eighth of a year. How can that be possible? Maybe I have watched 801 movies. Oh dear, I think I undoubtedly have. Really? Oh well!

I've forgotten everything that I wanted to post about.

To: Brad

From: Mandy


courtesy of xkcd at xkcd.com

Boringness

After watching Planet Earth's Ice Worlds, Dad was trying to find the last pickle at the bottom of his jar, and said with a smile:

"I feel like a polar bear hunting a pickle!"

There are a lot of really fun electric cars out there. They're inevitably all tiny and cute, and now I'm going to have to watch that film, Who Killed the Electric Car?

Meanwhile, I believe that I've found my dream scooter. I have looked at so many scooters in the last three days. And then, there it was. That old-school, Vespa look, electric, decent price range ($2,500ish?), nice color options, 45 mile range on one charge.

I've been cleaning out my room, and this may sound like a mild thing, but believe me, this is in fact MASSIVE. There were about 10 boxes full of stuff in my room. I think, because my room is in a general sort of messy condition, it can inadvertently become a dumping ground for the whole house. For instance. For the last, ohhh, fifteen years, a pair of Sam's sandals have been in my closet. They followed me from the farm, and ended up haunting my closet in Maine. But since I don't have a closet in operating condition, here, I finally chucked them. Back in Ohio, I had Jennie's white slippers that she wore at her wedding until we moved. All of the little kid gear (old cowboy boots, backpacks from daycare) and sentimental things that no one wants to get rid of, but no one wants in their room, either. I found the file for the farm's intercom system sitting on my floor, a flash for an oldschool camera, with a remote button thingie, and I only knew it was a remote button thingie when I carried it over to Dad and asked what on earth it was, Emma Hooper's Spanish Society certificate, three of Dad's shirts, two three-inch thick pieces of aluminum, three rolls of Christmas wrapping paper and two rolls of ribbon. A wooden crate full of Sam's empty CD cases. Anne's Erzulie makeup bag. A laundry basket filled with sheet music for organ, piano, and violin.

This list could go on for soooo long. So! For the first time ever, I went through everything, made an enormous mess, and sorted what would go and what would be kept. My room is beginning to resemble normalness, and getting rid of all the clutter that has been filling every corner and free space for the last...years....is really liberating. So, be warned, all ye who would enter my room. I have a hand now practiced at throwing things away.

Well, this has been enough boringness for one post.

Sitting in the dark

"It's not the smoking, Steve, it's the crapness."
-Fever Pitch (as to why Colin Firth's friend will never play Division 1 soccer)

I have, basically, scooter fever. This is absurd. I'm considering getting a motorcycle license so that I can get one more than 50cc. I can't even ride a 50cc one in Nova Scotia without a motorcycle license. Which is ridiculous. Can't even break the speed limit with that. Undoubtedly, this is a temporary insanity that will pass with a week or so, but for now I've been looking at different scooters non-stop the last two days.

I just saw Fever Pitch, the earlier one (1997) with Colin Firth and Girl with a Tiny, Tiny Mouth. GTTM was very very good at looking pissy; so good, that even when she was supposed to have softened up she still looked pissy. Sorry, GTTM. I saw the 2005 version with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore first, but I'm impressed with how well the football (Arsenal) fandom interfering with life scenario was translated over to Red Sox fandom. They stayed quite close with the 2005 version. What they did change was the bleak, depressing, realism that Nick Hornby's books have. The Jimmy Fallon Drew Barrymore one was much more bubble gum-y, with a cheesy bubblegum ending, while I don't think that normally Nick Hornby would have stood for such a thing. He didn't write hte screenplay for the 2005 one, but did for the 1997 one, and Colin Firth did a nice job of being properly...I don't know what the word is. Out of touch, maybe? Anyways, I liked it. Maybe that's just 'cause it's Colin Firth, though.

So, VeggieTales is making a new movie. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Is anyone else surprised by this? I thought that went bankrupt after...that one movie...flopped. I didn't notice anything Biblical about it, and the news article I just read said, Blah blah blah, "life lessons to a wider audience." Does that mean they're abandoning their Bibleness and going with basic morality? Kind of sad.

Perhaps instead of going dairy free for a while, I should go pop-free for a while. Is this even possible?

And I can't believe that people weren't interested in giving name ideas for Dad's potential blog address. This is an opportunity for some good fun that you're allll missing out on.

Little things

I can't stand people who don't keep a consistent speed while driving. You pass them, 'cause they're going so slowly, then, since your cruise control has been on this entire time and you know you're going the same speed, they zoom by you, then inexplicably slow down, so that you have to break to not hit them, then pass them again...and so on and so forth. Is this a sick game that I don't know about? It happens infrequently, but drives me up the wall so much each time that it deserves mention.

Saw Evan Almighty last night, and it was good for a laugh. Morgan Freeman and Steve Carell worked really well together, and Steve Carell made the movie. I'd say rent it. Thank goodness both Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston declined returning to these roles when they were offered. I actually enjoyed the previews as much as (or more than) the movie itself. Why is John Travolta playing a woman in the new movie they're making of Hairspray?? Is there something I don't know about the plot that requires this, 'cause there didn't seem to be. I'm totally going to go see that, though.

I'm considering going dairy-free for a short while. Four months? Just as a fun thing to try, not only to see if I can do it, but what it's like. What do you think, should I do it? Hmm...maybe just for a month at first. I doubt that I could hold out against cheese and ice cream for much longer than that.

I've commandeered Dad's Netflix queue to a decent extent, and some of my movies have just started arriving. For now, my movies are clogging the queue, and I'm constantly bumping Dad's down to the bottom. (Ben K, you're the only one who can see Dad's netflix queue, right? Don't judge me for my Buffy the Vampire Slayer love. ) Oooh, I really like that Netflix also gives the average rating of people who rate movies similarly, not just the average rating. That's handy.

I really really went to go to Ohio, especially during the Harry Potter movie release, but plane tickets are so expensive that that's starting to look extremely improbable right now. Ohhhh well. :(

Ninjas!!!!

June Bugs stupidly ram into the French doors nearby again and again. Until I realized that it was a June Bug, I was frightened that it was a bear or something outside.

Come on, people, would a deodorant for women that smells good be so hard to do? Men have all these properly masculine smells, but teh deodorants made for women make me think someone's just opened up a fridge filled with rotting fruit, or that I am sitting next to an old woman who can't smell when she's put on too much of her stale perfume that she used even back in 1940. It's sickly, sourly, sweet, and it just grosses me out.

I have once again bought a new deodorant with a new scent (since I'm never satisfied and so never purchase the same one twice) and am once again disappointed, in case it wasn't obvious. :) When I do get truly fed up, I just buy men's deodorant. Then, a long while later, I forget my horrible experiences, and see all those little feminine-looking deodorant sticks and think, "Well, this one seems like it could be nice..." WRONG. Grr.

This is old news, but have you guys seen the new ten dollar bill?? Radical. I love it, actually. American money is getting so colorful, and though I was fond of just having greenbacks, I think the colorfulness is really fun. Ben K handed me a ten while we were in Lowe's, and the yelp of surprise that I uttered on seeing it was red gave Ben and Anne a chuckle at how out of it I am.

I like that the colors are sort of muted, not like they're from a little kid's crayon-box.I saw The Curse of the Golden Flower last night, and, wow. Overall: An insanely beautiful movie that's pointlessly tragic because none of the motivations are explained. I spent the entire time asking, "whyyy???" Coolest thing about the movie: The ninjas!

The Ultimate Fun

Deodorant in a spray can is really the ultimate fun. Every time you put it on, it's like graffiti-ing a wall, only instead of a wall it's your underarm. Who would use stick or gel when there's spray-on? Especially guys. I can't imagine having all that hair, and then gooping it up with gel deodorant...gross.

I'm certain that this is old news to everyone, but Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame) has been performing in the play Equus since February. There's been a huge uproar, because Radcliffe appears completely naked for a decently long while. He's...eighteen or something? Seventeen, about to be eighteen. And people are freaking otu about a 17 year-old being completely naked on stage. I think: Doesn't matter at all. He's cool with it, his parents are cool with it. Granted, there is a very naked, attractive girl pressed against him in one of these pictures. That probably sweetens the deal quite a bit.

Aanyways, all that uproar aside, it's supposed to be a really good play, and word is that Radcliffe's doing a really great job in it. Based on the Harry Potter films, I honestly find that a little bit surprising. But who knows, maybe the stage is just more his thing. So, congrats to Radcliffe for an apparently successful breakthrough onto the stage. I enjoy also that Richard Griffiths is playing Radcliffe's father in the play (Griffiths plays his Uncle in HP).

Brilliant, brilliant news. Dad wants to start a blog! I think we should all give address suggestions, so that we don't end up with paterkessler.blogspot.com, or michaelkes.blogspot.com. Ideas?

I love the cereal Total. So much goodness in such a small bowl.

I got a picture of one of Bexley's albino squirrels. It would have been better, but it took forever for me to fish my camera out and turn it on. Fooorever. Are albino squirrels as common elsewhere as they are in Bexley?

And to end on a high note, I present Diabolical Evie:

Preggers Nightmares

The last two nights, I've had nightmares. Two nights ago, in my sleep, I woke up and discovered that I was seven months pregnant, and that for the last seven months I'd just been ignoring it. I think it's reasonable to say that I was freaking out. I hadn't read any books on labor or how to take care of a baby, didn't know what to do with a dipaer, and most importantly, I hadn't changed any of my lifestyle behavior for the first seven months--picture allll that pop with alll that caffeine that I drink everyday. Yikes. So in this first dream, I was just freaking out about having a baby in general.

Last night, I wake up in my dream and discover that a full week ahead of my due date, my water has broken. I still haven't read any books about what to expect during labor or anything, and for some reason this lack or preparation is really really really freaking me out. Meanwhile, I'm being carted off to some absolutely terrifying looking delivery room (looked more like an operating room with veyr rusty tools), and the father, himself young, hasn't arrived, and when he does is more freaked out by the situation, and goes to hang out with his parents in the waiting room. I don't know anyone around me, don't have a birth plan, and a nurse is already getting ready to give me an epidural--what??? For some reason, I hadn't even started to feel the contractions yet, and this nurse was busting out the epidural already. Anyways, jump ahead in time, and I'm holding what basically looks like a huge larva wrapped in blankets, and have no idea what to do with it.

I truly hope that there are no follow-up dreams to this.

Ohio in Pictures (abridg.)

No, Ben, I do not post as well standing up, because I am laaazy.

I'm almost afraid to look at the stats for my blog, because undoubtedly everyone has jumped ship due to the lack of postiness. Fear not!, though, for I am back in Maine, and my free time now abounds. Good thing: My camera is around here somewhere. Bad thing: I don't know ehre that somewhere is. But now I do, problem solved.

I've been rereading Harry Potter in anticipation of the latest movie coming out. As well as the book. I've spent...basically the last ten years of my life (that's almost half of it) waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out. I can't imagine what it's going to be like once the seventh comes out and there' sno more expectation. I hope Rowling caves to a desire for more money, and writes prequels: Dumbledore's Story, Dumbledore as a Young Man, The Story of Lily and James, and The Story of Lily and James II: Their Unfortunate and Predictable Death.

I have 159 photos from the two weeks I just spent in Ohio. Evie helped with that, though, by taking photos of everyone's backs. She's going to end up a controversial cutting edge photographer/modern dancer/comedian. Endless Diet Pepsi: Good. Endless is actually a bit of a stretch. But honestly, this 24-pack should hold for the night.

I already talked about visiting Brad in LA, right? So I only have to cover Ohio...I think...

Okay, this will be pictorial, 'cause I'm not actually going to cover everything. Captions only.

My first day in Ohio, Jenny, Emma, and I went to The Flavors Eatery, which is new in Bexley. We went in for lunch, and came out six hours later. Jenny's now off on a spectacular European adventure, and Emma had just returned from one. I see Emma really really rarely, so I laughed when I ran into her again in Panera, ....and then again in Northstar cafe.

Grandma and Grandpa Callahan celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and we had a little family picnic out in some park.

Ben K, Anne, and I went to the Columbus Arts Festival. It was very hot and crowded, and we zoomed straight through it, but on the way had a very delicious snack of fried pickles.

Ben K and I took care of a friend's dog, Lewis. Lewis loves to slobber and push roughly past people. All that sawdust is from the mess we made putting wainscoting up in Ella's new nursery. Wish I had a picture of the final product...Ben K.... Oh! Enlarge this picture to observe my kickass new shoes. I'm so in love with them... thats' the real reason this picture is up here.

Ben K and his friends are in a casual band, which played at a little cafe in Victorian Village.

We got to hang out with Ben I, Jaime, Moira, and Evie a lot. Which was fabulous. Here is Evie's beautiful portrait of Ben and Jaime.

Shannon, my cousin, graduated while were there. Congratulations! In this is Anne, Shannon, Lauren, and Morgan. Sister, cousin, cousin, cousin.

My last two days in Ohio, Julie and Ella returned from Ireland (Julie's cousin Laura as well, who is very nice), and I got to play with Ella, who is so good humored, it's amazing.

And that, my friends, is a very abbreviated version of Ohio in Pictures. More pictures from the trip will be popping up in later posts, I'm sure.

Soon, my friends,soon

Tonight is my last night in Ohio. Tomorrow afternoon, I depart for that woodland realm known as Maine. Very eastern and mostly northern Maine. Ah, what joys. And once I'm safely ensconced inside, sitting at my computer, and watching nature outside while not actually interacting with it at all, I will post about my trip. Pictures will abound. I might actually have to do a couple of installments just to handle the quantity. I might actually not talk about my entire trip, to handle the quantity another way. Yeah, probabl ythat way. Anyways, wish me luck flying, and no missing of layovers. Will be up and posting again soon!

Aah, nostalgia

While taking a break from painting the attic at Ben and Julie's house, and eating my reheated Beef LoMein, I thought I'd post. I'm in Ohio, and a lot has happened. When I'm not at a computer that requires me to stand up to use it (Ben) I'll provide a full update.

For now, though, let me just talk about who I saw the other day. This will probably only make a real impact for Anne and Ben K, and I already told Ben K, so, ...Anne! While walking back from the front of the high school, there was a little cluster of kids sitting on the ground listening to someone talking. I coul deasliy hear that this one adult was more like shouting, or barking, at the little kids. I wondered who would talk to a group of such little kids so meanly, so peeked over (I stare blatantly) as I walked by.

The woman who was seated in front of these kids had faded red hair, sticking up in crazy bunches, and wore black and white striped knee-high socks, pulled all the way up. It was Candace!!

For those who don't know, Candace directed (directed?) children's plays every summer for the Bexley Recreation Department or something. One time, Anne played my Mom in the Pied Piper of Hamelin; I was one of the kids the piper took to his cave. Another time, I was an evil stepsister in Cinderella. I was also Abu in Aladdin. And...I think we did The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever, and I was one of the boys from the family of bad kids. Candace was just this hurricane, this constant storm of yelling. Famously, I remember Candace throwing her shoe...don't remember who it was directed at, though.

Anyways, I'm just amazed that, at least fifteen years later, I should see her again, acting exactly the same way, doing the same thing, and looking only slightly more faded.

Wow, I've found her online. I hope she doesn't google herself. Anyways, here's a picture of her that doesn't do her justice at all:
My friend, Wayne, plays a lot of World of Warcraft, and he talks about it a bit. But I've never heard him say anything as funny as what he just said:
wayne hearts pie (11:44:23 pm): I'm standing around in WoW impressing people with my new dragon, I'm pretty damn cool.

Ramblings: Brad's at Work Edition

Painting my toenails is hard for me, because I sit cross-legged almost constantly.

You would expect LA to be a fairly warm place. When you think of Ohio or, say, MAINE, you might expect those places to be a little bit colder than LA, at least. That, however, is not the case at all. Ohio's almost hitting the 90s, Maine's in the 70s, and Brad's little town of El Segundo is in the mid-60s.

I love chap stick, and I love pop, but I hate that when you're wearing chap stick, it accumulates right where you drink from your pop can. Builds into a sticky mass of chap stickiness. Gross. So I sacrifice the chap stick.

Marks came out. Did I mention this already? My rank says I'm in about the top 6%, and all of my marks range from 80 to 85. Letterwise, that's ranging from an A- to an A. I like that grade inflation has *seriously* not occurred at my university. It took a little getting used to. Seeing a 75, and still trying to give yourself a pat on the back. It gets easier when you see others with 50s/60s breathing sighs of relief.

After splitting time between Brad's PC and iBook for a week, I think I've made a decision. I prefer the PC. There just don't seem to be very many different ways to accomplish the same thing on this iBook. Like, what if I don't want to do things their way? What if I feel like going through a back door? Maybe I'm just not savvy enough on this thing to know how, but in the end, being the not terribly proficient user that I am, I'll be sticking with my PC.

I really need a back-up psychology university. What's a place that I could pick for its location, but not necessarily for its excellence in psychology? It seems easy to find the places that excel, but not so easy to find the ones in the middle.

An Afternoon in Ojai

Anne Marie and Ben H (her boyfriend) drove up from Santa Fe to Ben's home in Ojai earlier than expected, so Brad and I drove up for a little day trip to hang out, since Ojai's just about an hour and a half drive north of Brad's apartment. Unfortunately, Memorial Day weekend traffic made that about a three hour drive. Ben's house is in this gorgeous valley up in the mountains. Imagine Italy transplanted to California, blended with some southwest-y ness. There are lots of orchards of avocados, kumquats, etc. and horses. We played some koob/kubb, which Anne posted about. Ben and I won thanks to default, though it was quite a close game. We grilled out summer style: Hamburgers, corn, eggplant. It all makes sense until the eggplant. This picture is when Anne and I were forming the patties and seasoning.
Ben grilling.
Brad looking very out of his element in a country setting.
Brad looking much more in his element with a SkeeBall machine. That's right, Ben's Dad got a SkeeBall machine off of ebay. Aside from the two black widow spiders that crawled out of it, it was great.
Afterwards, Anne, Brad, and I played a very close game of Settlers before Brad and I headed home.

Written down like this, it all sounds very short and like nothing much. But it was a fabulous day.

Funny...I think.

On Saturday in Santa Fe, Anne, Jennie, and I were all in the bathroom for some reason, and don't ask me how but the subject of aluminum in deodorant came up. I think that Jennie was recommending her all natural deodorant to me...something like that. I said that I was comPLEtely apathetic about that sort of thing. Couldn't care less. Both Anne and Jennie adamantly informed me how much I should care. To which I still didn't care. Oh right. Correct me if I'm wrong, here. The case against aluminum in deodorant is that it causes Alzheimer's, right? I was a bit skeptical of this in the first place, because I remember (vaguely, in the back of my mind) hearing an "expert" saying that people may be making a correlation does not imply causation mistake. Cum hoc ergo propter hoc, just to make it official. Cart before the horse sort of thing.

So I looked it up online, very briefly, and found many regular people giving very dire warnings about the dangers of using deodorant with aluminum in it. With many typos. So I went to Google scholar, and found that studies found no association between a lifetime of deodorant use with aluminum in it and Alzheimer's.

Hmm, at this moment I'm thinking that maybe Jennie and Anne were warning about breast cancer and not Alzheimer's in relation to antiperspirant use...so I'm reading those studies now. Results: Studies have mixed results. Those that did find a correlation between antiperspirant use and breast cancer found that it was in combination with shaving. Those that started shaving and using antiperspirants earlier and use them the most frequently tend to be diagnosed for breast cancer earlier. Antiperspirant use in conjunction with shaving...honestly, those are two things that I really want to do on a regular basis. I think there's a serious confound in this study, though. There could be a difference between women who shave and use antiperspirant every day versus those who use them less frequently. If the study's depending on these women finding breast cancer via breast self-exams or visits to their gynos, then women who shave and use antiperspirant more frequently may also do breast self-exams/visit their gyno more frequently. Unless they controlled for that. If it was required that the women came in every six months/year to be examined for the study, that result would seem a lot stronger to me.

Anyways, I should not give a title for an entry before writing it, because this isn't funny at all. The POINT of this entry was that two days later, as I was applying my deodorant (as I do every single morning, after shaving every single morning) I looked down, and what should I see but a huge sticker saying, "0% ALUMINUM." Despite my apathy, a month ago I picked up a deodorant (though I prefer antiperspirants + deodorants) with no aluminum. Maybe God's trying to keep me from breast cancer and Alzheimer's. Thank you, God!

:-P

Oh, and the day after Anne and Jennie warning me, two huge bubbles were on my bar of soap, making it look exactly like a soap mouse. The bubbles looked like its eyes. And Dial is shaped sort of like a mouse. ...Sort of.

I was so tempted to jump out of the shower and take a picture to show everyone. Reasons I didn't: Naked, wet, get my camera wet, cold, probably someone in my room. Still, I was really tempted.

New boots?!

In northern Maine and Nova Scotia, there is hardly a wide selection of quality boots available. After Anne Marie brought her Dansko clogs home over Christmas, I knew I wanted some of those comfy soles. Problem: Pricey and sold nowhere near me. So when I was in Santa Fe, a seeming Dansko mecca, Anne took me by a store that carries Danskos, and I fell in love with my boots!

Here they are, on their first night out.

My first professional baseball game!

Brad took me to my first professional baseball game last night. The Cubs vs. the Dodgers. I donned one of Brad's numerous Cubs hats (the one that came closest to fitting), and we spent the next hour in the car thinking of first and middle names that go well together. I found a perfect girl's name, but I'm not telling anyone. Someone would inevitably steal it. It's that good.
The game didn't look like it was going to go well for the Cubs. They were down by...five? Then in one single inning the Cubs made seven runs, but lost 9-8 in the end. So it was quite intense, really. I said plenty of things that probably made Brad embarrassed to be sitting next to me, such as calling runs points. Almost everyone at a baseball game seems to be drunk or drinking. The huge variety of people present at a baseball game is amazing. There are little old men who look like they belong to baseball in a different time, drunk moms in their fifties wearing fake tattoo sleeves, young teenage couples, and dads ignoring their kids to pay attention to the game.

Baseball players do an excellent job of making batting look impossible.

Eating the hot dog Brad got me, sitting in my hoodie and Cubs hat, while Brad kept score (which I called taking notes), I felt very much in the spirit of baseball.
Brad put the finishing touches on his unintelligible score sheet, filled with abbreviations that I could only guess at. I'm tempted to call Brad a baseball purist, but I probably don't know enough about baseball to say that with any real knowledge. However, he just confirmed it when I asked him, so I guess I can say that. While most of Brad would prefer to live in a future where you're beamed from one location to another, I think he also belongs in the world of baseball in the 1940s/50s.
Well...that's about that. Oh, and Ben K, I'm going to miss House, so I really hope you record it!