Brand New to Me

Short and sweet tonight folks. I’m tired and I gotta wake up at 5:45. Let’s make it happen!

Tonight I visited Vintage 21 Church (get it, brand new to me, but it’s called vintage, get it?… ah forget it) with my friend JMoss. I’d been trying to go for a while, but the both of us always had scheduling issues and it took us about two months to ever meet up. That’s sad, I know, but whatever.

It was a great church. The worship was nice, they took old hymns and made them contemporary. The pastor spoke very well and gave a great sermon. And the environment was really nice… Super inviting. I think I’ll be checking it out again.

Ummm… What else…?

Jason’s Deli is still delicious.

Bedfordshire.

Not So Sweet

In case you don’t remember or didn’t know or whatever, I gave up sweets for Lent. I’m not Catholic, but my dad’s side of the family is and it’s one practice we’ve kept. It’s generally a rewarding experience and I feel great for doing it.

Must. Not. Nom. The. Screen.

But it’s only been eleven days and I’m about to go crazy for a cookie. There are four boxes of Girl Scout cookies sitting in the cupboard and it’s making me loco.

Why are cravings so hard to deal with? It doesn’t help either that, in general, I’ve decided to try and eat more healthy. I realized that while my parents were in New Orleans (by the way, that wallaby I thought they saw, was actually a young kangaroo, which is just as crazy) and I pretty much pigged out on Chinese food and pizza that it so effects my weight and I need to loose a few. While loosing weight is a goal, the more important one is to just get healthier. It should be easy, because I’m young and I can still make better changes easier, but… I’d kill for a Reese’s right now. *sigh*

At least I worked out 3 times this week! Not like that’s even close to being enough. :-\

Ugh.

...

Prompt me- pt. 8

So glad this week is over. Gotta be honest, totes phoning this blog in tonight. But that’s ok, because I’ve decided to have a short story done by the end of March. I know that seems long, but I’ve gotta jump start my brain and brainstorm and then write it and then edit it and then first draft it and then get feedback and then second draft it and then completely doubt everything I’ve ever written and then tell myself I’m a hack and then hate myself for wanting feedback and then submit and then receive no comments and then wallow and then reread it for the 84th time and find that I kind of like it.

Creative writing is a long arduous process. That’s why it’s good to have time limits on these nifty time-wasting writing prompts!

Five minutes on the clock… Allons-y!

Truth is independent of fact. It does not mind being disproved.

Original Prompt Here

Two sides to every story and then there’s the truth. Meg knew there was a reason she’d come back from her desk to find a puddle of glue and a ripped children’s book pages littered all over the little plastic craft table, but as of yet, her two suspects hadn’t been very forthcoming with the facts. He said she ripped the pages and knocked the glue over. She said he pulled the book and it’s pages out of her hands and the glue spilled in the process. Then there was the defiant standoff where both refused to acknowledge any truth to the other’s story. It’d made for a spaghetti western stand-off of sorts that only came up to her knees. Her other kindergartners watched, mouths gaping open in quiet shock. They assumed the other two would be punished, but they had no idea what could be coming. They kept working on their own cotton ball snowman projects, but they were entirely aware of what was going on.

“Well, you two, what happened?” She asked. “Please, tell me the truth.” Had there just have been glue, there wouldn’t have been an issue, but one of the few books the class room could afford had been ruined and Lana had a flustered face and red eyes. The yelp that brought her over there of course made her want to investigate, as well.

Tyler sniffed and locked over at Lana. They were both pouting, but seemed resolved to stay quiet.

“Ok. If you’d rather not tell me, I’ll have to put you both in the quiet corner.”

“No, wait.”

Lana sighed and looked back over at Tyler. “It was both our faults. He wanted the book, but I didn’t want to share.”

“I grabbed the book by it’s pages and pulled. We both knocked over the glue when the book flew.”

“So Lana, you didn’t share and Tyler you grabbed it, you both knocked over the glue. I think you both know what you need to do. Apologize to each other and then work together to help me clean up this mess.”

They nodded their heads and looked sullen.

“Sorry.” They said.

Meg had the feeling that there was more truth in their desire to clean up the sticky glue and sodden pages then to make amends, but the fact remained that they’d both need to work together and not be so stubborn.

______

Done, went way beyond the time limit, but whatever, I was watching TV.

I can’t remember the last time I used Elmer’s glue…

Drop Dead, Pie Man

Occasionally you get reminded of some things that you loved, but sort of fell to the wayside while you pursued other interests.

Today, while playing around in Tumblr, I found an account dedicated to the amazing show Pushing Daisies. Daisies was one of thgose shows that was just magical. It was visually stunning, full of bright colorful shots and a setting that seemed more ethereal than back lot. The characters were fun and engaging and the mysteries were quirky without being too saccharine. And as for romance? Well Ned and Charlotte (aka, Chuck) are magnetic together; they have so much chemistry, but they have to stay at arms length or else Ned could touch her and Chuck would be dead.

The Cast of Pushing Daisies! See how adorable everyone is? The whole show is like that.

Oh yea, that’s right, Ned the adorably anti-social pie maker has the ability to bring people back to life with just a touch. But as with all gifts in television and film, the catch is that he can never touch the person or thing again or else they’re dead for good. Plus, if he doesn’t touch them again in 60 seconds, someone/thing has to take the place of the previously deceased and bite the big one. It sounds weird and dark and macabre, but the tone of the show is so whimsical it’s ridiculous. Sometimes I’d be so caught up in the bright colors and fun quips I’d forget I was watching I murder mystery crime show. It was so great!

And of course, thanks to the writer’s strike and the fact that most of the people in America refuse to watch quality TV, the show was canceled. And yet Two and a Half Men still roams the airwaves. Unfair.

Things that are fair? Awesome stuff on DVD. You can check out Pushing Daisies there, but you can also see one of my favorite movies: Drop Dead Gorgeous. This movie never, ever fails to make me laugh. It’s a mockumentary film that deals with all the ups and downs of a small town beauty pageant, which just so happens to be plagued with murder most foul!

Honestly, who paints step ladders before a show?

The best part about that movie is the cast. They own those podunk Minnesota roles like nobody’s business. And I dare you not to watch it without wanting to talk with a ridiculously over-the-top mid-western accent. And it’s the little touches in this movie that stand out: the fire crew smoking, the world’s oldest living Lutheran sign, and the globe, all of which are freaking classics. Again, it’s a weird and kind of dark subject matter (murder), but it’s done in a light and fun way, it’s so enjoyable, it’s ridiculous.

Bottom line is, if you like to giggle at mirth-filled murder and mayhem, you should probably check out both of these. Now I’m off to see if there’s anyway I can bring back Pushing Daisies, Obama did say he’d bring change!

Isle be ok

Tonight I went and saw Shutter Island with the folks. My mom decided that since they’d finish working after getting in from New Orleans they needed one last break since tomorrow they’d have to go back to their normal schedule after having been out of town for a week. Her logic was flawless.

What do you know!!? /BAHSTAHN Accent

I don’t want to give anything away, which makes talking about the movie difficult, but I’m gonna try. It’s a decent movie, not great, but it was certainly a great way to take my mind off work. Scorsese shoots a great movie and a really skilled director; he still loves Leo (I’m beginning to think Scorsese would put DiCaprio in a one man show about Mother Teresa’s life…. Or that he had a lot of Titanic posters about 13 years ago) and it’s hard to blame him for it. DiCaprio has matured as an actor and clearly carries some range… I’ve yet to see him in a role where he really blew me away, the closest would have to be his turn in The Departed, but he was good here, too. Again, it’s hard not to give too much away and I don’t want to, but the most enjoyable part of the movie is watching the story unfold.

Here’s the thing, if you think you’ll enjoy it, you probably will, but you won’t love it. If you’re mildly annoyed with thriler-ish movies that have some decent surprises, you’ll probably hate it. Probably a renter.

What I remember most about the evening? How excited I am for Alice in Wonderland.

Down the rabbit hole we go!

Mighty Mini Post! (pt. 1)

New feature y’all, I’ve realized that occasionally I have a few topics floating around at the same time that would not make a good post individually, but that I’d still like to talk about. So I thought, why not do one of these every so often to get these things out of my head? And since you’ve yet to complain, boom, it’s happening.

A few fun things that have happened, let’s do a quick run down shall we?

• I suck at waking up. It’s kind of insane the kind of dedication my body makes to sleeping as long as possible. I’ve been known to turn off alarms in my sleep. Yea. So, I knew I needed to try something new and so I decided to try something old school:

It's so loud, I feel like I'm waking up in a firehouse

Honestly, that alarm clock is the most effective wake up call I’ve ever had. Morning win.

• Did you know that rich people buy wallabies and keep them as pets? It’s true. My parents went to a party recently where the owners had their pet “miniature kangaroo” hopping around. And punching people. Specifically this one lady, which is hilarious. This may also be proof that some rich people need better financial advisers. Preferably ones who aren’t exotic pet dealers on the side.

Warning! This wallaby will punch you!

• I got my glasses!!! I talked about them here. Remember?

Magnifique, non?

• And holy crap, this show, Deadliest Warriors, is amazing. I just saw a Ninja get his butt kicked by a Spartan. Now, to DVR the fight between a Viking and a Samurai. Because Vikings are AWESOME! RAWR!

Who will be the next... HISTORICAL DEADLIEST WARRIOR!

All this fighting is making me wonder if there’s a punching bag at the Y. Or if I should pick up viking axe handling. Ya know, just in case.

A Google says what?

While getting ready to blog tonight, I had a few ideas floating around in my head about what would be fun to discuss and such, but I decided to go bumming around for a bit to see if there was anything else that could capture my fancy.

So, like most of the internet, I decided to let Google decide my fate. In case you didn’t know, Google thinks it knows what you want and will offer to “auto-complete” your search. Sometimes, it’s spot on, like if you start typing “we” it may suggest “weather” in it’s little drop down menu. Which is great, for all the times I can’t type weather.com into the network address bar. But other times, Google is hilariously off-base (Fair warning, some of the jokes tend to the blue, but in general they just consist of random things people usually inquire about, like, “bagel related injuries,” “irish people are impervious to psychoanalysis,” and “my hovercraft is full of eels.” You know, the usual). This occurs because Google goes, “Hey! Other people are searching for this, and you’re other people, so you could be searching for this, too!”

Oh Google. Thanks for bringing people together to bring out the funny.

Anyway, I thought to myself, “Why not ask Google what I should blog about?” So I began to type and when you start with “What should” Google will give you a couple of different responses:

Yes, Google, what should I do?

Now, naturally, the “What should I do with my life quiz” caught my eye. I checked out “what should I do with my life” and the response was rather boring, but the quiz… Well. Check it.

Oh, the majestic Carlifornia!

Now, you know I’m going to trust any quiz with a fanciful place like “Carlifornia!” Why wouldn’t I? Anything it tells me to do, I must do implicitly. If you go to the quiz page, just assume I chose all the responses that sounded silly and had either a grammatical error or a spelling error. BUT GUESS WHAT!?!

Me in a nut shell. Completely Clueless and a turruhble speller.

This quiz (and a swiped picture from Getty images) knows I have no idea what in the heck is going on! Eerie. Also did you know that you can spell traveling with one l or two? Because google did.

Crazy, right?!?

Since this was fun, I decided to ask google, “what?”

Oh so much to choose from.

Ignoring the more philosophical question (what time is it) and the easy one (what is love) *wink*, I decided to go for the quickly funny ones.

What celebrity do I look like?

I’ve done the My Heritage version where you enter your photo, so I was like, meh (plus it was taking too long to load) and decided to see what other options there were. This flash game did not ask me to upload a picture of myself, rather, to fill out info about my personal specs. Keep in mind, *I* know I’m a brunette, and mentioned as such.

Ummm...?

Yea, notsomuch.

What does my name mean?

Hmm... Something is missing

Weird, they don’t have nerd listed.

________________________________UPDATE!____________________________________

So I’m at work and I guess the My Heritage thing wanted to work so… I decided to run the results of the pseudo-accurate Celebrity Look-alike thing. You be the judge:

The weird thing? I get Jena Malone all the freaking time.

I Think It’s A Pomeranian

Yup, it was beautiful today!

That should be enough to indicate to y’all that I was perfectly content to do very little today. It was the first beautiful day that we have had in a long time. Most of the weekends have been gray and/or rainy, but not only was this weekend sunny, today was warm! Awesome blossom. So, even though I was intending to go to an evening service of Vintage 21, I totally lost track of time when I was jogging and working out. Thank goodness tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy all day or I might have a hard time getting to work.

But that’s neither here nor there.

What else did I accomplish? I watched The Big Lebowski! I’d been meaning to watch the movie for a while, but had yet to have a perfect moment to do so. And since I was already in the mindset of “His Dudeness” (i.e. lazy, relaxed and going with the flow), I thought now would be the perfect time to catch the flick.

And it was great with my Chinese food and Bad Penny Beer. Bam, so good. And funny. And interesting. Definitely a movie to remember and I think I understand why there are “Lebowskifests.” The Dude has a lifestyle that many people aspire, too. He also has some great interior decorating skills.

It may not be the movie for you if you want something with a very defined resolution. Or a strong protagonist. Or a lot of non-weirdness. The movie is fun, but different. It’s the kind of movie that could define the quietly defiant slacker generation. And it has such an _awesome_ dream sequence. Jeff Daniels is great and so is John Goodman, but that’s not surprising for either actor. They’re both wonderful. Anyway, I enjoyed it, and it’s clear the movie has a huge following.

And if you’re wondering why else it’s a fun watch, the movie has soooo many quotables.

It has papers!

The rug really tied the room together.

Quoth the Raven

Hi everybody!

Today I was hanging out in Durham at the Nevermore Film Festival. Last weekish I talked about the theatre and how beautiful it is and how much fun the theatre’s director was. The rest of the second Cinema Crew and I were interviewing some of the director’s (and one producer) who had decided to come to the cinema. All of the guys were great, seriously super nice. We had nine interviews, starting at 12:30 and ending at 3. We had originally planned for 8, but we managed to squeeze in someone else last minute. Each interview was about five minutes long, with about 15 minutes between eat interview. It was so much fun and I’d never done anything like it before, but it was a super neat experience.

After the interviews, I stuck around to see Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula, which is exactly as interesting as the title makes it sound. Sadly, I was too zonked to catch any more flicks, but I may try and make it back tomorrow.

Overall, a great day and I can’t wait to check out other film festivals at the Carolina Film Festival.

Fifty Sense

This is my fiftieth post of the new year!

Party Pup tips his hat to consistancy

To celebrate, I’m keeping this post short and sweet. Also because my computer/internet is being dumb (and has been for the past 45 minutes, blah).

Overall, I’ve been good about keeping my resolutions, except one… reading a book every month. Last month I think I started reading about 5 or 6 books, but never finished them. Whoops. I’ll be better about it in the future, but I’m not too worried. The resolutions I’ve been mostly proud of myself for keeping are the gym and lunch ones. And, blogging. Blogging maybe even more so, because sometimes it’s just so hard to accomplish. Especially when you’re in a whiny mood.

But otherwise, it’s been an interesting year so far. Only 315 more days left to have a go at it.