Stranger things have happened

I'm not a big TV watcher. I am just going to put that out there. I'm not saying I do not watch television at all but, as you can tell from earlier posts, I prefer movies. However, I've found a fantastic show that has become my new addiction.

Before discovering said show, I mostly only watched The Office, Malcolm in the Middle, MythBusters, Deadliest Catch, True Blood, and 24. Cash Cab is a sometimes. I consider six and a half shows to be relatively okay in terms of time spent in front of the boob tube, especially since two are from the Discovery Channel. Maybe my view is skewed but I know people who follow 10+ programs religiously, majority being "reality tv". Notice the meticulously placed quotations.

But now, I have my number seven. Fringe is on Thursdays at 9PM on FOX and it is amazing to say the least.


John Noble plays Walter, a crazy yet wonderfully brilliant scientist. Extra points for you if you noticed the sixth finger on that hand print in the background.

Fringe is a science fiction/mystery based show. The cases that come to Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), and Dr. Walter Bishop (pictured above) are mostly sci-fi/super natural related. Olivia starts out as an FBI agent, while Peter will not hold a job despite his IQ of 190 and Walter, his father, is fresh out of a mental institution for accusations of human testing in his lab. They are an unlikely yet oh-so-lovable trio.

It is no surprise to read that J.J. Abrams, director of 2009's Star Trek, is one of the creators behind this fantastic program. I'm providing a short trailer from season one.



So if you get the chance and you're into freaky science, try to catch an episode. The actors and plot do not disappoint. And let me know if you do decide to watch it. It's a great show to discuss. Oh! And how could I forget? Leonard Nimoy is on it too.

Surprise! Wait... what?

I'm baaaaack... after a ridiculous absence. Apologies, time has not been my ally of late. But I bring word from the land of cinema. I was originally going to post about Alice in Wonderland but I feel the need to watch that again so it is fresh in my mind. Instead, I will be talking about fantastic twists in movies and my most recent film adventure, Repo Men.

I am giving fair warning now that I will not be revealing super important spoilers but if you do not want to know basic plot information, or if a film actually has a surprise ending, then do not read any further.

The two topics above, of course, tie in together. But I will get to that in a bit.

For years, certain movies have had twists so significant you feel as if you belong to a secret society once you have watched them. Jaw-droppers, I have come to call them, are probably my favorite genre. This is mainly because they make you think. The movie takes a turn and your brain says, "WHAT?! But no.... that can't... hold on!" And you go back and work the puzzle through the right way. Sometimes, and this has only happened to me a few times, you hate the ending at first. Then, a few hours later you think it over again and go, "You know... that was really clever."

I give writers credit; in a world of remakes, people still manage to give some films a brilliant, unique edge. Go to most theaters now, and you will see posters for nothing but re-adaptions and sequels. Now, don't get me wrong, I love me some revamping. However, one would think originality would be a little more abundant. I suppose not.

The two best movies with plot twists, in my opinion, have to be Fight Club and The Sixth Sense. Closely followed by Memento. Eastern Promises also had a great surprise moment.









The first stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Much more than fighting, this is a story of a man who is falling apart. Not for the squeamish or faint-hearted. Directed by David Fincher.

The second: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, and Haley Joel Osment perform beautifully in the tale of a boy whose seemingly simple childhood trauma is much more than his psychiatrist planned for. Supernatural awesomeness. Good chilling scenes too. M. Night Shyamalan filmed this.

Numéro trois est le film where Guy Pearce plays a man who, after his wife's murder, seeks vengeance on the killer. What's makes this so different is that his character, Leonard Shelby, sustained a head injury on the night of the homicide. He remembers life before but is unable to create new memories, having lapses at least three times a day. He covers himself in tattoo reminders, all hints on how to find the killer. Best part? The whole movie goes backwards by scene. This one is INTENSE. Done by Chris Nolan.

And last but not least at all: The Russian mob in London has to cover up their crimes when the diary of a deceased young mother falls into a midwife's hands. Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, and Vincent Cassel perform admirably in this drama that's plot thickens with each turn it takes. Courtesy of David Cronenberg. Bit of gore, lots of violence. Just a heads up.

In case you have not seen these fantastic motion pictures, I will not mention more. But rent them as soon as you are able. I can almost guarantee you will not regret it.

Another recent film with a very intriguing twist was The Book of Eli.

Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, and Gary Oldman lead in an apocalyptic thriller with a deeper inner meaning. Denzel, keeper of a sacred book, must elude Oldman, and sets off for the rightful wielders with Kunis. Not for those with weak stomachs.



And speaking of such, on to Repo Men.



If you know anything about this movie, you are aware that this is a film for people who A: have very strong stomachs, B: can differentiate movie makeup from real gore, or C: have that sixth sense (oh how fitting) of knowing when to look away.

I, fortunately, possess both trait B and C.

Here's the plot for those not in the know. Repo Men takes place in the future. The world of medical science has evolved wondrously and now, instead of getting organ transplants from a donor, one can simply purchase a top of the line synthetic organ made by a company called The Union. Do you see where this is going? Sure, these organs are great. But they're expensive. And if you can't make the payments someone like Jude Law's character Remy or Forest Whitaker's Jake will come to your house and repossess what belongs to The Union. And they are not there to make you comfortable, just to take back what is no longer yours. The point of all this? A faulty defib unit causes Remy to be hospitalized and he is given a replacement heart. Guess who can't make the payments.

That is not the twist though. Not even close. If you want a good "Whoa" moment, see this movie soon. It's not perfect, but nothing is, really.

So, now you know, if you want to psyche out your mind, these are a few of the movies to see. All of them are very enjoyable.

Have any movie suggestions for me? Twists I left out? Tell me. :] I always love a new cinematic adventure.

Big fat liar.

I totally didn't get that post up. You now how it is. There's school, work, then everyone is sick. But here it is now. So, here's something for everyone to do. I had an assignment in English that I found to be fun. It was pick 10 places you want to go and five favorite quotes. You can just do five and five if you want. But it's your call. I'm going to do five/five. Here's what I picked (in no particular order):

Places:

1. Germany

2. London

3. Seattle

4. California

5. African Savannah

Quotes:

1. "Not all those who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien

2. "If you live to be 100, I hope to be 100 minus 1 day,

so I never have to live without you." - Winnie the Pooh

3. "Our Generation has had no Great war, no Great Depression.

Our war os spiritual. Our depression is our lives." - Chuck Palahniuk

4. "If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill

5. "I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform

to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life

and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people." - John Lennon

So... now it's your turn. Five places and five sayings. And.... GO! :P

Holy homework.

Well, it's been awhile since I've been on here. I have literally been doing nothing but schoolwork since last I wrote. And even now I am (should be) working on last minute assignments before the end of the marking period. Not much left though: some Siddhartha questions and ten interesting facts about Tennessee Williams. Fun, fun, fun. So other than that, I'm probably going to throw on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition) and try to fall asleep in one of my favorite fantasy lands. Later on this week I'll be posting something kind of cool that has to do with quotes and places around the world and, yay, it will be interactive, sort of. :P You shall see. But until then, my brain is exhausted. I have NO creative energy at all. :[ Which totally sucks. Anyway, catch you guys later.

We're off to see the wizard.

And hobbits, and elves, and dwarves...

More about the wild.

"I read somewhere... how important it is in life not necessarily

to be strong... but to feel strong." - Christopher McCandless

It's amazing how certain films and literature can affect me so. In opinion, vocabulary, style, and so on. But in this case, I've been affected in multiple ways... and I haven't even finished the film yet.

In my english class we're watching Into the Wild, one of my teacher's favorite movies. I've never read the book but the film is excellent thus far. This is the plot if you don't know:

A young man scorned by lies and society leaves the material world behind to live in the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on his back and tools to acquire the bare necessities (almost typed "bear" thank you, Jungle book).

After watching this, or most of it, as we have fifteen minutes left, (how cruel can you be, Mr. H?) I've thought about the characters and plot to a ridiculous extent. And I understand the main character, Christopher McCandless a.k.a. Alexander Supertramp far too well. He's a loner who tries but fails to understand the world around him. Christopher reads a lot and excels in most of the things he does. Of course, after having this initial thought walking out of class about six people smiled, waved, and struck up conversation with me, ironic as it hardly happens. There goes my relation with the movie. I kid, but the way it played out made me giggle.

This film also makes me really want to go on a road trip and just be. Not to the extent that Mr. Supertramp goes to but just imagine: Walking around... no, floating wherever the road takes you and just... being. Meeting new people, seeing new places... It has to be liberating to an insane degree. I can't even imagine. But I know at some point in my life, I want to do that. I want to float.

This third thing this film has instilled in me is my current venture: better intake habits (as pictured above). I've been a sugar fiend for awhile. I'm assuming Into the Wild has subliminal messages about eating healthy because as soon as I got home the first day of watching it, I grabbed raspberries and grapes, got some water and was totally content. AND I went running later. Crazy, huh? I've been keeping this up for the past couple days and plan to for... well.. as long as I can. I'm not going to lie, random thought here, but I did not know the word raspberry had a "p" in it until just now. Tip of the hat to spell check.

Winston emerging from lands unknown.

I had to post this. Most of you, I assume, have read about Winston's mischief in my mom's blog. We found him in the street as a kitten and he's a booger. Loves to get into everything, as you can see here. I recently found a video on youtube by this guy who is more in love with his cat than anyone I have ever seen. Conan is almost identical to Winston in looks and behavior, but Winston has something on this web celeb feline: he's discovered a world I've been looking for for years.

Winston goes on little exploits most mornings into the sofa in the "wreck" room. I mean literally crawls into the cushions of the sofa and disappears for a good amount of time. He doesn't make any noise or anything and I have come to this conclusion: Winston has discovered couch Narnia. And I am supremely jealous.

Draco, another one of our cats whom I don't have a picture of at the moment, can't quite fit into the portal to Narnia. He's a big boy and I'm willing to bet it's frustrating to not get to join the fun. I picked Draco out and named him accordingly as he is all white and used to have a small "Dark Mark" on his head. Sweet as he is (he's a super-mush), he's a little... light in the cranium. He'll often stare into space with his mouth hanging open (I'm not lying), and snore. We have a very diverse little family of critters. It's quite fun to talk about.

But back on track, I cannot wait to finish the movie. And for the first time, I don't want to read the literature that inspired it. My mom tells me that Christopher (Alexander) comes off as spoiled in the book and honestly, I don't want that image of him in my head. I like this rambunctious, loopy extremist with his baby face and wild eyes. This movie is speaking to me in ways that I haven't been spoken to since Fight Club. Not as much, but almost. And don't even get me started on the cinematography. It's breathtaking.

"I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money,

than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth." - Christopher McCandless

Time is a fickle thing.

And so I have barely been on here. Between make up homework from being ill and working, I haven't had time to do anything I'd like to. My to-do list isn't large but it's full of significant things. Reading books that aren't assignments, running so I can get my be-hind into decent shape, and going on www.livemocha.com to continue learning German. The latter is, I think, my top priority as I want to visit my aunt in Germany by summer. After that comes running. I need to get my behind moving. Anymore, getting weighed is the worst part of going to the doctor. Number's always going up. Granted it's mostly due to inflammation but still. Ah well, we'll see what happens. Anywho, luckily I had time to dye my hair. Or rather, my mom had time to.

Bad picture quality but I just wanted one that

showed the spectrum, front to back.

Since freshman year of high school, I have been dying my hair. And every once in awhile I stop and go brown or blonde, or attempt to grow it back out. And I think I do that because I have this belief that guys will like me if I look like a normal person. And usually I laugh at this but sometimes I'm not sure. What sucks is how torn I am between conforming and doing what I love.

I am always happier with color in my hair. I feel like something is missing when I'm natural. But I also don't like the judge-a-book-by-its-cover attitude I get geared towards me. It's win/lose and sometimes I really don't know what outweighs what. Single, judged, "weird", colorful, and a bit more upbeat? Or taken, invisible, "normal", bland, and bored to tears? I don't know which is better...

Drew Barrymore in Mad Love. I adore her haircut.

Maybe I'll find a happy medium. Chin length hair and one color? That means no more patterns though... it's amazing how much of a dilemma this is to me. To dye or not to dye? Cut or not to cut? I have much bigger things to stress over and yet, this is often what I worry about most. Well... perhaps third most.

Point is, I have way too much of a problem with my appearance. I'm a nit-picker and it's something I need to stop. Despite the fact that I'm in love with my hair, I keep telling myself, "After this, it's being grown out." I care too much about what others think. So, essentially, I think my number one goal has become training myself to not care. It's hard though.

For some reason, and I have yet to figure out why a million compliments never seem to take away the sting of half a dozen insults. Maybe it's because people significant to me have dished them out, or maybe I just cannot take criticism, whether it's bull or not.

Agh, I'm being a whiner. I didn't mean for this to be a complaining post. It just sort of ended up that way. So my apologies. I guess I just needed to vent. I have way too much on my mind and if I don't let some out, my eyes may pop out of my head.

On a brighter note, I saw Where the Wild Things Are. It was beautiful. I cannot lie though; I did cry. And I have only ever cried during five movies: The Green Mile, Brother Bear, The Perfect Storm, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Where the Wild Things Are. My mom cried as well but, as she admitted in her blog, she cries during almost every movie. And even some trailers. ;]

I usually get more emotional with books. I'm reading The Lovely Bones for school right now and sobbed through the beginning. It's great though, I can't wait to finish. The last three Harry Potter books made me cry too. But that was because Rowling killed my five favorite characters. That's not really a spoiler right? I didn't say who. Another tear jerker was John Steinbeck's The Pearl, which I absolutely loathed. I read that sophomore year and threw it out of my room and down the hall at the end. Ridiculous book haha.

Okay, now I'm rambling. Enough for now. I'm going to try to sleep. I finally saw Gladiator today and I plan on attempting to keep the image of Russel Crowe in his gladiator get-up in my head before drifting off.

Green with envy.

And over a fictional character too. Do you ever ask yourself, “If I could be anyone, who would it be?” I do all of the time but I think I’ve found a new answer and here it is: If I could be anyone, fictional or not, I would be Pam Beesly from The Office. And here is the reason why:

*sigh*

This past week, Jim and Pam got married. As much as I love them as a couple, and I truly do, the stupid part of me pouted and whined “Why not me?” I mentally groaned in jealousy when Jim cut his tie in half after Pam ripped her veil and got upset. It was just so sweet. You can see the love in his eyes and smile when he talks about/looks at her. I now have a quest in life. I must find a Jim Halpert.

I know I’m young and have little experience in the dating field, but majority of the guys I know are either total jerks or simply immature. And it makes me wonder if Jim’s are a rare type of man. Maybe once some of these guys grow into their twenties they’ll be different. But still… it’s the equivalent of Where’s Waldo, but the picture is the size of an SUV. And I actually feel like finding the guy. Pathetic, isn’t it?

And now you’re going to laugh at me really hard because I found out something new while looking for a picture for this blog. John Krasinski, the actor who plays Jim, is engaged to Emily Blunt. I don’t really know much about her, though I’ve heard of her. All I know is I want to hear him say my name. I’m so corny.

So this is a short but sweet one today. I needed to get my love for the Big Tuna off my chest. I really cannot think of a better example of the closest to perfect a man can get. He’s just so sweet, and funny, and… well, look at him. :P Way too adorable for his own good. And despite two searches on youtube, I can’t find him saying “Emily”. Ah… the hunt continues… ;]