First day back!  It was good.  I'm a little bit in love with my history teacher (United States: 1789-1850).  He's not cute or anything; he's way old.  I just have a crush on his brain.  He told me I was dark because I said I liked the bat exhibit the best at the zoo.  He's also letting the class decide as a group what kind of assignments we'll do over the semester.  How cool is that?

     I signed up for a Victorian Literature class, which turns out to jus be focusing on Poe.  I'm okay with that.  He's dark.  But my teacher might be a little bit insane.  He was very anxious for us to know that Poe was NOT A PERVERT!!!! for marrying his fourteen-year old first cousin.  And, he might have used drugs, but it was the doctors' fault for prescribing it in the first place.  And he definitely drank, but, hey, everybody drinks.  I think he might have an EAP poster on his ceiling. 
     There's something about the way he talks, too.  I can't  even describe it because I have no basis for comparison - it's totally unique.  It's very measured and clipped.  It miiiiight be Southern, but - oh, hey I know.  Remember in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when they're in Bolivia and they decide to go straight for a little while so LeFors will lose their track and they get the job guarding the payroll?  My teacher talks a lot like their boss, but educated.

My Renissance and Early Modern Studies class is a little disappointing.  I really like the teacher, but we're reading a lot of the same stuff as the class I had with her two years ago.  It's like I'm taking the class again.  Oh, well. It should be fun anyway.

Coming tomorrow:  Shark Attacks and Literary Criticism!

My house is under quarantine.  It's like the Black Plague.  I wouldn't be surprised if the townsfolk boarded up all our doors and windows and then torched the place.  What I'm trying to say here is that my brother has the flu, and I am his nurse.  I also haven't had a flu shot, so there's an excellent chance i will get it, too.  I'm combatting it as much as I can with antibacterial gel and Lysol, so pray for me.  Maybe I'll get lucky.  School starts on Wednesday, and I'd really like not to be miserable, plzthnx!

And also, Wall-E is the most emo robot ever.  All he wants to do is hold someone's hand.

I am very excited because I am typing this post on my BRAND NEW LAPTOP!!!  It's an HP dv4-1225, 14.1" screen.  I thought I was going to have to get used to it being so small, but I really like it.  It's so much lighter and easier to transport.  There is one down side, though.  all the HPs have a metal touchpad which would look cool to a normal person, but my first though was, I will never stop wiping fingerprints off that thing.  And as it turns out, I was right.  This is not good for the OCD!!!!

I am finally done with my grad school applications.  Yesterday, when I was getting the last ones ready every muscle in my back was triple-fucking-knotted, I was so stressed out.  Now I don't have to think about it until March. 

My brother rented Tropic Thunder and my parents started to watch it while neither of us was there. We were talking about it later, and my dad said, "That movie was boring.  We stopped it when the helicopter dropped them all off."  My brother said, "That's when the whole movie starts!"  We told them we were all going to have to watch it with them this time.  

Later, at the same dinner, we were talking about Heath Ledger's Supporting Actor win at the Golden Globes.  We all had our personal favorites, but when they said Heath Ledger's name at the end of the list, those hopes were dashed because there was no way he wasn't getting that award.  I mentioned that I had wanted  RDJ to win.  My mother, of course, was confused.

"Why would he be a supporting actor in Ironman?" (which she also didn't like, by the way)
"No, Mama, he was nominated for Tropic Thunder?"
Cue the quizzical looks.  "He was in Tropic Thunder?"
So now it all makes sense.  "That was him in the blackface!  You didn't know that?  That's what makes it so hilarious!"

So now I'm going to make them watch it again whether they want to or not.  No one should be deprived of Robert Downey as Lazarus/Osiris.

I'm sure Happy Go Lucky is an excellent film and that what's-her-face was really good in it, but I always get really mad when the movies, actors etc. whom most people have never heard of win.  I don't know whom to be mad at about this, however.  Is it the Hollywoos Foreign Press being snob obscurantists?  Is it the studios' refusal to promote good, but less marketable movies?  I suppose my point is that if a movie is good enough to win such a prestigious award, people like myself, who know a good bit about pop culture, should at least recognize the name.  I don't care how the problem gets solved; I just want someone to fix it!

In the past three houses I have lived in, when the cold hits, ladybugs start coming through my window.  Just in my room.  I hear them buzzing around my ceiling fan (WTH? I thought only flies and mosquitoes did that) and I have woken up with them in my hair on occasion.  Also, no one else in my family admits to ever having seen a ladybug in the house before.

I'm living in a Stephen King nove.

ETA: Holy hell, now there are two circling the overhead light.  I'm sleeping the guest room.

So, it's been a while.  Not for any particular reason, I've just been remiss.  It would be the longest lj entry ever if I actually said everything there was to say so we'll go with the highlights. 

The thing I have been afraid of since my parents moved out to East Bumfuck nowhere has finally happened.  I hit a deer in my car.  Luckily, I was in the car with my brother and his girlfriend and he saw it before I did it, and I managed to slow down a little so I didn't hit it too hard.  It was the biggest damn deer I've ever seen, BTW.  Bellieve me, my car is feeling the damages.  I really just clipped it, and it scampered off after flailing for just a second.  I like to think that it just has a little limp and that it didn't go into the woods to die a slow and agonizing death.  That is what I like to think.  Although I don't feel too bad about it because the thing ran out in the middle of the road at the exact millisecond that the first car in about an hour drove through.  So, really, I just weeded some of the dumbass out of its gene pool.  I've done nature a favor, really. 

I finally finished watching I Am Legend.  My mother and I went to see it in the theater because we like Will Smith, BUT ALSO we did not know about the zombiepires.  I don't like zombies, and she doesn't like vampires, so if we had known what the villains in this movie were we wouldn't have gone.  As it was, we got about fifteen minutes into the movie before we started to figure out what was going on, and about thirty minutes after that before we had to leave.  My mother was actually screamed "shit" in the middle of the theater at one point, and I had nightmares that night (and a few nights later).  Anway, back to the present - the movie was on HBO on demand, and we got to finish it.  In the daylight.  With my dad there.  And I saw a lot of it through a very small hole in my fingers (the hole wasn't actually in my fingers, but I think you know what I meant).  And now I'm reading the book.  I've read that they're less zombie and more pire in the book, so I shouldn't have a problem.

THERE IS A NEW WHO!!!!!!!!  The fangirl part of me is glad that they're sticking with someone cute.  I'm also interested in why the Doctors are getting younger and younger.  Will he be a teenager next time?  One funny I think about some of the wank that is going on is that some comments are along the lines of "OMFG!  Teh Doctor canot B younger than me?!?!?!111"  And I just want to say to those people, It's not the Doctor's fault that you're old now.  Move on.

Sooo ... I've been home since Wednesday night.  Wednesday was my last exam, and and I had a paper to turn in but not until Friday which I could email. 

And so, on Wednesday, with all the relief that comes from finishing a semester of college, I came home to the bosom of my family.  And that evening, I almost died.

It's times like these that I regret my propensity for hyperbole, because those who know me, most likely, did not take me seriously just then.  But, truly and honestly, I was almost hit by a car while crossing the street and my parents sort of were hit by the car.  It happened like this:

My parents and I were going to see my brother's girlfriend's son from her first marriage, Eli, in a Christmas program (though we're not technically related to him, we spend more time with him than most of his "real" family, so for all intents and purposes, he's my nephew).  He's just five, so we were expecting your basic Christmas carols with over-expositional hand motions, etc.   Anyway.  It was dark, and we had to park across the street from the church.  There were lots of other people doing the same thing, but the church did not have a crossing guard to help out.  My parents are to my right, and as we've just crossed the yellow line, I hear my mom yelling my name and something about a car not stopping.  I look up and see that, yes, there is a big white truck coming full speed ahead straight towards me.

You know when you're watching a movie or something and some idiot is about to be hit by a car or a train or runaway garbage bin, and you're like, why the hell are you stopping to stare at the thing that's about to hit you?  This is running time!  Well, that night, I was that idiot.  I just sort of looked at the thing for about one second, then I realized I should probably make some effort to get out of the way.  I took about two steps when I noticed that the car had swerved onto the curb, and my parents, who had the sense to try to get out of the road, were about to be hit.  I look down for a second and think, when I look up, my dad is going to be flying through the air and my mom is going to be under the truck.  When I looked, though, the car was just coming to a stop, and my parents had just been pushed back a few steps because the truck was going so slow.  My dad had his hand out, full-on Edward Cullen, and they both started cursing at the guy in the truck (this is all happening on the steps of a church BTW).  Then my mom and I looked at each other and started laughing, because that's how we roll.  The guy gets out of the truck and starts freaking out and gives us his card and offers to pay for my dad's glasses that got bent, and my dad is ready to fuck his shit up. I had to step in and be like, everyone's okay, calm down, it was an accident, etc.  I went inside after my mom, and we sat on a bench and laughed until we cried (although some of those were real tears on my part, I was pretty shaken up). 

The long and short of it is that we're all okay, though my dad had a bruise on his leg and is now claiming to have a jammed shoulder.  And we're all a little freaked out when it comes to crossing the road. 

If that car had just tried to break and hadn't swerved, he would have hit me, and I would be hurt or dead.  He slowed down when he hit the curb and my parents were just bumped.  Sooooo ... thank you, God, for not killing me right before Christmas.  It would have ruined the entire holiday for my family forever.

I have already watched both Red vs. Blue series twice (that's one hundred nineteen episodes in all, so I've watched two hundred thirty-eight), and I'm having to stop myself from starting over again.  I know that if I watch it one more time it will get old, but I waaaaaaaant toooooooo! 

For those of you who don't know, Red vs. Blue is a machinima web series based on the PVP version of Halo, but instead of the two teams trying to kill each other, they are locked in an epic struggle of laziness and incompetence until they are involuntarily wrapped up in a government conspiracy.  Hilarity motherfucking ensues!  Also, because I have watched the series too much lately, I cannot get the phrase "Bow-chicka-bow-wow" out of my head.  It pops out of my mouth unbidden on occasion (though not in public yet), and now I've started mixing it into a whole song.  Damn you, Tucker!

Each episode is only about five minutes long and they're all on youtube.  The first is just called Red vs Blue, there is a miniseries that's kind of important called Recovery One (which is actually totally serious) and a short series called Reconstruction.  Just to get you hooked, here are some samplers.

( Red vs Blue Quotes )Yeah, bitches!!!

I SAW TWILIGHT!!!

I resisted.  I didn't want to give my money to the SMeyers (because she clearly sold her soul to the devil to make her books so popular and I'm not comfortable addiing funds to an agent of the Beast.).  However, once the sequel was greenlit after the colossal success of opening weekend, there was no point in holding out anymore.  My brother and I went to see it yesterday afternoon because we just couldn't resist any longer. 

Sooooooo - the movie was not as bad as the book.  It was actually good in some parts.  Although, the overall plot and characterizations were still largely ridiculous, there was nothing the director could really do about that without getting her face eaten by Twihards.

Things I liked:
1. The characterization of Bella's relationship with her father.  As in, they actually had one.  I especially liked when Charlie threatened Edward with a shotgun.
2.  I liked that RPatz portrayed Edward as a manic depressive, self-loathing, socially awkward stalker. SMeyers wrote him as basically the perfect human being (because apparently in SMeyers land, the perfect man only hurts you because he loves you so much.). 
3.  RPatz's face when he walks through the parking lot with Bella while wearing those sunglasses and smirking.  P.I.M.P!
4.  The plot actually showed up relatively near the beginning.
5.  Um ... I can't think of a fifth.  (Except that my brother says the fight scenes were good, but this is a girl movie, so I find it irrelevant.)

Things I didn't like:
1. The vampire make-up.  I mean, seriously?  It looks like they hit them all with one of those huge old Hollywood powder puffs.  Next movie, Catherine Hardwicke, take cues from the True Blood vamps.
2.  Edward's sparkle.  I had thought when the light hit him it would be more of a prism effect.  Instead it looked like a Claire's exploded all over him.
3.  RPatz spent almost the entire movie with his head down and looking up at everyone out of his eyelashes.  There comes a point when the heartthrob thing gets taken too far. 
3a.  Everyone in the movie has only one facial expression!  People are allowed to have more than one emotion.  This is called: character complexity.  It is a good thing.
4.  This is redundant because the main problems I had with the movie were the same problems I had with the book.  Bella has major issues.  No matter how much you love someone, once you find out that they're a super-powered predator who frequently fantasizes about killing you, you are going to be afraid.  Plus, Edwards is frequently abusive towards Bella (note: abuse is not just physical) I would be okay with Bella being so into it if the whole series wasn't geared towards telling you that, in cleolinda's words, "their love is so epic and twu" and also "theirs is a love that has never been loved before."  If they acknowledged the fact that Bella and Edward work together because they are both completely fucked up in the head, I could deal with it.  
4a. Bella is a total Mary Sue, and it makes me want to kill her.  And SMeyers.  And everyone who thinks these books are on par with Dostoevsky.
5.  Charlie's porn star mustache.  Fail!

( Heroes 3.10 )


I have seen the new Doctor Who trailer, and I am very skeptical of David Morrissey being Eleven.  A) There's no way that the Beebs would give us the goods in the freaking trailer a full year before Eleven is supposed to take over.  And B) the alleged Eleven does not recognize Ten.  In the Children in Need Special where Ten Met Five, Ten immediately knew who Five was.  However, Moffat has never had the greatest respect for canon, so we'll see. 


Red vs. Blue freaking rocks. 

Am alive.


Barely.




* Post GRE Depression

Yaaaaay!  You don't realize how much of a life you don't have until someone takes away your lj.  I forgot about the move, so I tried to sign on when I got back from class.  I almost went into the shakes.  Although, now the site is being a little slow, so ... get on that, lj.

Heroes Recap!

( It's that time again! )

P.S.  I am taking the GRE tomorrow at noon, so if you don't hear from me tomorrow evening, I'm probably hanging from the light fixture from my bedroom.  Somebody should probably look into that.

Hugs and kisses!

( Get Your Retcon Here )

I finally watched it online.  Overall, I approve, though there were a few contentions, as I have noted.  I generally like Heroes flashback episodes, and this was one way to re-peak my interest. 

I have a headache. 

And my computer has viruses. 



Maybe I've caught one.

I really can't stand the Twilight books themselves, but I'm somehow obsessed with reading about them and the new movie online.  Especially the various parodies out there.  Have you read Growing Up Cullen?  If not, you are sooooo missing out.  It's on my memories, and I nearly peed on myself laughing.

Another favorite thing of mine about Twilight is all of Robert Pattinson's quotes.  He repeatedly and Britishly suggests that the Twilight books are kind of stupid, and the hysteria surrounding them even more so.  Here's a recent quote I found:

"I was convinced... that Stephenie was convinced... that she was Bella... and it was like a book that wasn't supposed to be published. And you're reading like, her sort of sexual fantasy. [...] I was like, This woman is mad. She's completely mad, and she's in love with her own fictional creation. And sometimes you'd like feel uncomfortable reading this thing. [...] It's kind of... like a sick pleasure."

Ha!

P.S.  I mean, seriously, these vampires sparkle?!?!?!

Hal: *is dead from school.*

This morning when I looked at my cell phone/alarm clock, I actually thought I had somehow accidentally switched the language to Russian because I did not recognize the letters of the word "Snooze" until I stared at it a few more seconds and realized that I was just having some sort of hallucination.  Apparently my brain has just given up.  Or it's punishing me for everything I'm putting it throuhg.  Well, all I can tell it is that it had better shape up, because we have the GRE next week, a comprehensive Physiology exam, a Political Sociology final project and a thesis to start all in the next few weeks.

On the fun side, I started a WoW (World of Warcraft to you n00bs) on my brother's account to see if I liked it enough to get my own account.  Answer: Yes, I do like it.  It's very OCD.  You have to go on all these quests to gather webwood eggs and kill thistle boars, and it's all very specific and a little repetitive.  I can see myself getting majorly addicted, which is why I'm going to wait until after I graduate in May to start an account.  I do not need another excuse not to study.

P.S.  They're starting a Star Wars MMORPG as well!  It won't be out for another two years, but how awesome will that be?  So, if in two years, I suddenly disappear, never to be seen from again, I'm not dead, I'm just on my computer.

( Yay, Halloween! )</div>
 </div>

It is pronounced Bi-luh-ksi.  NOT Bi-lah-ksi!  Bi-luuuuh-ksi.  Say it with me!  Good.