And then what happens?

For all the things I love about movies, there are a few things I don't like about them. Two of the huge ones are beginnings and endings. Now, that might seem a little strange, but let me explain. When good (meaning interesting and well developed, not necessarily morally good) characters are involved, I always want to know what happened before we're introduced, and what happens after we leave them.

Why is probably why, as much as I love movies, I'll always love books more. And the books that I especially love are the ones that keep going. Usually, this is a bad thing, but not always. See, sometimes, an author thinks that just making the initial storyline drag on and on is the same thing as keeping us interested in the characters. Not true. We need differing plots to keep us interested, otherwise more books is just annoying. (For an example of annoyingness, see Robert Jordan's books).

But in a few great instances, the author keeps us interested by coming up with enough things for the characters to do. This is great, and these authors generally become my favorites. For examples of this, see David Eddings, and in some ways, Orson Scott Card.

But the best is the Star Wars books. Now, initially, they were all disjoined, with authors creating their own characters, and using the main characters however they wanted. The great authors shone through, but there were some not so great ones thrown in the mix. But recently, Lucas and his team of whatever have realized what potential there is in the books, and grabbed the better authors (and some great new ones) to create books where the plotline is planned out in advance. Then the authors are allowed to use the characters they previously created in the best way possible.

Of course, Luke, Leia, Han, and the rest are getting on in years, so this is going to have to come to an end soon, but there is my hope that the new characters who are just as interesting as the old favorites (and are usually their children) could continue the tradition of fun battles and mysteries of the force. That is, if the authors can come up with enough enemies for them to battle. There comes a point where you think, "Hasn't this battle already been faught before?" But so far they've done a good job, so I have my hopes.

More to come on the reasons I like the books I do later, because I feel like talking about books. And maybe a little about movies, too.

Interesting...

So I'm going to be in SB (Santa Barbara for all of you not in the know) next weekend for a soccer tournament. Anybody interested in, say, taking off Friday and doing a little wine tasting?

Fall

I love the Fall. I think I've probably posted about why I love it every year that I've had a blog, and this year won't be different. This year it has even started cooling off earlier than usual, so I can celebrate the Fall earlier than usual. Of course, the great thing about the Fall is soccer, and that's already started. Plus, there's Halloween, which is one of the best holidays. Now I just have to decide what I'm going to be. I'm thinking pirate, but could change my mind. I know I'm asking for it, but any suggestions?

The other great thing about the Fall is that TV starts up again. Personally, I much prefer to watch TV on DVD, but there is something fun about when all the season and series primeres are going on. It's just fun to wonder which ones are going to make it, and which won't. I also love guessing where the shows I watch are going to go. I usually give a couple new shows a chance, but most end up completely disappointing. The ones getting the green light this year are Studio 60 (I saw the pilot, but forgot this week, I'll have to catch it later) and Runaway. Both seem interesting, and a new take on perviously tried forumlas. Add to this Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars, and perhaps one other, and I have a full week.

Maybe I'll even manage to get things done this Fall other than watching TV and playing or coaching soccer. But I doubt it.

Only in Bakersfield

Today as I was driving home, I saw a W-word party at the Truxten park thingy in front of an oil pump. I can only hope that they were taking pictures.

Avast!

Ahoy, I be Cap'n Kathryn Backstabber, and fer all ye land lubbers who've had yer heads in a barrel of grog, today be talk like a pirate day! This be an official holiday for all us actual pirates, so if ye know what's good for ye, ye'll dust off yer cutlass and get t' sailing!

Get yerself a pirate name and join the crew if ye know what's good fer ye! Or else ye'll be walkin' the plank and greetin' Davey Jones face to face like the bilge rat that ye are!

Arrrrr!

So good

If only the Star Wars sequels were as good as the sequel to the original Star Wars Lego video game. The creators definitely did their job upgrading and improving the game for this second release. The increased the target age by about 15 years, but still make it fun for kids. And it's hilarious. This is a game that everybody can enjoy.

Have fun storming the castle

I love when I have epic dreams. Most of the time they're better than movies. Last night my family was caught up in a revolution that involved storming castles and shooting arrows at people from the forest. This is the first time I ever remember having my family in my dream, and it was useful since Robby was a very good distraction while I shot at our enemies.

So last night I discovered another reason to hate Fox. There is another series with interesting potential that they killed before it's time - Dark Angel. Of course, this isn't news to anybody since it's been around for a while and reruns are playing on SciFi channel, but I just discovered it last night, and am intrigued. Of course, I'm sure part of the reason that it got cancelled was that it depicts a post-EMP-terrorist-attack America (and after 9-11 that's just not cool, apparently), but still, I blame Fox. I blame Fox for all my TV woes. (Although if VM gets cancelled this season I shall blame the CW, but at least it's making a valliant effort to save the show).

Absolutely brilliant

So I know most of you don't like old movies as much as I do, but everybody has to check this out. Even those of you who weren't in Richards' class junior year.

Bad habit

So I've gotten into the bad habit lately of not posting, and I'll try my best to stop this habit, but I make no promises. I don't have much to report, except for the fact that soccer has been enjoyable and I've been playing a lot of games. Last night Chris and I watched Brick, which I've been holding onto for a while. It was incredibly satisfying, mostly because it was definitely a throwback to the great dective movies like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon. I'm going to have to rewatch it with the subtitles on, just to try to catch all the dialogue I missed. I love movies like that.

The Fall is getting into swing, and I just wish it would start cooling down like it's supposed to. It just makes me depressed when it starts to get dark early, and the only thing that somewhat makes up for it is that it gets cooler. But that hasn't happened yet, so I just get sad when I see the sun going down at 7:00.

Nothing to say

So I really have nothing to say here, but that hasn't stopped me in the past, so why should it now? A couple nights ago the TV was on in the front room and it was the news, and there was a very disturbing story on. I didn't pay enough attention to really figure out what was going on, but I think it was aboutget M-worded in Vegas, and there was definitely a drive through W-word chapel involved. Very disturbing.

I've started the soccer season with my new AYSO team, and that's been interesting. They're 6, 7, and 8 years old, and I don't think I realized what a short attention span that age really has before now. Needless to say by the end of practice, I'm starting to get frustrated, but I am having fun. It's amazing what a difference only a couple practices have made on their skills, and I have hope for the end of the season. Of course, I haven't been able to teach them to spread out yet (even stopping the drill and saying, "Spread out!" doesn't seem to work as they just stand there and seem to have no idea what I'm saying). It does give me a newfound respect for my coaches when I was that age. The good news, though, is that our colors are blue and white, something I'm definitely used to. I wonder if I could get them to name us the Drillers.... probably not.

Darkly?

On our way back from the wilderness, Billy and I decided to stop off in the Bay Area and visit some family. Which is great because my uncle no only enjoys the same movies and TV shows that I do, but also plays many of the same games that I do. So I enjoyed my time of discussing tactics and what not with him.

I suggested that we all go to the movies, mostly because there are a couple movies out right now that I don't trust to be in Bakersfield (or were here for all of a week). As luck would have it, my uncle also hadn't seen A Scanner Darkly and wanted to, so we all ended up going to the movies. Of course, Billy watched some stupid racing movie with Will Farrell and my aunt saw a different movie, but they all started at the same time, so it was like we were all going to the movies together.

Anyways, watching the movie with my uncle, I again realized that for some reason, I have a much better sense of what is going to happen in a movie than most people. At one point in the movie, a character is about to be revealed, and my uncle told me (correctly) who it really was. I sort of chuckled and said, "Yeah, I've known that for about an hour."

It was only later that he told me he had only realized who it was just before they were revealed. The same thing was true for a couple other "surprises" in the movie.

I think when it comes down to it, I just figure that other people think like I do, but really I should know better. I'm not sure why I always figure that other people are like me, but somehow I'm always surprised when they're not. You think I'd learn by now, but alas, I must be stupid or something.

Anyways, I'm back and you should be seeing me online starting now (if you haven't already), and I will perhaps be telling stories of my trip and maybe posting some pictures. Oh how it's great to be back in hot Bakersfield.

Internet IV

So I'm back in the land of civilization, meaning that I'll have some internet access for the next couple of days until I come home. Currently we're up in the Bay Area visiting family, and I don't know how long this will last, so I don't know when I'll be home, although it will be sometime this week. Right now I'm sitting in my aunt's house which is full of boxes. We managed to have the perfect timing to come two days before they're moving, but at least the computer is still hooked up.

I have a bunch of stuff to post, but I think I'll leave it for later, once I get home and have a chance to collect all my thoughts (and pictures).

Vacation of sorts

So today was the last official day. And the last unofficial day too, I guess. I've cleaned out my desktop, which we all know is far more important to me than my actual desk (and by desktop I mean in the computer sense) and have all the important files safely stored in Soren or the wild world of the internet.

Anyways, I guess I've got a couple of post to put up here for the time that I'm gone, so read them all in one sitting our pace yourself so you can get your Becca fix when you need it (I know everybody is going to read them at once because honestly, who needs a Becca fix?).

Post #1 - Potential
Growing up I never understood the importance of the beginning of a month, but my venture into the work world has given me a new perspective. Actually, to be honest, tracking my monthly movie watching has given me the perspective, I'll just tell the adults of the world the part about working to make them feel better.

But closing up the previous month and looking forward to the blank slate of a new one is a great feeling. I feel like I have all the potential in the world looking at the coming TCM calendar and my growth potential. There's an open challenge of "what can I do this month" that excites me and makes me want to jump right in with the movies. Of course, this month is bittersweet because I'm going to miss so many movie watching days, but I'm equally looking forward to spending some time in the wilderness possibly catching up on the books I need to read. But I do love the potential that the first of the month brings.

Post #2 - AS, AD, P, and Q

So lots of people know that I really enjoy economics, so I thought I'd just point out a case of it at work. We've all heard about the bird flu lately, and there have been some serious economics ramifications because birds are being killed because of the danger of them passing along the disease.

Those being especially hit hard are the professional badminton players in the world. Unlike the widely known plastic shuttlecock, professional players use actual feathers in the construction of their shttlecocks (16 goose feathers, traditionally). The price of them has gotten as high as $20 in some places! This is just your traditional example of a decrease in supply causing a increase in price, although it is a bit different because we're talking about the decrease in supply of a part of a final product. The basic idea is still the same, though.

And yes, I do realize that most of you are going to start having those recurring nightmares from Senior year econ, but for some of us, this is fun.

Post #3 - I'm brilliant!

So this past weekend I watched Donnie Darko for the first time. Don't ask me why it took so long for me to see this movie, I am deeply ashamed and sorry for my actions. I did find it fun, though, that illustrated in Donnie Darko is the idea from which I get the title of this blog. So yes, I'm brilliant. But then, we all knew that already.

And if you still don't know what I'm talking about, it's the cool looking thing that occasionally comes out of people's chest and is supposed to indicate where they will be in time. I thought it was pretty awesome.

Post #4 - Disturbing

Gene Kelly isn't my favorite actor, although he's the star in possibly my favorite musical. I've never liked many of his movies, mostly because the musical numbers in them just don't make sense, for the most part. Take An American in Paris, for example. You could shorten the movie by about half if you took out the stupid ballet that it's so famous for, and (in my opinion) make the movie better.

The same is pretty much true of Summer Stock, which is all about a director who puts on a show in a barn and tempts the barn owner (Judy Garland) into show business. But the last part of the movie is them putting on the musical (of which Be Happy is a part) and it plain doesn't make sense. Did people actually go to see shows like so many of the shows within shows? Because I don't see the point, but then, I like plot in my movies (and plays) so maybe I'm weird.

It did have a very disturbing number in which Kelly and Phil Silvers are apparently hickey farm hands with very big feet. I can't do justice to this scene with words, but it ends with a pack of dogs (which Callie loved), and was all very very disturbing.

So that's it. I'll shortly be packing for my adventure into the great unknown, and will hopefully come back with stories of running from bears and the like.

Inefficiency

So I like things to run efficiently. Mostly because efficient things allow me to be lazy. And get done quicker, which allows for more movie watching or video game playing. But I don't just like efficiency in my time - I also like energy efficiency, and some things I just don't understand.

So working in an office I understand that there's going to be different temperature preferences, and that compromise will have to be found between people who like it cold, and those who like it hot. But I can't understand how people can be using floor heaters during the peak of summer. All that means is that somebody else is being selfish and has turned the AC down way too much. Seriously, I know two people in my office use floor heaters regularly (and there's a total of 8 people in the building) and I've seen ladies in the other building with theirs on, too.

Then there's the fact that I know lots of people (my entire family) who leave lights and TVs on all night. I'd really like to do a study to see how much energy it takes to leave a TV on all night. Anybody know? Anybody know how to test it? There's got to be a website out there that tells you how much energy certain appliances use (and how much that costs!).

All I can say is that in the middle of hearing people complain how much energy costs, there are some pretty simple things that are beginning to really annoy me about how others are inefficient with their energy. After all, increased demand is a surefired way to increase price (and the converse it true).

I think I like Mr. Nelson's idea of hooking up a generator to a bike to power a television. Think my family would buy it? And now this has become a really long rant. Sorry.

Enough talk!

So apparently I don't talk enough because after teaching (and talking) all morning, my throat is definitely sore. It didn't help that I woke up this morning with a sore throat (well, I have all this week, but this morning was worse).

Also, apparently I can also add in my head better than other people (although I don't understand how 1800 + 600 can be hard to add).

In other news, I've become obsessed with the Veronica Mars soundtrack. It has a lot of names I recognize from other soundtracks and mixes I've seen recently, and also some new names for me to look into. I think I shall have to aquire some new music for all the car time I'm going to be spending with my brother shortly.

And coming soon: what I will be doing in less than a week!

Good times, great oldies

I love TCM Scene It. Part of me is disguisted at myself when Chris and I play it (and Patrick was definintely disguisted), but it's the same with any specialized trivia game like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit, so I guess it's nothing new. Plus there are occasionally clips of movies that I haven't seen. So it's educational, too.

Cowabunga!

Apparently there's a new TMNT movie in the works. Now, I know there are many of you out there who, like me, lived for Leo, Donny, Mikey, and Raph when we were younger. I'm not going to deny it; I definately did my fair share of jumping off the jungle-gym doing kicks and yelling, "hi-ya!" to my heart's content. So while I'm not getting my hopes up due to the abusurdly lame movies that have come out recently, I still am going to hide a little bit of excitement from the now jaded 22 year old that I have became.

So while the excited 5 year old and the sceptical 22 year old in me battle it out, I think I'll take another look at the trailer. Because it just looks cool.

Timing

Timing is everything, and well, my timing is at 90 hours (including lunch) and counting.

Exodus

So this past weeked marked an Exodus from Bakersfield. Rachel started off with her journey over seas - spending a day in Frankfurt and then going on to bigger and better places. Then, Chris and I both decided to go down and visit people in the LA area (seperately).

Friday night I got down here and Rob and I decided that we felt like pizza (this turns out to be a bad idea). To go with the pizza, Rob made a pitcher of margaritas. Then we played some GS and opened a bottle of wine that I had from last summer (Laura's white zin - yum!). Pretty soon, Natalie joined us, having just finished work. So the three of us goofed off and had a very enjoyable evening.

Now, the reason the previously mentioned pizza was bad is that it somehow managed to give us food posioning. So Saturday was not a really fun day, although we did manage to make a trip to Dreamplay and Robert showed me all the various ways he gets payed to play. Then we came back and oozed while watching some Veronica Mars episodes (which I am now hooked on).

Luckily I'm feeling much better today and will (hopefully) be able to make it home without any problems.

PopWatch

So lately I've been hooked on ew.com's daily PopWatch blog. A lot of the posts aren't interesting to me, but the guys that write it are funny, and there's usually about three interesting posts per day on there. So anyways, I think I'm going to try to post daily about the more interesting stories and links that I find there. Here are a couple from recently.

Shock the man - I'm still not sure how I feel about this, but I was definately laughing when I first found the site. Of all the ways to make money...

Oh dear Lord! - Just watch and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Pretty pretty please! - I'll copy what the PopWatch writer had to say about this link:

Arrested Development: The Movie?
There's still money in that banana stand: Maebe says there'll be an Arrested Development movie. Maybe.

Alia Shawkat (who played the ambiguously-monikered, super-jaded, movie-producing, cousin-kissing teen on the short-lived but much-beloved and altogether over-hyphenated Fox comedy) has the following to say about a possible AD leap to the big screen: "Mitch actually recently told us that there is a good possibility for a movie, and that he's talking to Ron Howard about it."

Well, they did end the show with a movie pitch to series producer/narrator Ron Howard. If they pulled it off, wouldn't that, like, totally be the metaness to end all metanesses? No, that would be an Arrested Development movie about the Arrested Development movie, told from the perspective of the guy who's programming Arrested Development: The Movie: The Videogame. ("Play as GOB. Play as Michael. Play as The Loose Seal.")

In any case, my head will happily explode, and when it does, I promise to YouTube it for your enjoyment.

Network Neutrality

Lately I've been seeing some links online regarding this issue called "Net Neutrality." In an effort to make sure that all of my readers are informed (and since it involves all of us who use the internet) I thought I'd point it out to people if they haven't heard of it already.

Now, I'm not sure if I really understand the issue, but here's what I've gathers of the gist of it. Basically, non-neutrality would entail that the ISP could decide who and what gets the best and most bandwidth. They could choose to give certain sites better quality, while pushing others to the backburner. Neutrality would basically leave things as they are.

A couple pros and cons that I can see right off:

Pro-neutrality pros - The flexibility and freedom of the internet is protected. Sites like YouTube, blogger, myspace, and P2P servers are protected.

Pro-neutrality cons - If bandwidth gets tight, people could "hog" all the bandwidth with streaming and P2P programs. You could also have to start paying per bandwidth amount, rather than per month. Consumer prices will increase because of the increase demand of bandwidth.

Anti-neutrality pros - ISPs can better allow for certain streaming of voice and video files, giving you a better experience. There would be tiered pricing by ISPs, allowing you to only pay for what you want.

Anti-neutrality con - Obviously, the reason that certain ISPs would allow premium bandwidth to certain companies and site would be because they would pay the ISPs. Since in the conceivable future everything will be coming to us through the internet (cable, phone line, etc) this could mean that you can only use certain service providers, creating geographic monopolies, which are bad for consumers. Also, sites that focus on freedom and sharing of information are going to be at a disadvantage (sites like YouTube, especially).

For more information, go here and try to figure it out for yourself. And if I've figured this wrong, please let me know. This seems to be a pretty important issue, potentially changing the future of the internet, which is going to get even more important than it already is, I think. If that's possible. Anyways, here are the websites for the various sides For Neutrality and Non-neutrality.

Who are the 4400?

A better question would be, "How come I didn't start watching this earlier?"

This show made a tiny blip on my radar last year, but didn't really stick (it also didn't help that I had a very changing schedule last summer, and couldn't regularly watch TV). But this summer I decided that I would start watching it, and this weekend I did.

Basically, this show has everything that I love in TV. Compelling characters, writers and producers who aren't afraid to kill of main characters (making any suspense they create more real), and (most importantly) philosophical issues in every episode. Let me tell you a little about it:

The premise of the show is that since about 1940, people have been disappearing from all over the globe. Then, all of a sudden, they all reappeared in a big ball of light at the base of Mt. Reiner. None of them have aged a day, and they can't remember a thing that happened while they were gone.

So obviously, the first idea (since the ball of light came from space) is aliens. And this isn't put to rest any when some of them start to develop pretty awesome powers. The great thing, though, is that the show isn't technically about the 4400, it's about two NTAC (National Threat Assesment Center, part of Homeland Security) agents who have to investigate these people. Of course, it's not that simple, and these two agents find themselves tied up pretty tightly into the lives of many 4400. So there's action (they're basically the equivalent of FBI agents), Sci-Fi elements, philosophy (especially later they get into matter of ethics - or I could just be reading into it), and interesting characters who have to learn to deal with all sorts of new situations. And because of the nature of the people taken, it's not all about adults learning to deal, there's also teenagers and even kids. And did I mention that the writers aren't afraid to mess people up (emotionally, physically, relationshiply) and even kill them.

I think this might be taking the place of Alias. Too bad it's only on during the summer and has really short seasons. But oh well, I suppose it's a start.

It's been that long?

I remember when Billy and I bought our family its first DVD player. It was our Junior year (in high school) Christmas, and we decided that we wanted a DVD player, and the only way to get it would be to "give" it as a present to the whole family. That way we killed two birds with one stone. I know when it was because at the same time I got The Matrix on DVD (because I knew it would look awesome through the DVD player). Now I'm thinking about buying a second DVD player in addition to my dual VCR/DVD player because it can play DivX movies (also the DVD part of my player doesn't work since the remote is broken, so I'm not being excessive).

It's amazing how much growth the home entertainment industry has seen in the past 6 years. And how much my movie collection has grown in the past 3 years.

Year in Review

So the half year mark has come and gone, and it's a little disconcerting. Usually, I have my school schedule to keep my sense of placement in the year real, but not this year. So it was a little strange when I realized about a week ago that it should now be closer to the end of the year than the beginning. And as such, I've decided to post my Year in Review.

Now, most of what this will be about is movies, because the events of my life for the past six months have been pretty mundane and repetitive. So I won't bore you with them. But I will give my opinion on the movies that I've seen in the past six months. And shock you all with their sheer number (and I will show you what a complete loser I am and how much time I spend alone in my room watching movies by the number). But I don't care.

First off, I've seen 139 movies this year. Now, these are movies that I've seen for the first time, so it doesn't count repeat viewings of the same movie. This is actually more like 128 movies, because some of them I didn't see the whole thing (stupid 25 minute drive home from work). To break this up a little bit, I've seen 6 movies in theaters (four that have been released this year), 12 on HBO, and 27 on DVD. That leaves the rest to be seen on TCM. That leaves about 83 to be seen on TCM for those of you who are counting. 87 of the movies I've seen this year have been on one AFI list or another. So that's the numbers, now on to content.

I really think I'm going to be unable to pick a favorite movie seen this year, mostly because of the sheer number of really great ones that I've seen, but I'll break it up into categories and hopefully make some desicisions.

First, on the AFI lists:
Film: Lawrence of Arabia
Thrill: Rear Window
Comedy: Bringing Up Baby
Passion: It Happened One Night
Hero: Atticus Finch (To Kill A Mockingbird)
Villain: Hannibal Lector (The Silence of the Lambs)
Non-AFI movie: Dark City

Close runners up were: Some Like It Hot, Ball of Fire, The Quiet Man, On the Waterfront, and To Have and Have Not.

My favorite book has been: The Once and Future King
Favorite Season of TV: Firefly

So there's my boring recap of the year - hopefully the rest of the year will see me doing something other than sitting around watchign more movies.

But I doubt it.

I miss the cold

I think summer officially starts soon, and I’m definitely missing my winter. Don’t get me wrong, I love the summer. I love that it stays light until 9:00 (even if it does make it so I never want to go to sleep) and I love playing games outside in the heat. I love all the fun things that go along with summer – outside concerts, swim parties, and camping. But winter is my season.

For one, it’s always associated with soccer for me. High school soccer season ran all winter long, and even if it wasn’t technically winter when I played up on Spokane, it still felt like what a Bakersfield winter feels like. Then there’s all the snow activities of the winter, even if I haven’t had much of them lately. Snowball fights, snow football and soccer, and most importantly snowboarding are only possible in the winter.

Of course the winter also has its drawbacks. Fog means waking up earlier than I would like, and the fact that it’s still dark until about 6:30 makes waking up early difficult. Living in Spokane during the winter meant adding at least half an hour to any drive time, not to mention digging cars out of the snow and walking carefully because of ice. Actually, ice was awesome because you could have contests about who would fall the least and the most because of ice, and watching it happen is great, but still inconvenient.

I miss wearing layers. Winter is my favorite clothing season (did I just say I have a favorite clothing season? Wow), mostly because it’s the easiest. It’s very easy to dress appropriate for the weather (you don’t have to guess if it’s going to be warm or cold – it’s going to be cold), and I love wearing long sleeves. And scarves and beanies. And especially sweatshirts and vests. And gloves. And mittens. I wish I could wear winter clothing all year long.

So here’s to decreasing marginal time until it’s winter again, now that spring is over. Yay for winter being close than it is far away

Non-stop party

Wednesday night officially kicked off the non-stop party that is going to last a week around here. What started out as a random small trip down to LA to go to Hotel Café turned into a random big trip. Monday night, Chris, Rachel, and Jessica were sitting around playing cards and listening to some music when somebody (Jessica, I think) said, “I really like her (the musician playing). We should go and hear her play!” As it turns out, she was playing in Hotel Café (an old stomping ground of Jessica’s) and a trip was planned.

I decided at about 2:30 on Wednesday afternoon to join the trip down, even though it meant getting little sleep on Wednesday night and suffering through two more days of work, and somehow convinced Robert to join us down there, also. So we all went down to Hollywood and had a very enjoyable night. I was thinking about sleeping on the drive back (Chris was driving, not me) but seeing how we hadn’t seen each other for half a week, we had way too many movies to talk about, and I didn’t manage to take a nap.

Last night was my break from the party, because it’s very dangerous for me to hang out with people on Thursday nights. I think the weekend feels way too close, so I figure that I can stay up later than I probably should, and I didn’t want to compound Wednesday night with a late Thursday night.

Saturday I should be going to the beach with some of my family (not sure who’s going to go) which should be relaxing. I look forward to being cold (somewhat) again. Then on Sunday I’m trying to put together a poker night (for any who are interested), Monday night is our official freedom celebration (because we won’t be able to have a late night on Tuesday) with everybody, and Tuesday night I’ll probably be doing something small.

I’m hoping to somehow manage to fit in seeing Superman Returns, and perhaps even Cars this weekend, as well as finish up my last season of Gilmore Girls, maybe watch an AFI movie or two, and finish up all the interview write ups for my aunt by Wednesday.

So it’s going to be a very busy week, and I hope that I manage my sleep well enough that I don’t need to sleep through any of the festivities. After all, who needs sleep? It’s way overrated.

I know who it's going to be!

I so knew it. Harry and Hermoine are going to bite it, leaving the road clear for Ron and Ginny to express their true feelings for one another. Or is it the other way around?

And yes, I'm so starting a HP Death Pool. Details will be forthcoming, so starting thinking about who you're going to pick. It will probably be connected with my HP The Series Death Pool (meaning the publication of the last book). Okay, so we all know it's not going to be the death of the series, but then the pools will go together so nicely.

Joseph Campbell is my hero!

There are a couple of reasons that I think Gilmore Girls is one of the best TV shows (still) on. Two obvious reasons for this:

1) In the episode on Spring Break, The Power of Myth was used as a running joke. Rory's character has seen it five times.

2) While discussing movie night, Lorelei has to ask Luke which movies he has seen and lists (in this order): Casablanca, Chinatown, Bonnie and Clyde, It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Those writers have amazing taste.

And the original Gone in 60 Seconds was on tonight - lots of old mustangs are ugly. Am I un-American for saying that? I think I should re-watch The Power of Myth in celebration of the fact that Superman is coming out soon. Because what is a cooler myth than the story of Superman? That's right, nothing.

Ice cream and one-handed cartwheels

Rite Aid is a very interesting store. When I worked at camp, it was pretty much the only store that you had to go to if you needed something, and my roommates and I would take many a late night trip down there (mostly for ice cream). I was very saddened to hear that in Washington the Rite Aids don't have ice cream. And I got some very weird looks the first time I suggest Rite Aid for ice cream.

Lately I've been thinking about watching Silence of the Lambs, because I had never seen the whole thing. I had seen the beginning, but that was about it. So last night in my dream I invented a plot for it, and decided it was finally time to watch it. The dream was very interesting, though. It involved Anthony Hopkins doing one-handed cartwheels (I'm sure they're called something else) and a very long wooden, suspended walkway over a bay to the house that he was hiding in.

Of course, none of this had anything to do with the actual movie, but it was fun. Then I was woken to the sound of my dad doing yard work at 7:30, and had a great morning.

Happy Brithday

Today is Meryl Streep's birthday (she's 57, who knew?) so in honor of that, we'll try again to talk about our favorite movies by the actress whose birthday it is (the previous one didn't work very well).

This one is a tough one for me, since she's been in many a great movie, and many a great role, most of which I haven't seen. I think my favorite would be AI: Artificial Intelligence. Heh, just kidding, but apparently she was in it as a voice of something. Honestly, though, I think the movie that I've seen which is my favorite roll that's she's been in would be Karen Blixen in Out of Africa, but my favorite movie she's been in would be Kramer vs. Kramer (I've only seen 4 and a half of her movies).

Still?

I've felt like it should already be the end of the week (or the end of next week) for some reason lately. Today I had to convince myself that it wasn't actually Thursday, and also that it wasn't the 4th of July in a couple days. I don't know what caused this time misconception, but I think it has something to do with the action packed couple of days I've had lately.

But at least now it's almost officially the end of the week (only a day to go until Thursday!) and by the time Thursday rolls around, it's almost Friday, and that's almost the weekend. And, yes, I do live my life currently by thinking of what my current situation is close to, and what the close to think is close to. And no, I'm not sad and pathetic, however it may sound.

Soon is the start of people leaving Bakersfield for bigger and better things as Amy goes off for her adventures in Peru Thursday. She will be followed soon after by Jessica and Rachel, and then things will be sad, since I will have a much smaller number of people with whom to distract myself here in Bakersfield. It might, however, mean an end to my self inflicted motto of "Who needs sleep?" though. Probably not, seeing how I'll more than likely drown my sorrows in movies.

Why I love the movies

I watched two great movies this weekend. One was A Praire Home Companion, which is Robert Altman's new film. He's slowly becoming one of my favorite directors. The reason for this is that most of his films are very very character driven. Many of them have little plot to think of, but are all about how the characters interact with one another. He also uses long scenes, something that I hate about modern films. I don't want to have a scene cut every 3.5 seconds, thank you. I want to see the actors actually get into the character and have to interact with the people around them as the character would have to.

I also watched Gaslight today, which is a great movie. I would have prefered to be able to doubt Paula (Bergman's) sanity, but you know all along that it is a hoax. Even if I didn't know the plot, you are meant to not like her husband, because you know that he is up to something. I would have much prefered to invest in both characters (rather than just Paula) and have the rug pulled out from underneath me at the end, learning that her husband was doing it all the time.

But instead you don't care about him, and want her to find out the whole movie. When she finally does, you're somewhat disappointed, although the final scene between the two of them is great.

Policy

McDonald's apparently likes to make policy. They have three policies: the drink policy, the sauce policy, and the eating policy. I will explain each below.

The Drink Policy
Apparently, it is unhealty to bring a used McDonalds cup back into a restaurant, especially the large 44 oz cups. It says so right on the door. It's because of saftey issues that they won't allow you to bring one back in, not because they don't want to get cheated out of your 74 cents.

The Sauce Policy
When you buy a 6 piece chickenish thing you are entitled to one (1) package of dipping sauce. If you need another one, you will be required to pay for it. A whole 10 cents.

The Eating Policy
This one is my favorite. When you buy a meal at McDonalds, you are entitled to sitting down for at most 30 minutes to eat it. No more. If you loiter there longer, you will be asked to leave. Apparently they think you might be a bomb. Or you'll disrupt other guests.

The Eating Policy is my favorite, and so far I've broken it three times this week. I've also developed my own policy for McDonalds. It's called the Becca Policy.

The Becca Policy
Snack size yogurt thingy + medium french fries + lots of Poweraid = a happy Becca

It's been a long time coming

Yes, the moment of the summer finally arrived tonight; the moment we've been waiting for for untold months is finally upon us! CBS showed AFI's Top 100 Inspirational Films. It was a moment worthy of both of Chris and me ignoring usual bedtimes, even if AFI did make the list incorrectly with Rudy being way too lowly ranked. But I shall post more later, I mostly wanted to point out that I can stay up past 11 on a school night, as it were.

Also, I shall actually have things to occupy my time at work with for the next week or so. No, not actual work, but rather, work on my movie list. I'm looking forward to the task!

Word of the day

Last night I woke up and thought to myself that the word "sarcast" should exist. As in, "I was just sarcasting." And then I promptly went back to sleep. So I'm creating a new word. However, the question arises whether it should be passive or active. I vote for active, because we don't really have a lot of passive verbs in English (actually, we might not have any, except for passive versions of active verbs). And passive verbs are so hard to use, and with sarcasm, it's all about the doer, because the receiver is usually being made fun of, so they don't even matter. And since I vote for active, active it is.

Anyways, the reason for this when you say, "I was being sarcastic," you really mean that I made a sarcastic action. Because, if we're honest, most of us are "being sarcastic" all the time, we just don't always say the sarcastic things we think. So to say, "I was being sarcastic," and to use the word sarcastic as a temporal adjective is silly. Really, sarcastic is describing a part of my personality, but saying "I was sarcasting" is pointing out when exactly I was letting that part of my personaility out.

We don't say, "I was being joking," do we? No, of course not. So why do we say, "I was being sarcastic?" We shouldn't, and therefore I'm going to start using my new word, sarcast. Later will come all it's irregular forms (if there are any, I haven't decided yet) and it's derivation from the ancient languagues.

If only...

... my life was like my dreams. I had a fun one last night involving shapeshifting into a dragon and various other fun times. There's one scene that I can't quite figure out:

I was running and hiding from people due to my shapeshifting abilities (they were afraid of us) and there was a member of an underground movement that was helping me. We went into a store, and he asked me if I wanted three bags of gummi bears or two. Now, I could only take two bags with me, but I could get three if I wanted, and I couldn't give the third bad away. So, since I knew this was a test, I instead asked for just one bag of gummi bears. I answered this way because I knew the person with me was a traitor, and as soon as I walked outside I would be captured, but I wanted him to be a little puzzled, and perhaps change his mind about the dragons. Why only taking one bag of gummi bears would do this, I have no idea.

Summer is officially starting this week (with a high of 85 degrees to start things off right) and I'm sad to be missing it. I keep wanting to plan things for the summer, and then I remember that I can't because I now have responsibilities to wake up on time in the morning. Which really sucks, let me tell you. But I'm hoping some frisbee action will happen (especially since I won't be the only one obsessed with frisbee soon since Patrick will be in town soon), even if not as frequently as last summer.

"You're turning into Chris."

Jessica accused me of this while we were playing Settlers because I said, "It starts," and then quietly continuted with, "You think you know a guy." In my defense, I've been saying this line ever since The Lion King became my favorite Disney movie way back in elementary school before I really knew Chris. So I'm not turning into him, but apparently only he is allowed to quote movies.

Anyways, this week it seems true that I'm turning into Chris. Monday I had to get up at 5 because I took Alan to the airport for his flight to the midwest, a task that usually falls to Chris. And this week I have been watching Callie and house sitting in general for them.

I read the first two Inheritance books, and enjoyed them. The second book much improved over the first one, although the first one wasn't bad. The books lean very heavily on LotR, but that's not really a bad thing, and it's really only in specific areas of the book. I think only somebody who has read LotR like I have would notice it, and I don't even mind. After all, almost all fantasy which has elves and dwarves in it has to borrow from Tolkien. But I think I'm ready to swear off books seeing as I've done practically nothing the past two days (outside of work) but read.

I've been thinking about perception lately and how it changes. It's interesting that how you perceive something can change so drastically with only a little time, and it's also interesting how certain things (notions, moods, expectations) influence how we experience places and people. I don't really have a point with this, just thought I'd share what I've been pondering lately. I think I'll have to read some Plato because I seem to remember Forrest talking something about knowledge and perceived beauty, but I don't really remember. Maybe I'll have to focus my thoughts (since I'm done reading) and actually come up with some thoughts and ideas.

But I'm lazy so I probably won't.

A long week

Well it has been a long week, but that's not necessarily bad. Last week was three day weekend, and I spent most of Monday relaxing and sleeping, which was great. Wednesday I got Amy and Jessica together and we Settled in the land called Catan. Since they have played very little previously, we decided to play two games, the first being more of a practice where I helped them place their settlements and gave advice.

Well, apparently I gave advice that was too good, because I got the beating of my life in that game. When Amy won the game, I had three points. I won't try to excuse my failing here, but for those of you who think Settlers doesn't involve luck, you're sorely mistaken. I had all sorts of luck in that game - it was just the bad kind.

The second game went better, and I redeemed myself, although perhaps the bitter taste of defeat fueled my quick victory. It also could have been that bedtime was looming and we had to finish quickly so that I could get home. Thursday Rachel and I hung out since nobody else showed up for HP group and enjoyed ourselves at Applebee's. Then on Friday I got to talk a half day off and head down to the OC with Rachel for our funfilled trip to Disneyland.

After meeting up with Susie and John, we headed somewhere to meet with her great uncle, and from there to a nice little restaurant by the bay (or at least I think it was a bay). After a nice meal and a huge piece of chocolate cake split by the six of us, we headed home to rest before the big day.

Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed to the Magic Kingdom for our fun filled adventures. I should explain - it was John's company's day at Disneyland or something like that, and since they have season tickets, passed along the company tickets to Rachel and her friend of choice (last year she took Chris, this year she was reduced to take me since he's out of town). But when we arrived, we discovered that the company had a goody bag for John, consisting of a hat, fan-spray-y thingy, M&M's, trail mix, and a nice little backpacking thing to carry it all in. Since I was the only one without a hat or bag, I got to carry the stuff, and had a fun day randomly spraying people while in line. We proceeded to get our first Fastpass to Space Mountain (well John did while we got in line for the Matterhorn) and our day was off to a running start.

We went on Space Mountain twice (it so happened that the line was about as long as the time remaining until our passes went active, so it was great). This was my first time on the new ride, and while I really enjoyed it, I don't think it was necessary to update the music. I especially enjoyed one of the opening moments when it really feels like the whole car is spinning due to moving lights. All in all, we went on Space Mountain three times, Astro Blasters and Big Thunder twice, and just about everything else once.

But the best part of the day was Fantasmic. We we pretty tired by about 9, and decided to eat and see if we could get good enough seats to see it during the first show. For those of you who don't know, Fantasmic is sort of a light show, sort of a live action show, and completely awesome. They project clips onto waterscreens in front of Tom Sawyer's Island, and it's great. Anyways, I had never seen it before, because most of my Disneylanding is done by the time 9 PM roles around (the trips with band and chorus in Jr. High) and the one time I could have seen it, my brothers opted to go on rides with shorter lines due to the many people watching the show.

It was great, a truely well made show, and I hope that whoever created got paid a lot of money. Of couse, it could help that I can easily slip into a 5-year-old's mind, so I could experience it that way. But still, great.

After this, Rachel and I headed to Rob's apartment for the evening, which he was kind enough to share with us. It was the first time I've seen his place since I helped him movie in, and it really hasn't changed that much. He still basically has most of it empty, with a mattress lying on the floor. In his defense, though, he does now have more appliances, and a nicely stocked bar and blender. I forsee more trips down there in my future.

Yesterday I got back just in time to play in my soccer game, although they really didn't need me and the field was a swamp (how one can manage to create a swamp in a Bakersfield summer is beyond me).

The thing about this weekend is - I didn't watch tv or get on a computer at all. From Friday afternoon until this morning when I arrived at work. I don't know if I should be proud of myself or dismayed.

And if you read this, you have way too much time on your hands. Get a job or something. Or go watch a movie. May I suggest To Have and Have Not, which I will be watching this evening? It's supposed to be a good one.

Frickety Frack

I don't remember where I got that phrase, but I think it applies. Actually, more would apply right now, but I'm not willing to go there quite yet. Here I am, sitting at my desk and it's 5:23. You might be asking youself, "Why would Rebecca, who really doesn't enjoy her job all that much, be sitting at her desk an hour after she's allowed to go home?"

Well, the answer is that some of the people who work here are morons. I asked at 3:30 for them to do something that was required for me to do soemthing else that must be done before I leave. But did they do it? No, of course not. Not until 3:45, and even then they didn't finish. So I had to call out to this department (numerous times to even get somebody to answer) to ask somebody else to finish it. And now they're taking forever too.

So I'm annoyed, but it has give me time to put this post up. Of course, if I wasn't sitting here I would have nothing to post about. So I think I'd take not posting and not sitting here over sitting here and posting. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Part Deux

I saw an interesting question today as I was looking at my various online things. The question was basically: Even if it completely impossible, which movie would you see a sequel made from? My initial response is Serenity, Serenity please! But after that I have to wonder. What are the movies out there that I think have the character potential to warrant a sequel? Because, let’s face it, many of the sequels (almost all?) are made simply because they have huge stars attached to them, not because of the story or characters (in my opinion good characters will almost always make good story).

So what else? To tell the truth, I’m having trouble coming up with sequels that I would actually enjoy seeing, so help me out. What movies would you actually like to see sequelized?

Who needs sleep?

Well, Alias is officially gone, and I'm very sad. Granted, the show hasn't been nearly as good the past couple of seasons as it was early on, but there is still so much potential in a show like that. There's so much hinted, and then it turns out that either those hints are realized, or the writers have to make the hints lead to something lame and short so that they can get the driving story done. I can accept things like this, but I don't have to like them.

Lost is also done for a while, which just means that I have three months to catch up and understand what's going on. It's very interesting to see what I can figure out and know from just watching the three episodes I've seen so far. It's also interesting to see which characters I'm interested in, compared to the people who have been watching it more than I have. I can see the characters that the writers want me to like and be iterested in, and maybe it's my dislike of doing what I'm told, but I just can't seem to care. It's the seeming superfluous characters that I want to know more about, but I don't think I will, sadly.

I'm usually like that, though. I see a character who is mostly thrown in the story as a place holder and am intrigued by them. Maybe this happens because I'm not usually interested in black and white characters (as so many lead protagonists have been, historically), so I get interested in the shady and subtle ones that who's motivation we don't necessarily know.

Well, this was supposed to be about Alias and Lost, and hasn't really been, so maybe I'll talk about them in a later post.

Death be not proud

Who needs a bedtime when there are friends to hang out with?

Distraction

So Chris introduced me to a movie quiz, and from it I found an intelligence (or three, actually), and all five (there's a second movie quiz) are very fun and addicting. You should check them out if you haven't already. I especially enjoy the movie ones, but the intelligence ones are also fun, and way better than most 'intelligence' quizes. (I'll include links at the end of the post).

One of the things I hate most about office life is pleasantries, especially in the morning. Everybody around here knows I don't like mornings, and yet they insist on saying chipperly, "Good morning!" every time I walk in the door in the morning. I feel like responding with a "Hmph," but know I would have to explain this, and people would think I'm having a bad morning (I'm not, I just don't want to have to say "Good morning" every day).

I know, I'm an anti-social jerk. How do I live with myself?

Movie Quiz 1
Movie Quiz 2
Intelligence Test
Intelligence Test 2
Intelligence Test 3

Enjoy!

Desperation

I can't stand having long fingernails. I probably clip them 2-3 times a week (not the same ones, but they grow at different rates). But lately I've misplaced my little clipper things, so I have resorted to desperate measures. I used scissors. But the problem with that is I can't really see what I'm doing, so I tend to cut the nail too short, which ends up being annoying and hurting a little. And I make sharp edges, so it's not a great solution. A better one would be to go to the store and buy a new set of clipper things. But I like improvising better.

And yes, I really have nothing else going on right now other than this to talk about.

Napage

There's not much in this work better than an afternoon nap. They were one of my favorite things about college, and the only thing that allowed me to stay up until 4 am playing Gemstone and still be able to argue in class. I miss them so much that I've found myself taking afternoon naps on Sunday even when I'm not tired. But I take one because I can.

It does make for interesting dreams when I'm not tired, though, and I tend to remember them more when I'm not tired. To continue the theme lately, Robert, Chris, and I were embarking on an adventure. I don't remember what the adventure involved, but it was very adventurey.

Unfortunately, the drawback of an afternoon nap is that I'm not tired when I should be going to bed. Which is probably why I'm really tired at the beginning of every week.

Happy Birthday...

Katharine Hepburn.

I thought we'd celebrate by remembering our favorite Hepburn movies (K Hepburn, not A Hepburn).

The point, gentlemen, is that they lived.

With the up-coming (or in some cases past) season finales for various tv shows, I'm struck with the fact that I don't really like happy endings. Now, contrary to the (probable) popular belief that I don't like them because I don't like happy things, the reason for this is more that I don't trust them, because I don't trust endings.

Even in books I hate endings (even happy ones), because I always want to know what happens next. Perhaps I've had this feeling of late because of the abundance of shows I've been watching which have been prematurely given a happy ending. In Firefly, Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, and even Alias (okay, it's not really premature, but I don't think it should end) I feel like there has to be more going on, because the main thing the heros fight against doesn't go away.

Sure, they've told the story they meant to (well, in Alias, not Firefly) but there's still something to fight, and the enemy isn't going to let the hero rest. I can't see the government ever letting River get away (she's way too powerful) and I can't see the evil out there ever letting Sydney live her life in peace. The only way either could happen is if they go and hide, and given both characters, I can't see that happening.

All this to say I will miss my shows when they're gone, although I'm trying to get hooked on Lost. It's not nearly as good as Alias (I might post about why later) but I've used the word "intriguing" a lot when talking about it, so there's something worthwhile there. And the alternate reality game or whatever it is a pretty awesome idea.

The bygone days of Winter

I've finally admitted to myself that winter is over. It's not that I don't like the spring or the summer, it's that I really love the winter. I love being cold when I sleep, and wearing warm clothes (scarves and beanies!) But last night I finally officially took my flannel sheets out of circulation and steeled myself for only cotton sheets for the next six months.

It was only a couple weeks ago that I stopped wearing my jacket to work (although it's freezing in my office so I think I might take and leave one at work). So I must accept that the cold weather is gone, and I will only get a little glimpse of it when in the mountains. But with the fans that I have going in my room, I can pretend that is at least November. Or the later part of October, at least.

The stuff that dreams are made of

Yes, I'm going to quote The Maltese Falcon for the third time. Deal with it. There's a reason that it's ranked 14th on AFI's Top 100 quotes, after all.

I think I've posted this before, but I very rarely have bad dreams. Even when I was young, I don't remember having very many nightmares (although I had one reoccuring nightmare when I was little that was fun). And even when I do have bad dreams, they definately involve me fighting the bad guys, not just sitting and hiding or running. And strangely enough, they are almost all in my house, and especially in my room.

Growing up, my favorite bad dreams were the ones when I would wake up convinced that there were witches in the house, and I would sit perfectly still in bed coming up with ways to battle them.

I think I've discovered that I either need to stop watching shows like Alias and playing adventure RPG's, or I need to find some adventure to put in my life so that my dreams stop being interesting. I'm not going to give up Alias (well, I will give up new episodes when I have to, but I won't like it!) or video games, so I guess I'll have to find some adventure. And I think I know where to start.

Girthiness

I have a cankle. Yes, singular. Just one. I'll try to take a picture and put it up here, but it looks like Girthy is getting girthier, at least until the swelling goes down. But I am living up to my name, even if I have to hurt myself to do it.

Vegas was fun, although I'm probably going to disappoint everybody by saying that I didn't do any gambling. Yep, none. First, I was much too tired and hot to go do anything after the games, and second, I was already having trouble breathing with all the dust in the air, and didn't feel like dying of smoke to go in a casino. Even so, I had fun.

The soccer was very good, actually. Nice and competitive, with one of my teammates even getting in a fight with another team. She didn't start it, but she sure did finish it. I never have figured out why other teams always go after the biggest person to pick a fight with. This other girl apparently (I didn't see the beginning) hit Megan in the head, then ran. She ran because Megan is about 5'10 and built like a linebacker. Silly girl. Needless to say, Megan grabbed her, threw her to the ground, and got one punch in before the other team grabbed her and pulled her off. It was funny, although annoying that we afterwards had to play one player down (they did, too, so it wasn't too bad).

Lately

I've thought of a lot of different posts to make lately, but somehow haven't managed to find the time to put them up here. Or, perhaps I just haven't found the inclination to put them up. Either way, they're not here.

Robert might have finally succeeded in getting me hooked to Lost (although why he would want to given my track record with the tv shows I watch I don't know why), but I was never really against the idea, it was just a matter of timing. So here's to hoping that Lost doesn't die within a season of me starting to watch it like all of the other shows I've watched recently.

I finally got to watch M*A*S*H, which I've had for probably about two months now, on Monday. It was funny, and has definately made me want to watch the Robert Altman film coming out soon. Even if it does have Lindsey Lohan in it.

Also, I got a new phone! I'm officially IN the network now, so those of you with Verizon can call me without fear of using all you minutes. I have the same number, though, so you don't have to worry about that. Also, I'm headed to Las Vegas, to hopefully not hurt myself playing 7 games of soccer in two days. It should be interesting. And the intersting part will be spending three days with my mom, not soccer.

Alias Tonight!

That's all I have to say.

Shattered goals

So when I took this job at Bolthouse I thought to myself, "Okay, nobody here knows you (with the exception of Catherine, who is my mom's age, so it doesn't count). Nobody has to know what a nerd you are if you don't want them to! They won't pick on you like everybody else in the world does!"

It turns out that I do have a sign taped to my back that says, "Please pick on me," because it wasn't even a week and the teasing had already started. I think I'm going to have to accept that I bring this on myself, and I think I'm okay with it.

But I did hide a good deal of my nerdiness from my co-workers. I did not once mention Gemstone. I often mentioned my love of soccer and sports. One place that my nerdiness came out was in my discussion of movies, but even this was disguised. The only games I mentioned were when Xboxing was brought up by another memeber of the sales team, and I never mentioned Gemstone or anything that would give me away. Until today, that is.

A guy I work with is going to be in Las Vegas this weekend, where I will also be. So I decided to ask him, "Why are you going to Vegas? Just because?" The resulting conversation went something like this:

Joe: Is there another reason to go?
Becca: Well, I can think of one (thinking that they would remember the reason I'm going is soccer). long pause Soccer.
Everybody: Oh yeah.
David: I was thinking you were going to say something like a video game conference.
Everybody: Haha. Do they even have those?
Meanwhile I'm not saying anything and go back to work
David: They do, don't they.
Becca: not liking where this is goingWell, yeah. It's called Vegascon. But I haven't been!

So this wasn't turning out very well, but I didn't think it could get worse. Then I decided to try to explain that it wasn't a video game conference, but an online game conference (I've made the hugest little mistake). So I said, "Well, it's actually not a video game, but an online MUD." When asked what a MUD was, I responded, which promptly caused the person sitting next to me to almost die of laughter.

When I finally got her to calm down enough to explain what was so funny, she told asked me if I play D & D, to which I responded, "Well, no," but apparently I wasn't convincing enough, because she started laughing more. I told her, "I have never played D&D in my life, although I've played many games that are based on it, but all in an electronic form."

She told me that the people from her high school who played D&D were the types of kids who wore capes to school. To which I responded (without thinking), "Oh, well I have a cloak and a cape."

This was the last straw, and she had to go get a tissue to mop up the streaming tears from laughter. When she finally got back, I assured her that, yes, I really do have a cloak, and that I have worn it at times other than Halloween, mostly at camp and when filming movie, though. This seemed to calm her down a bit, but I've officially lost my lack of "nerdiness" here at work.

Oh well, it had to happen sooner or later.

Previously, on Alias

Alias, quite possibly the awesomest of awesome shows, will start the home stretch tonight. Two hours of glorious CIA action! Unfortunately, the experience will be bittersweat due to the fact that it will all be over soon, but there's always the hope of books and movies and what-not following shortly after the end. After all, no character ever truely died (except Lauren! I'm pretty sure she's dead and gone. And Francie), so why should the show die when it's supposed to?

Is it bad that I'm tempted to get a new phone so that I can download the Alias theme song as my ringer?

Comfort activities

It's amazing what Marlon Brando and Lego can do to make a day better.

Boring post, don't read (I'm serious)

It's amazing how much time I can waste writing then erasing both titles to posts and posts themselves. Especially when I have been posting frequently. But I usually post when I need to waste time, so I guess it's all good. If this post is so boring, you may be wondering why I posted it. Well, I did because it's my blog, and I can do what I want, even just write my rambling thoughts down. And I need to waste 45 minutes before I can go home.

I've been thinking lately about culturally expected actions, and how I hate them. But there must be some reason for them. Actually, I've been thinking about a short story by OSC in the Enderverse about when Andrew's mom and dad met. Now, they were both brilliant, and she (Teresa) was a grad student in like cultural anthropology and ended up teaching him (John Paul). So they started talking about survival of the fittest and societal influenced actions and what not, and I have to wonder how true it is that society causes actions that are going to help it survive. I mean, there's always been Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest (don't make me go Darwin on your butt!) and I've always had a little bit of trouble buying it. I mean, sure, it makes sense, but doesn't seem to apply to humans anymore. Seriously, look at current reproductive trends. It's not the smart people having lots of babies.

Anyways, does this mean that SoF doesn't apply anymore? Or does it mean that instead of breeding traits in individuals that will help us survive (big teeth and claws) we're "breeding" actions in society that will cause the survival of individuals (certain societies). Like the fact that you should work and not be lazy, and "grow up." I've always hated the idea of growing up, and yet it seems like I can't get out of it. It's ingrained into me (okay, not acting old, but getting a job and what not).

I told you not to read this, but since you have, you should read the short story, I think it's called Teacher's Pet. Actually, you just have to read the first part, because after that it's about John Paul trying to get Teresa to like him (apparently he succeeds because they are married and have three kids in Ender's Game), but the class part is interesting. That's what I love about OSC's books - they make me think long after I'm done reading them.

Tax Time

I don't really care about my finances, for the most part. If I have money in the bank, and have a general idea that income > expenditures, I'm good to go. And if they aren't, I just spend less, and it all works out. So when I get things in the mail regarding finances, I tend to misplace them. Usually there are a couple of piles of check stubs and other mail I get from the various places I work/worked for.

So I had to search through all these piles this morning looking for 10-99s or W-2s or whatever it is I get so that my mom could do my taxes today (thanks Mom!). Luckily they were all there (except for one that my mom had kept or something), but I also found three checks! So while I might have to pay money for my taxes, I've ended up getting around $300 from the whole thing (before taxes). So I think I'll have to take my mom out to dinner as thank you for doing them for me.

It's so nice having a former accountant (mom) and future accountant (Billy) in the family around this time of year.

Fewmets and Frivolities

Is anybody else as tired of animated wild animals in movies as I am (no offense, Rob)? I mean, seriously. Don't these animated studios talk? There might possibly be such a thing as market saturation.

I've decided to start saying the saying in my subject line, as much as I can. I think it will be a new curse, much like Zedd's "Bags!" in the Sword of Truth books, and Merlin's "Pollux and Castor blow me to Bermuda!" in The Once and Future King and spin-off's. I'm not sure the opportunities I'll have to say it, but I'll do my best to find them.

Fun sounds in the dead of night

For most of Jr. High and High School my bed was broken. There are two metal braces that go underneath the mattress and help the springs hold up weight, andthe one towards the foot of the bed popped off one side I don't know when. It makes a very fun sounds whenever anything gets on or off the bed, since it bounces back and forth.

So last night I was just about to fall asleep (must later than I would have liked, stupid Skype!) when I hear a loud popping sound. It gave me a start because I'm always paranoid about my tv is going to fall off it's perch. After waking up fully, though, I realized what happened (due to the bouncing noise) and promptly went back to bed.

I guess my girthiness finally got to the bed again.

Yeah, it makes me look more...

Whenever somebody says the word "pensive" I always respond (unless I stop myself) with, "Damn, I was going for thoughtful." And sadly, nobody ever gets it. Which makes me think that maybe I do quote movies and tv (but mostly movies) more often than most people. But at least there's a small chance of them recognizing the quote, whereas if I quote things my friends and I say, there's no chance. So I guess it's better to quote movies.

What's really bad is when I want to quote deleted scenes, like has been the case recently after watching Serenity.

Love affair

I love cheesecake. Actually, love is too weak a word for what I feel. I lurve it, I loave it, I luff it. Yes, two F's. (Couldn't miss the chance to quote a movie). But somehow, Natalie was surprised last night when I went straight to the cheesecake when ordering dessert, passing up some other very nice looking choices. So, in order to make sure all my other friends know about my love for cheesecake, I've decided to post my poem about it. I know most of you already know (how could you not?), but apparently there are some out there who don't.

A note to the reader: plain cheesecake is the only way to go, although a bit of say raspberry topping is okay. As long as it isn't overbearing, because then it ruins it.

You sit in solitude,
Towering in your simplicity.
Though others may garnish you,
There is nothing you lack, they are
Frivolities.

Standing tall and proud,
The perfect pie, but
Nothing so base to be described thus.
For there is nothing better than you,
Cheesecake.

It brings a tear to the eye!

"i" vs "y"

If your name was Sidney (male) and you had a daughter, would you name her Sydney? That's just got to be confusing.

a fear of commitment

It's true - I'm afraid of commitment. I never have liked making decisions that have a lasting impact on my freedom and independence, and in many cases I put them off and put them off until one is made for me.

I've been trying to figure out why this is the case, and I think it's because I have such a problem letting go of what I see as my responsibilities once I commit to a group regarding something. Case in point were many of my soccer teams growing up when I wouldn't be able to stand many of the people I was playing with, and yet still felt some responsibility not to desert the team. The same thing happened my senior year regarding softball.

So I've resolved to be more selfish, and to try and ignore any guilt I may potentially have about 'deserting' a group or team that I'm associated with. Of course there aren't any cases where I can practice this new-found resolve now, but hopefully it will help me feel better making commitments to things and people, without fear that I won't be able to make myself get out of them when necessary. Because I think there's such a thing as too much patients, and I often suffer from it.

So here's to being selfish sometime in the near future. I hope.

Just 5 more minutes...

Lately I have been sleeping very well. Normally, I wake up 3-6 times during the night, which I used to think is normal, but it seems it might not be. Anyways, this past week, I've been waking up only once (or not at all). This has led itself to some interesting dreams (my strange somewhat reoccuring school dreams), which has been fun. This, however, has made it very hard for me to get out of bed in the morning, because I've been so comfortable.

I've spent a lot of the past week reading a webcomic called Order of the Stick, which is kind of a spoof on table top gaming, but has a lot to do with Gemstone. It's very entertaining, but probably only to those who are familiar with those sorts of games, so I won't put the link here because most people wouldn't appreciate it. If you want it, however, let me know and I'll tell you.

The power of girth

I generally spend a lot of my lunch break in my car for various reasons. 1) After spending all morning hearing people talk I want some ‘me’ time. 2) I usually read or nap, which is much easier to do in a car than outside or in a restaurant. 3) I have a clock in my car. Anyways, today I was sitting in my car during lunch with my shoes off listening to some music while I read some of The Once and Future King. I had my feet up on the dashboard mostly because I didn’t want to get my socks dirty, but also because it is comfortable. I guess I stretched a little too much when my right foot was against the windshield, because all of a sudden I heard a *pop*.

“Oh no,” I thought. I can’t have popped my hip out of socket (it occasionally threatens, but thankfully that has never happened). Nothing felt out of place, and I figured I’d be able to feel something (I hear that can be very painful) so I looked elsewhere for the source of the pop. I thought perhaps I had bent in the little arm rest thingy, but that wasn’t the case either. Suddenly I realize that I should move my leg and inspect the windshield. Somehow I managed to break my windshield. Actually, the break is in a pretty cool pattern; it looks like a star.

My poor car has gotten so hurt lately! A couple weeks ago he decided to get a flat tire for no apparent reason (that I could find). When I got home from work he was fine, and the next morning my dad woke up me to tell me my tire was completely flat. Luckily it was a Saturday, but still! So my dad took him in to get it fixed, and it turns out that there’s a ton of other tire/axel work that needs to be done.

But I guess if all I have to deal with is tire problems (and I’ve had more than my fair share of them) and my own strength, then I’m okay with that.

I guess I’m just too girthy for my own good, or rather for the good of my car.

"Do we have a fire extinguisher in here?"

My computer blew up today. Okay, it didn't go *boom*, but it did catch on fire, which made for an interesting day. I was sitting there, minding my own business, when all of a sudden there's smoke coming out from underneath my desk.

"This is strange," I think to myself, "smoke shouldn't usually come out from a desk." So I looked down and saw orange flashy things inside my computer. "Also strange," I think. "Let's see how this plays out."

However, when the orange flashy things became somewhat stronger, I decided some precautionary actions would probably be wise. So I asked for said fire extinguisher, finally convincing my co-workers that there actually was something wrong with my computer (they didn't believe me when I said there were sparks coming out of it).

Turns out something in my computer caught on fire, but luckily, the hard drive didn't get fried, so all my hard work is intact in the temporary computer I have till I get my new one (hopefully) sometime next week.

Vegas, baby!

Anybody want to go to Las Vegas the last weekend in April to watch me play soccer? Okay, you don't have to watch me play soccer if you don't want to, but it would be nice to have a fan for a game.

Multi-tasking

I haven't figured out how to both live and work. I feel like all I do is wake up in the morning, go to work, waste time there, come home, and do nothing all evening. Then I go to sleep early so I can get up in time for work. And that's so lame. There should be more to do in life than what I'm doing now. I need to figure out how to do that.

A weekend of tv shows

I watched more tv this weekend than I think I have in the past two months. And I mean tv shows, not movies on tv. Friday Rob came over "with a surprise" which, as I correctly guessed, was Firefly. For those of you who don't know what Firefly is, I might consider not being your friend anymore. But I'll tell you so I can remain friends with you. It is a sci-fi show created by the guy who made Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and who is one of my favorite creators of shows.

Anyways, this show was only on for a season (what's with us watching one season long shows lately? It only leads to heartbreak), but that's because it was too good for tv. So what did they do? They made a movie, called Serenity, with the characters and story.

So Rob and I watched the first disk (4 episodes) of Firefly (we only watched that much because he only had one disk) while celebrating St. Patrick's Day with pizza and Newcastle.

Having reminded myself that I do like some things on tv, I decided to watch the rest of Clone Wars that I've been sitting on for a while. I'm not sure how many "episodes" I watched, but it was about a 2/3 of the entire thing. Then I decided I'd waited long enough to watch some more of Season 4 of Alias. I watched the whole third disk of that yesterday.

Not to mention also seeing V for Vendetta Saturday afternoon with some of the crew. So it was a good weekend for me to watch tv. But not to seem like a completely lazy person, I did play soccer on Sunday, and scored a couple goals after being unable to do anything in the first half. It was fun, and now I'm planning on going to Vegas with my team to a tournament. That should be fun.

Leprechaun Day

So as I left work today I saw two whole rainbows at the horizon. Granted, one was very faint, and you had to look for it, but the other was very bright. I thought it fitting for today. Another thing fitting for today was that I felt like bombing some people due to how stupid they are. Actually, I felt more like throwing rocks at cars, but exageration is a fun thing.

I'm reminded almost daily how stupid people become when they get in cars, and it's very annoying. Now, I'll admit that there have been times when I've not paid enough attention while driving and done some dumb things, but from the looks of things, most American drivers do stupid things all the time.

It's especially annoying that most have no clue how to drive in the rain. They either go faster than is safe, or go slower than is safe. Let's talk about Aristotle's Golden Mean.

In happier news, it's finally the weekend after a very long and boring week. Yay for Saturday and Sunday!

Child of the sun?

Tonight was the BHS choir Spring Concert, or whatever they call it. Chris and I, not being satisfied with the Winter Concert, decided to also grace this concert with our presences. Actually, Chris, having such a big head, had to go because his and Patrick's song was supposed to be performed.

After searching for the church where they were performing (Chris couldn't find it even though he's been there before) we finally arrive just as they were taking their places on stage. It was a fun concert, with, of all things, a ton of Christmas songs. Finally, the song we had come to hear was performed, and although it's a good song (very good, I'd say), I had to fight most of the time not to laugh.

After Chris talked to Mr. Bourgis (is that how you spell his name), we were on our way out, when who should we see but Mrs. Polite and Mrs. Bell (former teachers for those of you who are non-Drillers). Mrs. Polite actually saw me first and said, "Rebecca?" which was surprising to me, because of all the teachers I had in high school, she would be one of the ones I would expect to forget me (although how anybody could forget me I have no idea!). It was fun talking to them, and reminded me that it actually has been a while since I was in high school. Sometimes I still feel like I just got out of BHS, while other days I'm reminded of just how long it's been.

This weekend is shaping up to look pretty busy, but thankfully not as busy as last weekend. My adult soccer league is finally starting up for the year on Sunday, which is exciting. I still don't have pictures from Robert, (due to technical difficulties) but I should get them this weekend, and then you'll learn all about our adventures there.

Do ya feel lucky, punk?

I’m not a big fan of westerns, but there are a few that I really like. One of those few is Hang Em High, a Clint Eastwood movie about a man who is lynched, but survivies. He then becomes Marshall and hunts down the up-standing citizens who did it to him. It’s also a story about how law and justice come to a territory, and the judge who wants it to become a state, with the help of Clint. Clint is torn between hunting down the people who hurt him and helping innocents. He also is torn between letting frontier justice or the law prevail, when both have the same outcome (death by hanging). After that, 12 Angry Men was on, which is another story about law and justice.

Whenever I watch either of these movies, a part of me wants to study law (a small part). Actually, I probably want to study more the philosophy of law and government. Maybe I should just read some Locke and Hobbes. And some Plato for good measure. In other news, we got back from Mammoth without incident, and I should have pictures to put up soon.

And yesterday was Rachel's birthday, so hopefully I'll have some pictures from that, too. Apparently I look like a gansta' in a couple of them. Don't ask me how.

The stuff that dreams are made of...

Every once in a while I will have a dream that influences my actions. Generally, my dreams are hazy, even right when I wake up. I only have a vague impression of what was going on, usually some adventure or other. But now and then I have a dream that I remember vividly when I wake. And even less frequently I'll have a dream that affects my actions during the day. I find it necessary to remind myself that it was a dream, and didn't actually happen. A couple times I've even talked about my dreams as if they actually happened, and halfway through have had to realize that those things didn't really happen.

Well, I had another one of those last night, and it was very interesting.

Anybody else occasionally dream like that?

Millions

It's not exactly the same, but this reminded me of Millions. How do you just say to your friends, "Hey guys, lets go rob a bank for $100 mil?" That's awesome.

These are a few of my least favorite things.

How much better would that song have been with that premise instead of the one it used. "When the dog bites, when the bee stings - I smash them with a hammer!" Okay, don't ask me where that came from.

Since I know you all care about what I think, here's a list of things that have annoyed me lately (in no particular order).

1. Stupid people, especially those behind the wheel of moving vehicles going 40 on the freeway.
2. Condiments ruining my sandwhich. If I wanted a mouth full of mustard, I would have asked for one, thanks.
3. Hypocritical and condescending people.
4. Mornings.

And the things I've liked recently (also in no particular order).

1. The rain.
2. The ocean and creatures found therein.
3. Star Wars book (don't judge till you've read them!)
4. Soren.
5. Late nights with friends (even if they can't be too late because of #4 above).

Okay, I'm done now. Good night.

Whales + ocean + sun = good weekend

Well, I'm back safely from SB and had a pretty good weekend. Unfortunately, my brother Robby had to "study" this weekend, so he didn't come. And being 20, he can't stay home alone, so my mom also didn't go. That left Billy, my dad, and myself to make the trip to SB.

Saturday we went Whale Watching on the Condor Express, which is a pretty awesome boat. I remember going on trips when I was younger and it being loud and somewhat uncomfortable. Well, the skipper has since gotten a very very nice boat to take people out on, and it was great. It probably helped that the day was beautiful and the sea was calm. We saw two Grey Whales that we followed around for a while, and Dalls Porpoises and Bottle-Nosed Dolphins.

Then we went to the Sea Center and played with all the cool things that my dad said I shouldn't play with because they're for kids. I asked him what he thought I was, and he didn't say anything more. Other than that we didn't do much except sit around the house with Scotch waiting for dinner (Yum!) and watching some of the Olympics.

So it was a relaxing weekend, all in all. The only thing that would have been better would have been some wine tasting, but Billy is a loser and didn't want to go, so that'll have to wait until next time.

Hiding

So I haven't posted anything lately because I haven't had anything to post. Every day I've just come home and gone to bed, with the exception of Tuesday when I just stayed home and went to bed.

But this weekend I'm going to SB with my family (for those of you uncool that means Santa Barbara). It should be fun since we're going whale watching on Saturday and I haven't been since probably before Jr. High. I don't know what Sunday will hold, but probably a late breakfast and the beach. All in all, I'm hoping for a good weekend, especially since I'll have Soren to keep me company when I need him.

Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, outside of soccer.

Well I wouldn't really know, but I sure am tired right now. I also can't walk, but that will pass.

I had some soccer games, and it seems like the only thing that my teammates have to talk about with one another is pregnancy and giving birth. I think there are like 5 of us who don't have kids, and we definately feel like a minority. Luckily I just put on my headphones and blissfully listened to Franz on Soren. Yes, I named my iPod Soren. I was going to name him Pascal, but that's Blaise's last name, and really I like the name Soren better. And besides, if I named him Pascal, some people might think I really like math, since it seems that's the only thing Pascal is really known for.

Of course, nobody out there will know who Soren is. Well, a few of you might, but the majority of people won't. Teleological suspension of the ethical! What could be cooler? Okay, a lot of things, but still, Soren is a cool name.

I guess a post like this is what I get when I try to post something when I should be in bed. But I have to wait for my comforter to finish drying, so you get the pleasure of reading this when my mind isn't really functioning. Lucky you.

I want a farm in Africa.

Watching Out of Africa made me want to live there. Or maybe it made me want to live there around WWI when it was being colonized. I think there's always been a part of me that has wanted to live on a farm. No, I take that back. A part of me has wanted to live on a ranch. And yes, there is a huge difference between a farm and a ranch.

Ranchers get to ride around on horses and fix fences all day. Farms have to milk cows all day. (Yes, I know I'm simplifying, leave me alone). The only thing I wouldn't like about living on a ranch would be getting up early. Maybe I could be a late night rancher.

I probably just feel like this from all my summers spent on my grandparents and I associate ranch with adventure. But who cares! You do get to have adventures on ranches! You get to chase away coyotes from the cattle, and hunt stuff, and ride horses! Not to mention try to get lost and sleep under the stars.

Hmmm, I think I need to go camping.

Snob?

So last night was HP discussion group at Russo's. I got there a little early (meaning on time) before the people in the discussion group who don't work at Russo's had arrived. Rachel promptly told everybody that I want to work at Russo's and would fit right in because I'm a snob. Not having any argument with this statement, I asked what I'm a snob about (yes, there's more than one). Rachel replied "She doesn't like people with low intelligence. *pause* She doesn't even like people with moderate intelligence." I don't think that's really true. I'm not that much of a snob. I just don't like stupidty. Is there something wrong with that?

Later I was telling Chris about how Rachel thinks I'm a snob. I started with, "Apparently I'm snobbish," and continued with the story. After finishing I said, "So I'm a snob." Chris replied, "You're also a bish." If you don't see why that's funny, trying saying it out loud.

Yesterday I watched most of Lawrence of Arabia, which is an awesome movie. Rachel didn't like how much of it was "wasted" on shots of the desert, but I think that visually it is amazing, and that is what makes it so awesome. But it made me want to be a nomad, probably because Omar Sharif is so awesome. And I want to wear Arab/Jedi robes (the robes the Arabs wear make me think of Star Wars, what can I say?). Hey, they're like dresses!

Troll alumni?

Last night Chris and I were watching the news after 24 while playing Scene It with Paul (how's that for a sentence?). Apparently the city of Bakersfield wants to build a new freeway - through the IT building at BHS. While being outraged (as any good Driller should be) Chris promptly said, "We're going to be troll alumni. Aren't they the ones that live under bridges?" Of course this is only preliminary, and at least a couple years off, but still, how could they do that to one of the oldest (not to mention awesomest) high schools in the state?

And the salt in the wound? They're going to name it the Centennial Corrider. Sounds like a dirty and rotton plot by the Golden Hawks to me.

Disturbing

Yesterday after church my parents and I went to pizza for lunch, and as I was leaving the store I looked at the vending machines (you know, the ones for a quarter or 50 cents). Now, from the creators of Homies, you have "Trailer Park" action figures. These include (but aren't limited to) the fishing guy, a girl in a bikini pumping gas, not one but two seperate figures with guitars or banjos, and commando boy. So apparently Oildale is a big market, who would have known?

The scary thing is the huge market (apparently) on eBay that these things have (I had to find a picture of them).

Due to technical difficulties, I can't upload the picture right now, but I will.

Schleepy scheepy

Last night was Movie Night. I know, some of you are wondering, "Isn't every night movie night?" and the answer is "Yes, of course!" but there's a difference between movie night and Movie Night. Last night we watched The Great Escape (after having it taped since December) and Chris and I actually got Rachel to come hang out with us (only because it's a historical film, or maybe because of Eddie). It was a night full of quoting various things (mostly Dress to Kill) and enjoying ourselves.

But unfortunately The Great Escape is three hours longs, which I had forgotten. It doesn't really have to be that long, but the director had to get ample footage of Steve McQueen (disguised as an American man) riding his motor bike. I think there's about half an hour of unneeded footage of this. So because it was three hours long we all got to be late, and now I'm fighting against sleep.

Also, since this is a post of links, for those of you not in the know (and who don't check blog profiles frequently enough) there's a new quote board of sorts here. If you'd care to contribute, let me know and I'll set you up.