brokenrecord

I don't have much to say, but I want to keep up this posting every day thing, so here's some quick, random stuff that probably isn't very interesting.

When I post more frequently, you can kind of tell how I latch onto one thing for awhile, and then shift my focus suddenly to another thing, and I can only focus on one thing at a time. Last week it was Doctor Who Season 3, before that, Farscape, and right now, it's the Academy Awards/movies in general. The Academy Awards always makes me want to watch more movies, which I unfortunately haven't been able to do due to school. I was going to have free time the rest of this week when I could, but then I found out I have an English paper due next Tuesday, and I have no idea what I'm going to do for that, so I need to work on that... basically all week. bah. At least tonight I'm watching As Good As It Gets with my psych discussion group, and Thursday I'm watching Citizen Kane in Film Analysis, which I've already seen but really enjoy.

I haven't gotten a chance to watch the PBS airing of Company yet. I thought I would last night, but I procrastinated too much on my English assignment, so I didn't have enough time. I'm hoping that if I get enough work done this week on my paper, I can reward myself by watching it Friday night. It depends on how much work I get done, though.

I'm so exhausted. All I want to do is relax and watch movies, but school keeps getting in the way. It's always so stressful, too. I was freaking out for several weeks about my film class until I got the first test back. Now I'm panicking about this English paper since the assignment we did for today was related to the paper and we had other people in class critique it and mine was basically awful. So I'm just kind of freaking out about the paper a ridiculous amount. And I hate writing papers so much. gah.

I still don't have PSP yet, which is irritating me. I'm kind of concerned, since I ordered it a week and a half ago, and I thought it would be here by now. It's supposedly already shipped, and it said 2 business days after shipping, but there's no way to track it. sigh.

So, one of my New Year's resolutions was to update this more frequently, since I used to update like every day and now I'm lucky if I remember to once a week. I am clearly failing at this so far.

I saw Atonement with Jackie, Galaxy, and Jessica a few days ago. I think most of the reviews I've read have been split over whether it was awesome or terrible. I thought it was really great (though really sad). But even if you think the storyline sucks, it's totally worth seeing for the cinematography and the score. The cinematography is just absolutely beautiful. There's a beautiful long-track shot of a beach filled with war camps and it's ridiculously beautiful. For some reason my absolute favorite shot, though, was of Robbie turned so his back is to the camera and he's standing in a field of red flowers and... just, I don't know, but I remember just staring at it in awe. And the score is ridiculously cool. But yeah, I loved the rest of it too.

On Friday I saw The Diving Bell and the Butterfly which was also a beautiful but sad film. Very cool cinematography in that movie too. But oh god, worst audience ever. Are people not taught how to act in movie theaters any more? Ok, so it's a huge theater, and there are maybe seven groups of people (with no more than 2 people in each group), so very few people and very quiet. But this guy right behind me keeps announcing things in the movie. Like every single time there's a shot of Jean-Do in the diving bell, he was like "THERE'S THE DIVING BELL" really loudly to whoever was next to him. And when they showed a shot of the butterfly he was like "THERE'S THE BUTTERFLY." And ok, the movie is largely comprised of the main character's memories and imagination, and every time he imagined something, the guy would be like "THIS IS HIS IMAGINATION." It was like OH MY GOD CAN I PLEASE JUST WATCH THE MOVIE. But then, even more inexplicably, about 2/3 of the way into the movie, this woman comes into the theater (which, as I mentioned, was like twice as big as a normal theater, and there were maybe 14 people total in it) and sits down in the seat right next to my mom and starts eating very loudly (she brought a huge popcorn thing and several types of candy) and then starts texting on her cell phone. Just... what? Why come into a movie when it's more than halfway done and then just sit and eat and text message? YOU CAN DO THAT AT HOME AND NOT SPEND $10 ON THE MOVIE FOR NO REASON. WTF? And why sit down in the seat RIGHT NEXT TO MY MOM when the entire theater is basically empty?! My mom got really irritated about that. And I can understand the announcer guy more, despite how annoying it was, but... I have no idea what this woman was thinking.

Um, what else? I'm going to be 19 a week from today. Weird. It'll be my last year as a teenager ever. I feel so old (even though I know in reality, 19 is still very young). I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything for my birthday. We'll see, I guess.

Hope everyone's Christmas went well. I mostly got books and a few DVDs for Christmas. The most awesome present I got was a new digital camera. My old digital camera is really beat up and pretty crappy, so I'm happy to have a new camera. Now I just need to go somewhere where I can actually use it, since I've basically just been home reading and watching DVDs I got for Christmas the past week.

I started watching Joan of Arcadia. I'm only up to episode 12 of the first season, but I totally love it. I'll probably do a post with more thoughts about it when I finish both seasons (which might not be for awhile, because I think I want to save the rest for when all the new episodes of shows run out because of the writers' strike).

Also, I saw Sweeney Todd and Juno in the past week. Sweeney Todd was very good, but I absolutely adored Juno. Just, yeah. I've been wanting to see it since I first heard about it probably nearly a year ago, so I tried to lower my expectations because I was afraid having too high expectations for it would diminish how much I liked it, but yeah. I really loved it. And now I want to see it again.

I made 100 movies a few days ago! Last year I only got to 67, I think. That's pretty crazy. I didn't think I'd actually make it, especially with days to spare. I actually probably could have reached 100 sooner since I was on like 96 from early December, but finals and papers got in the way. I'll post a list with mini-reviews on January 1st, probably (provided I remember). I also reached 30 books this year. My goal was 50, but that's still pretty good, especially since I didn't have an English class this past semester, and it's only 3 short of the number I read last year, when I did have English classes both semesters. So, yeah.

Um, what else? I still don't have final grades for last semester yet, which sucks, since they were due several days ago and they should have been posted by now. Oh well. My two finals both went pretty well, but my astronomy grade was kind of borderline, so we'll see. Hopefully they'll be up soon.

Had an interview for Brown today. It went really well, I thought. I loved the interviewer; she was really friendly and energetic. There are so many people applying to Brown from my school, though! gah. Intimidating. Oh well, I've accepted I probably won't get in. As long as I get into Vassar, I'll be happy. (Oh, god, I really want to go to Vassar.)

I've been really wanting to watch a bunch of movies since I watched The Oscars (I think I mentioned this in my post Monday). I think I'm actually going to try to go for 100 movies this year. I started that last year, but when I was only to about 25 in the summer, I figured it wasn't going to happen. (I ended up getting to 67, by the way.) But now I really want to do it. Unfortunately, so far, I only have 5, so I have a lot of catching up to do, and I'm not even sure if it's possible at this point, or if it requires watching like 3 movies a day, but I'm going to try. I have this long list (about 50?) of movies I want to watch. I watched Amélie last night and absolutely loved it (how have I never seen it before?). Not sure yet what I'm going to watch tonight, but it'll be something (er, provided I finish my French essay and finish studying for chem by 8:30, which, I think I need to stop typing this post if I want to have any hope for that).

All my friends seem to suddenly be getting into shows I like. It's funny. Jackie started watching Lost and Ugly Betty a few weeks ago. Emma's been getting into The Office. Soan started watching Veronica Mars at the beginning of the year because it was on after Gilmore Girls and I lent her my season 1 and 2 DVDs and now she's even more into it (and she understands the Logan love, which she didn't before). Jessica's been watching The Office and she saw Serenity recently and now wants to borrow my Firefly DVDs, and she watched The Black Donnellys premiere and really likes the show. I don't know, I think it's kind of awesome. In the past I've had friends like shows I like (Lulu with about everything [well not everything, but a lot of shows. But she's into fandom, so it's kind of different], Annie with Buffy and she's watching The Office now too [or at least she watched season 1, I don't know about the new episodes], and Jackie with Buffy and early episodes of Everwood.) but that was all so much more spread out. Now it's like all at once I have a show to talk to about with each of my friends. It makes me happy.

Ok, I guess it's time to write my French essay. (Blah, I had to write two last week and one a week or two before. I'm tired of French.)

!!! My computer came today! I don't know what the order status thing was going on about, because Wednesday is a lot sooner than Friday. wheee I'm so happy now! :D

Today's just been a good day all round. In chem we got our tests back we took before winter break and I thought I had done really poorly and I ended up getting a 53/54, which will bring up my grade 1% and I'm now at an 89.4 which is so freaking close to an A. And in French, which is usually an awful class, we spent like the whole period listening to this French song that sounded like 'NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys (and it was totally written in the 90s) and it was kind of awesome.

Anyways, I suppose I should go start downloading everything I need onto this computer. Oh, but first! I meant to post on New Year's Day all the movies I watched and books I read in 2006, but what with the lack of computer and my mother's computer sucking, that didn't really happen. So, here it is now. The movies have short reviews and a rating out of 10, while the books just have stars out of 5.

( Movies in 2006 )

( Books in 2006 )

New layout! (brokenrecord__) I've been meaning to make a new one for ages, and I finally did. Jim/Pam, since I'm probably more obsessed with The Office than any other fandom right now. The lyrics are from Joseph Arthur's "Honey and the Moon".

Saw For Your Consideration with my parents yesterday since it was my dad's birthday. That's a really, really funny movie. The entire audience didn't stop laughing throughout the movie. Every scene there was just something hilarious. And there was John Krasinski! Only for a minute or so, he had a little role, but it was still awesome seeing him. And there was Ricky Gervais in a larger role! And the guy who played Wayne Jarvis on Arrested Development! So yeah, anyways, great movie. Totally recommend it.

Yesterday was definitely a movie day. I was flipping through my cable TV guide thing and it turns out we get LOGO now and I remember last year there was something I wanted to watch on it but we didn't get the station then but I guess we do now. Anyways, The Broken Hearts Club was playing and I had heard good things about it and it was about half-way through but I decided to start watching it and I really liked it. I watched the first half when it reaired later that night.

After that, I went to see The Devil Wears Prada with Galaxy. I didn't expect too much from it, but it was actually a pretty good movie. I mean, it's not my favorite movie ever, but it was cute and made me laugh, so yeah.

Then I came back home and after watching the first half of The Broken Hearts Club, I watched Latter Days which is another movie I heard good things about and it sounded interesting so I downloaded it earlier that day, and yeah, I liked that even more than The Broken Hearts Club, I think.

Other than watching movies yesterday, I also managed to finish my first draft of my UC essays. They still need massive editing and I have way more essays to write in the upcoming months, but I'm happy to have them done.

So yeah, yesterday was very productive. Today began the second half of summer school. So yay, more than half-way done now. Less than three weeks left. And it's just about a month now until Wicked! I can't wait until August.

Yesterday was good. Two guys were auditioning for the assistant band director position for next year and Mrs. Bentley had a thing where we could all come and they could conduct us and direct us in marching if we wanted and then we could give feedback to her about which one we liked more and what we liked about them and what we didn't. I couldn't go to most of it because of summer school, but I got to go to the second guy's audition after poli sci ended. It was fun because I got to see some people I haven't seen in a few weeks, and it was fun seeing Elizabeth again since I probably won't see her much more (she's going off to USC next year). And she got us all presents from Belize and I got a green bracelet thing that's very pretty.

Then after that I went to the Albertsons center with Emma, Elizabeth, Soan, Richard, and Justin and after we finished eating Elizabeth was all "Want to get a pedicure?" because there was a nail place next door so I got a manicure while Emma and Elizabeth got pedicures. It was rather pointless (especially because I have like no nails and I didn't want to pay extra for colored polish so I just got clear and now you can't even tell I got a manicure) but I guess it was fun.

I had a required like seminar thing at the college counselor I go to outside of school and it was on college admissions essay writing and I was kind of freaking out over writing my essay before but not so much now, which is good.

Anyways, I went to the Spectrum at 8:30 and met up with Emma, Soan, Justin, Mike Tseng, Collin, and Lorraine and did what it seems everyone else did yesterday. ( POTC 2: Dead Man's Chest )

A slightly more positive post than my last:

1) Oh, man, I just watched the season 1 finale of Doctor Who. I always forget how freaking amazing that episode is. It's definitely one of my favorite episodes of television ever. I mean, "my doctor" and "You were fantastic. And you know what? So was I" and just everything. sigh. I cry from like start to finish, it's just so amazing.

2) My French teacher decided randomly, after telling us that our final was going to be 200 points and would consist of 50 multiple choice and a like 500 word in-class essay, to cancel our final. She didn't give a reason, but I'm pretty sure it's just because she didn't want to have to write the final or grade them. But whatever, I'm not complaining. Unfortunately, her complete asshole-ish-ness to Galaxy totally takes away from cancelling our final. She accused Galaxy and Kimberly of copying each other on this French packet we had to do (based on the fact that one sentence in each of their paragraphs was similar. It didn't even have the same construction) and so she took like half off the 127 point packet for Galaxy and it brought her 91 down to an 88. Bitch. She seriously just hates Galaxy. She needs to be fired, like, now.

3) I got selected for this freshman mentoring program (called IMPACT) I applied for in like April which I thought I had been rejected to since it's been like 2 months since I applied. We had a training sort of session Thursday and I'm in this group with a bunch of people I don't know and it sucks and I have no idea why my team leader chose me and I wish she hadn't because if she hadn't then Richard could've and I would be in a group with Richard, Galaxy, Andrew, and Michele Wong. sigh. So much better. We did some stupid activities and I'm not so sure about this so far, but I like the idea of what it's going to be in the fall, so I guess I'll stick with it. Hopefully I'll get to know my team better and it won't suck as much.

4) I'm... kind of feeling fine about the whole section leader thing, now. I mean, it's not that I didn't want it, because I really did, but I think the wait was worse than pretty much anything else. Finally knowing is just kind of a relief. And I vented all my frustrations earlier, so I've gotten those out. Yeah, I would like to be section leader, but Emma will do a great job, I'm sure, and hopefully it'll be a lot of fun next year. So now I just have to concentrate on getting appointed as Historian for BEC. I'm kind of nervous about that because I think there are a good number of people trying out and I really want it, but I have several reasons why I think they should choose me which I'll tell them and hopefully they'll choose me.

5) I watched De-Lovely tonight before Doctor Who. I heart John Barrowman. And his voice! ah! Such a lovely voice! Small part, but I loved every minute he was on screen. ...heh, and, of course, the rest was good too. I was just kind of distracted during it, so I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I should have, but oh well.

6) I can't believe there's only 1 real week of school left (and then of course finals, but that week doesn't really count). It seems like I've been waiting for the end of school for awhile, and all of a sudden it's here and it doesn't seem real. I almost don't want it to end now, just because it's been such an awesome year. A million times better than sophomore year, and even better than freshman year. Here's to hoping next year is even better.