brokenrecord

So I totally didn't mean to disappear for a week, but... apparently I did. Anyways, I'm home on spring break right now, which is really nice. We were supposed to go to Mammoth to ski for 5 days (well, ski for 3 days and the other 2 days were driving up and back), but then my dad had to work, so now we're going tomorrow to Mountain High for just a day trip (it's only an hour and 15 min from where I live). It's disappointing that we don't get to go to Mammoth, but I suppose one day is better than none. It's also kind of lame since last year we went during spring break and beforehand I kind of... didn't really want to go to Mammoth because I wanted to spend my 1 week at home (although I did have fun once I went), and this year I've been really looking forward to this trip and now it's been canceled. Oh well.

Instead of spending most of the week skiing, my mom and I are going to see several movies. Nothing I'm like... super excited about, but we're going to see Crazy Heart today and then probably The Last Station and The Blind Side later this week. All films that got nominated for something at the Oscars (and 2 of which actually won awards) but none I've seen.

Yesterday my mom took me to Barnes and Noble and I bought 4 books: Little Dorrit, Bleak House, The Way We Live Now, and The Woman in White. I've had a great urge to go to a bookstore for the past few weeks since I've been all obsessed with reading 19th century British lit. I had some other books at home that I also wanted to read, and so now the stack of books I want to read is ridiculously tall since most of them, particularly those 4 I just bought, are rather long and hefty. Still, I'm excited about having all these books to read.

Today is Academy Awards Nominations Day! I adore the Academy Awards. I can't even explain why. A lot of the time they make stupid choices (well, in my opinion; film taste is, of course, subjective), and most of the time several of the films I consider best of the year get little or no attention. But, I don't know. It's just so much fun! I can't really describe it. I like award shows in general, but I greatly prefer movie award shows because for TV award shows, even fewer TV shows I love get any attention, and they nominate the same crap year after year and the same stuff wins and it's just horribly boring. But at least with movies, if there's something I hate, it's gone the next year. And for the past 3 years, the movie that won Best Picture at the Oscars I've really loved, even if it wasn't my favorite of the year (let's not mention 2005, which was one of the greatest movie award injustices in history, in my opinion).

Anyways, enough about that. Here are my opinions on the nominations, and what my ideal nominations would have been (for the 8 major categories: picture, director, the writing categories, and all the acting categories; despite taking a film class and looking online, I still don't know the difference between sound editing and sound mixing, I barely understand Art Direction, and I don't have much of an opinion about the other categories most of the time. Although I do enjoy score and cinematography typically. But I didn't feel like discussing them).

( Academy Awards Nominations Thoughts )

( Ideal Academy Awards Nominations )

(omg I spent way too much time in Dunn Brothers putting this together. At least there are some open tables so I don't feel like too much of a douche.)

I didn't mention in my last post because I had so many things to complain about, but hey, it's February! January always goes by so quickly. Probably because most of the month I don't have school. Anyways, in January I watched 261 episodes of TV (which is crazy because that's way more than I usually watch in a month, 30 more than last January, and I'm like 1 1/2-2 weeks behind on TV due to not having internet), 11 movies (more than I expected considering I only watched 2 from 01/01-01/14), and read 2 books (! crazy! I don't know if I said this before, but my goal this year is to read at least one book a month. I hope to actually read more than 12 books in the whole year, but I tend to go in phases where I'll read like 7 books in a few weeks and then nothing the rest of the year, so reading at least one book a month should actually boost the number of books I read all year. Actually, I already finished one book in February, and I'll probably get to a few more what with the stupid internet not working for another few days, so that's good. I love reading, but it's too hard to work in while I have classes because even if I have time to read, I get too sucked in to whatever I'm reading and then neglect everything else so I can finish the book, and it's just easier not to read anything).

Not being able to watch the most recent episode of Chuck is physically hurting me. Okay, not really, but it does suck. Most stuff I can deal with having to wait 1-2 weeks to watch, but not Chuck. The same is true for Greek, actually, but it just came back so I'm more used to it not being around and so it doesn't seem as tragic that I haven't seen the last episode. Also, the fact that I'm going to miss the Lost premiere sucks. Although I suppose it's easier to delay watching that when I've already been waiting months and months than to delay watching something I'm used to seeing every week. I really hope I don't get spoiled for Lost, though. =/ I suppose the fact that I'm being more productive than normal (especially at this point in the term) doesn't suck. It is weird though. And I don't have enough work to take up my whole night, so I still end up with time left over with nothing to do.

Ok, time to go back to my apartment since I've been in here for like an hour and a half now.

Oh hey, it's totally October. In September, I watched 1 movie, read 5 books, and watched 101 episodes of TV. Not too bad considering the first week of September I spent moving into my apartment and the rest I was busy with school.

Yesterday was such a nice end to the week. I mean, most of this past week was just horrible and stressful, but something I was worried about for Directed Research went just fine, and when I got back to my apartment after German, I found an e-mail from my Cog Psych professor saying that he wasn't feeling well, so class in the afternoon was canceled. So I got the rest of the afternoon free, which was awesome. I got to catch up on all the TV I had missed over the week. And then I decided it would be a good idea to add to the ridiculous amount of work I already have for next week by watching all of season 1 and 2 of Fringe. I'm smart. I enjoyed the pilot more this time solely because there's German at the beginning! When I first watched the pilot, I hadn't taken any German classes, but now I've had over a year, so I actually could understand what they were saying! The most amusing thing about it was that in my listening comprehension homework in German this past week, there was a dialogue between a man and a woman who were on a flight and it was the woman's first flight, and the man mentioned a plane accident in Hamburg! And on the show, the woman was like "This is my first flight" (in German) and the flight was from Hamburg to somewhere (or maybe to Hamburg? I don't remember) and they were in an accident! Really random coincidence.

Anyways, I'm through episode 4 of the show, and last time I think I watched up through the first scene of episode 4 and then I was like "I'm bored, I really don't care about this show, I'm not going to watch anymore." It's better when marathoned (and when you're bored and want something to entertain yourself with). I'm still not in love with it, but I'm interested in The Pattern and where this is all leading to. And whatever, I can suffer through the more boring stuff for Joshua Jackson. It's a good think I'm not too hooked, though, because I do have a lot to do this week. I have to revise my Discrete Math HW #1, I have a Discrete Math exam on Tuesday, I need to revise my Introduction for my research project, write up a draft of my Methods section, and fill out my IRB form so I can get my research approved. So mostly the work is just in Directed Research, and my other major stuff is in Discrete Math, and since I'm now taking that class pass/fail, I really don't need to focus too much on it. And my parents are coming for Family Weekend next Thursday! That'll be fun. Although it means I need to get the Directed Research stuff due Friday (the IRB form and Methods section draft) done with much sooner. Oh well. I should be able to get it all done.

My volunteering got moved from Saturday to Sunday, so I got to sleep in this morning! It's been awhile since that's happened. But now I don't want to get up and actually get anything done. blah.

So I did manage to get to 100 movies this year! I only got to 14 books, unfortunately, but oh well. Anyways, here's a list of everything I saw/read with ratings and short reactions for the movies.

( Movies in 2008 )

( Books in 2008 )

Last year I was attempting 150 movies, but that was clearly going to fail a few months into the year. I think I'll just go for 100 again, since it's still somewhat of a challenge. I think I'll try for 20 books. And I think I'm going to keep track of all the television episodes I watch in the year because I'm curious as to how many it'll actually be. I might get bored of that or forget about it after a little while, though.

Hope everyone had a happy New Year's Eve! Mine was pretty fun. Didn't get back home until 5 AM, so I just woke up like 30 minutes ago (around 1:15). That isn't really that late, but I'm pretty sure it's the latest I've ever slept in, which is kind of weird since I've totally stayed up later than that before. But whatever. It was kind of creepy driving home because it was ridiculously foggy and I've never driven in the fog at night before, and there was no one around. It was actually kind of pretty, though, too.

Ah, I finally got my grades for last semester (even though they were due like 2 weeks ago and should've been up way sooner), and I got straight As! Pretty awesome. I'm very happy about that. Not expecting it to continue next semester, though.

I officially got to 100 movies and 30 books in 2007. Lists of them under the cuts. The movies have small reactions/reviews of them and a rating out of 10, and the books just have a rating out of 5. There are major spoilers for some of the movies, but it would be kind of ridiculous to list all 100 of them outside the cut. The names are bolded, so I think it should be easy enough to scroll past movies you haven't seen/don't want to be spoiled for.

( Movies in 2007 )

( Books in 2007 )

I think I might try for 150 movies this year. I'm not sure how possible that will be, but we'll see, I guess.

Ok, so one of the things I did during parents' weekend was go to Barnes and Noble and my parents bought me a lot of books (7, in fact). And I thought those books would last me like a year (well at least a couple months, considering how often I've been reading books recently), especially since I was in the middle of a book I didn't really care much about. But somehow, since Friday, I've finished The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (which I had about half to go through, and by the way, is decent, but not anything special, in my opinion) and read all of Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (good, but not better than the show), Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (absolutely amazing, but also rather depressing), and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card (very good, and I need to read more in this series). The thing is, this was a really bad time for me to get into a mood where all I want to do is read books, seeing as I have a good amount of tests and that midterm paper in these two weeks. I need to spend my free time making flashcards and outlining the paper and finding sources, and instead I'm reading. sigh. I need to stop, but I'm pretty sure I'm just going to end up picking up another book after this.

Oh, and ( spoilers for last night's episode of Prison Break )

Um, what else? Basically all I've been doing for the past few days has been reading, doing schoolwork, and watching television. I lead a very exciting life.

I've been failing at updating and yet I've had absolutely nothing to do. I only had two full days of school last week due to AP tests and this week I haven't had any yet (although now I'm done with AP tests so that'll change). I've had no homework due to not going to class/teachers being kind and not assigning any.

I saw Spider-Man 3 on Friday with Jackie and Galaxy. That was... not so good. I thought I had lowered my expectations for it, but I didn't expect to not like it for the reasons I did, I guess. I felt like the beginning was boring, the middle was ridiculous (like they were trying to be funny, but went way over the top), and the very end was good. Oh well. If they make a fourth, I'd probably see it. Ah, there are so many sequels coming out, though. The trailers before it started, it was like... one original movie at the beginning, and then it was Harry Potter 5, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Shrek 3, The Fantastic Four 2. So many sequels. It kind of got ridiculous after awhile.

2 hour until the last episode of Gilmore Girls ever! I'm kind of sad. I started watching that show when its very first episode aired when I was in 6th grade. I don't really know why, I think maybe because it came on before Charmed, but yeah. I've watched it ever since. I think I'm going to do what I did when The O.C. ended and make a post of my favorite moments, but it'll probably be a week or two until I do that since I have a bunch of memory book pages to finish before Monday and I feel like I should finish those first.

I'm in a very... book-reading-mood. I don't know why. I read all of Persuasion by Jane Austen on Sunday night (which I didn't mean to, I just was planning to read a few chapters, and then I got sucked in) and then all of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger on Sunday and Monday. Reading The Time Traveler's Wife was totally just like reading Jane Eyre last fall all over again in terms of how obsessed I got over it and how I wanted to be reading it every minute and then rushing through it and being sad when it was over. I ordered like 4 books from Dover Publications because they are ridiculously cheap ($9 for four books! Well, ok, plus $5 shipping, but still. $14 is pretty good for two books, even!) but they probably won't come until next week, which makes me sad. I want new reading material now.

AP tests are over for me, anyways. I don't have much to say about them, except that I'm glad they're over, especially since I'm not even sending my scores. They started getting really tired near the end; Physics and Chem felt like I would never finish them. The English one was honestly kind of fun, though. It was kind of cool analzying a passage and poems without stressing out over the grade. And the prompt for the prose was totally exactly what we wrote our last two essays on. Not so much the last one (the prompt was different, but the essay ended up being about the same subject) but definitely the second to last one. I basically just rewrote that essay, except I used one character instead of 3. But yeah, I'm glad those are over.

I'm basically just waiting for school to be over now. 31 days until the last day of senior finals (and then a few days after that until graduation). I really can't wait for it to be over.

So, I started Jane Eyre on Sunday which turned out not to be the best idea because it was really good and it was also really addictive and so I kept wanting to read it even though I had loads of work to do. And I ended up finishing it Monday night, even though I should've been studying for English and physics. (This also meant that I missed all of my Monday night TV. And I still have two episodes of Supernatural to watch, and Torchwood! It's ok, I'll either catch up this weekend or next, since next is Thanksgiving weekend.) But yeah, I totally loved Jane Eyre. Kind of sad I finished it so quickly, though, because now I want a new book to read.

Yesterday was jazz band auditions. I think I did all right. If Mrs. Bentley has any say in it, I totally made it. I'm trying not to be too confident just in case, but yeah. It went well, I think. The results were supposed to be posted today, but then Mrs. Bentley said they wouldn't be posted until next week sometime. blah.

I have my first college interview on Sunday. eep. Nervous. Luckily it's with Goucher, one of my safeties, so it can be a kind of practice, since my next one will be on Wednesday, and that's for Tufts, a school that's a slight reach for me and that I'd really love to attend.

Supersized The Office tonight! I'm so excited. I've been waiting for this episode forever. Less than 3 hours now!

Ok, time to study for chem test and calc quiz.

Oh, god, I can't wait until The Office Season 2 DVDs come out. 10 commentary tracks? 2 1/2 hours of deleted scenes? A 17 minute gag real?! I hope I don't have much to do the weekend I get them, because I know I won't want to do anything but watch those DVDs.

Registration was on Monday. ( My Schedule )

I am 1/3 of the way through applying to all the colleges I'm planning on applying to, which makes me happy. Actually probably more, since I've done the essays for UCLA and Berkeley, you just can't submit the app until like October or November or something. But everything's done for them.

What else? Oh, yesterday after finishing uniform fittings, I went to the Woodbridge center with a bunch of people which was fun. We went to Barnes and Noble and I found The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde for $2.50 so I ended up getting it because I had wanted to read it, and come on. $2.50! How could I not get it? I'm looking forward to reading it, but I still have two summer reading books to finish first. blah.

Only three more days of band camp left! Can't wait until it's over.

blah. This week hasn't been going as well as I hoped. The testing was fine, but I've been feeling really anti-social this week so I didn't do much with friends and it's just been kind of... I don't know. But it hasn't put be in a good mood. I'm hoping tomorrow is better. =/

Because of testing, though, I was able to get lots of reading done. Can someone remind me next time my mother gives me books she thinks I would like to actually read them? And not wait like 3 years? Because this always happens. My mother either gives me books for Christmas/my birthday or just because I ask her what books she would think I'd like, and then I don't read them for like 3 years, and then I finally do and I end up loving them. You think I'd learn to trust her judgement by now, right? But yeah, anyways, read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin and Remake by Connie Willis, both of which I really enjoyed, and yesterday afternoon started A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. Which, by the way, wasn't the best of ideas, since the book is like 1349 pages long (and I'm not using hyperbole there) and there is a lot of text on each page. But I'm enjoying it so far. I'm just never going to be able to finish it.

( A couple comments on the season finale of Lost )

Uh. Shoes I ordered last week at Nordstrom finally came! ( The shoes )