Carlie Goes Down
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| Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | | 7:49 pm |
The thing was, I had this plan today. I was going to spend massive amounts of time online, catching up with the latest mission on my RPG, as well as post my Aliens review, maybe make a serious dent in this awesome book I'm reading, and work on my horror/comedy webseries idea. Infact, I did get a few of those things accomplished. But most of the day was spent in airline reservations and nervous glee and total emotional breakdowns because there was a message on my phone from FSU, one of the grad schools I applied to. I called them back, and the lady who answered was very nonchalant as she said, "Oh yes, we were impressed with your application and we'd like to invite you to Florida for an onsite interview. We have openings Feb 19th-20." And I'm like, wait, you want me to get to Florida in TWO WEEKS? And, long story short, Mek and I are flying to Florida in two weeks. OH. MY. GOD. I'm so frickin jittery right now. Current Mood:  ecstatic | | 3:12 pm |
The Virtues of Cowardice
So, I watched Alien a couple of years ago, and I’ll be honest: I was kind of bored. I like Sigourney Weaver well enough, Ian Holm, Tom Skerritt . . . a couple of the scenes were kinda creepy, especially the original alien-busting-from-guy’s-gut one (as opposed to the Spaceballs version that I grew up with) but other than that, mostly . . . meh. Not that interested. I know, I know. The God of Film will strike me dead at any moment. Guess what? I didn’t love Fargo, either. HA! I admit it! Anyway, Aliens? The cleverly named sequel? Thankfully, that was a lot more fun. ( Onto The Recap ) | | Saturday, January 30th, 2010 | | 6:44 pm |
The Howling
Horror movies are like fables. The characters are rarely three-dimensional, and the plotlines are hardly what most people would call overly complex. Instead, caricatures and stereotypes run around doing stupid things so that the audience can draw a moral conclusion from the bloody ramifications of their sinful ways. This isn’t a critique, mind you. It’s fun to feel superior to the people you’re watching on television—I suppose that’s why so many people enjoy watching reality television. Of course, horror is infinitely more satisfying, because those annoying people on Survivor get rewarded for being annoying, whereas my irritatingly dense people get eaten for their stupidity. All I’m really saying is, I think horror movies should come with a moral, like those one-liners they attach to the end of fables, or the little rhyming poems that Charles Perrault would add-on to his fairy tales. In fact, I’ve written one for The Howling, after watching it a few days ago. I think it sums the movie up nicely: Child, take this lesson to your heart:
the days are sometimes long and dark,
when yesterday is all you see,
you might not know what to believe.
And when your doctor suggests a spot
To eradicate your darker thoughts,
and says, “Join me here, in The Colony far from man,”
say back to him, “Fuck you, I’m going to Hawaii.”I’m saying, you just don’t see a lot of gruesome werewolf deaths in Hawaii. ( Full Review For The Howling---Very Mild Spoilers ) | | Sunday, January 24th, 2010 | | 3:20 am |
Not Wearing My Happy Face
I was in a pretty good mood till about twenty minutes ago. Weird, cause I'm at work, and who's ever cheerful at work? But I was happy. I had energy, dammit. Then, because I had some time on my hands, I decided to check out my grad schools and see if they had guesstimated dates for when you'll know if you've been accepted. And Austin had an actual online check your status thing, which makes sense but I'd just never noticed it before. So I check it out, and sure enough, my application's incomplete because my godamned GRE scores never made it there. So then comes the frantic attempts to see if its just Austin or if my GRE scores never sent anywhere, and as far as I can tell, it's just Austin, which is good. But now I need to make an official request to the Education Testing whatever to get my GRE scores sent to Austin, which, one, might be problematic because I don't know if I still have the proper account info, and two, might not matter since the application was due over amonth ago. There was a breakfast potluck at work and someone brought cinammon rolls. Needless to say, I was like, "Kiss off, Weight Watchers." I'm a worthless excuse for a human being. Current Mood:  cranky | | Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 | | 3:07 pm |
Of Luv and Zombies and Useless Heroes . . .
For the latest effort in the 2010 Horror Movie Resolution, I will now present to you White Zombie. It’s a very special movie. White Zombie’s kind of a big deal for uber zombie enthusiasts. As far as I know, it’s the first zombie film ever made . . . but it ain’t the brain-munching, intestine-chomping zombies we’ve all come to know and love today. That brand of zombie is all Romero. This is the Voodoo Zombie, who is, as the tagline says, “Not alive nor dead . . . just a White Zombie performing his every desire!” Bam-chicka-wow-wow, right? Er, not exactly. This was the 1930’s, and it was very clearly a transitional movie between silent films and talkies. That is to say, it’s bad. It’s really bad. Nobody can act; the sound is crap; there are a lot of these awesome unintentional jump cuts, and the hero is possibly more useless than the heroine. It’s ridiculous. This guy does nothing but moan a lot, drink, pass out at completely inconvenient times, and call out for Madeline, his beloved. As for Madeline, our White Zombie . . . well, let’s just say that the only difference between her being alive and being undead is that she can talk when she’s alive . . . and that’s not exactly what I’d call an improvement. All in all, the best work in this film is definitely done by Bela Lugosi’s unibrow. ( Full Review, SPOILERS Included. Yup. I just gave you a spoiler alert for a movie made 78 years ago ) | | Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | | 4:16 pm |
Resolutions and Werewolves
So, it’s the New Year, and we all know what that means. Resolution time. Pick something and strive for it, baby. Which is all fine and dandy when you’re still fresh in January, but come December time, a lot of people get depressed. Didn’t shed those forty pounds. Didn’t find the meaning of life. Utterly failed to score a guy that looks anything like Enver Gjokaj from Dollhouse. So I figure: pick a few goals. That way, when you inevitably fail at one, you’ve got a couple of other backups to keep 2010 from being a complete waste of time. Thus, I have come to my favorite resolution this year: Watch two new horror movies a month and write my reviews of them. For a gore-loving film geek, I’m seriously behind on my horror movie education. I’ve never seen Audition, for instance, and that’s just a crime. And Friday the 13th II? I skipped right from Mrs. Vorhees to Freddy Versus Jason. Clearly, I need to do some serious movie watching, and to start this journey, I figured I’d pick something classic. Maybe something like White Zombie or maybe The Fog. Something that every true horror geek needs to have seen. So what’s the first movie I end up actually watching? That’s right. Skinwalkers. It’s a 2006 werewolf prophecy flick. Stars Elias Koteas and Jason freaking Behr. What can I say? Bad horror calls out to me at 2:30 in the morning. I’m weak. ( Skinwalkers --- WITH MASSIVE SPOILERS )I won’t promise to watch all of them, but if anyone has any horror movies that they think all horror addicts must watch, I’d love to hear them. | | 1:53 pm |
TV Meme!
Pick your five favorite TV shows (in no particular order) and answer the following questions. 1. Firefly 2. Psych 3. Farscape 4. Supernatural 5. Buffy The Vampire Slayer ( TV Meme ) | | Thursday, December 31st, 2009 | | 4:42 pm |
Oh, she thought she had me. She thought she had me BEAT. But WAIT! Last day of the year and Carlie makes a sudden comeback! Can she do it? Can she win? Errrr. . . no. But she can tie. Officially calling The Book War of 2009 to be a draw at 55 Books. ( This Year's Book List )Here are some highlights: Favorite Fiction Book: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly Fiction Runner-Ups: The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, Hero by Perry Moore, Patient Zero by Jonathan Mayberry Favorite Non-Fiction Book: Good Book by David Plotz Non-Fiction Runner Ups: Zombie CSU by Jonathan Mayberry The Genius Factory: The Curious History of The Nobel Prize Sperm Bank by David Plotz Least Favorite Book: Bones of The Moon by Jonathan Carroll Least Favorite Runner Ups: Naked in Death by JD Robb, Breathers by SG Browne, Captain Freedom- G. Xavier Robillard Best Month For Reading: April Fastest Read: Hero by Perry Moore Most Confusing Book: Valis by Philip K. Dick Guilitiest Pleasure Read: Psych: Mind Over Magic- William Ratkin Most Read Genres: Mystery and Horror Most Read Author: John Connolly Best New Authors: John Connolly, Kate Atkinson Most Common Letter for Author’s First Name: J (15 books total: 5-John Connolly books, 2 Joe Lansdale, 2 Jonathan Mayberry, 1 Jasper Fford, 1 Jonathan Carroll, 1 Joe Hill, 1 Jim Butcher, 1 JD Robb, 1 Jane Austen with a big assist by Seth Grahame-Smith) | | Friday, December 25th, 2009 | | 12:49 pm |
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? Got accepted for publication. (Actual publication: 2010.) Also, took the GRE. NOT fun. And cut my hair uber short. 2009 rocked! 2. Did anyone close to you die? No. 3. What was the best thing you bought? My John Connolly books. Or Psych Season 3 on DVD. 4. Where did most of your money go? Barnes and Nobles or Amazon. 5. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Applying for graduate schools. They stressed me the hell out, but the idea of moving somewhere, all the possibilities, things that could happen . . . uber exciting. 6. What song will always remind you of 2009? Er . . . Flobots, "No Handlebars". Just cause I listened to it a lot. 7. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. happier or sadder? Happier but more stressed. ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter. Unfortunately. iii. richer or poorer? Poorer. I just paid off my loans. Cush money is gone. 8. What was your favorite TV program? Psych, I think. Or Supernatural. I can't pick only one. 9. What was the best book you read this year? I haven't decided that yet. For the moment, I'm saying The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, but I have a list of 53 books I need to go over to be sure. 10. What was your favorite film of this year? In theatre? Either Star Trek or Zombieland. 11. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 24 and drank a little whiskey/much more rootbeer while playing a murder mystery that involved hookers, emasculated men, graverobbing, and goat killing. 12. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Probably having a better idea on what I want to do with the rest of my life, instead of 50 half-ideas. 13. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? As dark and offbeat as Target shopping will allow me to be. 14. What kept you sane? Mek. 15. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Must I even answer? Jensen Ackles. Though I had notable crushes on both James Roday (hey, humor is sexy, baby) and Jeffrey Donovan, especially from Touching Evil. 16. Who was the best new person you met in 2009? I really haven't met anyone new. Got to know Denise better at work. 17. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009? "Decorate a cake with handmade whipped cream and fruit." -Martha Stewart. Okay, not really. I don't have any worthwhile life lessons. But Martha Stewart Dove-style fortune cookies crack me up. 18. What was your job this year? Unit Assistant/Errand Girl/Hospital Bitch 19. Did you have any encounters with the police in 2009? Not as of yet. I gave one guy directions in the hospital. They sometimes come when there's a body to be collected. 20. Have you run into anybody you graduated high school with? Just on Facebook. 21. Describe your birthday. Awesome. Well, my birthday party was. Birthday itself was okay, but that's why I try to ignore families during the holidays. Excepting the Mek, of course : ) 22. Any new additions to your family? I just got a Mickey Mouse doll today to add to the collection of stuffed animals on the couch. 23. What from pop culture will you remember 2009 by? Glee, Star Trek, Zombieland. 24. How do you plan to ring in 2010? Does that mean what will you be doing at Jan 1st, 2010? Cause I've never heard that expression before. If so: work, and make a shitload of money. 25. What's something you learned about yourself? I can sometimes get stuff done if I stop doubting myself for fifteen seconds. Or, I can make chicken cordon bleu. Either or. | | Sunday, December 20th, 2009 | | 11:56 am |
This Year's Accomplishment . . .
I may not have made it to a single concert. I may not have gotten the tattoo I wanted. I may not have met a man, lost more weight, or figured out what to do with my life. I can't even technically say I graduated, because I'll actually graduate January class of 2010. But as of today, my student loans are entirely paid off. 12,000 dollars. So I'm feeling pretty fucking good about myself. | | Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 | | 5:32 pm |
The hair . . . is short. Very short. It's odd and strange and we'll see how I feel about it tomorrow when it inevitably looks completely different, but at the moment, I kind of love it. Pics on facebook. Current Mood:  giggly | | Saturday, December 12th, 2009 | | 7:52 pm |
Hello Rebellion, My Old Friend . . .
So, the Business building at SFSU got taken over by a bunch of students on Wednesday. They came in and barricaded the doors so that no one else could get in and all classes would be cancelled. The next day, campus police came in and forced everyone out. No one was injured, which was a good thing. And then I got two messages in my email. One from the president of SFSU, talking about why this wasn't a peaceful protest and blah blah blah, and one from a girl I know from Creative Writing inviting me to join a Support the Occupation deal on Facebook. Now, at the time, I didn't know why people were occupying the Business building in the first place, but I just assumed it had to do with the higher tuition, loss of classes, loss of teachers, cancellation of winter semester, etc. etc. And while I'm not sure I would have supported it---if one of my classes got cancelled this close to graduation and I couldn't turn something important in, I might have had to kill people---I was generally feeling sort of sympathetic towards the protesters, because the financial situation at SFSU has pretty much sucked and I understand being pissed off about it. That being said. I'm posting a link for the list of demands that the occupants made, and let me tell you, after reading it, I won't be joining the facebook group. Sure, some of the financial stuff is on there, but other things are being demanded too, like, "the imperialist wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Gaza are ended, and that money is used to feed and clothe the poor" and I think my personal favorite, "all prisons are closed and defunded." ( List of Crazy Ass Demands )I may not be crazy about war and sure, a lot of prisons have shitty conditions and not everyone there deserves to be in them, but WOW, really? If you're going to do a protest, maybe you should focus on some even remotely practical goals, maybe even ones that have something to do with the campus you're staging them. This is just sort of laughably pathetic. And thus I side with the cold-hearted, money-grubbing bureaucrats. | | Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | | 4:13 pm |
| | Monday, December 7th, 2009 | | 7:58 pm |
I've been awake since four o'clock yesterday afternoon. It's eight in the evening now. Somehow, I don't think I'll have trouble going to sleep. 7 AM will still suck, though. It always does. | | Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 | | 11:23 am |
Insomnia Strikes Again!
I really needed to go to school today because I had an outline due in metaphysics (why I have an outline do for the final when I didn't have one due for the midterm, I really don't know. the format hasn't changed any. it's just another paper that happens to be two pages longer than the midterm was.) Anyway, I went to bed by midnight with the hope that I'd be out by one, could wake up at seven, and proceed with my 25 hour school/work day. Unfortunately. After a combination of rolling around, changing PJ's, beating up my pillow, changing blankets, getting up, reading for awhile, and eventually moving out to the couch in despair, I got to sleep around 5. So I did not get up at 7, because I can't do 25 hours on a 2 hour sleep. I can't do much on a 2 hour sleep. I'm sort of useless in that regard. Therefore I did not go to school. I've claimed the sick card, and I've emailed my teacher the outline with the hope that she'll bite. On one hand, I really have a hard time imagining the outline is worth more than 10% of my grade and I got a solid A on the midterm and I think I can get an A on the final. On the other hand, I've calculated that the outline could somehow be up to 20% of my grade (she isn't very clear on the syllabus) and she has said only hard copies, which seems a little ridiculous in swine flu season, but so who knows. I just need to pass this fucking class. This and one other one, and I'm DONE. PLEASE TEACHER. Current Mood: grumpy | | Saturday, November 28th, 2009 | | 10:16 pm |
24, and other things . . .
As is no suprise to anyone, my stepfather sucks. He seems to be doing okay on Thanksgiving, but the morning after, when we're supposed to go up and do the hang-out-with-family-eat-turkey deal, he and my mother get into a huge fight about how we aren't the perfect family that he wants and why aren't the girls coming up earlier and why aren't they cooking and they don't love me and blah blah blah. So Mek and I stayed in SR. Should have fucking known. On the upside, my attempts at cooking chicken cordon bleu were actually mostly successful. I gave up on the sauce because it was disgusting and I was a little overwhelmed, but the chicken itself---not bad. I did enlist Mek's aid at the end to help me determine that it was cooked all the way through, though. I wasn't sure, and no one likes eating raw chicken. Ew. As for today, yay! I'm 24. I've done virtually nothing all day. My mom came over briefly with presents, chocolate cake, pumpkin pie, and the rest of Thanksgiving fare in tupperware. (See? Poet.) I ate too much. It was glorious. As for presents, I got The Mentalist on DVD (I simply can't explain why I like the show so much, but it's addicting. Cho and Rigsby should have their own show. Cho equals awesome.) Also: a couple of these adorable tiny hats from Hot Topic, one I'm wearing right now, and two CDs, a Death Cab for Cutie one and the newest Franz Ferdinand. I've also gotten a couple of books from Mek, Dark Hollow by John Connolly and The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton. And in fairness to my father, I must add that he THOUGHT he was getting me the whole seventh season of Voyager, not just the one awful series finale. I didn't have the heart to tell him. He tries. At any rate, while I haven't spent a holiday with him other than New Years or Fourth of July in the past 13 years, he has never thrown a temper tantrum and refused to talk to anyone because I wasn't a grateful enough kid. So my many personal daddy issues aside, I am grateful for my father. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the night off, so alas, I'm off to work. It would be nice if people would take my birthday into consideration and not code or have thousands of babies. Just as a special birthday present to moi. | | Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 | | 5:57 pm |
Day of Errands
Went to Post Office and sent transcripts to Florida State University. Nearly got hit by car. That was fun. Went to doctor's appt to check out red-itchy-dry-ugly spot that's been under my right eye for, oh, three months. Diagnosed with eczema and given hydrocortisone cream. Awesome. Went to bank to apply for credit card. Had a fun moment when the banker guy asked me for a rough estimate for my yearly income before taxes and I, in the words of Kirsten, went "Buh?" He helped with the math. Went to Safeway and played bumper carts with all the other T-day shopping procrastinators. Bought ingredients for secret T-day dinner. Piled two bags in my backpack and carried the other two plus a box of soda onto the bus and then walked home. Still on the to-do list: understand metaphysics. Bah. Screw metaphysics. I'm just happy I managed to get out of the way of the car. Fucker. | | Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 | | 7:26 pm |
When Your Friends are Republicans . . .
They say politics shouldn't ruin a friendship, but it's always hard when you realize that a co-worker you like chit-chatting thing and seems to be a generally nice person is, in fact, very conservative. Not that these things have to be mutually exclusive, at least logically, but sometimes, it's pretty hard to see it that way. There's the nurse I work with that sends me emails sometimes. Usually the kind of forwards that goes straight to my trash folder, actually, inspirational messages and cutesy chain letters, basically the kind of thing I can't stand. And I already knew she had more "traditional" family values, knew she was religious, and all that jazz. But I must say, I was a little flummoxed to find this message from her in my email: ( Fox Propaganda )And I don't know. I'm not going to get into an argument with her or anything. I do like the nurse . . . just, Jesus. Totalitarian Socialism, really? And for God's sake, I go to SFSU. Literal granola cruncher or not, do I seem like the kind of person who would be interested in this crap? | | 3:36 am |
"Now I'm depressed and I wanna kill myself but luckily I'm too depressed to bother."
From Pump Up the Volume, in case you were wondering. Just read this thing in my work email talking about the physical benefits of happiness, and according to this pie chart, 50% of our level of happiness is determined by heredity, 40% of it is totally under our control, and only 10% is actually due to circumstances. So I guess the idea is you can have cheerful, positive parents who gave you a cheerful positive attitude, and the fact that your husband just blew up in a car accident is only gonna suck 10% of your happiness away, which seems wonky. OR you could strive for the most positive attitude ever, live in the most ideal circumstances known to man, and still be screwed because your parents were both depressive sonsofbitches who gave you nothing to work with on the happiness scale. I don't know. I feel depressed now. Heredity or pure circumstance? (Answer: Pure circumstance. If a manager hadn't been hanging around the unit, I wouldn't have been looking at my work email at all and would likely have just deleted the bastard and never seen its sucky pessimistic little pie chart.) | | Friday, November 20th, 2009 | | 3:56 pm |
Oh, Papa . . .
I love my father. I do. But the man gets what we in the business of gift-receiving often refer to as interesting presents. You may have heard of numero uno before, the most odd gift of all odd gifts, the Century Handbook of Writing, an English grammar book made in 1922. Yes, I am an English major, but grammar rarely catches my interest . . . although I will say, there are some things in here I picked up while skimming that caught my eye. I bet no grammar book in 2009 will use the word "negroes" to give an example of words that are pluralized by 'es'. Also, there's a list of faulty diction that you are not to use. Here are some examples. Awful: Means filling with awe or filled with awe. Do not use in the sense of uncvil, serious, or ludicrious, or (in the adverbial form) in the sense of very, extremely. Canine: An adjective. Not in good use as a noun. (Uh, really?) Could of: An illiterate form arising from slovenly pronunciation. Use could have. (Which I know is correct, but jeez. Seems kind of harsh.) Human or humans: Not in good use as a noun. Say human being. Lots of thing are described as vulgar in this book. It's amusing. Today's b-day gift from Papa, however, I wouldn't necessarily describe as amusing, just . . . oh, Papa. Apparently, he asked Mek what my favorite Star Trek was, and while I agree that TNG is the best Star Trek, Voyager is my fave guilty pleasure (I know, I know, save your virtual tomatoes and heads of lettuce) because it's what I grew up with, watched from beginning to end. Anyway, did I get a season of the show? Did I get action figures? Star Trek Voyager comics? No. I got one of those glossy promotional pics with the whole cast and the seventh disc of the seventh season of Voyager. That would be the final episode. One episode. Plus, it's the episode I frequently use to describe things that suck about series finales. Yes, dear friends, my father got me one of my least favorite series finales of all time. Oh, Papa. I love you, but would it kill you to just look at the birthday/christmas lists I send? |
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