Snow Day!

This morning when I woke up and looked outside to see a large amount of snow piled on my car and more coming down from the sky, the first thing that popped into my head was "SNOW DAY!" I immediately dove for my laptop to check my school email to find out if class was canceled. Sadly, it was not so I slumped of, slightly disappointed, to finish my morning routine before braving the horrible traffic conditions on my drive to campus.

About halfway through class, a guy who had his laptop out announced all classes were canceled after 12pm. Since my next class didn't start til 12:30pm I was stoked and immediately texted my mom to brag about getting the day off.

The text she sent back about the weather was hilarious, so I'm giving it to you word for word as she sent it to me.

"It says it is 28 degrees with snow & freezing fog....what the heck is freezing fog????"

I was so glad I was out of class before I read her message because I literally laughed out loud. The last thing I needed was to have read it in class and laughed in the middle of dead silence during our quiz, then having everyone stare at me.

I still don't know what freezing fog is, I had never heard of it before. I'll probably google it later and see what comes up, but for now I'm enjoying feeling like a little kid during my snow day.

Happy Hallmark Holiday!

In honor of Valentines day, the holiday for lovers, I give a quote from (500) Days of Summer.

"Roses are red,
violets are blue,
fuck you whore."

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.

The first time I saw (500) Days of Summer that quote gave me a good laugh, but then again I've always had a cynical and twisted sense of humor. Not to mention I have never been a fan of Valentines Day and it's phony attempt at guilting people into buying gifts for their loved ones simply because a corporation says you should, while filling their pockets with said people's guilt money.

Did I mention I don't like Valentines Day?

Good Lord In Heaven, WHY?!

I think I've mentioned before in another post that the people at my work are a wide variety of characters. There's the normal mixed in with the strange and the funny with the not so funny. And of course, this mix of personalities leads to some interesting conversations.

Here's the back story.

Lately, we've been cleaning the store like crazy because corporate is doing walk-throughs and we need to make sure everything in the store is nice and neat. While I was straightening up a shelf and condensing product, one of my supervisors came over and pointed to one of the items I was sorting and asks, "Do those work?"

Of course, in true sarcastic fashion I responded with "No, we put them on the shelf and we're selling them because they DON'T work."

She laughed and squinted her eyes at me before walking away.

A guy I work with who had been listening to our brief conversation come up and asked me "Do you know what else doesn't really work that we sell?"

I know this guy and he's usually really funny so I braced my self for a great punch line.

"Those light up drum sticks we sell for Rock Band."

"Oh, really?" I was kind of let down because I expected something funny. I should have known better than to let my guard down because no sooner than I finished my sentence did he go, "But I bet they make sex really interesting."

"Gah! What?? Why?! Why would you even think that?!"

He starts laughing, "I bet they would though! Just imagine, they'd light up places that aren't normally lit up."

"Oh good lord in heaven, WHY?! I'll never think of those things the same again. There's a reason those places don't get lit up, you know! I'm leaving, it's time for me to clock out. Ugh, you're so wrong dude."

Of course as I was walking away and shaking my head wishing I had an erase button for my brain, he was laughing his ass off at having effectively traumatized me.

Sigh, boys.

"District 9"

Last summer, if you turned on your TV for even a moment, you'll remember the insane marketing campaign that was going around for the movie District 9. It was everywhere, you couldn't cut to a commercial break without seeing a trailer for the film.

At the time, I remember thinking the movie looked really interesting and I really wanted to see it, but because I was so busy trying to get my school stuff all straightened out before the semester started, I never did manage to go.

Flash forward to last night, I opened my Netflix for this week forgetting I had put District 9 in my queue, so I was pleasantly surprised when I remembered I still wanted to see it. I popped the movie in my DVD player and prepared to wind down for the night. Of course, as has been really typical for me lately, I was exhausted from staying up late doing homework and I figured as much as I wanted to watch the movie, I was most likely going to fall asleep during it.

Boy, was I wrong.

First off, the movie was not what I expected at all. From what I gathered from the trailers, I assumed the movie was going to be a faux documentary type thing about aliens in "District 9" and the politics behind it and such, blah blah blah, boring yet interesting stuff at the same time. And while the movie does start off in faux documentary form, it doesn't stay that way for long before switching to different character points of view.

But I have to say, what I absolutely love, and I mean LOVE!! in all caps with exclamation points and little hearts surrounding it, is the writing for the movie. The character development is done insanely well. Especially, with the main character.

I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who might not have seen it, but the main character is a bit of an anti-hero. He starts out doing a lot of despicable things to the aliens in "District 9" and as the movie progresses, and because of his situation, you can't help but empathize with him (even when he does stuff that makes you sit straight up in bed and shout "NO!" at your TV at 1:30 in the morning when you're supposed to be sleeping, but instead you're so into the movie you just can't shut it off). And the best moment of all is when he gets his last chance at redemption for every thing he's done.

I don't know how many different ways I can say I love this movie, but I do really love it. As soon as I was finished watching it, it immediately jumped to the top of my list of favorite movies.

So, imagine my excitement when I read today that District 9 received two well deserved Oscar nominations, one for best picture and the other for best adapted screen play. I told you the writing was phenomenal, now do you believe me?

Now the question remains, does District 9 have a shot at winning? As far as winning for best picture, I doubt it, especially with the the high profile Avatar in the running. But as far as the screen play goes, I think it has a very good shot at winning with that one.

Party On, Excellent!

This is a story of a girl.

Before you go jumping to conclusions, this girl is not me...

Earlier this week I posted about my friend and her roommate throwing a party that I went to and had a blast at. Apparently, they have parties every Saturday. So guess where I was tonight? You're right! I was at my friends party, again.

This one was more of a get together than an all out party. Everybody mostly just hung out talking and playing beer pong, minus the beer. Although, there was a little bit of drinking, no one was completely wasted like last time.

But for some reason this time was different for me. You might ask yourself, why is that, Amanda? I shall tell you.

I saw said girl sitting on a couch next to her friend at the party, and what caught my attention was her personality. It's kind of hard to explain, she made slightly snarky, yet intelligent comments. She had a sharp, yet dry sense of humor, slightly reminiscent of Ellen Page. Her personality was completely unique from everyone else at the party.

Not only was she funny, but she was incredibly cute. I mean woah cute, in that alternative-punk-rock-but-i'm-not-trying-to-be-punk-rock-kind-of-way-with-over-sized-glasses-and-a-keffiyeh-scarf-around-my-neck, kind of way. (What is it with the hipster kids these days and their keffiyeh scarves? Don't they realize it looks ridiculous wearing a scarf indoors with a t-shirt on?)

(Disclaimer: No, she did not look anything like the model in this picture, this is just a reference to keffiyeh's.)

Anyway, she was the only at the party who could actually pull it off, and I'm not just saying that because I thought she was attractive, she really was the ONLY one who didn't look ridiculous wearing it.

Right about the point when I was thinking to myself, "Could you BE anymore attracted to this girl?" she picked up a guitar and started playing it. And I don't mean, randomly strumming, I mean full on playing Jason Mraz, and singing "I'm Yours". At that point I could have died and gone to heaven knowing I found the complete embodiment of my ideal girl.

After she was done singing, I tried to think up a way to talk to her, restlessly shifting from foot to foot. That's when it hit me, I can't remember the last time I was actually attracted to someone. I'm not talking about the whole "oh, yeah, she's hot" kind of way, I mean the, "wow, I REALLY want to get to know this girl more" type of situation. At that point I was struck by another realization, "why didn't I go over and talk to her and introduce myself? was I feeling shy? Or just nervous? Since when the fuck am I shy?! How the hell did that happen? WHEN did that happen? FUCK! Where has my self confidence gone??? Has it really been that long since you've put the moves on a girl you were attracted to?"

Sadly, the answer that last question to myself was, yes. It's really been that long. I was so focused on my inner monologue that when something caught my attention and I looked up to find this girl standing directly in front of me, I froze like a deer caught in headlights.

I present to you the wonderfully, brilliant, amazing conversation that took place:

Her: "Excuse me."
Me: *Confused silence*
Her: "I need to get into the fridge."
Me: "Oh, sorry." *Shuffle to the right a bit*
Her: "Thanks."
Me: "You're welcome."

By George, just call me the next fucking Shakespeare in the making. God when did I become so lame?

Just to quell your curiosity, no, aside from the refrigerator interlude, I did not work up the courage to actually talk to her. FML.

Big Cousin/Little Cousin Bonding Time

Recently my Aunt's dad has been in the hospital with some pretty serious health issues, he's been in and out of ICU for the past week and a half now but finally things are looking up. Since my Aunt and Uncle have been spending so much time up at the hospital they asked me to babysit my little cousin because little kids aren't allowed in ICU.

Normally, I'm not much of a babysitter because little kids drive me crazy. But I do kinda like the little punk so I was more than willing to help out and watch her for the night. She's only 5 (soon to be 6) but she is way too smart for her own good, and I'm not just saying that because she's my cousin. When a 5 year old can tell you the difference between fiction and non-fiction you've gotta be slightly impressed.

One of the things that probably contradicts with me not being much of a babysitter, is the fact that I hate it when kids sit in front of the TV all day watching crap shows like "Sponge Bob Square Pants". Part of that I think comes from my mom only allowing my brother and I to watch a certain amount of TV growing up. The other comes from my dislike of the way people turn the TV on and glue their kids to it so they don't have to deal with them. To me that's completely irresponsible, you should never treat your kid like they're an inconvenience otherwise why did you even have them in the first place? Obviously, that's something I feel rather strongly about.

Back to what I was saying, I was trying to figure out a way to keep her occupied so she didn't get bored and start acting up, when I remembered I used to love having Shel Silverstein's books read to me at her age.


So, I grabbed Where the Sidewalk Ends off my bookshelf and we flopped down on my bed and started reading. We made it halfway through the book before JT (that's our nickname for her) would let me stop reading, and that was only because I told her I needed to put dinner in the oven. I was amazed at how much she loved the book, I expected her to like it but I didn't think she would love it as much as she did. As I was getting dinner ready she kept bugging me to go back upstairs and keep reading, so as soon as I had everything in the oven we ran back upstairs and read some more, periodically breaking to check on dinner.

After we were finished with Where the Sidewalk Ends she pointed to another book on my shelf wanting me to read that one. I pulled the book down and almost told her no, we couldn't read this one because it would be too hard for her to follow, but I stopped myself. The book she wanted me to read is called Bone by Jeff Smith.


The story, told in graphic novel form, is an epic tale about an unlikely hero's journey to save his friends and family from a dark evil trying to take over their homeland. It's one of my favorite books because you can't help but fall in love with the main character and his story.

The only problem was, because JT was just learning how to read, she would have a hard time following along with the dialogue and the pictures. So I figured, maybe if I pointed to each panel and the character as I read what they were saying, she might be able to follow along that way. Apparently it worked because every time I asked her if she wanted me to stop reading she said no. I think what helped too was that I came up with voices for each character. Normally, I would have felt silly doing something like that, especially if there had been other adults around, but she really liked it so I'm glad I did it.

Finally, after almost 3 hours of straight reading we had to stop because I was starting to lose my voice and dinner was about ready. So we ate dinner and hung out some more, while I was checking my email and she noticed the icon on my Mac for Photobooth and she asked me if that's for taking pictures. I told her it was and she immediately demanded we take some pictures together. That's how we got these gems:

Chillaxing on my bed.

"Take the picture!" "I am taking the picture, you gotta wait for it to count down first!"

Our bored faces.

Our thinking faces.

"Aaaah, there's a monster eating my brains!"

These are our freshly-showered-in-our-pajamas-and-ready-for-bed monster faces.

She loves that hat as much as I do.

Our mad we-don't-want-to-go-to-bed faces.

Awww, kisses!

Attempted kiss.

Peace out sucka's it's bed time.

Granted, I'm under no illusion that she's a perfect little angel. As a matter of fact, she can be a total brat sometimes. And being an only child she tends to be whiny a lot of the time, like most only children are at that age. But when it's just her and I, we have fun and she can be completely adorable.

I Feel Frustration Inside of Me

I've never been under the impression that I'm a particularly nice person all of the time. Granted, most of the time I don't have a problem with people so I'm nice to them but when they do something to piss me off I can be a royal bitch.

In all fairness I'm warning you that this post is most likely a bitch fest since I made an attempt to be civil and not go off on someone I considered a friend. So I'm venting on my blog.

I mentioned in a previous post that I met this guy I had a bunch of classes with last semester and he and I got along really well and began doing homework and studying together. Well true to typical college student fashion, he's a procrastinator. And usually I'm fine with that, I don't care either way because I'm a huge procrastinator as well. But this semester, things are just so insane with taking 17 credit hours and working, that I just don't have the time to meet up with him last minute anymore, so I've been trying to get him to work on his stuff earlier and meet me between classes so things aren't so rushed.

Last night I had work til 10pm and I knew I had a paper due this morning, but I know me and I knew I would be able to crank it out in a couple of hours and crash into bed right afterward so I got home and started working on it. He calls me about 11 or so asking me to help him write his paper. I was immediately frustrated because he knew we had a whole week to write the damn thing and he waits til practically midnight the night before to ask me for help. I just told him I didn't have my paper finished, but if he wanted to get together early in the morning before class I would help him then.

This morning I get up to campus early and he's a no-show. Fine, whatever, I say to myself, I had homework I forgot to do in another class that I needed to finish quickly before it started in half an hour. He calls me 20 minutes before my morning class starts saying he couldn't make it but he wants me to help him finish writing his paper over the phone. At that point I was officially pissed off. I'm willing to go out of my way to help a friend with whatever they need help with, but to throw my attempts to help back in my face then inconveniencing me to essentially write the rest of his paper for him was the last straw. I told him what he talked about of his paper sounded fine and I hung up before I could say something pissy.

Later on, I was running behind and walked into that class late and before I even had a chance to sit down in my seat he turned to me and started bitching me out for not telling him he had one of the theories in his paper mixed up. I tried to stay calm and just told him what I heard of his paper sounded fine and I didn't notice he had them mixed up. It was all I could do not to straight up tell him that's what he gets for fucking procrastinating and then expecting me to do the paper for him. I had completely had it by that point, and I think he finally noticed because he didn't talk to me the rest of class, which I was perfectly fine with.

And now I can feel my stubborn side kicking in, because I'm pretty much done going out of my way to help him. Anyone who has taken inconsiderate advantage of my periodic niceness can attest to the fact that I don't take too kindly to it. Sigh. End rant.

I'm done venting now. I just really don't like it when people do that shit.

Now I've Seen Everything

I'm sitting at a table here on campus, working on homework when I look up and see this lady ride past me on a riding vacuum, texting and using her knees to steer.

This was the expression on my face....



Now I think I've seen everything.

Also, I'm sharing a table with some girl I don't know who keeps talking my ear off while I'm trying to get my reading done for class. I don't want to be mean and ask her to stop talking. I tried to kind of show I wanted her to stop talking being like "hey, look at me, I'm reading" by just staring at my book and periodically making "mmhmm" sounds. Did that work? No, of course not. She just carried on telling me her whole life story, so I just gave up and decided to update my blog when I saw that lady ride by.

Oh thank jeebus, she just left, now I can try and catch up on my reading really quick.

[Update: Fuck me, this is not my day. Now some other chick sat down at the table across from me, and she's making random moaning and burping noises. *Facedesk* I give up on homework. I wasn't meant to read Emerson today]

Friends Don't Let Friends Floss Drunk

Finally, a real update! Sorry for the lack of posting this past week or so. For some strange reason I've actually had a social life lately and the time I used to blog is now the time I use to do my homework.

I will say, I have missed posting almost everyday, but I've also really enjoyed having a social life once again.

Last night I went to a party my friend's roommate was throwing and had more fun than I've had in a long time. I almost didn't go because I had already partied earlier this week with a different group and that didn't end so well, tons of drama.

And as it turns out I knew a couple people at the party from school, even my friend's roommate, who I thought I hadn't met before, was in one of my classes I had at my first college. Although, I never got the chance to know him in class since we sat on opposite sides of the room, he turned out to be a really cool guy and an awesome drink maker.

The highlight of the night was when I got to play beer pong for the first time, and even being drunk, I was surprisingly good at it. The girl I played with was really good too so she and I won quite a few games.

One of the things I love the most about partying is watching all the drunk people. They're hilarious. I have such a bad habit of people watching, that when I'm at a party I usually pick a spot in the room and just chill there watching everyone. Which, sounds kind of creepy, now that I think about it, but I love seeing the different group dynamics and how people interact with one another. Last night though, I caught myself and made sure I actually socialized instead of watching people like a creeper. My friend also helped by introducing me to everyone as her music soul mate, since we have the exact same taste in music, and that kicked off some good conversations about music.

Something I did notice that had me laughing was how towards the end of the night (I'm using the word "night" liberally here when really it was more like 4 in the morning) when everyone was completely schwasted "I love you's" were being thrown around like crazy. I saw this random chick about ready to pass out in the hallway so I brought her a bottle of water and made her drink it before pulling her up onto a couch and her response was to hug me and say "Thank you, I love you so much, you're like my best friend in the whole world" repeatedly, which is even funnier since I had never met her before that night and I don't even know what her name was. But being drunk off my ass as well I responded in kind with "I love you too's" and hugged her back. While at the same time, my friend was telling her roommate she loved him and a couple of guys were slapping each other on the back with the typical male "I love you, man."

After all of the "I love you's" were done going around, things started to wind down. Some people disappeared to bedrooms to crash, others decided they wanted food so they went to the kitchen to cook something. By that time I was pretty tired so I sat down on the couch and promptly passed out. I woke up a few hours later in the exact same sitting position I sat down in, covered in a blanket and still wearing some guy's hat I forgot my friend had put on me earlier that night. I was sobered up enough to drive home where I chugged a couple bottles of water and passed out again, this time in bed. It was a great end to a great night.

The one lesson I learned though, was don't fucking floss when you're drunk. Bad idea. At one point that night we were all doing shots of tequila with lime, and I got some lime stuck in my teeth and it was driving me nuts. I had remembered seeing dental floss in my friends bathroom earlier and went hunting for it and managed to jack up one side of my gums flossing the lime out, and now it's all swollen.

So children, the moral of this story is DON'T FLOSS DRUNK!

Oh and p. to the muthafuckin s. I probably avoided making the biggest mistake of my life and didn't drunk text anyone! I'm so proud of myself. I reached for my phone a couple of times, but sheer will power won out. I'm amazing.

Orianthi

Wow. I'll take one of her please with a side of fries, thanks.

One thing is for sure, that girl can rock a guitar. From what I've heard of her music she's incredibly talented on the guitar, but her lyrics are only so-so. Which is a bummer because I was going to buy her album until I saw how weak her lyrics were and some of the new toy shininess wore off.

Now, I know of one song that was not written by her, "According to You" being written by Steve Diamond. Even so, the obvious targeting of the younger teens and tweens and lack of complexity in her lyrics just doesn't do it for me. I need subtext, I need a message between the lines, I need emotion, not just the obvious "you broke my heart and now I'm going to sing about it word for word" surface type junk. Maybe, when she's not such a shiny new mainstream-toy she'll be able to mature her sound a bit.

Until then, I'll be watching what stuff she has on YouTube and soaking up the kick ass guitar solos and how incredibly awesome she is. Btw, she's Australian so her accent just makes her doubly attractive.



Sigh, I'm totally smitten.

If you're interested in reading more about her, this is a great article that goes into more of a break down of her music.

Funny Girl

I've always been a big fan of musicals, thanks to my love of Julie Andrews, growing up. But for some strange reason I've never seen anything with Barbra Streisand in it. Even what I have seen of Hello, Dolly! didn't feature her.

Right before "Glee" went on break, their final episode contained a song called "Don't Rain on My Parade" performed by Lea Michelle as the character Rachel Berry. I've heard the song before but Rachel's performance of it completely knocked my socks off. I was a girl obsessed after hearing the song one time.

And so, I went on a hunt. I wanted to know more about where the song came from, which lead me to the musical Funny Girl starring Ms. Streisand in her feature film debut, which she also won an Academy Award for. After I watched the movie/musical I was smitten. Streisand's embodiment of the main character was phenomenal and I can see why she would be Rachel's idol. It is a well deserved worshiping.

If you're a lover of musicals and haven't seen Funny Girl yet then I would strongly recommend you do. It's well worth your time. Even if you don't particularly enjoy watching people burst into song while dancing about, there's a very compelling story behind it all since it's loosely based on the real life of Fanny Brice, making it that much more interesting.

Don't be stubborn, just listen to what I'm telling you and watch it. You know you want to.

Holy Insane Blog Hits Batman!

Wow, so yesterday was quite an exciting day for my little blog. After I posted my small review of Hailey Wojcik's Diorama I noticed I started getting quite a few hits on my blog. Then, yesterday between classes I checked my stat counter and saw my blog received more hits in one day than it does in an entire month, thanks to Miss Wojcik linking my post on her Tumblr.

Of course, the self conscious writer in me immediately re-read the post and went *facedesk* because that was not the best example of my writing. Nevertheless, I am grateful to Miss Wojcik for her thanks and I hope her album receives the success it deserves.

How to Make Chuck Awesomer

I've been thinking. A dangerous thought, I know, but it just so happens that I do use my brain on occasion.

Anyway, back to what I was thinking about. "Chuck" is awesome. I'm sure I've mentioned that on my blog before. And it's awesome in spite of the fact that Captain Awesome is one of my favorite characters on the show. His facial expressions and over use of the word "awesome" make me laugh. I keep waiting for him to throw an "o" on the end of one of those awesomes someday, making them totally awesome-o.

Again, I digress. "Chuck" is a great show, but the one thing that could make things better would be to throw Felicia Day into the mix. Yes I said it.

Felicia Day + "Chuck" = Awesomer-ness.

This picture just solidifies my argument.


Nerdy AND sexy. If I had a type, that would so be it, in a nutshell.

Just imagine it, Felicia comes in as one of the Buy More new hires, knocks Morgon off of his Carina pedestal and sweeps him off his feet with her knowledge of "The Guild" and gamer experience. Since it appears Anna is no more in season 3 (even if she does come back it still wouldn't hurt anything), the show is going to need another girl to balance out the Buy More freak level with Jeffster still hanging around. And what better way to do that than to give the audience a great and absolutely adorable actress in the process?

Besides, it wouldn't be a big stretch making Miss Day a subject of Buy Moria. She did have a small part in those Sears commercials, after all. She's already got retail experience, hire her Big Mike!

Is this not a genius idea?

Technical Difficulties

Apparently, the comment thing on my blog was having some problems and not letting people leave comments, but it is back up and working now. So feel free to test that puppy out.

Thanks Syd for letting me know about it.

Imaginary Friends With Benefits

[Update 1/14/2010] You're more than welcome Miss Wojcik. Thank you for the traffic you're sending my humble little blog.


Yesterday I posted a video from YouTube of a song called "Anglerfish" by Hailey Wojcik that I found while surfing the net. I was so smitten with the song that I did what I always do when I fall head over guitar for a band/musician; I scoured YouTube for even more music by them.

I am happy to report that I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was completely blown away, this girl is amazingly talented and I can't believe I haven't heard of her before now. She kind of reminds me of Julia Nunes of YT fame but even better because she has expanded her musical sound to incorporate a multitude of instruments.

As sort of a reference for why I have suddenly fallen so in love with Wojcik's music, the two things I look for in music is how well composed the song is and the lyrics. For an example on the music I always check to see they use more than just the standard guitar, bass and drumset. Which she more than measured up to with her song "Luck" where she was accompanied by a tuba and accordion as well as other instruments.

The other thing I look at, after the instrumental composition, is the lyrics and again I was more than surprised because every song tells a story with educated literary references on more than one occaision and a better than average vocabulary.

As far as her vocals she's slightly reminiscent of Ingrid Michaelson but at the same time she is in a category all of her own. If you think you might like her in the slightest, then I strongly recommend you get her album A.S.A.P., you won't regret it. And hey, would I ever steer you wrong? Okay, I would if it were for something funny, but music is something I take very seriously. So just get it, no questions asked. And if you don't like it I will personally apologize.

Well, this music obsessed girl has to get to class now. Happy hump day!