after one long season of waiting

I forgot how excruciating it is to write an essay. I think I just knocked my solitaire win percentage down by about 25%. And now I'm all frustrated because I'm hinging too much on this thing.

In other news, this article about ingrained grammar nonsense and the inaugural oath flub is the first thing in a while that's properly tickled the grammar geek in me. I wish I could point to that for every time I've had to explain to someone that I don't particularly care for the Chicago Manual of Style (though it still wouldn't help me get copy editor positions). Also, it's really cool that someone would even think to trace that to legal style manuals, rather than writing it off as nerves or a bad memory. I love complex, reasoned excuses for things (especially when they're full of pretentious, underhanded snark, like that article is).

Now I'm off to unilaterally amend me some constitutions. And by that I mean get away from my computer and go grocery shopping.

Actually, let's make today I Read the New York Times to You Day! WTF IS THIS?! You... you... “I never agreed with the idea of the fairly stuffy Edwardian-type gentleman,” Mr. Wigram said. “It wasn’t my idea of Sherlock Holmes.” THAT ISN'T HOW IT WORKS. Freaking crap. ... I know I'd still go see the movie, but... umm... Wryyyyyyyyyyyy? The sheer whatthecrap of any sort of "Batman Begins-esque" Sherlock Holmes is just... I mean, look, I can read about Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu. I can read about Sherlock Holmes in which he is an amnesiac who ends up possessed by some kind of strange ancient malevolent ghost and is, in a way, basically a clone of my homunculus!Hughes. But Action Hero Sherlock Holmes? That... will require a very healthy suspension of disbelief. Especially when someone finds it necessary to imply that... oh gosh I can't even describe this properly. When someone finds it necessary to imply that they didn't have the technology to describe action scenes in books when Doyle was writing them. Seriously! (“So many of the ideas that Conan Doyle had took place offstage in his books,” Ms. Downey said. “We have the technology, the budget and the means to carry them out.”) I know I'm protective of my literary heroes (I also bristled when they mentioned Jude Law was reading a book about Hamlet), but this is seriously whatthecrap, right? I mean, I totally agree that pop culture has got Sherlock Holmes largely wrong (in fact, the best Sherlock Holmes is probably House. So obviously other writers have got the archetype down.), but that doesn't mean he has to be an action hero. Though it is Robert Downey Jr., so maybe I can pretend it's an Iron Man sequel.

All this and he doesn't do cocaine anymore, either.

What the crap.

It's going to take me days to get over this. I mean, my goodness guys, we are SO LUCKY that screenwriters have the WORDS these days... these MODERN, MODERN WORDS with which to PORTRAY ACTION SCENES. Dear goodness. I hope that book about Hamlet mentions how he would have also been an action hero, if only Shakespeare, in his infinite cunning, had had the technology to think up words for ACTION HEROING.

Things are same-old same-old here in Camp Hippo (Camp Evil?). Chicago continues to try to murder me, my job continues to suck out my soul, and I continue to not know what to do about it.

Also, a note for the future of the human race... if you're going to steal someone's wallet, at least RETURN THEIR FREAKING PLASTIC POKEMON. You have my freaking wallet, what the crap do you need my lovely little pokemon for now?! I've had him for ages, and he's made of 100% sentimental value because he got me through my photography course and comes everywhere with me in case I need a surprised looking prop. And you TOOK him, you jerkface, whoever you are, while you were apparently rooting through my bag! I'm sure he just got in the way and you threw him on the ground. Which is even worse. But you'll be happy to know that, yes, I am able to sleep at night now because I put a fraud warning in to the credit reporting agencies. So take THAT, you bum! None of my credit for you! Also bite me. And please return my student ID.

Apparently as a feature of my reporting my debit card stolen to my bank they removed charges I made before it was stolen. So my charge for groceries the night before got removed, and for some reason this makes me feel incredibly guilty. I mean, it's food. If I'm going to pay for anything put on my card, even if it wasn't me, it'd be food. Geez. Because I'm a bleeding-heart hippy, I'm probably going to call them tomorrow and tell them it's okay to give the grocery store their money. At least it wasn't a charge to one of the local stores, though. (P.S. Wallet thief? Those groceries are on your karma now. Even if I get the charge put back on my account.)

Aaaand in other news... I was out too late last night watching Mr. Vampire with a few friends (and getting marginally better at Halo? Maybe? I mean, at least I can fire and reload the gun now.) I highly recommend getting some silly friends together to watch it. I mean... unibrow priest, inept assistants, bizarre vampire lore, Cantonese, martial arts, and hopping vampires. I mean really, China wins for having a vampire myth that completely prevents the vampires from being at all menacing. It's not quality cinema by any means, and it was made in 1985, but it's still completely hilarious.

So guys, er, I guess it's Christmas Eve now, officially. And, um... I haven't finished my cards yet. Because... um... I suck. Mostly because I haven't finished the story that goes with them. And also because I haven't finished the cards themselves. But they'll go out before New Year's! I would make that a promise but, um... I suck. So if there's a different address I need to send them to, let me know.

In other news I'm still underemployed and Chicago is cold and windy we went to see Sweeny Todd tonight. Which was fantabulously amusing. Just kind of... imagine an Alan Rickman and Johnny Depp duet. Put the Tim Burton aesthetic over it. And toss in a side of murder. That's this movie. I'm not entirely sure what what level I was enjoying it so much on (I spent a good deal of it smirking to myself), but it was somewhere between "Why does murder make musicals good?" and "That was such a Captain Jack Sparrow/Edward Scissorhands and/or Snape moment. Hehe." I know I wasn't watching it for the story (I already knew it) or the songs (musical-type music... meh). It may have been a movie I enjoyed almost entirely because of the cast. And the aesthetic. But still, I was so very entertained.

Also, Chicago is cold and windy, and I don't have a decent job.

There's probably a lot more I should be writing about now, but I have a headache tonight, so I think I'm going to work on getting to sleep. Someday I'll actually update people on things, though. I mean, I'm still alive. Minus all the complaining, that's pretty much where things are. Anyone want to get me a job for Christmas? I know it's a late request but... yeah.

Today I spent... 16 hours out and about. I'd say... oh... we'll make it an even 10 hours inside the Music Box theatre at the Sci-Fi Spectacular, where there were tin foil hats and celebrities (of a certain sort). I finally saw Metropolis (and the amount of it that is referenced in FMA, if the meta in the movie can be taken as actual and not pseudo-meta, is amusingly immense. Missing hands, seven sins, robots resurrecting the dead in robots metal bodies). Amazing movie for when it was made... but unfortunately I think the bit that will stick with me for a while is the dancing. Oh holy crap the dancing. And the leering. Ooh overacting.

Also, Forbidden Planet is amazing... for a certain definition of amazing that weighs heavily towards "really amazingly misinterpretable lines" and "wtf." Also, the phrase "Id Monster." Thanks, Freud. Thanks a lot for being in my sci-fi. Constantly.

I also saw about 2/3 of Serenity (we took our dinner break around that time), The Day the World Stood Still (which was good), and a lot of random shorts, like the first bit of the Flash Gordon serial which... omg. It was so, so bad. It had... iguanas as giant moon-beasts. And a guy driving a planet. And instant love!

I've also taken a lot of other pictures lately, but I haven't bothered to post because I've been out of commission on the consciousness front. But, you know... new pictures here and there. Yay! (Also, I may finally retrieve my sentience sometime tomorrow. About when I need to start doing homework again.)

( A semi-spoilery, kind of rambling (and also pretentious) review of PotC2 )

Things I can say out of the cut: Aside from a few problems I had with the writing (I'm never entirely happy with writing anymore, sigh), it was a fun movie. Sadly, I don't think I'd see it twice. But I don't get free movies anymore, so that might be part of it. It also makes me want to dress like a pirate more often. (More often would be any amount of dressing like a pirate. My wardrobe is already mainly ninja... ignoring the random bits of bright colour. It could do with a bit of pirate. Probably in the form of a hat. I could do with a pirate hat. Ooh, and pirate boots. That'd be awesome. I love those boots.)

P.S. On Trailers: For some reason, there was some level on which something about the Transformers trailer clicked with me, leaving me with a strong impression that it had something to do with Giant Robots long, long before it should have. Though somehow this manifested itself as a joking thought that it was a live-action Gundam movie. And for some reason, when it became apparent that it was in fact the Transformers movie, it just caused me to crack up. People were probably confused. But not quite as confused as they were when the Snakes on a Plane trailer came on and I went 'Oh YES! Snakes on a Plane!' long before it was apparent at all that it was SoaP. (I think I was the only one in the theatre with the proper background. Come on people. Don't you use the internet? I mentioned it to my mom in front of the usher, too, joking about missing the preview for it. No nod, no smile. Nothing. How can you work in a theatre and not know about Snakes on a Plane? Seriously.) And the trailer makes it look like a legit movie (unlike the internets trailer). I've already gotten more than ten dollars of entertainment out of just the idea of that movie, so I know I'm going to have to see it. It's only fair.

Last night I got dragged out of the dorm by my roomie and her boyfriend to find dinner and see Corpse Bride. We got tickets for the 10:20 show, which was quite a bit later than we needed it to be, since we were eating dinner two stores down and it wasn't even 8:00. But, better safe than sorry. I'll skip on describing dinner. It was build-your-own stir-fry; sort of like Mongolian Barbeque, only not all-you-can-eat. Needless to say, by the time we finished we had a bit less than two hours to waste before the movie. So we wandered up to Virgin. Big mistake. The last place in the world I needed to go while I still had a cushy pre-book-purchase bank account balance. At least I escaped with only two CDs (Stars' Heart and the Weakerthans' Reconstruction Site. Both very good.), though I almost picked up Anansi Boys (I'd forgotten it was out already! I suck as a fangirl!) and volumes 1 and 2 of the FMA manga (they were on sale!). Come to think of it, I've probably also already missed Neil Gaiman's signing in Chicago, but I figure I already had him sign my copies of Neverwhere and American Gods, I don't need to pester his poor signing-hand again. Rumour has it my roomie and her friends are planning a trip of most evil movie-going proportions at the end of this month, in which we (as I immediately invited myself along when I heard about it) will watch both Mirrormask and Serenity. I'm more worried about making it to that than I am about harassing Neil himself again. Hooray for living in Chicago where we'll actually get to see Mirrormask early!

So, after bemoaning the fact that my current Amazon wishlist (made up entirlely of DVDs of TV shows I need to watch) is over $500 in addition to all the CDs and books and anime/manga I need to buy and wandering up to the Hershey's store to waste even more time, we went to see Corpse Bride. (I can't believe that functions as a sentence). It was good, especially considering the state movies have been in this year...

( The chairs were very comfy and not like my theatre's at all. Oh, and here lie spoilers )

Oh, and this is an incredibly interesting write-up on the way geek-types (or fandom types, same thing only different) tend to speak. I'm not sure how scared I should be that so much of that is true about me. I hope my nerdy behaviour and speech patterns don't scare people. Hehe.

(Hmm... still not sure I like the colour scheme this way. But I was getting the distinct feeling that white-on-black was slowly killing my eyesight.)