"First World Problems"

So I finally found myself having a few minutes of free “internet time” to give you a quick update on my doings. 

Things have been kind of rough the past couple weeks and I’m a little wary of posting this because of my policy on “whiny” blog posts.  But I figured that I should let people know in case they wonder why I’m not my usually chipper self: 

First off, my orthodontist told me I have to start wearing rubber bands over my braces.  This means I can’t really open my mouth too wide (yawning is kind of difficult now) and my teeth are more tender than usual due to the extra pressure from the bands.  Plus, I look like that much more like an awkward teenager.  I’m not really sure how long I’ll have to keep them on (*at least* five weeks, maybe longer, according to the orthodontist) but I hear that it’s best to just keep them on all the time (except while eating / brushing) to keep from having to wear them too long.  

@#$%^& Hate this

Right after I heard the “great news” about my teeth, my car got “sandwiched” on the freeway after a guy a couple cars in front of me stopped a little too suddenly for the guy behind me.  It didn’t look like a big crash but after taking my car to a mechanic, I found out that it sustained about $1400.00 in repairs.  Fortunately, we all had insurance no one was hurt.  And I’m now driving a rental for the next couple of days while the mechanics repair the damages to my car.  I’m driving a (gas-guzzling) Ford Escape right now and I feel pretty big on the road.  Good news, though – the mechanic called this morning saying I can pick up my car today! 

Not Actual Accident, but you get the idea

After I got home that day, my roommate told me our apartment lost it’s internet service.  I’m not 100% sure how that happened, but my roommate told me it had something to do with the online business he’s starting & how he tried to re-direct the phone number he created for it to his cell-phone.  Apparently, he also re-routed our landline (which we use to run our DSL), cutting off our access to the world wide web.  So now I can only go online at work.  Supposedly this’ll be fixed by Friday (9/23/11), but I’m not holding my breath….!  

A few days later, I got a big scare at work.  I’d rather not mention what happened, but it’s caused a lot of us to wonder about the security of our jobs. 

So yeah…..a lot happening in the past two weeks.  I figure I’ll let the older stuff go unsaid for now…..! 

Unrealized Dream #243

Did you know that Twitter doesn’t allow you to create a username with the word “Twitter” in it?  

I realized this when I had a brilliant idea to create a joke Twitter account named “The Twitter.”  The plan was just to follow everyone I could find with this account, and tweet as if the self-named account had somehow achieved self-awareness and was gathering information similar to how newborn children do. 

This was how I planned to achieve greatness…..even Godliness. 

This was going to be my Profile Picture

But unfortunately Twitter had foreseen this and prevented my tomfoolery from commencing. And my dream of greatness was never realized.  

I’m sure someone else already thought of this before me, probably around the time Twitter was becoming popular. 

But on the small chance that no one has, I’m writing this post to TM my idea. 

Sleep Self-Hypnosis

Last night I made the mistake of falling asleep with the TV on and now I’m worried it may have screwed with my head. 

I had a DVD playing (Season 2 of Arrested Development) and it has one of those “looping scenes” in their main menu where they play clips from the show over and over unless you do something about it.  

Anyway, I remember dreaming about specific lines from the show…and people saying them over and over again (Imagine a world where you try and speak to someone and they only repeat the same sentence over and over again; it’s hauntingly terrifying). 

When I woke up, I realized this was due to the fact that I had the TV on so loud that I could hear those lines in my sleep….and that they were influencing my dreams. 

Now I’m a little worried about how *else* those looped scenes might have affected my sub consciousness.  

This is your brain on TV media

If I start acting funny, get me professional help, okay? 

Originality is dead?

So Camp Hollywood – the annual swing dance camp I journey to every year for 3 non-stop days/nights of dancing – has come and gone….and there’s not much to say other than MAN, WHAT A GREAT TIME I HAD! 

Pretty sure I lost a couple pounds due to all the sweating (I sweated through 12 T-shirts) and a lot of people have said my form has improved since last weekend.  

Other than that, not much to say – but here’s a performance from the Showcase competition that I think you should all watch: 

Hard to believe they only placed 4^th in the contest (I guess it didn’t have as much actual ‘dancing’ as the other showcase performances did); but anyway…..! 

I hung out with my friend (and fellow ECLS major), Susan, the other day to catch up on what’s been going on in our lives.  I told her about Camp Hollywood & my trip to New York last month and she told me she was traveling to Italy soon for a friend’s wedding.  (Rich friends, amIrite?)  And while we initially planned to see a movie as our scheduled “friend activity” (aka ‘excuse to hang out’), we couldn’t decide on what to watch. 

(See, Susan was also a film major and has a huge pet peeve about movies being original – everything in the theatres was either a remake, a sequel, or based on some book / graphic novel franchise and she wasn’t about to pay good money to see those) 

So we ended up going to Barnes & Nobles and browsed their “summer & back to school reading” sections to see how many we’ve read /what we *really* thought of them.  It’s actually a pretty fun way for English Majors to pass the time! 

But getting back to Susan’s pet peeve:  I’ve heard this gripe before from a lot of other film buffs and I got to wondering when this started.  I mean, aren’t all stories derived from previous ones that came out before them?  And those that aren’t based on stories are based on real life experiences instead, so they’re not truly original either.  So were there ever any original ideas? 

If not, where did the idea of “there were original ideas before” come from? 

Maybe *that’s* the only true original idea……..! 

Or not.   

Sorry - it’s late and I’m rambling, trying to get ‘inspired’ to write a blog post. 

What does it mean?

I had the strangest dream last night.  

I dreamed that I was out in the ocean by some harbor and casually swam into the open mouth of a Blue whale that came up to the surface. 

The inside of the whale mouth was furnished with nice couches and tables, etc. but flooded waist-deep with water.  Also - the inside of the whale’s mouth was transparent (like glass) so I had a really nice view of the ocean from the whale’s perspective.  

My first thought upon seeing this - “what’s the rent on a whale like this, and can I afford it?” 

Then I noticed this girl floating / sleeping / drifting next to me.  She was a girl I knew from college.  On the far side of the whale, I saw a guy I went to high school with doing the same thing (floating). 

The whale then dived down back into the ocean and only then did I start panicking:  

 “How the hell am I going to get out of here??” 

I grudgingly woke up the girl floating next to me and explained to her my problem and she casually explained to me that the whale goes back to the surface for air every few hours or so and that I could probably leave then. 

Now calmer (but still a little freaked out), I swam over to the “window” of the whale and admired the view of the ocean. 

And then I woke up. 

ANY PSYCHO-ANALYSTS WANNA TELL ME WHAT MY DREAM MEANS?  

(Don’t say “I have a whale fetish” cuz it’s not true)

Vacation Rationing

So by now you all know that I got a promotion at work and have this new job with all these cool & crazy responsibilities; I’m totally an essential part of my department and contribute to the growth of the company, blah, blah, blah…..!

And while that’s really great – something I felt was really missing in my last position – it means that I can’t afford to take as many vacations as I used to.

……which really sucks, because I feel the need to take more of them now since this job is kind of stressful.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because I might not be able to fly home for Christmas this year. My vacation time was cut down significantly by my recent trip to New York and I’m not sure I’ll be able to accrue the needed days-off for a Christmas vacation this year.

It gets even trickier this year because half of my current department consists of L.A. transplants - people originally from the South, the East Coast, Scotland,…..and now Hawaii.

My old department consisted of people whose families lived in Los Angeles and could afford to work during the Christmas holidays. Christmas vacation was never really an issue back then.

But now….I’ve heard it can get kind of vicious around the holidays when it comes to asking for time off – begging, bargaining, lots and lots of toadying to the boss, etc. etc.

I don’t even want to think about what I’ll have to go through to get time-off approved for Evan & Mahea’s wedding in Hawaii next year.

Ah well, working up the nerve to ask today – wish me luck! 

X-Men: First **CRAP**

So by now you’ve probably all seen X-Men: First Class  (and loved it) or decided that it’s not really worth seeing. I’m counting on this being “a given” so I can rant about this movie without any guilt about spoiling for anybody, but in case there are some of you who are waiting for it to come out on DVD…….!

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I just don’t get how this movie gets an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. If the major demographic of this movie franchise is “comic book nerds” like me, then how the hell did everyone else love it?
First of all, there are many, MANY, *MANY* discrepancies between the comics and this movie….as well as between the past 4 other movies! They include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Moira McTaggart is an American CIA agent? (She’s supposed to be Irish, and was played by Olivia Williams in X3, and at least she sounds like she’s from the same continent!)
• Alex Summers – aka “Havoc” - is (approximately) the same age as Professor X? (Alex is supposed to be Cyclop’s *younger* brother. If this movie takes place before the X-men were formed / born, why is Havoc here???)
• Mystique & Professor X grew up together as ‘brother & sister’? - (They’re mortal enemies in the comics, and are pretty much complete strangers in the first 3 X-men movies. What, they just forgot about each other after being “brother/sister” for all those years?)

Secondly – the movie made some poor choices regarding what mutants / characters to portray in this movie. The biggest offender would be Angel Salvadore - the stripper with fairy wings who can spit fire. Were there not any other choices available? Since we’re throwing continuity out the window, did no one think of cannonball? Polaris? Sunfire? Marrow? (Not Pixie, though – she’s practically the same character)

Also, did it not occur to anyone else that the devil guy (Azazel) is just a red (& evil) carbon-copy of Nightcrawler?

And I just do not agree that Kevin Bacon was the best choice to play Sebastian Shaw….or that Sebastian was the original creator /owner of Magneto’s helmet. It didn’t look that great on Ian Mckellen and it looks plain idiotic on Kevin Bacon.

 

vs.

who wore it better?

 And finally – the whole Mystique & Professor X vs Magneto fiasco; that whole plot arc / storyline just seemed to fizzle out halfway through the movie, only to suddenly snap into place so Mystique lines up with Magneto for the first X-men movie. Did anyone else notice that she comes to this decision for almost no reason while her supposed brother lies dying right next to her???? 



“Hey Mystique, I know you secretly want to join Magneto’s team, but you’re just too scared to tell me, but you can go with him. Don’t worry, I’m okay with it. I’ll just lie here now that I'm paralyzed. I’ll be fine. It’s not like we formed this really strong bond growing up together or anything.”

 ........I know, I know; I sound like a huge nerd, don't I? 

 

BUT I DON'T CARE.  THERE ARE DISCREPANCIES TO MY BELOVED GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES & I WANT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT.