Yikes Spikes

I really don't like it when cartoons bleed. Not like realistic cartoons, like stick figures and stuff. I don't know why, gore and violence and stuff like that doesn't bother me, but I hate it when people draw little stick figure flip books or animation or whatever and their like bleeding or being chopped up, it just freaks me out. Something to do with innocence and children and drawings and blood and guts, give me the creeps.
I really hate big cities. I feel like Dallas is an exception just because it doesn't feel that big to me and I live in a relatively bubble-like suburb. I've been to San Fransisco, I've been to LA, I've been to New York and Boston, I don't like it. I don't like big cities. New York and Boston were frickin cold and the air in California smells weird. My friend said it's cause it's cleaner, I don't believe her. People are rude in big cities, I truly believe Texas is the friendliest state. Not to mention cities are dirty, like sick dirty. New York was one of the dirtiest places I have ever been, I was really scared to touch ANYTHING and I'm not normally one of those people. I just like the country better. And not like country-country, I just like the idea of wide open spaces. I love trees and grass and nature in general. If I could I would own a ranch and just live off the land like that. I like the idea of farming, manual labor always suited me better. I believe in evolution that way. Some people were meant to work hard and be able to work hard, like some women are born to bear children. That leads to my next thing I hate:
Skinny people. Not like metabolism skinny, that's your genes and that's natural, but people who try to fight nature and try to be so damn skinny that they constantly fuss over food and exercise. Guess what, you will gain weight, you will have cellulite, you will have big hips and thighs and saggy boobs, it's called gravity. I would much rather have a little something to keep me warm then be able to see my ribs, not that important to me. If we were still cavemen, those skinny bitches would be dead. No one had anorexia in prehistoric ages, you know why? cause people were dieing left and right because they were starving. If people want to kill themselves slowing then let them. Whether it be cigarettes or drugs or eating disorders or whatever. If people want to get help, GET HELP. It's a simple process, I don't see why it's such a hard concept to grasp.
I used to have a terrible fear of dieing a virgin. Two of my friends died at 15, way before they had an intimate relationship of any kind and it really freaked me out. It's all I could think about for the longest time and whenever a kid or someone young died in a movie that was always the first thing that popped in my head. To me, sex is like the physical manifestation of love, the literal act of love, so to me, if I died a virgin, I died without experiencing love. That would suck.
I also have a large fear of older men. I don't know why, they just generally creep me out to some degree. Few were exceptions, I was afraid of my uncles, my friend's fahters, my sister's boyfriends, it was weird. I was never molested or anything like that, but I guess because I know how guys are and I know they never change, I know at least some of them are thinking something they shouldn't. I don't exactly hold men in the highest regard. It's not that I don't like them or I think little of them, there are some really top notch, classy, smart guys. But men are men.

Back-up Plan: Hawaii

A long time ago, when I realized my life was not going to be exactly what I always dreamed, I devised a back up plan. This back-up plan will be set into motion if: I flunk out of collage, another family member or close friend dies, I loose all my money, a fire, flood, or tornado takes away all my worldly possessions, all of the above.
This plan consists of me taking only key belongings and what little money I have and jumping a plane one-way to Hawaii. Once there I will claim a residency in some beach hut or other low maintenance (cheap) housing, and find a job as a maid. Once I have enough money I will then begin the long process of getting an entire arm tattoo from shoulder to wrist of a Hawaiian pattern of pink flowers and blue waves.
'Why Hawaii?' You may ask. Well, for as long as I can remember, Hawaii has been the ultimate vacation/honeymoon destination for years. This means it's a place of leisure and relaxation and I feel like if my life goes far enough down the tubes, I will need a more relaxing place to live my life. Hawaii is also beautiful, natural, and hot. Above all things I love to be warm, so what's warmer than an island! On a more superficial note, Hawaii has been the setting for such cinematic gems as Lilo and Stitch, South Pacific, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Blue Crush.
Now, you may be thinking 'Blue Crush, Hawaii, maid... I get it.' But that's not quite it. The maid thing I decided on because I have spent a large part of my free time and life in general cleaning up other people's messes, so I figured I might as well get paid to do it. I am by nature a clean person so I would also be getting paid to do something that requires little to no training, and that I am already good at. Not to mention I have always preferred labor work to mental work, it's just easier and less stressful, and again, less stress is what I'm looking for. I am a low maintenance kind of person, there is very little I need to keep me happy so having a lot of money isn't high on my list of priorities, which brings us to part 3 of the back-up plan.
The tattoo, 'Why don't you just get it without moving to Hawaii and all the rest of the hassle?' My friend you are not paying attention. The whole point to the back-up plan is that it comes into action when all else has failed. The little money I have can not be squandered away on some body art whim. I need to keep that money to keep me in college. Now, if I were to flunk out of college or my grades became low enough that I could no longer attend, then I would move to Hawaii and spend my money on whatever frivolous joys I so desired. One of which, would be this tattoo. The tattoo also comes from a movie: Stranger Than Fiction. In this movie there is a character played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ana Pascal. In this movie Ana tells of how she became a baker after producing study snacks for her friends when she attended Harvard Law. She found baking brought her more joy than studying law, so she dropped out and started her own baked goods store. Ana Pascal has a Hawaiian sleeve tattoo of pink flowers and blue waves. This movie, this character, and this tattoo changed my life, and I decided right then and there that if I ever wanted to 360 my life, I would start doing what I loved and live how I wanted, including getting a tattoo. That doesn't mean I want to flunk out of collage.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

I saw the trailer for this movie a long time ago and never figure I would want to see it. I remeber seeing it and not understanding the trailer and thinking how it wouldn't be a movie I would understand or want to see. But I feel like it means something that I remember a trailer for a movie that I decided I wouldn't see. It was so interesting and yet haunting, and that's when I decided it wasn't for me. I'm glad I did see it, it made me feel lucky. Kind of lucky, kind of unrealized.
What I loved most about his movie was the editing. Each scene was like a collage, lots of seperate different things brought together to create a meaning bigger than it's self. Little pretty things coming together to make one big beautiful statement. And each small snipet showing how the mind works: first you think of this, which reminds you of that, which felt like this. Lots of metaphorical imagery used, which I always love, like the diving bell and all the butterflies. Even the music just felt incredibly in sync with the characters, the events taking place. It was a very well done film. It felt real and natural. Like it all really was taking place inside someone's head. If you could look into my head and put what was inside on film, it would come out liek that. Snipets and chunks and feelings and quotes. Definetly haunting, that is the perfect adjective I would use to describe this movie. Parts of it are sad, parts are harrowing, parts are beautiful, but all together, it's just haunting.
I actually have alot of mixed feelings about this movie and it's book. On the one hand, it's incredible that someone BLINKED OUT their memoir and it would be horrible- incredibly, intolerably horrible- for anyone to have to go through this, but on the other hand, I feel like if anyone else had written this memoir, if it had just been some poor shmo, it wouldn't have been that interesting. The thing that made it really incredibly interesting is that Jean-Dominique had this incredible, interesting life before it was all taken away. It's a little sureal that all this happened to this man.

Peter Pan

Back in the day, when I was a little kid, I loved Peter Pan. I feel like it was the first adventure movie I had ever watched that didn't have to do with Princesses. It was about a regular girl who was visited one night by a boy who took her away to have marvelous adventures. But as psychologist tell us, these boys- who offer adventure- rarely offer stability or love, because sooner or later, the girl wants more than just a 'good time' and the boy runs off to stay a boy and girls grow up. I mean, really that's the basic gist of the tale, that girl's are more mature than boys, and that everyone has to grow up so why try to relive your high school glory days, guys?
The thing is I really loved it as a child, despite the subliminal messages, and really carried a torch for the story as I grew up. I remember vividly one day in school when we were reading the book Lord of the Flies, I was looking at the paperback version, with the blonde boy on the front with green leaves and twigs all in his hair and thinking, 'Hey, THIS is how I always imagined Peter Pan..." I was also always grossly disappointed that there was never anything going on with Peter and Wendy. Even after we got the taste of jealousy Wendy had over Tiger Lily, their romantic relationship was never developed. Of course there was Hook and the Disney and Mary Martin version, but none of them seemed really satisfatory to how I had invisioned Peter Pan. Then Christmas of 2003 came, and Autralian director P.J. Hogan released his live action, male lead, CGI packed version of Peter Pan. I was in total and utter awe. This Peter Pan was everthing I had ever hoped, wished, wanted in a telling of Peter Pan. A cute little blonde boy played Peter, the set and scenery was magical, Hook was actually SCARY, and the music was incredible. I was 13 years old and cried 3 times the first time I saw this movie. It was amazing, AMAZING. I had never had any other movie complete and blow my mind so entirely. I saw Peter Pan the day it came out, and every day for the rest of the week. I saw it in theaters a total of 14 times, then bought the movie as soon as it came out, bought the soundtrack, was given the movie poster as a birthday present, and then one of my friends went to Hollywood and got Jeremy Sumpter's autograph and gave it to me as a present. I liked this movie a little bit. I ate, drank, and slept Peter Pan for about 2 years until I felt a little too Michael Jackson-y.

Hugh Jackman

I recently saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine and was a little disappointed. While Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds or more than enough reasons for me to go see any movie, no matter what my hang-ups might be, I really wish they had done a little more (or a lot less) on this prequel. Every event was rushed and the extraneous time they could have used developing core characters or events was used to introduce miscellaneous characters that were only in the movie for about five minutes. Most of the special effects were top notch, but again, it was all a little over done. As far as the X-Men series, I really like all the installments. Plots were all well thought out and cohesive and all characters meshed well into the whole of the context. In Wolverine, however, some character's powers were not even explained, which led you to believe they were just highly athletic humans, which goes against the whole story line in general. Also, I had a huge problem with how the handled the fact that Sabertooth was Wolverine's brother AND was one of the enemies that got killed in the first X-Men, something smells fishy with this plot development. But that's what happens when you throw in random characters without looking at their dynamic with the story. Example: Jean Grey being the Phoenix and killing Scott Summers in the third X-Men.
The bottom line is, I love Hugh Jackman. Not only is he amazingly gorgeous (voted People's Hottest Man) but he has talent to boot. His wife is 8 years his senior and they have two adopted kids. Seriously, what's not to like? He did a stupendous job hosting the Academy Awards this year and he's had more high quality motion pictures than some actors have in their whole lifetime. There was Australia, The Prestige, Someone Like You (one of my all time favorite movies. I actually named my cat after his character, Eddie.), Paperback Hero, Kate & Leopold, Swordfish, Van Helsing, The Fountain, Scoop! The man's been busy, not to mention his leading roles in Oklahoma! and The Boy From Oz. He can sing, he can dance, and he can act and he's from Australia, I love him.