memory lane

Here is a totally different game of tag:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, just anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on you blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to you blog and leave one about you.

the dark knight....more like the dark knightmare

I know I have a lot of posts about movies, but they're kinda my thing if you didn't notice, so get over it. Last night I saw "The Dark Knight" with Adam and Erica. It was a very good movie, with good acting, a good storyline, and great special effects, but I didn't really like it because it was just downright creepy. Just seeing The Joker, let alone hearing him talk and laugh, gave me the jitters, and that's not just because he was played by the late Heath Ledger. Ledger did an excellent job but holy cow he was freaky! I don't know what it is with these new Batman movies, but they are just way too dark for my tastes. I saw "Batman Begins" for the first time two years ago at Sharleen's up in West Virginia. It was like 1 in the morning and I was watching it by myself down in her basement. When that Scarecrow guy popped up in all of his freakiness I about wet myself. I was so scared I made poor Sarah the Dog sleep with me that night. Fortunately this new one didn't scare me that much but it was way creepier. There isn't much physical violence, it's more psychological and emotional. I think I would have liked it more if I had seen it opening night. For some reason, I rarely like movies as much when I see them after I've heard "It's the best movie ever!" so many times. This happened with "Juno", which I didn't see until it came out on DVD, after I heard every one in the whole world sing its praises (except Mom and Dad, of course). I thought that movie was just plain dumb, but whatever. So anyways, if you plan on seeing "The Dark Knight" be prepared for a freakfest. And don't even think of letting anyone under the age of 13 see this movie. It's rated PG-13 for a reason and I personally believe it was borderline R. Some idiots brought their toddler last night and I was about ready to jackslap them! If you can't afford a babysitter than you can't afford to go to the movies, that's how I see it. People these days!

bewitched

Once again I've discovered another movie soundtrack that just wows me. While at Becky's this past weekend, she and I watched the newest version of "Pride and Prejudice". I saw it shortly after it came out, but for some reason I enjoyed it much more this time. The movie is spectacular and Mr. Darcy is downright delectable. I have two favorite parts - when Liz arrives at Mr. Darcy's place and laughs when she sees what she gave up in denying his proposal the first time, and when they're out in the rain and Darcy says, "You have bewitched me, body and soul", or something of that nature. Sweet heavens! I think this is a movie I could watch over and over again and never get tired of it. Anywho, the soundtrack is beautiful, especially the piano pieces. I would love to be able to play those on the piano, but there are two problems - I don't have a piano, and the only sheet music I can find is simplified. I want to play the real deal! By no means am I implying that I am too good for simplified music, because I'm definitely a little rusty on the ivories, but it's just not the same as playing the actual original piece. Some of the other pieces with fiddles and such reminded me of the soundtrack from "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", another spectacular movie. I think I'll watch that tomorrow. If y'all haven't seen either of these movies, you should definitely check them out! To hear the music, go to http://imeem.com. All you have to do is sign up, and you can listen to just about any song you can think - and it's free. It's pretty useful for me while I'm at work because I don't have to worry about bringing my laptop or iPod to listen to some sweet jams. Now if only I could find my own Mr. Darcy.....

iron man and spider-man

This past weekend Tim and I visited Becky and her family over in Hosford, Florida (my favorite place ever!). Jonathan turned 4 on Sunday and had a superhero themed party on Saturday. All the kids were supposed to come dressed up as their favorite superhero so I decided to buy an Iron Man shirt to wear. Of course I didn't think to do this until Wednesday night, so I paid a pretty penny to express mail it to Becky's so I would get it in time. Fortunately I got it Saturday morning, a few hours before the party started. When I first put it on, I thought, "This is so dorky, I paid all this money and I'm never going to wear this again". Well, it grew on me (not literally) and I've decided that I'm going to wear it in public, and not care if people think I'm some comic book junkie. I'm not one though, just in case y'all didn't know. I usually don't become fans of superheroes until I see their movies, like Iron Man. I never cared much for him until I heard he was going to be played by Robert Downey, Jr. and then I saw the movie twice and he's kinda my favorite now. Anyways, at least I'm not the only one in this family who's kind of obsessed with a particular superhero - even if that other person is only 4 years old (just in case you didn't know Jonathan wears his Spider-man costume every day). At least I don't parade around in this Iron Man get-up all the time.

tagged....

What was I doing 10 years ago? I had finished fourth grade (yay me!) and I went out to Florida and stayed with Becky for the first time - where I was introduced to the DISH Network, the jet ski, and all of my wonderful friends out there. Then I traveled out west with the fam to take Benji to the MTC. I think this is when we visited the Grand Canyon, right Mom?
What was I doing 5 years ago? I had finished ninth grade and I think I spent a few weeks in Florida once again. I was also helping my friend Shar pack up because she and Reagan decided to move to California :(. I think I was skipping band camp, too.
What was I doing 5 months ago? I talked to Mary on the phone, saw the movie 'Jumper' at the Perkins-Rowe theatre for an 'acquantaince's' (I don't consider Rick to be a friend) birthday, and then we had cake at Adam's afterwards. Then I stayed up halfway through the night watching 'Pay It Forward' on tv.
5 things on my to-do list
1. Make more money
2. Exercise more
3. Go fishing more often
4. Find a man
5. Get a Great Dane puppy
5 of my favorite snacks
1. Fresh fruit - especially grapefruit and apples
2. Strawberry ice cream
3. Chips Ahoy! cookies and milk
4. Mom's peach cobbler and apple pie
5. Chewy fruity candy, like Skittles, Mike & Ikes, and Laffy Taffys
5 things I would do if I had a billion dollars
1. Buy a jet (with a good looking pilot included) so I could visit family whenever I want, as well as go on vacation anytime - to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Europe
2. Buy a black or dark blue Ford F-150 quad cab pickup truck
3. Buy a huge Southern plantation house on a riverbank somewhere here in Louisiana
4. Buy the nicest, most beautiful grand piano I can find
5. Adopt a bunch of kids
5 places I've lived
1. 110 Hancock Ave, Natchitoches, Louisiana (I lived in this house my first 18 years - I did live in two different rooms though)
2. 18420 NE CR 67-A, Hosford, Florida (I lived with Becky and Joseph for 3 months while working at CW Roberts)
3. Rm. 245, West Laville Hall, LSU Campus, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (I lived here with Loren and Jiffy for our freshman year)
4. Apt. 81, Bluebonnet Place, 9989 Burbank Dr., Baton Rouge, Louisiana (I lived here with Loren and Jiffy for our sophomore year, fortunately we all had our rooms and a kitchen here!)
5. Apt. 54, Bluebonnet Place, 9989 Burbank Dr., Baton Rouge, Louisiana (I live here with Loren, Jiffy, and Erica)
5 things people don't know about me
1. I hate being disappointed, so I usually expect the worst in any given situation. If something great happens, then I'm happy. If something bad happens, I already expected it so it's no surprise. This leads people to believe that I'm a negative person, but I don't think that's the case.
2. I only let myself cry once a month (not including while watching a sad movie). I just think about everything that makes me sad and let it out onto my pillow. When I wake up the next morning, I don't have a tear left in me and I'm good to go for the next month!
3. I used to have sticky fingers....when I was in elementary school I would steal Mom's seminary candy from under her bed, Dad's loose change from on top of his dresser, and stickers from the cabinet in the primary room at church.
4. I still watched shows on PBS when I was in high school. And I don't mean documentaries - I'm talking about Arthur (my favorite), Zoom, and Dragon Tales. It's not my fault we only had two channels! I guess those shows were better than Maury Povich, Montel Williams, and Dr. Phil (I'm not saying I never watched those shows, though!).
5. I am fascinated by the human body. I used to read the family medical diagnosis book for fun at night when I was in high school. I love watching the Discovery Health Channel, but I've never wanted to be a doctor. Blood and guts do not bother me, but for some reason my nose is extremely sensitive and certain smells just make my stomach hurt. So, I'll just stick to watching ER on tv every morning to get my medical (and George Clooney) fix.

Well, that was fun. I don't have anyone to tag because everyone else I know on here has already done this.

jesse james

Last week I watched a movie about the last few months of Jesse James' life and the man who killed him, Robert Ford. The cinematography was absolutely beautiful and I think it was nominated for a couple of Academy Awards. James was played by Brad Pitt, who did a pretty good job faking a Southern accent. The best part about the movie, though, is the soundtrack. It is absolutely amazing. It has a kind of sad, haunting feel to it that just makes your heart ache at the beauty of the piano and the various stringed instruments harmonizing together. I know I don't know as much about music as some people in this family but I do know that soundtrack is something special. Fortunately, I've been able to listen to it wholly for free on the movie's website: http://jessejamesmovie.warnerbros.com/#/Gallery, while waiting for the copy I purchased on Amazon to arrive in the mail. Check it out if you have the time. I'm so grateful we were raised to appreciate good music in our household. All those years of begrudginly listening to NPR whenever Mom was present have given me a better knowledge and appreciation of classical music than the next guy.

Anyways, I decided to buy the book that the movie is based on and it is pretty dang good as well. I just love history! Although the events in the book really did happen, I think it is technically classified as historical fiction because the author (Ron Hansen) had to have made up most of the dialogue throughout the story. I'm only a little ways into it but as far as I can tell, the movie has stayed pretty true. I hate it when movies are made based on books and they have to change everything! I think the only movie I've seen that was better than its book in terms of the story line would have to be The Count of Monte Cristo. Can y'all think of any others?

drunk

Last night before going to bed Loren convinced me to join her for some brownies and ice cream. It actually didn't take too much convincing on her part, I mean who would say no to brownies and ice cream? So we heated up our brownies, added some ice cream, and topped it off with chocolate syrup. This is why I love being friends with Loren, because she is never opposed to eating sweets and she can always make me laugh, no matter what. She tells me her problems and I tell her mine and then we find something to laugh about. We went exploring outside for a few minutes (with our bowls of dessert) because we both like the feel of warm concrete on our bare feet. We came back inside and spent the next two hours on the sofa, talking and laughing. I was laughing so much I could barely talk and tears were streaming down my face and I just felt so deliriously happy. I told Loren, "This is probably the closest I will ever feel to being drunk, when I'm laughing with you." Who needs alcohol when you can get 'drunk' on the little joys of life? We ended up in the kitchen, where Loren was literally on the floor laughing (much like the picture below from freshman year in our dorm room). I wish I'd thought to take a few pictures of our 'drunken' ecstasy, but oh well. The other picture is from a friend's birthday, December 2005. We haven't changed much, in looks or size OR maturity. Oh well.

the man who invented the twentieth century

A few days ago after seeing an article on Yahoo! about the anniversary of the Tunguska event (June 30th, 1908), I decided to read up on Nikola Tesla. Many people believe this explosion was caused by his 'death ray', but it was most likely from an air burst of a meteor or comet fragment up in the atmosphere. Of course I had heard of Tesla before in school and in the movie 'The Prestige' (an excellent movie, where he was played by none other than David Bowie), but I didn't know too much. I've never been interested in physics or anything like that, but some of the stuff he came up with is just fascinating. He is known as 'the man who invented the twentieth century' and 'the father of phsyics', and he's the official inventor of the radio, which he did in the 1890's, but he was not given credit until 1943 by the US Supreme Court. I'm not really familiar with most of his work but it is obvious that the man was a genius. He was and still is very famous, but most thought of him as a 'mad scientist' because apparently he was quite eccentric. He was fluent in eight languages and had an obsessive-compulsive disorder. He hated jewelry, was a germophob, was obsessed with pigeons, and he did not like overweight people. He also disliked Thomas Edison because Edison kind of did him wrong when Tesla first came to the States, but he was very good friends with Mark Twain. This led me to read a bit about Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who I am a bit more familiar with. Of course I've read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as well as watched the movies and 'Wishbone' episodes about each story. The most interesting thing I learned about Mark Twain was that he was born two weeks after the closest approach to earth of Halley's Comet, in November of 1835. In 1909, he said, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'" His prediction was accurate - he died of a heart attack on April 21st, 1910, one day after the comet's closest approach to earth. Now that is pretty dang amazing. (Below are my two favorite pictures, Tesla studying in front of his high frequency transformer and Twain in Tesla's lab)

figured i'd jump on the bandwagon...

i'm at work right now, and i'm bored. i've finished the book i was reading, checked my email, moseyed around facebook, and played one too many games of spider solitaire. there is only so much to do on the internet while trying to pass the time, so why not start a blog? everyone else is doing it. unfortunately, there really isn't much that i can do in starting this thing up but write because i don't have access to my pictures on my work computer. you're probably wondering, 'what kind of job is that, where you just play on the internet?'. i'll tell you - the perfect one. i get paid $11.50 an hour to sit here and do as i please, as long as i check the 'cycles' every fifteen mintues. this entails pulling up the ZEKE screen and making sure nothing says 'FAILED' to the side of it. if i do happen to spot a failure, i just have to call the the on-call tech person and they take it from there. so yeah, this job is as easy as pie, and i LOVE it. i'm here every monday and wednesday evening as well as every other friday night. i get here at 5 pm as everyone else is leaving and usually finish up around 11 or 12. so i have plenty of time to do as i please. sometimes i bring my laptop and watch movies, other times i watch tv shows on the internet, and i usually bring a book to read. most of the time i find some good music online and turn it up as i surf the net or play spider solitaire - which is truly addicting. i've been able to curb my cravings and i only allow myself to play a few games before i move on to 'movie time' or 'reading time'. one of my favorite things to do online is browse through wikipedia. either i look up something i've been curious about or i look at what all happened on this day and click on whatever peaks my interest.

anyways, i guess this blog will be a record of my doings as well as my thoughts on whatever interests me at the time. i know i don't have cute kids to post pictures of, and my meandering mind may not be that interesting to others, but i don't care. and that's that.