I Love Jolly Ranchers!

Well, we finally wrapped up filming today. For most people, they just need to edit it and then they're done. Since they're all using my computer to edit, however, this means that I have another day and a half of people in my room. This will never end for me. Oh well. There's a good side to it, I guess. I can't waste time on my computer for long because they need to use it, so I've been reading. I'm almost finished with "Towers in the Mist." It's so good, I almost cried today but there was someone in my room editing, so I didn't. Actually, I probably couldn't cry if I wanted to, so I pretended like I was holding back tears that wouldn't come anyway. Confusing? Oh well, the book was worth it.

I can't tell if I'm getting sick of Easy Mac or if it's becoming a comfort food or something. I feel like it's all that I ever eat (except the instant wonton, which I finished). I could probably make Easy Mac in my sleep, and that is the extent of my culinary skills at this point. I used to make tapioca a lot, but then I got sick of it. I'll probably be a good cook when I actually decide to learn how. My mom is a great cook, so I have to inherit some of that, right? Don't answer that. I'm hoping.

I had to borrow a shirt today from a girl in my dorm. We were filming and I was wearing a black shirt (no surprise) but the girl directing wanted me to wear something colored. So I walked back to my dorm, but my keys were back on set, so I was locked out of my room. Fortunately someone was there, so I just borrowed one of hers. It's actually kind of funny, since we just figured out that we live in the same building this morning.

Do you know what is fun? Temporary tattoos. Do you know what is not fun? Creepy people. Also not fun is soaking light stands in "Goo Gone" to remove the gunk left by a week's worth of duct tape, but such is my life. At least it smells like citrus. I don't know why that's a plus.

Okay, I have to admit to a new guilty pleasure. There's a website where people write down their deepest darkest secrets on a postcard they design and send it to this website anonymously. I read an article about it in the New York Times today, and I had to see it myself. Some of them are pretty bad (someone who wished that a certain person had been at work on 9/11), but others are very amusing (the girl who thought King Babar was reading the story of her life, or the person who has to shave her toes). Anyway, if you're as curious as I was, here's the site (ironically, it's on blogspot too): http://postsecret.blogspot.com. Make of it what you will.

Anyway, I should probably be on my way, so here's a nice random fact for you: "On the cartoon show 'The Jetsons,' Jane is 33 years old and her daughter Judy is 15." That's pretty scandalous. Here's another one: "Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur." I wonder how they found that out. Sucks to shave a tiger.

Okay, I should really go now. Have the best day of your life.

Oh, by the way, exciting (ish) news: haha. So, my family decided to finally join the rest of the world and buy cell phones (we're such conformists! Oh well, I guess they can be useful). It was just hilarious because I was talking to my mom today and she was looking up parakeet ringtones (that's my mom) and also my little brother already has had his taken away for a week, and they just bought them like 2 days ago. I thought that was funny. Weird family.

Ciao!

Popcorn Can Be Lunch, Right?

Hello hello, from the Queen of Duct Tape here. Pretty sure I was sitting around while filming was happening and making bracelets out of duct tape. That makes me cool.

Here's a big shocker: I'm wearing a skirt! Decided to follow your example, Nina. I forgot I had this one, and it actually looks decent when I wear it. So, it's hot outside and I decided to do something different for a change. I think my jeans are mad at me now. By the way, if I seem like a creep who thinks her clothes hate her, don't worry, I'm not crazy yet. Just doing my part to be sleep deprived. Last night was 2am to 7am. Haven't found a nice spot to curl up and sleep yet, but we'll see what happens after lunch break ends and I'm back on set. Guerilla naptaking.

By the way, the house we are shooting at is possibly the cutest ever (I have been saying "cute" way too much lately, but it really is). It's on a quiet sunny street with trees and white picket fences, and it's this little yellow house. Actually, funny story. The film today is about a realtor with OCD, so we had a sign on the front lawn that said "For Sale" up for about two hours. Anyway, we kept seeing the same people drive up the street, and eventually a car stopped and they asked if the house was for sale. We were like, "Sorry, just filming!" Got a good laugh out of that.

I had Kool-Aid today. It tasted like a popsicle. So, feeling sugared up but without the hyperness. Actually, I had a popsicle too. One of my Diet Snapple popsicles (is it weird to anyone else that they make Diet Snapple popsicles? It weirded me out so I bought them). I keep trying to eat a kiwi strawberry one, but I think I keep getting pink lemonade. Maybe they're the same color.

There's a nest with baby robins out on the deck at the house where we're filming. It reminded me of the year when there was a robin's nest outside my bedroom window at home. That was really cool, because we got to see the babies up close. When they grew up, they came back and the next year we had a million robins hanging around our house. I remember when a gang of them were attacking a hawk. They eventually went away, though. I guess they're kind of my lucky birds. The mom was divebombing us this morning, so that was cool. We went inside and let her feed the babies.

I watched "Garden State" again last night. I kept looking at the lighting, especially backlights. I blame my film class for this. Really good movie, though. "So what do we do?" Makes me happy.

Anyway, here's your fact for the day, care of my Diet Snapple popsicle (yes, the popsicles have facts on the stick, kind of like how the drinks have facts on their lids). Here goes: Lizards communicate by doing push-ups. Okay, that is one language I do not want to learn. It's quite pathetic how weak my arms are. I was holding up a piece of white cardboard to block the sun while we were filming, and I couldn't keep it up for very long. Granted, it was a massive piece of cardboard, but still pathetic that I was struggling with it.

Have a nifty day. Play nice with the other children.

And Behind Door Number One...

More pointless ramblings about making films. That's pretty much my whole life this weekend. I'll try to find something interesting to share. Here's one. We were filming in this girl's room today, and we had a desk as a prop, so it was out from the wall about two feet. Anyway, last night was another late one (this was my fault though, I just stayed up. I'm really a night owl). So at one point during the afternoon, I crawled behind the desk and took a nap. My group took some nice pictures. Boy, that was swell.

No exploding lights or burning myself today. We took a dirt road shortcut, and there was a nice view of Spokane for about a minute. So that was cool.

Been listening to a lot of music and being happy lately. This weekend it has been "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by the Darkness, "Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes, "Dream On" by Depeche Mode, "Send Me On My Way" by Rusted Root, "You're A God" by Vertical Horizon, "The Sign" by Ace of Base, "My Sharona" by The Knack, "Arch Drive Goodbye" and "Promise" by Eve 6 (love them!), "Why Can't I?" by Liz Phair, "She's So High" by Tal Bachman, and a hilarious song called "It Sucks to Be Me" from the musical "Avenue Q." Pretty much Sesame Street gone bad, from what I've heard.

So I guess the United Methodist Church is having a conference on my campus this weekend. It's so weird to see people around. Lots of high schoolers, I think. Someone called my room by accident. That was pretty funny.

Random fact for the day: A snail can sleep for three years. Why are so many of my random facts about sleep? Probably some subconscious reason...

Anywho, it’s been a blast. Farväl, as they say in Sweden.

Minesweeper Addicts Anonymous

It sucks to be an insomniac. After lying awake for two hours with the lights off, I was seriously considering taking Nyquil just to get drowsy. But whatever. I survived today with very little caffeine (except for the huge soda from Taco Bell at lunch...).

Filmed my movie today. Not much to say about it, except it went a lot faster than I expected, which kind of worries me...

Really sorry to be boring today. I shouldn't even post on days when I have nothing to say, but I've posted every day since I started, so it's kind of a habit.

At least you learn something new every time: All porcupines float in water. I'm not a cruel person, so is it bad that I really want to test this one out? Also, Kermit the Frog is left-handed (that's for you, Jacqueline and Cheryl and Jeff and Shea and Janae and all you lefties out there). Man, I never met so many left handed people in my life until I got to college! I think a few of my cousins and uncles are left handed, though...

Take it easy.

Cane Sugar

I am drained. Today has definitely been a really long day. I was up very late last night finishing my storyboards for my film project, only got about three hours of sleep, had class until almost 6:00pm, went to the house of one of my group members to plan our filming schedule, and I just got back. Actually, though, today was a great day. My teacher liked my story idea that I finally decided on (remember rebellious toothbrush girl? Now she's dyeing her hair "Run Lola Run" red, instead). That was really exciting, because I worked really hard to get to that point.

I feel like I had so much more interesting stuff to share about today, but I can't remember it at this point. Oh! I remembered! Pretty much, I'm really proud of myself because I figured out an efficient way to do something with lighting in my film class, and I felt really innovative. I was surprised that I could come up with a genius idea while running on caffeine. Actually, in some ways I think I operate better when I theoretically should be falling asleep standing up. Like when I pulled an all-nighter on my last day in Greece and got off the plane and the next day was at the first dress rehearsal of the high school musical running soundboard and doing an amazingly good job especially considering that I had no clue what time zone my body was adjusted to and I had never touched a soundboard before. Yeah, so that was interesting.

Anyway, I wish I had more stuff to say. I should probably go to sleep very soon, especially since I have to direct my short film tomorrow. That should be interesting. Anyway, random fact for the day: ants don't sleep. That reminds me that I need to, so adieu.

You put the lime in the coconut...

Okay, so happy day! I'm good at something other than winding up electric cords! So, we were practicing lighting again in my film class, and I'm in a group with three other girls (our group name is S.K.U.D. - Sexy, Kickass, Uncompromising Divas. I'm "Sexy"). Anyway, so we were trying to create "late sunset." I was directing, two of the girls were the "grips," and the last girl ("Diva") was the model. Anyway, we worked with colored gels and diffusing the light and bouncing the light off of white cardboard and all that for almost half an hour...and the teacher thought it looked great! So, that made me happy, because last time I directed a crew doing lighting, I didn't do a very good job. (I personally think it was because I was the first person who volunteered to direct lighting, and everyone else got to learn from my mistakes). Anyway, so that made me happy.

We're also going to start shooting our individual short films this weekend. I'm still working on my story. My first story idea was really depressing - the professor believes that every good film/story has an excellent "dramatic question" behind it. My original "dramatic question" was along the lines of Will Marissa choose to drink with her friends, even though her cousin was just killed by a drunk driver? Okay, I don't want to film that! That makes me sad! Plus, it sounds too much like a commercial for Mothers Against Drunk Driving or something.

So here's my new idea: I want to do something more lighthearted, so I thought of a totally ridiculous premise that I could maybe tweak to make it work. The basic gist is that this girl, Melanie Evans (does that sound like a "good girl" name?), just moved out of her parent's house. Her parents are both dentists, and the whole family is a bit obsessive compulsive. Anyway, it's her first night on her own, and she decides to commit the ultimate act of rebellion - not brush her teeth before going to bed! I know that it sounds completely arbitrary, but it's a huge self empowerment deal for her. Plus, we aren't allowed to have dialogue in the movie, so this is something that could be pretty easily portrayed visually.

Funniest thing ever today: We're taking a ten minute break (because we're in this class for about seven hours a day). So, about half of the people leave the room. This guy who stayed up until 3:30am last night working on homework asked for permission to go get coffee, so he left. Then, the other three students in the room decided they wanted to make a Starbucks run, and the professor decided he wanted to go too. I volunteered to stay and tell the four others where everyone had gone. Maybe I'm just the biggest dork, but it was hilarious for me to watch my professor and three classmates march out of the room on a spontaneous coffee run. Anyway, when the four others got back, everyone decided they wanted Starbucks, so we left a minute later in another car. So, the entire class is at Starbucks, except for the first guy who left. I don't know why this is so funny to me. Okay, ending that story. Sorry to put you through that!

So, I'm going to visit the Baltic countries in a little less than a month (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia as well as Poland, Finland, and Sweden). Anyway, so my mom is teaching me a little Swedish, so that makes me happy! (For the record, even though my mom is half Swedish, she is definitely not fluent, she never lived there, didn't learn it from my grandma, she just randomly studied a bit in college). I can say "I love you" and "good night" (or was it "sweet dreams"?). Anyway, so that's awesome.

Anyway, I really need to stop rambling and work on my toothbrush girl story. It'll probably take a million hours to fix, so I should get started. Oh, can't forget a random fact! Let me find a dentist one... "Dentists have one of the highest suicide rates out of every profession". Okay, so that's depressing! Be nice to your dentist, okay?

Have a miraculous day!

Elvis is Alive

What is with all these celebrity birthdays? So, today it's Mike Myers, Frank Oz, and Sir Ian McKellen. Austin Powers, Yoda and Gandalf all on the same day? I hope they all celebrate together. That would be an awesome party.

Man, I am hungry. In the absence of actual human company, it seems like I'm always thinking about food. I don't think I'm necessarily eating more, though, because I'm always hungry. Hmm...

So, I have my alarm clock set to the local oldies station (not as good as KFRC, just to let you Bay Area people know, but not too bad). Anyway, this morning it made me happy because I woke up to "California Girls" by the Beach Boys. Which I pretend is my theme song, since I am a California girl, and I'm outnumbered in the PNW (that's Pacific Northwest, for you Californians). Anyway, good way to start the day. Similar to when Neil Diamond sang "Sweet Caroline" on Good Morning, America. You know that's gonna be a great day.

I found out that I'm good at something today! So, I'm taking this film class, and I pretty much failed at coloring in pictures and setting up lighting (not really, I'm exaggerating), but! Apparently, I'm a natural at winding up an extension cord. That's pretty useful, I guess...

Okay, here's today's random fact: It takes about 142.18 licks to reach the center of a Tootsie pop. I always wondered about this - does this mean they're just licking one side, and how long it takes just to reach the center, or to completely get all of the lollipop off of the tootsie roll? Anyway, I also wonder about the people who have enough patience to actually lick the whole time. Ignore the dentist and your mother. You are supposed to chew a Tootsie pop. And ice.

Remember to Floss

Today is Alfred Molina's birthday! For those of you going, "Huh?", he's probably the coolest guy in the world. I love this man. He was Dr. Octopus in Spiderman 2, he was in Enchanted April, he was even in an Indiana Jones movie! In Raiders of the Lost Ark, he's the guy in the beginning who takes the gold monkey idol thing from Indy and gets skewered by the spear-arrow things that come out of the wall. Anyway, so that made today extra special.

You know what else makes today special? I'll give you a hint...it's food. Okay, I'll tell you. Pretty sure I'm going to make a California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Pizza for dinner! If you've never had this, you need to eat some, and fast! It is the food of the gods. Ambrosia, if you will. This stuff is the manifestation of happiness and good feelings.

Anyway, moving on...

So, I'm reading this book called Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge. I read it in 8th grade, but I forgot how great it is. I mean, this is probably one of my top two favorite books now! (It's a close second to High Fidelity, which nothing will ever beat). It's about a family that lives in Oxford, England, around the late 1500s. I know that sounds really dry, but it's so well written. I wanted to put an excerpt from it here. I think I'll post one later.

Okay, might as well include a random fact in this post to continue the tradition. Dundrearies. This is the funniest word ever. It means "long flowing sideburns." Now, I am as disgusted by massive sideburns as the next person you meet outside of the Renaissance Faire, but it made me really happy to learn that there was another name for them. Apparently they're named after a character in a play (also apparently the play that was playing in the theater when Lincoln was shot). Anyway, so that was random.

Better go put that pizza in the oven. Ciao!

So Confused

So, today was one of those earth shattering days when everything that I've ever been taught has been completely flipped upside down. Well, not everything. But one of the very basic and fundamental things that you learn in kindergarten.
Maybe some of you have already been enlightened, but yellow is not a primary color. As in, red yellow and blue, you mix them together to make other colors. Apparently, it's really red green and blue. Crazy? I think so. It's all good though, because I'm pretty sure green is the best color in the world anyway.
Oh, and don't ask me what colors you mix together to get yellow, either.

Anyway, that was a little vague and uninteresting. Sorry for wasting two minutes of your time. I thought I'd just give you all a tip in case someone tells you that someday. You'll be prepared, I told you first.

Otherwise, today hasn't been too extraordinary. Making some ravioli for dinner, though, so that's extremely exciting. I need to get a life.

Here's something interesting: According to the New York Times, on this day in 1430, Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English. Also, on this day in 1533, the marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon (his first wife) was declared null and void. Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived...

Lazy Day

Do you ever have those days when it's sunny outside and it lifts your spirits? Where you can't stop smiling, and you think it must be something in the air? When you're inspired to write a novel or paint? Go walking and pick wildflowers?

Sorry if that sounded really cheesy, but I'm really in one of those moods right now, so I can't really help it. I'll try to not get too Anne of Green Gables here.

Today's been pretty happy. Nice and relaxing. Lots of eating yummy food, lying around my room, being generally lazy. I watched "Amelie," which always puts me in a good mood. Maybe that's why...

So I bought the book version of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy to see if I liked it. I just finished it this morning. I guess the movie is based more on the whole series, which is good, since the book is really short and not a lot happens. I like how Douglas Adams writes, though. It reminds me a lot of Daniel Pinkwater, who I adored when I was a kid. Anyone else remember The Hoboken Chicken Emergency? I'm pretty sure I used to check out the whole shelf of his books from the library when I was little. Anyway, so I was a dork back then too. Some things don't change.

Anyway, looks like the rest of the day will be mostly the same...food, books, movies. Dancing around to bad 80s music. I love the weekend. Au revoir!

Awesomeness

So, I caved in and got a blog. I know that's what everyone says on their first post. Anyway, it's mostly because it's raining outside and I have nothing to do all weekend, so I decided that it was time for me to join something completely useless and time wasting. Voila!

Anyway, here's where I would say a little bit about myself, except I'm guessing that 97.5% of the people who actually take the time to read this already know me, so there's really no point.

As for what I did today (I know that you're dying to know): I woke up around noon, had some cereal, talked to my family on the phone, walked to Best Buy where I bought some DVDs, walked about a hundred miles to find a UPS and eventually gave up, came back, made some instant wonton and watched a movie. Oh, mine is a life full of excitement and drama. I remember in middle school thinking how great it would be to have a television show about my life. What was I thinking? Then again, maybe I was more interesting back then. Hmm...

I promise that future posts will have more of a point. Here, I'll leave you with an interesting fact: According to hookedonfacts.com, "In Spain, it is common to pour chocolate milk on cereal for breakfast." Sounds good to me! And with that, adiós!