Long Weekend

Well, it should be a long/fun weekend, hopefully. I'm a little bit upset that I'll be missing out on a free Morrissey show on Sunday because I already had plans, but I'll live since I'm seeing him in 2 weeks anyway at the Universal Ampitheatre.

The plans are all Halloween-centered this weekend:
Friday - make cookies, carve pumpkins, clean house, and decorate more
Saturday - more decorating, getting things ready - PARTY!
Sunday - cleanup, maybe catch Vera Drake at the movies, then go see Nightmare Before Christmas at the El Capitan.

I don't have much resting time. I hope my back and body will take it. I'm pretty tired out by this new job so far. The job itself should pan out okay, but I've been bummed about the English thing and there have also been a series of mini-crisis moments on the job since we just transfered our entire database to a new system. Been hectic and tiring!

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing all the friends. Plenty of pictures will be taken! I'll be sporting my Inmate Martha Stewart costume, complete with an authentic inmate shirt I got off eBay, along with some pearls, keds, and even elastic jeans!!! Hahaha!

Posted by wendytime at 12:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Spider-Man 2: The second viewing

I REALLY like this movie a lot. It's probably one of my favorites of the year. I love how the opening sequence shows the first movie's story with all of the drawings of the characters. I love the sens of humor: all of Peter's clumsiness and bad fortune. I love Alfred Molina. This movie is just so much fun.

Dollar Theatre report: everything was fine with the exception of some heavy whispering in the back row during the last 15 minutes. How do you get BORED during the last 15 minutes??

Posted by wendytime at 01:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The New Job / When it Rains it Pours

I started my new job on Monday. I'm surviving so far. Basically I and one other lady do all processes of the Registrar's Office for the continuing adult degree offered through the university. That means I do enrollment verification, registering, processing grades, entering transfer credits, creating call numbers, etc.

It's all a bit foreign since it's a different kind of undergrad degree. I am not sure I'd stay in this position forever, but I think so far I'm liking it better than the old job. I have privacy and I'm valued. Ahhhhh. This office also knows how to party!

In related news, since I've taken this job, more job opportunities have surfaced. It figures. The English Department wants to hire me because the secretary is moving to TN to be with her kids. What a loss for the English Department! Apparently I was the first person they thought of, but it was too late. I would have enjoyed the opportunity to work daily with the people who taught me everything I know (or forgot), especially Dr. B and Dr. P. But I guess it wasn't meant to be! I think it would have been a high-stress job anyway, since it also involves being the secretary for Humanities and Philosophy, and I'd have to do all the budget-related stuff. Overall, I probably wouldn't have taken it just because secretaries are meant to last, and I'll probably leave whenever we decide to have kids.

Also, there might possibly be a position in the library in about a year, which they really want me for. I'll deal with that when the time comes.

It kind of feels good to know that people are vying for me (and to know that Dr. P actually likes me - I couldn't tell!). Haha. No matter what, I'll actually be shown much more appreciation than I received in my previous job.

But right now, I think I'm happy where I am.

Posted by wendytime at 12:40 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

The Phantom of the Opera (book)

I guess the winter weather has put me in the mood to do more reading; I read this one over the weekend. Apparently the version of the book I have is worth some money. Some people are selling it on abebooks.com for $250 plus (all the way to in the four hundred range!). I'll have to check and see if I have a first edition, but mine is definitely from 1911, hardback, with the image of the phantom pressed into the cover of the book.

I guess that's all beside the point: I need to give a review! What I enjoyed about The Phantom of the Opera is that its narrative operates on the premise that the entire story has been pieced together by Gaston Leroux by gathering police reports, interviewing people, and collecting the letters of the individuals who were involved. The story is almost woven together in a Tarantino-like manner, in which we see one segment happening at one time and told to completion, and then later read another segment that happened at the same time or BEFORE the original segment that helps explain what was happening. Did that make sense? It jumps a bit in time and each segment helps the reader understand the story more.

Apparently the story IS actually centered around fact, but is embellished for dramatic effect. I thought it was interesting from this article that the opera library never seems to have the historical documentation from the year 1896, in which the chandelier incident was supposed to have occured. All of this makes Phantom all the more interesting to me, and now I regret not having visited the opera the two times I was in Paris. I suppose I'll just have to return to Paris...

The story revolves around a young man who is in love with an opera singer, who is loved by the Opera Ghost, who wreaks havoc in every level of the opera. It's wildly dramatic, which makes it a fun and quick read, and it's also interesting in its picture of the opera house itself and the way it was run.

It ends a little bit too neatly and I wanted a few more details, but I guess the phenomenon of the story is the mystery that surrounds it.

Good times. Now I'm ready for the movie out in December!

Next up: either a Shakespeare play or continuing alphabetically in my collection by author to the Bronte sisters.

Posted by wendytime at 12:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Manchurian Candidate (2004)

Holy crap this movie sucked. I know I was prejudiced going into it, but I had faith in the people who shared similar tastes to my own who said it held up on its own in comparison with the old 1962 version. Boy were they exaggerating! This movie was SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW. I mean SLOW. Ric and I were practically hitting ourselves over the head. And the dialogue was so "great" that one particular line in the movie had the entire audience laughing.

Denzel is.. well, you know. Denzel. This was a movie where he started out as humble Denzel and ended as loud Denzel. All the while, he managed to maintain complete arrogance.

The story itself is changed a lot from the original. I think the premise had some promise, but the way they changed it also lost some of the greatest parts of the first film. Where is the great relationship with Josie and her father? Where is the ignorant step-father? The emphasis on hypnotic actions? Where is Marco's COOL girlfriend (in comparison with a sassy I'm nice - no I'm not - yes I am chick)? Everything I really liked about the first movie was gone. Not to mention the fact that Denzel was replacing Frank Sinatra. How pathetic. There wasn't any retention of the dialog, except for one tiny little exerpt of a speech at the end of the movie.

Bah!

I don't think I can emphasize enough how slow this movie was.

The idea was cool, the acting was merely okay, the story was long and not as well developed as the first, and the style lacked.

Major disappointment, and not really worth the free admission I had at the dollar theatre.

SLOW. VERY SLOW. Slllllllooooooooooooowwah.

Posted by wendytime at 12:41 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Last Day

Well, today is the last day of my job. I've had well wishes, a call from the chair, lunch out to eat, and an adjunct even stopped by with a plate of cookies.

It's been crazy deleting all my files and saving them on CDs for the new job. But I'm looking forward to a new beginning on Monday with a group of people I know I'll enjoy working with and a job that holds a little more interest and a little more opportunity for me (with less hours and more pay).

I hope no one cries when I go. My supervisor is so dramatic. 19 minutes left!

Posted by wendytime at 04:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

I, Robot

Dollared this on Wednesday. Yet another good experience. I think weekdays (all ratings) or opening days (only for rated R) are the key to quiet audiences.

Will Smith stars as Will Smith here in a story with a good premise but the wrong starring actor and too many slow-motion moments. If Smith hadn't filled the film full of one-liners and his general bad-ass funny-guy antics (or hadn't been in the movie at all), it would have been much improved. How many times can you remind us you're a black man, Will? Really. Come on.

What shined in this movie was the different direction the story took (a little deeper than I expected considering it was a Will Smith flick) and the robots themselves. The contrast between the oudated models and the new models--and the dynamics between the two--played a more important role than I had expected. The facial expressions and the logic of the more feeling-centered robots were cool.

The story, while a creative premise, lacked a little in that in a split second, the entire story falls into place when Will's grandma mentions the word "breadcrumbs." This isn't Citizen Kane; we need a little more to actually make us believe that a guy like Smith's character could figure things out. Some of the plot catalysts were a little bit too convenient.

Anyway, all this to say I was actually pleasantly surprised to find I enjoyed myself despite the movie's flaws. Maybe I just like these futuristic ideas, but for some reason it still seemed to work for me in the end.

Posted by wendytime at 01:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Team America: World Police

I forgot to post a review!

Team America: World Police has moments of pure comic genius and then a lot of moments of not so pure comic genius. The premise is funny; who doesn't like a good old-fashioned movie about puppet terrorist hunters?

The songs and the puppetry are the highlights of Team America. The songs are quite funny, including "Pearl Harbor Sucked and I Miss You", a song called "Montage" played during a montage, "America, F*** Yeah!", "So Lonely", and a few others.

The puppetry, too, is a real reason for seeing Team America. Seriously, the sets and the detailed action and interesting shots must have been a mammoth project to work on. It was very impressive!

Some of the film fell a little bit flat; while it mocks the traditional action hero storyline, it does so by following the same storyline, which is still just as bad as what it's making fun of. Don't get me wrong. Some of the mockery was great, but some of those serious moments were just plain dull. The comedy was mostly in the songs, and the rest was just mediocre.

Overall I really did enjoy myself, but thought that it could have been a little more poignant with its humor and maybe even its offensiveness. Honestly, besides cursing and puppet sex it just wasn't very shocking. I give it a positive review, but if you go, don't expect the world's funniest movie going into it.

Posted by wendytime at 12:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Eats Shoots and Leaves

Meet Lynne Truss: my hero of the year.

Author of her book on a zero-tolerance approach to punctuation, Truss has made me laugh, has explained the rules of using punctuation marks, and has made me absolutely nervous almost every time I type a sentence. Mission accomplished!

ES&L is a book written for people like me: the people who freak out when they see "DVD'S" on a sign outside the local video store. We're the kind of people who read books with a pen in hand so we can correct any mistakes we find. In college I always made corrections in my textbooks (can you believe they actually spelled the poem as "Westminister Abbey"?) , and out of college I make corrections to other books. Just recently I was reading the first of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series, and was shocked to see how poorly edited it was, so much so that I stopped reading the book out of protest.

And along comes this wonderful book for anal people like me. I know I'm not perfect, but according to the online survey, I am a grammar god. So it's no surprise that I loved this book. Any woman who would protest at the opening of "Two Weeks Notice" by holding an apostrophe on a stick in the proper location in front of the movie theatre is a hero of mine.

Truss goes through each punctuation mark, beginning with the apostrophe and ending with the hyphen. Her book isn't just a book of rules; it contains history, stories, examples, and plenty of laughs. Now that I've finished, I think I'll probably read it once every couple of years as a refresher, and as a form of entertainment.

It's a bestseller and well worth the purchase, especially if you're a stickler for getting it right. I know David has read it as well. Any additional comments? It's one of my favorite reads of the year.

Posted by wendytime at 01:22 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

it's getting old

Okay everyone, I know this may be a disappointment, but I'm not planning on having kids for another at least four years. So you can let the pregancy jokes go. OKAY?!

Rigth now I'm at a quota of at LEAST 3 jokes a week. Let it go.

Posted by wendytime at 01:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dinner with Colin

So I get this call on Friday night. "Hi, this is Liz, the girl Colin is engaged to..." And I responded, "ENGAGED to?" We had no idea Colin had gotten engaged! Apparently he popped the question to Liz in September. They plan to get married around July, after he gets back from.. Iraq.

That's right, our Colin is going out to Iraq on the 24th for a seven month tour of duty. He is in the Navy but will be working with the Marines. They'll be doing convoys of some sort abotu 15 miles away from Fallujah (I think that's right).

It was so great to see Colin again! We've only seen him once since the wedding. We all went to BenniHanas and had a great time, except I think the sushi I had made me sick. Haha. Oh well.

Our prayers go out with Colin and Liz as he goes out (happily, btw) to serve our country and she plans their future wedding. Though we haven't gotten to hang out with him much, Colin is one of our favorite people we met in college.

Posted by wendytime at 08:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

BWAH!

I'm so glad I'm leaving this department!

Bush's third and most-favored child, the No Child Left Behind initiative, is designed to help better educate the children of today. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TEACHERS OF TODAY?!?! NCLB requires that future teachers of America be required to learn technology and use it in their classrooms. But it doesn't require one thing: that today's teachers of tomorrow's teachers ALSO learn the technology. Case in point: a copier.

Yes, that's right. SEVERAL times a day, I hear the horrible utterance, "ARGH!" followed by several "bee-bee-beeps" from the copier, followed by "Jeri, there's a misfeed!", which means, "Get over here and help me because I'm clueless!"

Our copier has a touch-screen display. When the copier misfeeds, it shows a diagram of the copier and then a cirular mark blinks right where the misfeed is located. One can simply open the doors of the machine, pull out the paper, close the door, and continue copying.

BUT NO.

I have to haul myself over immediately despite anything I might be working on to help joe professor pull out a piece of paper. Sometimes it can get tricky; I'll admit that much. But why do I have to be the one on my knees, on the floor, in a skirt, with a pair of pliers, scrounging for a piece of paper?

Because I'm "just the secretary."

Remember my Haiku Tunnel review, and how much I identified with Josh's use of the phrase, "just a secretary"? [Hold on a minute, a professor is asking me where the pencils are located, making me get up and fetch them instead of looking in the supply closet himself and finding them.] As just a secretary, my job is to do anything a professor deems as beneath him or her. This includes fetching pencils, setting up the copier for transparencies, clearing out misfeeds in the copier, emptying the hole punch tray in the copier, adding paper to the paper tray in the copier OR printer, putting a stamp on their mail and placing it in the mail tray, looking up phone numbers for them that they already have in their directory, looking up rosters that they already have access to online, and much much more. The one thing I've revolted completely against is making cofee. I refuse to learn how to make coffee just so I can plead ignorance when a professor asks me to make it for them. This isn't the 50s.

When a college professor with a doctorate degree can't understand how to set up an address book in his or her email system, or can't figure out what a blinking circular mark means on a diagram of a copier which contains the words "Please remove misfeed," I mourn for my present situation and relish the fact that I'll be gone in just a few more days.

Posted by wendytime at 09:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Collateral

I never thought I would ever write these words, but: I liked Tom Cruise in a movie! Miracles CAN happen!

We dollared Collateral on Friday night and the theatre was surprisingly quiet. Jamie Fox and Tom Cruise starred in this Mann-directed film, about a hitman who takes over a cab driver's night while on one of his killing sprees.

This movie surprised me in that it was much better than I expected, both in style, story, and acting. With the exception of too much hand-held camera use, the direction was great. The mood of the film was easily established by a great choice in soundtrack and several cold shots of Los Angeles along the 110 freeway. The story could have been a lot simpler and the audience would still have been interested. But instead, as an audience, we learned about the background behind the hits, and the background of the cab driver.. even the background of the hitman. Jamie Foxx was perfect as a reserved man who is dealing with an insane situation. He was full of surprise, fear, anger, and I think even excitement as the story progressed. Tom Cruise's arrogant portrayal of a killer suited him unexpectedly well.

I was very shocked to walk out realizing that I had enjoyed the movie (which I thought looked stupid from the previews) AND that Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruised had really played their parts well. If you get a chance to dollar or rent it, do. I won't buy the DVD because it's not a story I'd watch a million times in a row, but I'm glad I saw it, and thought it was great.

Posted by wendytime at 01:37 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Update

Update on the "Eleventh Plague War" - more than sixty have fallen, but Ric and Jeri still stand strong against the efforts of the flies. Fly paper hangs from various points in the apartment.

The aftermath of the first attack was horrible. Ric ventured in to collect the bodies and properly dispose of them.

Several dozen still swarm the apartment right now. The couple has decided to retreat to Las Vegas for a while and let the fly paper take over the fighting.

(Either that, or it's their first anniversary tomorrow, and they thought they'd take a mini-vacation for a few days. They'll be back on Wednesday night!)

More to come in a few days...

Posted by wendytime at 10:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

News Alert

It's a sad state of affairs at the Pricedo household this Friday evening. Occupants of the house were bewildered to find that when they arrived home, a nation of flies had invaded their household.

The battle began at around 7:30pm, as Jeri awoke from a nap and came down from upstairs to find her kitchen swarming with flies. Flies came in from all around, enlisting all possible troops to engage in the battle.

Right now the view from entering the kitchen is a dismal one. Thirty-eight flies have already been killed, and the kitchen is strewn with fallen commrades, their guts smeared across the countertops and floors.

It seems as though this particular group of flies comes from an uneducated region, where none have learned the art of dodging swinging magazines. Their tactics often involve sitting right next to their dead kin and crawling on the floor in an effort to blend in.

As this is being written, Ric has entered the battle as well. He has gone into the "white zone" - otherwise known as the downstairs bathroom - where legions of flies sit perched on the mirror and countertop edges, waiting for the enemy to make the first move.

More info to come as this story develops...

Posted by wendytime at 08:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Open Water

We dollared this one last night. Crowd review: every single person in the audience talked at the beginning of the movie except for us. One couple was having an argument until I told them to "Sh!" But I suppose it's not so bad that people talked in the beginning, because the establishment of this story was the movie's weakest point.

Open Water opens with the two main characters leaving their busy lives for a much-needed vacation. The start included some boring phone calls, over-emphasized scenes of them checking their email and discussing how busy they worked at home (and thus REALLY needed this vacation), and a scene in which guy wants sex and girl's not in the mood. Most of this felt very college-movie-like, especially since it was all shot digitally. As they head out one fateful morning to go diving, we watch a cumbersome portrayal of how every diver jumps into the water and then the boat leader manages to count the number of divers incorrectly when all of them return from their swim.

The couple surfaces from their pleasant dive, and this is when the movie starts to work. (I almost felt as if the writer or director simply didn't care about the establishing story, and thus it lacked while the actual exciting moments worked well.) At first, they discover the boat is gone, then decide to stay afloat. Slowly but surely, everything goes wrong: dramamine wears out, jellyfish start stinging, and sharks wonder about who's sitting around in their territory...

I love how the couple goes through phases: protection of each other, fighting with each other, loving each other, panicking, and falling into despair.

What I liked about this movie was that it felt natural. The characters weren't perfect, and that's what I liked about them. Their interaction with each other and their reactions to their surroundings seemed real, almost like watching a private documentary of the physical and emotional demise of two people stranded in the middle of the ocean.

I felt a fear and care for them as they faced all of their challenges. The worst is a thunderstorm at night, during which the audience can only see the action as lightning flashes, while sharks swim right around the couple. Freaky stuff.

I would say that the movie picked up once the real story began, and from there, I enjoyed it. I could possibly say that some moments are slow, but then again, it's an accurate portrayal of how much time they spent helplessly floating around and waiting for help.

Dollar it. Rent it. I thought it was worth it.

Posted by wendytime at 01:29 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Censored Puppets? hahaha!

I'm sorry, but the headline, "'Team America cuts puppet sex, gets R'" just made me laugh for some reason.

Posted by wendytime at 01:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Awwww!

They used the bib we bought our little nephew! Quite an attractive picture, don't you think?

Posted by wendytime at 08:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of our lives is the story of three soldiers after they have returned home from the second world war. They have to deal with all the oddities of readjusting to their old world: dealing with people who thought the war was wrong; rekindling old relationships; getting a job; finding romance.

I really enjoyed this movie. I think some of it still rings true for some of our returning soldiers today.

It's got a lot of heart, thought, and fun all rolled into one. Very touching movie, and very well done. Well enough to win several Oscars!

God Bless TiVo. I've been trying to see this movie for a long time.

Posted by wendytime at 12:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead was a fun time at the movies. Shaun is a guy who needs to shape up his life, and it takes a judgment day-type zombie situation to get him started. The funny part is that it takes him a while to realize that a zombie attack is happening right around him. Shaun and his friends head to their local pub to find shelter.

I really enjoyed watching a zombie movie that was funny instead of frightening. The zombies are the reason all of these people are thrown together, but otherwise are often just a background for the dynamics between the main characters.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the movie had a little bit of style and a lot of laughs. Singing "White Lines" in combo with a zombie was pretty funny.

It was a fun movie and a good time.

Posted by wendytime at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!!!!

NEW JOB! I GET A NEW JOB! OH MY GOSH, A NEW JOB!

That's right, I haven't told you (because I would have been embarrassed to have to report not getting it), but I've been interviewing with the Registrar's Office, and they're going to offer me a new job! With a very unexpected raise in pay! I was willing to take a pay cut to work in that office, but they're actually offering more than I expected!

I'm just waiting for the call from HR to actually officially offer the job, but Ruth called me to give me the news.

My hands were just shaking when I was helping a student and my heart is soaring now. (I really need to buy heartrate monitor.) Wow. God is so good! If Ric doesn't stick with his new position, we won't have any financial loss. It's amazing.

WOO-HOO!

Posted by wendytime at 02:13 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

Crazy men at Starbucks

So we're sitting outside at Starbucks when this homeless guy walks up and stares at the front door for about 15 seconds, then asks us, "Do I pull? Do I pull to open this door?" It had a handle on it... so, uh YES. He went in and I told Ric how they would give him a free coffee because that's what they do for the homeless - stop a scene from happening. But I guess he felt like making a scene in spite of his free beverage. He started causing trouble, and it just so happened that an off-duty cop was there picking up a quick drink. He made the guy exit the building and was yelling "I don't ever want to see you in here again!" as the homeless guy came outside.

So then the homeless guy picks up the full ashtray from the table next to where we were sitting and proceded to smash it and its contents on his forehead and then threw it down. Cigarette butts .. everywhere. Then he threw down the free coffee as well. As he made his exit, he also smacked himself in the head.

Everything was calm. Then I hear a voice in the distance and look around and spot him across the street, walking along the nearby car dealership. He started kicking a platform one of the cars was sitting on, and then started kicking the ground lights, and then he meandered down the street, yelling and looking for more things to hit or kick.

I guess the cop saw him kick the lights, because as we were leaving, the cops showed up in two places; we drove by one of the cop cars, and there he was, sprawled out on the ground in front of a cop car.

What a weirdo. How does a person get to that point?

Posted by wendytime at 01:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Echo and the Bunnymen at the House of Blues, Anaheim

I forgot to mention one thing about the Air show on Sunday: Beck showed up and sang along to one of their songs!

Moving on to the subject at hand -
I went alone to see Echo and the Bunnymen at the House of Blues on Monday. The HOB has started this annoying new habit of taking your picture at the entrance. I feel like a thug at Magic Mountain getting ID'd in case I kill someone.

I got there half an hour after doors opened and no one was around, so I kicked it upstairs, sitting down, until the opening band, Earlimart, was done. They were pretty standard, but not a good match for the headliner. Some loud lady near me complained about them the whole time. Being alone at a show sucks, by the way.

Echo did an okay show. Not the best I've seen them. Ian McCulloch has taken up the habit of playing God - pointing at the lights when he wants them to turn off, and the guy in the lighting booth obeys. "Let there be darkness!" Heheh. I think he's easing up on the cigarette intake: there were only 7-8 cigarettes in 1hr and 45 mins. Believe me, that's less than I've seen in the past. He also did the throw and kick the cigarette out thing twice.

The show was a little bit lacking. I can't tell if the band didn't care, which made the audience bored, or vice-versa. Whichever way, they almost never had actual light on McCulloch, which makes the show less interesting; he only got into a few songs towards the end; he kept on breaking up songs with his unintelligible improv moments (it took the audience a good while to realize he was singing "Take a walk on the wild side"); and about 75% of the audience spent the whole show talking to each other.

All in all, it was a mediocre show, but moments like "The Cutter" made it worthwhile enough for a night out on my part.

Posted by wendytime at 09:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)