Please note Anth's "pressed smile" face. This is his impression of how Juliette, a character on LOST, smiles. It makes me cringe every time I see her weird duckface.
Anth doesn't have copies of the photos in the collage, and I'm going to hold them as ransom until he invites me to his file-sharing network (for torrents) so that his brother and I can truly truly goon out on our newest TVshow addiction.
Back story is that neither John nor myself had ever watched an episode of LOST until we got tired of everyone else talking about it and finally stumbled upon a repeat on G4 and figured that we might as well join the rest of the world in the ever-growing trend of watchers. Our excuse: Why not see how many places we could recognize? Alas, the plan failed and after 3 episodes of Season1 we were hooked. Errrr.. lost.
It's taken a while, diligently watching 1-4 episodes per night, then taking breaks while we had company, sometimes not taking breaks and letting the company watch with their mouths taped shut as to not reveal any information to us - but we finished the DVDs that are out for purchase and have stumbled onto our one and only roadblock. All other roadblocks have since passed us by, meaning that we're all caught up on the things that mom+gram spoiled for us while they were here (ex: how John Locke became paralyzed, the bomb that blew up the boat, and hey! there's a machine that moves the island!).
Now, we need to find someone/somewhere from which to download torrent files for each episode from Season5 (which just ended on TV about a month ago) for us to be 100% caught up with the rest of the world. But I'm guessing that we'll just be more lost-- *snicker*.
That show does nothing but piss off all of its watchers...but its SO GOOD. I should add, however, that yes - we have been able to pinpoint dozens of LOST locations (the blowhole, Mr Paik's workplace, shrimp trucks, and where the "Others" live). Won't spoil it for you, just come and visit to see for yourself. It's impressive how the entire island can be manipulated so that viewers believe various scenes are genuinely in remote settings (Australia, LA). Yep, hooked.
I'm hoping that you followed the link to G4 and have since taken a look at the link to Spaceballs The Animated Series. Mel Brooks is probably pooping with happiness - the movie had marketing within itself, and this series seems to fit just fine. And yes, I want to watch it. Every episode.
Often, as of late, I've been thinking of things that I used to watch as a kid. It's sent me off looking for videos on YouTube of certain cartoons that I loved. These include:
- Lambert the Sheepish Lion was one of my favorite Disney cartoons. I think browsing through the Disney clips took up a good 45 minutes of my life.
- The Raccoons (the character names are the best), to my surprise, was a Canadian show.
- The Hugga Bunch (which was about dolls similar to Cabbage Patch Kids, within whose world one could find the key to eternal youth and a little girl is out to get some in order to save her gram from going to a retirement home) I'm so so so waiting for this to eventually come out onto DVD/BluRay
- Garfield's Halloween Special (I loved the pumpkin who cried seeds from his eyes)
- Who can ever forget Picture Pages with Bill Cosby? Mortimer-Ichabod Marker made me want to be an artist.
There was nothing better than Nickelodeon in the 80s, and watching these videos made me appreciate my youth. I'd love to somehow or another get the files for these shows and have them on hand for MY children to watch. I've had two Christmas DVD collections on my Amazon-wishlist for a while because I always miss the Christmas (and Halloween) shows on TV and I'd like to just have them. For the spirit. All of them.
These days, things are too complicated. Classic cartoons have more to offer. They aren't fast, aggressive, or competitive; they're simple and loving.
Speaking of aggressive. Wait, let me back up a second.
Anth's departure flight to ship outta here was in the middle of the day, a time way too inconvenient for John to bother going into work. It's not like he wants to be there in the first place. In order to keep his days balanced (financially), he took that day off and switched it so that he work 4 days, then have off for one (as opposed to the normal 2). Me, on the other hand, did not have that schedule at all.
Work is going fine. I'm glad to be accepted at a place that is rather "upscale" for me - where people that have money spend it on silly things like backrubs and lotion. That's fine if that's what they want to do with their loot, but I think to be seen on a regular basis, you're just spoiling yourself and your money could be used in better ways considering the world in which we live. But. The girls are really nice, and once again I'm opposite of everyone because of my appearance (is this just an insecurity that I'll carry with me forever? does this sound like I'm starting to regret?). I'm catching on relatively fast, I think, by just doing things as they come along voluntarily so that I can learn faster by actually doing it and getting my hands dirty. Photographic memory helps, I have to learn a new operating system with various in's and out's, but have things running smooth in real-life while I'm simultaneously making them run smooth on the computer program. With half a dozen front desk employees, and probably a dozen and a half therapists, estheticians, and nail techs - there can be a lot to juggle for someone that's just coming onto staff. On the contrary, it just doesn't feel all that intimidating to me.
However, the training process is still going. It makes perfect sense not to have a trainee scheduled 10days in a row to get all the t's crossed and i's dotted - you'd be too overwhelmed and information would crossover too much. Consider that, put it into basic terms = I've had a lot of free time on my hands with days off and no John to keep me busy/occupied/whatever.
Which brings me to the book. Warning: nerd.
Years ago, I crossed paths with two people in the same summer who mentioned this book, calling it one of the most amazing things they'd ever read. One person was a meathead from Detroit with lots of tattoos and was a tour-manager for a big emo-rock band. He was the last person I'd expect to even know how to read. The other person was a skinny snotty girl with dishwater hair and too many moles on her face, she worked with me at a pig-restaurant. And by "pig," I mean that meat was chopped, separated, then grilled atop a cherrywood fire. A house-made blend of BBQ sauces was added, a large price, and they even served booze. That job lasted a total four shifts - but I remembered the girl mentioning House of Leaves. Four years later, I bought it.
If you read the book, then you caught that. That I put house in blue, but that's just my way of respecting this book. It has been time consuming, as I'm reading it slow. So slow, its as if I'm silently reading aloud to myself instead of looking at the words. Studying it by (*gasp!*) writing in the margins, taking notes in it, going online to get translations. Going slow, taking my time, being patient because I want to understand this book. I've heard that many people struggle with it - but I won't let that happen. I've been trying to give the book 30minutes of my day, every day (but with rollover minutes haha) so that I can keep at a steady pace and not let it sit for too long. Apparently, that's what happens to the book's... well, I don't know what you'd call him. Author? It's a book about a book written by a blind man about a film documentary that doesn't exist, about a house whose insides are bigger than the outside. It's growing and its dark. So by author, I mean, it's the kid who is putting together the scraps of story that the old blind man had put in a trunk. And while he's putting the pieces together and reading it, he's writing about his life. Now, you have two stories in one. But there's still more than that.
John was disappointed that I started scribbling in it because he would ultimately have to read "three sets of notes" with mine included. Going to have to buy him his own copy. And then I'll simply buy another one of the author's books, which is in the plan. I dare him to read it, and if you haven't then I dare you, too. To get a taste of the creep out, feel free to click here and to be freaked out after having watched the whole thing.
Honestly, another distraction just happened where I got sucked into looking at more videos on the book.
And now that I think about it, I even took a look at this picture and thought about the book:
WOW WOW WEE WOW. I love reading.
I'm glad that I decided to go to school for literature, I'm glad that I dropped out and returned 7years later. I'm glad that I took more literature classes - there's more to a book than just the story. There's always a story about the book, how it came to be, what was going on in the world at the time, and within it would be hundreds and hundreds of voices. Books are artifacts. Don't you love the way that they make a library smell? Don't your ears sing when you open a brand new hardback book for the first time and the spine cracks? Don't you love looking at a book, remembering when you carted it around with you, what you were doing with your life when you were reading it, who you were with, what they were doing with you? Do you ever underline or highlight the important parts? The great one-liners? Do you ever pick up a book with no intention to read it just to look at the highlighted marks?
Fuck. pg99 I want to do that for someone. To someone.
To be considered a state-resident applicant, the University of Hawaii says that you have to have lived on the islands (job, mail, ID, whichever you have documentation of first) for a total of one calendar year. You may begin the next upcoming semester as in-state after that time period has passed. Therefore, the earliest semester I may start as an in-state student is January 2010. Application deadline is the beginning of September of this year. I'd like to polish off these last 7 classes and have a degree. Maybe write. I mean, hell, it worked for this lady, didn't it? And I'm way cuter than her. ;)
Watch this video (yes, Goofy's first words are "on the beach at Waikiki"), then laugh as you imagine me surfing. As of yesterday evening I now have a board. And not only a surf-loving fiance, but one that refuses to let me sit on the beach even with the southern swell. Me = still pretty scared of surfing. Waves on our side of the island = getting pretty big.
I've never been that much of a swimmer. The family pool, sure, but oceans are so different. Currents scare me, so for me to stand on a piece of wood onto of a wave that's almost my size, eep! Call it making excuses, but I think that you'd have to have pretty strong arms to have to constantly paddle into position (whether it be ON the wave, or to get out to the break... which can be the distance of a football field at times). Me, I don't have that kind of arm strength. John paddled FOR ME the first time I went. The 2nd I was better on my own, the 3rd I whined so much about the strong current that I gave up and went back to shore.
But with my own board, I know I'm in for it.
As always, photos are here.
And remember kids,
