plenty

There's a lot to talk about today, so I'll try to make it all fairly quick.

props to my bro
My brother Kip is a self-titled "big fish in a small pond" -- which suits him just fine, apparently. He recenlty has starred in some commercials for the local Pocatello bank Potelco. (The name always cracks me up!) The most recent is now on YouTube, so I'm sharing.



going for muse
I managed to get tix for the Muse concert in Orem this fall. The site I bought them from cites September 12 as the date, so that's what I'm currently planning on. They weren't nearly as expensive as I was afraid they'd be, so that was quite a blessing. And I'll plan on at least seeing elliespen while I'm there (if not staying at her newly-acquired house, as she so magnanimously offered), which will be great fun. And, most importantly, I'll get to see Matt! And Dom! And Chris! *sigh!* Can life get any better?

I submit that it cannot! (82 points, especially since I'm not sure myself where this is from; I have an inkling it's Adam Sandler, though

wildlife in wyoming
Well, I'm now in Idaho Falls, at the home of my youth. I arrived on Wednesday after a long and arduous drive through the wilderness of Wyoming. Harold (my faithful companion and car) performed very well. I promised him a good wash as soon as we could unload him -- he's very dirty -- which should be by the beginning of next week at the latest.

While in Wyoming I saw a baby elk frolicking by the highway-side. He made me very nervous, in fact -- I was afraid he would frolic into my path, causing a major highway disaster. Kind of like the (presumably adult) vulture I nearly hit earlier that day. As I came around a bend of the highway, this vulture was feeding on roadkill in the other lane. When he saw me coming, he decided to fly off -- right into my path. Bird-brained bird! He very narrowly escaped Harold's windshield, coming within a few inches of it.

I suppose that's all -- not as much as it seemed when I was getting ready to write. The last quote, correctly identified by elliespen, was from the film IQ.

farewell and hello

Goodbye, Denton! I have officially left, and I may never return. Or, I may return twice. We'll see.

Right now, I'm in Colorado Springs, where I'm staying overnight on my way to Idaho. I'm excited to drive through Jackson, Wyoming, tomorrow. Jackson is close enough to home that it feels like home -- it's familiar terrain, so to speak. Not to mention, it's gorgeous. There may even be some snow on the Teton Pass, so that's pretty fun, too.

During my last weekend in Denton, NM invited me to come with her and her boyfriend to Hailey's, a local club, to hear some bands play. NM and her man are both very into music, and they go to hear live acts all the time. I've only recently started getting into the modern music scene, especially the indie scene, so I was excited to go see a real band play and hear some new music. NM is a big fan of Beach House, and I enjoyed them. But at the moment, I'm completely in love with The Clientele. They have a very retro 60s-pop kind of sound going on, fairly mild, with with a good beat and some fascinating lyrics. I really enjoy "Since K Got Over Me" (incidentally the only single they've released so far), as well as "Here Comes the Phantom," "I Hope I Know You," and "The Queen of Seville."
(Check them out: The Clienetele Official Website, Wikipedia, Google Music)

And speaking of concerts ... Muse are apparently playing in Orem, Utah, this fall. There's a little confusion over the date -- one site I found said August 22, another said August 12, and the ticket site said September 12. But the point is, it's Orem, and it's Muse, and it's Muse in Orem, and how can I possibly miss that?! I'm working on a way to get tickets, despite my low budget these days, as well as some friends to come with me -- hopefully including Erin and possibly my niece.

When was the last time you said, "Wahoo!"? (25 points)

things i love about muse

You may well have found yourself thinking, sometime during the past four months or so, "I don't get it -- just what does gryffinkat see in Muse, anyway? What's so great about them?" Well, through the magic of YouTube, I have decided to share a few of the things I love about them.

The BBC does a show called "Live and Kicking," where they have popular musicians on to play live. But when they invited Muse onto the show a few years ago, to play their hit "New Born," they asked the band to lip sync their song, rather than playing it live. So Muse rebelled. Though it's hard to tell, Chris (the bassist) and Dom (the drummer) have switched places, and Matt (the genius ... that is, lead singer/guitarist) is just plain ridiculous throughout the whole performance. (And yet, still sexy as all get-out -- check out those shades, eh?)



And here's another thing I love about them. The BBC does another show called Re:Cover, where they invite bands to cover a song of their (that is, the band's) choice and perform it live (for real this time). So when Muse was on a while back, they performed -- of all things -- "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." Although the BBC folks bill this as originally by Andy Williams (his version reached #5 in the UK charts), most Americans know it from the Lettermen's version, when they did it as a medley with "Going Out of My Head" (which reached #7 in our charts). Anyway, few people could take such a classic, relatively mellow song and make it sound this amazing in a rock version.



(As a side note, I hear that The Killers have also recently covered this song -- I'd love to hear it, though I doubt they can reach this kind of nirvana with it.)

In a related item, I also love the reason Matt gives about why the band chose to cover this particular song. It's at the end of this video, so you'll have to sit few a minute or so of inane conversation.



Mostly, though, I love watching Muse play live. (Insert enormous sigh, resulting from my thinking about the fact that I haven't personally seen them perform live, yet. One day ... one day.) But then, that's the glory of YouTube. While I'm really not a fan of music videos, I do love watching the first half or so of Muse's video for "Time Is Running Out" (the half before the Nazi-esque women start removing their clothing for no apparent reason -- one of the things I hate about music videos.) Just look how engrossed they are in their music. It's fabulous -- and, to me, inspiring -- to watch!



(There's no quote this time. I just don't feel up to it tonight. Incidentally, I will be starting the scoreboard over soon, since Erin has effectively trounced everyone -- again. And the last quote was from Middlemarch, as Jane Heiress said.)

congrats

Margo and NM are both graduating with Master's degrees today. Congratulations!

Margo is getting an M.S. in Speech Language Pathology, and she is looking for work in one of the school districts in Kansas, where she's from. She put more work into that degree than anyone else I know. My favorite part, though: The Speech & Hearing Sciences Department asked their graduates to write their names on the cards -- the ones that they use to announce each graduate's name -- in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

NM will be receiving an M.A. in Applied Anthropology, and she'll be going to San Francisco pretty soon to look for a job. She fought hard for that M.A., too -- she had to fulfill an extra requirement to be a Master of Arts rather than Science -- so we're excited for her.

And, of course, men know best about everything, except what women know better. (122 points)

The last quote was from Seinfeld. Great episode.

gotta love it

I just took a look at my Netflix queue -- which I recently whittled down from over 400 movies to about 100 -- and then found their new "Watch Now" section. See, Netflix is now offering movie-viewing direct from your PC. There's no extra charge, they have hundreds (even thousands?) of movies available for instant viewing, and you get an hour of online viewing for each dollar you pay per month. Thus, since I pay $10 a month for my plan, I now have 10 hours of instant-movie-viewage a month.

Tonight I'm watching Clue, and soon I'll be watching early episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. (30 points)

The last quote was from Jane Eyre, and the one before was from Spider-Man (the first one, when it was still good). So elliespen and Paul both get points.

premonitions

Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the key. I never laughed at presentiments in my life, because I have had strange ones of my own. (98 points; you can all still guess on the earlier quote, from my post on Spider-Man 3.)

I must admit, I have laughed at presentiments. Or at least rolled my eyes at them. This morning, though, I had a weird one myself.

After waking up the first time and then dozing back into that state between wakefulness and sleep, I dreamt that I had received an email from the Linguistics Department secretary at Lancaster University in the UK. I had the dream several times, and each time the email said something different. Usually it stressed me out, in one way or another.

Anyway, after having this dream about five times, I decided it was time to actually get up and start the day. So I checked my email, which is frequently the first thing I do in the mornings. Lo and behold: there, in very deed, sat an email from Marj.

For those of you who don't know, I have applied back at Lancaster University, where I previously earned a Master's Degree, in the hopes of finishing a doctoral degree from there. The application took longer than I'd expected to get off in the mail, and then it reached the university on the first day of their four-week break between terms. So then I had to wait another month before I had any hope of hearing back from them. And then I waited another week after their new term started before I dared email Marj with a follow-up. I sent that email on Monday of this week, and since she usually writes back within a day or two, I was surprised that I hadn't heard anything more.

But today, there it was. The Department has approved my application and recommended my admission to the Postgraduate Admissions Office, who have probably already sent an official acceptance letter. Hopefully, it will be here within a few days. Maybe a week, two at the most.

HUZZAH!!!

So, here's the plan, then. I will be leaving Denton by the end of this month (huzzah, again!) and spending most of the summer in Idaho and Utah with family. I've been basically planning to live with my sister, and I hope that still works for her. In the very early part of the summer, I will be sending out emails/letters of interest to universities and colleges in the Seattle, Tacoma, Chicago, and Washington, DC, areas, looking for an adjunct faculty position. In the meantime, I will change my degree status at UNT from PhD to MA, take the Master's comprehensive exam in June, and graduate with an MA in English Literature in August. In conjunction with Erin, I will choose one of the above-mentioned places to live in. Around August, we'll move in together and start working. I will start my doctoral program from Lancaster, working by distance. I will have to travel out to England at least a couple of times during the program, to meet with my advisor (Elena Semino) and do some intensive research. The whole degree should take no longer than three years at the very most, and I'm shooting for having it done in two.

As I was driving home from Spider-Man 3 earlier today, singing along with Muse, I suddenly realized that I'm leaving Denton. I don't have to ever come back if I don't want to. What a freeing feeling. (Except that I will be coming back, at least for the Master's comps, and possibly again November for a graduate student conference on medieval studies, at which I hope to present something.)

spider-man 3

I really wanted to go last night to watch Spider-Man 3. You know, at one of the midnight showings. But there was a small snag. See, I'm not really the type to organize that kind of outing -- more the type to follow along when someone else suggests it. So I didn't think about the necessity of buying tickets before-hand because shows were likely to sell out. Oops.

By the time I thought about it, the closest theater I could find who still had tickets available was 40 minutes away, at a theater I'd never been to before in a town I rarely visit. So rather than stay up until 3:00 am or later and risk getting lost, I decided to just go to bed (I was tired anyway) and watch an early showing this morning closer to home.

On the way to the theater this morning, I caught some reviews of the flick on a local radio station. And pretty much everyone said they hated it. Which made me even more curious.

I was pretty excited for the film -- I've really loved the last two, except for Kirsten Dunst. But I've loved the directing, the writing (for the most part), and -- of course -- the special effects.

Most of all, though, I've loved Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker. The Spider-man story resonates with me, and it's largely because of Peter. Peter is such a nerd, and I get nerds. And he's so wonderfully good. Just through-and-through, a good person. And who doesn't appreciate Peter Parker's ill luck -- don't we all feel at times like the universe is against us, like nothing goes right for us? It doesn't hurt, either, that Tobey Maguire is so gorgeous.

***SPOILER WARNING***

As for this third installment, though ... well, I have mixed feelings. The special effects were still amazing. I couldn't help but think to myself, "Some computer geeks had a great time with the Sandman." Thomas Haden Church, who I used to watch weekly in "Wings" growing up (yes, I know, my TV choices have alwasy been a bit lame), was pretty darn good as Flint Marko. I couldn't help but think how horribly he's aged: he's not a pretty man, but that worked well for his character. Topher Grace, also, was just perfect as Eddie Brock -- just the right mixture of sleaze and charm. James Franco -- returning from the first two films as Peter's best-friend-turned-worst-enemy Harry Osborn -- always has the look and actions of a comic-book character to me. And I mean that in the best possible way: I think he was an excellent choice for the Spider-man films, even though I can't stand him in pretty much anything else.

But the writing. Well, it was just plain hokey, as one IMDB user put it. All the moral lessons were so stilted, so contrived. We're supposed to be thrilled about Harry's sudden change of heart, despite its suddenness. It also annoyed me that his change of heart was based entirely on his butler's testimony rather than Peter's -- honetstly, who trusts their butler over their best friend? I was disappointed that the "inner battle" Peter faces is really nothing more than black goopy stuff from some meteor. Even if he does have to choose not to let it control him, that choice is so much more poignant when the evil really does come from inside you. Emo-Peter -- black eye-liner, black clothes, and bangs hanging in his face -- was just ludicrous.

And of course, we had to hear yet another villain explain why he's not really a bad guy. Ironically, this film is supposed to be about how our choices make us who we are, and how we can always choose to do what's right -- but when a sand-monster chooses to steal money in order to save his daughter's life, we're supposed to forgive him. Wait a second! If he chose to do something bad ... doesn't that make him bad? I'm confused.

Oddly, the part I most enjoyed about this movie was the love story with M-J and Peter. It was interesting to see Peter get all into himself and then have to face the realization that he's not ready for a real relationship with Mary Jane yet.

I guess it all boils down to the unreality of the film. One of the things I've loved about the other two is that they felt realistic to me -- realistic choices, dialogue (for the most part), actions -- even though the story was clearly fantastic. This one, though, just felt silly and fake far too often.

Even the music -- both during the action and during the end credits -- wasn't as good as the last two films. The Snow Patrol song, "Signal Fire," was all right, but it was certainly no "Vindicated."

Not everyone is meant to make a difference. But for me, the choice to lead an ordinary life is no longer an option. (23 points)

The last quote was from Stan Freberg's "St George and the Dragonet." Congrats, Christina!

saint george and the dragon

Last week in Medieval Lit, we were supposed to surf the web a little and bring to class our favorite visual represenation of Saint George, of dragon-slaying, maiden-saving fame. There were so many great ones that I decided I had five favorites. I did narrow it down to one for class, but I thought I'd post the rest of them here. Because I'm a geek.

I have especially enjoyed seeing how the maiden, the king’s daughter whom George saves by slaying the dragon, appears so differently in each version. In many, she is a frail, swooning creature standing meekly off to the side, out of George’s way. I favor Uccello’s depiction of the maiden: here, she plays an active—albeit small—part in the dragon’s demise by slinging her girdle around the beast’s neck to lead it into the city and showcase the power of George’s God.

I also find it fascinating that in nearly every case, George’s steed is white—perhaps the predecessor to the good-guy white hats in old Western films?

1. By far my favorite depiction of St. George was this one, Peter Paul Rubens’ “Saint George terrassant le dragon” (1606-07). I love its depiction of George as an older and very powerful man, as opposed to the simpering, lovely young man of so many paintings. Just look at those muscles! I also appreciate the sheep that the maiden is holding, and the dragon’s hand curled tightly around the end of George’s shattered spear, trying to pull it out before George can do more damage.


2. Of course, Paolo Uccello’s 1460 depiction is a classic. I particularly like the maiden holding her girdle, which she has thrown around the dragon’s neck (at George’s request) before leading it into the city. I also enjoy the serenity of this scene—it’s so contradictory to the later versions of the legend (esp. Barclay’s “Life of Saint George”).


3. I don’t know who painted this one, but I enjoy the shattered spear lying on the ground and George’s determined look as he wields his sword to finish off the dragon.


4. “Saint George and the Dragon” (1505-06) by Raphael, of Renaissance fame, has an especially small dragon. I’m always surprised, in fact, by the size of the dragon in portrayals of St. George. I also love George’s cape, flying behind him in the wind, and the maiden standing with clasped hands off to the side.


5. And, finally, I appreciated this depiction for its unusual portrayal of a gentle, refined George. Nearly every depiction of St. George shows him slaying the dragon, but this one has him caring for the maiden afterward. And how can you not love the gold armor? Again, I don’t know who created this image, but I nicked it from Catholic Forum’s online Patron Saints Index.

A: I see you got one of them new 45-caliber swords.

B: That's about the size of it.

(61 points)

The last quote, from before "Parentheses," was from the first chapter of Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse, which is now available, and which Erin read to me over the phone last week. What a great friend. Although Erin wasn't allowed points for guessing on that one, she does get an extra 133 points for calling me as soon as she got her hands on it. Well, almost as soon.

"Parentheses" by The Blow

A new favorite song, which I discovered on the IndieFeed Alternative & Modern Rock podcast.

Some philosophies fuel a belief in the self
Constructed to keep one's goods on one's own shelf
Built well you're a strong letter I
With your feet on the ground and your head to the sky

Now and then you can bend
It's okay to lean over my way
You fear that you can't do it all and you're right
Even day takes relief every day
From its work making light from the night

And when you're holding me
We make a pair of parentheses.
There's plenty space to encase
Whatever weird way my mind goes
I know I’ll be safe in these arms

If something in the deli aisle makes you cry
You know I’ll put my arm around you
And I’ll walk you outside
Through the sliding doors
Why would I mind?

You're not a baby if you feel the world
All of the babies can feel the world
That's why they cry

And when you're holding me
We make a pair of parentheses.
There's plenty space to encase
Whatever weird way my mind goes
I know I’ll be safe in these arms

If something in the deli aisle makes you cry
You know I’ll put my arm around you
And I’ll walk you outside
Through the sliding doors
Why would I mind?

By the way, you can download this song for free from merylinabarrel's livejournal.

announcement and secret confession

announcement
Actually, there are two. First, I finally did laundry today. I don't dare confess how long it had been. But I'm now pleasantly surprised to find the floor of my room nearly empty these days.

Second, after many months, I have finally converted all of my music files into mp3 format. Which means that I can now edit them, or give them to people (without authorizing their computers for my iTunes account). But I have well over a hundred dollars' worth of music in my iTunes shopping cart. It will likely be many more months before I can buy all of it. *sigh*

OK ... three announcements. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for a weekend in Nauvoo with Margo. Yay!! I'll be driving to Kansas to meet her and some friends from the area, then driving on to Kansas City, where we'll spend the night ... before driving to Independence, Missouri, to meet up with the other YSAs and take the bus to Nauvoo. Whew! And then, on Saturday night, we get to do that all again, in reverse. I haven't been to Nauvoo before, though, and I'm excited to see Margo ... I just hope she'll consent to let me also do some homework (which sorely needs to be done!) as well.

secret confession
I recently admitted to myself that I have a favorite cuss word. And it's not a nice one, at all. The kind that I would never say, but every time I hear someone else say it, I get a little kick out of it. I blame Erin.

today's quote

It's not a love story -- it's a hate story. [about Wuthering Heights] (101 points)

Caveat: Erin can't get points for today's quote; she'll recognize it too easily. (That's what you get for corrupting me! HA!)

The last quote, as Elizabeth correctly guessed, was from New Moon.

happy st. george's day!

Yup, today is St. George's feast day. And you may have noticed from the side-bar, we're currently reading a bunch of St. George legends for my Medieval Lit class. Good timing, I'd say.

Here's a little about what's been going on for me lately.

Mormon ... is she, or isn't she?
The other day I mentioned to a girl in my program that I'm Mormon, and she responded, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you seem like a Mormon -- very together, centered." I had to laugh as I told her that, during my first semester here, when I told another girl that I was Mormon, she had exactly the opposite reation: "You don't seem like a Mormon to me." This seemed to mean, that time, that I wasn't pushy about my religion. Exactly opposite reactions, yet I took both of them as a compliment.

BYU baseball
I went to Fort Worth Saturday night to watch BYU baseball against TCU. Unfortunately, BYU didn't score at all that particular night, although we'd won on Thursday and lost, but scored, on Friday. So, the most exciting thing that happened during that particular game was that I got a full paragraph of Wulfstan's Sermo Lupi translated from Old English -- I've been working on it all semester long as part of my final paper for Medieval Lit.

getting up early
Friday night, I slept out on the futon, since both of my roommates were gone, and I just felt like "camping out." Then I slept in really late the next morning. The good news about this is that I woke before my alarm went on Sunday morning -- a sure indication that I'm no longer sleep deprived. So this morning I got up at 6:16 and worked out before coming home to finish homework (and blog). I'm hoping to keep this up until the end of the semester -- I'm much happier and more productive when I get up early and go to bed early.

I'm also much happier when I work out, and even though I haven't been for almost a whole month, I can already see and feel my biceps growing. And I'm really serious about that -- it's not just psychological.

IndieFeed podcast
If you remember, I posted an entry a while ago about the podcasts I subscribe to. At the time, I had only just started subscribing to the IndieFeed Alternative & Modern music station, so I didn't really know whether it was at all good. Well, now I know.

It's great!!

They play all kinds of different music, many of which you can buy on iTunes and many others of which you can only get by visiting the artist website. Naturally, I like some better than others, but it's great to be able to hear what's going on in the music world out there.

One of my favorite songs that I've gotten to know from IndieFeed is "Ikea" by Jonathan Coulter: "Ikea: just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen ... Everyone has a home, and if you don't have a home, you can buy one there." I love it.

If JoCo is not your style, though, they've got lots of other folks on IndieFeed: Mates of State, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Calling All Monsters, Tom Thumb and the Latter Day Saints, Snowden, +/-, The Dead Science ... you name it, they got it. The DJ also usually has some nifty trivia tidbit at the end, which is fun.

quote of the day
In the meantime, I'm still obsessed, although I don't have time to indulge this particular obsession right now.

I bet she's tougher than that -- she runs with vampires. (71 points)

The last quote, which no one guessed, was from a Muse song (shocker!), "Blackout."

missing matt

Well, Muse is no longer in Texas.

They were in Houston last Saturday and San Antonio on Monday, supporing My Chemical Romance. In between those, they played in Frisco (near Dallas) at Edgefest, a big annual rock concert sponsored by one of the local radio stations. Unfortunately, that was a Sunday, and with it being such a busy week, it was impossible -- well, at least unplausible -- to go to Houston or San Antonio.

It took major effort to refrain from going to see them in Frisco. Only the fact that it was a Sunday kept me.

Oh well. After all, they were only supporting MCR, who I don't really care about anyway.

Now I have grand visions of going to Chicago in August for Lollapalooza -- the next US gig they're playing -- but it's really not practical. Oh well. Maybe they'll hang around in the States for a while after that and I can catch them elsewhere.

This life could be the last, and we're too young to see. (37 points)

the small things

I've been majorly stressed out the past week or so, and I keep having to remind myself to not growl at people. I don't remember ever having been this stressed out in my life before. And it's not going to end here -- as my professor has said a number of times, "I thought graduate school was hard. And then I got a job."

But a few things have been going well, too, and I wanted to celebrate them with you.

First, I got to hear "Hold Me Now," by the Thomspon Twins, on the radio today. It made me genuinely smile -- as opposed to all the fake smiles I keep forcing out of myself -- for the first time in I don't know how long. And it also made me realize one of the things I enjoy so much about 80's pop music: even when it's frustrated or unhappy, it's really not that frustrated or unhappy. Much as I enjoy the angsty music of the late 90's and 00's, it's refreshing to hear someone complain in song and still make it snappy.

Also, it's been raining a lot lately, and I've been loving it! I feel almost like Heavenly Father has ordered it just for me, knowing how it would ease the stress I'm already feeling too heavily. It makes homework so much nicer when I can do it sitting in a chair in front of my open window, listening to rain pattering down outside.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, are the comments I received on my abstract for a paper in my Scholarly Writing class. All semester long we've been working on revising the same paper, one that we had already written before the class started. I am working on one about the characterization of King Alfred and King Ethelred in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which I wrote for my Old English class last semester. This Scholarly Writing class is one of the most useful and demanding classes I've ever had -- after about three weeks, I began to sneer at my paper rather than looking at it, feeling certain that I and my mediocre writing abilities would never be able to shape it into anything remotely resembling the level of writing I will need to build a career in academics. But when I took a look yesterday at my professor's comments on the abstract I turned in a week ago, she had written at the bottom that she thought I should send it in someplace. I had to re-read the sentence a couple of times before it sunk in: "She thinks this is good enough that I could actually send it in to a conference!" It gave me warm fuzzies all down my spine for a good 15 minutes!

The preacher lights the coals -- he knows I'm gonna stay. (12 points)

The last two quotes were from, first, Muse's "Apocalypse Please," and second, the Platters hit "Twilight Time." (Ha, ha! Get it? Twilight time!)

My 10-year high school reunion is this summer. And the queasiness in my stomach is not from the utter lack of food consumed over the past two days.

I remember, back in 2002, worrying that we would have a reunion. Same feeling then.

I'm not sure just why this is such a terrifying thought to me. I enjoyed high school -- I truly did. I was happy, for the most part, I had friends, and -- although I admittedly did some really stupid things -- it was not the angsty experience for me that it is for so many.

I think I dread the idea of a reunion largely because I have felt so much more content after high school. I loved college from the first minute I set foot on my new campus. I loved the classes, the teachers, the freedom, the people I met.

Most of all, the people. I have found so many people after high school who understand me so much better than the small circle of friends I had then. My truly best friends -- the ones I can talk to about anything, even when it's been months, the one who appreciate my nerdy-but-fun character, the ones who make me feel at home even when I'm not home -- have been the ones I've met after high school.

I've found so much of myself after high school that I almost want to deny that part of my life ever happened -- and I'm even willing to throw out all the good things about it to have that wish fulfilled. Even though I consider myself quite a confident person, for the most part, just the thought of facing high school again makes me want to cower in a corner.

The wrenching in my guts reminds me of the feeling I get when I contemplate the possibility of living in my parents' ward (the one I grew up in) for any length of time. There is something about that time of my life that -- despite all the happy, good times I had then -- makes me feel deeply unsettled.

Whew! There is a lot of angst in me over high school.

I may have to stay away from that reunion.

Declare this an emergency! Come on and spread a sense of urgency! (22 points)

The last quote ... well, no one has really had time to comment on it, so I'll let it stand for now -- points are still up for grabs.

a mess of memes

That's right, friends ... It's Twilight time. Again. We recently borrowed New Moon (I've been waiting for the paperback before I buy it) so that NM could read it ... and, admittedly, so I could re-read it. I wasn't planning to read it anytime soon, but I did anyhow. So now I'm obsessed again.

I've always loved taking idiotic character quizzes, largely just for the fun of seeing how horribly they're put together and how off they are for me.

Tonight's winners are ...

For 40 % you are: You're Carlisle Cullen, the most compassionate Cullen in the whole family! You love helping people, especially your family, even if the problems are physical or emotional!

This first one was entertaining -- Much as I would love to be like Carlisle, I have nowhere near that kind of self-control. And I don't think I'm near as compassionate as he is, either. Obviously wrong answer. (Access this quiz.)

You are Edward

Vampire. You are very careful about what you do, especially around Bella. You are sweet.

Take this quiz at QuizHeaven.com

Again, can we talk about self-control? Definitely not Edward.

Which Twilight Character Are You?

Bella Swan You are the very clumsy and shy Bella Swan!! Your father is the Chief Police and you live in Pheonix, Arizona but are now with your father in Forks, Washington. You are not very athletic and trip over yourself. You are in love with Edward Cullen.

How do you compare? Take this test! | Tests from Testriffic

I have to admit, I used to really hate Bella. Really. But the more I've read and thought about her, the more I can appreciate her. (I feel myself straying into a new post...) However, I'm still not her. And can we talk about how inane the description of Bella's character is? We are talking about personality, right? What does Police Chief Swan have to do with Bella's personality? *sigh* At least they got that last sentence right. ;)

I find this one rather intriguing:

You scored as Jasper Cullen. you are jasper you do not have very good self control when it comes to you and your families diet you are the youngest vampire in your family making the lifestyle you have choosen hard you have a strong relationship with your family Jasper Cullen 80% Alice Cullen 70% Edward Cullen 47% Bella Swan 20% which twilight character are you like? created with QuizFarm.com

Jasper, eh? OK, I can see that. I am the youngest, after all, and boy, my self-control is not great. I know I'd have a hard time living the lifestyle of a Cullen. I've never thought of myself as being particularly capable of influencing others, though.

I think I agree most with these last two, which are actually the first two quizzes I took. We don't know really that much about Esme yet, but I can see a connection. Again, though, there's the whole self-control thing, and I don't know that I'm quite as compassion-driven as she is. I do like to look at house-plans ... I wonder if that counts as "hobby: architecture"?

You scored as Esme Cullen. You're Esme. The sweet, loving, mother figure of the Cullen clan. You're extremely happy that Edward has found Bella and are very careful not to scare her off. Esme Cullen 100% Carlisle Cullen 63% Alice Cullen 50% Charlie Swan 50% Jasper Cullen 38% Bella Swan 38% Emmett Cullen 25% James 13% Edward Cullen 13% Rosalie Cullen 13% "Twilight": who are you? (now w/ pics) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Esme. You are loveable and loving. You'd make a good mother. Esme 83% Jasper 50% Bella 50% Edward 50% Carlisle 42% Rosalie 42% Emmet 33% Alice 33% Which main character from twilight by stepanie meyer are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Oh, and in case anyone was unaware, the third book of the series, Eclipse, is due out August 7 this year. The "special edition" of New Moon, which will include the first chapter of Eclipse, is apparently also going to be published sometime this summer ... but I'm still unable to find any date for a paperback edition. Not that it will matter that much, in the end, though -- I'll probably end up buying Eclipse as soon as it comes out, anyway, so I guess I may as well give and get New Moon, too. That means that my super-special copy from Margo won't fit with the rest of my collection, but oh well -- you can't have it all, right?

Heavenly shades of night are falling... (76 points)

I must admit, I'm disappointed that no one got the last two quotes. "It was a disaster, Faye!" is from What About Bob? I had a mission companion who said it a couple of times, and it's always stuck with me since then. The previous quote -- "As he pretended not to see me, I pretended not to see him" -- is from one of my very favorite scenes in Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens.

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone enjoyed the celebration of the Resurrection yesterday. I know I did.

Our bishop's brother spoke in Sacrament Meeting, and as soon as he started, I turned to my roommate and said, "He clearly has the same dramatic streak in him." At times, it almost felt like we were watching a televangelist preach to us. And he made reference to a couple of things that only Mormons would have understood, which made me sincerely hope that we had no investigators with us (I don't think we did). In Sunday School, our teacher had a sinus headache and had taken some Zyrtec for it, but was "learning the hard way," as he said, that it is a drowsy medicine. Relief Society was wonderful, on the other hand. We recently called a new teacher, and this was her third lesson, I think. It was really amazing. She puts a lot of time and effort into her lessons -- much more than I do when I teach in church.

I had been planning to make strawberry pie with our dinner, in celebration of Easter, and I offered to take some to our missionary couple -- the wife hasn't been feeling well lately, and I wanted to let her know that we appreciate them. But I've never been much of a pie baker, and things didn't go as well as expected. The pie crust shrank together badly when I baked it, and it really didn't look pretty when I took it out. But, not one to let the aesthetics of my baking deter me, I decided to go ahead with it. However, then I made the gel filling that holds the strawberries together, and it didn't seem to be setting up like it should. Again, I was hopeful, so I went ahead and poured it into the pie crust. But because of the weird shape of the pie crust, the filling ran over its sides that it was between the crust and the pie pan in several places, and it just didn't look at all pretty. Even then, I would still have taken it to our missionaries, but I still couldn't see that the gel filling was setting up, and it looked like the pie was going to be really difficult to try to eat. I decided to put it in the fridge, in hopes that the cold might help it set up, and I looked at it and thought today's quote:

It was a disaster, Faye! (33 points)

So, I made some chocolate-peanut butter brownies for our missionary couple instead, which seemed to turn out just great. When I came home from their apartment, I took another look at the pie in the fridge, and although it still didn't look pretty, the gel did seem to have set up after all, so we ate it later ourselves. At least I have some helpful notes to add to my recipe now.

With dinner, we watched Ben-Hur, which I had never seen before. It was pretty good, all things considered, though I couldn't help but think that I would have preferred to read it as a book.

(I'm leaving the last quote un-identified until the next post, when I'll reveal both that one and today's.)

Ioan movies

I've been Netflixing lots of Ioan Gruffudd movies lately, wanting to see his acting (and, admittedly, his face) in a variety of contexts.

Last week I watched him in a BBC/Masterpiece Theater production of Great Expectations, in which he played Pip. Now, as many of you know, this is my favorite Dickens book, so I was excited to see how Ioan did. From a purely objective standpoint *snicker* I thought he was quite good. I have to take issue with the writing, to an extent, although I wasn't as upset by it as many of the online reviewers I've read. But I did think that Ioan did quite well in the role, with what he was given.

The next one I watched was Very Annie Mary, which is set in Wales -- I was excited to hear Ioan speaking in a Welsh accent, and I was not disappointed, not in that respect. The movie wasn't that great, overall. The writing was pretty silly and see-through. And people just kept doing stupid things. But Ioan played a gay shop-keeper, along with his best friend Matthew Rhys, and they were hilarious. Probably the best part of the whole movie is the scene where they are having singing lessons from Annie Mary, and they rehearse "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun," from Annie Get Your Gun. And ever since then, I keep getting lines stuck in my head in that great Welsh accent: "Ah, poo-r little Bethahn Bevahn" or "He eats twoo full sahndwiches with ehvery mee-al" or "You're sittin' on a gohld mine, lass."

My next Netflix movie is The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain, with Hugh Grant. I've always liked that film, though I haven't seen it for some time, and I'm curious to see how the accents stack up.

"As he pretended not to see me, I pretended not to see him." (12 points)

The last quote was from Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody series.

go Shep!

I have been subscribing for over a month now to the "Fox News Flash" video podcast. They put out about three of them a day, hosted by different Fox News anchors, and they sum up in about a minute the stories that are making the rounds on Fox.

I especially enjoy those hosted by Shepard Smith.

This morning, I've been catching up on this week's News Flashes, and Shep had a story about a coffee producer in Panama who is making a 750-gallon cup of coffee, in hopes of breaking the world record for the largest cup of coffee. When he was finished with the story, Shep looked straight into the camera and muttered, "That's stupid."

Thanks, Shep. Thanks for making my day just that much brighter.

Love has a most unfortunate effect on the brain. (62 points)

Today's quote further explicates my feelings about Shep. :) The last quote was from Milton's "Paradise Lost," which I recently read for the fist time ever. Enjoyed it. But that's a post for another day.

claim to fame

I've recently starting listening to PotterCast, produced by The Leaky Cauldron, at Paul's recommendation. It's kind of fun, and I find it a much easier way to keep track of what's going on in HP fandom, rather than spending hours online trying to read all the different forums (which I'm not particularly fond of, anyway). So, I'm sitting in my bed, simply because it's comfy, and listening to PotterCast 81 while trying to figure out some FTP problems I'm having and re-sizing over and over an image that I want to use for a website I'm creating ...

When I hear the voice of my good friend, Emily. That's right, she's on this PotterCast. Now, I knew that Emily -- aka wahlee_98 -- has been working with The Leaky Cauldron for about a year. But I don't normally pay much attention to TLC. Now, though, I'm listening to PotterCast on a regular basis, and today I'm hearing my personal acquaintance on it. I totally have an "in" in the HP fandom world! (I already knew that, actually, but it's somehow much more real to me now.)

Congrats, Emily! Hope everything continues to go well for you.

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. (83 points -- This really has nothing to do with today's post, but I recently came across it, and it's been stuck in my head lately.)

Super-heroes

Sorry about the weird layout, but I don't feel like messing with it enough to get the layout right.
My results:
I am Spider-Man

Spider-Man 75% Superman 70% Hulk 60% Supergirl 53% Robin 50% Green Lantern 50% The Flash 35% Iron Man 35% Batman 30% Wonder Woman 28% Catwoman 15%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz