1. Work
I'm always thinking about work. Right now, with the new class, impending upgrades and a possible promotion, I have a lot to think about.

Seriously... I'm asking for a soundproof booth. That would rock.

2. Family
The current family storylines are the on-going issues with my autistic nephew, how his older brother will afford college, their parents' finances, one sister's unemployment and, on the lighter side, my mom's training to be an annulment advisor for the Church.

We're a busy bunch.

3) Friends
While not as busy as my family (right now), somethin's always up woith my friends.

4) Weekend plans
I want to get out and do more. I live in NYC, for God's sake, I shouldn't be bored.

5) Money
While not the concern it was a few years' back, I'm still budgeting and saving.

We have two trailers, one for

1) ECLIPSE, in which the territory-marking pissing match over Bella begins, and also, Victoria has a new face actress and it is kind of unsettling. Also, Edward apparently brought the meadow back with him from Italy (even meadows need vacations, I guess);

2) and, far more importantly, ROBIN HOOD, which looks very conducive to Fifteen Minutesing, and is somewhat disappointing to me in that Cate Blanchett does not have awesome gowns. Connie Nielsen in Gladiator had some of my favorite costumes ever, so I know Ridley Scott knows who to hire for these things. BE MORE PRETTIER.

Also, the bad guys include Mark Strong and Matthew Macfadyen. Way to get me to not root for Russell Crowe, movie.

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report aren't on Hulu anymore. In order to watch them now I have to go to Comedy Central's website. Which, as it turns out, has way more commercials - including two commercials every time you come back from pausing it. Do you know how many times I have to pause during the 20 minute show? Probably 20. Fail, Comedy Central. Fail.

In other news, does anyone watch Life Unexpected? I had the tv on the other night - which almost never happens - and one of the characters said something about Portland and so, of course, I was obligated to watch the pilot. And it is Portland! The street scenes and everything! How cool is that? This is like when I lived in LA during Alias and every time they did a scene on the Disney lot I'd point and yell, "OMG! I've been there!" but cooler. Though Google tells me that even though it's set in Portland, they do most filming in Vancouver, BC. Which is almost as lame as the fact that the main character's name is Lux and the show is called Life UneXpected. But still! There were shots of the Max! And the Willamette! And the bridges! And the girl's drug dealing foster parents were in Salem!

Oh, Oregon.

And 24 is ending now that I just started watching it. *sigh* Oh, well. They're probably going to kill off the character I like anyway.

Damn tv!

I posted a few more batches of Formspring question cross-posts last night. These are the earliest questions that glitches may prevent you from going back and seeing. Also, at Formspring itself, I answered a few new ones. We're up to 225 answered, and still 99 in the inbox. I don't even know, y'all. One of the reasons I started doing this was that I'd been wondering if I should ask people here if they had any questions (I get them in the comments or on Twitter sometimes), or what should go on an FAQ page. Well, apparently I am way more interesting to y'all than I thought.

There's no real good segue to this, so... Corey Haim, '80s heartthrob, dies at 38.

Please, y'all, make some answers happen. Although I am hearing that when we get around to what happened to Claire, it's going to be interesting.

As my grandmother would say, "Jesus wept!"

The 6:45 am class is going well so far. (I mean, two sessions in, who can really tell?) They're surprisingly talkative and reasonably cheerful.

I;ve given the first assignment (due next Tuesday): the book gives them nine different definitions of "communication", I want them to pick one and tell me why they picked it. I'm only expecting a parahgraph.

Our first quiz is next Thursday. I dropped lots of hints this morning: "Boy, this would be a great thing to ask about on the quiz!"

We'll see.

Meantime, about four or five people dropped the class, but were replaced by four or five new faces. Odd.

I've discovered that I don't have trouble waking up a little earlier, or even teaching then (so far, ask again in May). However, I want to crash around 9:00 am. Probably because I didn't eat breakfast either day.

Meantime, the labs look to be getting serious upgrades, including new computers, more advnaced software and (hopefully) a soundproof booth.

You have no idea how geeked out I am over a soundproof booth. It makes me happy in a way that normally only really decadent desserts do. I've met with the powers-that-be over this once, and we'll be meeting again on Thursday for more details.

Meantime, on Monday, classes started. The lab is closed the first week of classes, so imagine my surprise when a class strolled in to the use one fo the labs.

A math class.

A remedial algebra class.

Because, you know, they need the Speech Center for that.

It's since been fixed. We have a(nother) new registrar, and so, we're doing the whole "Wait, this class meets in the restroom" thing again. Huzzah.

Pictures of Arwen, Aragorn and the White Queen up at Tonner






oh my God, my moneys

please send help

So this Formspring thing keeps glitching and not letting people see older answers, which also means that people are asking duplicate questions because they can't see what I've already answered. And I am getting asked a lot. I've answered 200, and I've got something like 83 still hidden in the inbox. So what I'm going to do is copy-paste the answers into LJ entries--but always backdated to 3/8/10, so that they don't keep cluttering up your f-list after today. I'll tell you when I've put up a new one, but we'll use 3/8 as the archive day. And that way, people can comment on the questions/answers without having to create new "this isn't really a question" questions to do so. I'll also put them in order from the top down, the way you naturally read, instead of the newest on top the way Formspring does it.

I'm sure some people will see posting all of this as incredibly egotistic on my part, but y'all, I just answered two hundred questions. That shit is not going to waste. So!

( Who would win a vampire match-up, Eric from the Sookie Stackhouse books or Edward from Twilight? )


More in a bit.

This time I went to The J. Pierpont Morgan Museum

The Morgan specializes in letters, manuscripts, rare books and drawings.

The exhibitions I was interested in? The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, an illuminated prayer book. This is considered to be the best Dutch example of such things, and "Rome after Raphael", a collection of drawings by various artists and architects involved in the rebuilding of Rome during the Renaissance, Reformation and Counter-reformation.

Both were neat. About two thirds of the Cleves work was on display. Prayers for each day of the week were there, as were prayers for the intercession of various saints. The artwork was exquisite. As an adjunct to this exhibit, several other Books of Hours were on display. They were wonderful,. but not nearly as beautiful as Cleves.

Rome after Raphael was also excellent. It started with drawing by Raphael and some artists who worked in his studio, and continued with drawings and sketchwork from Michelangelo and those who worked with him and ended with artists of the Counterreformation, who helped usher in the Baroque style.

The Morgan itself is a very nice space. Part of it is the brownstone, office and library where the Morgan family lived. PArt of it is a recent addition. It's a bright, airy space, and nothing felt crowded. (As much as I adore the Frick, sometimes it overwhelming with ALLM THAT ARTWORK everywhere.)

Depending on the exhibition, I'd definitely go back.

Next up on my Intellectual Elitist NYC tour? Either Sounding the Pacific: Instruments of Oceania at the Met or Candide at 250: Scandal and Success.

Given that it ends first and *IS* something my BA and grad work work in French self would be interested in, Candide will likely be first. But the Oceania instruments thing looks so cool.

I'm a geek. If this is news, you haven't been paying attention.

Saturday afternoon, Union Square, NYC

Me1: Mmmm... muscular gay.
Me2: Oh please...
Me1: Skintight, almost see-through muscle shirt? You can even see his nipple piercing...
Me2: Hmmm... a pierced nipple? Ouch.
Me1: Also, pants that fit like a second skin.
Me2: Look at that ass. Damn!
Me1: Don't stare. It's not polite.
Me2: I mean seriously, he is gorgeous...
Me1: Stop it: you're OBJECTIFYING him.
Me2: Oh, like you can seize the moral high ground here: YOU were stereotyping him.
Me1: I... I... I'm not reducing him to nothing but a sex object.
Me2: Look, we can either fight or just sit back, watch the scenery and drink our diet coke.
Me1: And it is some scenery.

Can I just start off with how much I hate people giving out my information without checking with me first?

A friend of mine (who recommended me for some translation jobs a few times, so I love her for that) gave my name and number to a financial advisor. First of all, the dude presented himself as offering me a job and I was all WTF? How would I be in any way ecquiped to work as a financial advisor? Then I tried to tell him over the phone for practically a week that I'm not interested. He wouldn't budge so I met with him today to get him off my back. FAIL.

Hours of my life wasted: 1
Times I used a variation of the phrase "Sorry, not interested.": 6

After that I just figured it would go by quicker to let him say what he wanted. It wasn't a job offer after all, so at least he's not insane just incredibly pushy. He wants to draw up a plan for me and meet again in a week. ARGH. I went in the first place to avoid being rude, but I think it's just going to end up with me screening his calls anyway. Can I just call him and tell him I died?

On the plus side, I didn't give him any referrals so that people aren't dragged into this the same way as I was. That at least I was able to get through to him.

Please welcome! Michael Sheen, Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Stanley Tucci, and and Peter Sarsgaard! Forest Whitaker is here for Sandra Bullock because--Hope Floats, right? Ah, yes. Some people miss the delicacy and complexity of her work, you guys. I love Sandra Bullock, but--I just. The Blind Side. I'll stop now. ( Read more... ) 


ETA: New Iron Man 2 trailer, hot off the truck.

Over on Twitter, Roger Ebert just noted that when a film wins Best Editing, it usually wins Best Picture.

Aaaaaand here's the Wall o' Lampshades again for Pedro Almodóvar and Quentin Tarantino and a meh joke about Almodóvar not understanding a word of QT's films. ( Read more... )


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Ladies and gentlemen! Matt Damon, the first screenwriter to ever get any action! Why hello there.( Read more... )



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HOW Y'ALL FEEEEEEEEEL? I'm on my third Coke and have only one Tagalong left.

( Read more... )



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I would be more interested in thanking the musical director if he hadn't entirely played over that one guy.

Ah, it's a Paranormal Activity skit. ( Read more... )

Please welcome! Sigourney Weaver in a flowy crimson one-shoulder! "You know, when I first arrived on the set of Alien..." This story does not end as entertainingly as it might have. ( Read more... )

OKAY ABC YOU CAN TOTALLY CUT BACK TO THE SHOW IN A TIMELY FASHION. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO THIS IS PRESENTING WITH JAKE GYLLENHAAL.

Whoa, that's Rachel McAdams? ( Read more... )