This is tuning up to be a very interesting year.

Ahh...the month of hope is almost at a close, but I guess that is how it must be. I'm not going to lie- I had a pretty amazing weekend and is seems so long because I don't have class on Fridays. So, let me begin my tale on Thursday, for that is really the start of the weekend.

After my last class (COMM 330 Intro to Screenwriting for the curious), I headed back to the dorm to celebrate my wonderful roomie's 21st birthday. She and her mother bough a most wonderful cake that was delicious (and as of my just now peek into the fridge, still there). Due to space issues and the fact that there were people in our lounge, we went outside for the cake eating. Once the cake was done, my roomie and her over-21 friends went to a few bars while I went back to the dorm and finished up the last of my homework that I had to really do. A bit later, CK came over and we went to the Mrs. D's welcome back dance.

I don't dance. I am the definition of awkward white girl trying to dance.

So, the dance was okay, but not the most fantastic time of my life. I think if there had been more people there I knew or if it just wasn't 500 degrees inside the room...the night was just sort of a bust, but that is alright. Not every night can be the night of your life. CK and I headed home after a little while and went our separate ways.

Friday was a pretty amazing day as well. After working the morning shift, I caught a bus and got my car to drive over to the UNC-TV/ PBS station in Durham for my facility tour and interview. Very exciting news: I got an internship!!!!!! This put me in an excellent mood for the rest of the weekend and we went out to dinner to celebrate at 35 Chinese. I wasn't feeling all that well physically becuase I really think that I am getting sick, but it was still a good time.

Actually, I was getting really mad at one of my friends at the dinner, but I had plans on talking to them later so I was trying to not let it show...I have no idea how effective this was. But c'est la vie, yeah?

We went back to RT's apt for a moment so that we could pick up a copy of Mary Poppins on DVD and then headed back to CK/CR/RB's apt to have an impromptu movie night. I love that movie. It is so wonderful! After the movie, we all sat around and talked for a bit until it was time for me to give RT a ride back to his apt. On the way, I sort of made it known that I was getting mad at him (really, it was quite trivial, but one of those things that at the time really bothered me). We ended up having a very good disucssion and then realized that it was 3am and we had just been talking and I still needed to go home. It then took me 45 minutes to get from Carrboro to Lewis Hall because I couldn't figure out how to get into the Cobb deck. I eventually made it and so everything was alright.

The next day, or really later that morning, my roomie and I went over to the library and had our training for the NC Literary Festival (Sept. 12th around campus all day COME!), and then I headed over to CK/CR/RB's apartment (hearafter known simply as the Apt) for an awesome study party. I came home for a little bit to tidy up and whatnot and then picked CK, LS, and two other people that are friends of CK up to go get some free chick-fil-a sandwiches with our student IDs and to go to the movie Taking Woodstock. The movie was alright, 3 out of 5 and a passable knock off of Across the Universe.

I had plans on spending the night at KL's place after the movie and had my overnight bag all packed- toothbrush and everything. I dropped everyone off after the movies and then went over to her place. There, the unthinkable happend (well, not really unthinkable, but just awkward). She, another girl, and some guy that I don't know decided that they just wanted to be naked. So they got naked. And I got awkward and certainly didn't have any intentions to drink myself out of the awkwardness, so I left and went back to Newman, where I planned on staying the night. I was just about fall asleep when my phone rang and it was CK, semi-insiting that I do not spend the night at Newman and that I could stay at the Apt. Seeing as the Newman couches are short and itchy, I took him up on his offer. The new plan was to head over to one of his friend's places and watch a new Godzilla movie (2008?) and then go back to the apt. By the time he got there, plans had changed and Godzilla was off, so we hung out with his friend whom we had seen the movie with at his dorm. It was pretty fun, but soon it was time to go and when we got to the apt, CR and RT were already there and I crashed on possibly the most comfortable couch I've yet to sleep on. It was a definite upgrade from the Newman couches.

I woke up this morning, RT gave me a ride back to campus, and then I studied and went to the library. Later this evening, I will finish up the last of the weekend juice by going to Mass. Thus concludes the weekend blogpost. I'll try to update more frequently through the week, but who knows what will happen?

August

Well, move-in weekend is nearly over and we have another day left until classes start and as far as I can tell, most everyone is pretty excited about the start of a new year. This is why I love August the most. It is my favorite of favorite months. August is a time of hope and excitement and new beginnings. I realize that once I enter the real world, the joys of August will no longer apply as much, but it will still be a good month-in my top twelve, at least.

But August is great. I love August. The month of August hold a little bit of summer still, but then there is the fun of starting a new year-a new chance to prove that you are awesome. Everything you did last year is to an extent reset. Sure, your GPA follows you, but rarely will that English project about Hamlet haunt you as you navigate through your Biology textbook. August is a month where you haven't screwed anything up for the current semester and you still have the opportunities that you'll wish you had taken three months from now. Just think- in four months or so, a lot of students will be wishing to come back to this very day so they could do it over again. THIS exact day. Well, a few might wish for tomorrow, but today is the DAY.

On Mythbusters, they had an episode where they tested the theory of "hit the ground running" and they proved that if one were to hit the ground running, they would in fact be faster than if they just ran once they hit the ground. Okay, the difference was fractions of a second, but hey! Faster is faster, yes? So, hit the ground running is what I plan on doing...just as soon as I figure out why I'm falling.

Have a great start of the semester everyone!

I won!

Ahh...there is nothing sweeter than victory, especially when it is against one of your greatest of Foes. For some time now, I have been telling you of my long and arduous battle against the ITS department of UNC. I have screamed and cired because of them and I have pretty much hated them for quite some time. A terrible war has been waging between them and me, and it has finally come to a close.

And I won, damnit.

I should be getting my new laptop in about a week with an envelope to mail in Azzie. I am getting an extended warrenty. Oh, and I don't have to pay the $250 insurance cost becuase it has been determined that the faults of my computer were due to hte manufacturing and not becuase I have mistreated it. Their leader, Steve, called to offer his surrender along with his terms for the treaty. This is a very very good day!!!

I might miss Azzie a little bit...I know I will miss his stickers. I must try to save them.

In OTHER news, I got to work as a Production Assistant on an AT&T commercial today on campus, staring our own #50 Tyler Hansbrough. Now, if I get the general idea of the commercial correct, it is about a little girl who has lost her puppy, and thanks to the great pix and txt services from AT&T, she is reunited when Tyler Hansbrough finds it and recognizes it from a pix message one of his friends sent him. Aww....look for it eventually! I don't know when it will air because I don't know how much editing etc goes into these things. But, on the plus side, I did get $115 for the day's work. :D

In RELATED news, I am back on Campus!!

Movie Review: District 9

District 9
2009
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
Starrring Sharlton Copley

Alright, I'm going to start this off by saying that I really don't like monster/ alien invasion movies. Sci-Fi has never been my favorite genre unless its something classic like Star Trek or 1984. I had no intention of going to see this movie at all. But then, I read a review of it by DJ Dustbunny (http://djdustbunny.blogspot.com) and he said that it was very good and that I should see it. So, I went to see it with EP.

This movie is SO GOOD! I cannot say enough how much I enjoyed this movie! It was a very exciting ride that will make you squirm in your seat.

The movie starts out intruducing the characters and the situation in a documentary style intermixed with News footage. It reminded me a lot of Baz Lurhman's style in his first two Red Curtain movies (Strictly Ballroom and Romen + Juliet). Actually, a lot of the movie reminded me of Baz Lurhman's movies. The way they set the movie up was perfect because there was so much that needed to be explained that if they tried to just let it all come out in the wash, most of the audience would be confused. It also did a good job in introducing Wilkus, our lovable protagonist, as one who finds the aliens (or "Pranws" as the deroggatory terminology calls them) just as disgusting as the rest of the humans. This of course sets him up to develop into a really good dynamic character.

Extremely brief plot overview: After a failed eviction plan for the aliens living in District 9, Wilkus finds himself behind enemy lines and has to decide who are the real monsters.
I don't want to get to into the plot because it is really easy to spoil and that would be no fun for anyone, so I'll just skip it for now.

The effects are pretty solid and a lot of the twists are pretty clever (the cat food and the guns that respond to Alien's DNA, for example). Some of the more gruesome effects could have been left out (I'm talking the fingernails and teeth...I actually had a nightmare about that last night!) and I'm not sure that EVERY person obliterated into pink mist had to shower the camera, but oh well...The real surprise is the acting performance from Sharlton Copley. When you think that he did a majority of this film as a one man show (the aliens were added later), then it is pretty amazing. He does a great job at giving the emotional punch that is often missing from these types of alien movies.

On a political note, it is interesting that they chose to set the movie in Johannesburg, South Africa, a place that is known for it's segregation (Apartheid, anyone?) because most of this film deals with issues of xenophobia and segregation. I really like how they incorporated the theme without hitting the audience over the head with it. Maybe it's me, but it seems rare that movies like this have themes this political in them.


Overall: This movie is a must see! Go see it right now!!! A+

Packing and My Cat

So, I'm packing today because I'm going back to the Hill on Wednesday and I am extremely thrilled about this fact. I cannot wait to get back to class and to see all of my friends again. This post is pretty short because there isn't really much to discuss with packing and I can only say how excited I am so many times before you stop reading. There was one highlight: I was debating on whether or not to get a new backpack, because my old one is starting to tear at the seams. It's not bad enough to really merit a new one, but it might not last the semester. Anyways, my Cat ended the debate by peeing on it. New Backpack Time!!! Um...Thanks, Kitty (?)

I'm reading New Moon...

...and am legitimately liking it. I read 140 pages in one sitting tonight and never once struggled to continue through the book. I am actually really and truly finding the plot interesting enough to keep me reading. Okay, okay, these books are not going on my top ten list of books and they certainly pale in comparison to other teen series (um...Harry Potter?), but it seems that they are getting more crap than they really deserve. People are knocking them before they are trying them because they have seen the movie (which is, as per usual with book-to-film endeavors) much worse than the novel or they have heard from their friends about it and draw their own conclusions.

I was one of those people for a long time. I love vampires but I HATED the thought that they would be so melodramatic to come up with lines like "You are my life now," and heaven forbid that a vampire should EVER sparkle. But you sort of have to give Stephanie Meyer some credit for trying to break out of the stereotypical mold of vampires where they turn into bats and die in the sunlight a la Dracula. While I doubt that Twilight and its sequels will go down as literature of literary merit, they are pretty standard fluff and if one simply lets go of reality, or what they think is reality for vampires (this IS fantasy, remember?), then they prove to be a fairly fun read.

I think what Twilight-haters hate is not the books themselves, because it's hard to hate a book that you are not forced to read (and I challenge anyone to show me a syllabus from their English class with these books under required reading) because it is all to easy to avoid. It's like saying that you hate musicals but continue to buy tickets to every show on Broadway. I think what they hate are the fans. The rabid teenage girls who flock to the bookstores and libraries every time they hear the name "Edward Cullen" and make ridiculous amounts of Flair and Bumper Stickers on Facebook and stay up late for the midnight premiers and so on...but isn't that their right? Sure, you can dislike seeing it everywhere, but its like anything that has a fan following.

Fans of Harry Potter do the same thing. But no one is condemning them. They dress up in cloaks and run around with wands in broad daylight with sharpie on their foreheads, but not many people are deeply concerned. You might argue that Harry Potter has more literary merit than Twilight (I apologize for using this phrase over and over, literary merit, but it was drilled into me Senior Year of high school...I cannot help it), but isn't enjoyment just as worthy a cause to be a fan of something? Someone famous, perhaps Emerson, said "Beauty is its own excuse for being." So, if a thing of beauty is a joy forever and beauty is its own excuse for being, then isn't joy it's own excuse for being? Twilight brings fans joy. It may be short lived. It may be superficial, but it is joy.

So, in conclusion, Twilight-haters/ Twilight-Fan-haters- c'est la vie and live and let live. Stop the hating on the Twilight series.

And so it goes....

Every once in a while, I get this strange inkling somewhere in my mind that God knows what he is doing. Or, at least is good at timing things so you don't go jumping off the nearest bridge every other Tuesday. Tonight was one of those nights where timing was perfect.

In Other News:

1) Julie & Julia- ADORABLE MOVIE!!! Take your mom to see this one and may I suggest not doing so right before dinner? There is so much good food and you will be hungry/ eager to cook once you leave the theatre. Totally worth seeing.

2) Twilight- by Stephanie Meyer-Yes. I read it. I finished it last night and it took me about a week or so to get through it. To be honest, I didn't hate it as much as I thougth I would. Actually, I didn't hate it at all. It was quite the interesting fluff-read. While it probably won't go down as some of the best literature of the 21st century, it is an exciting read and offers a lot of (unintentional) laughs. I now have New Moon from the library and hopefully will finish that before school starts.

3) New York City- So, this past weekend, I visited my BFF Jack in NYC and fell in love all over again with the place. It's strange that a city that I've barely been to can feel so much like home. This time around, I tried to venture away from Midtown/ Times Square and wandered through Greenwich Village and then hung around the Union Square area where I visited the Strand Bookshop with 18 MILES of books...It was very very interesting. Jack's mom took us to see Shrek the Musical and it was delightful. I have the soundtrack if anyone wants to give it a listen. I had such a good time up there and can't wait to go back someday.

4) How far from the Hill is Atlanta? Because EMILIE AUTUMN is coming in October and I really would like to go to the show, if at all possible (and I'm a firm believer that almsot anything is possible). If you have not heard of Emilie Autumn, then you should definitely check her out at www.emilieautumn.com

5) My cousin is in town! I haven't seen her in a few years and it's really cool to have someone within the same age bracket as myself in the house. She's a high school junior and I'm taking her on a college tour of the Hill on Wednesday. *Hint*Hint* If you want to hang out/ join us for the exciting tour and will be in town on Wednesday, let me know via facebook/ blog comments.

6) Hair Color!! Haha just kidding everyone! But no, I'm considering re-dying my hair brown because the gross orange is sort of coming back at the ends and soon it will be two-toned again and we can't have that, can we? People, I won't name names, but it was RoB, have actually tried to use it as a legitimate arguement against me in debates. But alas, it will not happen until I am back on the Hill.

That's all the news I have for now, folks! I'm back on the Hill for good on August 18th! See you all then! Or Not. That's cool.