Friday, March 20, 2009

Vernal Vacation

Winter quarter is officially over as I'm done with all my finals and will be leaving within a few hours. A Happy Vernal Equinox to everyone. It is that special time of year marking the beginning of the spring season. Mine will be spent for four hours in a car, but I will be home for only a week. I hope though, that I will have bought and received all my new camera equipment before I return to OU because I need it for my first day of VICO 390. It's been a fun finals week, much nicer than last quarter where I almost went insane from boredom. I watched the documentary We Are Wizards which takes a look at the subculture created by the Harry Potter series, such as Wizard Rock and fansites. On top of that, this week's episode of 30 Rock was absolutely hilarious. I also don't know what I'll do with myself for a week with no Post to sit in and eat lunch or attend meetings. Well I do have one thing, other than visiting friends. I recently started going back on SpaceBattles. It is an online forum where I participate in story debates. Story debates are essentially roleplaying without stats, damage, HP, pretty much no numbers. It's really fun and gets my creative juices pumping. I'm getting involved in one that is about character-created deities that were overthrown and are trying to regain their power/realm. Another I'm getting involved in is a little like Cowboy Bebop. We're space cowboys/smugglers or a legitimate spaceship service. I went the route of space cowboys. I'm really excited to get involved in it again because the SD I got involved in fell apart after a month. It was really narrative heavy which ruined everything.

Monday, March 16, 2009

103%

Yay! My first day of finals is over and I found out what I got on my philosophy exam. 206 out of 200, which translates to a 103%. WOOOOOOT!! It was a really fun class. I'm going to miss it. So I end philosophy with a 99.3% because I was too lazy to get out of bed to take 2 quizes. I also skipped the class days for review because I didn't have Econ class anymore, so why wake up at 8am for only one hour of class. I'm just glad I didn't have to memorize the fallacies for the test. Well, I'm going to play some video games and listen to the Avett Brothers in celebration!

Finals Week

It's finals week for winter quarter. That means another quarter is at a close. It's going by too fast. I mean, I'm already a sophomore in credit hours. After spring quarter, I'll only be 8 credit hrs away from being a junior. It's going by way too fast. What if don't get to take all the cool liberal arts classes I want to take? Maybe I'm just going crazy from sleep deprivation, or I pulling strings to write something interesting for you all to read. Who knows? My psyche is very strange. I only worry about these things when I take time to think about them. Oh well, I think I'll play some Wild ARMS 2 to distract me. I started a new game during the time most people study. I'll at least try and study for my Econ test that's on Wednesday, but it won't really be studying, just reading the stuff I haven't read yet.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Harry Potter Weekend #8,362

The title might be a little facetious, but it feels like ABC Family has a Harry Potter weekend every month. In fact, I'm pretty sure they do, not that I'm complaining. I love the movies, even though I purport hatred of all those past the second. The first two are my favourite, the Sorcerer's Stone more so, but I do enjoy the other three. I hate that they blatantly disregard things from the books, but I enjoy their visual imagining of the books. I know the first two don't follow the books perfectly, but that is expected of book-based movies. It's just that the 3rd, 4th and 5th movies change the entire storyline, remove characters, ignore Wizarding Law (mainly the beginning of the 3rd movie where Harry is trying to read under his covers using a flickering (??!?!?) lumos spell), create plotholes that aren't in the book, and forget about key plot points from the books. Nevertheless, I continue to watch them. It's kind of like watching a car crash, horrible to watch, but you can't look away. But I'm excited for the 6th movie. The 11-year-old Voldemort actor is perfectly chillingly evil-looking.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Flight of the Red Balloon

All last year my friend Steven kept talking about this horrible French movie called Flight of the Red Balloon. He said it was horrible, especially when the little boy would go, "Balloon! Balloon!" but not really pronounce the "n." For the longest time, that was all I knew about the movie. A little boy says "Balloon!" in a funny French accent to a red balloon. Steven's commentary started when the remake was at the Cleveland International Film Festival. I was going to see it until he told me it was a remake. I decided, someday, I would see the original. Well today, that day came. In VICO 140, we watched Flight of the Red Balloon to examine the design principles of film we had learned about on Tuesday. As soon as the movie started rolling, I knew immediately it was that movie. I was like, "Oh my God! It's Flight of the Red Balloon, I need to call Steven!" Anyways, as the movie played, I sat on the edge of my seat, waiting desperately for the little boy to say his only line. When he finally said it, I laughed so hard. It reminded me of Steven and the hilarious impression he did of the little boy. It was a great class. Flight of the Red Balloon is one of those funny/awful movies that you watch to laugh at more than for story or enjoyment. At the end, when the mean little French children corner the little boy and his red balloon and then throw stones at it, I was like, "No! Balloon! Balloon!" in this sad French accent. The people sitting in my row were laughing. It was so funny. And then the little boy flies away like Curious George with a huge collection of balloons. It was like the movie we watched in AP Spanish last year where the corpse of El Cid just rides away on a horse. Mrs. Petrick was so offended because all six of us were laughing so hard. So for the next week or so, I will connect almost everything to Flight of the Red Balloon. It will most likely be my description of the movie. A red balloon leads a little French boy on a journey of magic and mystery.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Wonderful Weekend

I returned home this weekend to see the play at my high school. It was called Getting Sara Married, and my friend Julie directed. She did a fantastic job, especially with the lack of talent she was given in the two leads. I found that two supporting cast members had more talent and emotion than the two leads. The play aside, I had a nice relaxing weekend. I got my haircut, read Harry Potter, and spent time with my friends. It was a very relaxing weekend. Unfortunately, I missed the last day of dancing, but I did get to dance in Justin's car while we listened to techno.