A List of Movies To Which I Am Quite Partial

Being such a excellent list-maker, I made this one the other day and thought I'd record it in electronic form. Each movie on this list is there for a different reason. Needless to say you should watch them all.

(in some particular order, but don't pay too much attention to it)

• You've Got Mail (1998) - You can really see the characters develop throughout the movie and it's so wonderfully intwined with Pride and Prejudice. *****
• Love Actually (2005) - Each story is touching and lovely in it's own way. British films are so realistic and wonderfully funny. *****
• The Breakfast Club (1985) - Startlingly honest and moving. ******
• Die Rote Zora (2008) - A great adventure story. Kind of like The Goonies with romance thrown in. [German] ****1/2
• Max Minsky und ich (2007) Realistically romantic and funny. [German] ****1/2
• Pride and Prejudice (2005) Spectactular cinematography mixed with excellent acting and a great story. ****1/2
• Mamma Mia (2008) - Hilarious and fun to sing along with. Plus an amazing acting ensemble and great setting. I need to go to Greece. ***1/2
• The Jane Austen Book Club (2007) I love Grigg. 'Nuff said. ***1/2
• Hot Fuzz (2007) Hahahahahahaha. "thegreatergood" ***1/2
• Finding Nemo (2003) **** I love this movie. One fish's journey to find everything that's important to him, and discovering so much more along the way. Inspiring.
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) Edmund got so much hotter in the past year. ***1/2
• Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 (2008) So many scrummy guys. Brian. Ian. Kostas. *sigh* ****
• Ratatouille (2007) Pixar is amazing.***1/2
• 27 Dresses (2008) James Marsden's smile can cure cancer. Seriously. I melt. ***1/2

I'm listening to AVPM right now!! This is so jokes.

Google Trumps All

Today it poured. To clarify it poured rain. So naturally, I went outside, in my bathing suit, and let the cold, wet drops fall on my bare skin. Needless to say, I didn't last very long outside before I ran to the bathroom for a hot shower, but it was a very enjoyable exercise, nonetheless.

It's the weird things I do that make me such a nerd. I like to dance in the rain. I like to skip down the side-walk. I like to wear mismatched socks.* I look to point out absurd things in life that no one else takes notice of.

My sister, Rachel, works close to the beach at a restaurant. The beach is downhill from my house, and it's a nice scooter ride down, but a laborious walk up. Thank you, Government, for public transit.

Sometimes Rachel gets a ride to work with my dad, and sometimes with my mom. Getting to the point, my parents each have their own way to drive from my house to the resturaunt. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but at the moment that I thought of this, I figured it was somewhat symbolic that they take different routes. Everyone thinks in different ways, so one person may think they know the fastest way to get somewhere while another person thinking the exact same thing could be going in a different direction.

I decided to ask Google Maps how it would get to the beach and discovered that the genius that is Google takes an entirely new route. More research: Googles route: 4 min., 2.0 km; Mom's route: 5min., 2.0 km; Dad's route: 5 min., 2.1 km.

It's possible that it's only interesting to me that my mother takes a more fuel efficient path to dropping my sister off at work than my father, but I hope this has taught us all one thing: Google knows best.

*HP Spoiler: As a memorial to Dobby, may he rest in peace.

An Open Letter to Russ Hiebert

(WARNING: Heavy sarcasm to follow)

I got your survey in the mail, Russ. I'm glad you're being so considerate of your constituents opinions and wishes. The way you phrase those questions so that we know your opinion and give inflictions so strong that you basically just guide our pens to the correct checkmark is very thoughtful. You must know how busy Canadians are these days, so it's a releive to have someone making decisions for us. This question is just one of many political gems you were kind enough to ask our opinions on:

Which statement reflects your view on the environment?

[] Our current efforts to preserve the environment are satisfactory, especially if doing more would result in job losses or higher prices.

[] We need to do more to preserve the environment even if it means job losses or higher prices.

I just love the way that you make it sound like environmentalists are lobbying for job losses, because there's no way for us to create more sustainable, environmentally friendly jobs. The very idea is ridiculous.

Before reading yours, I thought surveys were supposed to unbiasedly ask for the honest thoughts of a group of people without making revealing the thoughts of the survey writer. Now I know that a political survey is simply a device to make it look like the politician actually cares about what their constituents say. Thank you very much for clearing that up.

Most sincerely,

Alex

Everlasting and Impossibly Short: Summer

There's a month left of official summer and though many will say that they feel the season is drawing to a close I must disagree.

This summer has shown me many distinctly different phases.

The first phase was really the pre-summer. It was those early days in June when all my commitments had ended, but my summer activities haven't yet started. Impatience and boredom, were all around, but I survived.

Then came the busy, never stop travelling around portion. There was my leadership conference, which was very hectic and energizing, then came a relaxing vacation, after I returned home I was shuffled off again on a road trip, where lots of books were read :), then I came back and was off again to hang out with friends at their various summer residences.

The next is the part is still upon us. It is the calm-to-the-point-of-death bit where I tend to my garden, read Jane Austen, sit outside and drink ice coffee and go see movies twice a week. This phase is rather contradictory, because it's one of those things where at times you want it to be over and have school to focus on again, whereas at other times you just want to stay the same forever. I think we can all understand this feeling in some way. But hey, the house is looking very tidy :)

On another note, I got this book a little while ago called The Book of Answers and I asked it if I should write about it and it said, "You may face opposition." Does anyone have any idea what that could mean?

It's this little yellow book that has answers an every page and you have to think of a question for 10 seconds then open it at random and it spits out some confusing answer that you then try and decipher.

For example, I asked, "Should I go to the library?" And the book replied, "Mishaps are highly probable." So am I to understand that I'll mishappen on the wrong decision and regret it? Or I'll get to the library and have remembered the hours of operation wrong? Or maybe I'll be walking there and trip and injure my face. Possibilities are endless.

This question asking got me thinking: what if you were to go through your entire day doing whatever the book told you to? When you wake up in the morning you could ask, "Should I go make breakfast?" and if the book said, "There will be obstacles to be overcome" you could stay in bed and read, and if it said, "Listen more carefully and then you will know" you could hear your stomach rumbling and get up. You could repeat this for the whole day and see where it led you.

The only problem is, of course, that if you ask a question and want a certain answer you will usually do one of two things: 1. think about it until you can turn the books response into the answer you desire*, or 2. ask the same question again until you get the right answer.

If you were truly dedicated to do this, you could force yourself to stick with your original answer and try to be as impartial about the question as possible.

I think I'll do this soon.

*you could ask, "Should I clean my room?" and it could say, "Enjoy the experience" and could delude yourself into thinking it meant enjoy the experience of being lazy and watching a movie, instead of enjoy the experience of cleaning your room (which makes more sense).

Notes on Things (desciptive and witty title, I know)

I haven't posted in three weeks. Before April, this would have been a completely normal occurrence, but since then, I like to think the standard of this blog has changed and so it's a bit of a disappointment.

Then I'll think about something to blog about, and I'll have to save it away for Sunday or Thursday on Raving Persuasions. How sad is that?

Then when I think of something substandard that I don't want to post on my "good" blog I'll just post it here. For example, I didn't want to write about my thoughts on Harry Potter 6 or the midnight show that I went to (that is basically summed up by this video), but then I thought... does anyone really care? But then I thought, do I really care if anyone cares. I will write what I want and if you don't want to read it, do us all a favour and go away.

1. Bellatrix.

Why must Helena Bonham Carter be so promiscuous. First of all, you're a creepy pervert, second of all Draco is your NEPHEW, and third or all, we know you and Voldy get it on, SHUT UP NOW. Also did anyone notice that after Dumbledore died and the Death Eaters were fleeing the castle Bellatrix kind of looked like a mixture of reprimanded naughty schoolgirl and a member of the Yaya Sisterhood? What was WITH that jumping and squealing after she lit Hagrid's hut on fire? Freeeak.

2. Dumbledore.

Michael Gambon irritates me. Why does he have to be so mean and hostile? Sure, they added in some lines about knitting patterns, but the real Dumbledore would have laughed at Harry's jokes and been more friendly overall. "Slughorn has something very important to me and he won't give it up." Did anyone giggle uncontrollably after that line? In the nicest possible way: I'm glad he's dead. Gambon was just a little too aggressive for my vision of Dumbledore.

3. The Burrow scene.

It was unnecessary, it used up valuable time that could have been spent elsewhere (hello? Dumbledore's funeral? or the end battle scene? Or Bill and Fleur's romance? How, pray tell, are they going to explain the wedding now? There was no build up!) and it just irritated me. As if the Weasley's aren't going through enough, now their house has been burned down.

Basically, I loved everything else about the movie. I loved how the actors are experimenting with comedic aspects; I loved all the new small parts (Cormac McLaggen makes me blissfully happy--for someone so scrumptious, he's a bit of a pervert); I loved Luna, as always; Harry on Felix Felices was one of the best movie watching experiences EVER. Oh the sore stomach I had from all the laughing. Great movie, I'm really looking forward to Deathly Hallows p.1 (and 2 for that matter) and I think I won't need to see it again until it's on DVD. (Four times is quite a lot and I wouldn't want to see it so much that I'll get sick of it. If that were even possible. What a dreadful thought.)

I have another idea for a blog. I promise to write it here. Pinky swear.

SHOUT out. hi.

I've never written a shout out before. Huh. Wow, I'm a really incredible writer. Huh. For some reason I'm oddly nervous about my shout out. It's not like I'm being paid for this. Wait, should I be getting paid for shout outs? No, I didn't think so.

Anyway thanks for taking us to see Harry Potter for the second time around. And thanks for not making us leave the theatre because of all the school girl giggling. It's chronic, and, like my snoring, I can't really control it.

Is this where I say your name? Damn, I forgot to ask if you wanted Jeff or Jeffrey. JMAN? Hmm, a conundrum.

(I'm sorry for the drawing. Art is subjective, and thus, at times it can be crude. Go with it.)

Shout out goes to Jeff/Jeffrey/JMAN MacDonald. Thanks for reading. Good luck with your blogging endeavour, JMAN's Junk. Also congratulations on getting some featured art in these trying times.

On another note, I have to acknoweldge what a terrible blogger I've been of late. I have an explanation, which is that I am on holiday of sorts and thus the days pass without much notice at present. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it was Sunday today and in a deeper reserve I knew that meant I should write a blog, but that part of my brain did not connect with the part that was scheduling time in my day to do such a thing. From about 9 o'clock this evening to about 8 minutes ago (12:09am), I've been playing Wii with my sister* (this is the time I should have spent blogging. oopsie daisy?).

A large part of this time was spent on a *insert negative adjective here* game known as Mario Party 8. This game was a complete waste of time, and after an incredible amount of effort and two stars, everything was ripped from me by the idiot Mario and a roll of the dice. I want my life back, Mario, give me a refund.

Blind or deaf:

Either would suck eggshells but I'd go with deaf because being without sight would be horrible. Imagine never seeing the last installment in the Harry Potter franchise or never seeing the sun set over the ocean again. *shudder*

Grandma or baby:

It's a toughie. Fo shizzle. This is hard. Either answer sounds horrible so I guess I would have to let my grandmother go. Yeah, that sounded as horrible as it sounded it my head.

New phrase I will try and adapt**: Cabbage patching (definition is some sort of dance maneveor) (curtosy of That's So Raven).

Question: What is your least favourite television show?

*Note to self: don't ever go head to head with Maddy in Wii tennis because she will turn on you and use whatever she can to her advantage. (ex. I was on the phone with my mother and she decided to time was right to serve the ball to me. Meanwhile I had a multitask and accidentally hung up on my mom after a wicked backhand volley)

**I think this will be a new addition to my blog because there are so many phrases I want to insert into my regular vocab.

GOD SPEED ;) Thanks for being you, Jeff. dftbA. (Oh and get back to work.)

Random mutterings

I'm sitting eating Eggos and watching Arthur and it's making me feel nostalgic for my childhood. It's actually an Arthur episode I haven't seen, which is a rarity. Buster beat Brain in a decathelon of some sort and now he's changed his name to Allen and decided to be a comedian. How sad.

The twelve-year-olds of the world scare me. I can't describe why, they might team up on me and Dare me to take off my shirt and run down the street clucking like a chicken. *shudder* That would be bad, so I'll just stick to being afraid.

In two days I leave on an airplane and travel across the country. Or about 2/3 of the way across.

Blogging about my actual life feels incredibly weird.

I've been think about the word 'like'. I say it a lot. This bothers me. Especially the fact that whenever I try to notice it and stop, it just makes me more aware of exactly how many times I say it. It's like, really irritating. So then I'm like, "okay, no more. I'm going to stop, like, right now." From there it just gets worse.

What am I supposed to

do? I can't exactly just stop. It's more complicated than that.

It's cold outside today. Did I just resort to the weather? I think so. Wow, dire indeed.

Why is it so hilarious that I'm watching Arthur. It's a really entertaining show, okay? And yes, it's marketed at elementary school kids, but that doesn't mean it's not educational and entertaining. Jeez, everyone can just leave me alone. :)

The garden: