Expecto Patronum

In an attempt at quality control and because I am much too scholarly to blog during finals I was never able to finish my BEDA, then I did not feel like blogging during much of the summer; I've mentioned before that I'm still trying to decide if a blog is a good idea. Excuses aside I went to see the final Harry Potter movie last week and, like every other fan, I feel the need to express my thoughts about it. Obviously this contains spoilers.
Overall I thought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was one of the better movies. I believe that having David Yates direct the final four installments of the series was for the best, continuing the ambiance and tone between movies allowed them to have a feeling of continuity that the changing directors in the first movies was not providing. For me, without this, I'm sure the disconnect would have bought down the entire series (even though I did not like Order of the Phoenix I can admit that it was ascetically consistent with Yates' better Potter films).
I always thought that Fred Weasley's death was the worst of the slaughter house that is Harry Potter and the Deathly  Hallows but until I saw the movie a large part of me assumed that was because of the shock I felt. I remember reading it and halfway down the page thinking, 'wait, did she just kill Fred' and then going back and rereading his death over and over to make sure I wasn't making a mistake. In the movie, when Ron was crying over Fred's body, I almost teared up (which is the equivalent of crying for anyone else since the only movie I've ever cried in was Air Bud).
In the novels it seemed to me as if Malfoy had a genuine struggle between good and evil, which I felt was expressed brilliantly by Tom Felton in Half Blood Prince. However, in Deathly Hallows Part 2 I didn't feel sympathy for Malfoy's struggle, it seemed more as if he had weak character. It wasn't as if he was trying to make the personal decision between being a good or bad person.This caused me to rethink the character entirely. The part when Voldemort asks the Hogwarts students and the Order to join the Death Eaters because he believes he has won the battle and Draco joins to be with his parents is the only moment when I thought perhaps he was trying to be good and just was not strong enough. Until this moment I had seen Draco in the books and movies as someone who was a strong person deciding between good and evil, not a weak person who wanted to (or was considering) being good.
Otherwise I thought Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman continued to be insanely fierce, Matthew Lewis looked fantastic and I thought the Neville and Luna story line was cute however non-canon it may be. The moment when Neville says, "You haven't seen Luna have you? I'm mad for her. I think it's about time I told her, since we'll probably both be dead by dawn" was a great add on to Neville kick-assness. I'd always felt that the movies robbed Professor McGonagall of most of the funny or quirky lines she had in the books so I was glad that she had some great moments in this movie. And finally, Filch is hilarious and I feel VERY bad that he had to clean up that giant mess.

House isms

Like I previously mentioned, I have recently been obsessed with House. Here are my five favorite House isms that I have come across so far in season five.

People should not be testing drugs because they're desperate. But, people won't test drugs unless they're desperate. We need drugs to save children and puppies, ergo we need desperate people, ergo welfare kills sick children. 5.03

You "lost track of your speed"? I think that was Hitler's excuse. Lost track of the Jews. No one held him responsible.  5.04 

There's a reason that we've evolved the feeling of awkwardness it tells us not to talk about things. 5.07 

If you don't think your life is worth more than someone else's then sign your donar card and kill yourself. 5.09 

Religion is not the opiate of the masses. Religion is the placebo of the masses. 5.15

And this isn't a House ism, it's just a quote from House I like:

You're going to spend one day of your life on your deathbed. It's he other 25,000 we should be worried about. 5.14

Words

Isn't it frustrating that the things that you love the most are the things that you have the most difficulty explaining your love for? Everything that I want to blog about, not just for BEDA but in general, I properly express my love for. Sometimes I wonder if I was a professional writer, or someone linguistically talented different would I be able to do so? Is that what sets, at least some, linguistically gifted people apart? The ability to flawlessly describe what they love or hate? Or perhaps it is an ability to describe abstract ideas like love and hate that allows certain people to sufficiently express their emotions, experiences and attachments. If I had that ability I would be able to find adequate words to describe my admiration for Disney, particularly of the Land and World varieties, Tamora Pierce, Criminal Minds, panda bears, Lights, crash test dummies, dinosaur skeletons, Greek classics, Johnny Depp and Christmas. Some of these things have been in my life for so long that I am simply unable to put my expansive list of thoughts about them into a concise post that also fully covers these thoughts. Others are simply more intense or abstract and would require days, a thesaurus and a headache to properly describe.

Like a Killer in the Sun

Everyday summer gets closer... and everyday it feels less like summer. Hopefully the weather will get nicer, it is supposed to warm up by the end of the week. Nevertheless I thought I would share some of my summer plans.
001. Craven. I'm not a hardcore country music fan but a road trip followed by spending a weekend camping with my friends and enjoying the ultimate summer atmosphere is a pretty exciting thought. I will admit there are some groups I'm dying to see, like Darius Rucker, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland. And when Lonestar sings Walking in Memphis will likely be a highlight of my entire life.


002. Netflix. Wait what? Okay that's a lame summer plan but all my friends have it and are always so excited about it and talk about it non-stop. Knowing it would be the largest distraction ever I waited a whole year to sign up but now that I have four free months ahead of me I am looking forward to having the entire SNL series at my fingertips.


003. Ontario. My annual ontario trip is a staple for summer. I get to visit with my favorite cousin, which is pretty much my favorite activity ever. It also means nostalgia, car trips, Digimon the movie on repeat, LOTR marathons, Chloe and Levesque readings, bookstores, giant family dinners with drunk aunts and uncles and the perhaps the occasional reenactment of Jesus Christ Superstar.


004. The second annual Vanilla Coke expedition. We have to drive to the USA to get Vanilla Coke. Last year we did the trip in under 24 hours because we didn't plan it properly, or at all really. We left 3 hours later than planned because Jess was passed out with nearly the entire McDonalds menu when we went to pick her up and then we spent 2 hours looking for her passport (sock drawer), the border patrol were huge fans of the tarp in the trunk of my car, and then they had a difficult time believing we had driven all day for 6 cases of Vanilla Coke. It was the highlight of my summer. This year hopefully we will leave on time and spend more than 4 hours in the states.


005. Television. Hi my name is Jenn and I'm a television addict. The only shows I am currently caught up on are The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and Criminal Minds. My PVR is about to be filled and I am dying to watch the most recent seasons of NCIS, Fringe and Grey's Anatomy as well as watch seasons 1 & 2 of Doctor Who.
So those are five of my plans for summer. A larger trip is still in the works but who knows if that will happen. I'm sure there will also be a number of slightly spontaneous smaller trips. Regardless I'm excited for late nights, summer blockbusters, summer reading, shorts and slurpees.

Arthur Review

I went to this movie because it was the only one in the appropriate time slot and I had fairly low expectations. I figured it would be good for a few laughs and then a week or two from now I would forget I had seen it. The characters are lovable and the plot mildly familiar but the jokes are incredibly hilarious (however, I may have found it so funny due to a combination of lack of sleep and the fact that I have not paid attention to anything other than theology for a week). I'm not a Russell Brand fan, he's one of those actors who is around but I don't pay much attention to, I don't dislike him. I found the humor in Arthur to be refreshing for his movies, less vulgar and more of a combination of smart and innovative jokes. My major issue with the movie is who wouldn't want to be with Jennifer Garner? I think that the fact she played a girl with borderline personality disorder, who was frankly rather frightening at times, is irrelevant to her insane attractiveness.
The movie is very good, I recommend going to see it. You cannot expect it to be anything other than a romantic comedy, and a remake at that. But so long as you are expecting a mainstream, big distribution, box office movie then I believe Arthur will meet or even exceed expectations. I doubt I'll see it again in theaters or even buy it on DVD but it's quality level was higher than that of many romantic comedies I have seen recently and it was a great way to unwind after a final.
Spoilers ahead:
One of my favorite jokes was after Arthur purchases the suit from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural speech at a hilarious auction and is wearing it around New York, the police ask him for ID and he shows them a penny. Whatever I'm a dork, I thought it was funny. AND "this isn't what it looks like. Unless it looks like a cat raping a horse."

J. Crew

I don't want to sum up this entire controversy, but if you haven't heard about it, essentially in the most recent J. Crew catalogue there is a picture of a woman painting her son's toenails pink and nearly, or possibly every, major Western news channel picked up on this picture and labeled it "blatant propaganda celebrating transgendered children" and "gender bending." In regards to the first quote, firstly how does pink nail polish celebrate transgendered children and secondly why would it be an issue if it did? The Daily Show with Jon Stewart did a fantastic segment on this controversey which you can watch here. Jon handles the issue so well, and I suggest watching the clip because he there is a reason that he has a television show and I don't. As Jon said, "you make it sound like it's a story about incest and cannibalism." He also fantastically mentioned that if you paint your child has their face painted to look like a cat that does not make them a cat or a cat lover. I think J. Crew made a smart decision by not commenting on the story, in fact I believe they called it a non-story. This is not a "gender bender." Pink is a wavelength of light. Light does not decide gender.

Academic House Arrest

On Thursday I had my first final, psychology. While studying for that I found this gem in my notes that I would like to share: "To maximize having offspring and investment men want to have sex with as many children as possible." I can only assume I meant women... Apparently I was not paying attention that day.
So finals are in full swing and I deal with stress by watching television which is bad because television takes a ton of time. Mostly I watch television because I can ignore my own life and focus on the show, while at the same time be reminded that there are bigger issues than my stress and other people are facing much worse issues than I am and, despite my sometimes global view, finals are not the most important thing in the world
This television therapy results in my discovering new shows around this time every year. This year I have found House. I guess I haven't really found it, I used to watch the show sporadically before my parents bought me a PVR (which, bit of trivia, is helpful in preventing depression because it helps provide an internal locus of control, just a bit more psychology for you).  This was around the same time that House fired/lost his entire team and I thought that I wouldn't enjoy the show anymore because, like I said before, I like the family aspect of procedurals. Little did I know that his team was not off the show and they would eventually become members of his team again.
I have watched season seven this week and, despite having read some fairly scathing reviews, I felt it was very well done. I don't feel that Amber Tamblyn's character is very likable but I think she's an interesting edition to the show and her morality (although sometimes unrealistic; see 7.11 Family Practice) is refreshing. What surprised me is that I didn't miss Thirteen, who is one of my favorite characters. I assume that is because I was so busy gushing over the adorableness that was House and Cuddy. Plus how could I not love a show about Sherlock Holmes if he was Benjamin Franklin Hawkeye Pierce.
I'm off to study for Perspective on Jesus, which I should have started doing two hours ago. But...I was watching House.

Twelve Favorite Television Episodes

I borrowed this idea from owlssayhooot, hopefully she won't mind. I tried to spread out my episode choices because, for example, I like 80% of Criminal Minds episodes more than any episode of Lost, but I felt that, right now, covering a spectrum of shows would be more fun. (If you'd like to see a list of my favorite Criminal Minds episodes you can click here). These are in no particular order.


MASH - 1.15 Tuttle
I figure MASH is one of my stranger television indulgences, everyone my age knows about it but no one else has actually seen every episode (except my cousin, but hey we're practically the same person). What I love about MASH is that it is able to embody complex and intense emotions with a level of realism and depth that I find is rare of any TV programming but especially comedies. However, Tuttle is my favorite episode because of its comedy, not emotion. If I were to recommend and episode to get someone hooked on MASH, this would be it.

"We can all be comforted by the thought that he's not really gone, there's a little Tuttle left in all of us, in fact you might say that all of us together made up Tuttle." 

Misfits - 2.03 Episode 2.03
I think this is everyone's favorite Misfits episode. I'm not sure I need to explain anything here. I will say that if e4 had asked me to write an episode and told me to make it as perfect as I could, it would not have come close to how perfect this episode is. I would have written an episode I thought was perfect and then watched this and have been upset by how far from that I was.

"He's like a handsome shark." & "You think I risked my life traveling through the dimensions of time so I could sniff your knickers?""I don't know did you?"

NCIS - 3.21 Bloodbath
Procedural dramas are a dime a dozen. Anyone who watches them has something specific that draws them to certain programs above others. Often it is the dynamic of the team. I have two choice procedural dramas, Criminal Minds and NCIS, and I love them because the characters are family, not associates. Aside from the overall team, NCIS has numerous internal relationships that I love, actually I think I love every character combination. However, Abby and Gibbs are my favorite. I had a major existential crisis when Abby considered filing her report on Pedro Hernandez, it shook the foundations of what I love about the show. Thankfully I've recently been able to repress season seven. I digress. Bloodbath was all about the Abby and Gibbs father-daughter dynamic in the best way possible. It also included the interactions I love between the other team members - humor, banter and genuine love. I haven't watched it in a while so I'm not sure how I would feel about the episode now, but I'm fairly certain I still love it. This is another one of those episodes where I could not have written a more perfect plot line myself. Also it randomly has an amazing soundtrack.

"Why didn't you come to me, Abby?""Because, Gibbs, I wanted him restrained. Not beaten to a pulp with a baseball bat."  

Doctor Who - 5.10 Vincent & the Doctor
David Tennant is my favorite Doctor but Matt Smith gets my favorite episode. This episode had me crying and I have only cried three times in television (Grey's Anatomy and Criminal Minds [which was apparently pointless but thankfully I never lost hope that CBS would fix their horrible mistake and I am absolutely ecstatic today]). Although there were a lot of brilliant sad moments in this episode, Van Gogh was such a tortured artist and Amy had just lost Rory, I actually cried when Bill Nighy was telling Vincent how influential he is within modern culture. Even though that fact did not save him I still think it was important and beautiful that he knew. 

"The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant." 

Fawlty Towers - 1.06 The Germans
Like all Fawlty Towers episodes, The Germans takes a bunch of random and hilarious plot lines, one liners and seemingly pointless asides and weaves them into something of unmatched brilliance. This episode however, does this even better than the others. It at first appears to be set apart into three very different acts but in hindsight they come together to form a complete story line. The separate plots in this episode are more distinctive than other episodes and, I believe, that to compensate for this the jokes became more eccentric. 

"Don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right."

The Office - 2.12 The Injury
It took me a while to get into the humor in The Office, which is strange because it is very similar to many of my other favorite comedies. One of my friends recommended the show to me and I watched several episodes before seeing this one. The Injury was the episode that made me decide to watch the entire show, or rather the episode decided for me because, after watching it, I don't think it's possible to not become a fan. It is so over the top ridiculous, but in a realistic way that only The Office (and Arrested Development) can achieve.

"You can't fire me! I don't work in this van!"

Criminal Minds - 4.20 Amplification
Spencer Reid. That covers it.

"Hi Mom, this is Spencer. I just really wanted you to know that I love you, and I need you to know that I spend every day of my life proud to be your son."

Criminal Minds - 4.24 Conflicted
Jackson Rathbone is a brilliant actor (and musician) and I wish more people recognized him for his talent rather than his role in Twlight. This episode was so well done. I believe it had been two seasons since the last dissociative identity disorder episode and Adam Jackson was such an interesting unsub. The focus of an episode is usually deciphering and catching the unsub but this episode directly addressed the ambiguous level of responsibility that often accompanies crime and the mentally ill. Criminal Minds centers around psychopathology so it was nice that they took an episode to address that their cases are, despite how they seem, not always polarized.

"Stephen King once said- "Monsters are real. Ghosts are real, too. They live inside us and sometimes, they win."

Friends - 3.02 The One Where No One's Ready
This is my favorite Friends episode. Every season the show had at least one episode that was character driven, set entirely in the apartments, removing any excuse for cutting corners with the standard of the dialogue, humor or acting. This episode was brilliantly written and absolutely hilarious. The quality and originality of Friends is what makes it my favorite American comedy; this episode raised the standard for a show that was already above par. I have seen every episode of Friends and I find this one the funniest and the most re-watchable.

"Here it is, buddy boy. You hide my clothes, I'm wearing everything you own.""Oh my God, that is so not the opposite of taking someone's underwear!""Look at me, I'm Chandler, could I *be* wearing any more clothes?"

Full House - 6.23 & 6.24 The House Meets the Mouse
Confession: I am a Disney addict. Aside from the setting, this is a fairly normal episode of Full House. It does have a lot of very special guests though. The highlight is beyond a doubt D.J. hallucinating that Steve is Aladdin.

"I don't know. You know, I've been drivin' myself crazy just thinkin' about it. What I'm gonna do is, I'm just gonna follow my heart and just bypass my brain entirely." "I never use my brain. Trust me. After a while, you won't even miss it." "Can't miss what you never had."

Firefly - 1.04 Jaynestown
Every time I re-watch Firefly my favorite episodes change. During my most recent re-watch Jaynestown and Our Mrs. Reynolds were my favorites (and Ariel and War Stories; this show was too brilliant to handle, obviously). This episode was a great balance of great story lines and humor and emotion. A few years passed between my first viewing of Firefly and when I bought the box set and an element that always stuck with me was the Shepherd's hair. The only thing that upset me a little was that it seemed as if Jayne gained a lot of character in this episode, but we see in Ariel, he didn't. But hey change doesn't always happen over night.

"I tore these out of your symbol and they turned into paper, but I wanna put them back."

Lost - 1.04 Walkabout 
Some thoughts on Lost: 1. Charlie Pace was my favorite character and Greatest Hits (3.21) is my second favorite Lost episode. 2.  Basically this show was perfect. I know my assistant manager hated season two and my lovely cousin didn't like season three (my personal favorite), and I can't argue the show always had direction; actually the producers and writers even admit they did not have a solid plot line for the series for a long time. Regardless, I still worshiped the show and enjoyed every episode. One of my favorite things about J.J. Abrams programming they make you think (I am also a huge fan of Fringe and Alias) and Lost always made me think. 
The reason I love this episode has nothing to do with thinking, it is about feeling. Locke was always doing what he thought was right, even when it seemed wrong to everyone else, and sometimes the results of that were disastrous. He just wanted two things, not to be told what to do and to have a purpose. I felt so much pain and sympathy for Locke, he was nearly as broken as possible and found redemption and purpose on the island. This episode was definitely the best use of flashbacks.

"Hey... Hey don't you walk away from me! You don't know who you're dealing with! Don't ever tell me what I can't do, ever! This is destiny, this is destiny... This is my destiny! I'm supposed to do this, dammit! Don't tell me what I can't do! Don't tell me what I can't do!"

I am Not a Hipster

Disclaimer: I am not a sociologist, nor do I have any sociological qualifications. This is my blog and these are personal opinions which are dynamic and subject to change. I am open to other perspectives, opinions, or even CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. This is simply how I felt at this moment, which may or may not be representative of my overall beliefs and views. Thank you.
I have been called a hipster twice this week. The purpose of this post isn't to hate on hipsters, I don't have an issue with anyone who identifies themselves as a hipster. Personally, having a stereotype imposed on me, makes me very uncomfortable. I do not perceive myself as a hipster, which makes it frustrating that, apparently, others do. For the most part, I like to believe that people belong to the stereotype or culture that they personally identify with and when others try to tell me which stereotype they feel I fit it is as if they have taken away my choice to define and express my individuality. Obviously this is a problem with stereotypes in general, it isn't specific to my situation. However, since this is my blog and I feel compelled to rant about my undesired loss of identity I want to look at my particular situation in a bit of a, very miniature, "case study".
A stereotype is an over simplified idea of a particular person. If it helps a person to think of me as a stereotype (example: hipster) then that is fine, I cannot control their internal thought processes and schemas. But when a person says to me "you are a hipster" then they have made a decision about my identity for me. Some individuals do identify with a single stereotype, and if that works for them than there is nothing wrong with that. I have not been able to find a stereotype that I feel encompasses who I am and I do not want to receive that definition from someone else. I find myself to be a little mainstream, nerdy, and, yes, even a little hipster (among other things). According to this website, I best fit the schema of an Indie Jesus, which I was not aware was a stereotype or culture (I am using the terms culture and stereotype rather interchangeably because, in this post, they serve the same purpose).
Culture is contested so to try to define hipster, in an attempt to decide why I was considered hipster, my friend and I took to the internet. We began with the standard Wikipedia search which led us to a definition by TIME magazine: "Hipsters are the friends who sneer when you cop to liking Coldplay. They're the people who wear t-shirts silk-screened with quotes from movies you've never heard of and the only ones in America who still think Pabst Blue Ribbon is a good beer. They sport cowboy hats and berets and think Kanye West stole their sunglasses. Everything about them is exactingly constructed to give off the vibe that they just don't care." This definition was pretty far from what I expected to find and not something that I identify with, but as my dear friend said "what the fuck does TIME know about hipsters." We then progressed to Urban Dictionary which had A LOT more information. I felt the first definition that we encountered was very well written. Some standout points were that hipster is a counter-culture, which I had never considered but I think it's a fairly accurate generalization, I've always believed myself to be more of a sub-culture person.  It also included sections that made me rethink my own ideas of a hipster, reminding me of the importance of flexible stereotypes and open mindedness.
In closing, hipsters are cool, I'm okay with stereotypes as descriptors but not identities and I am, still, not a hipster. So I gave myself the night off from studying and ended up doing sociological research, wow. At least I learned some lessons about personal identifications, stereotypes and associated paradigms. I'll consider those later though, I'm going to bed now.

Crash Test Dummies

One
Born to die.
He is nervous about crashing again.
Everyday he is blown to bits,
Despite being put back together he is going insane.
It has his stiff hands shaking,
Thinking about the wall that the car hits.
He hides, frazzled and anxious.
Each part of him aching,
Wishing that humanity was more abstemious.


Two
She is fascinated.
She's brand new and bright,
Assembled and joining the automotive industry.
She is intrigued by his site,
It is like someone's puppetry.
Bright eyed and innocent,
Watching him with bewilderment.
She flows like rubber towards him,
And grabs his shaking limb.


Together they climb into the car,
Put on their seatbelts and be who they are.

Doctor Who, Season Five

Unfortunately the power was out yesterday, ruining my BEDA and disrupting my studying, although studying with flashlights turned out okay (when I was younger I LOVED reading with flashlights and even though I've grown out of that I did feel a little like Klaus Baudelaire). Seeing as it was Tuesday, something had to malfunction on my car. My left signal light went out, which as far as my car goes, is a minor problem but frustrating because it is the third time in two months a signal light on my car has gone out.
Otherwise I spent an insane portion of the day studying. I was finally able to watch the last two episodes of Doctor Who season five. I really liked this season. David Tennant was my favorite Doctor but Matt Smith is brilliant in a "if it can't be David" way. I read a really great quote about Eleven and now I can't find it, but it was something along the lines of 'it's almost as if you have to worry that he might be about to save the world and then see a butterfly and get distracted.' I butchered that; I really like the idea behind it though. I think it is a perfect description of Matt's Doctor and someone else has already said it best. So if you can't top it, steal from them. I think Eleven had a bit of a disadvantage right from the start because my favorite Ten moment happened right before his regeneration, when Wilfred was in the chamber and the Doctor had to come to terms with sacrificing himself to get Wilfred out. That was so powerful, and the perfect exit for David. So far this just sounds like I'm comparing David Tennant and Matt Smith, which isn't my intention. The highlight of season five was my favorite episode, Vincent and The Doctor. I love the comedy on Doctor Who and I think that Matt Smith is comically refreshing in a role that did not need to be refreshed, but has benefited from it nonetheless. I love Eleven, Amy and Rory (although I wasn't sure about Rory until The Pandorica Opens) I'm very excited for the new season to start.
Now if only The Doctor and his TARDIS would show up so I could go back and post this yesterday...

Ideal Unsubs

Alan Alda
He is one of the most talented people in show business. General consensus seems to be that MASH went downhill after Burns, Trapper, Blake and Radar left and I really can't deny that. However, they did continue to find exceptional ways to deal with serious issues. Alan did much of the directing and writing. I would want him to actually act on Criminal Minds (although I wouldn't object to his writing and/or directing as well). If a nine year old child can be an unsub so can a seventy four year old. Even if he did not directly commit the crime he could be the driving force behind it; this episode of NCIS comes to mind. I strongly believe any affiliation Alan Alda could have with Criminal Minds would be brilliant.
Neil Patrick Harris
I'd love to see NPH do some dark dramatic acting. I don't think anyone would argue he has not proved he is talented and I think he would play dark and twisty like no one else could. NPH absolutely conquers any role that he plays and I am sure his performance on Criminal Minds would be second to none. I can't even suggest ideas for what sort of unsub he would be because whatever the Criminal Minds writers would come up with would be a thousand times better than what I think up.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Wouldn't that just be the dream? I can't lie, a significant portion of this wish is based on wanting to see Joe and Gube on screen together again. I think it would be beautiful, some sort of classic unsub/Reid showdown. What I have in mind is probably something in an interrogation room with a lot of glorious intellectual dialogue. They are both such fantastic actors that I'm sure this would easily become my favorite episode. In fact I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt is my number one unsub actor wish.
Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy was in a movie called Broken, which also starred Heather Graham and Jessica Stroup. The movie was pretty complex and my friends and I sat around for hours talking about it and eventually had to look it up on IMDb to figure out the story line. It turns out Jeremy was playing heroin, metaphorically of course. He is a fantastic actor (I especially loved Kidnapped) and he did an exceptional job in Broken. I think it would be great if he could do a sort of comparable reprisal. Because Criminal Minds deals with a lot of psychopathology it would be easy to incorporate a similar role or plot twist into an episode.

Pre-Craven

In July I will be attending the country music festival Craven. I am not a fan of country music but a lot of my friends are and they go every year. Finally they convinced me to join them so I have been experiencing a crash course in country music. I am not sure that it is going to be a genre I follow closely, but I've found a few artists I enjoy and I'm going to be much more open to it in the future. These are my favorite country songs right now, limited to artists who are appearing at Craven.I have not gotten a chance to listen to my John Michael Montgomery or The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band albums yet but they are in my lineup.

Favorite Quotes

This is a small sample of some of my favorite quotes and a brief explanation of why I think they stand out. These are all quotes that I find meaningful, although I also have a fair number of funny, clever or impressively constructed quotes as well as more, sort of, general movie and book quotes that I have gathered over the years. I have always felt that writing down quotes was important. One reason for this is that I spent most of my childhood assuming it was something most people did so I should do as well, and another is that I get frustrated when I hear a brilliant line or read a sentence that speaks to me, enlightens me or expresses something inside me that I would never be able to say so eloquently. Unfortunately, I've found it difficult keeping a concise collection of quotes and I often find them in half filled notebooks or on scraps of paper. Over time I have come to find that these are just as valuable as proper collections though because, although the quote I search for may not be at my immediate disposal, I will eventually recover it and be reminded of a time in my life when I felt, or still feel, that it's author could express my emotions better than I could.


1. "There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be." All you Need is Love (The Beatles): This quote is comforting to me. It is a reminder that, even though I may not be happy with some of my choices or where I am at that moment, that place is where I am meant to be because it is where I am. Did that make sense? It's a bit of a mental rubix cube I guess.
2. "Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted." John Lennon: I have to admit, much of my love for this quote comes from the fact that it justifies my love of doing nothing and how much I value the time that I get to spend alone. Often I feel as if society considers down time a waste of time. Essentially this quote is exactly how I feel about that time, I enjoy it, which gives it purpose. I don't know that I've ever seen my feelings put so perfectly into words.
3. "Nothing is permanent in this world, not even our troubles." Charlie Chaplin: I have already confessed that I am absolutely obsessed with Criminal Minds. This is my favorite quote that I have discovered through the show. I find it is an excellent reminder that my troubles may seem global and stable, but they rarely are. I find remembering this is the most helpful way to make it through difficult or stressful times.
4. "The opposite of war isn't peace, it's creation." Marc Cohen (Rent): When I was younger I spent a great amount of time trying to make sense of this quote. Like so many things, once I'd realized it, the meaning was seemed obvious. The reason I like this quote is simple; it takes the majority of my and feelings and thoughts about war and condenses them into a single perfect sentence. This is my favorite quote from Rent, which is my favorite musical.
5. "You are never given the ability to dream without getting the ability to make it come true." Mickey Mouse: This is a quote I found reading through one of my yearbooks. Each of the graduates gets a space to put a few words (fifty if I remember correctly) and someone put this quote. I'm not sure I completely agree with this but I like the premise of it. I find it very inspiring and uplifting.

Criminal Minds is Educational

I have a confession. I am obsessed with Criminal Minds. It has been almost exactly a year and four months since I started watching it (yes I know the date I started watching). I was vaguely aware of the show before this because one night in a hotel room with my best friend Cher, we were watching television and she insisted we watch it. She neglected to mention that it was the second part of an episode (actually it was Mayhem which is the first episode of season four, but it picks up after a cliffhanger). I honestly thought that it was the dumbest show ever because, well it didn't make any sense, they were just suddenly in the middle of a case for no reason with no background. But I digress. I re-watch the previous seasons constantly and Wednesday nights are a consistent highlight of my week.
Last term I took an astronomy course and I found myself suddenly understanding a larger portion of the dialogue on The Big Bang Theory (like REALLY understanding). Today was the final day of my introductory psychology course. Much like astronomy and The Big Bang Theory last term, I've recently realized that I understand more of the cases and conversations on my favorite show. I suppose it works the other way around as well because, after watching Conflicted (season 4, episode 20), the section on dissociative identity disorder was more like review than new knowledge. The fact that last weeks episode focused on schizophrenia really clarified that I can both learn from the show and apply my knowledge when watching it.
So it's not that I used to think television wasn't educational. I've sung The Big Bang Theory theme in astronomy finals and I know a whole lot more about medicine then I did before I started watching Grey's Anatomy. It also isn't that, before taking a psychology class, I assumed that all the behavioral analysis on Criminal Minds was made up by the writers to sound lovely and serve the plot line. I just had never put any consideration into how much I was learning, or really that I was learning anything, from watching most of my television programs. I also think this helps reinforce my education because I get so excited when, for example, Reid mentions catatonic schizophrenia and I know its symptoms and treatment. Suddenly that isn't just a term, it has meaning and depth. I guess what I wanted to say is that I am beginning to realize that having an education helps me get the most out of everything, not just obviously intellectual situations and materials, and that is a pretty exciting thing to discover.

Summer

So I have twenty days left until it is summer break, although I'm not sure I can last that long. My last midterm is tomorrow, which is also the last day of school... which makes sense... I'm starting to get really excited for summer. The air is finally thick with dust and some of the snow is melting, I didn't even wear a jacket today! These are some shots from last summer. I still do not have any solid plans for this year, just a lot of tentative stuff, which is weird because last year I had my flights booked in February. I need to get back to studying psychology now but today has been A LOT more productive then some of the other weekdays (granted the car thing was not my fault). 

Oh! The Macs at my university got boat loads of Cherry Dr. Pepper, which is why today is awesome :D.

Unsuspecting Victims

A poisonous ball
It glows with radiation
Paints bodies and walls
People decay and then die
Until the village is gone.

Car Wash

So I wrote a post today while I was sitting in the car wash line because it takes about 45 minutes to get into the actual wash. I was all set up to wait with my phone, iPod, and iPad, watching Doctor Who and drinking Redbull. I made it up to the door, the door opened and my car would not start! Some old man came up to my car and told me I had to drive in... because obviously my problem was that I did not understand how a car wash works. He got two twenty somethings to push my car into the fork between the two car wash lanes and the people who worked there came out. They said that they could have just pushed me through the wash but because I was in the fork I had to wait until one of the lanes was free to go through to the other side where a tow truck could pick me up. After my entire Doctor Who episode the lane was finally free and I made it to the actual parking lot. I called my friend Cassandra who came with our friend Jessica to wait with me while I called CAA (a membership that my parents got me as an adult Christmas gift). They would not believe me that there was a Co-op car wash on the street where I was waiting and told the tow truck to pick me up at a different car wash. Obviously Justin the tow truck guy had a difficult time finding me on a street where I wasn't and started texting me to find out where I actually was. He came and got my car and took it to the garage. Then Cassandra and Jess took me to Fudruckers for supper, partly to cheer me up and partly because they were already going there.
So what I learned from the situation is having your car die in the actual car wash is very embarrassing. I handled the situation much more calmly then I would have predicted that I would if someone had told me this was going to happen. I have been having a lot of car troubles recently and my car is not very old; I do not want to have to buy a new one yet. Since it is the start of finals I will have to wait until May to do anything about the situation. I guess my other post about how happy I am that it finally feels like summer and how relaxed I was is not irrelevant. Now I need to study psychology because I lost about three hours to another car disaster.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

It is day four of BEDA and I've already run out of things to write about. In an attempt to not take responsibility for my lack of creativity: I have spent all day studying psychology and thinking about nothing else so aside from psychology (which I honestly considered writing about...and probably will eventually) I have had nothing to inspire me. So I present this senseless post!

A few weeks ago I had the privilege to attend The Colin and Brad Show, a comedy improv show staring Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood. This was the first comedy show I had ever seen (it was also my first time in a casino; I won 25 dollars!). The show consisted of some of the games from Whose Line Is It Anyway and some original ones. The show was brilliant and hilarious; I would recommend it to everyone. They chose some members of the audience for participation and, because we were in the front row, my best friend and her boyfriend were the first two chosen (they played moving people for anyone familiar with Whose Line). It was a great opportunity and I am so jealous that they were able to take part.

Recently I have been watching a lot of Whose Line Is It Anyway. In December my Dad changed our cable package without telling me so that we could get The Cave, which plays Whose Line, and set up my PVR to record it so that one day I turned it on and had some episodes waiting for me. It was a pretty great surprise. There are multiple reasons why I’ve recently begun to devour the episodes. One is the normal ‘go see an awesome concert and then spend weeks listening to only that artist’ after effect. The other is that, because of finals, when I have spare time it is an easy to watch a short episode. It also does not involve too much concentration; in an attempt to make the most of my free time these days I have been watching TV while on the Internet.

The skill level of the shows players never fails to amaze me, especially Wanye Brady's ability to make up a song about literally anything on the spot. You can watch some of my clips here, here, here, here, here AND here.

Doppelgangers

I have spent a good portion of my life being told that I look like other people. Perhaps I am not very original looking, I am not entirely sure. Today at work a customer told me that I looked 'oddly familiar.' Names and faces are sort of a forte of mine so I was fairly certain that I did not know her and simply told her 'I get that a lot.' I'm sure thought that I only said that because I felt that it was appropriate but I do in fact 'get that a lot.'

My cousin and I frequently are told that we look alike, which is understandable because obviously we are related. Once in the Toronto airport we were in the bathroom and a woman exited a stall and gasped; she then asked us if we were twins. My cousin is two years older than I am and we do not look THAT similar. We get asked if we are sisters often and honestly we could pass as such but people actually stop us on the street to ask us this. It is strange to me because if I see two people who look alike I assume they are related, I do not stop them to find out. It is not something I consider normal behavior.

My other common doppelganger is Kristen Stewart. I have been told that I look like her and that have the same ‘mannerisms.’ Generally I consider this a complement because, although I am not a Kristen Stewart fan, I think she is beautiful. However, I do not see any resemblance between her and I. People tell me that I look like her all the time and I have had to put up with Bella as a nickname as well (it has even appeared on my cup at Starbucks before).

Other doppelganger-esque situations involve a girl who attends my university and rides the same city bus as a number of my friends, resulting in frequent “are you on the bus?” text messages and another student at my university (possibly the same one girl) who has had to put up with a number of my friends beginning conversations with her before they realize that she is not me. Since the release of Inception I have been told I look like Ellen Page many times (maybe I am a hybrid of Kristen Stewart and Ellen Page). A friend told me it was weird to watch Inception because Ellen and I practically wore the same clothes.

It has been a VERY long day for me. I had to wake up at 5am for my shift and then worked an eight-hour day. I still have a lot of studying that I should do before school tomorrow and hopefully I can get to bed early-ish (I can hope!). Goodnight!

Looking for Alaska Reflections (Spoilers)

I read Looking for Alaska for the first time last weekend. I know, I know, I am a terrible teenager and a terrible Nerdfighter. I figured it was necessary to reflect on this unfathomably incredibly absolutely amazing book before too much time had passed.

I love to read but rarely am I so captivated by a novel that I drop everything to spend as much time reading it as possible. I have been lucky enough to have that happen twice this year (actually technically four times), the first being my, also much delayed, reading of the Hunger Games trilogy. The second being Looking for Alaska. I do not think I need to mention John Green’s brilliant ability to adopt the seemingly universal voice of a teenager or his realistic, relatable characters because everyone knows about these things; it is why he is popular.* Before reading the book I knew that Alaska was going to die and I knew what the senior prank was going to be. These are things that, in retrospect, I wish I had not known because I am sure it would have caused me to read the book in one day rather than two. In spite of my lack of urgency to find out what happened, it still instantly became my favorite YA novel (with the exception of Tamora Pierce’s Tortall saga which I am not counting for a variety of reasons).

One of my favorite parts was at the basketball game one hundred and nine days before. My high school had a painful performance record at nearly every sport but had a disproportionate amount of school spirit. This was demonstrated at the annual invitational basketball tournament, which was an international tournament and a focal point of the school year. Another favorite part was when Alaska leaves Culver Creek after realizing she has missed the anniversary of her mother’s death. Her instant need to relieve her anxiety was so…right. Like I said, I knew Alaska was going to die before I read the book. I found her to be likeable and relatable, she was actually my favorite character. This left me worried that I would not like the second half of the book as much but her final ‘scene’ and death were perfect, the fact that the second half of the book was trying to solve the mystery that was Alaska Young added to my satisfaction with her absence because it felt as if she was still present.

Previous to reading Looking for Alaska my “I’m an angsty teenager and no one understands me except for this single book which states how I feel” book was Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, but it has now been replaced. THANKFULLY Pudge was nothing like Holden Caulfield and this book was not reminiscent of Catcher in the Rye.**

*See what I did there? ;)

**I am of the school of thought that one, anyone who reads Catcher in the Rye either worships it or hates it and two, it is the worst, most boring book I have ever read.

Spirit Animals

This week I was watching this super cute video and I was shocked by how obvious it was that Kaley Cuoco is my best friend's 'spirit animal'. I began to think about my own 'spirit animals.'

Nina Sayers (Black Swan)

My connection with Nina is hard to put into words. I often find myself relating to psychotic characters (which I am not going to read into). Perhaps it is simply that all ballerinas are a little psychotic. Nina embodies the ache and passion that ballet makes me feel. Natalie Portman said that, "[ballerinas are] all striving for that moment of perfection. They'll work tirelessly and destroy themselves to find that perfection," which I feel is a perfect description of myself, and I would assume others, as a ballerina. I am not sure why I relate more to Nina than other ballerinas in film. I think I can relate more to her personality and her life outside of dance; I see myself in Nina the dancer  and Nina the individual.
Meredith Grey (Grey's Anatomy)
Meredith and I are essentially the same person, except I don't have a McDreamy and she is much more motivated than I am. My similarity to her is the main reason that I like Grey's Anatomy. I find that, while Meredith and I are still similar, we were the most alike in the first through third seasons. I am dark and twisty Meredith; that is all there is to say.
Max (Where the Wild Things Are)
I think Max represents a stage or feeling that everyone experiences where escapism is ideal to overwhelming reality. Like so many people, I revert to anger before civilized discussion or expression when I am upset or feeling a little misunderstood. In my experience Max is relatable for people of all ages which, aside from breathtaking illustrations, is a reason that Where the Wild Things Are is so popular. Maurice Sendak says that his books are about "how children master various feelings." Knowing very few people, if anyone, who does not sometimes feel like Max, I think that he is a great reminder that even adults have growing up to do.

Hi There

I love reading other people's blogs but generally I'm not the sort to write down my ideas in any form, be it journal, blog, random piece of paper, for the simple fact that once i've done so then other people can see it. It's a fairly deep rooted issue I have involving my assumption that, at some point, be it soon or in the distance, someone will stumble across it and I will regret letting it leave my head. Therefore, the safest place for thoughts: inside my head. I guess I consider a blog to be the same level as a personal journal because, even though the content (at least in my case) is less personal, it is a public medium.

It felt vaguely intrusive or unethical, unfair rather, to read others blogs, experience aspects of their lives, without putting something of myself out in return. I've considered a blog for a while now and I finally decided to make one, so here it is.