Yes, I did go see this movie. And it was actually better than I expected it to be. I thought they probably wouldn’t work too hard to make a good movie because the books were so wildly popular they could just make money off their success. While this was partially true, it wasn’t close to completely true, thankfully.
Maybe I’ll write my thoughts on the movie itself later (or maybe not…it depends on if I have good coherent thoughts about it), but in the meantime….
I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but I couldn’t help but note the similarities to another popular teen series:
Gale vs. Peeta and Jacob vs. Edward. That’s right.
Yes, I just made a comparison to Twilight. Please don’t hate me. I hate myself a little bit for even dragging them into this blog post.
Think about it: one girl, two guys. One is the tan, outdoorsy type who’s been friends with her since they were kids. The other is a slightly pasty (no pun intended!) guy who’s clever and different and new. Who will Bella/Katniss choose?
Ok, the similarities aren’t absolute (whew): Peeta is far more interesting and less creepy to me than Edward, and far less possessive. I actually liked Peeta’s character, instead of being disturbed. So that’s a plus.
Did anyone else notice similarities/ differences in these stories?
This spreadable bacon may seem strange to you, but when added to scrambled eggs or spread on a toasted sandwich, it actually tastes pretty good. You have the bacon taste without the difficulty of the bacon falling out of the side of the sandwich. It is a little strange, and it is actually sweeter and less salty than I thought it would be (brown sugar is an ingredient), but it’s really not too bad. I wouldn’t eat it straight from the jar, but when added to something else (I hear it’s great on hamburgers), it adds a nice bacon flavor.
Let me know if you want to sample it, and I’ll see if I can whip up something that includes this ingredient.
Mostly I think what I enjoy about this bacon spread is thinking “I am eating bacon jam” to myself every time I take a bite. It’s funny every time.
Growing up, my family was somewhat unplugged from media. We did own a TV, but only watched for short periods of time and only a couple days a week, we didn’t listen to the radio that much (though time was made for “music appreciation”), we owned no Nintendo or Nintendo-esque games, and didn’t even have computer games until I was in middle school.
Ok. Now that you feel sorry for poor deprived me, I can continue with the surprising fact that there was one computer game with which I was familiar as a girl: Oregon Trail.
I use this as evidence for my theory that playing Oregon Trail was ubiquitous of my generation’s (or at least half a generation’s) social education. If you are at a party of twenty-something’s and stuck for a discussion topic, bring up this game of adventure and faux history and you will 1) boost your humor points and 2) buy yourself 5-10 minutes of conversation.
Obviously I will choose to ford the river
Yes, Oregon Trail in all its primitive-graphics glory was a cornerstone of American education. Everyone can commiserate and reminisce about having a member of their fictitious party break a bone or two, having their wagon wheels float down the river, going hunting and shooting 3000 pounds of buffalo (even though you know you can carry only 50 back to camp, thus explaining, in my mind at least, why buffalo went extinct in the West), and let’s not forget the perennial favorite: dying of dysentery.
I think dysentery was funny mostly because none of us knew what it was until we went home and asked our parents, who then wondered what company we’d been keeping. And it was funny thereafter because what child doesn’t appreciate a good dysentery joke?
But I digress. It is strange to me that a primitive game about crossing the continent should have become such a shared experience. We may not have all watched the same TV shows (most of my free time was spent outside building forts, having pine cone wars, arranging picnics, and putting on endless plays with the same plot for my long-suffering parents), but one thing I do share with others of my generation: that glorious moment when the computer screen announced that my party had arrived in the mythical Oregon.
p.s. Did Oregon Trail inspire young people of my generation to move to that state? I wonder if there’s any way to tell if a positive correlation exists?
You may have heard of the website WikiHow. Its tag line is “The World’s Collaborative How To Manual.” It’s like Wikipedia, but walks you through the steps of how to achieve whatever it is you can’t quite figure out on your own. WikiHow can guide you through How to Knit a Scarf, How to Enjoy Spring (in case you’re at a loss), How to Permanently Erase Data from a Hard Drive, and How to Make a Crop Circle (for that homemade movie you’re planning to make about aliens landing… oh wait. M. Night Shyamalan already made that one).
But today I discovered that the collective intellect and experience of the WikiHow community has put together a 24-step guide that will help you cope with that age old problem: the Existential Crisis. In case you are going through this experience yourself, you can view the helpful guide here.
Helpful stuff, right? Step 16 actually talks about Mr. Rogers (yes, as in red cardigan) — that’s who I would like to think of to help me solve my problems, especially if there were puppets involved.
Ok, so I laugh at the idea of actually thinking that a WikiHow page created by the collective intelligence/ ignorance of persons of unknown authority and credibility would help me through a personal crisis. But the fact that such a page exists means that someone took the time to write about the topic. Perhaps some of the people were being sarcastic (again, Mr. Rogers??), but then again, perhaps not. And this is one of the problems with random internet pages: it is often difficult to tell what articles are attempting to be serious and helpful and what is merely trivial or made to be laughed at. In any case, I should not advise consulting WikiHow for anything more serious than How to Play Ultimate Hide and Seek.
It’s March 15, the Ides of March, which makes me think about Julius Ceaser and Shakespeare, and soothsayers, and all that.
If facebook and twitter had been around in Shakespeare’s day, do you think he would have just invented clever status updates instead of writing a whole play?
Soothsayer: Beware the Ides of March! @JuliusCaesar
Julius Caesar: Whatever. Things are fine. I own Rome. @Soothsayer
Julius Caeasr: Et tu, Brute? @Brutus
Cassius: Sucks to be you. @JuliusCaesar
Brutus: Sorry man, did it for Rome. @JuliusCaesar
Soothsayer: Hate to say I was right….
MarkAntony: RIP, Caesar. @JuliusCaesar
Yes, I think it’s safe to say the course of English literature would have been very different had William Shakespeare used social media to get his point across….
Like many unfortunates, I have recently been afflicted with influenza. This means I have spent quality time with my pillow, eaten chicken noodle soup, and watched far too many movies/ tv shows. Being sick gets old pretty quickly though, so my restless mind is occupied with this question (perhaps prompted by a recent re-watching of my personal favorite of the Harry Potter movies):
If there are two words I would use to characterize my life right now, it would be these:
Stink bugs.
I don’t remember seeing them too much this summer; I suppose they dislike the heat of July and August, and who can blame them, really? But now that the summer heat is coming to a close (or so we hear — I have only felt slight evidence of this), they are back in full force.
Though I am not a huge fan of bugs, I usually take the appearance of a bug or two in stride, deal with it calmly, and then move on with life (notable exceptions include large bugs that present themselves in the shower). Stink bugs, however, are another story. Somehow their shield/hexagon-shaped bodies and long creeping legs just make me shiver. It’s not that they are particularly quick (they’re rather slow), and it’s not that they attack (as far as I know they don’t bite), it’s just their creepy presence. They lurk about in doorways and swarms of them buzz loudly past, trying to land on the nearest surface.
Stink bugs appear to be lazy, only exerting the energy to fly when necessary. Usually you see them clinging to a wall or door, waiting, lurking, moving their gangly legs in slow motion to creep along. I think it isn’t any one thing that particularly disgusts me about them, it’s just everything taken together. The knowledge that as soon as I open the door I will be met with one accompanied by 5 of its friends clinging to the door and sides makes me hesitate before pulling it open. The fact that if I squish one it will emit a terrible odor makes me cringe. The loud buzzing makes me whip my head around to make sure the offending bug isn’t about to land on my shirt. And they are everywhere. Inside, outside, crawling along the molding, clinging to the window, ready to fly at me as if I am a good place to hang out for a while. Ugh.
What will it take to eradicate the plague of stink bugs? I am waiting for the night I wake up dreaming of them — it cannot be far away. They are a constant presence in my life, and I hate their lazy stares and half-hearted movement. With some bugs I at least feel that they are doing something: ants are always busy, scurrying around to find the next source of food; but there is little to respect about a stink bug. Worst of all, I know that some of them will hang around this winter, still clinging to the ceiling of a back bedroom or sitting on a windowsill, refusing to die off, as all self-respecting bugs should do in the winter. It’s one of the charms of winter that bugs are at a minimum, but there always seems to be one or two stink bugs hanging around, defying nature in a bored sort of way.
A curse on all stink bugs! May they die in the cold and their eggs be smashed where they lie!
I readily admit that I do not know much when it comes to “being cool,” but I do have one tip for those who want to enter the hipster/ arty music crowd:
Choose an obscure instrument and spend enough time learning to play it with at least a rudimentary level of skill, and your cool points will skyrocket.
If in casual conversation with a musical hipster you mention that you bought a used accordian on ebay and spent the past month and a half teaching yourself how to play it, you are sure to be invited to the next jam session. Beware though, if it turns out that you have a cool instrument but cannot really play well enough to jam, someone else with a little more skill may ask to see your instrument for a moment. Even if you are good, someone with a dominant personality may ask to “see it for one song.”
Let me decipher that for you: you will never get the accordian back until you leave (and then only if you remind the person that it is actually your property). It is possible to get your instrument back before the end of the night if you are persistent enough, but it takes more effort and possible annoyance to the temporary instrument-thief. [Note: occasionally, the person who asks to "see it for one song" is actually telling the truth and will give your precious instrument back, but this is not typical, so be on your guard.]
Now don’t get me wrong, I actually like weird/ obscure instruments, and find it fascinating that young musicians are exploring the world of different sounds that are available. Actually, there have always been bands that have explored the use of odd instruments–or inventing instruments–but it seems that there has been a recent resurgence of folk or obscure or just plain strange instruments finding their way into Indie bands. Will this be a passing fad? Only time will tell.
Here is a brief list of some instruments to pick up and look cool by playing (also, if you buy some plaid and tight jeans, it will help): accordian, ukulele, vibraphone, glockenspiel, harmonica, flooglehorn, African drums of any kind, melodica, mandolin, banjo, and the list goes on…. Also if you play a classical instrument but can figure out some way to incorporate it into rock songs, you get bonus points.
Now go find a not-your-typical-rock-band instrument and you are well on your way to super-coolness!
[N.B. while I poke a little fun at musical hipsters, I can appreciate some of their music, and I actually also like strange instruments too... and I want to learn to play the mandolin. Will it happen? Unclear, but possible.]
[N.B.2: While we're on the subject of indie bands, here's a link to a youtube video of a song by Beirut, a song I've had stuck in my head for SIX DAYS (so consider yourself warned).]:
