Questions from Katie!

Because I'm at a loss as to what to write, I'll be answering random questions from Katie.

Q:What all did you eat today?

A:Haha, this may be embarrassing. I nibbled on food all day today. It involved some granola bars, a petit four, cottage cheese and mandarin oranges, peanut M&Ms, ham, and a popsicle. There may or may not have been some more in there. Heh.

Q: What do you think of when I say "Marshmallow"?

A: I think of this time when I roasted marshmallows as a kid. We were out in the woods around our house, and we had built up a fire. I think one got dropped on the ground, and our dog Bruno ate it. It got stuck on his nose, and he spent a long time afterwards trying to lick it off.

Q: What is your favorite frozen yogurt topping?

A: Kiwi! I don't know why, but I just love kiwi on top of vanilla frozen yogurt.

Q: Would you rather be burning up/almost dehydrated or FREEZING cold?

A: I would rather be burning up, I guess. Neither sounds very enjoyable, but when I get cold my feet go all numb and frostbitten looking.

Q: Explain the saying, "It's raining cats and dogs."

A: Well, you see, the explanation involves me making things up completely, since I have no idea what I'm talking about. A long time ago, there was a storm so bad that it swept away all of the animals in the world into a big tornado (which is a Spanish word, but the storm was before Spain). When the winds finally died down, all of the animals were deposited topsy-turvy on the villages, the rivers, and the hills. It was a great mess, but as they fell from the sky, the people shouted "It's raining cats and dogs!" THE END.

Words are Curious Things

Hah. The blog everyday thing lasted... a day. Without Katie around to pester me, it's far too easy to forget. So instead, I'm rewording it to be "A Blog for Every Day in April". I can do that. So today, you get two blogs!

I'm growing a marigold in my windowsill. I've just decided to name it Gerald. His little cotyledons (thank you, science class) popped up out of the dirt last night.

But enough of that.

Movie Review: Despicable Me (PG)

So I finally went to see this movie the other day. It was a long drive up to the movie theater (nearly an hour), but we had to go there since it was the nearest Rave theater that had it in 2-D. I can't see 3-D so Katie was kind enough to change theaters.

It was a cute movie. Some of the sequences in it reminded me of old Loony Toons cartoons where all of the humor was in the character getting blown up or squashed. I found the main character to be a bit creepy at times but I think that was purposeful, and his turn around at the end was really sweet.

But the real adventure was after the movie. The bottom dropped out of the clouds as I was on my way home. The rain was coming down so hard I could hardly see the taillights of the truck in front of me so I stopped at the nearest gas station to wait it out (if that doesn't get me a good driver award, I don't know what will). While I was waiting I ran inside, bought some pretzel M&Ms (which turn out to have the texture of Whoppers, but the taste of a semi-stale pretzel inside), then hopped back in my car and took of now that the rain had slowed. I made it about a mile down the road before being stopped by... a raging river? Across 119?

One hour later, I finally got home. At least we got that rain we needed.

Would I watch this again?: Yes

My rating: 3 out of 5

Movie Review: Inception (PG-13)

I went to see Inception today with Katie of ArtisticalThoughts. I thought a movie review would be a good first post, since that's probably most of what I'll post here. So here we go. You might not want to read on if you plan on seeing it and you don't want spoilers.

I decided last minute that I wanted to see this movie. I had heard that it was good, albeit confusing, so I thought I would give it a shot. Despicable Me was calling to me, but I put it off for next week. So I drove over, picked Katie up, and made it to the theater with four or so minutes to spare. We needed every single one of those four minutes since Katie decided to earn her "eccentric public nuisance" badge by paying her $7.25 all in change ($7.25? For a matinée? Thinking about it still hurts). A few minutes later, our tickets were paid for, we had our tickets taken by a man who claimed to be "the most beautiful black man in the world" (Katie attracts funny events, it seems. It's her gift in life. That probably wouldn't have happened if I had gone alone), and we slid into our seats as a trailer played and Katie tweeted about the man.

For an action movie, I was happily surprised by the lack of cursing every other word, and the absence of other adult stuff. The scene in the second layer of dreams when one of the men is fighting off the defenses of the dreamer's mind in the hotel hallway was cool in the effects and stunts departments, and the whole thing had nice cinematography. The use of slow motion made sense in most parts (using it at all was a risky move. I know pretty much since Kung Fu died off slow motion is usually played for laughs). The plot was hard to follow at some points (my joke is that this movie makes the plot of Lost look tame and easy to follow in comparison. Give me time-traveling, manipulative villains, and flashbacks from flashforwards any day. Just please no dreams within dreams that might not really be dreams or whatever it was that happened there at the end.)

So was this movie All Just a Dream? Was part of it real? Was the ending some sort of statement about perception of reality and its relativity? I have no clue. I've yet to meet someone who does.

Would I watch this again?: Yes

My rating: 4 out of 5