Ha ha ha... it's fun having my cousin here. (Because he goes out to bars and whatnot with my brother, and unlike my brother, actually talks about the places they go and the stuff they do.) Now I know two embarassing and/or naughty things my brother's done lately. One of which my parents know (but he doesn't know that they know -- my mom's the one who told me, heh) and one of which I know but our parents don't.

Too bad blackmail's not really in the Christmas spirit.

A random blog on the most recently updated list just made me laugh out loud at the advantage of wearing an eyepatch.

Cool.

I like that they found the first "Me, too!" post {g}.

I can't seem to find my template. Hm.

Another reason to have kids:

At work last night, a woman was about to go in for her eye exam, and her husband and small child in stroller were hanging around waiting for her. To get them out of her hair, she asked them to go over to the post office to mail something for her.

Dad paused in the doorway, leaned over the stroller. "What do you say?" he prompted.

"WARP SPEED!" bellowed the little boy.

Dad shook his head. "You have to 'engage' before you can 'warp speed'."

"WARP SPEED!" the kid screamed again, and Dad took off in the direction of the post office.

A few minutes later, when I'd finally stopped giggling, I looked out into the mall to see Dad running in large circles in front of the office, pushing the stroller in front of him.

"So you're raising a Star Trek fan," I said to Mom when she came back out front after her exam. She rolled her eyes. "His dad is. I'm not."

I'm not sure I'd want my dad to have been so obviously geeky (he can be a geek, don't get me wrong, but at least he didn't instruct me in Star Trek-isms at such a young age), but oh... so cute.

*snerk* Great, now I'll never be able to watch that scene without snickering. (Yeah, like I wasn't already...)

Must admit the vagina imagery went right over my head (interesting visual, that), but after having it all pointed out, I'm quite surprised that I didn't notice it. I'm going to be so much more giggly the next time I see it. (And um... it's intellectually interesting too. Yeah. Next time I see it, it'll be for the purposes of critical analysis. Uh huh.)

As the bus moved slowly through traffic, I looked into the laundry van next to us and watched the driver elegantly conducting along with the radio. None of this obvious, jerking waving, either, his hand was just gracefully swaying along with the music. At least, I assume there was music. And the man standing next to me on the bus was reading a Jesus magazine in some language I don't know. The drawings of a little squatty devil and a smily, bearded man gave it away.

I got my haircut today. I think I like it. I'm not sure. I have no idea what it'll look like tomorrow, without all the "Product" ("I'm going to put some Product in your hair now," she says, in between complaining about the Christmas music playing in the background) and blow-drying.

And my Christmas shopping is DONE! Woohoo! Of course, I still have to wrap and make fudge and possibly finish putting together a present I'm not sure I'm going to give and clean my room and whatnot, but hey, this is an accomplishment.

I'd promised myself I wouldn't post any more of these tests (didn't promise I wouldn't do any more, just that I wouldn't post the results), but I like this one, so I'm going to.

I was trying to think what corporate mascot I'd possibly want to be, couldn't think of anything, and then woo-hoo'd when I saw what I got:

Take the Corporate Mascot Test at Willaston's Lounge!


Screw the flattering description, I'm the penguin!

Oh yeah... I knew I'd forgotten something about last night.

Of the three previews, two were for sequels I don't really care about and hadn't heard of, and the third was Men With Brooms.

I first heard about it months ago, I know (or at least, know of) a bunch of people who were actually extras, I've heard Paul Gross interviewed about it, but I still cannot believe it's an actual movie. And Molly Parker's in it. Biz-arre.

And after seeing the trailer, I feel so bad for him, because it looks terrible.

(can I gloat about posting before sarah? no? right, off to bed then, sorry)

Wow.

Yes, the hype is justified -- it's a great movie. I'd finished the book a few weeks ago, so thanks to my sieve-like memory, I'm not sure which bits were strictly accurate and which were elaborated upon, but it was amazing. Very scary. Very tense. Very cool fighting (love Strider, love Legolas' archery). The occasional funny bit. (Including quite a few that weren't actually intended to be funny -- sarah: "Cheese is funny.") It's a fantasy movie with a story that's actually good! (Star Wars Part Deux's going to suck immensely in comparison...)

I still think Elijah Wood's kind of funny looking, at least with hobbit-hair and hobbit-stature (the midget stand-ins in the long shorts were a touch disconcerting), but okay, fine, he's sweet most of the time. I like his profile. He did spend quite a lot of the movie staring, watery-eyed, but hey, he's under stress, who can blame him? Besides, it left more time for everyone else -- Gandalf (yay, Gandalf), Strider, Merry and Pippin (I'm sure he'd still be cute without the accent, but awww), Sam (from the book, I really got the impression that he was older, but I suppose the young puppy dog works too), Legolas (elves are cool, even if he does look like an escapee from the WB)...

Brief pause here to look up Orlando Bloom in the IMDB, and :o The only things I've seen that he's been in were "Wilde" (wherein he played a rentboy -- hm, you know, it's been a while since I've seen that, and I do believe I own it...) and a random episode of "Smack the Pony", (probably not one I've seen, but still). Very cool. I'm relieved that he's not American, too.

...um... who else? Gollum. Didn't look like I pictured, and they left out the becoming-Gollum bit, for the most part. Alas. Still, he was the best part of The Hobbit, so I like him. And of course, Sharpe {g}. I like him. He's perfect. Although they did make him slightly too obviously evil, but I suppose they've got to keep things clear for everyone who hasn't read the book. The amount of exposition they did manage to cram in, without making it stupefyingly boring or confusing, was also really impressive. The special effects were awing in places, obvious in others. The Black Riders were very, very shivery cool. The Balrog was pretty darn nifty too.

I do feel like a bit of a fraud, because while my dad read me The Hobbit ages ago, I didn't touch the LOTR (despite the fact that it's been sitting on my shelf for years and years and years) until I heard the movie was coming out. And I liked the book (I've only read the first one so far, but it's so tempting to forget about having to get up early for work tomorrow and just sit up all night reading the next ones), but not overwhelmingly. But I love the movie. And the bits left out of the movie have made me realize how much I do like the book. I can easily see myself getting completely obsessed. Yay! I want to see it again. Considering the number of times I saw Phantom Menace, and it isn't even good...

Also, I am thoroughly evil and corrupted. Although I'm relieved that I'm not the only one to see certain things in the book, and also relieved that some things I saw in the movie, I didn't see in the book -- and really, the death scene rivaled that in TPM, so I can't help it. (I'm not going to explain any of this, because if I do, you'll all hate me. I hate myself {g})

Additional bits: I wonder if those guys who were still finishing up the book while waiting in line got it all read in time. And then there was our adventure after the movie -- The Mystery of the Disappearing Car. We all made sure to remember "HH 6", but there's a big difference between P1 and P2...

Interesting conversation at work today. The two women I was working with started talking about trying to figure out when your life peaks -- which you'd think would be a fairly depressing thing to think about. But they both agreed that they'd never heard anyone their age (late 50s, early 60s) say they wanted to be 20 again. Understandable :P Although sort of surprising to hear them say.

They decided that thirty had been good. The older woman thought between thirty and forty was the best. "You know what you're doing." Goody, something to look forward to.

One said that one of her friends claimed that getting older just distilled your personality, strengthened both your good points and your bad points. Sounds a bit scary to me, but I can see it. You stop caring about what other people think, so you can be more yourself. I figured the other day that I'm only ever really myself when I'm completely alone. (Kind of troubling, must admit.)

The other woman (the sweet one -- she's adorable, exudes an aura of niceness, and has one of the best laughs I've ever heard) nodded at the idea, but added that she didn't think she'd changed much at all. "I still think of myself as twenty," she said, then hesitated. "Well, forty." And apparently, she can't pick any age as being the peak. "I've enjoyed all of it."

Which is nice to hear.

Plus, I got a free eggnog latte today. Never realised how much free stuff the full-time people get. Cool.

Lord of the Rings tonight. Excitement.

Okay, enough of this randomly bursting into tears thing. Meh! I am annoyed.

I spent all day at work eating chocolate. Gifts from opthomologists, gifts from sales reps, stuff from the little bowl we have set out for the patients. Mmm, chocolate. Yet I still feel lousy. Strange.

I'm going to go watch Elijah Wood on The Daily Show. I hope he doesn't have the Frodo-hair.

Blogger's acting up, so it's probably dangerous to try to post now. Figures, I haven't felt like posting for days now and now that I want to, I don't know if I can. Woe is me.

I have two dilemmas. The first is small and insignificant. The second is huge and gigantic and overwhelming.

First. New Year's. I could sit around the house and play board games with my parents. This is the usual way New Year's Eve has been spent in the past. I could hang around watch 2001: A Space Odessey, except that sarah might be preparing to go skiing the next day instead. Or I could go to a party with a bunch of people who I like, but rarely see, and generally feel somewhat out of place when I do see them. I'm not a party person. I think it would be fun, if I did go, but I'm not sure I can get past my fear about how awkward it might be. But whatever. I'll figure something out.

Second. Next year. I've been planning on going to Europe. I have the time, I have the money. I have no one to go with, which means that if I do end up going, I'll have to confront my parents and set my foot down and go despite their objections, which will suck hugely. It would probably be a good thing, in the end, and I know it's something I'll have to do eventually, but I'd really rather not. However.

If I do go in the spring, I'll have to quit my job. The plan was to quit in March or so, travel in the spring, come back and find a temporary crappy summer job, and then start school again in the fall. Assumming, of course, that I get in. However, I've found myself hoping that I don't get in. If I don't get in, then I won't have to quit until the fall (my boss keeps going on about how they'd never manage without me, which is partly bullshit but also partly true) and I'll be able to save up enough money to pay for the next two years of school (meaning I won't have to worry about trying to work and go to school at the same time) and I may even have enough to buy a car and/or move out. Which would be really, really nice. I won't have to worry about trying to find a temporary job after getting back from travelling. And I won't have to confront my parents.

I'm looking forward to school. The program sounds really interesting, and I'm finding myself going kind of crazy without having the structure and mind-stretchyness of school. But when I realize that, despite that, I'd rather not get in... it makes me think I should take another year off and apply again for the following year. I could work until next fall, save up a lot of money, have enough to travel during the fall and spring, and still have enough to pay for school the following fall.

The downside to this plan: I'd feel like a failure, both for not getting in to school, and for not going travelling when I said I would. I'd probably have to start paying rent, if I took another year off school. I'd have to go through the whole application process over again, and I hate that. It's almost as bad as job-hunting. And I do miss school.

The upside: More money. More time to travel.

I don't know what to do. I don't really know who to ask for advice, because I'm fairly certain I can predict the responses of the people I normally would ask.

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Help.

I just surprised myself by bursting into tears when the person I was talking to on ICQ had to go offline. (And to be fair, I was concentrating more on this than on talking to him.) Maybe I'll quit my job tomorrow and run away and become a hermit.

I forgot to hit publish the last time I posted. I suck.