Un Monstre a Paris

Can I geek out for a few moments? Yes? Thank you.

So there's this movie that I heard about a few years ago, and desperately wanted to see: A Monster in Paris. It had a Phantom of the Opera feel to it according to the previews, and since I was in the depths of a PotO obsession at the time of course I wanted to see it. Unfortunately the film was only available in France at the time, and after being unable to find it online I forgot about it.

Earlier this week I found it on Netflix, freaked out, and have since seen it 4 times (3 times in English, once in French) because I CAN'T GET OVER IT.

First, look at this picture. It's one of the most common images of the film that I've found on Google:

That kinda sums up the feel of the film...light and airy and dreamy and delightful and all those other evocative synonyms. For the animation alone (it's kind of like Pixar in its early days) I could watch it over and over. 

But wait! There's more! The music has proven itself to be a thorough earworm. Just try to listen to this without getting it stuck in your head:

GUYS. Please forgive the all-caps, but I CAN'T GET OVER THE MUSIC. GAAAAHH.

And this one! (The visuals are confusing if you haven't seen the film in context, so just listen to the music)

The English songs are just as good, but I fell in love with the French versions first. :3

The thing is, it has a Phantom-esque feel to it, but just a touch. The rest is mad scientists, adorable characters (THEY'RE ALL SO CUTE DANGIT), a fun/silly storyline, catchy music, and gorgeous animation, all wrapped up in a leisurely stroll through the CGI streets of Paris. What's not to love?

....I haven't felt this way about music/a movie since the first time I saw Phantom or heard Les Mis. I simply cannot get over it, and I don't know why. Just....you should just go and see it. Now. It's on Netflix and Youtube in its entirety. 

I NEED SOMEONE TO GEEK OUT WITH. GAAAAAHH.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (review)

  

Well. After a year of squealing, watching production videos, watching trailers, and working myself into a lather of fangirling, I finally saw The Desolation of Smaug. Because I'm a nit-picker, this review will mostly be concerned with details and rabbit trails of ranting.

And let me tell you, the ranting will be something to behold. But on with the review!

Thorse and Other Things of Importance

By 'important' I mean 'important enough to mention'. So here goes.

First in the order of importance, the Thorse! This is almost finished...

 
And this is completed. For some explanation: a few years ago I went through a phase where I was drawing Les Mis and Phantom of the Opera characters as horses...laugh all you like, but dangit, I had fun with it. This is just a hearkening back to those times, if you will. I have a very rough sketch of what might be horsey!Hawkeye. Maybe. Depends on if I can get his silly leg to look right. O.e

I bought this book last week after briefly glancing through it at a friend's house and liking what I saw. It goes through traditions of the church and traces them back to their original roots, pointing out that the majority of time-honored traditions (everything from having a paid pastor to sitting in pews to having a 'church building' to worship teams to dressing up for church) were things that weren't done during the first century of Christianity and, more often than not, were taken from pagan culture. (By 'pagan' they mean principles that aren't Christian or biblical in origin but taken from the surrounding culture, not necessarily something that is evil or wrong.)

I personally have found it to be a very interesting read. I'm not about to jump ship from traditional church or anything like that, but I'm going to work through the New Testament with an emphasis on seeing how the church operated back then. And by 'church' I mean the body of believers, not a building. XD

Colorado is approaching in 13 days. O.o I have a ride to the ranch, my train ticket is ready to be printed...this is really happening. Phew.

School is coming along...sort of. My last assignment has been sent back twice with a big fat 0 and no explanation/corrections as to why...hopefully my teacher will answer my email because I'm getting a little nervous.

In other news, it's very late and tomorrow is going to be a big day of cleaning. My room is a disaster area--since I haven't had to work or keep to much of a schedule lately I've kind of let it go loose. I'm typing this in a little space on my desk between piles of school books, sketchpads, piles of small pocket items, embroidery floss, and some cosmetics. I've heard it said that a messy desk is a sign of creativity...but this is a bit over the top.

Les Miserables: A Review

Finally, FINALLY got to see this. It was so amazing and incredible and tear-jerking and *splodes*

But before I continue, a disclaimer: what follows is my own personal opinion drawn from one viewing of this particular version and countless viewings/readings/listenings of other movies, the Brick, and cast recordings. I don't claim to be an expert critic, nor should this be taken as an expert's view. Thank you, and more after the break.

Job Applications

I don't know why they terrify me so much. Maybe I just don't like the thought of being rejected...from henceforth I'm going to make a conscious effort to go through with them even if I think I have no chance of getting the position. Which is most of the time...but I digress.

Tonight, on a whim, I filled out an application for a company that specializes in transcribing sermons. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, especially since I need practice while I'm doing the medical thing (and working at DQ isn't the greatest place to get typing practice, in case ya'll didn't know). And if I DO get considered or--wonder of wonders--HIRED, I can quit DQ and concentrate on gaining experience and finishing school. That needs to take precedence these days, and the longer I work at DQ the more I realize how much of a distraction it is from being focused.

It really isn't that bad--the worst part is how my schedule is so broken up that I have a hard time focusing when I'm home because I'm either thinking 'time to get ready for work' or 'I'm so tired from working all day'. It's a vicious cycle. But here's to maybe getting a different job! *crosses fingers*

I've also toyed with the idea of applying for a summer job next year, like at a kid's camp or on a dude ranch or something like that. I tried to get a job out West on a dude ranch when I was 18 and didn't get it, but maybe being 21 makes a person sound a little more competent. I think it'd be pretty cool to do something like that, anyway.

And ride across the country on horseback, and become a heavy weight lifter, and act in The Hobbit, and move to New Zealand (or Ireland or Wales or England or pastoral France)...I've got a lot of really big wishes and dreams, peeps. I just don't have the money or the strength to do all of them. XD

Oh! Oh! Speaking of The Hobbit, it comes out in 6 DAYS! 

*screams*

I am so freaking excited. You have NO idea. I even made a dwarf beard to wear to the movie! See?

I know my face is kinda derpy here. BUT BEARD.

I also found that it bears a slight, passing resemblance to Bifur. Observe:

Note that I said 'slight'. No hatchet in the forehead, for starters.... :p

Gah. So. Stinking. Excited.

What I'm doing tonight....

I'm watching the world premiere for The Hobbit.

Live. 

Excuse me for a moment..... *screams into a pillow*

Would you believe me if I told you that I seriously considered spending all my life savings to fly to NZ specifically to go to the world premiere?

Then stuff happened, and I rethought the moment of insanity, and realizing that I could livestream the whole thing in the comfort of my home made me very glad that I didn't go.

Well....very glad that I didn't spend all that money and stuff. I'd still love to have gone, but it's crazy packed and there's security guards all along that red carpet. I think I even saw some mounted police on the back streets. O.o

And in 8 minutes they start the red carpet walk and interviews and such! Gah! Right now they're 22 minutes into some kind of a concert by Neil Finn, who did pop-sounding version of 'Far Away Over the Misty Mountains Cold'. Not too crazy about his version, but meh.

They're almost ready to start the red carpet walk! I may or may not check in later with my crazy bits of coverage. Mwahaha. :3

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

In other news my throat is killing me. Last week I was rather sick with a sore throat and it's reared its ugly head again.

Holy crap, there's 100,000 people at the premiere. O.o Red carpet walk is about to start! There's Peter Jackson! Gah!

I be back laters. :3

Hobbit Appreciation Day

Other known as Bilbo and Frodo's birthday. In honor of this day I tried to eat 6 meals (hobbits usually eat 6 square meals a day), but failed on meal #4. Oh well.

Traditionally hobbits eat:

Breakfast
Second breakfast

Elevensies

Luncheon

Afternoon tea

Dinner
Supper

And I took pictures of each meal in its turn.(Well...for the most part. I forgot to take pictures of first breakfast, but got some of second breakfast. And I have to leave at 10:30 AM for work, hence some of the meals got off schedule.)

First breakfast (sans picture) was eggs and bacon. Pretty simple.

Second breakfast was toast with nutritional yeast:

Don't judge the nutritional yeast.

Elevensies was half of a cinnamon-sugar pie crust (sort of like a homemade elephant ear):

Luncheon was apple/cheese/bacon pie (something I've wanted to make for ages):

The crust was rolled out rather thin, so the warm pie pieces were mangled something terrible while getting cut out of the pan. (On a side note, the pie was very....ah....salty. The recipe called for 1/4 cup of chicken bullion, and that was way too much. I'll halve it next time. Otherwise it was pretty delicious.)

And afternoon tea was marshmallow/mint tea with molasses cookies:

Now I don't eat much on a good day, and by this point I was stuffed. It didn't help that I've been sick with something for the past few days (coughing a lung up tends to dull one's appetite), so I eliminated dinner and supper. But it was a decent shot.

Can you all tell that I'm freakishly excited about and obsessed with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and suchness? :3

Next post: the apple/cheese/bacon pie experiment!

The Hobbit Trailer!

 *freaking out*

Click for trailer, because my website won't let me embed the right video

Every time I see information on videos, news, or anything related to the Hobbit movies I have a little (okay, a large) freakout moment. And it lasts a while.

Just know that I can't WAIT for this to come out. :3

For brevity's sake...

"...they called him Bossuet."

Wait, wrong quote. Ahem. Les Mis, step over for a bit.

So I'm on a schedule (self-imposed, really, but still important) to finish several projects. But in the meantime I figured I'd ramble about random stuff, but keep it all somewhat concise.

First off, I got an awesome teapot yesterday!

It's from the Adagio Tea company, and while it looks small and flat it holds 34 ounces and is made of cast iron, making for a nice, heavy pot. It will last me forever and never ever break ever.

I love the finish. It's just so aged-looking. :3

I did have a problem with a spill (the spout was plugged with paper or something, and the tea was spilling out from under the lid. Once it got unplugged it was fine).

Last night I got commissioned to repair a ton of jeans and make some skirts...thus, this is what my room currently looks like:

Am I the only one who thinks it looks like my bed threw up all over my floor? Those are the scraps and contents of a body-bag (okay, it's an under-the-bed storage bag, but it's the general shape and size of a body-bag) of fabric...it's a good think I saved them, all things considered, but it's SO messy.

These are the holey jeans. There's about 7 pairs here, with another slung over the back of my desk chair and two more freshly patched and stuck in the bag of 'completed' items. I get a lot of time to sit and listen to sermons while sewing.

(I'm currently listening to this series on Luke. I just finished part 29 out of 100 last night...it's so cool. I love Mark Driscoll.)

And! And and and! Last week I went shopping for some clothes at a second-hand store (albeit a very classy second-hand store). While poking around I found this awesome black leather bag/backpack. It was brand new, incredibly soft with a large interior, and bolted to the wall so it wouldn't get stolen. XD So I admired it and petted it for a bit, checked the price tag, and decided that I wasn't going to spend $75 on a bag. I went home with some clearance-rack stuff instead. (Yes, I'm cheap. I'm okay with that.)

So two days ago, after I came home from work, Mom said that something came for me and was sitting on my bed. Lo and behold....it was the bag! She had heard me talking about it and got it for me...I have a great mom. :3

So here it is in all its lovely soft slouchy majesty!

There are SO many pockets...and the interior is enormous. And it's so soft that I just want to cuddle with it. I needed a bag upgrade rather badly--my current/old bag is an army messenger style thing that my grandpa used in WWII. And while it's done a fabulous job, it's starting to rot and shred away in places and I'm just waiting for the straps to give way one day. O.e

Last but not least: The Hobbit is going to be a trilogy! At first I was skeptical, because The Hobbit isn't THAT long. But I've been reading through the Appendices at the end of Lord of the Rings and read The Quest of Erebor...and I can't WAIT to see how it all works out. There's so much material and stuff going on in the background that I'm happy they get the chance to tell the entire story without feeling the need to cut bits out so we aren't sitting through two 4-hour movies (though I wouldn't complain at all. Just sayin'.). 

So I'm now excited about that, even more so than I originally was. Yee. :3 

Now it's off to patch stuff...wish me luck and I'll try to update somewhat soonish.

This is what happens.....

...when I get some semblance of a schedule. These days I:

~Get up and ride (if it's not too hot)

~Clean a house

~Go to work

~Eat supper

~Work on school

~Listen to a couple sermons while internetting

~Collapse around 11:30 PM

~Rinse and repeat

'School' has been consisting of a couple hours nightly of reading and transcribing (either clips of medical dictation or sermons--the latter are my somewhat guilty pleasure because I feel like I should be doing 'medical' stuff but I prefer sermons. Especially Mark Driscoll. I love that guy.). 

It's horribly dry here. Every day is around 100F, it feels like an oven outside, and we haven't had substantial rain in weeks. I wish the Floridians would send us some rain. *looks south expectantly*

I'm working 6 days a week now. I'm not complaining, but I wish it would cool off and I'd have a day off to do some long rides--that is, more than 3-5 miles and farther than just around town or the lake. It gets boring to go the same places every stinkin' time I saddle up, but only have an hour or two to ride cramps my distance yearnings. And the horse gets all antsy because she knows where everything is in town and when she can start fussing to go back home. Sigh. 

On a side note, I might or might not be in a horse show on Sunday. It's an open event, just for fun, but if it's bearable outside I'll probably head over just for the heck of it.

On another side note, less than 5 months until The Hobbit comes out! I've been following the production videos like the rabid fan I am, and each one that comes out provokes more squealing and spazzing. I was actually jumping up and down while talking about it at work. :3

It's getting late-ish. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to talk about within the next week or so. If not....meh. I'll MAKE something interesting.

Reflections Upon The Chronicles of Narnia

(Spoilers and quotes abound within--if you haven't read the Narnian books and don't wish to have them spoiled for you, go no further.)

I was one of those kids who sort of grew up with the Narnia books (my older brothers loved them and we have a well-worn boxed set to prove it), but never actually read them until I was a pre-teen. Then I made the mistake of reading The Last Battle first (because it had the picture of a unicorn on the cover), and read the rest of the series out of order before coming to my senses and reading them from the beginning.

Since then--well over 10 years ago--I've read them several times from beginning to end. Each time I see something else or remember parts that I've forgotten about, and start wanting to use words like 'delicious' and 'beastly' and 'thrilling' more often and call people 'a brick'. (That's a good thing, apparently, to be a brick.) Recently I got an omnibus version of the series that's about the size of my omnibus of Lord of the Rings, and have been remembering why I love these books so much.

War Horse (major spoilage), Pt. 2

Because this is getting insanely long and disgustingly rambly, I'm breaking it up into parts. In the last review there was much rambling and cynical side comments until Sherlockstache (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Red-Haired Loki (Tom Hiddleston) showed up. Cue suddenly getting drawn into the movie...so here goes again.

War Horse (major spoilage), Pt. 1

Just for the heck of it, I'm going to babble and spew and ramble about War Horse because it was the last movie I watched recently (not counting Thor, which is basically mind-candy) and I feel like writing a cynical review gosh-darnit. Review after the break, for those who don't care for exhaustive spoilers and nonsensical rambling.

A Slightly Different Post

Just imagine me as Agent Coulson here. But with more squealing.

So...I saw The Avengers last week. Twice. And I really really liked it. It's to the point that I've been collecting funny comics/pictures and reading about the movie on TvTropes. *hangs head*

I can't help it! The Avengers was just so good! And funny!

So here's some funny pictures. Some are related to the movie, some not, but if you haven't seen the movie, here there (might) be spoilers. O.e Enjoy.

Hawkeye hitches a ride with everyone!

Duh.

"Have you seen my brother?" B'AWWWWW! *squishes sad!Thor*

Because Thor is totally the scrapbooking type.

Anyway. Hope ya enjoyed the fansplosion of geekiness and have an appreciation for The Avengers in adorable comic form now. XD