Slumdog Millionaire

As an event for Visit Shelly Day we went to see the movie that won all of those awards: Slumdog Millionaire. The story follows an Indian slum kid, his brother, and love interest over the course of his life. The protagonist recalls the answers to the questions of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' while on the show and finds all but the last answer. I enjoyed the movie, but found myself especially blown away by the soundtrack, a varied rhythmic collection with Indian tones. As soon as I get back in town I plan on looking into buying the soundtrack.

Hammer

For whatever reason, my head has been pounding like crazy. I'm swearing off of head phones and music in the car until it goes away. The funny thing I realized yesterday is how loud cars are... and that's before these crazy kids crank up their tejano music and bass out a dull beat. Too loud!

Games

I've used my brilliant powers of self bribery to ferret out a win-win situation for myself. If I get myself caught up in Calculus by this Friday, then I'm going to get myself one or a pair of ferrets! Just look at them! They're so cute! and apparently they need to go batsh*t crazy for an hour about twice a day! I'm kind of surprised to find that ferrets are said to get along with cats, both temperaments allowing, extremely well. I'm not sure if that applies to Justin's cats, as they never really seemed to like wrestling... hehe weaseling.

Northern Lights

Animal Crossing had a really strong Aurora tonight. It reminded me of the Golden Compass (nerd). I wish I was heading North! (Alex makes fun of my constellations, Right to left is Owl, Penguin, Squirrel, and Bear is far left off screen)

Dirty Laundry

My room never seems to clean itself. That's a problem...

Body Worlds 2

Took at day trip with friends to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences and saw the Body Worlds 2 exhibit they had on display! The exhibit is on human anatomy using real human bodies that were donated to science. All the bodies on exhibit were preserved through a plastication process, meaning that all the tissued were rubberized, allowing them to hold their shape and be positioned in upright displays. While there were also cross sections and individual organs displayed, that main attraction was in the full body statues. Depending on the particular system or theme being focused on, the statues were positioned in interesting poses and dissected to show off their focus with a flair of art.

There was a baseball player posed at the end of his swing to show off core muscles in both tightly contracted and stretched states. Some were posed outside the realm of recreation however, for instance a woman with her arms up and all the muscles of the back cut and pulled out in the rough shape of angel wings, showing off her spine and rear organs. A couple of the displays were just plain weird; 'Drawer Man' was an adult male with 'drawer-shaped' sections of muscle and organs pulled out all over his body. One display, called Exploded Man, had a man with each organ and muscle and and bone pulled away from each other and hung in out in a sort of huge immobile wind-chime.

I enjoyed the exhibit very much, although as always, some parents thought this was the perfect place to bring screaming children (I couldn't help but noticing that the other children in the exhibit were dead quiet little angels). It was a little unsettling that the bodies of all those people were drawn up like that after they died, but the exhibit was funded by personal donations and I guess that they were pretty much done with their bodies anyways.

Coraline

I finally got around to seeing Coraline today! Probably the most perfect movie for February 14th. Based on an Alice and Wonderland-esc British novel published back in 2002.

The main character finds a door leading to a mirror world where colorful characters and spectacular things contrast the gloomy, rainy, and boring home. The style is reminiscent of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride; it greatly compliments the substyles of the movie: dolls, thread, and overly absurd creations.

The movie will best find the favor of those with an affinity for overactive imaginations and parallels, but its somewhat basic story and relatively flat characters will most likely bore those going to the movies for story. I personally found it to be a movie worth buying once it comes out to video.

b l a c k f r i d a y

Finally, my weeks of trying to hybrid flowers have given me a rare and elusive black rose in my Animal Crossing game, on Friday the 13th of all days! The black rose, obtained by planting and water red roses together, is half way to the rarest flower in the game. Next I'm hoping to get some purple roses, obtained from white roses; the hybrid of black roses and purple roses is the blue rose.

FMA2

I just found out today that Bones is doing another anime series on the manga Fullmetal Alchemist. The series was already concluded as an anime before, but sense the manga hadn't fully developed it's plot yet, Bones wrote their own story based on the premise. Both story lines were engaging, but it was always disappointing that the original manga's story was never animated in the show. The show is due to last one year starting in April!

sleeplessful

I'm surprised to find that I still have the flu. I'm pretty tired of my symptoms y'all! My stupid sore throat is hurting worse from all the coughing. It has made it difficult going to sleep. When I do sleep I keep having fever-induced dreams. Last night I kept dreaming of some cell phone puzzle game. It had a lot of crappy rules and I kept losing. Just like in the the other games, when I throw my hands up and start saying 'F#*@ THIS GAME' I wake up with my arms over my head and covered in sweat (that's hot I know. eww I just did laundry!), then I have to try to go back to sleep all over again. All of these games are pointless. Why can't I dream of something both puzzle and useful? Like Calculus? (go back and read those sentences again) So then, I could just sleep off the flu and my brain could go over all the Calculus ingrained in my head and be ready for the exam on Thursday. I don't think fevers are that useful though. *sideways*tear*frowny*face*

flu makes sad panda

The weather has been so nice lately, I think that could be why I got over the please-someone-just-let-me-die phase of this flu pretty quickly. I had hopped to be pretty much cured by this evening, but apparently that's not the case. Last night I kept having an annoying recurring dream where I was debating something and I kept saying the wrong thing. Now that I'm able to move around for more than 5 minutes, you'd think I've be vastly more productive. Not the case. poopie.

puzzle dream

Amid my sick sleeping delirium last night I kept having this dream where me or someone else was putting a puzzle together wrong. Side pieces were being forced in the center and there really wasn't a pattern to go along with it. And a voice kept saying 'that's how it's supposed to go...'

Counter-Fit

I took my authentically counterfeit money back to the bank and explained all that I could to dear Suzan. I honestly halfway believed I was going to be laughed out of the bank. (A bank that gives out counterfeit money! How absurd!) But she and everyone there were very prompt and punctual with the issue; I never had to proof proof positive that I received that particular bill from that particular teller the other day at a particular time, I was genuinely impressed. I got an equal value of money back and they began reexamining all the money drawers. I don't know if things went so smoothly because I have a repoire with the people in that bank or if other people had been given counterfeit bills, but I'm glade to have money I can spend again.

Un-Fit

I went by the bank to pick up the weekly allowance I give myself and then went by the store later that evening to buy groceries. Imagine my surprise when H.E.B. refused my tender when I tried to break a counterfeit $50 bill I had received from the bank that very afternoon! I felt like a dupe for accepting money that I'll admit looked shady once you looked at it, but in my defense, no one expects that they're going to get counterfeit money from a bank!