A: What have I just about lost faith in?

Q: The film industry of today.

I paid little attention to the TV part of the Golden Globes (Except Best Comedy Series---yay Glee!) and instead waited for the film categories. At the beginning, I was doing fairly well...then it went downhill.

Best Supporting Actress was pretty much given. Mo'Nique was incredible in Precious, and that paid off. Her speech was a wonderful way to start the evening, with a check mark for "WON" on my predictions sheet.

Several more accurate wins went my way---Meryl Streep in Julie and Julia, Up for original score and animated feature, and The White Ribbon for best foreign language film. All was well. A couple losses ("Winter" by U2 for Original Song, "Inglorious Basterds" for screenplay) and I'm going down.

Suddenly, EVERYONE is losing. Best Director, Jason Reitman? Goes to James Cameron and Avatar. Stanley Tucci for supporting actor? Carey Mulligan in drama actress? Morgan Freeman for drama actor? DANIEL DAY-LEWIS for comedy/musical actor? All lost.

The Best Picture awards really made me believe they pick the winners out of a hat. Out of Nine, 500 Days of Summer, The Hangover, It's Complicated, and Julie & Julia, guess who won Best Movie Comedy/Musical?

The Hangover. Yes. Really. No joke. That just about made me cry at how low our standard have sunk that THAT prevails over something like Nine or 500 Days of Summer. I don't even know how it was nominated.

I don't want to beat around the bush, so out with it: Avatar won Best Picture: Drama. Box office success? Yes. Nominated? Oh, certainly. Better than Precious and Up in the Air?

Not so much. It's Pocahontas in blue wash. The story is paper-thin. It's not original. Nobody accomplishes anything (except someone gets his legs or something). It's just James Cameron trying to prove what he can to. It'd be really impressive for a talent-dump, actually. That's pretty much what it is: a mixture of good stuff without much purpose and without much drive.

If the Oscars go like this, I'm going to be writing some very angry letters.

Golden Globe Predictions

Tomorrow will be the first time when I can watch the Golden Globes without worrying about how late I'll be getting to bed. It's a three-day weekend, and with Monday off, I don't care HOW late they run. Therefore, I'll definitely be watching them.

Much like I did with last year's Oscars, I have my predictions set for who's going to win what. Of course, considering my limited viewing of a lot of movies and TV shows, I could be totally wrong on all of these, and some are simply who I WANT to win, which I'll indicate.

Anyway, for movies, I'm thinking that:

Best Drama: Precious
Best Comedy or Musical: Anything except The Hangover. I'd love it if it went to Nine but anything will do. Just not The Hangover.
Best Actor in a Drama: Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Best Actress in a Drama: Carey Mulligan, An Education
Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy: Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy: Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Best Supporting Actor: Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, Precious
Best Director: Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Best Screenplay: Inglorious Basterds
Best Original Score: Up
Best Animated Film: Up
Best Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon (Germany)
Best Original Song: "Winter" by U2 from Brothers

There's very few that I'm sure of, but the two that I'd be terribly surprised if it didn't turn out would be Mo'Nique and Stanley Tucci. I saw both Precious (Early December) and The Lovely Bones (last night), and their performances were the standout points in both films. Mo'Nique was extraordinary, and Tucci was perfect in every way. There was an ominous feeling throughout the entire theater whenever even his eyes appeared on screen for just the briefest moment.

As for TV...these are even less accurate, if that's possible. Just hope that Glee wins all four it was nomminated---Best Comedy, Best Musical/Comedy Actor (Matthew Morrison), Best Musical/Comedy Actress (Lea Michele), and Best Supporting Actress (Jane Lynch). Oh, and please, please, PLEASE don't have True Blood win Best Drama. Seriously. Please let it be Dexter.

Golden Globes begin on NBC at 8 PM EST on January 17th. Can't wait!!

Why I should be a diplomat

I have no idea what they said, and it was probably spam. Whatever it was, though, I thanked them and gave them a smiley.

Little tidbits like this

Actually remind me why blogging is fun:



I also re-found this video on YouTube that I've probably blogged before, but always puts me in a December mood (Read: not agonizing about the upcoming holiday smash).



There's only ONE Raoul.

Plans for tonight

Things of note that have already occurred:

- Played piano for about an hour, figuring out a lot more of Sun & Moon
- Watched Kramer vs. Kramer with Mom

Things I'll be doing until bed:

- Reading the synopsis of Carmen
- Catching up on AOL news
- HOPEFULLY writing a chapter or so in my fanfiction

Oh, and today will be my final winter post. Tomorrow will legally start "spring"!

A night on the town

Typically, it doesn't involve orthodontist appointments, picking up dog food from the vet, getting your order wrong at Panera (but only slightly wrong) and going to Youth Orchestra.

Rehearsal tonight went by oddly quickly, and most of the pieces seem to be pulling together really well. About five minutes before the actual rehearsal began, a few of my friends and I decided to have a mini-rehearsal, where we played random bits of songs we liked and did one of our favorites that we rarely get to go over---the medley for "Pirates of the Caribbean" (To include the songs "Singapore", "Hoist the Colours", and "Drink Up Me Hearties"). It was only the second time of me playing it with a group, but it went a lot better than it did the first time! I do admit to playing "Singapore" in band when there's nothing better to be done.

Tomorrow is the Recruit the 6th Graders concert with the high school. I represent the one-chair bassoon section to convince people to play the bassoon (even though I doubt they will, and either way I'd want to be able to keep the middle school bassoon next year). For my instrument demo, I'm playing a section from the Davy Jones theme. The music we're playing is stuff that I actually had to work a little bit on, which is a welcome change from the Christmas concert, where we had no percussion and thus had...limited choices, one might say.

Splash of today's roleplaying

Presenting my character Eli from Aubrey's Swords and Shields:

"Thank ya, ma’am,” Eli said, nodding and taking the seat. True, he could have just sat down there anyway—he had enough power over enough of the slums to which he could likely find and claim a chair…

His eyes surveyed the hideaway with a quick left-to-right before settling on Triston. “So,” he pondered, “I know you well enough to know you didn’t just call me up for a visit.”

Sleep: what keeps me awake

Today was the Foreign Language Fest, which was actually a lot of fun! My two events (Writing and Oral Proficiency) were right next to each other, so I was able to enjoy myself for most of the day. I met up with several of my YTHC friends at the student center for lunch (Chick-fil-A) and it was nice catching up with them. Then, I waited outside for about an hour with about eight of the other Fort Knox-ers.

My results were okay, I think. I got 2nd place in Level I Writing and 2nd place in German Videos: All Levels. Mike snagged first, but I personally liked his video better than mine so I'm not too upset. And he pointed out that maybe we should make movies together as we're (apparently) the "best" German filmmakers in the region. I do wonder if anyone else even made a video though.

We all got back to school for the final ten minutes or so, and then it was the school dance. To put it bluntly, I could have done without going to the dance. It was two and a half hours out of my afternoon (and I have three tests tomorrow!), and I spent two hours of that against a wall, being anti-social.

I understand most of the German for the chapter six test, though. There's one thing I need to look over for social studies tomorrow, and we get 15 minutes to study in science. I think I'll be good.

And now to go to bed. Sorry for not posting as Eli or Jack today, Aubrey and Maya, but maybe tomorrow.

Setting the default

Today at school could have been better. So rather than complaining, here's a picture that I set as both my MySpace and Facebook defaults of me in my element tonight:



(That's an F# I'm playing if you wanted to know)

Airport update

I missed my flight back to Kentucky, so I'm waiting in the airport for another hour until the next Louisville flight starts boarding. I'm dropping everything at three, even though boarding starts at about 3:10. Last time, they didn't make an announcement (or if they did it was in Jibberish) and NO did not page me, despite what they said (again, maybe in Jibberish?) So if I miss this flight, I think I'm going to go insane.

I'm not impressed by Chicago.

Blogging from Harrisburg Airport

My flight back to Kentucky (by way of Chicago O'Hare) is delayed, so I have about and hour at the airport. On the plus side, though, there's an outlet in the terminal and free WiFi. I'm IMing with Maya, and just catching up on my Internet rounds. There's nothing terribly exciting to report, but free WiFi makes me happier than almost anything else, and so I figured I might as well get one thing out of the way.

I'll be back in Kentucky late afternoon, though.

End of Carlisle Adventures

Dad and I just got back from the evening's activities. We went out to eat at one of his favorite local places---AliBi's, which is this really nice pub-restaurant. I had perhaps the largest burger I've ever had, and most likely one of the best.

After dinner, we headed over to the theatre at Dickinson College to see the youth theatre perform Mulan. It was really well put together! They only had 19 rehearsals before dress rehearsal week, but it was more or less flawless. Mulan herself was a freshman at one of the high schools, and had a lovely voice with a lot of vibrato that, as I know, people her age typically only dream about. Mushu was also quite adorable, and she seemed to be having a lot of fun.

To top off the evening on a sweet spot, we had a bit of ice cream. I had strawberry, which I haven't had in awhile. I was craving a change from vanilla---so this is to you, Mom! I had a flavor for once! So I believe I did you proud.

Carlisle update

I landed at about noon, and after spending a little time exploring around Hershey, Dad and I headed over to Carlisle. It's a really nice little place, awfully quiet and everything's so close together.

We had dinner at this really cute Italian place called "Vinny's Italian", much like a neighborhood version of Fazoli's. Then (after a brief stop to CBS to get some cough drops and batteries) it was to the movies to see Slumdog Millionaire. To put it in a word?

EPIC.

Off to see the Wiz---er, Dad

In ten minutes we'll be off to the airport (by way of McDonalds for a quick thing of breakfast) so I can get on my flight to go and see Dad. I need to turn the computer off, though, so to be short and sweet, I'll post when I get there! (Or several hours afterwards.)

PS- Aubrey, since there is sadly no WiFi in the middle of the sky yet I still have my word processor, you can bet your lucky stars that I'm going to write a chapter or so.

How I spent my sick day: part 4

All right, this had best be the last part of the saga. I'm sick of being sick.

I actually did wake up at six this morning with full intentions of going to school. Mike pointed out that grades were pretty much done and that I sounded horrible, so there wouldn't be much of a point going. Still, I had some German homework that I needed to turn in---rather wanted, actually, because my teacher kept telling me to stay home and not to worry about it---and some algebra.

So I went to school long enough to figure out it was a bad idea to come, turn in my homework, and get ten minutes into algebra. By then I decided to call my mom and tell her I felt like crap. Upon returning home, I spent the rest of the morning napping with the dog.

Tonight I was freaking out because I felt as if I were going to pass out again, even though I had eaten AND drank ample amounts. Before it worsened, I decided to lay down on the couch----good move, and everything turned out just swimmingly.

I just finished all the packing I can do tonight for my trip tomorrow. Since I'm going to have about four hours total of flight time, I'm going to try and get some good writing time in, since I'll have no Internet.

Now that I think about it, I'm grabbing my DS and charger. I've been into the Poke-craze again, and in Sapphire version I just got to Slateport (Don't worry if that means nothing to you.)

How I spent my sick day: part 3 (but carrying on from part 2)

Today, I believe, is the final installment for whatever cold or fake-flu I have. I'm feeling a lot better, but that didn't come without a couple bumps and bruises (literally).

To start out from last night:

- I hardly ate or drank because it hurt my stomach
- I did the dishes and cleaned my room so I wouldn't feel guilty about it
- I began feeling nauseous and was about to ask my mom to finish them for me
- Rather I just said I'm going to bed...and walked to the stove
- Stood there for a few seconds
- And blacked out
- Hitting my arm on the stove and my tailbone of the floor

I literally thought it was a dream. I had some song from Aladdin in my head (I think it was "Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me" put to the animation for "Prince Ali") and my mom sounded completely distant. I didn't open my eyes immediately, thus seeing more Genie. When she asked what I was doing, I meekly said "...washing dishes" and apparently began crying. It HURT!

So we went to the hospital despite my insistence of just letting me go to bed. We waited for three hours, watching The Biggest Loser, Law and Order SVU (Which was actually hospital related, surprise surprise) and Jay Leno. After another three hours of both treatment and MORE waiting (with an IV in my arm, despite what my mom said that there wouldn't be any needles involved) we left the hospital at 3:20 and were in bed by 3:30.

To put it short, I didn't go to school today.

But I did feel a lot better. Breakfast WAS kind of lunch, as I was asleep when one would normally eat breakfast. But I ate a Popsicle and had a root beer as my "ice and fluids" and my stomach actually didn't hurt as bad. I'm not eating as much as I normally would, but I'm not anorexic. Just not hungry.

So for part three the agenda was:

- Wake up at eleven and sign on to AIM (where I told Aubrey about my Adventures-In-Babysitting-like hospital stay)
- Eat said Popsicle and drink said rootbeer
- Listen to Julie Atherton sing various Avenue Q songs on YouTube

And currently I'm writing chapter two in my fanfiction. I think I'm going back to school tomorrow, in which I need to run to the high school and do my binder check and turn in homework that was due Monday and was gone over today but for certain reasons I wasn't able to. I also get to fill in my lunch group with the various happenings of my week ("You'll never guess what happened to me in the kitchen the other night...")

How I spent my sick day: part 2

- I watched Aristocats on YouTube (Greatest. Disney. Movie. Ever)
- Aubrey was on so I IMed her for most of the late morning-early afternoon
- I wrote about eleven "drabbles"
- I did NOT play Pokemon
- I didn't eat until almost 3 this afternoon (and have not eaten since)
- I watched the special features for Mamma Mia! and Return of the King

I still felt like crap today, so it was Sick Day II. The way I'm feeling right now is iffy, so I'm not sure what tomorrow will be like. Even if I do stay home again, I'll want to go in for German to turn in some homework, get my notebook checked, and take my vocabulary quiz. I would so totally be doing it in my sweats, though.

I really need to practice bassoon, though. I'm about to clean my room so as to hopefully get myself back in the swing of things. If I feel like crap tomorrow...eh, at least I won't feel like crap because of the sickness and because my room is a complete mess.

Musical Theatre might be off tomorrow whether I go to school or not, depending on if the feel-well-enough-to-slog-through-classes is equal to feel-well-enough-to-sing-and-dance-for-ninety-minutes. I'd probably be able to dance if I put my mind to it. I doubt I'd be doing any singing, unless they decided to make me a tenor. From all the hacking and wheezing, my voice is probably three or four full steps lower than it typically is.

I mostly want to be fine by Thursday. I have Youth Orchestra for the first time in three weeks, and don't want to miss that. It is miserable playing bassoon while you're sick, though. It's also miserable to be sick and fly, so at the latest Friday would be acceptable.

Time to clean room and do algebra homework. Oh, and to look over German vocab.

How I spent my sick day

- Trying to fall back asleep at 6
- Eventually doing so at 7
- Having to wake up at 8
- Watching 101 Dalmatians on YouTube
- Playing WarioWare
- Spending two hours playing Pokemon (Sapphire version, for all you fellow Poke-geeks)
- Watching Billy & Mandy on my DS

And I still feel like crap. Since I want to get better by Thursday or Friday, I'm staying home again tomorrow. I plan on watching special features for Mamma Mia! and Return of the King, playing another two hours or so of Pokemon, and WRITING. Aubrey has been bugging me about this fanfiction and all of these drabbles for my various roleplay characters.

Sick again

This is major suckage, as tomorrow will be the first time I'm back in German after a week of staying at the middle school. Either I'm going to be at school and feeling like crap or I'm going to miss the second-to-last German class for the quarter. Yes, this is the last week of the third quarter.

And then there's the going-to-see-Dad-in-Pennsylvania-at-the-end-of-the-week to take into account. I haven't even flown sick, and I don't especially care to.

I hate moments like these, where you have two daunting choices.

Accomplished

I got up at about 7:40 this morning so as to leave the house by 8:30. There was a post-Ice Storm yard cleanup for the Marsee's, who have been the presidents for Youth Theatre for thirty-some odd years. Since they've done so much for the theatre, some of us decided to go over and help out with the yard work. There was a lot accomplished, and halfway through we celebrated with drinks and brownies, courtesy of Mrs. Marsee.

Ginger had to go to the bet today for some sort of renewal of a shot or vaccination. She was not the most thrilled to be there, but aside from trying to refuse to go into the back office, she was rather cooperative.

Mom and I were both insanely tired when we got home, so she went to sleep and I MEANT to...but rather watched Road to El Dorado on YouTube. Not DreamWorks' best but it woke me up.

And now I just finished my playlist for a fanfiction I'm writing. Things were accomplished today.