Dear Friends,Family members and others

To quote The Barenaked Ladies song Brian Wilson

" So I'm lying here, just staring at the ceiling tiles.

and I'm thinking about what to think about.

Just listening and relistening to Smiley Smile,
and I'm wondering if this is some kind of creative drought"

This is what the past nine years have felt like for me that i have been in some kind of creative drought. After some inspiration from a friend i have decided to get out of that creative drought and do what i want to do. Be a movie critic and i have done so with my new film critic blog Ellis at The Movies http://ellisatthemovies. blogspot. com/.
Please read and enjoy the thoughts of me Ben Ellis FIlm Critic

Ben

Tags: brian wilson, ellis at the movies, film reviews
Current Location: Home
Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Pusherman- Curtis M

I was in Boston this week for training.  I ate lots of good food and saw a ton of interesting sights. I would love to go back when I have more time to see the museums and other stuff that is only open until 5.  I did get to see the JFK presidential museum, which was very awesome.  It has given me the desire to visit other presidential museums around the country.  We will see if that ever happens, but I would love it. 

To see my pictures from the trip, go here. 

Tags: boston
Current Mood: determined

I had this odd dream. I was out with a friend, just wandering around, and we found ourselves in this area with a bunch of really cool houses. Somehow we were in the backyard of the most awesome one of all, and it seemed like no one was home, so we decided to go in and look around. It was all very innocent; it never occurred to us that there might be something wrong with this plan, but there was an idea of "I hope we don't get caught." I'm not quite sure how that works. So we went inside, and the couple who lived there was home after all. They were very distressed by our presence, and either threw us out, or we left very quickly.

On another day, or later, or something, we decided to go back. It was still just an innocent desire to look around, but I think now we knew that it was wrong to break into this house. (Even though I think we actually just walked in easily.) The people were home again, and we tried to hide. There was definitely a feeling of fear that they would catch us. They did, and we tried to explain ourselves, but they didn't care for our explanation. I sort of got this sense, though, of...resigned sadness. Like, they knew that if we didn't want to leave, they couldn't make us. We could do whatever we wanted and there was nothing they could do about it.

The dream itself was sort of silly and pointless, but I was fascinated by the emotions. I don't think I've ever felt something so strongly in a dream before. The fear of getting caught, the sense that we had the right to be there, the couple's distress, and our enjoyment of it.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Sarah McLachlan, "Angel"

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Mood: awake

Look what the BBC did! They've made a trailer for their showing of "War of the Worlds", starring Tom Cruise with the irritating Dakota Fanning screaming her way through. My problem with it is that they have taken the awesome music of Jeff Wayne's "The War of the Worlds" and used it to advertise this travesty.

I dispair :(



(Excuse the camera wobble - saw this and decided I needed to record it. I couldn't be arsed to get a tripod though ;))

Tags: bbc, video, war of the worlds
Current Location: CT2
Current Mood: quixotic
Current Music: Eurotrip. Don't ask.

(It's another Twilight post! There's some mild spoilers, if you're worried about that sort of thing. Also, I talk about nerdy Comic-Con stuff and there's a 4-minute video at the end. Thanks!)


One of the things that's been messing with my head lately, in regards to all things Twilight, is simply how in the dark I was about the whole sub-culture. Until I, you know, became a part of it. Before a month ago, all I knew about the series was... well, nothing. I had a vague realization in the back of my head that there were a couple or three books out, and that the covers were all done in similar styles of glossy black and red with white or silver accents. I think I knew that there was a vampire involved, but not the context. Though, now, even that recollection of knowledge is shaky because I've fallen in love with the characters so completely that I can't imagine NOT knowing that Edward and his wonderful, non-human-eating vampire "family" were involved. If that makes any sense.

But now that I'm a believer... a Twi-hard or a Twilighter (a title which is funny to me, because in the world of Inferno that I was once so deeply affliliated with, there's a Twilight or Gray aura, and the members of that classification were often called Twilighters)... I feel kind of like I've pulled back the curtain and peeked into a world that's been there for a little while, but that I've just now realized it and discovered it. It makes me contemplate all the other things I don't know, all the other sub-cultures out there that I've never experienced. For someone who's a lifelong learner, the reminder of so much new knowledge out there in the world both humbles and awes me. I may never get around to learning one-millionth of the things out there, or reading all the awesome books there are, or hearing a fraction of the amazing songs written and performed -- but I'll also never stop trying.

I'm sure that the sheer mass of knowledge out there now, about the Twilight Saga, is also helped out by the release of the fourth and final book in a mere 6 days, and the Twilight movie coming out in early December. Just on author Stephenie Meyer's website alone, she links to an entire page of fan websites, all completely dedicated to the series. I've only looked at a tiny fraction of them, and it's saturated my brain for days.

Comic-Con, a giant, 4-day convention for all the latest and greatest in Sci-Fi and Fantasy in movies, television, books and, of course, comic books, is going on in San Diego this weekend. They've so far unveiled news about a Tron sequel ('Tr2n'), the Wolverine (X-Men) movie, the Watchmen movie, the new Star Trek prequel, Sin City 2, The Lost Boys sequel ('LB: The Tribe'), and about a million other deliciously geeky things. If you are any sort of self-respecting nerd, you need to get you to a Comic-Con sometime in your lifetime. I still need to get to one, myself, though the glut of Star Trek/Sci-Fi conventions I attended in my twenties helps me hold onto my nerd-girl status, thank heavens.

However, the hottest, and hardest to get, ticket at Comic-Con? The Twilight panel. 6500 fans (?!) started lining up the day before to get in to see Stephenie, director Catherine Hardwicke, and 6 of the actors in the movie, including Robert Pattinson (Edward), Kristen Stewart (Bella), and Taylor Lautner (Jacob). Thanks to the comprehensive media coverage by reporters and fans alike, I've gotten to see large portions of the panel online, plus interviews of the panel members afterwards, and it's mindblowing. Poor Robert Pattinson really looked shell-shocked.

As the story goes, when the news leaked last year that he was going to be the visual incarnation of Edward Cullen, the fans hated him. Everyone thought he was all wrong for the part, even though most people had only ever seen him portray the small-but-pivotal role of Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". And even Ms. Meyer said she wasn't completely sold on him right away, but that she was willing to give him a chance. Then he went into make up, did his research for the role, and started playing Edward... and completely won his critics over.

So, he's on this panel and he can't hardly answer any of the questions posed to him because his answers are drowned out by incredible screams and people shouting that they love him. I can only imagine what that must feel like -- to have to stop reading your emails and your letters because it's all hate mail, and then to have that turn into total adoration and marriage proposals. Life in the public eye, I suppose. Myself, I don't know much about him, but he seems like he'd do a great job with Edward. I was impressed to read about how much reading and talking with Ms. Meyer he did, in order to properly get inside Edward's head. That can only be good, and mean that he's interested in doing a good job.

Anyway, since I'll be blathering on about the books and the movie over the next few months at least, if you're interested in knowing a little bit about the series and/or the movie, here's a video that has a nice overview, plus some footage and interviews at Comic-Con:

Well, the X-Files movie was okay for me. Not great, not bad but ok. I think I may go see it again tonight to find the things that I missed. I was so tense wanting to smack Scully out of her normal denial that I focused a little too much on that and missed the background stuff.

I haven't had any time to write RS fic for a bit. It's not that I'm done or have no story ideas. Come on, it doesn't take much to think about ways for them to get it on, but it's a matter of balancing grad school, an 8-5 job, a marriage and motherhood. Oh, and a few friends I have left, lol. Wait, are there any left??? Crap...

L-

Tags: x-files 2
Current Location: recliner
Current Mood: contemplative

I've been wanting this show to come back for SO long!!!



According to Broadcasting & Cable, HBO Distribution is planning on bringing back Unsolved Mysteries when the cable channel Lifetime contract expires in 2008. The show would feature a new set, same music, recaps on old cases, as well as new cases, and a new host. The show will be on SpikeTV, in October 2008, for 5 years, and 175 episodes,[3] featuring the same theme music and hosted by actor Dennis Farina.[4]
Unsolved Mysteries will relaunch on Monday, October 13, at 5 p.m., and 6 p.m., ET Time

I looooove(d) this show! I hope the new format is good, and I wish Robert Stack was still alive to host it. I hope they play re-runs too, though it's on DVD (which I'm debating purchasing).

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Seinefeld

If not for the fact that I was returning these based on a service issue this would almost be like Superbowl Weekend 2007 where I made numerous trips to Verizon and swapped out phones.

I hated my LG Venus, and several issues with the phone. The idea of the phone was great - a phone that included both a touch screen as well as the standard number pad. However, in application the touch screen lagged. A lot. Sometimes I would have already have a sentence of text entered before the screen would have updated to show that I had in fact clicked to type a text message. And the texting... well, let's just say I was a great deal faster. Then I realized the camera for the phone didn't have a flash. Who uses a camera without a flash? Depending on the situation, you need a flash. All in all I hated the phone, and towards the end of my tenure with it I wanted to chuck it across the room. In fact last night I even made the motion of beating it against a hard surface in frustration.

So I introduce you to my new phone, the LG Dare:




The best part about the phone is that when it is in the position above, you have a touchscreen for texting that has the standard number pad. If you rotate it sideways, it becomes a QWERTY touchscreen:



So far it is weird to get used to, but I'm really kind of digging it.

The big showdown with my boss never happened. Instead she went into preparation mode with my tasks to find out how she would reassign them to people. And then she told a few people in the Tax Office that I was leaving so they could do my deposits instead.

I started telling people that I was leaving, and I was very strategic in who I told. I started thinking on Thursday that my boss wouldn't tell people that I was leaving, and instead would wait until the day AFTER I had left to tell people I had resigned so it would be left a mystery as to whether I left on my own or was terminated. At least that's how Janet's situation was handled, and two other people's situations as well. Thursday I had already told Fay, the grandmother that I work with. I absolutely love Fay. She reminds me of my Nana Phyllis, and I will truly miss working with her. She is perhaps the nicest woman I've worked with, and she keeps to herself which is why we get along so well. She told me that she would miss me and that I was very smart so she had faith that I was making the right decision. But on Friday I told a variety of people across the City so that in the event my boss did not announce my leaving before I had left, it would be well known after the fact that I did leave on my terms. I think on Monday, though, I will continue to tell more. After all it is my news to tell.

And so far this weekend Weeum and I are seeing some random things. First, there were the Manchester, NH PD mountees that were on horse literally in the middle of an intersection and at a Dunkin Donuts. Then just now a guy was driving down the street on a scooter holding wicker furniture in his hands. We have seen it all.

And does anyone know how long driving belts last on cars? My Corolla has 53K miles on it and the dealership has just recommended about $1,000 in work, the driving belt being the one that stuck out since they said it was cracked. I find that hard to believe, but maybe I'm wrong. I always thought it was one of those things that went closer to 100K.

Today was the first day of the 2 day Art Pop event...it was good. ^^; ( Snip snip )

Duel Jewel has a 2 man with heidi at Saitama Shintoshin on August 10th....I'm thinking about trying to go. I'm trying to figure out if it will be flat out impossible to get back in time. Or if it's only possible if the stars align and I get all the right trains lol. It starts at 6....so probably get out at like 9:30...? I will probably be hoping that DJ plays first so I can leave early. :xxx Too bad it's not a Saturday because I would probably just say fuck it and stay out all night. Whyyyy is it on a Sunday. ...I could just say screw Monday classes. >) Possibilities.

Nothing is really happening.... :/ Probably my fault but it's such a pain to go anywhere lol. I might be going to Disney Sea with some people this week. They said they were planning to get evening passes so we'll see what happens. I met with my Kaiwa partner on Friday...we went out to lunch (which was a nice change from bentos ><) and it was fun. ^^ While walking back I found out she likes Polysics so we talked about that a lot lol.

I also need to steal a CD player or something. My computer is doing its stupid thing again and refusing to acknowledge that I actually DO have a disc drive. WHY it only seems to do this in Japan I don't know. It was working fine before I left so I didn't bring my external one. I am never trusting it again. The computers in the library here have itunes so I wonder if I bring my external drive if I can rip them. Or if that would get me banned lol. Ooooh do the computers in Mangakissas have itunes/cd drive? :O Maybe I could do it in one of those. It's been too long since I've been in one.

Tags: billy, concert, inugami circus dan, jinkaku radio, jully, metronome, sex android
Current Mood: tired