Five Things I Accomplished This Year
1. Graduated from Duke with a double major in Biology and English
2. Got into medical school
3. Started my first full-time job
4. Wrote a senior thesis while overloading on coursework
5. Completed my first short story since 2010
Five Things I Crossed Off My Bucket List
1. Watched Phantom of the Opera on Broadway
2. Got a second set of earlobe piercings
3. Saw Vermeer's Girl With the Pearl Earring in person
4. Went to a Steve Aoki concert (and sort of finally understood why people are into EDM)
5. Explored NYC on my own
Five Things I Learned to Do This Year
1. Iron a shirt
2. Cook a salmon filet
3. Unclog a shower drain
4. Write a scientific research paper
5. Play poker (except I've forgotten all the hand rankings)
Five Lessons I Learned This Year
1. Don't take your relationships with people for granted.
2. Refrigerate rice ASAP unless you want food poisoning from Bacillus cereus.
3. Trust your gut--it's probably right.
4. Leaving Facebook for a month will do wonders for your actual personal relationships.
5. Happiness is a state of mind under your control.
Five Songs from 2013 Stuck on Replay
1. "Sacrilege" | Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2. "Do I Wanna Know?" | Arctic Monkeys
3. "Young and Beautiful" | Lana del Rey
4. "DOOM DADA" | T.O.P
5. "Black" | G-Dragon ft. Sky Ferreira
Five Songs I Found and Fell in Love With This Year
(aka "Don't ask me why I never heard of these songs until now")
1. "Unravel" | Bjork
2. "Lullaby" | Low
3. "Loveeeeeee Song" | Rihanna ft. Future
4. "Twice" | Little Dragon
5. "Blue" | R.E.M.
Honorable Mention: Beta State's cover of "Unravel" is phenomenal.
Five Favorite Books I Read This Year
1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone | Laini Taylor
2. My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales | ed. Kate Bernheimer
3. The Bloody Chamber | Angela Carter
4. Jellicoe Road | Melina Marchetta
5. Burial Rites | Hannah Kent
Honorable Mention: Quoted a line from John Green's The Fault of Our Stars in my medical school personal statement. The eulogy scene slayed me.
Happy Birthday Aurora
Showing posts with label Sophelia's Weekly Five. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sophelia's Weekly Five. Show all posts
December 29, 2013
March 10, 2010
Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition IV
Hello, good friends. I know I've been neglecting this blog quite a bit, but considering how my GPA seems to be rutted in an unending downward slide, blogging and writing have clearly taken a backseat -- no, trunk seat -- in my priorities.
Having said that, I'm still going to most likely waste a good deal of time writing this post.
Yeah, we're pretty fly.
In spite of the fact that there is literally nothing to do in Durham, I am actually quite pleased with the fact that DPAC is close enough to the university that quite often the university actually buys the tickets for us to watch shows at DPAC. And so, just last week yours truly had the opportunity to attend the opening night of Spring Awakening at DPAC without paying a penny (... okay, ignore the 50k tuition bill).
Unlike the time I went to watch Phantom of the Opera at DPAC, when I the PotO maniac knew the lyrics to every song, I had the vaguest of expectations for Spring Awakening. The first time I ever heard of Spring Awakening, my good friend Astrid mentioned she was going to watch the performance by the all-boys high school in our area and she wondered aloud how in the world they were going to pull off the sex scene.
Well. So all I knew to expect was a sex scene. Of course, that really doesn't clear up anything either. You start asking yourself questions: how graphic is it going to be? Is it going to be vulgar? Artsy, with fancy lighting and shadows? Or as TA-DA! as Daniel Radcliffe reveling in his nude self in Equus (which I have not actually seen and am not exactly dying to do so)? While I enjoy watching musicals, I wasn't exactly jittery with excitement about this one -- unlike Phantom of the Opera or Wicked, I had no idea what the storyline was.
Well, I changed my mind the moment the schoolboys leapt off their chairs singing "The Bitch of Living", as pictured in the photo I have conveniently posted above. See that guy doing the air-splits on the right? Moritz was the definition of awesome possum. In the show I saw, he was played by this guy who is actually facebook friends with this girl from my high school (... yeah, I did a little facebook-stalking. You be quiet.) I wish I'd seen the original Broadway cast, just to see how how much better they could top off the cast I saw. Most of Moritz's songs were very rock-and-roll, and Moritz pulled it off with plenty off energy and swagger. It was brilliant. The leads were great as well. Melchior was played by Jake Epstein, who M was very excited to see because apparently he was pretty important in Degrassi (which I never watched and thus was indifferent about).
I have to admit that Spring Awakening was one of those plays I didn't really become that crazy about until I started listening to the soundtrack for hours nonstop as I studied for organic chemistry. Honestly, I like this musical a lot better than Wicked. I can listen to every single song on the soundtrack without skipping past; I can't say the same for Wicked -- I can listen to "Popular", "Defying Gravity", "Dancing Through Life", "I'm Not That Girl", "No Good Deed", "As Long as You're Mine", and "What is this Feeling" -- and pretty much everything else I just skip over instantly. I guess part of the reason is that Wicked is a very traditional kind of musical with the kind of saccharine "lesson-on-morality" flavor that I can't get used to, whereas Spring Awakening is rather dark and angry yet youthful and whimsical, ranging between haunting lyrical pieces and the explosive rock-and-roll numbers. My favorites? I'll listen to all of them, but I'm particularly fond of "The Dark I Know Well" (which is a rather disturbing one about sexual abuse), "Those You've Known", "Touch Me", "Totally Fucked", and pretty much everything where Moritz rocks it ("The Bitch of Living", "And Then There Were None", "Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind"). The best scene, in my opinion, is the scene where Hanschen (if you've ever wondered what Malfoy would be like if he were gay, meet Hanschen) seduces Ernst with one of the best lines -- "Me? I'm like a pussycat. I just skim off the cream."
So what exactly is this play about? To sum it up in one word, Sex. But it's really more than that. It's about that liminal moment in a teenager's life where everything's changing, when you really realize the "bitch of living."
(Oh, and if you're wondering about the aforementioned sex scene, my seat was so high up on the balcony that I can't really give you any insight about how graphic it really was.)
2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
So I included a little excerpt of this lovely book about a year ago without having even read the book. I chuckled a polite little "Ha-ha" at the scene where Mrs. Long gets her head cracked like a walnut and then made no attempt to acquire an entire copy of the book. For one thing, I liked Pride and Prejudice perfectly fine without the zombies (which, on the contrary, I have never been crazy about), and secondly, having picked at the book's carcass for AP Lit to the point that I could name the estates and corresponding salaries of each character gave me no desire to revisit the novel -- even if it did have zombies thrown into the mix.
By chance, this book happened to be sitting in the New Book section of the public library last Sunday (my first day home for Spring Break), and so I decided to give it a try. It turned out to be much more amusing than I expected. While I wouldn't exactly hail it as a work of literary acclaim, it is quite interesting to see how Grahame-Smith weaves the zombie-ninja element throughout Austen's prose. Sometimes it works (e.g. Lady Catherine and her ninja cadre; Darcy's proposal and Elizabeth's hilariously violent reaction); sometimes it doesn't (e.g. Charlotte Lucas' ultimate fate). Besides, the ninja element is rather empowering for the female characters, such as the Bennet sisters and Lady Catherine, who are much better at zombie-fighting than say, Mr. Bingley or Wickham (whose fate at the hands of Mr. Darcy was much to my liking). If you're one of those purists who are horrified by the heathen mangling of Jane Austen's classic, then you'd best stay away. However, if you have a guilty fondness for good parodies (like yours truly), then this is your cup of tea. And now, to conclude by enticing you with some quotes from the book:
3. Nightlight
So I accompanied my mother to Barnes and Noble yesterday to buy Godiva chocolate for my tennis coach, and this book happened to catch my eye as I walked past the humongous stand of Twilight merchandise (because face it -- that's where B&N get most of their revenue from these days). I didn't get a chance to skim through it, but I managed to find an excerpt online that is too long for me to post here. However, I have to say I found the excerpt a little lackluster. Judging from critiques that have been floating around the Internet, the parody is amusing for awhile but quickly becomes just another shitty book. For your enjoyment, however, I will include this excerpt from the scene where Belle Goose first sets eyes on Edwart Mullen:
This was out a while ago, but I thought this was pretty fitting for those of you who hadn't seen this yet. I have to say, that first shot of Andy Samberg was fineeeee.
5. Alice in Wonderland
No, I have not watched this yet. But I have been following its production for nearly a year. You shall hear of my verdict after Friday... and most likely even later, depending on if I ever get around blogging again after this monstrous post. Critiques have been blah-blah-ing about this one, but Tim Burton is still king in my book regardless.
Alright. Hope that was a massive enough post to satisfy you all while I disappear until summer vacation. (Ha-ha! Yeah right, you blogging addict!)
Having said that, I'm still going to most likely waste a good deal of time writing this post.
Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition IV
1. Spring Awakening = Awesomesauce
Yeah, we're pretty fly.In spite of the fact that there is literally nothing to do in Durham, I am actually quite pleased with the fact that DPAC is close enough to the university that quite often the university actually buys the tickets for us to watch shows at DPAC. And so, just last week yours truly had the opportunity to attend the opening night of Spring Awakening at DPAC without paying a penny (... okay, ignore the 50k tuition bill).
Unlike the time I went to watch Phantom of the Opera at DPAC, when I the PotO maniac knew the lyrics to every song, I had the vaguest of expectations for Spring Awakening. The first time I ever heard of Spring Awakening, my good friend Astrid mentioned she was going to watch the performance by the all-boys high school in our area and she wondered aloud how in the world they were going to pull off the sex scene.
Well. So all I knew to expect was a sex scene. Of course, that really doesn't clear up anything either. You start asking yourself questions: how graphic is it going to be? Is it going to be vulgar? Artsy, with fancy lighting and shadows? Or as TA-DA! as Daniel Radcliffe reveling in his nude self in Equus (which I have not actually seen and am not exactly dying to do so)? While I enjoy watching musicals, I wasn't exactly jittery with excitement about this one -- unlike Phantom of the Opera or Wicked, I had no idea what the storyline was.
Well, I changed my mind the moment the schoolboys leapt off their chairs singing "The Bitch of Living", as pictured in the photo I have conveniently posted above. See that guy doing the air-splits on the right? Moritz was the definition of awesome possum. In the show I saw, he was played by this guy who is actually facebook friends with this girl from my high school (... yeah, I did a little facebook-stalking. You be quiet.) I wish I'd seen the original Broadway cast, just to see how how much better they could top off the cast I saw. Most of Moritz's songs were very rock-and-roll, and Moritz pulled it off with plenty off energy and swagger. It was brilliant. The leads were great as well. Melchior was played by Jake Epstein, who M was very excited to see because apparently he was pretty important in Degrassi (which I never watched and thus was indifferent about).
I have to admit that Spring Awakening was one of those plays I didn't really become that crazy about until I started listening to the soundtrack for hours nonstop as I studied for organic chemistry. Honestly, I like this musical a lot better than Wicked. I can listen to every single song on the soundtrack without skipping past; I can't say the same for Wicked -- I can listen to "Popular", "Defying Gravity", "Dancing Through Life", "I'm Not That Girl", "No Good Deed", "As Long as You're Mine", and "What is this Feeling" -- and pretty much everything else I just skip over instantly. I guess part of the reason is that Wicked is a very traditional kind of musical with the kind of saccharine "lesson-on-morality" flavor that I can't get used to, whereas Spring Awakening is rather dark and angry yet youthful and whimsical, ranging between haunting lyrical pieces and the explosive rock-and-roll numbers. My favorites? I'll listen to all of them, but I'm particularly fond of "The Dark I Know Well" (which is a rather disturbing one about sexual abuse), "Those You've Known", "Touch Me", "Totally Fucked", and pretty much everything where Moritz rocks it ("The Bitch of Living", "And Then There Were None", "Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind"). The best scene, in my opinion, is the scene where Hanschen (if you've ever wondered what Malfoy would be like if he were gay, meet Hanschen) seduces Ernst with one of the best lines -- "Me? I'm like a pussycat. I just skim off the cream."
So what exactly is this play about? To sum it up in one word, Sex. But it's really more than that. It's about that liminal moment in a teenager's life where everything's changing, when you really realize the "bitch of living."
(Oh, and if you're wondering about the aforementioned sex scene, my seat was so high up on the balcony that I can't really give you any insight about how graphic it really was.)
2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
So I included a little excerpt of this lovely book about a year ago without having even read the book. I chuckled a polite little "Ha-ha" at the scene where Mrs. Long gets her head cracked like a walnut and then made no attempt to acquire an entire copy of the book. For one thing, I liked Pride and Prejudice perfectly fine without the zombies (which, on the contrary, I have never been crazy about), and secondly, having picked at the book's carcass for AP Lit to the point that I could name the estates and corresponding salaries of each character gave me no desire to revisit the novel -- even if it did have zombies thrown into the mix.By chance, this book happened to be sitting in the New Book section of the public library last Sunday (my first day home for Spring Break), and so I decided to give it a try. It turned out to be much more amusing than I expected. While I wouldn't exactly hail it as a work of literary acclaim, it is quite interesting to see how Grahame-Smith weaves the zombie-ninja element throughout Austen's prose. Sometimes it works (e.g. Lady Catherine and her ninja cadre; Darcy's proposal and Elizabeth's hilariously violent reaction); sometimes it doesn't (e.g. Charlotte Lucas' ultimate fate). Besides, the ninja element is rather empowering for the female characters, such as the Bennet sisters and Lady Catherine, who are much better at zombie-fighting than say, Mr. Bingley or Wickham (whose fate at the hands of Mr. Darcy was much to my liking). If you're one of those purists who are horrified by the heathen mangling of Jane Austen's classic, then you'd best stay away. However, if you have a guilty fondness for good parodies (like yours truly), then this is your cup of tea. And now, to conclude by enticing you with some quotes from the book:
"Elizabeth and Darcy merely looked at one another in awkward silence, until the latter reached both arms around her. She was frozen -- "What does he mean to do?" she thought. But his intentions were respectable, for Darcy merely meant to retrieve his Brown Bess, which Elizabeth had affixed to her back during her walk. She remembered the lead ammunition in her pocket and offered it to him. 'Your balls, Mr. Darcy?' He reached out and closed her hand around them, and offered, 'They belong to you, Miss Bennet.'"Speaking of parodies...
"Elizabeth sheathed her sword, knelt behind him, and strangled him to death with his own large bowel."
"'Have your ninjas left you?'
'We never had any ninjas.'
'No ninjas! How was that possible? Five daughters brought up at home without any ninjas! I never heard of such a thing. Your mother must have been quite a slave to your safety.'
Elizabeth could hardly help smiling as she assured her that had not been the case."
3. Nightlight
So I accompanied my mother to Barnes and Noble yesterday to buy Godiva chocolate for my tennis coach, and this book happened to catch my eye as I walked past the humongous stand of Twilight merchandise (because face it -- that's where B&N get most of their revenue from these days). I didn't get a chance to skim through it, but I managed to find an excerpt online that is too long for me to post here. However, I have to say I found the excerpt a little lackluster. Judging from critiques that have been floating around the Internet, the parody is amusing for awhile but quickly becomes just another shitty book. For your enjoyment, however, I will include this excerpt from the scene where Belle Goose first sets eyes on Edwart Mullen:From what I've gathered reading around online, the basic premise is that Belle Goose is a ditzy, vampire-obsessed teenager who is convinced that the computer geek at school is a vampire and thus, she harasses him to make her his undead wife. I considered using my B&N gift card on this, but I think I'll wait for a better book to catch my eye. There's a much more hilarious Twilight parody here -- if this guy ever publishes it, I'd be much more willing to spend my gift card on this. With a synopsis like this, who wouldn't?"It was then that I saw him. He was sitting at a table all by himself, not even eating. He had an entire tray of baked potatoes in front of him and still he did not touch a single one. How could a human have his pick of baked potatoes and resist them all? Even odder, he hadn't noticed me, Belle Goose, future Academy Award winner.
A computer sat before him on the table. He stared intently at the screen, narrowing his eyes into slits and concentrating those slits on the screen as if the only thing that mattered to him was physically dominating that screen. He was muscular, like a man who could pin you up against the wall as easily as a poster, yet lean, like a man who would rather cradle you in his arms. He had reddish, blonde-brown hair that was groomed heterosexually. He looked older than the other boys in the room - maybe not as old as God or my father, but certainly a viable replacement. Imagine if you took every woman's idea of a hot guy and averaged it out into one man. This was that man."
"In a sentence, this is a story about Bonita Ingénue a 15-year-old, misunderstood young woman who gets rescued from her provincial, boring life and whisked away to a fantastical world of exciting, sensual, magic and erotic, thick, penetrating whimsy. At the beginning of our tale, she leaves her hometown of Backstory, Massachusetts for the excitement and intrigue of Excitetrigue, Colorado. The kids at her new school are all impressed with how one dimensional and uninteresting she is and it’s only a matter of time before all of the popular boys ask her out on romantic dates in the hopes fingerblasting her. Even though Bonnie has her pick of the litter at school, she really has her heart set on Theo, the mysterious boy who lives just outside of town in Dragon Hills. Theo has feelings for Bonnie as well, but he also has a deep, dark secret. A deep, dark dragon secret. He is a dragon.4. Speaking of Twilight...Bonnie accepts Theo for who he is and Theo appreciates how unobtrusive and malleable Bonnie is. Together, and against the wishes of Bonnie’s parents, they get into some pretty graphic dragon-fucking, and it’s a little bit weird, but beautiful if you just open your mind. Eventually Theo has to leave the town (I forget why) and Bonnie goes along with him and abandons her family (because if there’s anything Twilight tell us, it’s that chicks love sitting passively on the sidelines while violent, mysterious men make absolutely every important decision for them). There’s maybe a hunt at some point but otherwise most of the tail end of the book is more aggressive dragonhumping as Bonnie and Theo live out their days in Theo’s tower, blissfully unaware of the outside world as they enjoy a life that’s all sweat, asses and wings. You’ve heard of fire-breathing dragons, well, Theo is a desire-breathing dragon. (He also breathes fire.)"
This was out a while ago, but I thought this was pretty fitting for those of you who hadn't seen this yet. I have to say, that first shot of Andy Samberg was fineeeee.
5. Alice in Wonderland
No, I have not watched this yet. But I have been following its production for nearly a year. You shall hear of my verdict after Friday... and most likely even later, depending on if I ever get around blogging again after this monstrous post. Critiques have been blah-blah-ing about this one, but Tim Burton is still king in my book regardless.Alright. Hope that was a massive enough post to satisfy you all while I disappear until summer vacation. (Ha-ha! Yeah right, you blogging addict!)
May 17, 2009
Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition III
I would have loved to report that in my five day absence, I spent a great deal of time writing and getting back on track with my work. Sadly, that is not the case. So instead of commenting about random nonsense like I usually do, I'll use the Weekly Five as an excuse to share all the wonderful happenings in my life.
2. Why I am Never Flying a Kite Again
Last Thursday, I took the last AP test I'll ever take in my life. This calls for celebration, right? G and Gov. J came over to my house that afternoon. We had plans for walking my dog and flying a kite in the park near my house. You may now picture a beautiful, sunny California afternoon as you sit next to a white roly-poly Maltese dog while one of your friends squints up into the sky to find the rainbow-colored kite sailing in the wind.
Now, you may picture your friend letting go of the kite.
Perhaps a bout of insanity overcame Gov. J, or perhaps she was simply tired -- she ambled idly after the kite as it jumped and bounced wildly across the field, towards the street, smacking into a parked car before landing onto the roof of a nearby house. G and I, however, were screaming frantically, "RUN! GO GET IT!"
It was too late by the time we caught up. All we could see was the string of the kite hanging off of the second-story roof, with the end of the string dangling in the driveway. Parts of the string were snagged on the roof -- no matter how much we pulled, the string would not move. Time of death for the kite? 4:44:44.
The amiable neighbor of the house, who wore a black cowboy hat, decided to help us out. His attempts to loosen the line failed, but we greatly appreciated his help. He left with the promise that he'd try again when he returned home. But not wanting to simply rely on others, the three of us returned to my house, dropped off my dog, and came back to the site of the accident with an extendable branch-cutter. Ironically, Gov. J, who was the tallest, was the weakest one who could not hold onto the towering branch-cutter for too long. G, the shortest, turned out to be the one with absolutely no fear of heights. We took turns giving directions and managed to unsnag the line from several shingles of the roof except for the one at the roof's peak. Gov. J rang the doorbell, and the owner of the house, who did not even bother coming out to help, reported that there was no sign of the kite in their backyard.
Thinking something was weird, I decided to go visit the house behind them. As it turned out, the house in the back belonged to some family friends, the K family -- and the kite had landed on THEIR roof, with the string suspended all the way across two houses. Gov. J, the genius going off to Harvard in the fall, suggested cutting the string on their side, and then the three of us should able to retrieve the kite from the top of the K family's one-story house. I dashed home and returned with a ladder. Using the branch-cutter, I was able to pull all of the string off of the two-story roof and retrieve most of the string off of the K family's roof.
With Gov. J holding onto the ladder for support, G climbed onto the highest step of the ladder (which you are instructed NOT to do on the ladder's warning label) and used the branch-cutter to cut the string from the kite. It was nearly 7 p.m. by the time we got the kite off the roof and started untangling the three pieces of string.
Not exactly the best turn of events, but G, Gov. J and I agreed the experience was a lot of fun. I could probably spew the saccharine reflections about how getting the kite off of the roof allowed us to bond and utilize all of our best abilities -- Gov. J's brain, G's fearlessness, my I-don't-know-what -- but I think you get the point.
3. And Yet Another Exhausting Day
I have no idea where in the world this roller coaster is, but that's not the point.
Friday was the Math and Science day at the local amusement park. Thus, the AP Stats, AP Physics, and Math Club students from my school spent the entire day riding on roller coasters. I am not really afraid of rolller coasters -- I just don't get the same adrenaline rush that G seems to get high off of. Towards the afternoon, I started getting a headache, since I obviously do not get my head shaken around violently on a day-to-day basis. As it just so happens, I sat out when my friends wanted to ride on Flight Deck again, even though the park had techinically closed thirty minutes ago. As it turned out, the second time they went on, the ride creaked up the initial slope and then suddenly stopped, leaving S, C, and G dangling in their seats at an approximately sixty degree incline.
It only lasted for ten minutes, but it was pretty funny. My runaway imagination was coming up with all sorts of ideas, but I think I'll let you think of them on your own.
4. Eternal Sunshine in the Prom-inflicted Mind
Yes, I will admit that I have been dutifully ignoring the Senior Ball drama and refraining from blogging about it.
For awhile, I was considering not even going at all. The reason? I assumed I would most likely end up going stag again, but this year, I'm not quite so comfortable with that idea. Why? Because all of my friends (excluding S, who doesn't count) have all paired off with their romantic interests, thus making me the triple third wheel. Because Gov. J is stubbornly refusing to go for reasons I do not comprehend. Because of another reason I do not want to reveal on this blog.
Anyways. I agonized over the decision for a long time, until my mother neatly resolved the issue Friday night. When I came home exhausted from the long day, she showed me pictures of the dresses she had looked up. Upon seeing how excitedly my mother was looking at dresses online and in the fashion magazines, I realized the least I could do for my mother was let her doll me up for the last formal dance of my high school career.
Those close to me probably know that my father is an E-bay nut. He knows all the tricks and whatnot. Occassionally, I browse around just to look around -- I don't have an account, and I have never asked my father to bid anything for me. On a whim, I decided to look at designer dresses on Friday night. I looked at my two of my favorites: Vivienne Westwood and Marchesa. I found this:
Yes. It's a Marchesa Notte dress. Retail Price: $950. When I first found the listing, the price was at $228.
All of my measurements fit, except for one -- my waist. My body type is more boyish than hourglass, and thus I do not have the waist for this kind of dress. For awhile, I toyed with the idea of buying the dress as an investment -- if I didn't fit, whatever; in a few decades, I could sell it as vintage clothing. In the end, the dress ended up selling for $313.67.
My mother ended up taking me out shopping yesterday. Shopping with my mom = visiting discount stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Nordstrom Rack, and Loehmann's. My family is rather frugal, in case you haven't noticed. For Junior Prom last year, I spent approximately $30 on a dress I found at TJ Maxx. This year, I spent even less than that.
My dress isn't quite so simple as this one, but this is very similar to what it looks like. I spent $10 on a little red dress and $11 on platform lace-up sandals.
I intend to buy some red silk or velvet orchids and sew it onto the left strap so it will slightly resemble this:
Yes. As you can see, I like Marchesa very much. And I am very miserly when it comes to money.
5. But I Haven't Been Goofing Off This Entire Time...
Last night, I hung out at C's house with S and Duckie. We were supposed to be working on our Stats project but ended up wasting a bunch of time. That evening, G and JC came over and we watched Memento.
I had actually heard of this movie before -- I knew about its spliced storyline technique, and I had planned on watching it anyway, because I want to try that technique for the novella I intend on writing at some point in my life. The film splices a storyline into two halves. The first half runs chronologically in black and white, while the other is cut into sections that go in reverse chronological order. At the end of the movie, the two halves meet and black-and-white becomes color.
I have to say, I was only interested in the movie in order to figure out how the spliced storyline technique was used. To be honest, if the storyline of Memento had gone in chronological order, I think the movie would have put me to sleep. I think this is the type of movie you can only watch twice -- once to experience the suspense, twice to grasp a better understanding of what you didn't catch the first time around.
Regarding the novella I mentioned -- I've been toying with the idea in my head for almost half a year now, but it's still in the process of brainstorming. At this point, I don't know if I am mentally or emotionally mature enough to tackle the project; on the surface, it sounds like EP -- featuring another pair of rock stars with a twisted love story. But it actually deals with a lot of existentialism and questions about unrequited love/death/art. Furthermore, I doubt I am skillful enough to reach the level I want with this story. It features three parts, and each part uses a different technique -- stream-of-conscience, surrealism/unreliable narrator, spliced storyline. I've limited it to focus on only two main characters -- and only one of them will actually appear in the entire story. This is a dark story with no happy ending, and it's going to be very tough to handle.
Therefore, I've decided I won't even dare start writing this until I'm in college. Back to work on EP!
Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition III
1. The Health-Nut Strikes Back
I've already used this picture before on a previous blog post, but I think this is pretty applicable to what I'm about to say.
I miss the good old days when I could eat anything and everything I wanted, and none of it would culminate around my waist in a halo of fat. I am probably the least-picky person I know -- fortunately for me, the only things I do not like to eat are either expensive delicacies like sea cucumbers and sea urchins (totally not worth the money) or extremely sweet foods (I do not like whipped cream, birthday cake, or anything overloaded with sugar). Fortunately, when I was young I burned off nearly everything, due to the fact that I played tennis for two and a half hours per day, seven days a week.
Furthermore, I can eat incredibly fast. When we were eating Togo's sandwiches at Rogue's house last winter for her birthday, I finished my sandwich faster than S -- who happens to be a six-foot tall guy. Eating fast is an incredibly bad habit to have -- you don't realize you've stuffed your stomach until it's too late. Fortunately, my stomach has shrunk a great deal since the days when I would gorge myself on food -- but on the flip side, I haven't been exercising.
Anyways, I had a doctor's appointment last Wednesday. Apparently here are the things I'm doing wrong:
- Not Enough Sleep: When she asked me how much sleep I usually get, I responded honestly that I sleep five hours on the average weekday. Apparently, I'm only getting half of the required amount for teenagers, who are supposed to get nine to ten hours a night. Um, hello? Can you tell that to my teachers? I have to get up at 6 a.m. by the latest in order to make it to zero period on time. That means I'd have to go to sleep at 9 p.m. -- which happens to be about the time when I start eating dinner.
- Not Enough Fruit & Vegetables: I actually thought I was doing okay regarding fruit. Our house is filled with fruit from the farmer's market. I always have fruit with my lunch, and I usually eat more when I return home from school and again after dinner. Apparently that's not enough. I'm only getting three servings out of the expected five. Right... when am I supposed to eat the other two servings? Sometime during my nine-hour sleep?
- Not Enough Exercise: I admit, I cannot disagree with this one. Before yesterday, I hadn't touched my tennis racket in over two weeks. Which leads me to my next topic...
I've already used this picture before on a previous blog post, but I think this is pretty applicable to what I'm about to say.I miss the good old days when I could eat anything and everything I wanted, and none of it would culminate around my waist in a halo of fat. I am probably the least-picky person I know -- fortunately for me, the only things I do not like to eat are either expensive delicacies like sea cucumbers and sea urchins (totally not worth the money) or extremely sweet foods (I do not like whipped cream, birthday cake, or anything overloaded with sugar). Fortunately, when I was young I burned off nearly everything, due to the fact that I played tennis for two and a half hours per day, seven days a week.
Furthermore, I can eat incredibly fast. When we were eating Togo's sandwiches at Rogue's house last winter for her birthday, I finished my sandwich faster than S -- who happens to be a six-foot tall guy. Eating fast is an incredibly bad habit to have -- you don't realize you've stuffed your stomach until it's too late. Fortunately, my stomach has shrunk a great deal since the days when I would gorge myself on food -- but on the flip side, I haven't been exercising.
Anyways, I had a doctor's appointment last Wednesday. Apparently here are the things I'm doing wrong:
- Not Enough Sleep: When she asked me how much sleep I usually get, I responded honestly that I sleep five hours on the average weekday. Apparently, I'm only getting half of the required amount for teenagers, who are supposed to get nine to ten hours a night. Um, hello? Can you tell that to my teachers? I have to get up at 6 a.m. by the latest in order to make it to zero period on time. That means I'd have to go to sleep at 9 p.m. -- which happens to be about the time when I start eating dinner.
- Not Enough Fruit & Vegetables: I actually thought I was doing okay regarding fruit. Our house is filled with fruit from the farmer's market. I always have fruit with my lunch, and I usually eat more when I return home from school and again after dinner. Apparently that's not enough. I'm only getting three servings out of the expected five. Right... when am I supposed to eat the other two servings? Sometime during my nine-hour sleep?
- Not Enough Exercise: I admit, I cannot disagree with this one. Before yesterday, I hadn't touched my tennis racket in over two weeks. Which leads me to my next topic...
2. Why I am Never Flying a Kite Again
Last Thursday, I took the last AP test I'll ever take in my life. This calls for celebration, right? G and Gov. J came over to my house that afternoon. We had plans for walking my dog and flying a kite in the park near my house. You may now picture a beautiful, sunny California afternoon as you sit next to a white roly-poly Maltese dog while one of your friends squints up into the sky to find the rainbow-colored kite sailing in the wind.Now, you may picture your friend letting go of the kite.
Perhaps a bout of insanity overcame Gov. J, or perhaps she was simply tired -- she ambled idly after the kite as it jumped and bounced wildly across the field, towards the street, smacking into a parked car before landing onto the roof of a nearby house. G and I, however, were screaming frantically, "RUN! GO GET IT!"
It was too late by the time we caught up. All we could see was the string of the kite hanging off of the second-story roof, with the end of the string dangling in the driveway. Parts of the string were snagged on the roof -- no matter how much we pulled, the string would not move. Time of death for the kite? 4:44:44.
The amiable neighbor of the house, who wore a black cowboy hat, decided to help us out. His attempts to loosen the line failed, but we greatly appreciated his help. He left with the promise that he'd try again when he returned home. But not wanting to simply rely on others, the three of us returned to my house, dropped off my dog, and came back to the site of the accident with an extendable branch-cutter. Ironically, Gov. J, who was the tallest, was the weakest one who could not hold onto the towering branch-cutter for too long. G, the shortest, turned out to be the one with absolutely no fear of heights. We took turns giving directions and managed to unsnag the line from several shingles of the roof except for the one at the roof's peak. Gov. J rang the doorbell, and the owner of the house, who did not even bother coming out to help, reported that there was no sign of the kite in their backyard.
Thinking something was weird, I decided to go visit the house behind them. As it turned out, the house in the back belonged to some family friends, the K family -- and the kite had landed on THEIR roof, with the string suspended all the way across two houses. Gov. J, the genius going off to Harvard in the fall, suggested cutting the string on their side, and then the three of us should able to retrieve the kite from the top of the K family's one-story house. I dashed home and returned with a ladder. Using the branch-cutter, I was able to pull all of the string off of the two-story roof and retrieve most of the string off of the K family's roof.
With Gov. J holding onto the ladder for support, G climbed onto the highest step of the ladder (which you are instructed NOT to do on the ladder's warning label) and used the branch-cutter to cut the string from the kite. It was nearly 7 p.m. by the time we got the kite off the roof and started untangling the three pieces of string.
Not exactly the best turn of events, but G, Gov. J and I agreed the experience was a lot of fun. I could probably spew the saccharine reflections about how getting the kite off of the roof allowed us to bond and utilize all of our best abilities -- Gov. J's brain, G's fearlessness, my I-don't-know-what -- but I think you get the point.
3. And Yet Another Exhausting Day
I have no idea where in the world this roller coaster is, but that's not the point.Friday was the Math and Science day at the local amusement park. Thus, the AP Stats, AP Physics, and Math Club students from my school spent the entire day riding on roller coasters. I am not really afraid of rolller coasters -- I just don't get the same adrenaline rush that G seems to get high off of. Towards the afternoon, I started getting a headache, since I obviously do not get my head shaken around violently on a day-to-day basis. As it just so happens, I sat out when my friends wanted to ride on Flight Deck again, even though the park had techinically closed thirty minutes ago. As it turned out, the second time they went on, the ride creaked up the initial slope and then suddenly stopped, leaving S, C, and G dangling in their seats at an approximately sixty degree incline.
It only lasted for ten minutes, but it was pretty funny. My runaway imagination was coming up with all sorts of ideas, but I think I'll let you think of them on your own.
4. Eternal Sunshine in the Prom-inflicted Mind
Yes, I will admit that I have been dutifully ignoring the Senior Ball drama and refraining from blogging about it.
For awhile, I was considering not even going at all. The reason? I assumed I would most likely end up going stag again, but this year, I'm not quite so comfortable with that idea. Why? Because all of my friends (excluding S, who doesn't count) have all paired off with their romantic interests, thus making me the triple third wheel. Because Gov. J is stubbornly refusing to go for reasons I do not comprehend. Because of another reason I do not want to reveal on this blog.
Anyways. I agonized over the decision for a long time, until my mother neatly resolved the issue Friday night. When I came home exhausted from the long day, she showed me pictures of the dresses she had looked up. Upon seeing how excitedly my mother was looking at dresses online and in the fashion magazines, I realized the least I could do for my mother was let her doll me up for the last formal dance of my high school career.
Those close to me probably know that my father is an E-bay nut. He knows all the tricks and whatnot. Occassionally, I browse around just to look around -- I don't have an account, and I have never asked my father to bid anything for me. On a whim, I decided to look at designer dresses on Friday night. I looked at my two of my favorites: Vivienne Westwood and Marchesa. I found this:
Yes. It's a Marchesa Notte dress. Retail Price: $950. When I first found the listing, the price was at $228.All of my measurements fit, except for one -- my waist. My body type is more boyish than hourglass, and thus I do not have the waist for this kind of dress. For awhile, I toyed with the idea of buying the dress as an investment -- if I didn't fit, whatever; in a few decades, I could sell it as vintage clothing. In the end, the dress ended up selling for $313.67.
My mother ended up taking me out shopping yesterday. Shopping with my mom = visiting discount stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Nordstrom Rack, and Loehmann's. My family is rather frugal, in case you haven't noticed. For Junior Prom last year, I spent approximately $30 on a dress I found at TJ Maxx. This year, I spent even less than that.
My dress isn't quite so simple as this one, but this is very similar to what it looks like. I spent $10 on a little red dress and $11 on platform lace-up sandals.
I intend to buy some red silk or velvet orchids and sew it onto the left strap so it will slightly resemble this:
Yes. As you can see, I like Marchesa very much. And I am very miserly when it comes to money.5. But I Haven't Been Goofing Off This Entire Time...
Last night, I hung out at C's house with S and Duckie. We were supposed to be working on our Stats project but ended up wasting a bunch of time. That evening, G and JC came over and we watched Memento.I had actually heard of this movie before -- I knew about its spliced storyline technique, and I had planned on watching it anyway, because I want to try that technique for the novella I intend on writing at some point in my life. The film splices a storyline into two halves. The first half runs chronologically in black and white, while the other is cut into sections that go in reverse chronological order. At the end of the movie, the two halves meet and black-and-white becomes color.
I have to say, I was only interested in the movie in order to figure out how the spliced storyline technique was used. To be honest, if the storyline of Memento had gone in chronological order, I think the movie would have put me to sleep. I think this is the type of movie you can only watch twice -- once to experience the suspense, twice to grasp a better understanding of what you didn't catch the first time around.
Regarding the novella I mentioned -- I've been toying with the idea in my head for almost half a year now, but it's still in the process of brainstorming. At this point, I don't know if I am mentally or emotionally mature enough to tackle the project; on the surface, it sounds like EP -- featuring another pair of rock stars with a twisted love story. But it actually deals with a lot of existentialism and questions about unrequited love/death/art. Furthermore, I doubt I am skillful enough to reach the level I want with this story. It features three parts, and each part uses a different technique -- stream-of-conscience, surrealism/unreliable narrator, spliced storyline. I've limited it to focus on only two main characters -- and only one of them will actually appear in the entire story. This is a dark story with no happy ending, and it's going to be very tough to handle.
Therefore, I've decided I won't even dare start writing this until I'm in college. Back to work on EP!
February 25, 2009
Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition II
Despite the fact that I have plenty of homework that I have yet to start, I was trying to find "textual evidence" to prove something to G. Instead, I ended up reading through all the old xanga subscriptions I saved in my e-mail account and then ended up rereading my old xanga posts. Plus, I spent nearly an hour earlier arguing with my mother about journalism issues. And so because my head is rather jumbled at the moment and I don't feel like doing homework, I present to you:
Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition II
1. Who the hell is this?! Pt. I
I don't know if it's the fact that I am called a "senior" has anything to do with it, but why do I feel so nostalgic and old these days? I'll get to xanga later, but let's focus on something else first. This weekend, my father went spelunking in the deep cavern known as our downstairs walk-in closet and unearthed the ancient video camera that has not seen the light in a decade. He decided to convert all the VCR recordings into digital WMV files on our computer, and so I can now watch videos of my bratty little self on the computer.
It's probably not saying much, considering I don't meddle with illegal substances, but watching old videos of yourself is probably the trippiest experience ever. Especially the ones when you're a baby -- I watch myself ripping the pages out of a book and arbitrarily stacking plastic cups, and I sit there in front of the laptop thinking, "What in the blazes was I trying to do??"
It also forces me to realize I was probably a pretty bratty sister as a kid. There's a video where my idiotic brother was trying to stuff my head into his shirt, and then I screamed like a howler monkey and head-butted his chest. And I was also ridiculously skinny and lanky as a kid. What the hell happened.
2. Who the hell is this?! Pt. II
As previously mentioned, I just wasted a good amount of time reading not only the old xanga subscriptions in my e-mail account, but I also started rereading my old xanga entries. Some hilarious things I noticed:
3. If my life had an alternate ending...
I could totally see us saying these exact words again this year for graduation, if it weren't for the inconvenient fact that she has completely changed, that she's probably already moved to Bolivia for all I know and that she is a complete stranger to me now.
sweetlikelem0ns: im reading ppls xangas adn it seems like they have promo dresses and such already picked out
sweetlikelem0ns: i have noo idea what im gonna wear
sophelia: i dun give a shit
sweetlikelem0ns: great
sophelia: i really dont care
sweetlikelem0ns: we should show up nude
sweetlikelem0ns: make a statement.
sophelia: if it wasnt semiformal
sweetlikelem0ns: muahah
sophelia: i would wear cargos
sweetlikelem0ns: haha
sophelia: maybe we should show up wearing tuxedos and mocassins
sweetlikelem0ns: xD
sweetlikelem0ns: and indian head dresses
sweetlikelem0ns: just for the heck of it
sophelia: and we can do an indian chant
sophelia: ...in tuxes
sweetlikelem0ns: and bring war paint
sweetlikelem0ns: and paint ppl's faces
sweetlikelem0ns: with blood! scrwe the paint
sweetlikelem0ns: yeah. that would be fun.
sophelia: bring a staff with disembodied heads on the end
sweetlikelem0ns: start a bonfire in the middle of the dance and let it burn the whole night while we dance around it..with our indian chants..in our tuxes..with the moccassins
sweetlikelem0ns: they will envy us
4. Why I would never be an editor as a profession
Don't get me wrong. I love being one of the editors in chief of the school newspaper. But I really hate all the bureaucracy a high school newspaper has to deal with. Long story short, I spent an hour debating with my mother about whether or not I should let a certain article be published. In the end, she convinced me to not publish the article -- but I only agreed up to a point, because her advice was practical. To be honest, my anger at a certain person has still not subsided, and so I wanted to give the article's author a chance to attack/defend.
My mother asked me why I don't write a column if my writing style is much more honed than some of the other writers on the staff. I replied that in my opinion, editors in chief should avoid publishing their own work as much as possible. Then we got into a whole argument about my philosophy about columns as an editor, but that's not the point. In truth, there are times when I wish I had a column. Since I generally grade the columns this year, a lot of times I find myself thinking, "If I were writing this, I would do this..." and then I would have to shake off that thought. As a writer, I hate it when people start rewriting my work and cut out things and change words without my approval. As a result, I don't think I was meant to be an editor, because I am so reluctant to do what I hate to other writers.
5. My Least Favorite Movie of All Time The Film Faceoff columnists of the school newspaper are debating about The Greatest Film of All Time. I felt like getting into the spirit and taking the opposite direction.
I'm sure there are plenty of terrible movies out there -- but I wouldn't know, because if I knew they were terrible ahead of time, I wouldn't bother watching them. There were some I was coerced into watching, like the original The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie, with actors in gigantic animal costumes two-dimensional animations of griffins and ghosts, or the film version of Farenheit 451 in which the Mechanical Hound looked no more deadly than my Roomba. But the fact is, these movies were tolerable in that the terribleness was so knee-slapping funny. So for my criteria of the worst movie, I picked a movie that was terrible to the point of making me want to cry.
Firstly, I acknowledge that I would not have hated this movie so much if it weren't for the fact that I am in love with the book. Children's book, be damned! I love Ella and Char to death, I love the tragedy of Ella making Char hate her so that he can be safe from her curse, and I love the ingenious twist on Cinderella at the end with the three evening balls. As far as I am concerned, that story is perfect as is.
With that in mind, I admit I did not have very high hopes for the film -- but I have to say, I did not expect the film to fall so frighteningly short. Now, I would understand if a director decided to cut out parts from the novel -- after all, it would be difficult to include everything from a Harry Potter novel into a two-hour movie. But no! The director not only omits my favorite scenes from the book -- he adds completely useless characters and plot lines.
Firstly, the central conflicts of the book focused on Ella's curse, her relationship with her stepfamily, and her decision to reject Char's love so that she can protect him. But apparently this wasn't enough for the screenwriter, who decided to give Char some trouble by throwing in an evil uncle with a talking snake. HELLO? Did somebody decide to make Claudius from Hamlet torment other princes as well? As far as I could tell, the only point of having the evil uncle character was to somehow force Ella to attempt killing Char, which she manages to resist and thus breaks the spell -- not what happened in the book at all, by the way. And actually, the way she broke the spell in the movie was so stupid to begin with. If all it took was to yell "You will no longer be obedient!" to the mirror, why didn't she figure that out ages ago?
Secondly, in the book, the magical book Mandy gives Ella will always show a new story, letter, or diary entry whenever she opens the book. Amazing thing, no? And what does the movie replace it with? A TALKING BOOK THAT IS REALLY THE CURSED LOVER OF ELLA'S FAIRY GODMOTHER. Really, how is that necessary?
Thirdly, the movie omitted so many of the best scenes. I cannot believe they completely got rid of the masquerade ball in which Ella disguised herself as Lela in order to see Char one last time, instead replacing it with a stupid murder plot by an evil uncle. They threw out the scenes when Ella and Char slid down the bannisters, when Ella and Char first met in the cemetery, when Ella breaks her curse by forcing herself to say No when Char asks her to marry him. Instead, they concoct a pointless journey for Ella to wander about.
And finally, Char is so unattractive. If there's any movie that desperately needs a remake, it's this one.
And that concludes Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition II. I really should have been doing something more productive.
1. Who the hell is this?! Pt. I
I don't know if it's the fact that I am called a "senior" has anything to do with it, but why do I feel so nostalgic and old these days? I'll get to xanga later, but let's focus on something else first. This weekend, my father went spelunking in the deep cavern known as our downstairs walk-in closet and unearthed the ancient video camera that has not seen the light in a decade. He decided to convert all the VCR recordings into digital WMV files on our computer, and so I can now watch videos of my bratty little self on the computer.
It's probably not saying much, considering I don't meddle with illegal substances, but watching old videos of yourself is probably the trippiest experience ever. Especially the ones when you're a baby -- I watch myself ripping the pages out of a book and arbitrarily stacking plastic cups, and I sit there in front of the laptop thinking, "What in the blazes was I trying to do??"
It also forces me to realize I was probably a pretty bratty sister as a kid. There's a video where my idiotic brother was trying to stuff my head into his shirt, and then I screamed like a howler monkey and head-butted his chest. And I was also ridiculously skinny and lanky as a kid. What the hell happened.
2. Who the hell is this?! Pt. II
As previously mentioned, I just wasted a good amount of time reading not only the old xanga subscriptions in my e-mail account, but I also started rereading my old xanga entries. Some hilarious things I noticed:
- In nearly every daily digest, there is somebody who complains about how unfair their parents/siblings are and then threatens to kill him/herself.
- People loved posting quiz after quiz about the most useless information nobody in their right mind would even care to read. Because really, I don't care if you prefer biceps or calves/thighs (I'm not joking; this was one of the questions).
- One of these days, I want to invite G and Rogue over and we can browse through all the old BHMS photos, because some people have completely grown up. It's really quite amusing to see everyone back when they hadn't hit puberty.
- Similar to the whole 25 Things craze on facebook, there was a fad I call 15 People, in which you wrote about how you felt about 15 unnamed people. Which really was a stupid fad. I can imagine it would be fun to write, but it basically resulted in a bunch of hurt feelings and misunderstandings. You would feel bad if someone you thought you were friends with did not include you on the 15, and then you would feel like shit if someone talked crap about someone that sounded eerily like you.
- I find it really interesting how I got a pretty good amount of comments back then. There were two posts in a row where I received 17 comments. The record was the one with 35 comments. I guess I can proudly say that my entries were not laundry lists of my schedule for each day, but were they even that interesting? Then again, the fact that I've been spending so much time looking through my old stuff probably means my entries were entertaining, if not downright idiotic.
- Middle school drama is ridiculously melodramatic.
Friend Most Likely to...
Serve cheerios at her wedding reception: G
Have a nervous breakdown and run off on a murderous rampage, but only after stealing every Sanrio squishy eraser and inhaling every single flavor: A
Make billions of dollars by selling overpriced water to people in the desert: C (I don't really understand this one)
Become a Power Ranger: J (or this one. Must be some inside joke I don't remember)
Become a Disney movie singer who donates most her profits to charities concerning the rights of cows: Rogue
Become the most wanted terrorist in the world known as Orrenishi with the command over the petrifying Streaking 88s: J'nette
I actually think it would be really fun to write an updated list of these. Since I'm an aging senior and all.3. If my life had an alternate ending...
I could totally see us saying these exact words again this year for graduation, if it weren't for the inconvenient fact that she has completely changed, that she's probably already moved to Bolivia for all I know and that she is a complete stranger to me now.
sweetlikelem0ns: im reading ppls xangas adn it seems like they have promo dresses and such already picked out
sweetlikelem0ns: i have noo idea what im gonna wear
sophelia: i dun give a shit
sweetlikelem0ns: great
sophelia: i really dont care
sweetlikelem0ns: we should show up nude
sweetlikelem0ns: make a statement.
sophelia: if it wasnt semiformal
sweetlikelem0ns: muahah
sophelia: i would wear cargos
sweetlikelem0ns: haha
sophelia: maybe we should show up wearing tuxedos and mocassins
sweetlikelem0ns: xD
sweetlikelem0ns: and indian head dresses
sweetlikelem0ns: just for the heck of it
sophelia: and we can do an indian chant
sophelia: ...in tuxes
sweetlikelem0ns: and bring war paint
sweetlikelem0ns: and paint ppl's faces
sweetlikelem0ns: with blood! scrwe the paint
sweetlikelem0ns: yeah. that would be fun.
sophelia: bring a staff with disembodied heads on the end
sweetlikelem0ns: start a bonfire in the middle of the dance and let it burn the whole night while we dance around it..with our indian chants..in our tuxes..with the moccassins
sweetlikelem0ns: they will envy us
4. Why I would never be an editor as a profession
Don't get me wrong. I love being one of the editors in chief of the school newspaper. But I really hate all the bureaucracy a high school newspaper has to deal with. Long story short, I spent an hour debating with my mother about whether or not I should let a certain article be published. In the end, she convinced me to not publish the article -- but I only agreed up to a point, because her advice was practical. To be honest, my anger at a certain person has still not subsided, and so I wanted to give the article's author a chance to attack/defend.
My mother asked me why I don't write a column if my writing style is much more honed than some of the other writers on the staff. I replied that in my opinion, editors in chief should avoid publishing their own work as much as possible. Then we got into a whole argument about my philosophy about columns as an editor, but that's not the point. In truth, there are times when I wish I had a column. Since I generally grade the columns this year, a lot of times I find myself thinking, "If I were writing this, I would do this..." and then I would have to shake off that thought. As a writer, I hate it when people start rewriting my work and cut out things and change words without my approval. As a result, I don't think I was meant to be an editor, because I am so reluctant to do what I hate to other writers.
5. My Least Favorite Movie of All Time The Film Faceoff columnists of the school newspaper are debating about The Greatest Film of All Time. I felt like getting into the spirit and taking the opposite direction.
I'm sure there are plenty of terrible movies out there -- but I wouldn't know, because if I knew they were terrible ahead of time, I wouldn't bother watching them. There were some I was coerced into watching, like the original The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie, with actors in gigantic animal costumes two-dimensional animations of griffins and ghosts, or the film version of Farenheit 451 in which the Mechanical Hound looked no more deadly than my Roomba. But the fact is, these movies were tolerable in that the terribleness was so knee-slapping funny. So for my criteria of the worst movie, I picked a movie that was terrible to the point of making me want to cry.
Firstly, I acknowledge that I would not have hated this movie so much if it weren't for the fact that I am in love with the book. Children's book, be damned! I love Ella and Char to death, I love the tragedy of Ella making Char hate her so that he can be safe from her curse, and I love the ingenious twist on Cinderella at the end with the three evening balls. As far as I am concerned, that story is perfect as is.
With that in mind, I admit I did not have very high hopes for the film -- but I have to say, I did not expect the film to fall so frighteningly short. Now, I would understand if a director decided to cut out parts from the novel -- after all, it would be difficult to include everything from a Harry Potter novel into a two-hour movie. But no! The director not only omits my favorite scenes from the book -- he adds completely useless characters and plot lines.
Firstly, the central conflicts of the book focused on Ella's curse, her relationship with her stepfamily, and her decision to reject Char's love so that she can protect him. But apparently this wasn't enough for the screenwriter, who decided to give Char some trouble by throwing in an evil uncle with a talking snake. HELLO? Did somebody decide to make Claudius from Hamlet torment other princes as well? As far as I could tell, the only point of having the evil uncle character was to somehow force Ella to attempt killing Char, which she manages to resist and thus breaks the spell -- not what happened in the book at all, by the way. And actually, the way she broke the spell in the movie was so stupid to begin with. If all it took was to yell "You will no longer be obedient!" to the mirror, why didn't she figure that out ages ago?
Secondly, in the book, the magical book Mandy gives Ella will always show a new story, letter, or diary entry whenever she opens the book. Amazing thing, no? And what does the movie replace it with? A TALKING BOOK THAT IS REALLY THE CURSED LOVER OF ELLA'S FAIRY GODMOTHER. Really, how is that necessary?
Thirdly, the movie omitted so many of the best scenes. I cannot believe they completely got rid of the masquerade ball in which Ella disguised herself as Lela in order to see Char one last time, instead replacing it with a stupid murder plot by an evil uncle. They threw out the scenes when Ella and Char slid down the bannisters, when Ella and Char first met in the cemetery, when Ella breaks her curse by forcing herself to say No when Char asks her to marry him. Instead, they concoct a pointless journey for Ella to wander about.
And finally, Char is so unattractive. If there's any movie that desperately needs a remake, it's this one.
And that concludes Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition II. I really should have been doing something more productive.
January 19, 2009
Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition I
Guess who's back?
Back again?
Sophelia's back.
Tell a friend.
WHOOOOOOOO
Sophelia's back.
Tell a friend.
WHOOOOOOOO
So it's been more than a week since I last wrote on here. Eight days to be precise. Yes, I finally stuck my nose to the grindstone, or whatever the silly saying is, and updated EP. Personally, it was a rather boring chapter in my opinion, but at least it's taken care of.
So what else have I done in my absence? Other than realize just how addicted I am to blogging, I have discovered many wonders in this world. Allow me to present...
Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition I
(I think this might become a weekly thing from now on. But we shall see.)
1. Are some people doomed to never get the girl/guy?
Yeah yeah, I know people like to believe that there's a soulmate out there for everybody. But the cynical side of me has the feeling that there's always going to be somebody who for whatever reason keeps watching them get away. Is it because they have a horrible personality? Or because they just look like one?
Why did I suddenly start thinking about this? Well, I watched The Notebook for the first time last Saturday night. It's not a bad movie, I'll at least give it that. But guess who I saw?
Why, it's Lon Hammond Jr! The poor dashing Southern aristocrat who gets dumped for a farm boy! But wait a second... doesn't he look a little familiar?
Richard White of Superman Returns
Prince Edward of Enchanted
Hold on a second. How come in every movie I've seen with James Marsden in it, HE NEVER GETS THE GIRL? He's not ugly. It's not like a girl would wake up one morning and scream at the sight of his face. Granted, I haven't watched very many movies, but don't you think three movies is kinda telling? In the first place, the only reason Lon probably lost out to Noah was a case of bad timing. Hey, if Noah's picture had never made the newspaper, who knows what would have happened?
Oh, and don't bother trying to argue that Richard White gets the girl (aka Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane) in Superman Returns. Richard White's story is even more sad than Lon Hammond's. Think about. You're engaged to a girl who's still in love with a freaking alien! And not just any tentacled slimy thing. This is Superman, the guy whose hair remains curled even after he nearly drowns in the ocean! And just how the heck are you supposed live up to the expectations of your alien-human-hybrid stepson?
Anyways. If it weren't for the fact that James Marsden is in real life happily married with two children, he probably would have achieved idol status among the rest of us who spend Valentine's drowning out the sorrows of a single lifestyle with a pint of Ben & Jerry's and television reruns.
2. What's the appropriate age difference for sharing a kiss?
As you'll probably discover, I've spent a lot of my time recently catching up on movies. So what's the next film in line? NO. IT CAN'T BE!!
Yes, I admit. I watched Another Cinderella Story last night on ABC Family. About two hours of cheesy goodness. Forget about Cheez-its. This is "The Big Cheese."
Now, I don't know if you have heard (because it didn't even occur to me until I started reading comments on Youtube videos), but apparently there have been people protesting the age difference between Selena Gomez and Drew Seeley. Because supposedly, Selena Gomez is sixteen and Drew Seeley is twenty-six.
Wait a second. What the hell is the problem? Does Drew Seeley even look any older than twenty-five to you? This guy filled in for Zac Efron in all those High School Musical live performances... and Efron's what, twenty-one? If Seeley is believable as a high school champion basketball player (cue long loud laugh), wouldn't he be ten times more believable as a young showbiz star who can sing and dance?
Oh, I see. People are getting all squeamish because Gomez and Seeley share a kiss at the end of the movie. You can hardly even call it a kiss, since the camera immediately pans over to another side of the stage the instant their lips connect.
So what's the appropriate age difference for kissing? The way I see it, age doesn't matter until I start wincing and have to fight the urge to burrow my head into a pillow. I mean really, why are people making a commotion about a ten year age difference that probably looks only half that amount? What about the lip lock between Ben Kingsley (then aged 63) and Mary-Kate Olsen (then aged 21) in The Wackness? Or how about Sienna Miller (then aged 26) and Steve Buscemi (then aged 50, but looked at least 60) in Interview? Pick your battles, people.
Well, maybe I'm so unbothered by the pairing of Selena and Drew because I loved this scene:
3. Is this what it feels like if you're sitting in a movie theater and suddenly realize that somebody made a movie about your life... and they don't even know you?
So once upon a time, there was a girl named Sophelia. Long story short, she wrote a blog with the half-hearted hope of having the right person stumbling upon her posts. Well, just a week ago she shut the book cover to that story and effectively ended all hope of having her half-hearted dream come true.
Coincidentally, she decided to look at J'nette's blogroll, and guess what she found? A blog titled I Wrote This For You with a title description below stating, "I need you to understand something. I wrote this for you. I wrote this for you and only you. Everyone else who reads this, doesn't get it. They may think they get it, but they don't. This is the sign you've been looking for. You were meant to read these words."
First she stared. Then she reread again just to make sure she hadn't been hallucinating. Then she read the posts. Reading them made her feel a little happy and sad at the same time -- happy because each post was so succinctly beautiful, sad because she felt completely inferior to the genius author who had basically described her Internet life with 567 posts.
Seriously, go check it out. It is amazing.
4. Episode 1 of Dr. Subconscience
So as I have mentioned before, G bought me an illustrated dream dictionary for Christmas, probably so I would stop harrassing her with all my crazy accounts of my morbid subconscious storytelling. Well, as an experiment, today I will divulge the latest morbid installment from Sophelia's subconscience and then analyze it with my handy dandy dictionary. It's showtime!
Dr. Subconscience: Allo everyun! Velcome to my show! So, Sopheliah, tell me. Vat new un crazy dream do you have for me today?
Sophelia: I can only remember parts of it, but I remember I was hiding in a small cramped shack in the shady part of some downtown area. A group of us were trying to escape from some evil group -- I don't even remember why we were running away from them, but all I know is that they were the bad guys. I was hiding under a wooden bench with another guy dressed up in a strange orange Big Bird costume, when two of the bad guys came in and caught us hiding under the bench. They forced us out and one of them had to hold Big Bird down. The other had to report to their headquarters about the catch, but that meant he could no longer hold me down.
So as as soon as I had the opportunity, I bolted out of the shack and into another building not too far from the shack. I knew instinctively that somebody was chasing me, but I didn't dare look back. I darted into random doors everywhere, somehow managing to make it to the top floor. There, strangely enough, was a gift shop with a view of the city, selling regular tourist junk and some stuffed animals. The clerk, who was apparently on our side, told me I would be safe here for awhile. Eventually, G, Gov. J, C, S, J, and Rogue somehow managed to meet up with me at the gift shop, and they quickly informed me that a team of the bad guys were getting very close to our location. The clerk pointed at a hallway near the gift shop and told us we should be fine if we hide in the very last room down the hall.
So my friends and I hid inside what turned out to be an extremely messy bedroom. I guess we thought we were safe because whenever we played hide-and-seek when we were young, the parents' bedrooms were always off-limits. Anyways, so we could barely find a place to hide when the door busted open and a team of twelve-year-old boys leapt into the room and started yelling out threats while waving their tiny guns around. Alas, they were too stupid to simply lift off the bedsheet and find all seven of us hiding underneath, so as soon as we heard their feral cries echoing down the hall, we snuck out of the room and darted to the next room, which turned out to be a giant aquatics center. Only it felt more like an empty aquarium than an aquatics center. We leapt into the drained water polo pool, which literally was just a gigantic empty aquarium. Thinking nobody was going to find us there, we sat inside and tried coming up with escape plans.
But for some strange reason, our location had been discovered again, and we heard the thundering noises of the bad guys as they stampeded up the stairs to the highest floor of our building. Thinking fast, we built a human pyramid so that I could reach the window right above us. I pulled down the window but soon realized that none of us would be able to fit through the frame. So instead, I forced the window to open upwards and then ripped apart the window screen with my hands and teeth. Yeah, it hurt my teeth. For some reason, the water polo players had left some towels and pieces of cloth in the "pool", so my friends and I each grabbed a cloth and leapt out of the building as if we were using parachutes. For some strange reason, we were still be able to drift downwards like dandelion seeds despite the fact that gliding down with such dinky pieces of cloth would have been aerodynamically impossible.
And I don't remember very much after that, only that thanks to our stunning escape from the water polo pool, we were able to avoid the bad guys and continue running away.
Dr. Subconscience: Vell, Sopheliah. Good news: a comfortable old age is forecast for you if you are chased in a dream. The fact that your dream took place in a big city shows you have big ideals. The old dilapidated building -- the shack -- is a sign to start saving for the rainy days ahead, and the color orange you saw at the beginning of your dream is an omen of unusually great success. The strange bedroom is a sign of a change for the better. The toothache you developed after ripping apart the screen with your teeth suggests that you are not happy about a certain situation. Freefalling with the parachute, since it vas used successfully in your dream, is a sign that your love life will run smoothly. Seeing others falling is also a sign that you can count on promotion at work. Oh, and those boys you saw chasing you with guns? It's a sure sign that you're not really in love with your partner.
Sophelia: ... But this is all so vague. All you've told me is that I'm not happy with my current situation, and good times are coming soon, but I have to make sure to save for a rainy day? And how is my love life supposed to be running smoothly if I'm not really in love with my non-existent partner to begin with?
Dr. Subconscience: Ah, only the future can tell. Go to sleep and come visit me again tomorrow.
5. Anyone else have the urge to watch the "classic" Star Wars episodes (IV, V, VI)?
I happened to watch Episode IV and half of Episode V on the television last week. I was probably way too young the last time I watched them, because I felt as if I had never watched the films before in my life. Personally, Han Solo beats Luke Skywalker any day in my book. Harrison Ford was fiiiinne back in the day. I'm not surprised Harrison Ford become a superstar and now hardly anybody knows who Mark Hamill is.
Seriously. If he didn't end up with Leia at the end of the trilogy, I probably would have destroyed something.
And as a parting note, I have included two last Youtube clips of the lovely Leia and Han pairing. Haha they crack me up.
And that's all for Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition I!
(I think this might become a weekly thing from now on. But we shall see.)
1. Are some people doomed to never get the girl/guy?
Yeah yeah, I know people like to believe that there's a soulmate out there for everybody. But the cynical side of me has the feeling that there's always going to be somebody who for whatever reason keeps watching them get away. Is it because they have a horrible personality? Or because they just look like one?
Why did I suddenly start thinking about this? Well, I watched The Notebook for the first time last Saturday night. It's not a bad movie, I'll at least give it that. But guess who I saw?
Why, it's Lon Hammond Jr! The poor dashing Southern aristocrat who gets dumped for a farm boy! But wait a second... doesn't he look a little familiar?
Richard White of Superman Returns
Prince Edward of EnchantedHold on a second. How come in every movie I've seen with James Marsden in it, HE NEVER GETS THE GIRL? He's not ugly. It's not like a girl would wake up one morning and scream at the sight of his face. Granted, I haven't watched very many movies, but don't you think three movies is kinda telling? In the first place, the only reason Lon probably lost out to Noah was a case of bad timing. Hey, if Noah's picture had never made the newspaper, who knows what would have happened?
Oh, and don't bother trying to argue that Richard White gets the girl (aka Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane) in Superman Returns. Richard White's story is even more sad than Lon Hammond's. Think about. You're engaged to a girl who's still in love with a freaking alien! And not just any tentacled slimy thing. This is Superman, the guy whose hair remains curled even after he nearly drowns in the ocean! And just how the heck are you supposed live up to the expectations of your alien-human-hybrid stepson?
Anyways. If it weren't for the fact that James Marsden is in real life happily married with two children, he probably would have achieved idol status among the rest of us who spend Valentine's drowning out the sorrows of a single lifestyle with a pint of Ben & Jerry's and television reruns.
2. What's the appropriate age difference for sharing a kiss?
As you'll probably discover, I've spent a lot of my time recently catching up on movies. So what's the next film in line? NO. IT CAN'T BE!!
Yes, I admit. I watched Another Cinderella Story last night on ABC Family. About two hours of cheesy goodness. Forget about Cheez-its. This is "The Big Cheese."
Now, I don't know if you have heard (because it didn't even occur to me until I started reading comments on Youtube videos), but apparently there have been people protesting the age difference between Selena Gomez and Drew Seeley. Because supposedly, Selena Gomez is sixteen and Drew Seeley is twenty-six.
Wait a second. What the hell is the problem? Does Drew Seeley even look any older than twenty-five to you? This guy filled in for Zac Efron in all those High School Musical live performances... and Efron's what, twenty-one? If Seeley is believable as a high school champion basketball player (cue long loud laugh), wouldn't he be ten times more believable as a young showbiz star who can sing and dance?
Oh, I see. People are getting all squeamish because Gomez and Seeley share a kiss at the end of the movie. You can hardly even call it a kiss, since the camera immediately pans over to another side of the stage the instant their lips connect.
So what's the appropriate age difference for kissing? The way I see it, age doesn't matter until I start wincing and have to fight the urge to burrow my head into a pillow. I mean really, why are people making a commotion about a ten year age difference that probably looks only half that amount? What about the lip lock between Ben Kingsley (then aged 63) and Mary-Kate Olsen (then aged 21) in The Wackness? Or how about Sienna Miller (then aged 26) and Steve Buscemi (then aged 50, but looked at least 60) in Interview? Pick your battles, people.
Well, maybe I'm so unbothered by the pairing of Selena and Drew because I loved this scene:
3. Is this what it feels like if you're sitting in a movie theater and suddenly realize that somebody made a movie about your life... and they don't even know you?
So once upon a time, there was a girl named Sophelia. Long story short, she wrote a blog with the half-hearted hope of having the right person stumbling upon her posts. Well, just a week ago she shut the book cover to that story and effectively ended all hope of having her half-hearted dream come true.
Coincidentally, she decided to look at J'nette's blogroll, and guess what she found? A blog titled I Wrote This For You with a title description below stating, "I need you to understand something. I wrote this for you. I wrote this for you and only you. Everyone else who reads this, doesn't get it. They may think they get it, but they don't. This is the sign you've been looking for. You were meant to read these words."
First she stared. Then she reread again just to make sure she hadn't been hallucinating. Then she read the posts. Reading them made her feel a little happy and sad at the same time -- happy because each post was so succinctly beautiful, sad because she felt completely inferior to the genius author who had basically described her Internet life with 567 posts.
Seriously, go check it out. It is amazing.
4. Episode 1 of Dr. Subconscience
So as I have mentioned before, G bought me an illustrated dream dictionary for Christmas, probably so I would stop harrassing her with all my crazy accounts of my morbid subconscious storytelling. Well, as an experiment, today I will divulge the latest morbid installment from Sophelia's subconscience and then analyze it with my handy dandy dictionary. It's showtime!
Dr. Subconscience: Allo everyun! Velcome to my show! So, Sopheliah, tell me. Vat new un crazy dream do you have for me today?
Sophelia: I can only remember parts of it, but I remember I was hiding in a small cramped shack in the shady part of some downtown area. A group of us were trying to escape from some evil group -- I don't even remember why we were running away from them, but all I know is that they were the bad guys. I was hiding under a wooden bench with another guy dressed up in a strange orange Big Bird costume, when two of the bad guys came in and caught us hiding under the bench. They forced us out and one of them had to hold Big Bird down. The other had to report to their headquarters about the catch, but that meant he could no longer hold me down.
So as as soon as I had the opportunity, I bolted out of the shack and into another building not too far from the shack. I knew instinctively that somebody was chasing me, but I didn't dare look back. I darted into random doors everywhere, somehow managing to make it to the top floor. There, strangely enough, was a gift shop with a view of the city, selling regular tourist junk and some stuffed animals. The clerk, who was apparently on our side, told me I would be safe here for awhile. Eventually, G, Gov. J, C, S, J, and Rogue somehow managed to meet up with me at the gift shop, and they quickly informed me that a team of the bad guys were getting very close to our location. The clerk pointed at a hallway near the gift shop and told us we should be fine if we hide in the very last room down the hall.
So my friends and I hid inside what turned out to be an extremely messy bedroom. I guess we thought we were safe because whenever we played hide-and-seek when we were young, the parents' bedrooms were always off-limits. Anyways, so we could barely find a place to hide when the door busted open and a team of twelve-year-old boys leapt into the room and started yelling out threats while waving their tiny guns around. Alas, they were too stupid to simply lift off the bedsheet and find all seven of us hiding underneath, so as soon as we heard their feral cries echoing down the hall, we snuck out of the room and darted to the next room, which turned out to be a giant aquatics center. Only it felt more like an empty aquarium than an aquatics center. We leapt into the drained water polo pool, which literally was just a gigantic empty aquarium. Thinking nobody was going to find us there, we sat inside and tried coming up with escape plans.
But for some strange reason, our location had been discovered again, and we heard the thundering noises of the bad guys as they stampeded up the stairs to the highest floor of our building. Thinking fast, we built a human pyramid so that I could reach the window right above us. I pulled down the window but soon realized that none of us would be able to fit through the frame. So instead, I forced the window to open upwards and then ripped apart the window screen with my hands and teeth. Yeah, it hurt my teeth. For some reason, the water polo players had left some towels and pieces of cloth in the "pool", so my friends and I each grabbed a cloth and leapt out of the building as if we were using parachutes. For some strange reason, we were still be able to drift downwards like dandelion seeds despite the fact that gliding down with such dinky pieces of cloth would have been aerodynamically impossible.
And I don't remember very much after that, only that thanks to our stunning escape from the water polo pool, we were able to avoid the bad guys and continue running away.
Dr. Subconscience: Vell, Sopheliah. Good news: a comfortable old age is forecast for you if you are chased in a dream. The fact that your dream took place in a big city shows you have big ideals. The old dilapidated building -- the shack -- is a sign to start saving for the rainy days ahead, and the color orange you saw at the beginning of your dream is an omen of unusually great success. The strange bedroom is a sign of a change for the better. The toothache you developed after ripping apart the screen with your teeth suggests that you are not happy about a certain situation. Freefalling with the parachute, since it vas used successfully in your dream, is a sign that your love life will run smoothly. Seeing others falling is also a sign that you can count on promotion at work. Oh, and those boys you saw chasing you with guns? It's a sure sign that you're not really in love with your partner.
Sophelia: ... But this is all so vague. All you've told me is that I'm not happy with my current situation, and good times are coming soon, but I have to make sure to save for a rainy day? And how is my love life supposed to be running smoothly if I'm not really in love with my non-existent partner to begin with?
Dr. Subconscience: Ah, only the future can tell. Go to sleep and come visit me again tomorrow.
5. Anyone else have the urge to watch the "classic" Star Wars episodes (IV, V, VI)?
I happened to watch Episode IV and half of Episode V on the television last week. I was probably way too young the last time I watched them, because I felt as if I had never watched the films before in my life. Personally, Han Solo beats Luke Skywalker any day in my book. Harrison Ford was fiiiinne back in the day. I'm not surprised Harrison Ford become a superstar and now hardly anybody knows who Mark Hamill is.
Seriously. If he didn't end up with Leia at the end of the trilogy, I probably would have destroyed something.
And as a parting note, I have included two last Youtube clips of the lovely Leia and Han pairing. Haha they crack me up.
And that's all for Sophelia's Weekly Five, Edition I!
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