nerd

Man, do I love being a Nerdfighter.

day 12: all inked up, too

I cannot even believe that this is the last Harry Potter movie. I never really got quite as engrossed in the movies like I did with the books, but these last two are just... I don't seem to have the words. I will be tearing up, if not flat out bawling, when I watch it. Just thinking about the trailer still gives me goosebumps.

And I don't believe I'm alone when I say that these books impacted me more than anything else I've ever read. Honestly, I don't believe that I would have my love of reading, books, and knowledge if my mother had not read me the story of Harry and his friends for bedtime. She would sit with me on the couch along with my dad and my brother and read to us a chapter. It was only ever me still awake by the end. And when our lives changed and my brother and I grew older, I carried on reading, devouring each one slowly, savoring each adventure as if I lived them. I'm actually the only one that finished the books in my family. Now they all hold a place of honor on my bookshelf.

So, wouldn't it be a great way to commemorate an irreplaceable part of your being with a very permanent tattoo? Maybe, maybe not. But I'm thinking about it. Those stories are one of the most memorable parts of my childhood, and as cliched as it is, made me the person I am today: a knowledge-hungry, fantasy-loving, imaginative nerd. With a slight passion for body art.

via hello, friend

other images from Harry Potter Tattoos submitted by members

pardon my sorriness

I'm terribly sorry that I am such an incurable, regressive, ten year old nerd and loser. In a nineteen year old's body. I watched the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender series in a month. How completely pathetic is that? I know. Beyond extreme. Beyond even that, I think. So here is the child of this love affair with this amazingly clever cartoon: AANG!!!

Love this kid! Such a badass for only his tender age of twelve. He'll  be finished in a few days.

Do you know how excited I am for the movie?! YES!!!

art & copy

When I got onto Netflix about two hours ago, I thought I was going to be watching Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. But, the movie gods smiled upon me and granted me a long desired wish via my Instant Queue and made my night. Ask my roommate.

I've been waiting for the documentary for about 6 months, since I first saw the (ironic) ad for it on the internet. I don't even remember how I found it, actually. My English prof assigned a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death by Niel Postman about the proliferation of the image and pictures dominating the written word and how the computer and television are "taking over the world." Pretty grim stuff, but so interesting. Definitely a recommended nonfiction read. Anyway, when I researching for topics that were related to some of the subjects mentioned in the book for a paper, I immediately thought of advertisement. The epitome of the short, image saturated communication media. My art teacher during my senior year worked in advertising before she became a teacher, and we actually did a project that involved making a company identity and making an advertisement for it. And when I stumbled across this documentary, I knew I had to watch it. Unfortunately at the time, it was only screening in certain cities, none of them remotely close to where I get at it. 

Advertising it just one of the most interesting phenomena. It's this message that a bunch of people create, then send out into space, the world, and hope for a response. Too bad a lot the advertising done these days is complete shit, pardon my language. There are really only a few that I like. Those funny Intel commercials, because I can personally relate to that, I think, and those new tampon commercials that point out how stupid tampon commercials can be. That's pretty much it. It's such a shame because an ad can be so much more than that. Think about it. Apple's "Think Different." Nike's "Just Do It." Both of those grew into so much more than an ad. They were revolutionary and became mantras to live by. It's an amazing thing to think about.

"The frightening and most difficult thing about being what somebody calls a creative person is that you have absolutely no idea where any of your thoughts come from, really. And especially you don't have any idea about where they're going to come from tomorrow." - Hal Riney (1932-2008)

You will be enlightened. And if not, at least you will have seen some good ads instead of the crap that's on TV.

spontaneity

......So......

I've had this craving for truffles since at least Monday.

And then I watched "Julie & Julia" today.

Inspired? Definitely. Mmmm.... truffles.
Here they are:

They may seem daunting and intimidating, but they are certainly far from it.
Here's the recipe I used: {link}
I find irony in the URL address considering my major.

And I definitely freaked out when I saw this in Julie & Julia:

When I went to Paris, this was Samantha's must-stop-and-browse places (find her in my sidebar!). Trust me, it was so worth it!!!

That's my shot of the inside. Books from top to bottom in that place. And if you stand in that doorway facing out, you get a spectacular view of Notre Dame. And it's English-speaking. Such a relief!

top five friday

1. Barbara Streisand Omar Sharif

2. My new waterbrush! So happy!

3. Vampire Diaries (I didn't have my physics lab so I finally got to watch)

4. iPod Shuffle for my long runs

5. Alisa Burke is my new favorite blogger!

top five friday

1. Paper Cranes

image via

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2. The O.C. Seasons 1 and 2

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3.Garlands

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4. My new Musée d'Orsay book

5. Howl's Moving Castle

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academy awards

The Oscars are so fun.

Interesting fact that I just realized while skimming my iTunes: I own at least one Oscar nominated score from the year 2001 until now, except for years 2003, 2004, and 2008.

2001:

• Winning: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• I own: Chocolat

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2002:

• Winning: LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring
• I own: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring

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2005:

• Winning: Finding Neverland
• I own: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

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2006:

• Winning: Brokeback Mountain
• I own: Pride and Prejudice

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2007:

• Winning: Babel
• I own: Pan's Labyrinth

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2009:

• Winning: Slumdog Millionaire
• I own: Wall-E and Slumdog Millionaire

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2010:

• Winning: Up
• I own: Avatar

Animated films are almost "made" by their music. Up is definitely no exception. One of the things I love to do with all the fabulous spare time that I have is to see who composed what and see the variety for movies these super talented people do. For instance, one of my favorite composers ever, Thomas Newman, cousin of Randy Newman, did the soundtrack for Wall-E and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, both more children oriented movies, as well as American Beauty, Erin Brockovich, and the Shawshank Redemption. This year's winner, Micheal Giacchino, for Up, also composed the scores to Star Trek and the TV show Alias. 

That is serious talent!

weekend of fun after a week of tests

Ok, so I was a Target this weekend and was browsing through the purses and fell in love with this print... Sorry I can't get a picture of the actual bag, it isn't up on the web, much to my dismay.

Is that not such a sophisticated print? The bag comes in this ultra fresh green or in a lovely muted yellow.

The trouble is I can't decide which color I love more! I went ahead and bought the green because I love green so much, but I really don't know which I like better!

Help Miss Meliss out on this one! What do you think?

I also got a lovely coral tee, a shirt with a large graphic flower that I absolutely love, and a really cool graphic lace shirt. All in all, money well spent! I love it when I feel good about purchases instead of hating that I just spent money. :)

1.via 2.via 3.via 4.via 5.via

And also this weekend, the BF and I went to see Shutter Island with some buddies. SO GOOD. I was a little confused about what was going on at some times, but beauty of it all definitely made up for that in full. For a somewhat creepy suspense movie, it's gorgeous. My favorite scenes are when Leo DiCaprio's character's dreams because they were like real dreams; things don't quite make sense but they are so vivid and colorful and symbolic. It is a definite recommendation. And honestly, who doesn't like to watch Leo DiCaprio for 2 and a half hours? That's what I did when I watched Titanic and Romeo+Juliet. Plus, 50's fashion? Need I go on?


p.s. I have also started my roommates custom shoes. Teal with penguins! I'll post pictures when I've gotten further than the base coat. ;)

The Secret of Kells

I'm sure everyone of you has read (and possibly researched) the Oscar nominations. Every year, my personal favorite is Best Animated Feature. And this year is of special interest because one film combines two loves of mine: animation and art history.

The Secret of Kells

"Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream. "

 Sorry for my long absence. School. It's getting ridiculous again. I'll try harder to stay on top of things!

 

I think most people know about my strange obsession with orchestral soundtracks. I've got lots. And I picked this one up yesterday from Walmart. Delicious. Lot's of light strings, marimbas, choir. Very ethereal and completely other worldly. Perfect for studying!

P.S. It has been a very long time since I left a theater so pleased with a movie. Avatar is simply genius in just about every way. Groundbreaking.

Favorite song: The Bioluminescence Of The Night

James Horner also did the music for Titanic. It's got the same Celtic piccolo/flute influence that Horner is known for, but with touches of tribal and even some electric synth thrown in. It's simply gorgeous. I really recommend it if you are into film scores.

These are the kinds of things that make me love my English class so much. My prof is amazing...



My Favorite Movies: Star Wars vs. Star Trek.
I saw this done once with Star Wars and Eragon on G4, that gamer channel. If you've read Eragon, although an amazing book and story, you can see the similarities quite well... Captured princess, farmboy with extraordinary power who didn't know his parents and was raised by his aunt and uncle, fight between an empire and a rebellion that empolys all races including the little ones (dwarves and Ewoks), etc. Sorry, I know a little too much about Star Wars.

I know this has run through your mind at some point, too. via http://io9.com via LiveJournal's kar3ning

Even if you don't want to admit it, you've thought about this. Lol...

I tell you what, it's not that I hated English in high school. I had some fabulous teachers (Ms. Conroy, Mrs. Jones), but college English is just making my life, except for the two papers I have due next Monday. But my prof just makes it awesome. He's always got something interesting for the class to talk about before class has "officially" started, like these. We watch movie trailers, too! And commercials! We are the ones that made YouTube's unique visitor quota surpass 1 billion hits.

I love college. Except for those two papers and two tests. But other than that, I seriously love college.

Musings

So, I think I've got a serious problem... I constantly change the layout of this blog. I just can't seem to find the right one. I think I've got the same problem with boys... not really. I've got good ideas, but they all just seem to disappoint me. High expectations...

I can't even believe that the first semester of my college life is almost over. It seems like only yesterday that my parents were walking out of my room and I knew what a vegetable looked like. It went by so fast!!! But alas, I still have tests in every one of my classes and then finals to worry about, so it's not completely over yet. But it's getting there.It's been a ton of hard work because engineering is stupid and wants to kill all the freshmen, but so much fun at the same time. Going out dancing on Thursdays, 2 am runs to Whataburger, wasting lots of money and making poor life choices at Walmart and Hobby Lobby. It's been fantastic. And the weeks seem to go by so much faster than they did in high school. Am I right?

So, I'm on the Internet pretty much all the time, mostly looking at blogs and art and stuff. I don't really get on Facebook that much anymore. Or I'm just doing my calculus homework. But anyway, one of my favorite blogs, Little Green Notebook, posted a link to an amazing site that has vintage art that you can print because it is public domain. It's awesome. It's got sketched pages from botanical books, butterflies, illuminated manuscripts! I just want to print them all out and paste them all over my binder and my room! Go check it out: Vintage Printable

One thing that is awesome about College Station: Starbucks stays open until midnight.
One thing that sucks about College Station: some movies don't show here.

Exhibit A: Pirate Radio, with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Branagh, and Bill Nighy!!... I wanted to see this so bad, and then I find out that the closest theater showing it is an hour away. And I don't have a car and I don't think anyone I know with a car wants to see it. So, can't wait to get that on DVD!


Ok, so I want to try something. Exercising everyday for 2 weeks. Do you think I can do it? I hope so. I hate feeling sluggish all the time. I walk up stairs now and I get winded! It's dumb. I want to get back into shape and lose the 5 pounds I've gained since I've been here! So here goes nothing!!