movies and other boring things

I finally went and got a Buncombe County library card on Saturday and was so pleased to be reminded of their nice DVD section, all of which are free to rent for 7 days! So I picked out Pierrot Le Fou, a French movie from 1965. It is kind of hard to follow, but the beautiful scenes and 60's style kept my attention. I took that screen capture because the subtitles were just as amusing as the scene (!) I'd recommend if you are philosophical by nature or just like good scenes. In the movies, women's bangs never get greasy. My bangs are usually greasy by about 4:00PM.

I also recently saw 500 Days of Summer and have been listening to the soundtrack ever since. A+, even if I've already worn out many of the songs years ago. I have a serious girlcrush on Zooey Deschanel- the 3rd Rock from the Sun guy can forget it. I have serious aspirations/tendencies to be a cross between the character of Summer in 500 Days of Summer and Amelie in Amelie (Audrey Tautou). But seriously, is Zooey Deschanel human? I think she is an angel. (the movie was ok, major chick flick).

I also recently saw Ponyo and that was another trippy Anime adventure courtesy of Hayao Miyazaki. I have to say I still prefer Spirited Away, even if Tina Fey does a voiceover in the US version of Ponyo. Still, some pretty awesome animation that isn't the stupid 3D crap that is pretty much all that exists anymore.

My computer started acting wonky around the beginning of August and I assumed it was a virus. My roommate Kim's boyfriend was so nice and looked at it for me and figured out that the HARD DRIVE WAS CRASHING... wtf Dell?!! But since it is under a year old Dell sent a new hard drive for free. I'm back up and running and soon I'll have all my old data back. I did consider buying a Macbook for about 3 days, though. So yeah, just another person to tell you that Dell sucks.

It's been pretty cool at night here for the past few days. I finally got a bed (!) and am not sleeping on the floor anymore. That means that it's way harder to get up in the morning and that laying about all weekend is an option again. I am so thankful, though the floor wasn't so bad.

I always have big ideas to make this blog a hub of excitement but all I can seem to do with it is make it too personal and not update it enough.

lucky to be me and not aliens

The topic of "jobs" continues. I'm currently reading Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. It is absolutely captivating; she quit her regular writing job and began to try to live as a person entering the workforce after being on welfare. She discusses the trials of finding cheap, safe housing, finding jobs and keeping those jobs, how hard the work is, etc. One of her main objectives seems to be to prove if it is possible to make ends meet working minimum wage jobs and living as cheaply as possible. The chapter about maids is truly alarming. Did you know that many of those maid companies, Merry Maids etc, don't actually clean anything on a microbiological level? Purely surface and visible cleaning is done. This book is really worth reading, if you're ready for a swift sociological kick in the ass. The people she talks about working with and the ridiculous practices and questions they are subjected to will open your eyes to the working poor right here in the United States. God, how lucky I am to be born into this life.

I think when I refer to books and things of that nature in this blog I will link to half.com instead of the usual amazon.com link. Half.com allows you to choose to buy a book from someone who is selling it independently (how I paid for pizza and other stupid expenses in college) and recycling it rather than getting a new book from Amazon (I know you can buy used from Amazon, it's just way cheaper on half).

I'm finally starting to see some results from my hard job searching and applying, if only little whispers of hope. An application status change here, an email wanting more information (essays, etc) there. These little notifications are far better than a denial or nothing at all. Did I mention that I applied to be a garbage truck dispatcher and was rejected?

In more interesting and entertaining news, because of my privileged background, education, and income I babysat for a friend today and the kid and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've never watched Indiana Jones movies before, I guess Star Wars was enough Lucas/Spielberg for me in my childhood. Harrison Ford is still dreamy when he isn't Han Solo, even when he's 6o something years old... ESPECIALLY when he is an archaeologist. (spoilers, now): One of the main parts of the movie rested on the Mayan drawings of people with elongated heads. It is true that these people molded their heads to look longer but it wasn't because they were worshiping aliens. It was because they may have been worshiping corn, mas o menos. It's almost too bad that this Indiana Jones movie turned into something from Contact at the end. Also, why was there no explanation for the random "natives" that guarded the old temples and "important" ancient places? Boogy men guards at Machu Picchu? What's with that? Still entertaining, even if the movie probably taught thousands of people that several ancient Latin American cultures were governed by aliens. Also, the plot to begin with is still Team America: Fuck Yeah! what with the cute archaeologist trying to save himself as well as the fate of the world from those mean Commie Russians trying to brainwash everybody... What?! I guess I'm complaining a lot for a movie I did like- there were just some really strange plot points that maybe seemed like someone was on crack among the writers.

**Edit: after consulting the boyfriend it seems like all the Indiana Jones movies are on crack like this. My bad. This was my first one.

The best part of all that was the drive home. I talked to the 9 year old little guy I was babysitting about the Mayan ball game and he talked to me about the Native American stick ball game.

me: So the Mayans had this game kind of like basketball where they had a court and a ball and a hoop and they would play to the death sometimes.
kid: was there hundreds of them?
me: well I don't know. No one really knows exactly how they played it...
kid: THAT'S JUST LIKE THE NATIVE AMERICANS AND THEIR GAME THEY PLAYED TO THE DEATH TOO!
me: well theirs was more like lacrosse...