Books, beats, bugs and beaches

Finishing 100 movies on time

2013-07-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

With a feeling of great accomplishment, I announce... I finished my 100 movies on time - and with over a week to spare! My teaching practicum and subsequent substitute teaching kept me busy enough to not even think to update this blog as I went along, but now that those are complete I can share here what I've got.

62. January 17 - Clueless
63. January 20 - Bernie
64. January 24 - Breakfast at Tiffany's
65. January 26 - The Usual Suspects
66. January 27 - Goon
67. January 28 - The Queen of Versailles
68. January 31 - Groundhog Day
69. February 5 - Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
70. February 7 - The Graduate
71. February 10 - Reservoir Dogs
72. February 17 - Argo
73. February 24 - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
74. February 26 - Les Miserables (2013)
75. March 3 - Half Nelson
76. March 5 - Monkey Business
77. March 7 - Pitch Perfect
78. March 9 - Primer
79. March 11 - Jiro Dreams of Sushi
80. March 16/17 - Submarine
81. March 23 - Heathers
82. March 29 - A Fish Named Wanda
83. March 30 - Duck Soup
84. April 18 - The Watch
85. April 20 - Baby Mama
86. May 10 - Silver Linings Playbook
87. May 27 - Lawless
88. June 6 - The Goonies
89. June 7 - Total Recall
90. June 7 - Tangled
91. June 8 - The Breakfast Club
92. June 9 - Bully (2011)
93. June 10 - Moulin Rouge
94. June 12 - Equilibrium
95. June 16 - Roman Holiday
96. June 17 - Keeping Mum
97. June 18 - Star Trek Into Darkness
98. June 21 - World War Z
99. June 23 - To Kill A Mockingbird
100. July 2 - This is the End

(Honorable inclusion 101. The Adjustment Bureau)

It's been so long now since I've seen some of these that I hardly think I can give a fair judgement to many of them. Despite all my practice this year, I'm still horribly bad at remembering details of movies! Overall, though, I saw some great films (like To Kill A Mockingbird, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Argo); some pretty mediocre ones (The Watch, Bad Teacher, Made); some I can't believe I hadn't watched until now (The Goonies, Galaxy Quest, Little Shop of Horrors); some that made me think (Bully, Vegucated, Waiting for Superman); some that I shamefully enjoyed a lot (Magic Mike, THEM!, Clueless); some that others love, but I found to be a disappointment (Primer, Puss in Boots, Looper); and some that I'll definitely watch again (Pitch Perfect, The Usual Suspects, How to Train Your Dragon).

What a great year of movies! Should I do it again...?

Long-overdue movie update...

2013-01-17T16:50:00.002-08:00

I can't believe I haven't updated this thing since October! I suppose it goes to show just how busy my semester got... I did, however, manage to watch a lot of movies since then, mostly thanks to the extended Christmas break I had (oh, how I miss that already). Here's what I've got, starting after My Neighbour Totoro:

32. October 20?- We Need to Talk About Kevin. I read the book, so I felt like I should see the movie.
33. October 27- Made. I really can't remember why I bothered to watch this. It was unmemorable, but it was on Netflix and so was easy.
34. October 29- Sixteen Candles. Not bad.
35. October 31- Cabin in the Woods. I watch very few "horror" movies, so this one seemed okay to me, but everyone seems to have a different opinion.
36. November 3- Moonrise Kingdom. Wes Anderson!!
37. November 10- The Blob (1958). Sufficiently entertaining.
38. November 12ish- Slap Shot. Pretty funny.
38. November 17- Galaxy Quest. HOW HAD I NEVER SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE?????? Alan Rickman is a genius. The rest of the movie was great too.
39. November 19- Election. Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon- started out okay. Kind of got weird and withered after a while.
40. November 22- Pretty in Pink. All I could think about was how "Ducky" is in 2.5 Men.
41. December 1- Puss in Boots. Exactly the same as every other Dreamworks animated feature. Take that how you like.
42. December 3- Looper. Overhyped. Good, but I HATED the ending... almost made me wish I hadn't seen the rest of the movie.
43. December 4- Whatever Works. Larry David is hilarious, but I think I prefer him in TV-episode-length intervals. Not a bad movie though.
44. December 8- Vegucated. Basically a movie about these people who are challenged to go vegan for six weeks, what they learn, and whether or not they stay vegan at the end. Interesting.
45. December 11- Dial M for Murder. Classic! Good movie.
46. December 15- The Over-the-hill Gang. I watched this at home with my family but I'd just arrived home and was falling asleep. What I saw of it was pretty funny, though- sometimes you need a cheesy western.
47. December 16- Hanna. Awesome!
48. December 18- Little Shop of Horrors (1986). How had I not seen this movie before? Weirdly though, the version we rented had the original "director's cut" ending, and was super weird. Wish they'd had both endings on the DVD, as I had to Youtube the other ending because the one I saw didn't make the movie feel complete.
49. December 20- Scrooged. Easter Egg at the end of this movie- "Feed me, Seymour!" -directly taken from Little Shop of Horrors (the plant says it)- didn't even expect for that to happen. Hilarious though.
50. December 21- Deathtrap. Twists and turns, pretty entertaining. I've since watched Sleuth, though, and Sleuth was the better of the two.
51. December 22- Annie Hall. I think I just need to take Woody Allen in small doses, because this was a good movie, but it was almost too much after just seeing Whatever Works.
52. December 23- Skyfall. Loved this!
53. December 26- Superman (1978). So long, but worth it in the end.
54. December 28- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The first Elizabeth Taylor movie I've ever seen.
55. December 30- Django Unchained. Pure indulgent entertainment. Some great lines and scenes in this movie.
56. January 2/3- Cleanflix. A doc about Mormons editing Hollywood films in Utah. You can probably imagine the rest from that.
57. January 3- The Terminator. When he said "I'll be back," I was like huh? That's no big deal. Then he came back and I was like OH.
58. January 6- The Land Before Time. Cute.
59. January 7- Goldeneye. After seeing Skyfall, I felt like I should go back and actually watch some other Bond movies, since I've mostly only watched the ones with Daniel Craig and his "lived-in look". Pierce Brosnan was definitely more slick, but still good.
59. January 10- The Jungle Book. Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, forget about your worries and your strife!
60. January 12/13 - Cool Hand Luke. Nobody can eat 50 eggs. Damn, Paul Newman was a looker.
61. January 14- Sleuth. For being a fairly long film, Sleuth had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. SO good!

More movies...

2012-10-18T13:15:00.002-07:00

So it's one month later and I have not successfully written a single movie review. I'm just going to stick with the excuse that school started, which is actually a pretty good excuse- I've been so busy! I haven't done very well, movie-wise, since the beginning of September. But I'll give you what I've got.

22. September 1- Taxi Driver. Great stuff. 9/10
23. September 6- Waiting for Superman. About the problems with the American public school system. Would definitely recommend a watch (especially for those in education, but really for anyone). 8/10
24. September 15- Magic Mike. Went to see this with Diana, and actually really enjoyed it. 7/10
25. September 16- The Amazing Spiderman. Pretty entertaining. Not super memorable, really, but good. 7/10
26. September 20- Frontrunners. A documentary about the race for class president at one of NYC's top public schools. 7/10
27. September... something- Five Dollars a Day. Not Christopher Walken's best showing ever. A pretty "meh" movie. 5/10
28. October 2- Religulous. Oh Bill Maher. 8/10
29. October 4- Jeff, Who Lives at Home. I seem to enjoy most things with Jason Segel. He seems so snuggly. 7/10
30. October 13- The Sitter. A totally absurd Jonah Hill movie. Wouldn't watch it again, but it was an okay way to spend 1.5 hours. 6/10
31. October 16- My Neighbour Totoro. SO cute and so awesome. I loved the cat-bus. Would watch again! 8/10

So I may not write again in this blog for a while but... I'm around and blogging over at my edtech blog for now... and I'll be back here from time to time!

The film challenge

2012-08-31T12:28:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of July, I accepted somewhat of a challenge from www.reddit.com which entailed watching 100 movies in 365 days. A challenge indeed, as I'm not the best movie watcher ever and my attention span can run a little short, but I thought I may as well give it a try. Since about July 14, I have actually managed to watch 21 movies- an awesome start. It gives me an excuse to finally catch up on my movie watching. Here is the list thus far (and approximate, whole number scores out of 10):

1. July 14?- American Psycho 7/10
2. July 18?- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 9/10
3. July 20?- Star Wars II 6/10
4. July 22- How to Train Your Dragon 10/10
5. July 23- The Princess Bride 8/10
6. July 25- Dazed and Confused 7/10
7. July 26- I Love You Philip Morris 7/10
8. July 29- Batman Begins 9/10
9. July 30- Pinocchio 7/10
10. August 8- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 8/10
11. August 11- The Dark Knight (for the third time) 10/10
12. August 13- The Five-Year Engagement 6/10
13. August 14- Bad Teacher 5/10
14. August 16- The Dark Knight Rises 9/10
15. August 18- The Royal Tenenbaums 7/10
16. August 19- Rushmore 7/10
17. August 23- Fright Night 7/10 (would have been lower, but David Tennant made it awesome)
18. August 25- Wargames 7/10
19. August 26- THEM! 8/10
20. August 29- The Ides of March 7/10
21. August 30- Clue 7/10

I know a lot of these hover around a 7, but I do my best to watch movies I think I'll like. 7 means I enjoyed it, but wouldn't make it to a list of "top favorites of all time". For the rest of this challenge (starting now) I'm going to do my best to write reviews of the movies.. At least every other one. Enjoy!

Man-eating mantids and blood-drawing beetles.

2012-02-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

What a week at work I've had.
On Thursday, we had some new mantids in the case where Beyonce 2 (the old praying mantis) used to be. Praying mantids only live about 6 months after they've hatched, so the ones in the cases get switched up fairly often. So I take this one - let's call her Beyonce 3 - out of the case to show my tour group, and she's really eyeing me up. I had a small tour group, so she only got passed to one person. When I tried to put her back in the cage, though, she went a bit mental on me, pinched me with her giant raptorial forearms and then bit me! By this time I already had my hand in the case, and shook it in surprise. After a moment she let go, but not before drawing blood- the little bugger.
After another tour, I'd calmed down enough to think about bringing the (also new) mantis out of the other half of the case. This one didn't bite me, but a pinch with her forearms made me think she would, so brilliantly I shook my hand and she flew off (unharmed- they do have wings).
I really just want to write these off as bugs being little bitches, but probably they were just hungry and maybe a little confused. At the same time, though, my fingers can't really look all that much like a headless cricket.
Two days later- today, Saturday- was a fabulous day of tours. Some days I go in and haven't got a proper train of thought, but I was rocking it today. My group and I came to the Atlas beetle, and some of the guests pointed out that he was on his back. The thing about these guys is that they're so big and have such gigantic horns (used for fighting over females, of course) that if they get stuck on their back, they can't flip themselves over on their own. Me, being the wonderful employee and bug samaritan that I am, decided to give the guy a hand. It turns out if you offer a hand, they'll take a finger - at least a big bloody chunk. Because we just got him in a few days ago, I hadn't been briefed that he actually needs to be picked up by the horns, and not by the back. I guess he panicked, and my index finger got pinched between his wing cases and his head. I decided to attempt to ignore it- play it cool and continue with my tour. When the blood started running down my hands, the tour group assured me it was quite all right- they'd wait while I cleaned myself up.
In the end though, I guess it makes for a good story. I even made my first tip today! No surprise, though, that it came from a couple who witnessed the bloody beetle battle. But yes, the beetle is really that big.

Breaking onto the e-book scene.

2012-02-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

I was on the phone with my mom last night and we were discussing writing. Now, like I've mentioned before, I've long held this fantasy of becoming a best-selling author. I don't mean to say I want to make it a lifelong career, but it would be wonderful to just be a one-hit wonder, like Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee, J.D. Salinger. I'd be perfectly happy just to have something published though; that's when my mom and I started discussing this recent craze of e-book publishing. Really, anyone can write and publish an ebook, and make money off it. And here's the thing- I have an idea. I haven't had an idea for anything since like grade 4. And it's a good one. I just did a web search on the topic and nothing similar came up, so I might have something here- and I can't help but be excited! I should probably begin my research, though, before someone else comes up with the same idea...

Steve Buscemi and Woody Allen

2012-02-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

I just opened this to write a post about the three movies I saw last week, and promptly forgot everything I was planning on writing. I at least remember what movies they were, though, so I'll give a rundown of my opinion.

Fargo was pretty brilliant. Classic Coen Brothers film (or so I hear- I've only seen a few), pretty dark, but a great storyline and acting. The premise is that Jerry (William H. Macy), a car salesman, is in some serious trouble money-wise, and decides the best way of fixing this is by hiring some seedy-looking dudes (including the awesome Steve Buscemi) to "kidnap" his wife and then collecting on the ransom money her very rich father with no doubt pay to have her returned. What a great husband. No surprise at how this one ends, but it was a good way to spend 98 minutes.
Hangove r Part II I wasn't impressed with- then again, I was probably one of the few people pretty unimpressed with the original. The second movie only served to almost duplicate the first one. Same cast, same plot, different city. Shocking- they find the guy they lost in the same building they started out in. At least they thought to check the roof first thing this time.
Antz was a bit of a kids movie, but with quite adult themes- war, totalitarianism, you name it. I watched it for studying for work- it is about an ant colony, after all. These ant movies (this one and A Bug's Life) kill me just a little bit. In the real world, ALL the ants in a colony are females, and males are only for mating purposes. That might not translate as well to the screen, though- hard to have a traditional love story with males all vying for new queens and dying shortly after mating. The main character in Antz (which has, by the way, an incredibly star-studded cast) is voiced by Woody Allen- so I guess I'll let their inaccuracies slide.

Green and delicious.

2012-02-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

I just made just about the most delicious thing I've eaten so far this month (barring the bacon I ate this morning... though at least I made it to the gym after that greasy treat)- an avocado smoothie. I sort of used this recipe but used honey instead of sugar, substituted lemon juice for the lime, AND added a banana and some ice. My recipe's probably better anyway. A yummy, healthy lunch! Now, to find a curly straw.....

Little creatures who run the world.

2012-02-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

Just watched the NOVA broadcast of Ants - Little Creatures Who Run the World, starring everyone's favorite ecologist and ant lover, E. O. Wilson! Lots of great shots, lots of super interesting information. I won't bore you with the details, but I have to share the Honeypot Ant (+ picture). These ants use fellow members of the colony as actual living storage for honey that they've collected, and they're filled until they can't move on their own. I think I'd rather be a Driver Ant and kick some serious termite butt.

So it goes.

2012-02-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

Tutoring last night went fantastic! Our student (Rhye) was actually very smart, and she seemed to respond well to our instruction. It also was a bit of a bonding experience for me and Dan- being able to do something like that together. Though I'd been reviewing math and she needed physics help...

I just finished reading Slaughterhouse Five (by Kurt Vonnegut) this morning. I can't believe it took me this long to do so. Brilliant book, though I'm always sad when I find out something I really am enjoying reading is still going way over my head. It made more sense to me than Vonnegut's book Cat's Cradle, which I didn't exactly struggle with, but I definitely didn't get everything out of it that I should have.

I used to want to be a writer, but I think I figured out so many of the best ideas have already been taken, and I'm not sure where I'd get new ideas. Research, I suppose. But it's ironic- I love reading, I love books, but I have the attention span of a gnat. I blame the internet.

Now that I'm done that book, I'm going to try to get more bug reading done for my job. I've been trying to get through The Red Hourglass, a book about black widows and other such animal predators. Non-fiction always feels like school to me, though, and it makes it harder for me to concentrate on. Curses.

Tutoring

2012-02-08T14:40:00.001-08:00

So I have a tutoring student coming today!
This marks the first time I'm tutoring anyone since high school. She needs help with physics and math 11, so I thought I'd brush up a bit. Turns out I'm super rusty. Found a great website, though, which so far has been pretty useful. Not to mention I live with an engineer, ha ha. We'll make a great tutoring team!

In a similar train of thought, Shit My Students Write is a hilarious website. I can't wait to become a teacher.

The Beginning.

2012-02-08T09:58:00.001-08:00

Having a staredown with Pierre Bearton.