I watched Up yesterday for the first time. I regret having not seen it in theaters last year, but you know what? At least I got around to watching it if only because it was streaming on Netflix. The first fifteen minutes of the movie had me tearing up because it was truly emotional, and not a movie for kids like it was advertised. I remember seeing the preview for it while I saw Coraline in theaters and thinking “wow, this seems like a really childish movie.” So, I deemed it unworthy of watching. How wrong I was. The segment towards the end when Carl is remembering Ellie was really moving, too, because holy crap, wow, talk about emotional string pulling.  It’s one of those movies with adult undertones that kids can just glaze over and ignore completely because they’re irrelevant to their greater happiness.

The same could be said for The Princess and the Frog, the 2D movie by Disney that made me squee with joy because it was pretty much an authentic Disney cartoon in modern times. Really, I missed those kinds of Disney movies. I grew up on them. I could ramble off a million 2D movies I watched growing up, the most prevalent of them all being The Lion King. I remember watching that movie basically every day until I killed the VHS tape. By the time this happened, we had to go to a flea market to get a new one because it had been Vaulted. I didn’t think they would ever make another 2D movie, because I was really getting sick of the live action movies they kept spitting out. They all began to blur together, even the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are a giant blur to me. Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what generic scene happened in what movie, despite how good they were. I wanted a good old fashioned 2D movie, and I had no faith in The Princess and the Frog because Disney had a terrible repertoire with me by the time it was released. A couple weeks ago I watched it and was amazed. I hadn’t laughed at a movie that hard in awhile, on top of noticing Disney’s classic adult undertones. The scene in the graveyard where Ray got squished, my god, seems like a scene kids shouldn’t see, right, actually being kind of scary? It reminded me of that scene in Anastasia…

I also watched Law Abiding Citizen, as well, and you know what? That’s another movie that’s completely worth it that I should have seen in theaters, and I’m kicking myself in the ass for it. I actually put that movie on my top ten list (that honestly has no real order minus the following), which is lead by Silence of the Lambs for Jodie Foster’s and Anthony Hopkins’ acting skills. Foster did amazing at portraying little emotions and expressions, and I am actually very upset she didn’t reprise her role for the Hannibal movie. Anyway, I’ve always liked Gerard Butler, even in 300, because he adapts very well to whatever role they throw at him. From what I recall of the special features for LAC, Butler was actually supposed to be cast in the role of Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), but Foxx’s manager called in and was like “would Butler mind playing the role of Clyde Shelton, Foxx is really interested in the role of Nick Rice.” I think it was an excellent decision as Foxx is also an amazing actor. The movie was a hit to me, I would have to say. I’ve watched it a couple times since the first time and I continually pick up on little things I’ve missed here and there.

I have to say, I love Netflix. It’s the best investment I’ve made.

It was linked to me by a friend, and, well, it is totally fucking trippy. Seriously. Just watch this shit through to the end and Photoshop CS5 will BLOW. YOUR. MIND. No joke. Content Aware Fill, wow. If only they had this shit while I was taking Digital Photography in high school and my teacher was making us “edit photos” and make them “prettier.” (I kind of wish I still had some of these pictures because I used to be totally balling at it. I was removing animal heads and replacing them with other species left and right.) Alas, I no longer have access to the school account they gave us. Yes, that’s right, the school gave us our own accounts to dick around with that we could access at home and on every single school computer; except it had retarded filters. We won’t go into that yet.

Anyway, now back on topic (as you should have watched the video by now), in Photoshop they currently have a “spot healing brush” right? Well, this NEW “content aware” thing makes the spot healing brush look like the fat kid that no one wants to pick to play kickball with. THE GUY DELETED A ROAD. As Brandon says: “Aaaah VOODOO!” Not to mention deleting said road, no, he couldn’t stop with just that; he filled it with desert in one click. Seriously? That’s just wrong. I was messing with the spot healing brush in my copy of CS4 and all I could do was edit this:

Suvi Version 1

To this:

Suvi Version 2

Speaking of puppies, she’s currently making a menace of herself on the floor behind me with this stuffed soccer ball toy that makes a really high squeaking noise. Not cool. (She actually picked this one out while we were at the pet store). Anyway, yea, I admit I never used the spot healing brush before because, well, I didn’t know what it was. There are things about photoshop that I still am discovering to this day and I’ve been using it for years. On top of that, they keep adding new things. At this rate, I’m never going to figure everything out! Not that that was ever my goal, though.

Onto the second thing on my list; art block. Screw you man. You mess up my day. Last night I started a picture for a friend and now… nothing. I was banging away at it and then I wake up today, pick up my pencil, and stare. It’s not fair; if I was able to draw last night, why can’t I draw today?  This picture is sitting here about halfway finished, though the guy has no arms. Yea, no arms. Well, oh well. Not really much else to say about that.

Finally: summer is coming, it is only a couple months away, and already I can tell that it’s going to be a weird one. March 19th-21st it was 70-77 degrees, then.. ever since the 22nd, it just wants to keep raining. Raaaaiiin. I hate you. Go away. Give me my warm weather so I can go back to being outside, trying (and failing miserably) to tan and taking my puppy for walks. She has too much energy and I want to start jogging when I’m not going to freeze my arse off in the process. Le SIGH! They predict rain all April long, too, so I’m either going to have to suck it up and go out in it or… treadmill it up. If spring and winter were already so awkward I can only imagine the kind of down syndrome that summer is going to have. Joy.

In conclusion, all this post says about me is that I have the attention span of a chihuahua. Gee.

Cheers.

EDIT: cs5 is apparently going to be released April 12th. Interesting.

Now, onto the less mature part of this blog. Everyone who is reading this that I know, knows how I feel about the shit for brains story and it’s mentally handicapped author. I have major issues with this woman, because she is basically a self-insert author who is fantasizing over her own creations. Really, who does this shit out in public? Well, she does, and I almost feel bad for her; these are open cries for help in a way. Actually, maybe fucking not. I skimmed the first book myself and nearly wretched out my soul (if only I had any soul remaining, ja?) at the awful writing filled from cover to cover. Seriously, how does this kind of shit become so popular? All I get out of this series is that Stephenie is broadcasting how “important” it is to have a boyfriend and/or significant other. There’s nothing to it other than that. Edward is a stalking creeper and Bella is a shallow character with nothing “important” to do other than choose which guy she’d like to bang more.

There’s no depth or story to this series, and it kills me that something dull like that has become so insanely popular. My generation is going to be remembered by how we feel about shiny fucking vampires and werewolves than how intelligent we are. Oh, how I fear for the future of this world under the rule of today’s teeny boppers. That is a nightmare that I will never be able to get over and quietly makes me pray that the end of the world in 2012 actually comes to pass with the Earth exploding in a fireball because that means Twilight obsessed weirdos will not come into any form of power. OH WAIT.

There’s women that are 30+ who fan-girl hardcore over Twilight. The world is already fucking doomed. Talk about double standards. I remember one demotivational poster I saw ages ago that read something like: “If this were 40 year-old men screaming over teenage girls, the cops would be all over this shit.” How true that shit is. Why is it perfectly okay for women to do this, but not men? Men get automatically pointed at and accused of being pedophiles, but women are just like “well, whatever, they’re harmless.” Fuck that shit, it is SCARY. Actually, women in general are just scary, but that’s another story all together…

Really, though, who writes about things like this? Some lonely old lady is all it comes across to me as. Honestly, I feel bad for Robert Pattinson having to play Edward Cullen. Though, the kid really probably enjoys the hell out of the stardom he has acquired from being such a “cool” character. He was, however, in a Harry Potter movie first… and died. I’m not going to get into Harry Potter vs. Twilight in this post, except for one little statement; repeating what I said before about Twilight: Twilight is about how important it is to be with someone where Harry Potter is about courage in the face of an overwhelming force, the emotions you go through when you mature, friendship, the choices you make and the consequences of them.  See how much more depth there is in Harry Potter compared to Twilight? I miss the days when fiction books were actually entertaining and had character depth (a la Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time), not when they were written to fulfill some twisted fantasy.

I will give Twilight movies one thing, though, they have Taylor Lautner as Jacob and if you cover his baby face, looking only at his body it really is NOT that bad. Also, if you ignore the fact that he was Sharkboy… I still would prefer to look at Vin Diesel, though, despite that fact he could crush me without thinking. Untz. (I’d like to thank my sister for giving me the Vin Diesel idea.)

Don’t get me wrong or anything, people can like whatever the hell they like, just… please don’t go insane over it. It really scares the rest of us and gives the other insane people bad names. I also don’t hate vampires. I think they’re pretty damn cool until they start puking glitter all over me.

The only man in my world allowed to sparkle and get away with it is Jareth, the Goblin King. So screw you guys!

Cheers.

Hah, enough of that. This site is going to be dedicated to my ravings; ravings that may or may not be generally accepted by the public. Who cares, this isn’t for them, this is for me. Political, random, about music, about games, art or whatever decides to flutter into my head. It shall be an endlessly entertaining attempt at keeping my head from overfilling with useless shite that drives me insane. Once I write it down, hopefully it’ll stay out and leave me be… (That will never happen.) Anyway, this is a filler post to make a certain dude named Brandon That Guy happy.

Cheers,

Your Neighborhood Crazy Woman.