I had the misfortune to watch this movie last night. I was so looking forward to it. Apparently I like torturing myself.
How do these movies get made? How do they persuade talent to do them? They're not even funny.
Here are my beefs.
1) It's always tight-ass, neurotic, cat-loving, super controlling women who are stunningly good looking but incapable of finding a man. Inevitably because their standards are 'just too high', [a] and they are just plain desperate because its been [insert time period] since they've had good sex. The woman, though intelligent and educated is always extremely naive when it comes to 'how to get a guy' and has to enlist the help of all kinds of jaded or sex deprived friends to help her land a good one.
This is just plain ridiculous. Don't knock standards, they can be very helpful and protective, and can often be a sign that someone knows themselves, and what works for them, well. Also, Sex isn't the be all or the end all, nor is it the most important thing in a relationship. The single woman/cat lover cliche is SO VERY OLD! In this movie the main female character was portrayed in being so wrapped up in her ideals of a man and so desperate to catch him that she allowed herself to do all kinds of hi-jinks that were so anti her thoughtful and controlled character. Granted we all do stupid things from time to time, but you can't sell me on the idea that a T.V. producer who can make split second decisions on which camera to go to, and the best thing to say in a situation would not find an excuse to visit the powder room and remove her climax inducing panties before a business dinner, or feel the need to Cyrano de Bergerac her way through a baseball game date with earpieces, sounding to all the world like someone suffering from acute Turrets Syndrome.
2) It's always guys [b] who are the lowest common denominators of maleness. Sex is the most important thing, and the more you get of it the better a "man" you are. Men only put up with relationships for the sake of getting sex. They think with their penis and as rude and crass as they want to be.
Seriously. Grow up! If this is all that you are going to be, we're well shot of you! Men take responsibility, Men give and receive, Guys take and callously use others. In this movie the main character not only disparages women who are lonely on a regular basis, but he repeatedly ignored his supervisors instructions on air, and basically only did what he wanted to do. Every once and a while you see a glimpse of a relationship with a young boy and his 'responsibility' to the kid, so you're led to believe that there is more to this man than you can see. COME ON! The Diamond-in-the-rough guy is all played out. There is something to be said for seeing the true person, but this is so far from that. The guy likes who he is. He hides the responsibility as if it is a weakness, or something of less value.
3) The Guy helps the Crazy lady catch a Man by playing all sorts of mind games.
This is the worst part of the romantic comedy for me.
Just so we're clear. I think relationships that come about by manipulation of the things you think will titillate your partner and obfuscation of who you really are, so that only the characteristics and traits he/she would like appear, for the sake of securing him/her are wasted time.
I will never play games with someones affection, and I would walk away from anyone who does. It isn't romantic to me. It isn't funny. It's cruel, and it will never build a relationship that lasts. It ends. Always. Either in an apology (if you have some character) or just walking away after you've taken what you wanted (as witnessed by the main guy's answering machine messages in this movie).
What makes it even more frustrating for me is that I frequently work with teen girls who have seen this over and over and think that this is the way they're supposed to behave, or the behavior they're supposed to put up with. They just get their hearts crushed in the process.
As you may have guessed I thought this movie was Drivel, plain and simple. I just want to be able to watch one romantic comedy that doesn't make me want to curse. They're just not funny. They're just cruel and callous. I think I need to watch Wall-e to cleanse my palate. At least robot's understand :)
Can I rate a movie with negative stars?
a) and sometimes they are just absolutely ridiculous ideals, I'll grant you that. They're so over the top. Tolstoy reading, Austen loving, long walks on the beach, love all animals but cats the best, etc.
b) guys are not men. Guys are men in age only. They live life as one big game, enjoying all they can get, never taking responsibility, expecting the world to revolve around them, consequences be dammed, etc.
How will you use technology or the Internet to help you plan and prepare this year’s Thanksgiving feast?
Sponsored by LifeScoop: Bringing You Tips for a Connected Lifestyle.Just a second ago I was looking at the shopping list I posted here on Vox last year, and thought to myself, hey, it's only 2 weeks away. I wonder if Vox is asking a question about Thanksgiving?
So there you go.
While not working on my NaNo thing, I ran across a brief and weird parody I did a few years ago of the final passage in Joyce's Ulysses. Yes, that's the sort of thing I do for entertainment, which should surprise no one. Anyway.
I got the CD out to hear this and decided to share it with you.
(Yes, it probably is. I mean, look, I've had to give up noting the days or dates; it's pretty much an on-going condition these days. I hear that it passes away in a few years, though, and then you have to eat soy, or some such nonsense.)**
I'd rather be doing a more complete parody or pastiche of that passage which goes like this,
than working on my story. Or I'd rather be painting. I still haven't tried out my new brushes yet.
**If you didn't get that oblique statement, you have not been reading enough of my blog posts. Seriously.
So then I was thinking about how many of my celebrity crushes are aging; it's diffferent than it was 15 years ago when they were my age now. I don't want to imply that I find men hovering around age 60 unattractive and creepy. I'd rather just pretend they haven't aged so far along yet, but what can you do? So I was thinking it might be okay to very carefully cultivate a few younger crushes. This one, for example, is a possibility. Not exactly a celebrity. But on the TV. Also, still over 40, a fine thing to be.
Yeah, I'm just being silly. I'm going to get a text asking me if I am serious or if, you know, see above parens regarding no longer noting the days. Just trying to have a little fun, folks, that's all!
Because the story is causing me great anxiety. It wants to talk about lovestuff, and not be terribly funny, or have much to do with all the quirky stories I'd set myself up to tell. This is, frankly, pissing me off. I didn't gear up for this thing in order to fail. And how irritating is it to not be able to take control of the ideas that come out of my own head? That's just ridiculous, immature, and unworthy of a good intellect.
Where were we? Oh, yes. I renamed my iPod. It used to be called Enterprise but now it's called The Fine Arts, after a cool vintage movie theater in Mission, Kansas that I used to go to nearly every weekend (until The Gods Must Be Crazy happened, but that's another story.) I made playlists using the titles of some of my favorite movies, to reflect the songs within them, of course. However, it's rather challenging to develop them well. It sounded like a really good idea to have a playlist called Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but now I'm not so certain.
Oh, I found this on the YouTube yesterday.
Isn't this guy kind of awesome? I never really thought so growing up. Mom had a thing for him back when all her girlfriends were grooving on Elvis, who Mom thought was a little icky, and she had a couple of his albums, but when I learned ladies threw their panties at him while he sang, I was so utterly grossed out, and also, there was all that hair and those sideburns. However, he's actually quite good, and although I'm still grossed out at those 1969 ladies with their polyester dresses and nylons and I don't even want to think about the panties, I am charmed by the fact that he was born on Dean Martin's birthday. That's just cool. It's probably not his fault about the panties.
Okay, back to the thing. ::sigh::
Just wondering if I am the only person that tends to eat more when they are sick. It's like, I feel bad, so I go around the house eating whatever I can get my hands on hoping that it will be the magical thing that will make me feel better. In the end, I'm still sick and now my pants are tight too.
Finished The Shadow Club Rising by Neal Shusterman.
This takes place after the events of The Shadow Club. Not surprisingly, nobody at their school trusts the members of the (now-disbanded) Shadow Club. And when a new student (the incredibly obnoxious and unfortunately named Alec Smartz) starts getting hideous pranks played on him, everyone (students, teachers, the principal) believes it's because of The Shadow Club in general and Jared in particular.
So Jared has to prove his innocence. I preferred this to the first book but still like Unwind most of all. :)
Totally Terrible Things on Tuesday:
- Trying to be nice and getting yelled at instead of a 'thank you'.
- Wet dog
- Two full work weeks and two partial work weeks---then I'm unemployed
- Filling out on-line resume's and job applications sucks!
Totally Terrific Things on Tuesday
- I'm currently in first place on our Fantasy Football League.
- Soon...I can pull out my Christmas decorations and decorate my house all up really nice for the Holidays.
- LIfe is halfway decent....you know, if you don't count the impending unemployment.
Are you prepared in case of a natural disaster? What do your plan and preparations include?
I have a battery operated radio with batteries. I can lay my hands on both in less than a minute.
I have a weather radio that I can't program the new county in. However, should the old county have any bad weather I know about it.
We decided last night that the safest place to go if there were a tornado is the short hallway in our bedroom. That was decided upon after I shared that I have taken refuge in our 'commode closet' with Darcy and Baron at least three times in the past 11 months.
I have had experience with earthquakes, floods, fires and blizzards. None of them actually harmed me, my family, or any of our 'stuff' but they have all happened within walking distance of the home I was living in or visiting.
Finished Hunger by Michael Grant (the sequel to Gone).
This is more of the same (kids surviving in a world without parents) but there are more bad things thrown in in this one. (No, I'm not getting more specific; if you're curious, read them.) :)
I think I prefer Susan Beth Pfeffer's books, but these are good, too.
Halloween---a week later. Sorry about not sharing sooner. I spent most of last week exhausted and unable to concentrate on anything. I ended up taking half a sick day on Thursday and then proceeded to sleep the afternoon away.
Friday night before Halloween we carved our jack-o-lanterns. This proved to be very difficult as two of the pumpkins we had picked out were rock hard. After pounding one of the pumpkins with a hammer and knife Chris ended up using his jigsaw to cut the rest of the design out. The pumpkin Chris picked was a regular pumpkin and he did an amazing job with his design.
Chris spent Saturday helping our friend, Bentley, move. Jordan and I spent the day getting the garage ready for all of the trick-or-treaters we were told would descend upon our subdivision. We picked up some decorated plastic that turned our garage into a stone dungeon so Jordan and I spent the afternoon getting that hung. This was not an easy task as the wind was blowing which made it very difficult to tape the 'walls' to the garage door. I used a heavy duty project stapler to hang the plastic from the ceiling of the garage. Since we had recently had a garage/yard sale and what didn't go was given to charity...the garage was basically empty. Chris put a TV out there, we hooked up our DVD player and played an eerie Halloween dvd that was on a loop, so it just kept playing.
As I was gathering my costume together I realized something terrible. I sold or gave away the black shirt that I use with my costume. So, I was not dressed in all black as most witches are, I was dressed in a combination of purple and black. Chris made it home in time to get his costume on and then he helped Jordan get into his.
We/I bought about $75 worth of candy to hand out to the trick-or-treaters. I had picked out several bags of candy that was not our 'favorites' so I opened them to hand out the Pixie Stix, the gum, and the nerds out first. Towards the end of the evening I opened one of the five/six bags of chocolate. We were left with four/five unopened bags of chocolate. We don't know if it is the H1N1 that kept people at home or if it was all of the churches having their Fall Festivals on the same night as the trick-or-treaters....we just know that we were left with almost as much candy as we had given out. Chris took most of it to the office on Thursday.