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Aug. 27th, 2004 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cleolinda I wish that the entry immediately following The Update of Familial Woe hadn’t been about a TV show, but... there you go. I keep trying to write a follow-up to that entry, not because anything else has really happened, but because I think you deserve a response to all the support and the stories that you shared. In fact, I think that made me more emotional than my own situation did. I tried a few times, tried to draft an entry, and just couldn’t do it. I read every single comment as it hit my email, and even though I’m not sure if I can go back and reply to any more, I did just want to say--thank you.
Class is going really well. I actually made it all the way through Comus, even though more than half of each page was occupied by vast masses of footnotes, many of which pointed out such crucial insights as: “Milton added an ‘a’ to the word smoke by means of a caret.” Yeah? Smoake this.
I really love the class itself, though--the professor’s full of energy and it’s only an hour-fifteen and we move quickly. I’d been enduring three- and four-hour classes for a couple of years now, so a class that’s shorter than your average movie is an amazing concept to me.
Speaking of movies, I have finally dragged the DVD player back upstairs from the rec room, where I had been keeping it for friends who came over, because... my room totally has no seating. A desk chair and a bed. And piles of stuff, much of it still in packing boxes from 1) college and 2) the move to this house.
If I have to go out and buy a cheap player the next time someone wants to come over and watch something, so be it, because that thing ain’t never leavin’ my room again. I sliced open my little finger trying to get behind the cabinet to hook up the cords, and this was still one of the least difficult hookups I’ve had to do. My parents were just about up my ass with wanting to help me do it, but really--in a small, cluttered room, more hands are just less helpful. Every time someone’s helped me before, it’s ended in yelling and snapping and tripping over things, and just--no. I did it myself, and I am never doing it again. We might as well just solder it to the cabinet, man.
So for the last three days, I’ve had The Matrix on nonstop. I am almost of a mind to just soldier through it until the parody is done and stop jumping around, because I need to feel like I’ve accomplished something.
Whenever I don’t know which movie to do next, I put in The Matrix. I think it’s because I consider the movie to be a really awesome action movie full of self-indulgent crap philosophy. (That is to say, I think the basic concept is really intriguing. It’s just that the Wachowskis, IMO, come off like guys who really like to hear themselves talk and enjoy thinking that they are a lot smarter than you are. By the time you have Colonel Sanders lecturing Neo at the end of the second movie, SHUT SHUT SHUT.) But unlike the Star Wars prequels, the first Matrix movie is at least put together well enough that you can still enjoy it if you shut your ears to all the blather. It goes down easy, is what I’m saying. Also, I am a huge sucker for techno music.
(You know what’s interesting? Both The Matrix and The Phantom Menace came out in 1999. One movie’s got a guy saying, “Wow, his midichlorians are way higher than normal!” The other one’s got a guy saying, “Wow, his neurokinetics are way higher than normal!” And the actor who plays Mouse is also in AOTC. Coincidence?)
(Wait, I’m confused. Mouse is clearly shown getting killed in the first movie, right after the déjà-vu part, yet I remember him running after Neo in the second movie. What?)
(I still haven’t seen Matrix Revolutions. I have it in my Box Lid o’ Movies for the Book, but... I’m afraid of it.)
More about the book, as if you weren’t sick of it: We’ve turned in a blurb for the Publisher’s Lunch newsletter, so if you get that in your email, keep an eye out. I think it’ll be the first time I’ve actually seen my name (or, if you like, my pseudonym)--not to mention the book title--in print, and I’m stupidly excited about it. I figure, I have plenty of time to get jaded about the publishing process; if my first book feels like Christmas eve, I may as well enjoy it. Particularly since I can’t seem to write it.
I’m just so tired. And really, there is no reason I should be this tired. I can’t tell if I just need more exercise/vitamins/sunlight or whatever, or if I really need to be checked out. I have a couple of doctor’s appointments next month anyway--I’m having my thyroid tested, just to be sure, and a few other things. Maybe it’s depression, because I seem to have that come around in cycles. Whenever I have something big I have to do, I seem to get depressed--anxious, you know, that I can’t do it, I suppose. Usually sheer desperation gives me an energy kick right before the deadline, and usually I can pull up, so to speak, before I crash. I’m the girl in your dorm who used to start the research paper the morning it was due. But there was one semester I couldn’t pull up, and I did crash, and I kept crashing, and I almost didn’t graduate. It was bad. I don’t know if there’s some major metabolic shift that happens in your mid-twenties, but suddenly the last-minute death-defying research papers I could get away with at nineteen and twenty were just no go a couple of years later.
So I don’t know. I’ve got to establish better writing habits, because I can’t afford to crash like that again.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2004-08-27 01:54 pm (UTC)Ironically, I was the girl with the papers written 3 weeks in advance in high school, and then became a procrastinator once I hit college. And oh, hey, look! There's a pile of customer curveys on my desk that should ahve been done 2 days ago... and I'm leaving work in an hour. That totally bit me in teh ass one day though when my disk got erased the night before 2 major final papers were due. Lots of crying and lots of coffee, I tell you. The papers weren't done anyway, but at that point I had nada.
Also - I got a tiny, adorable DVD player for $40 at Target, to put in my room, since we have a normal one in the living room. It doesn't play MP3s very well, but I've had it for 6 months and it plays DVDs fine.
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Date: 2004-08-27 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 02:12 pm (UTC)I love Keanu in the right roles--I think his whole can-do space cadet thing works really well in, say, Speed or the Matrix movies. But he's just deathly in the wrong roles.
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Date: 2004-08-27 02:48 pm (UTC)I'll admit, he was fine in Parenthood, and Bill and Ted... because he was basically playing himself.
Little known fact.
Date: 2004-08-28 01:10 pm (UTC)Why do i know this? Yes, um, well. One of my favorite shows is Slings and Arrows, a mimiseries that is brilliantly done (best shakespeare EVER), but is supposedly loosely based on said performance (action movie star goes to Canada to play Hamlet). It has Paul Gross in it and its freakin' hilarious.
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Date: 2004-08-27 05:37 pm (UTC)*ahem*
Date: 2004-08-27 01:56 pm (UTC)It has a very fluid, if somewhat unorthodox, animation style, and the music of Juno Reactor is featured prominently in the chase scene (specifically the song is called 'Masters of the Universe').
If you want any more useless trivia of this kind, I'll be glad to help, just let me know plzkthx.
P.S. I wasn't trying to plagerize you just now. Just using one of your more clever abbreviations as a means of honoring what I think is a wonderful body of work that continues to grow and I plan on buying multiple copies.
I'm done now. ^^
Re: *ahem*
Date: 2004-08-27 02:35 pm (UTC)(And don't worry--I didn't come up with plzkthnx or kthnxbai or anything like that by any means; I picked it up from folks at JournalFen, I think.)
Matrix Revolutions
Date: 2004-08-27 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 01:59 pm (UTC)Mouse in Matrix dies. Dead dead dead. Which was sad because I liked him and he could go places. Interesting perspective.
In Matrix 2 and 3, the guy who reminds you of Mouse is actually "The Kid". His story is told in the Animatrix. Neo saves him and basically the Kid has a hero worship thing from there on. Now why they didn't get the spoon kid back to give the spoon to Neo is beyond me.
To help=
Mouse = Matt Doran who tries to sell ObiWan death sticks in AOTC.
Kid = Clayton Watson who's not been in much else... :)
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Date: 2004-08-27 05:12 pm (UTC)So that's why he seemed familiar. I thought maybe he was a comedian whose name I was just blanking on.
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Date: 2004-08-29 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-28 12:08 am (UTC)*feels the icy hand of Death*
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Date: 2004-08-27 02:19 pm (UTC)Also: The Matrix still rocks. One of the best action movies.
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Date: 2004-08-27 02:21 pm (UTC)Please!
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Date: 2004-08-27 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 02:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 02:29 pm (UTC)That's *exactly* what's happening to me right now. I just had to withdraw for the semester because I couldn't afford tuition. I wasn't awarded financial aid due to the amount of classes I dropped last year.
*so smarter than the Wachowskis*
Date: 2004-08-27 02:38 pm (UTC)I feel the same way, and every time I try to say something like that to others, I get the 'DIE...DIE NOW!' look...People kiss the Wachowskis' asses so much and hate to hear that, but it is so true. I loved the movies, but I'm also able to take a step back and see that, no, in fact, the Wachowskis' are not God.
I will continue to send good vibes via my mental powers your way, as I am really psyched to read your book, but I don't want you to have a horrible experience writing it. I want the whole process to be enjoyable for you, too, as does everyone else.
*sending good vibes...NOW*
Re: *so smarter than the Wachowskis*
Date: 2004-08-27 08:38 pm (UTC)And of course, at the end, we get twenty minutes (or it just seems like twenty) of Colonel Sanders's pseudo-intellectual preening. For a computer program he sounds mightily *cough*ghey*cough*. I still haven't figured out what "the sum of the remainder of an unbalanced equation" is.
Re: *so smarter than the Wachowskis*
Date: 2004-08-28 01:41 am (UTC)Excuse me a moment...I am laughing too hard...That was perfect!
Hey, I'll eat Colonel Sanders' "chicken," but that doesn't mean I wanna listen to his bullshit.
Re: *so smarter than the Wachowskis*
Date: 2004-08-28 12:11 am (UTC)*icon love*
Re: *so smarter than the Wachowskis*
Date: 2004-08-28 01:43 am (UTC)Re: *so smarter than the Wachowskis*
Date: 2004-08-29 11:22 pm (UTC)Re: *so smarter than the Wachowskis*
Date: 2004-08-29 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-27 02:55 pm (UTC)That's totally me. Except I do my research papers in homeroom. Sometimes on the floor of the locker hall before we're allowed to go into homeroom. It's weird, because in elementary schhol, I was one of those hardworking kids who got all the gold stars. I still get good grades now in middle school, but I guess I'm not so dedicated on my school work now that I have actual friends.
Anyway, I'm right with the person sending you good vibes. Yaay for good vibes!
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Date: 2004-08-27 03:29 pm (UTC)saw the first one, thought it was brilliant, saw the second one, nearly died of boredom but loved the music and saw the third one.
well if i told ya 'the trailers they showed before the 'main' feature were better then the movie', says it all don't ya think?
but i made a promise to my friend my friend that i would go with her, if i was alone i would've bolted out the door in about 10min.
first ya got that super long 'sex-scene' in the second one (which i still think is freaky) and then ya got that super long 'oh no can't say you haven't seen it yet' but you'll know what i mean when you get to that part.
but to be fair, the soundtrack of the third one is brilliant (listen to the music when they enter that dance-club thingy)
*my 2 pennies*
Lorien__
nutcase
Awww!!!!!!!
Re: Awww!!!!!!!
Date: 2004-08-27 05:39 pm (UTC)Lorien__
Nutcase
Re: Awww!!!!!!!
Date: 2004-08-29 11:23 pm (UTC)Re: Awww!!!!!!!
Date: 2004-08-30 07:51 am (UTC)love your icon 2 and Frodo rulez!!! :)
Lorien__
nutcase
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Date: 2004-08-27 03:42 pm (UTC)--//Jan
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Date: 2004-08-27 04:15 pm (UTC)Sure there is! You must be incredibly stressed- I would be if I had to watch the Matrix on loop, er, I mean, "write a book." In my experience, nothing makes you more exhausted than stress. I won't say "stress less", because I always give people the evil eye when they tell me that, but I will say that you shouldn't add to your stress by thinking that being tired means something's wrong.
(This comment is totally the pot calling the kettle black, btw. Whenever I get stressed and tired, I get checked for hypothyroidism, anemia, mono, you name it.)
Spot on analysis of the Wachowski brothers too. :-)
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Date: 2004-08-27 04:47 pm (UTC)Heh. Well, you want to be sure. ;)
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Date: 2004-08-27 05:51 pm (UTC)The Matrix movies... I still haven't decided how I feel about them. I like the Matrix, but the others seem to fall flat. I HATED the ending.
*end rambling comment*
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Date: 2004-08-28 12:17 am (UTC)This is me helping my mom or my mom helping me. I did not learn many, shall we say, female arts from her because she lacks the patience to teach. Most of what I know about cooking, for instance, I learned from my grandmother.
You stress levels are rather high overall, I think. Go relax in a nice hot bubble bath with a good book and a drink, and don't even think about getting up for anything. Yeah, you're busy. Everyone's busy. Do it Sunday. You create, the Lord created, he knocked off on Sundays too.
The last-minute papers business? Child, don't get me started; we'd be here until next Memorial Day.
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Date: 2004-08-28 12:23 am (UTC)Cleo mentioned pseudo-philosophy and The Phantom Menace which reminded me how I clench my teeth every time I think about the 'Don't think, just feel' line. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WE HAVE TOO MUCH FEELING AND NOT ENOUGH THINKING THESE DAYS!
*cough*. Sorry. 'tis late here, or early.
Vitamins R gud! Might consider vitamin E shot. That really helped me once upon a time. I discovered ballroom dance and haven't been denuded of energy that badly since.
Yarha, Denude is in Deshower
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Date: 2004-08-28 04:24 am (UTC)I'm so happy for you! It's good to know the book is coming along so well, and I'm always wishing you the best of luck with it... I'm sure it'll be a great success, and I can't wait to see it with my very own eyes!
Anyway, don't stress or tire yourself out too much, be sure to lead a healthy life... haha, I should go on TV... I'll sell those Abswings and whatnot.
Good luck and toodles! Hope to hear from you soon!
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Date: 2004-08-28 06:38 am (UTC)Another Perspective ...
Date: 2004-08-28 07:32 am (UTC)IMO, I thought the W's were pretty clever because of their re-working of Buddhist and Hindu ideas in a cyberpunk setting.
I hated the second movie - the Ws really did get too impressed with themselves. I was WAY more interested in the decor of that guy's house than I was with the cgi figures in it fighting one another. If I want to watch cgi characters, I'll watch "Toy Story."
And the only excuse I can see for "the sum of the remainder of an unbalanced equation" is that it's a Koan - a Zen question that really has no answer. Kinda like "What is the sound of two oranges farting?" or something like that.
Don't be too afraid of the 3rd movie. It's a LOT better than the 2nd one. But that's like saying eating horse poo is better than eating dog poo.
Re: Another Perspective ...
Date: 2004-08-28 12:51 pm (UTC)Pen-chi went to Master Tung-shan (807-869) to request instruction from him.
Tung-shan asked: `What is your name, monk?'
`Pen-chi.'
Tung-shan said `Say something more.'
`I won't.'
`Why not?'
`My name is not Pen-chi.'
Tung-shan allowed him entry to his monestary.
Which is, of course, the origin of 'does your dog bite?/that is not my dog'. :p
Yarha, Koan..I Dare Ya
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Date: 2004-08-29 11:09 pm (UTC)Slightly related quote from "The Glass House"
Date: 2004-08-29 11:18 pm (UTC)AUDIENCE: *laughs*
CORRINE: Of course, I think people should start considering the REAL miracles of modern cinema, such as how they managed to produce 'The Matrix' and two sequels with only half a plot.
AUDIENCE: *laughs*
DANIELLE: *snork* BWAHAHAHA! It's funny because it's true...
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Date: 2004-08-30 07:40 am (UTC)Exactly.
I thought I was the only one who thought this. I say, an action movie is an action movie, and slathering lowbrow philosophy on it doesn't change that fact.
Also, Keanu Reaves is a horrible actor. I loved him in Bill & Ted; I shudder for the fate of Constantine.