Sunday evening, prematurely sleepy

[cleolinda]

Sister Girl and I were watching a rerun of Judging Amy over lunch, the one where Amy goes to her ten-year Harvard reunion and all of her former friends are inexplicable asshats to her, and then Chris Sarandon randomly shows up and pwns them all. It was pretty awesome, in a lunchtime-rerun kind of way, until Sister Girl says, "Did you see the thing that came in the mail for you about your reunion?" Oh, shit. It's been ten years since high school, hasn't it? And the funny thing is, I'm not even feeling any sitcom agita about whether I should go or not. I know with cold dead certainty that I do not want to. If I magically become famous and fabulous by the next reunion, I'll be there with bells on. But I think it says a lot about my high school experience that I wouldn't actually be interested in seeing anyone; it would be all about showing them up. There's no one I really want to get back in touch with, either; the one friend I still have a relationship with, I've already seen her a few times since college, and while I need to get back in touch with her, that's independent of any group reunion. There were a lot of nice people at my school, don't get me wrong, but--I guess I felt extremely alone and detached throughout my high school career. I had a few kids to shoot the breeze with when our schedules intersected, kids I played spades with in Spanish class and had lunch with before going to work on the lit mag, kids who joked around in English, kids who smiled, sometimes, when I saw them in the hall. But I never dated in high school. I never went to homecoming or the prom. It wasn't that I wasn't invited to the parties; it was that I didn't even hear about them. I felt like a very lonely satellite making my orbit through the hall, passing other ships in the dark without ever making radio contact. And you know, I don't even know that I blame my classmates. We all had a very weird cocktail of shyness and awkwardness and insecurity floating around us--I thought everyone was ignoring me on purpose; they probably thought I was that writer girl who didn't want to talk to anyone. We want so much when we're teenagers, but we're so unequipped to give to anyone else, and so we all go hungry. And so the fact remains that I'm not invested in the class of 1997 at all, and it's not worth beating myself up over how not-yet-successful and un-thin I am for a bunch of people I feel disconnected from anyway.

However, if Chris Sarandon feels like coming over and pwning a bunch of football players for me, I might reconsider.

Meanwhile, here's how my weekend went: Bad Cat escaped to the wooded gully behind our house. Then some hours later, Bad Cat Retrieval was achieved with a can of gooshyfood and a chicken tender. I found the missing half of my favorite pair of turquoise earrings. I downloaded Google Desktop and felt very organized. And then I accomplished absolutely nothing the rest of the weekend.



From youngcurmudgeon: YAY! GOLDEN COMPASS PREVIEW! (Have no fear; the "finished" CGI looks kind of crappy precisely because it isn't.) If it goes away, let me know and I'll upload it somewhere. ETA: Why don't I ever learn that I should just upload it myself from the word go?

Hagel: Bush impeachment an option. Yes, I just gave a movie preview priority over a potentially important piece of political news. And I'd do it again.

Royals deny Harry involved in scuffle.

What if the Jayson Blair Was on the Other Foot? "Gerry Marzorati, the editor of the Sunday Magazine, told the Air Force Times that he doesn't think Randall was lying on purpose. 'I think she thinks she was in Iraq,' he is quoted as saying. 'I don't think she was trying to pull the wool over our eyes.' "

bibliotech: Orangutans face extinction by 2012.

101 Shareware and Freeware Programs Every Nerd Needs.

Hugo Weaving to Voice Megatron. NOOO! Don't tempt me to see this! This is lowdown!

First Shots of Stallone as Rambo. Did we just go back in time thirty years or something?

From grayeagle: More 300 macros. I like the Sbarro one for some reason.

I can't help it, I just love Neill Cumpston. "That’s what GRINDHOUSE is. It’s a taquito buffet that you puke up after getting hit with a motorcycle, and it turns into a bikini chick that blows you and kills your boss with a hammer. Rodriguez and Tarantino probably don’t read this site, but someone should tell them they can use that last paragraph as a quick blurb."

fox_gloves reports on what actually happened at the Mel Gibson/Apocalypto blowup: "The faculty of CSUN turned off her microphone and Mel Gibson said 'No, let her talk. Please.' And she became angry and said that her voice was being silenced even now by the fact that they were turning off her microphone. Mel Gibson said 'I'm listening to you! I can still hear you!' She began berating him again and accusing him of not doing ANY research. He kept repeating that he HAD done his research and that the story was not about portraying the Mayans as violent people but it was a chase story and about a man trying to get back to his family. He then said 'Lady, you're nothing but a troublemaker and Fuck OFF!' At which point the AUDIENCE cheered. They were there with the SOLE purpose of putting on a demonstration." This account is, incidentally, corroborated on Deadline Hollywood Daily.

Comments

[horsefacehannah.livejournal.com]

Wow - Golden Compass preview gone already. :)

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

Never been a fan of HDM. Yes, we get it Pullman, you're an atheist. Stop bitching, already. But there's a maybe-official trailer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc9gD1dsL9Y

[palmetto.livejournal.com]

I feel exactly the same way about high school. My reunion will come up in 2009, but I see these people occasionally around town and have nothing to say to them then--why would I place myself in a situation where I had to?

I have a friend who was two years below me that I'm still close with, and she has all the good dirt, so I don't even have to go for that. ;)

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

High school reunion? It depends. If I'm rich and famous, then yeah, I'll go. Just to rub their noses in it. But if my life sucks, I'm staying home.
In other news, Stephen Colbert loves Knut: http://www.kylebunch.org/blog/2007/03/stephen-colbert-puts-himself-firmly-in-the-pro-knut-camp/

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

If that's the Mini Threatdown, I linked to it the other day.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

But I think it says a lot about my high school experience that I wouldn't actually be interested in seeing anyone; it would be all about showing them up.

Cleo, I got the same 10 year reunion notice last month (unsurprisingly, since our birthdays are so close) and I feel the same way. In addition to that, the 10 year reunion at boarding schools is about 50% reunion and 50% fundraiser. Sorry, school, no I don't plan to give money to an already well-endowed boarding school when I can give it to NPR or the zillions of hungry people in Philly.

After the five year reunion, which I also skipped, I got this great letter from the class officers afterward saying that the "damage to school buildings was considerable" and commenting on the "overconsumption of alcohol" during the reunion, and "was this how we wanted the class of '97 to be remembered?"

[theonlykow.livejournal.com]

I want to go to my own high school reuinon because that's how '03 damn well better be remembered, haha. Drunken idiocy!

[schmoosey.livejournal.com]

I'm refusing to go to my reunion. More than half of my class has already started to have kids and I already get comments about that from people I randomly see. So why go to an overpriced shindig when I already see the people liked normally.

[schmoosey.livejournal.com]

There's another I missing from that last sentence.

Also this is my favorite macro so far. (http://last-dance.org/myspace/rollin.jpg) Mainly cause I find that song funny and the fact that my best friend is convinced that Xerxes was really the first drag queen. He's insanely jealous of the eyebrows.

[enid-keaner.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way as you about high school reunions. I also feel that they are entirely pointless - as people usually make an effort to see/stay in some sort of contact with the people that really mattered to them. My 10 year reunion will happen in 2014 and there is no way in hell I'm going - I attended college in states away to get away from the people I went to school with. So, I won't attend either - unless, of course, I'm an Oscar winning director at that time. And my Oscar would so be my date.

[themindseye.livejournal.com]

I went to my 10 year (class of 95) with my best friend. If we weren't still friends I probably wouldn't have gone. We were each other's date since our husbands didn't want to go. My best friend hated it and I had a good time. The reason I had a good time and she didn't is because I actually got involved in stuff and she just sat at the table all night. The one thing that saved it for me was like some 80's teenage movie moment that I wish had happened in high school when it mattered instead of now when I have self-confidence.

Our friend Val showed up and suggested we get up and dance and just act stupid and have fun. I went with it but my best friend didn't. No one else was up dancing so I had the brilliant idea of requesting "Ice Ice Baby". The song came up and everyone poured out onto the floor and we all started dancing like we were rejects from the early 90's. I did the Roger Rabbit and the Running Man at one point. The "popular" kids were dancing in one group and me and my friends were in another. All of a sudden they called over to us and asked us to join them and so we went over and my group of social outcasts danced and had fun with the popular kids. Like I said that would have never happened in high school when something like that mattered but it was kind of cool that we were all able to put that social barrier behind us and just have fun.

Just thought I would tell a story where a high school reunion actually turned out kinda good instead of everyone acting like they are still stuck in high school.

[delle.livejournal.com]

I went to mine as well, simply because I had changed so much since high school and was interested in seeing how others had changed as well. (I was the geeky girl with a bad complexion, glasses and braces who kept her books tight to her chest and her eyes down. Becuase GOD FORBID if you look up you might make eye contact and then you'd have to say 'hi' and they might not say 'hi' back and that snub would ruin your day...)

I went to college with one person that knew me from high school. I left that girl behind, got a double major/honors program graduate, got contacts (still struggle with my skin), stand tall, have (if I say so myself) a good handshake and can talk to ANYONE.

The reunion was ... interesting. Some people hadn't changed and were still bitter. Some popular kids still kept to their own circle. And some of us talked, talked, talked. The tall skinny geeky runner? Is now a fighter pilot. Those that wouldn't talk outside their circle missed him. And me. Their loss.

Not to say you *should* go, because each to her own. I'm glad I did, but I have no interest in continuing contact with any of these people. I breezed in, looked around, said hi, and continued on with MY life.

(There were the two girls that circulated and when complimented on a major weight loss said "Well stress will do that to you" while exchanging Deep Meaningful We-Know-Something-You-Don't-Know look and my total reaction was "WHATEVER". So I know I've matured, even if some others haven't....)

[bluebren.livejournal.com]

"I FORGOT WHERE WE ARE DINING TONIGHT" remains a favorite.

The 101 programs page looked promising, but sadly reaches new heights of mac-user-ignoring by only telling you which versions of Windows they are compatible with. Some (like Firefox) do in fact run on other things, but there's no way to tell which ones those are.

[/persecution]

[at-the-stars.livejournal.com]

YES. Lonely satellite in high school. I've never heard it described so aptly before. My reunion was last year and my husband's is this year. I didn't go to mine -- I live 2000 miles away -- but my husband got roped into helping plan his. God almighty I don't know how I'm going to get through that day/night.

I don't know why I just told you all that. Skim on, skim on. :D

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

You are not alone. I would never even consider going to a high school reunion. I would have no angst. The invitation would go straight in the trash can. Why would I want to spend time with people who never wanted to spend time with me?

[junebugged.livejournal.com]

fyi... just watch with Google Desktop. I LOVED it, but it sucked major system resources and I ultimately had to remove it in order to run my computer.

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

I wonder if that's what's slowing down my system. *goes to uninstall*

[gabsy.livejournal.com]

This is Jenga! Hahaha!

I especially love the one with the map!

This is Sparta jokes is totally 2007's equivalent of ORLY owls.

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

Huh. I didn't imagine Lyra's world to be so sci-fi.

[riverchild.livejournal.com]

Same. I was expecting something more low-tech, steampunky.

[squishysquidgy.livejournal.com]

I hear you on the reunion thing. There's no way I'd ever go to one of mine unless I ended up being extremely rich and famous. I don't think any one would notice if I didn't go to the reunion anyway so it's not like I'd be greatly missed. Yay for being a school outcast!

But then again, we had two formals while I was there, and I didn't go to either of them. Afterwards, there were some kids that wanted to argue with me that I was there. They SAW me! Whatever. I can save myself a lot of money if I don't have to go but people see me there anyway!

[the-lone-jen.livejournal.com]

"We want so much when we're teenagers, but we're so unequipped to give to
anyone else, and so we all go hungry. "

I don't know when I've ever heard someone so accurately and acutely describe high school. I'll definitely be pointing to this as my rationale behind leaving such 'glory days" to those who revelled in them.

[purpleivey.livejournal.com]

"I felt like a very lonely satellite making my orbit through the hall, passing other ships in the dark without ever making radio contact." Thhis sounds an awful lot like my highschool experience. My first reunion is still a few years away and I'm already debating whether or not to go.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

I still hate Mel Gibson for being the anti-Semitic nutter he is. The fact that he may or may not be prejudiced against my ethnic group is just possibleprobable icing on the cake.

Thanks for the Golden Compass thing, however.

[hulamoth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Golden Compass preview!


Man, okay, on those 300 macros: I know that the movie had a racist edge to it, but I still threw up in my mouth when I saw some of those.

[hulamoth.livejournal.com]

okay, so, the actors all look lovely, especially the flying witches, but a little piece of me died when I saw that the daemons were CG

[londonsparrow.livejournal.com]

Wooooooo Golden Compass. Actually, while some might be disappointed that it's not a "real" trailer per se, I really like seeing the rough edges before all the green screens and technology gets smoothed out (particularly Pantalaimon!). And rewatching Casino Royale this last week has left me in a mood for some Daniel Craigiliciousness.

High school reunion

[rose-stjohn.livejournal.com]

I've been (somewhat) coerced to sit on the planning committee for the multi-year high school reunion (since it opened - I'm a grad of the 90's). I don't even plan to attend (if I can help it). It's not that I'm bitter about the high school experience - I loved every minute of it (and I was NOT one of the popular kids - definitely a big brainiac, but with other really good brainiac friends). And I hear you on the "showing them up comment" - sometimes I wonder if I don't want to go because I maybe haven't reached all the goals I think I should have, or if it's legitimately that I know I keep in contact with those I want to, and could care less about how anyone else turned out.

The one benefit is that I get to see who's attending the reunion based on registrations - and no one from my year has signed up yet :)

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

I finally read the Golden Compass (loved it), the Subtle Knife (loved that even more) but had a hard time with the Amber Spyglass. I don't know why. It seemed to have a pervasive sorrowful theme to it. Only book I've ever known to do that, it was tough to get through for me. :*/

[qpdaj.livejournal.com]

Yes, I enjoyed the first two books more than the third, also. There is a different sort of tone to the Amber Spyglass; I also had a hard time getting through it.

[keehnidea.livejournal.com]

Woot, Golden Compass preview! I seriously can't wait for that. I think I need to make a shirt for when I got to see it.

Anyways, I recently got this picture (http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a365/keehnidea/Clothing.jpg) in an email and I thought you might enjoy it.

[ironclad1609.livejournal.com]

Golden Compass - That looks veeeery promising :)

[bigeyedrabbit.livejournal.com]

And the funny thing is, I'm not even feeling any sitcom agita about whether I should go or not. I know with cold dead certainty that I do not want to.

Amen, girl. That's how I felt about mine, too. They couldn't even FIND me to send me an invitation the year of my high school reunion, and that made me awfully happy.

[anonymisty.livejournal.com]

If I magically become famous and fabulous by the next reunion, I'll be there with bells on. But I think it says a lot about my high school experience that I wouldn't actually be interested in seeing anyone; it would be all about showing them up. There's no one I really want to get back in touch with, either;

I completely understand this. I've always said that I'd only go to a reunion under one of two circumstances: either I lost 100 pounds, or I finally sold my book and got published. (Which puts me in a terrible position now that the book has sold and is scheduled for a release next year. *sigh*)

Very few of the people I knew in high school were my friends. I wasn't invited to the parties, and I was called hateful things more often than I was called by my name. Why on Earth would I want to pretend all that abuse didn't happen?