renate.nu

Time flies when you’re having fun, which is why I haven’t posted in over a week. Yikes. I had this term’s last exam on Monday (administration law), and I think it went well. Since Tuesday I’ve been back at work, with a growing realisation that it doesn’t really feel like work all the time – I quite enjoy being there these days! This is definitely connected to my new and more exciting work assignments. The last couple of days I have (among my other daily tasks) worked on a memo that shows why my group needs to hire one more person, and I also whipped up some nice statistics to support our claim. Fun!

I came across something not so fun when I got back from work yesterday. One of the cats (pretty sure it was Moppe) had thrown up a huge hairball on the living room floor, complete with puddle of slime and goo. Then just for good measure, he’d thrown up another puddle close by, narrowly missing the PS2. Now, at least it didn’t smell like something dead, so it was a quick and painless enough job to mop it up. BUT. When I flushed the hairball down the toilet, the toilet conveniently decided to get clogged up. Now, this will no doubt make me sound like a ditz, which in some cases I am, but I had no idea what to do with this problem, because the previous times when it’s happened, I’ve yelled out for Tor to fix it. Yesterday, however, he wasn’t home and wouldn’t be home for hours, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

And what did I do?

I Googled it, of course!

It is my new philosophy of life, one that has proven itself countless times: When in doubt, Google it.

It’s the year 1994, and I’m still in elementary school. My school included both elementary (years 1-6) and “junior high” (years 7-9), and the junior high classes had their classroom in a somewhat separate part of the school. Also, they were allowed to stay inside during recess if they wanted to, AND they were allowed to play music in said recess. Wow. They were so cool, and I couldn’t wait to be one of them.

I didn’t always agree with their choice in music, though.

I’ve since learned to appreciate it, even though it will always, always remind me of the loud junior high boys who scared the crap out of me. They were so loud and…boy-y. But mostly loud.

I’ve since learned to appreciate boys more, too. I still prefer them to not be loud though.

I was in the city today to do some shopping, and they had fenced off the city square because there is a rock festival starting tonight (I think Dimmu Borgir is the first band to play, which clearly marks the whole thing as ‘not my scene’). I could hear their soundchecks into the dressing room where I was trying on clothes – it sounded like a marching band right outside the curtain. Yeah, I know. Marching band! Not sure what that was all about.

Then when I took the bus out of the city again, a woman was doing another soundcheck. She was just saying things like “one two, one two three, hey hey, one two, one two, hey hey”, and I just thought to myself, how awesome wouldn’t it be to do one of those soundchecks?

Unless that whole “one two, one two three” thing is something you HAVE to say, and you can’t say anything else, like, I don’t know, wolverines?

| IMDB

This is a movie I’ve been looking forward for a long time – when I first heard that The Da Vinci Code was being made into a movie, I started thinking about how great a movie Angels & Demons would make.

Was it great? Maybe, maybe not. But it was good, no doubt. But I’m going to just come clean here and confess that I love movies that involve the Catholic church. Usually I love them even more when there’s a demonic possession involved, but they also appeal to me in general, with or without the demons. However, I did get a secret society instead, so that’s almost as good. I read somewhere that the film crew weren’t allowed to shoot inside the Vatican at all, but you really wouldn’t know it (or at least I wouldn’t) when seeing this movie – the sets are stunning, absolutely stunning.

The story is really fast-paced, happening over a time span of just a few hours. I’d completely forgotten about that part of the book. Actually, I think I’d forgotten everything from the book except that the “baddies” were the Illuminati, and that cardinals ended up dead. So- the story moves fast, and at least to some degree it makes you feel that same rush, the feeling that there isn’t enough time, but on some points I just completely forgot about their time limit until suddenly one of them would mention what time it was, or a bell would sound.

Tom Hanks did a good job, as he always does (seriously, can you name one movie where he hasn’t done a good job? I can’t.), for his return as Robert Langdon. In the movie they make it so that Angels & Demons is set after the happenings of The Da Vinci Code, but I seem to remember from the books that A&D is supposed to be set before the Code? Anyway, this didn’t make any difference, all it did was nix the romantic relations between Robert and Vittoria (again, I seem to remember this happening, if not, that’s just my imagination running wild again), and if it’s one thing I can do without in movies like these, it’s the romance. Seriously, people, you have 20 minutes until the Vatican might explode, there is no time for kissing! So that was a piece of the story I didn’t miss at all.

Ayelet Zurer portrayed Vittoria Vetta, and she did a good enough job, even though she did sort of remind me of the second Ruby of Supernatural, and her I do not like. Sorry, Ayelet. It’s not your fault. I do like it that they cast someone not too famous. They could very well have gone for someone more known to the public, like Eva Green, but I’m glad they didn’t.

Ewan McGregor. Well, when is he not awesome? You’re on my list, Ewan. What list is that? I’m not telling. But you’re on it.

And then of course, the big surprise for me: Stellan Skarsgård! After Mamma Mia I have very much warmed up to him, and it amazes me how versatile that man is. They should try and find a place for him in a Harry Potter movie, he’d fit right in there as well, I’m sure.

All in all, a good movie that didn’t really feel as long as it was. It will inevitably be compared to The Da Vinci Code, for the obvious reasons, and I’m no different: In some ways, I think it was better than its predecessor, but in other ways, I prefer The Da Vinci Code (which I will no doubt have to watch tonight).

Well worth the money, but perhaps not as made of awesome as all the media hype leading up to the premiere would have you believe. Still, I’d go see it for the visuals, and for the play between religion and science – including the message that the two don’t have to be polar opposites, they can work together. A message that appeals to me in so many ways.

Or, history revising, really. That’s what I’ve been doing for what seems like the last YEAR now, and in fact, it has been about a year. Only, I kinda stopped reading for a few months, and now? Now I pay the price. I pay the price in sleepless nights and teary eyes (from reading so much, and from realising that I’ll never ever remember all of this – we’re talking 300 years of European and American history!).

Here’s what my day today looks like:
10:00 – get out of bed, plus yell at cats outside for disturbing my snoozing. Honestly!
10:15 – start up computer, continue taking notes before my brother wakes up and needs the book I’m taking notes from.
11:30 – breakfast/lunch. I’m thinking french toast.
12:00 – 21:45 – more reading! Go through notes, skim the Norwegian history book (already read it properly), read Wikipedia articles. Maybe have dinner somewhere in between.
21:45-22:30 – Desperate Housewives. Come on, I need some kind of break here. However, if I fail to get through what I need to get through, I will have to skip DH and watch the rerun on Saturday.
22:30-01:30 – READ READ READ PANIC PANIC.
01:30-06:00 – Try to sleep. Pray that the cats don’t get it on outside the bedroom window again. They’re not even our cats, why should they get to do it on our lawn?

And then tomorrow morning I will get up, PANIC, READ, and then take the bus not up to campus as I had thought, but NO, downtown, to sit my exam and hopefully be asked about something I know, which at this point in time I have no idea what would be. Maybe Napoleon. Or ok, maybe the French Revolution. Maybe both, because then I should have enough to work with to actually write 5-6 pages.

Did I tell you, by the way, that I think I did it this time with the Ancient/Medieval history exam? Third time lucky! I hope.

And to my own defense here, I will have to say that I failed the first time because I hadn’t studied, mostly because the exam was 5 days after my wedding, and also because I was kinda preoccupied with the crisis that had hit our personal economy. Then the second time, I failed because I misinterpreted the question. I still think I wrote a hella good essay though.

| IMDB

I went to see Coraline as a treat to myself after my first horrible history exam. I got a ticket to the 3D version, mostly because I’ve never seen an entire movie in 3D before (my only previous experience with 3D on TV was during the Winter Olympics in 1994, where everyone got cheap 3D glasses to watch something in 3D. Can’t remember what it was, only that it wasn’t revolutionary.), but also because I figured that an animation movie would be perfect for 3D.

And I was NOT wrong. Wow. Here’s a photo reenactment of what I imagine I looked like during many parts of the movie:

(Yeah, it’s not a very good picture, and I’m not a very good actor.)

I love Neil Gaiman’s work, there’s no secret there. I’ve read Coraline, and it was…creepy. In the movie, the creepy is enhanced, tenfold, at least. So is the quirkiness of Gaiman’s world – I especially loved the mouse circus (before the truth of it was revealed, that is).

So – visually stunning, with a great score and excellent voice acting, this is a movie well worth watching. The 3D just put the icing on the cake, and I highly recommend you see it in 3D if you have the opportunity. It did get a little hard on the eyes after a while, but if that’s a general issue with longer movies in 3D or if it was caused by my eyesight differing from one eye to the other, I don’t know. Still, I’d do it again.

If you’ve read the book, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed in its translation to the big screen. It’s been quite a while since I read it myself, so if there were any major changes I didn’t catch them simply because I’ve forgotten the details of the written story. However, the movie’s storyline came together flawlessly, and made the movie into a wonderful, enchanting and scary fairytale – just the way I like it.

“You probably think this world is a dream come true… but you’re wrong.” -Cat

Hi, hello! This is my new blog. Do you like it? I do.

However:
I’ve been working on this on and off inbetween studying for my horrible history exams, and so there are bound to be things I have forgotten to take care of, resulting in thinks looking wonky or just plain not working. If you come across such a thing, please let me know. My second history exam is on Wednesday, and after that I have just one smaller exam in administration law to worry about, and then? I’M FREE.

I could make a rather boring post about how my exam went well, but no! FLASHBACK FRIDAY FTW!

This song holds a very specific memory for me, and the jury is still out on wether or not it’s a good one.

It’s 1998. Christmas is approaching, and it’s the annual Christmas dance for all the high schoolers (as well as everyone else, really, but mostly high schoolers go to those things). I’m there. It’s the first time I go to any sort of dance. I’m madly in love with a boy in my class. He probably only hardly knows my name. Anyway. Going to this dance, I harbour no hope that anyone will ask me to dance, because I’m a dork and I have lots of zits and I have no fashion sense. So what do I do? I go up to this guy and ask him to dance with me. And the song that starts playing? Yep: LeAnn Rimes – How do I live.

Ok, so the dancing itself, that’s a good memory, no doubt about it. My first ever slow dance, that’s one for the diary, right? The manner how that dance came to happen though – not so good a memory. Honestly, sometimes I don’t know what gets into me. Seriously, I still blush when I think about it – I almost didn’t want to tell anyone about it, but now that I sort of have (haven’t published yet, obviously) it feels ok. Liberating.

And you know why I’m ok with telling people about this happening of my sad teenage years? Because I’m married now. Yeah. No matter how much of a loser I was back then, I’m married now, which makes me NOT A LOSER. In love, that is. I might still be a loser in other aspects of life.

(And my fashion sense still sucks.)