I’m a little nuts.

But today could not have made me happier! Except maybe if my books didn’t cost me $200 for school.

BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT!

I bought Chip Kidd’s other book, the “book after The Cheese Monkeys” called “The Learners.” I have yet to read it, but I’m sure I’ll finish it within the next week, and I truly loved The Cheese Monkeys. If you are at all into art, fonts, graphic design, or mad crazy teachers, read it. You’ll finish it quickly, as the pages are tiny and the font is a large Bodoni. Yeah, the writer actually used the typography to mess with the story. It’s pretty awesome. The entire book was a graphic design project, and yet it didn’t take away from the story. I don’t feel like divulging it too much, because it’s hard to explain, but the main characters are named Happy and Himillsy. And Maybelle Lee. In the early 60s. At college. In art school.

Number two awesome thing about today. I got out of one of my classes and into one that I ACTUALLY WANTED TO GET INTO. And it eliminated 4 books that I had to buy – seeing that I already had an AP Stylebook. Ha! I also got the privilege to purchase a Virginia Woolf novel today. And the complete works of Kafka. Bad. Ass. I know.

I’m not nearly finished.

Skins. It was everything I expected from the finale. Suspense, swearing, and some sex. And Freddie. I don’t want to sound like I’m completely summarizing the pieces of entertainment that I consumed in the last 5.5 hours, but there was a lot. Skins wasn’t quite as good as I’d wished, but if it would have ended happily, it would have been retarded and it wouldn’t give them anything to lead into next season. That’s the thing about ongoing seasons. You can’t end every season all happy pappy and tie all the loose ends, unless you know that show isn’t coming back next year.

That’s what ER will have to do next week. *Preemptive tear*. No! I’m not there yet.

I LOVE YOU MAN! I’ll write a full review of it in the next couple of days when I’m not on such an emotional high, because that’s exactly what I’m on right now. My fingers are typing inexplicably fast, and I don’t understand why. But Rob Huebel had the greatest line I’ve heard in a long time. Lindsay and I would have cackled just as much had it been completely out of context, because it was THAT funny. For some reason, IMDB has no quotes listed for the film yet, but I’m not sure it would have included it, because it involved an elderly woman and a sybian. If you are still clueless, catch the red band clip right here. You will cackle wildly. I actually snorted a few times and covered my mouth from the laughter. It may have been that I was the only one out of the three of us who knew exactly what Rob Huebel’s character, Tevin was referring to. And I love Paul Rudd. He has got to be the most adorable person ever. Last year was Seth Rogen’s year. This year is Paul Rudd’s year.

And I can’t forget Jason Segel. I’ve loved him ever since Freaks and Geeks, and I’m so glad that How I Met Your Mother has lasted this long, because he’s such an endearing character, and big guy dorky cute. I HIGHLY recommend this movie – guys and girls alike.

Now onto the tear-jerkers. But not bad tears. Good tears. REALLY good tears.

I feel so ashamed that I ever questioned Shonda Rhimes. I’m a terrible Grey’s fan. I should have known that she could write herself out of that hole. After such a shitty first half of the season, Seattle Grace is back in full swing. I could not get up out of the chair throughout the entire episode, even though I knew I had the chance to pause it. It was like when I was finishing Deathly Hallows. I wanted to consume it all at once, with no interruptions. And from the beginning, when Cristina woke up being sleep choked by Owen, to the end when Derek FINALLY proposed to Meredith, every other commercial break, I was wiped off some tears. I’m such a sap. And as corny as Derek’s proposal was, it couldn’t have happened any other way. The elevator was perfect. And when Derek was retelling Mer all the surgeries he had posted to the wall – I remembered all of them. Seriously.

Seriously.

I would have preferred more of George, but hopefully Shonda will give him some more material so T.R. won’t decide to quit the show.

And Izzie didn’t die! She survived the surgery, and Alex actually was able to show some emotion, freaking out over the idea of snoozing into a cup to fertilize Izzie’s frozen eggs in case the surgery didn’t go well. But it did!

Like Derek always says, it was a good day to save lives.

Alex’s closing voiceover brought tears to my eyes, because it made me see that everything was going to be okay, for them, and for me. I’ll get back to that vindication later.

It doesn’t matter how tough we are. Trauma always leaves a scar. It follows us home, it changes our lives. Trauma messes everybody up. But, maybe that’s the point. All the pain and the fear and the crap. Maybe going through all that is what keeps us moving forward. It’s what pushes us. Maybe we have to get a little messed up. Before we can step up.

Okay, not quite done yet.

ER. One. More. Episode. And Mom will be BAWLING next week. I’m sure I will be too, even though I haven’t been as devoted as she has been over the last 15 years. I never got to see Dr. Ross in action, but tonight’s episode was so exquisite, but almost all the episodes of ER are. I don’t understand why they never get nominated for an Emmy. If they don’t get an nomination this next year, it will be blasphemy. I can’t even imagine how they’ll end it next week, but at least tonight’s episode ended happily. Dr. Banfield got her baby, Archie got engaged, Neela is happy with Ray, and hopefully Tony and Sam will make up next week. They have to. I don’t even want to think about what will happen, because I don’t want to put any wrong ideas in my head.

Okay, that’s enough positive venting for now.

Oh wait!

AMERICAN IDOL!

How the HELL did Matt get into the bottom two? It’s preposterous and outrageous. He sang “Let’s get it on” for crying out loud!

I couldn’t leave that out.

I watch way too much television.

Now to the real world. Which is just as equally as weird and wonderful at the same time.

Yesterday, I had the most vengeful feeling of redemption I’ve ever had. It’s odd, and quite mean if I think about it, but karma has turned in my favor, and I’ve made amends with the past and the future. Things are starting to settle happily, and hopefully by the end of this year, all things will be well. Fate is starting to kick in, I think. And fate feels good.

But what was so crazy today – Mom logged on to her blog, and some woman who claimed to know her from when my sister and I were in school with her sons messaged my mom and called her a “doll.” My mom vaguely recognized her, and we went to her blog, and I recognized her sons – again, vaguely. And I looked through my yearbooks from high school. Nope. Middle school yearbooks. Yep. Apparently two of her sons were older than I, and one younger. They lived in Canterwood, we think, because how else would her oldest son know this.

Apparently, her oldest son remembers a “bus bully incident” from school – which was me. Yes, I was bullied for all three years of middle school. Blake. He was the bane of my existence in my tween years. He and his “bros” all were at my bus stop in middle school, and this guy must as rode the bus with us, because there was no other way that he could remember my bus bully from seven years ago. SEVEN YEARS AGO. I had the worst nickname in history for three years. You wanna know what it is? Who gives a fuck? It was Flabbigail. There. I said it. It’s been seven years. Blake was the only person I ever truly hated. Seriously. I honestly can’t think of anyone else who I actually hated. I can think of a couple people who come close, but none like Blake. There are some non-personal people who I hate – like Dick Cheney and the leaders of the Westboro Baptist Church, and a few other public figures, but those don’t count.

But this blog thing was so weird, because mom only knew this woman from Friday Night Activities at Harbor Ridge. And I don’t even remember talking to her sons. It was weird. Mom keeps asserting that “blogland” isn’t real, and this woman’s making it all up. But how else would her oldest son know I got humiliated for years by a bully on the bus?

That’s the thing – he couldn’t.

It was weird.

Um…I think I’m done.

I’ll post some Youtube videos I’ve enjoyed the last couple days.

“Taking Woodstock,” directed by Ang Lee (!) and starring Demetri Martin (!!!).

Old Outback commercial starring Jemaine Clement, I’m thinking poking fun at Australians.

“Where the Wild Things Are” trailer. Love that freaking book.

The newest Smosh video – “Unitarded.” Those suits sure don’t leave anything to the imagination.

Just picture all that Grey’s Anatomy stuff over this song, and you’ll get why it brought tears to my eyes. O+S – We Do What We Want To

❤ Abby

the hero who saves the day

I love my puppies.

Well, the big brown one on the left is mine, and the little brown and white one on the right is my uncle’s. And she’s the only puppy. Millie (the big brown one) is 10 years old. Lucy is 5 1/2 months old. She and my uncle dropped by for awhile for dinner tonight. Mom made minestrone soup. It was delicious.

Oh, “the hero who saves the day” is the Patton Oswalt track that I’m listening to right now, and it really has no significance, but it’s funny. Then again, all of Patton’s stand up is funny. You know who else’s is funny? Rhys Darby (aka Murray Hewitt of Flight of the Conchords). His stand up is so crazy and loud and dynamic, you can’t help but laugh. I was in a Conchords mood today, because I was thinking about ways I could get tickets to their show in May. Then I also thought about how fucking busy May will be.

It’s vintage Rhys!

Midterms.
Birthday (although it’s not that important. Ooo, I’ll be 20!)
Another comedy show (Jeff Dye).
Sasquatch.

This is my favorite Jeff Dye bit. Hopefully I’ll get to meet him in May when we go to his show.

And the Jeff Dye show is the weekend before, on the 8th and 9th. And all that will be right around midterms. Hmmm… I’ll have to figure out which days I have midterms once I start classes in 6 days, cause the Conchords shows are on weekdays. Monday through wednesday. Ugh. Why do they have to be on weekdays?

I’ve accomplished so much more today than I have in the last three. First of all – saturday, I woke up at 1:30. Sunday, I woke up at noon. Yesterday, I woke up at 11. Today I woke up at 9:30, so I automatically gained an average of 2 hours. Then I helped my mom get her blog squared away. We had to make a whole new page for her. We added: the history page, a few photos on the right sidebar, a new post, and I showed her minimal coding today. And I showed her how to use the scanner. Finally. We’ve had the damn thing for two years and she’s never learned to use it. It was so funny to try to explain a simple image code. I even wrote it down and she said it still looked like Japanese to her, not that she knew how to read Japanese.　私はアビイです。Mom’s funny.

Towards the end of our multiple-hour assignment, I got so sick and tired of AOL and Typepad that I demanded to delete it permanently. I, of all people, should have known to get rid of AOL long, long ago. Even my father didn’t think to get her Firefox, so I took it upon myself and downloaded it for her. Hopefully she doesn’t go apeshit and freak out that she doesn’t have all the lame ass platforms. Ugh, AOL is a whore.

I also cleaned my room – another thing I’d been meaning to do for…well, awhile. I had 6 old Stranger newspapers built up on my desk, many layers of junk on the floor that our Electrolux picked up. My floor looks so much nicer. My room even smells nicer, which is kind of disgusting considering what could have been in my carpet prior to the vacuuming today.

I mustn’t forget to mention the sheer hilarity that was the audio commentary on the Twilight DVD. Even Rob Pattinson saw how ridiculous it was. There was so much self-deprecating humor throughout the entire commentary. Hardwicke sounded like a dumbass trying to make suggestive jokes throughout the whole thing, and KStew sounded so apathetic, exactly like her character. Ugh. But I would listen to RPattz’s sexy English accent for 122 minutes any day. My favorite part was during the “pivotal” scene in the woods when Edward finally admitted to being a vampire.

Rob says that he tells people him kicking up the apple is real. “Well basically, you gotta get the right angle. You gotta get it right on the instep.” Hardwicke says she used to ask if he was practicing his Hacky Sack because she wanted it to be more elaborate — e.g. bounce it off of two knees and an ankle and then catch it. “People would be in hysterics if they saw that,” he says. “It’s like, wow, he’s a superhuman moron…. So he wears lipstick, has a little bouffant, and does little circus acts as well. Oh, he’s so se[xy].”

“Then I’ll ask you the most basic question – what do we eat?” And Rob chimed in, “CHEESEBURGERS!”

I’ll let you see the rest of his funny moments without me completely transcribing them here, because that would be annoying. But even if you think the book is lame, rent the DVD just to watch the movie with the audio commentary, because it’s almost as if RPattz feels the same as you do. It’s amusing.

Um, what else did I accomplish today? Oh, I just went to do some Wii Fit, and surprisingly I’m 3.5 lbs lighter than I was 11 days ago. My goal was to lose a lb a week, but I’ve surpassed that apparently. It’s quite astonishing because I think I’ve only been to the gym twice in the last 11 days because of finals and Ledger and shit.

I think I’ll go. But I’ll leave you with one of the greatest Youtube videos I’ve seen in a long white. Vintage Conchords, from the year 2000.

They were so gangly!

❤ Abby

The Conchords got Evicted.

“It’s a rags to rags story.”

“It’s a story about two guys who start at the bottom, continue along the bottom, and end up at the bottom.”

❤

The finale of Flight of the Conchords, season 2 was tonight. It makes me pretty sad to think that it will be awhile before I get some more new Conchords geniusness. And I don’t even know if there will be a season 3. I sure hope there is, because it was one of the only reasons I made my father keep HBO on our cable plan. We nixed Showtime and kept HBO. I should start watching that show True Blood. I hear it’s pretty good (and when I say “hear” I mean read on many blogs and reviews online. I never actually “hear” any of these things.) If I’d gotten tickets to their show in May, I wouldn’t be as upset right now as I am.

I love Mel. If Flight of the Conchords decided not to come back, then Kristen Schaal should get her own show about Mel and Doug. She’s fantastic. Tonight’s episode made Mel so much weirder, yet so endearing. Bret and Jemaine got evicted and Mel let them live with her and Doug, and she locked the door to the room that they were sleeping in. She treated Bret and Jemaine like children, and ignored Doug and his harp-playing. Doug and Mel decided to separate for awhile, and Bret and Jemaine were their objects of custody, like two little sons. It was actually quite sweet.

I won’t spoil the ending, because it’s quite wonderful and terrible at the same time.

I’ll miss Jemaine and Bret. God I wish I could have gone to their show at the Paramount in May. I’ll do most anything to get a ticket to the show. I’ll stand outside the theater all day, holding a sign, just to see if I could get in. Maybe I’ll do it all three days if it doesn’t work the first day. I’ll just keep trying.

Oh how I love Jemaine’s sideburns. They are so marvelous.

Everyday sounds.

The Musical.

Good news, terrible news, truly awful news.

❤ Abby

Last night was the most cultural experience I’ve had in a long time

And I can truly say that in all senses of the word.

I’ll explain, whilst I’m having a ridiculously late lunch of iced chai and a ham sandwich.

Last night at 5:15, Libby, Andrea and I started our trek to Forks for the Twilight DVD release party. And at this very moment you are probably thinking, “WTF Abby? I thought you hated Twilight?”

Well, I do. But I went so that my sister could go, because she loves it, and I love her. And I heard that there might be a chance that some of the stars would be making surprise appearances at several release parties. As I came to realize, I was sadly mistaken about my conjecture about the Forks party, but I’ll get to more of that later.

So we started driving 45 minutes later than we said we were, so that made our arrival time 45 minutes later, at about 8:15 ish. Google Maps said it took 3 hours ish. I drove the whole way there and back, so I drove for a total of 7 hours yesterday. Surprisingly the drive from the Hood Canal bridge to Port Angeles was very enjoyable and not stressful. After we stopped for Safeway chinese in Port Angeles, however, highway 101 got much more windy than it had been up until then. And all the while we’re driving, Mom is calling us every half hour because I was an idiot and forgot to get the GPS from my uncle’s car weeks ago. And my Blackberry was being retarded and not giving us directions. And the printer decided to die, so Mom wrote out the directions from Google Maps. At that point, everything was against us.

But once we got to Port Angeles, Libby got the GPS to work on my Crackberry (It kept freezing, so I’ve decided to call it that today.) But the directions on my phone were different from Mom’s handwritten directions. Like idiots, we decided to follow the GPS. Once we got around Crescent Lake at the foot of the Olympics, the GPS took us down this long, dirty road. One that looked like a serial killer with someone else’s face stapled to his might jump out and saw open our car doors. THANKFULLY, I had a map in the car. A good old fashioned map is what got the three of us going the right direction. We were foiled by the GPS and the internet directions. Just goes to show you that technology isn’t always the answer.

Anyway, once we got back on 101, we called Mom and stayed on the phone until we saw a sign that said “Forks 11 miles.” We all cheered with relief, then I started laughing uncontrollably. For a minute, I thought we were going to end up in Canada (even though I knew that was impossible without crossing a bridge, but it felt like were in a black hole for awhile.) No lights, no signs, nothing. Why would anyone want to live there? Fifteen minutes later, we found civilization, or at least as civilized as Forks can be. There was huge crowd of people waiting outside this store called “Dazzled by Twilight.” Seriously. I hate the word “dazzled.” As soon as we passed by it, more cheering ensued, mostly because we knew we were in the right place. We parked the car and walked down the street to this tiny shop, filled with tweens, teenage girls, and surprisingly 30-something women, clad in there “Team Edward” and “I kissed a werewolf and I liked it” shirts. This store was INSANE. I felt so weird.

People actually bought this stuff.

To reference a far superior piece of literature, I felt like a mudblood in a room full of purebloods. Andrea and I looked around the room at all the girls with their bad Alice haircuts and bags full of Edward paraphernalia and felt so weird. We finally met up with Marki and her friends after they’d eaten dinner, and then Andrea and I didn’t feel as awkward. There was this one shirt, that Libby told me later was referring to the first time Edward and Bella did the dirty dirty, that said “Edward can bust my headboard, bite my pillow, and bruise my body any day.”

Really?

I might have been the only one in the room who saw the blatant message of abusive relationships right there, but I’ve given up on trying to understand exactly why teenage girls are so enamored with this story. I don’t really care to try to figure it out anymore, and I’ve accepted the fact that it’s gotten kids to read again. So I applaud Ms. Meyer on that, but amongst the throngs of teen girls were a surprising amount of adult women. Like, women with children, and should have lives. There was actually this one lady standing in line next to us with a very tiny baby in one of those sling things that you wear on your chest. She was there with a couple other women who were too old to be there. And I’m not sure if I am being completely correct with this, but I overheard two of them talking about their kids, “Mine’s Bella, yours is Emmett.” And then they laughed.

Really?

One of the reasons why I’m succumbed to the fact that tweens, teens, and girls in their early twenties go gaga over this series is that they’re still young. They can identify with Bella, mostly because she’s so void of character that they can insert themselves in the story. And that’s all fine and dandy. But women who have children of their own, hopefully have graduated from college, have a job, maybe are married, should have a more mature taste in books. I know I sound like I’m speaking from a high horse, but I think I have pretty mature taste in books. I’ve had lots of people’s good taste rub off on me – my mother, some of my friends, my teachers. So I find it weird that women who should have their own life, stand outside in 33 degree weather at 12:30 at night waiting for a special edition DVD of the story that shouldn’t completely resonate with them so much. It’s kind of immature. There was another women wearing a shirt that said something or other, who after she got her DVD, had her friends take a picture of her holding the DVD in front of the poster in the window, which was pretty much the same picture as the DVD cover.

I’ve often fallen under the category of “fangirl” for certain things – mostly Harry Potter and We Are Scientists (and NSYNC and The Calling if I’m really going that far back). But I’m 19. And the things that I “fangasm” over about aren’t fictional characters in a cheesy PG rated teen novel.

Even when we were leaving, Andrea started ranting in the car about “that woman should be at home with her baby in a warm house, not waiting in line in the freezing cold at midnight!” It made me chuckle.

Whilst we were waiting in line, there was this one Toyota truck driving down the one main road I swear 30 times over the period of 2 hours. Seriously. He’d sometimes have 4 guys in his truck, they’d blast music out the windows and sometimes honk. At one point, he was all by himself and Libby said that his friends stopped caring and left him to drive by himself. I guess Forks is that boring. And there was the fact that hundreds of teenage girls crowded on their road. It was the probably the most people that’s been in their town in a long time. They were probably scoping some chicks out. But every time they’d drive by, we’d cheer. Libby counted around 30, but she wasn’t sure.

Back to the main reason I’d gone – I wanted to potentially see some famous movie stars, specifically hot British ones who’s names rhyme with Shmob Schmattinson (I don’t love him as Edward, I will forever love him as Cedric.) But I was sadly disappointed when there were no movie stars. We did have to wait in the freezing cold for FOREVER, and then make our way up a gazillion stairs to a warm room where our feet could thaw. Libby was a moron and didn’t wear any socks. But once we got up the room, we got to see an authentic performance by the Quillayute Indians. It was really cool. They had these little kids as apart of the dance. One little boy had a huge wolf head totem on that looked way too big for him, and it was so cute. I’ll tell you, it definitely wasn’t what I expected when they said “Twilight Party.” I was actually very glad that it wasn’t a big get together for teenage girls to fangasm about vampires and werewolves. No, that’s what the line was for, and the “Dazzled by Twilight” store.

I will have to admit, Marki was pretty funny talking about Taylor Lautner. She <3s him, and considering he’s 17, it made it even funnier.

I did get pretty upset when we were waiting in line for the damn DVD and the lady running the whole shindig was poorly organized and ignored Libby trying to ask her a question about when we’d be able to go purchase. The line we were in – the non-pre-ordered line – thankfully didn’t have to wait until everyone got theirs. There were only 15 of us, and hundreds of them.

We finally got out of Forks at 12:48, after waiting in line for almost an hour, and we started our long drive home again. We got turned around one time, but only lost a few miles, and I only got tired once we saw the sign that said “Bremerton 23 miles.” Up until then, I really wasn’t familiar with the road, so I was paying very close attention. We got home at 3:45.

So overall, the night was tiring, freezing, kind of ridiculous, very eye-opening, hilarious, and really fun honestly. But if I ever hear the word “dazzle” used in regular speech, I’ll go crazy. And I’ll be FUCKING PISSED if I find out that any of the cast was in Seattle last night, because that would have meant 2/3rds less driving and a hell of a lot more sleep, and seeing a famous person.

I’m off to read a book, called “The Cheese Monkeys.” It’s pretty good so far.

Wow, that was a hella long post.

❤ Abby

‘Tis officially spring break.

I’m watching Life Aquatic right now, and I have nothing to worry about for the next week and a half. It’s so nice to feel like I have nothing to do for 11 days. 11 days of freedom and relaxation, and lots of working out. The only things that I really have to do are go to the doctor tomorrow, and figure out the transportation arrangements for our day trip to Forks on friday. We’re trying to figure out if we want to stay overnight at a motel, but Andrea has to be to work the next day, and I’d rather not stay in a Forks motel. I can drive home at uber early in the morning. I don’t mind.

Seriously, even though I didn’t read Twilight because it’s terrible, I’d still like to go to Forks. I’ve never been there and I do have to admit, if there’s any chance that any famous people will be there, I don’t want to miss it. I’m all for meeting real movie stars, not the badly-written fictional characters. RPattz and Jackson Rathbone are damn fine, and Taylor Lautner is adorable.

I have all my finals turned in, and I feel pretty good about my grades. I had to drive to school just to turn in my film directors final, and incidentally to print it. My home printer is fucking retarded, because after printing 8 pages, it decided to suck up all the rest of the paper in the printer and have an empty ink cartridge for page 9. I had one page left and the printer tweaked out on me, and it made me so mad. I get incredibly infuriated with technology, especially the printer, because Dad bought the biggest, most expensive and fancy one he could find. It’s wireless and connected to the network, and takes about 5 ink cartridges for each color. What happened to a black cartridge and a color cartridge? It drives me nuts because certain colors get used faster, so when you go buy cartridges, they get used up at different rates, and you lose track of which ones need to be filled next. It’s so much more complicated and more expensive. I should hook up my printer from last year in my room to eliminate the frustration.

I started watching this new show “Castle” last week, and I really like it. It has the chick who was the sassy cop in “The Spirit” movie, and she’s a sassy cop in this show too. And Nathan Fillion, who is quite cute I must say. I couldn’t for the life of me remember where I’d seen him most noticeably, but thanks to IMDB, I realized that he was in “Two Guys, a girl, and a Pizza Place,” this show from forever ago with Ryan Reynolds (who is so freaking babelicious). But “Castle” is a really cool show – it’s about a crime novelist who needs to “research” his subject for his next set of novels, the sassy cop. And flirtation, sexual tension, and annoyance ensues. Yeah, I know it contains all the cliches of a romantic comedy, but mixed with a cop drama, it makes it more interesting. And I love anything about writers. It’s an interesting take on it. It has the charm and suspense of “Chuck,” but with a little CSI mixed in. Just add in a crazy mother living with the main character, and you’ve got yourself a hit!

It doesn’t hurt that it’s on mondays either, where there aren’t a lot of competing shows at the same time, and right before Heroes. It could attract the same audience as Heroes as well.

Speaking of Heroes, I honestly haven’t seen a new episode on a month. I have 4 episodes saved on my DVR, and I really think the only reason I’m still watching it is because of Sylar/Gabriel/Zachary Quinto. He’s the only character that you can always count on being in an episode, and he’s definitely nice to look at. Hero’s my favorite character overall, but he’s not always in it. And Claire is driving me crazy. Peter’s trying to do good, but I can’t forget the ridiculous acting on everyone but Zachary Quinto’s part. Milo Ventimiglia is hot, but not a good actor. And his relationship with Hayden Panettiere makes it weird to watch their niece/uncle dynamic, because it surely isn’t like any other niece/uncle dynamic I’ve ever seen. She’s my age. He’s 31. Ack. Cradle robber.

What else can I talk about? It doesn’t really matter, because I have all the time in the work for the next 11 days. I can sit down and work on my novel. In fact, I think I’ll do that right after I finish this. I might even take a nap. Who cares?

Michael Sarver or Scott McIntyre needs to go home on American Idol. And Lil Rounds should be in the bottom three, get taken right out just to put a fire under her ass to redeem herself from last night’s terribly karaoke “Independence Day.” I knew country week would be her demise. But thank god it was so soon. My personal favorites last night were Kris Allen’s “Make you feel my love,” Matt Giraud’s “So Small,” Anoop Desai’s “You were always on my mind,” and I even kinda liked Adam Lambert’s “Ring of Fire.” I have to make myself forget that it’s “Ring of Fire,” but other than that – it was pretty badass. When I first heard him do it, I was like “I’VE HEARD THIS VERSION BEFORE!” I did. Seriously.

And then it hit me.

ROCKSTAR: SUPERNOVA! From like 2 summers ago, when the tiny chick with dreadlocks, Dilana sang it. It sounded a lot more hardcore when she did it, but Adam could outsing her like a dozen times. I just can’t wait for him to do any Queen song, or “Creep.” He could totally do “Creep.” And I love the fact that he could be the first gay American Idol. The first former drag queen American Idol. Fantastic, innit?

Ah, Kris.

I’m off to novel. It’s been awhile, so I have to be back in the swing of things.

Tranny – Kings of Leon (from Young and Youth Manhood)

❤ Abby

Old footage makes new uploads

I was sifting through footage from earlier this year on my DV tapes, so I finally uploaded it.

I have a movie from our summer vacation in Minnesota in the works, but it’s taking longer to edit.

Prop 8 rally in Seattle Nov. 20.

Libby caught off guard.

Libby’s choir performance.

My sister’s a BAMF.

❤ Abby

Spring cleaning…in the snow?

I’ve been getting really bored with the blog layouts quickly lately, so I really need to learn CSS so I can customize my own blog. But I’m too lazy, so I’ll just keep switching it up.

So, it snowed today. Really last night, and during the early hours of the day. We got about 3 inches over here on the Kitsap Peninsula, but thank goodness it got warm enough to melt it all. But then it got excruciatingly windy. The kind of wind that makes you skin sting in the cold. I learned that the hard way when I had to fill up my gas tank and the pump I pulled up to was broken, but not labeled as such. So I had to turn get back in my car and turn around to go to another pump. When I was driving to school today, the streetlights were swinging vigorously, and it almost looked like in “Twister.”

Anyway. Do you ever listen to one of those songs that trigger specific emotions or memories, even subconsciously? I know that taste is the strongest trigger of memory, but for me, songs spark certain things in my brain. Yesterday, when I was driving home from Lacey – I’ll get to that later – my shuffle went to “I Can’t Make you love me” by Bonnie Raitt, and my eyes started to well up. For some reason, no matter where I am, what time it is, what I’m doing, that song makes me cry. And certain songs make me think of random memories. Like the first time I ever heard Snow Patrol. Whenever I hear their song “Ways and Means,” I can picture where I was sitting, when it was, who I was with, at the Deck the Hall Ball. It was the first song we heard when we walked in, and ever since then, it’s been one of my favorites of their songs. What is a song that triggers certain emotions or memories with you? It’s always interesting to hear.

Back to Lacey! I ended up judging the Ads category at the WJEA State Conference yesterday at Timberline instead of the Layout category. There were already plenty of layout judges, and Derek only had a few people judging the advertisement category with him, so I joined him. There were only ten entries, but it was really fun to go through and pick apart these entries. It was nice to be on the other side for once. I do have to congratulate Outlook for winning best in show in the state. It was pretty exciting… and pretty loud to be in that auditorium when they were winning their awards. It was pretty cool for Derek’s kids from the Arrow to be there, apart of something totally unknown. They won awards left and right, and from the little amount of time I’ve met them, I was so proud of them, and Derek, because they were completely new to this whole newspaper thing.

Good on ya, Renton High School.

I’m off to go study for a final I have tomorrow.

Laugh please. Now.

❤ Abby

HAPPY PI DAY!

That is your daily dose of brilliant.

And perhaps some hotness as well.

Alex Kapranos’ cheekbones could slice through a steak that’s been microwaved for a half an hour. I think that makes sense. In other words, they’re sharp. I remember the first time I heard Franz Ferdinand. It was early sophomore year in high school, right when they and the Killers were first getting big, and 107.7 The End’s DJ W. No Name was trying to figure out which band would make it bigger that year. The Killers obviously did following the herpes virus that was “Mr. Brightside,” but now that I think about it, Franz is the band that has created constantly good music. Self-titled – awesome. You could have it so much better – superb. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand – stupendous. And I wasn’t try to make the adjectives increasingly better, I just started coming up with more descriptive ones.

I saw Franz live, you know? Yeah. I went to go see the Killers mainly, at Deck the Hall Ball 2004 at the Key Arena. I hate seeing concerts at the Key. It’s so gigantic, and not intimate at all. I mean, you’re sitting basketball seats. But even from our terrible seats way too far away to see anything, I still freaking loved Franz Ferdinand live. They were better than the Killers, and surely better than Modest Mouse. At that point, we hadn’t even heard of the Shins, which would now be BLASPHEMY, and Snow Patrol and Keane were still pretty new. After that, we fell in love with all of them. Keane was way better at the Paramount the next year, but none of them can compare to WAS at Neumo’s last July. Yeah. but I think Sasquatch will be in a close running for first.

However, I keep forgetting Death Cab at Bumbershoot this year. I wish I could just do this for a living – go to shows and write about them. Why does the economy have to suck now?

Speaking of the economy – wow, that was a really good segue for two things so absolutely unrelated – did anyone see Jim Cramer on The Daily Show last night? If you haven’t – YOU HAVE TO. Go to comedycentral.com, and watch the unedited interview that took up the entire half hour show last night. Jim Cramer was so uncomfortable, and John Stewart PWNED him! That was the perfect instance to use the word PWN. Major PWNage. It was both uncomfortable and hilarious, even better than when John appeared on Crossfire a few years ago – right before Crossfire got fucking cancelled. Coincidence? I think not.

Take a gander.

You don’t have to watch the whole thing, just the first 9 minutes or so. But it’s worth it, trust me.

In honor of pi day, I’m posting a completely unrelated video that’s also equally completely HILARIOUS. Maria Bamford is also bloody brilliant.

That was really random.

❤ Abby

No one hits me over the head with a rock. Loser.

And there’s a lot of catching up to do. Boy do I wish I wrote in my actual journal every five days. Then I’d finish a journal in a timely manner. I used to finish journals in timely manners. I seriously have 6 journals sitting on my desk shelf, all empty. But then again, I can think of 5 different journals I’ve filled just off the top of my head, and that’s not including random notebooks that I’d carry around all the time. There are plenty more of those.

Anyway, today’s friday, and tuesday was supposed to be the official last day of the P-I, but apparently it wasn’t. At least that’s what I heard on the news monday night. Kinda ridiculous. They said that the staff would be working this whole week, like they’re making them wait for something. I don’t know, it’s messed up either way.

I would rant about American Idol, but that wouldn’t be anything particularly original or interesting. So I’ll skip that part.

To talk about GEORGE CLOONEY A.K.A DR. ROSS.

Even though his and Julianna Margulies’ appearances were short and a bit fleeting, it was still nice to see old faces again. I knew that ER wouldn’t bring everyone together all hunky-dory-hippy-dippy-trippy like Friends did, because ER has always had the best writing. I don’t understand how they’ve never won an Emmy. Hopefully they will get one this year. It wouldn’t be blasphemous if they didn’t. I personally enjoyed the nostalgic storyline between Dr. Benson (Eriq la Salle) and Dr. Carter (Noah Wyle). It’s funny, but my mom and I always end up called Carter “Noah,” instead of “John,” which is his fictional name. But we call everyone else by their character name. But then again, it would be kind of a hassle if we would always talk to the television shouting out “Parminder!” instead of “Neela.” It was just nice to see George Clooney’s face again, in something so familiar. You know, it’s where he got started. He wasn’t always a movie star. However, he did appear in “The Facts of Life” a couple time in the 80s, when he had a mullet. I’m still not convinced that it will be the last we see on Dr. Ross and Dr. Hathaway though, but I don’t know how they would find their way back to County.

But it pissed me the hell off when Dr. Hathaway, whose supposed to have lived in Seattle for a good 8 years, called Spokane “SPO-CAIN,” not “SPO-CAN.” I mean really? I know it’s spelled like that, but its like learning how to say Sequim. Once people tell you how’s it’s pronounced, you don’t fuck it up. I never say “SEE-QUIM.” Nobody does unless they’re out of staters, or they don’t get out much.

Tomorrow is the state competition in Lacey, and I’m quite looking forward to it, as well as Sasquatch, which is still a good 2ish months away, but still. We got our tickets in the mail today, and it just makes me even more excited. May will be a good month, except for the finals and all. But that’s a lead-in to early June, which will be the end of Spring quarter. May includes Jeff Dye comedy show, Sasquatch, and my birthday. Speaking of quarters, I just got the news on wednesday that my final for film directors is a take-home! We were going over the topics that it would cover, and then Dr. Coon told us that it would be 6 essays that we would have to choose 5. Then everyone got a little worried. “But it will be a take-home final.” Gasp. We all did, seriously. It made my day, because that means that I really only have to study for one test. And that’s my Intro to American Politics class. But it’s on monday, so I’ll have to hustle this weekend. I won’t have a lot of time to, since I have Ledger today, convention tomorrow, Ledger tomorrow, then Ledger sunday. Maybe I’ll talk to Alexis about tomorrow afternoon, cause I don’t think she was gonna come in then either.

Skins last night was…interesting. On one good note, Freddie and Effy finally hooked up, but then again, Effy did hit Katie over the head with a rock. And left her in the woods all night while she went and hooked up with Freddie. And now everyone but Cook hates Effy, because Katie was choking her and pulling her hair so Effy hit her with a rock to stop her. Pretty soapy for Skins if you ask me, but next week will be good, because we’ll finally get to find out about the dynamics between Katie and Emily. Emily’s my favorite character anyway, besides JJ. And Freddie’s just fine.

I also jut heard that E4 is having a “Dev Fest” tomorrow night at 9, celebrating the fact that one of their own Skins characters has made it big in Hollywood in an Oscar-winning movie. It’s pretty dorky, but hopefully someone will Youtube it or torrent it, because Dev’s freaking adorable, and I wouldn’t want to miss it.

One final thought – on Grey’s Anatomy, Izzie finally figured out what the hell was wrong with her. Melanoma. And she told Cristina! Not Alex, not George, but Cristina. And Derek’s a twat. He was acting like a 8-year-old having a temper tantrum, but with alcohol.

(My title comes from next week’s Skins.)

❤ Abby

Fuck daylight savings

And roundabouts.

I decided to skip my last class today because we were watching Tim Burton’s Big Fish in class. We own the movie, and I would prefer not to cry in class.

Seriously, that movie makes me cry every time I see it, even though I know what fucking happens at the end. They’re tears of sadness, joy, and of the beauty of the story. That sounded kind of pathetic, but I don’t want to cry in front of my peers, or my prof.

You know what pisses me off? Snow. In March. And the dumbass drivers who can’t comprehend snow and driving at the speed limit. It was barely even snowing, and the road didn’t have an ounce on snow on in. And to add on the non-snow paranoia, Sprague Ave. was just demolished this weekend, so people had to stare at the broken off overpass, and slow down to, what…30 MPH! On the highway! Kinda ridiculous. I’d understand if these people were from California or Florida and had never seen a goddamn snowflake and these giant white flakes falling from the sky scared the shit out of them, but these are WASHINGTON drivers. We’ve seen snow. We drive in rain all the time. Big whup! I mean really. Will people learn how to drive, please? I hate asshole drivers and paranoid drivers.

As well as people who don’t know how to work roundabouts. I literally was pulling off the highway at my exit, and there are two different entrances into the roundabout once you get off the highway. Six cars were backed up behind this twat of a driver on the inside lane. Apparently, he was too much of a pussy to pull into the roundabout until the entire thing was clear, so I went into the outside lane, and passed by all these oblivious drivers into the roundabout. I’d already exited from the roundabout before any of the other drivers had entered it.

Ha. I’m skilled.

In lighter news, I just discovered this great comedy duo, called “Hard ‘n’ Phirm.” It’s a playoff of their names, Chris HARDwick and Mike PHIRMan. Haha. They are like a nerdier, American version of Flight of the Conchords. They seriously have a song called “Tribute to Pi.” Between the two of them, they know 180 decimal places of pi.

Innit wicked? Cheers to nerds!

Pi day is in 5 days! I’ll be making a pie. What kind should I make? Chocolate cream? Apple? Pecan? Laura and I made Banana Cream last year and brought it to Ian’s house. At like, 11 o’clock at night.

Here’s a good song by a local Seattle artist that I recently discovered. Say Hi – Hallie and Henry

❤ Abby