So, tomorrow's the big day! I'm moving, and not just the blog this time. I'm moving me and a husband and a whole house full of things. What an adventure this has been already!
So, we found this apartment Memorial Day weekend and all of my friends laughed at me for starting to pack that weekend. "Oh Amanda, you're so funny with your neurosis and OCD!!!" Well you can fuck straight off because I'm still not all packed. It's amazing how much shit you can accumulate within five years in a very small apartment. Where did we get so many...things? Absolutely useless...things. Granted, they're pretty things, but things nonetheless. Things that need wrapped in 1000 pieces of newspaper and put in boxes that then have to be lifted and moved. Jesus, who thought this moving thing was a good idea?
Also, no one seems to know the address of the new apartment? Who moves into an apartment with two addresses? I do, that's who. If you talk to the post office, it's one, if you talk to utilities, it's the other. Which is awesome, because it's been insane moving the utilities. Wednesday, I called Verizon...I wanted that shiny new Fios package. We talked to the people in the other apartment in the building and I was pretty sure that they told me they had Fios. So, I call Verizon and they tell me that Fios is not available in my area. I told them to check the other apartment number, they tell me that it's not available there either. So I tell them to check the other apartment's service, and the representative tells me that they have regular Verizon service, not Fios. So I spend 40 goddamn minutes on the phone with this guy setting everything up. We went with the phone and internet (DSL) service that we have now and that comes bundled with Direct TV. I've never had a problem with them, so I figure, hey, that's fine, completely forgetting that this is a rental unit. So, I email the landlord to make sure that they're okay with us putting a dish on the house and they reiterate that the other apartment has Fios! So I call Verizon again, and they tell me that yes, Fios is available at the ONE address, but not the other! How could you have service at 437 but not at 435 when it's a dead end street?! So then, I spend another 40 minutes on the phone canceling the old order and putting in a new one. Sheesh.
So, long story short, I'm now getting Fios in my non-existent apartment. It's a way better deal and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm pretty excited about the new apartment in general. While I will miss the apartment we're in now and the neighborhood, I'm eager to have a fresh beginning. It was always the running joke that if my apartment had one more room and two more closets, I'd live there for the rest of my life. Well, this apartment has one more room and four more closets. Hooray for lucking out! We'll have a real, live office for me to blog in, now. (Even though usually I post at work, shhhh!) Maybe it will inspire me to not be such a slacker.
It's been insanely busy in work and life though. Ever since we went away on a three day conference and the beginning of June it's just been impossible to get caught up. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, however. What amazes me is how people do all this shit and have other obligations and families and whatnot. I would have torn my face clean off. I'm overwhelmed now, ferchrissakes, I can't even imagine throwing other things on top of it. Some good, hard work never killed anyone, but damn. So, when you don't see me for a week or two, you'll know why.
Have a happy and safe Fourth of July weekend and just hope I don't go on a homicidal rampage. In honor of this day, check out this super sweet video:
Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts
Friday, July 2, 2010
Friday, August 21, 2009
Coraline
(This is really my first movie review? I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner. Stay tuned for more!) I just recently got to see this movie and I’m kicking myself in the ass for not going to see it in the theater! Coraline finally has her very own movie! She’s gone through a novel, a graphic novel, a video game, and even a musical, to finally hit the big screen.
For those of you not acquainted with the story, it’s based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Coraline Jones and her parents, Mel and Charlie, move into Pink Palace Apartments, a development chock full of weirdos. Coraline’s parents are severe workaholics working on a gardening book, therefore spending little time with Coraline, leaving her to explore the house and the nearby woods. Coraline quickly befriends…if you can call them friends at this point, Whyborn (god, I love that name, but we’ll keep with with the slightly less diminishing nickname, Wybie) Lovat and his haughty black cat. Wybie’s grandmother is the owner of Pink Palace Apartments and has warned Wybie to stay away, since Grandma’s sister vanished from there years ago.
During her thorough sweep of the house looking for something to do, Coraline discovers a small door. After hounding her mother to peel off the wallpaper and open it, all that they find is a brick wall. Bummer. Soon after, Wybie brings Coraline a doll that he found at his grandmothers house that bears a striking resemblence to Coraline, down to the blue hair and raincoat. Later that night, Coraline is woken to the sound of mice, who lead her back to aforementioned door, but this time around, things are a little different. The door is now a swirly vortex of awesome! What kinda kid wouldn’t jump right into that? So Coraline crawls through the portal and finds herself in an alternate, albeit very similar world. Coraline finds her Other Mother, her Other Father, a blessedly mute Wybie, and recreations of her neighbors, who Coraline enjoys far more than the normal ones. On her first night there, Coraline’s Other Parents tuck her into bed, and when she wakes up, she’s back to the real world.
Things quickly go awry in the Other World, when her Other Parents invite Coraline to live there forever. All she needs to do is sew some buttons into her eyes. Coraline is not so down with this idea, in fact, it’s just plain creepy. That night, Coraline finally falls asleep, but when she wakes up, she’s still in the Other World. Oh noes!!! She confronts Other Mother, who reveals herself to be a spider-like monster and puts her in a mirror until she can learn to act like a daughter. In the mirror, Coraline meets the three ghosts of the previous children, one indeed being Wybie’s great aunt. Coraline them makes a pledge to find their eyes and free them for good.
Wybie rescues Coraline from the mirror and she returns to the real world to find her real parents have gone missing. She returns to the Other World to find that her delightful Other Neighbors are just pawns of the Other Mother. I don’t want to give too much away, but she’s required to perform a series of tasks to find the eyes, release her parents, and the other children. You’ll just have to watch that part for yourself!
I love how creepy it was! At the end, I was completely on the edge of my seat. It was fantastic! And so well made. Directed by Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach, Nightmare Before Christmas) this movie definitely takes on a Burton-esque vibe, which I am all about. Selick really does bring Gaiman’s imagination to the screen in a 3D whirlwind of whimsy and splendor. It’s a beautifully formed modern movie with a good old-fashioned tale of a background. Stunning to look at and a pleasure to watch, this movie is now on the list of my top favorites! A!
Also, if you buy the 3D collector’s edition, you get FOUR PAIRS of 3D glasses, which I thought was pretty sweet. If you’re gonna get this movie, might as well go balls to the wall and get the collector’s edition!
Coraline’s Site
For those of you not acquainted with the story, it’s based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Coraline Jones and her parents, Mel and Charlie, move into Pink Palace Apartments, a development chock full of weirdos. Coraline’s parents are severe workaholics working on a gardening book, therefore spending little time with Coraline, leaving her to explore the house and the nearby woods. Coraline quickly befriends…if you can call them friends at this point, Whyborn (god, I love that name, but we’ll keep with with the slightly less diminishing nickname, Wybie) Lovat and his haughty black cat. Wybie’s grandmother is the owner of Pink Palace Apartments and has warned Wybie to stay away, since Grandma’s sister vanished from there years ago.
During her thorough sweep of the house looking for something to do, Coraline discovers a small door. After hounding her mother to peel off the wallpaper and open it, all that they find is a brick wall. Bummer. Soon after, Wybie brings Coraline a doll that he found at his grandmothers house that bears a striking resemblence to Coraline, down to the blue hair and raincoat. Later that night, Coraline is woken to the sound of mice, who lead her back to aforementioned door, but this time around, things are a little different. The door is now a swirly vortex of awesome! What kinda kid wouldn’t jump right into that? So Coraline crawls through the portal and finds herself in an alternate, albeit very similar world. Coraline finds her Other Mother, her Other Father, a blessedly mute Wybie, and recreations of her neighbors, who Coraline enjoys far more than the normal ones. On her first night there, Coraline’s Other Parents tuck her into bed, and when she wakes up, she’s back to the real world.
Things quickly go awry in the Other World, when her Other Parents invite Coraline to live there forever. All she needs to do is sew some buttons into her eyes. Coraline is not so down with this idea, in fact, it’s just plain creepy. That night, Coraline finally falls asleep, but when she wakes up, she’s still in the Other World. Oh noes!!! She confronts Other Mother, who reveals herself to be a spider-like monster and puts her in a mirror until she can learn to act like a daughter. In the mirror, Coraline meets the three ghosts of the previous children, one indeed being Wybie’s great aunt. Coraline them makes a pledge to find their eyes and free them for good.
Wybie rescues Coraline from the mirror and she returns to the real world to find her real parents have gone missing. She returns to the Other World to find that her delightful Other Neighbors are just pawns of the Other Mother. I don’t want to give too much away, but she’s required to perform a series of tasks to find the eyes, release her parents, and the other children. You’ll just have to watch that part for yourself!
I love how creepy it was! At the end, I was completely on the edge of my seat. It was fantastic! And so well made. Directed by Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach, Nightmare Before Christmas) this movie definitely takes on a Burton-esque vibe, which I am all about. Selick really does bring Gaiman’s imagination to the screen in a 3D whirlwind of whimsy and splendor. It’s a beautifully formed modern movie with a good old-fashioned tale of a background. Stunning to look at and a pleasure to watch, this movie is now on the list of my top favorites! A!
Also, if you buy the 3D collector’s edition, you get FOUR PAIRS of 3D glasses, which I thought was pretty sweet. If you’re gonna get this movie, might as well go balls to the wall and get the collector’s edition!
Coraline’s Site
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