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Below are the most recent 24 friends' journal entries.

    Thursday, December 17th, 2009
    rollick
         		1:32p
    Best Of Film 2009: The Unilateral Edition
     Today The A.V. Club posted its consensus list of the best films of 2009, though as always, "consensus" is pretty shaky when you're working with such a small group of people with such strong, divergent opinions — for instance, everyone else had the Coen brothers' A Serious Man on their best-of lists, while I wrote it up as Most Overrated Movie Of The Year. (To be fair, Nathan wrote up my No. 1 movie of the year as HIS Most Overrated choice. This is typical of what goes on behind the scenes.)

    Frankly, we get to a point with the consensus list where two out of five writers strongly liking a film is enough to put it on our "group" best-of list, which is frustrating to me when I either actively disliked that film (A Serious Man), felt pretty indifferent to it (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Humpday) or, sadly, didn't manage to see it. (Still Walking, Summer Hours.) Not to mention when one of my favorite films (Moon) was something only one other person on staff saw. And I think I'm the only one who saw Ponyo. But that's the nature of the beast. It's all just grist for discussion anyway.

    So for the sake of that discussion, and because I had to come up with it for voting purposes anyway, here's my top 20 of the year so far. (This still feels wildly incomplete, given that I have at least a dozen films at home that I feel I still need to see to properly round out 2009, and there are a handful of others, like Lorna's Silence, for which we didn't get screeners, and there's no word on a DVD release. So… this may change over time, but here it is at the moment.

    1. Where The Wild Things Are
    2. The Hurt Locker
    3. District 9
    4. Ponyo
    5. The Informant!
    6. The Brothers Bloom
    7. Julia
    8. Coraline
    9. Big Fan
    10. Moon
    11. Up
    12. Inglorious Basterds
    13. An Education
    14. Sugar
    15. A Single Man
    16. Duplicity
    17. The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
    18. Thirst
    19. Antichrist
    20. Up In The Air

    Current Mood: busy
    onda_bianca
         		12:00p
    LJ Idol Week 8: Reprobate
     I killed Rosa Parks. It was unintentional, of course, filled with regret and remorse. Involuntary manslaughter, they would say. Except my jury doesn’t know the word involuntary and even the judge thinks manslaughter is a bit too grim. Still they asked, “what stanks?” My response was quite frank. Putrid perfume powdered a path across my second grade classroom. The source being a dumped lump of skeletal remains clothed in scantily scaled skin. “Rosa.”

    She was an albino leopard gecko acquired just two years prior with the intention of revolutionizing second grade, one cricket at a time. You see, my kids were coming home to mommas on drugs surrounded by thugs while their Daddy’s latest altercation led to his incarceration. They wrestled out back while the grownups smoked crack, ate Cheetos for dinner and grew a bit thinner. The reptile wasn’t going to change their world forever; however it made another day worthwhile.

    They kept her habitat tidy and shipshapped, filled her water daily and provided a full-course cricket buffet. They voted on her name. Rosa Parks, Soulja Boy, or Lil Wayne. I reminded my class that we had a lady lizard while praising Jesus that our new gecko wasn’t about to “supersoak that ho.”

    Breaks were rough. While dusting live crickets with sprinkles of calcium supplements to feed to a reptile named Rosa was enticing for an eight year old, it just wasn’t my thing. Each day of vacation resulted in squeaks, squirms, and jeebies filled with heebies. When fall break approached this year, I thought it would be okay to throw in some extra crickets before leaving her to the comforts of an empty school building.

    I was wrong.

    She suffered from starvation to the point of no salvation. Despite her famishment, Rosa refused all food and endured a dreadfully dawdling and debilitating death. She was wrecked with neglect and no one is to blame but myself. I’m pretty sure I’m going to Hell for it too.
    Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
    rollick
         		11:11p
    Giger comes to Cancun breakfast
     Still no time to talk about Cancun, given that I'm still sorting through pictures, and we're trying to get three issues of the paper to print simultaneously at work, and I barely have time to think coherently. But while sorting pictures, I came across this set, and I just have to ask.

    See, our resort was all-inclusive, with meals provided, and we could go to any of a number of different mini-restaurants on the grounds: Thai, Mediterranean, Italian, sushi, Brazilian steakhouse, or "international buffet." The buffets weren't that great, but they always had a wide variety of tropical fruit, including stuff I'd never seen before, like guava and some kind of incredibly bright scarlet cactus. Also, one day at breakfast there was a huge pile of these:



    Granted, they didn't look very appealing, given that they were all spotty and a little shriveled, and vaguely dried-out and crunchy to the touch. But hey, I liked the guava and the cactus, and I'm generally eager to try new things, so I took one of these back to our table.

    ( Then when I cracked it open, there was a horrible slimy Giger-esque facehugger thing inside. What the hell is this? )

    Does anyone have any idea what this fruit is called? That slimy alienbaby thing was actually kind of tasty — Cass thought I was crazy for putting any of it in my mouth, but I figured I'd opened it, I had to eat some of it. The liquid was very sweet, like pear syrup, and the seeds were crunchy and very mildly nutty, like toasted pumpkin seeds. If I was trapped on a desert island with nothing to eat but alienfruit, I'd probably survive. But I couldn't bring myself to eat the whole thing. And I didn't even try with the rind, which was extremely dry and bumpy, kind of like the inside of a dried-out orange rind. What do you think? Were these things meant to be eaten, or was I chewing on a centerpiece and wondering why it tasted funny?

    Current Mood: curious
    Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
    serafina20
         		10:15p
    rollick
         		12:58p
    Breaking radio silence
     Haven't been on LJ lately: I spent four days in NYC without Internet, then a day and a half back at home scrambling to catch up, then four days in Cancun without Internet, just getting back at 2 a.m. yesterday. There's so much I want to say about both trips, but I lack time or focus.

    Much easier to describe: The scene on the train last night as I went to meet Chris for dinner. My book throughout the whole Cancun trip was Stephen King's Under The Dome, a 1074-page hardcover monster that I didn't much like at first, but that eventually caught me. I wanted to finish the book and hand it off to Chris at dinner, and besides, it got extremely tense at the end. So I was reading quickly and intently, and I finished the last page as I was pulling into my stop. And then I closed it, and put it into my bag and looked up — into the faces of an elderly gentleman and lady, who were both grinning at me with great amusement from the seat across from me. He said "Well! It must have been good! What's it about? I want the Reader's Digest version!"

    For some reason, what registered in that moment was the Reader's Digest crack, and I assumed he was laughing about the length of the book, and how he didn't want to invest the necessary time in it. And the train doors were already open, so I smiled back and said "It's the new Stephen King, it's about a bunch of people trapped under a giant magical bubble. There's probably going to be a TV version, so you can get the easy version that way." Then we all shared a friendly chuckle and I stepped off the train and they pulled away.

    Thirty seconds later, the penny dropped — the fact that they'd both been kinda staring and laughing at me when I looked up, the "Well! It must have been good!" They'd been sitting there watching me zooming through pages, with who knows what kind of bug-eyed intent look on my face. Apparently it was entertaining. And embarrassing. I kinda giggled uncomfortably all the way to dinner.

    Current Mood: blushy
    Monday, December 14th, 2009
    dragonrider7
         		8:47a
    the year in review. Post the first sentence of your first entry of each month in 2009. I like this; it's good to look back and assess your past year in terms of what you've been saying and doing.


    Jan: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.

    Feb: [Skipping a meme] hehehehe.

    Mar: I feel about an inch tall tonight.

    Apr: FUCK OFF you paranoid dumbasses. [RE: Swine Flu]

    May: I have no right to be this miserable.

    Jun: I have had a rubbish day.

    Jul: Contemplating shutting down this journal.

    Aug: These past two weeks have been a time of introspection and gentle exploration.

    Sep: Going out saturday night and I have pretty much NO IDEA what to wear.

    Oct: When is this shit going to stop hurting?

    Nov: Note To Self: October 5th, so tomorrow makes 5 weeks.

    Dec: [Meme]

    This is pretty much what I expected.. whinging left and right. Because I never use this journal anymore.
    onda_bianca
         		12:05a
    It's like...whatever.
     No, I won't call Rid-A-Pest. Besides, just who do you think you are, Lil' Miss? Sitting around and chillin' all day on a fancy footstool...eatin' cottage cheese of all things! Really now, who does that? Are you serious? Bitch, please.
    Saturday, December 12th, 2009
    serafina20
         		8:18p
    serafina20
         		11:26a
    Friday, December 11th, 2009
    serafina20
         		5:49p
    dragonrider7
         		8:04p
    My Fine Is 525.60 (woo!)
     Just read the "offenses" and if you've done it, you owe that fine. Keep going until you've read each "offense" and added up your total fine.

    When you are done post this as "My fine is $........"

    You don't have to confess your answers, just the amount of your fine.

    Offenses:
    Smoked pot -- $10
    Did acid -- $5
    Ever had sex at church -- $25
    Woke up in the morning and did not know the person who was next to you -- $40
    Had sex with someone on MySpace -- $25
    Had sex for money -- $100
    Ever had sex with a Puerto Rican -- $20
    Vandalized something -- $20
    Had sex on your parents' bed -- $10
    Beat up someone -- $20
    Been jumped -- $10
    Cross dressed -- $10
    Given money to stripper -- $25
    Been in love with a stripper -- $20
    Kissed someone who's name you didn't know -- $0.10
    Hit on some one of the same sex while at work -- $15
    Ever drive and drank -- $20
    Ever got drunk at work, or went to work while still drunk -- $50
    Used toys while having sex -- $30
    Got drunk, passed out and don't remember the night before -- $20
    Went skinny dipping -- $5
    Had sex in a pool -- $20
    Kissed someone of the same sex -- $10
    Had sex with someone of the same sex -- $20
    Cheated on your significant other -- $10
    Masturbated -- $10
    Cheated on your significant other with their relative or close friend -- $20
    Done oral -- $5
    Got oral -- $5
    Done / got oral in a car while it was moving -- $25
    Stole something -- $10
    Had sex with someone in jail -- $25
    Made a nasty home video -- $15
    Had a threesome -- $50
    Had sex in the wild -- $20
    Been in the same room while someone was having sex --$25
    Stole something worth over more than a hundred dollars-- $20
    Had sex with someone 10 years older -- $20
    Had sex with someone under 21 and you are over 27 --$25
    Been in love with two people or more at the same time-- $50
    Said you love someone but didn't mean it -- $25
    Went streaking -- $5
    Went streaking in broad daylight -- $15
    Been arrested -- $5
    Spent time in jail -- $15
    Peed in the pool -- $0.50
    Played spin the bottle -- $5
    Done something you regret -- $20
    Had sex with your best friend -- $20
    Had sex with someone you work with at work -- $25
    Had anal sex -- $80
    Lied to your mate -- $5
    Lied to your mate about the sex being good -- $25

    Tally it up and Title it..."My Fine Is..." copy and paste, then repost it in your journal too.
    Thursday, December 10th, 2009
    serafina20
         		7:05p
    serafina20
         		4:17p
    onda_bianca
         		12:06a
    Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
    serafina20
         		7:30p
    Monday, December 7th, 2009
    serafina20
         		9:22p
    serafina20
         		6:29p
    serafina20
         		5:46p
    Sunday, December 6th, 2009
    serafina20
         		8:33p
    serafina20
         		4:42p
    Friday, December 4th, 2009
    serafina20
         		11:01p
    serafina20
         		9:45p
    serafina20
         		5:08p
    rollick
         		2:15p
    I like a man with high self-esteem
     Editor Genevieve: Hey, is there a screener copy of Invictus in the office?

    Editor Josh: Psshhh. Are you really going to watch that?

    Genevieve: Why not? It's just what I want for the weekend.

    Josh: Oh, it's just that I don't want to see it, and my opinion is more important than anyone else's.

    Me: In that case, shouldn't you be writing more reviews for us?

    Josh: What, and blow the roof off the world of reviewing? I would like SOME of all the other writers in the world to be able to keep their jobs.



    Frankly, it's surprising that there hasn't been more goofery in the office lately. We're all kind of grim and punchy at the same time, from consistently trying to do two issues at a time first for the Thanksgiving holidays, now because so many of us are headed for New York and not coming back until sometime next week, and then with Christmas looming in the distance. Add on top of that that there have been roughly four screenings a day all week, and our schedules are all out of whack. Some of those screenings are for movies some of us have already seen, or have screeners of, or know aren't best-of-year contenders, so we aren't all in theaters ALL the time. But for instance, on Wednesday, I spent an eight-hour work day (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) in screening rooms, then went home and tried to get a day's worth of work done in the evening. We're far ahead of where we normally are at this time of the week — in large part, I think, thanks to heroic organizing and supplemental editing efforts on the part of Mr. My Opinions Are More Important Than Anyone Else's — but still trying to get even more done. Also, I get on the plane for New York in six hours.

    I've got my hotel reservations (thanks, [info]neillparatzo, and thanks to everyone else who made suggestions — The Jane looks like a blast, and we'll have to try that next time we're in town with more warning, at which point they'll hopefully have openings), and I've got reservations for a shuttle into Manhattan from the airport, and I've got a stupidly ambitious list of things I'd like to do, such that hopefully I'll wear myself out during the day and then crash at night with my intimidatingly huge stack of screeners. There are SO MANY MOVIES left to watch, ya'll. I hope you appreciate the things I do for you*.

    * By which I mean not for you at all. Sorry**.

    ** I'm not really sorry. Oops.

    Current Mood: busy
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