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Date-Based Archive Bucketfuls of Kitsch & A Merry Christmas to All!

Two family Christmas gatherings later and N. is still alive. I keep telling him that after tomorrow morning it will all be over, but I’m not sure he believes me. He hates Christmas, and he hates getting gifts. However, so far my relatives have given him surprisingly restrained and practical gifts, like a tasteful jogging suit, socks, and a handy desk-reference book.

N. was freaking out a bit at my aunt’s house, though, which was decorated to the hilt with some cheesy Midwestern Christmas decorations, including a knee-high sculpture of half-a-dozen Santas climbing out of a giant stocking.

Mercifully, only two of my aunts were at that gathering, and they gave each other the kitschiest gifts, which they seemed to really enjoy. A bunch of my cousins (six of a possible 15) were at that one, and I was surprised to find that the hyper (and possibly crazy) 9-year-olds I remembered had all turned into (relatively) calm high-schoolers or college students.

Last night we went to my mom’s side of the family to have our traditional gift exchange and dinner. This was preceded by a weird bought of family photos, wherein I discovered that the girl who lived down the road from me who used to be my best friend in preschool now has a small child of her own. That girl did get married during college, and she is a year older than me, but still! Scary scary! My best friend from high school is getting married next year (Jen) and another friend (Robin) has a kid, and Troy and Lauren got married… what’s up with people getting married and having kids? When did everyone decide to grow up?

In my continued efforts to act like a kid, I intend to do what I have always done on Christmas Eve, which is this: Wake up extremely early (around 5am, down from 3:30am when I was 10), sneak downstairs and examine the gifts, but refrain from opening them as per our family rule, then fall asleep while watching a Doctor Who episode with my brother and wake up when our parents get up, and then, and only then, open our gifts. We all take turns opening them, too. This slows the process, as in recent years our gifts are fewer but more expensive things.

All of this freaks the hell out of N., of course. Maybe he can sleep through most of it.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Posted by erin at 01:21 PM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive Trilogy Tuesday & ROTK

As I said I would, I went to see Trilogy Tuesday with N. at a theater in New Brunswick. There were several surprises:

1. My butt did not hurt. I guess the movies are just that good, and I am used to sitting down all day.

2. They gave out a prize-thing for everyone in the audience for being so hardcore. We all got these little plaques with a frame from each of the three movies inside. Everyone in the audience also received bookmarks (mine has Denathor) and mini-posters.

3. There were frat boys there. Only a few, granted, but you can imagine my surprise at seeing square-jawed fellows in fraternity T-shirts in the audience. This begs the question; shouldn’t they be beating themselves up for being such big dorks?

4. ROTK started at 10:00pm, so I got to see it before most of you (maniacal laughter, etc.)

The theater itself turned out to be a short ride from the train station via taxi, and there were a surprising number of taxis (more than one). The theater was, unfortunately, on a highway, and there were no restaurants nearby, save a barbeque place which offered a buffet that they catered in theater. N. and I had brought sandwiches and some food, but even though N. was very hungry, the barbeque seemed inedible…

On the way back we ran into two friend Hunter college boys who were also heading back for New York. The problem that faced us was that the last train from New Brunswick left at 1:15am, and the next was not until 4:15. Our movie let out around 2:00, so we ended up killing time at a restaurant near the train station that closed at 3:00am. Then we waiting on the cold platform (the waiting area was closed, you NJ Transit bastards) until 4:15.

Overall, our adventure in New Brunswick went over surprisingly well, practically without a hitch. We got there a little late than we’d hoped (10:00am), but we got good seats, behind a railing where we could put our feet up (which was ideal).

The crowd was not nearly as dorky as I would have hoped. There were only two or three people in mediocre costumes. However, a couple of women had built a chocolate Shelob of impressive size, and were giving it away before the final film. And there was one girl with a T-shirt that looked like the album cover of “Never Mind the Bullocks” but it read, “Never Mind the Balrogs,” which seemed homemade and was fairly impressive.

As for the movies themselves… the extended edition of Two Towers had valuable scenes that I can’t believe they cut for the original release. Many of the additional scenes in Fellowship I could understand why they cut, but almost all of the additional scenes in Two Towers were important background information.

Return of the King was an absolute delight. N. remarked that he’d been waiting seven years to see the film, and as no fewer than nine trailers rolled by at the beginning the audience yelled a lot in outrage, and then recanted with cheers if it was a trailer for something they were interested in, like Spiderman 2 (Dr. Octopus… well… now I might have to see it).

The crowd hooted and cheered and clapped at appropriate moments, but when Eowyn lops the head of the Nazgul, that’s when the audience cheered the loudest. It was such a wonderful moment that I’d like to watch that scene on repeat on DVD.

I really have to say that these movies are pushing the Star Wars trilogy down on my Top Ten Favorite Movies of All Time List. That’s really saying something… but the LOTR trilogy has better acting, more heart, and a more epic story. I’m sure that over the years I’ll watch these movies again and again and again. This is not to say that the films don’t have flaws…

In particular the multiple-fade-out endings of ROTK were troublesome. There were some shots that were troublesome, the occasional odd line, and some bad acting on Arwen’s part in particular, but in the end… in the end the good outweighs the faults.

Posted by erin at 04:31 PM | Comments (1)

Date-Based Archive So I haven't posted in a week...

Riiiight. You're all expecting a Return of the King post, I'm sure, and I'll get to that later.

In the meantime I should like to say that Jeremiah threw a good Christmas party and I had a lot of fun building a candy house at KL's on Monday.

Tom read my comic, but it's weird because: 1. He didn't mention to me that he'd read it. (He said something to Alison) 2. Maybe he found out about it through Alison's livejournal which would mean he's: 3. Reading Alison's LJ, or: 4. He's READING THIS BLOG!! Which is kind of weird... I mean weird he'd never mentioned it. It would also mean: 5. SOMEONE FAMOUS IS READING THIS BLOG.

Posted by erin at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)

Date-Based Archive My Craptastic Comic

In the month of November, I drew a bunch of crappy comics. Many are about work, some are about our D&D game. Click the image to read 'em.

(Special thanks to Alison for making the html.)

Posted by erin at 05:13 PM | Comments (10)

Date-Based Archive The Last Samurai

Me: The pain of this film is too much to bear. The director should commit seppuku.

N.: No, he can't, because he can't find his wakazashi under his GIANT PILE OF MONEY.

Posted by erin at 11:16 AM | Comments (11)

Date-Based Archive So much for pathos!

The party I had to work at on Sunday was in Park Slope, in a very nice apartment befitting of the Park Slope demographic, attended by many people who were probably very nice, however, all of these people were either 10 years older than me or else 20 years younger.

It turns out I don’t really have much in common with the thirty-something parents of young children. I don’t have much in common with 4-year-olds, either, but at least some 4-year-olds tried to talk to me.

So when I wasn’t answering the door or moving coats to the bedroom or eating, I hid in the room with the books and looked at their library – much of which was science fiction. Maybe I could’ve stared some conversation based on that…

…but no, because it turns out the parents of young children and childless couples who are expecting mostly talk about parenting and their kids with other parents.

The kind of parties I’m used to attending are ones where there’s a lot of non-parenting talk, and a lot of drinking too much (or not at all) and staying up very late and discussing movies in terrific detail. This party had none of that. It even wrapped up early so kids could go to bed.

Matters were made worse since the only people I new there were my bosses.

Gah.

Posted by erin at 04:39 PM | Comments (2)

Date-Based Archive WOOOTTT!!!!!1 Got a job!

Hooray!! I was getting all worried because I had told Curious I’d be here into January… I figured that’s when they get new interns, and likewise, I could get an internship somewhere else around that time.

I really like the company though, and I was getting really sad about having to leave...

I knew they didn’t have any job openings here either… I knew I was making a good impression and that they’d hire me if they could, but there just wasn’t anything left in the budget...

But! But today offered to hire me as a part-time employee!!

Huzzah!

My pay only sort of goes up – I’ll work two days a week for what I’m getting now for the whole week. And there are no benefits…

But whatever! It’s an actual job! And it means I did well enough here that they like me and want to keep me around! Hooray! Best of all… this means I actually work on a cartoon show! I’m not just an intern anymore!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I am extremely happy about this.

(Dance of joy)

Posted by erin at 04:04 PM | Comments (6)