what i think

i sometimes wish there were more hours in a day

Sun, 4 May 2008 10:26:12 -0700

so it’s not like i haven’t thought about blogging. there are some conversations i have (mostly with myself, but some of the time with others) that i really should have recorded and typed in as a blog. and i can’t believe so much time has gone by.

really, i’ve been living. i’ve been experiencing and enjoying life. i haven’t been down in my basement updating this website of mine because i’ve had out-of-town friends to hang out with, poker games to play, wedding ceremonies to attend, spring break roller-skating trips to take my kids to, live shows to catch, quiet time and not-so quiet time to spend with my loving family, spontaneous barbecues to have, birthdays to celebrate, on-site client work to do, parents to entertain, alone time to remember to give myself.

but i know, once in a while i should keep track of it all - the way i feel about the moment, so that i never forget about those good times which will eventually turn into precious memories.

good thing it only cost a dollar to rent

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:59:12 -0700

oh my... i don’t know if i’m more irritated by the movie or in myself, for sitting and watching the whole 133 minutes of it. “across the universe” was supposed to be this beautiful movie filled with beautiful songs by a beautiful band. and it did have those beautiful songs... those beautiful songs we all grew up with. but they should never be turned in to covers. they are great originals from a truly unique band, and they should stay that way. no one else could ever do justice to the magic created by those four young brits we know as the beatles.

the movie wasn’t a complete disaster. i did find myelf intrigued by some parts of it. the colors and cinematography were a vision. and maybe what kept me watching were the sights of jim sturgess (jude) and joe anderson (max). they were pretty good looking! i was really annoyed by the girls in the movie... evan rachel wood (lucy) made me want to puke whenever she’d open her mouth to sing the obvious song for the scene... much less likable was dana fuchs (sadie) - what an awful voice. she sang the one song - “don’t let me down” - and i remember saying to ed, “you know, whenever this song pops up on the ipod, i wanna just take the ipod and throw it at someone?” and all the movie did was put a face to that horrid voice. the only girl i could stand to watch and listen to was t.v. carpio (prudence) - and she had a role as a lesbian, constantly searching for love. it might have been a coincidence that the reason she was my favorite female character was because she only sang about two songs, and her role was very minor.

but enough about the characters. the plot was obvious - with a war base. however, the movie was more like this:
i have an idea! let’s write down all the beatles songs we know!
okay, now let’s make a movie out of all of these songs.
we’ll need about four characters, and then we can just play like connect the dots... but with the songs. you get it?

and the final product? well, it reminded me of a cinematography student’s final thesis. it was like some little rich movie student took the above formula, and made it their final project. and at the end i thought “well that was pretty... pretty much a waste of time!”

two thumbs down from me... way down... and i don’t care if i’m not a critic. in the end i share the same view as the above quoted critic in his last sentence... “I wanted to turn the sound down on them and say rude things.” but what do i know? i’m just irritated.

feel free to leave your comment in the form of a beatles song... hehe...

never said i was a frog person

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:59:12 -0700

trey, sweet trey, decided that for my leapyear birthday i needed a leapfrog. he was right. the little itty bitty frog was so cute... how could anyone resist that for a pet? trey was even considerate enough to supply me with a small jar of food for the little fella. “froggy” (as named by stella) was presented to me at my leapyear dance party.

i’ve never owned a frog before (well besides the ones that used to hang out by the pond when we had one)... i’ve never even owned a fish. i’m not sure why. i’ve only owned one pet (totally considered to be my own) - and that is marley.

okay, so i got froggy on friday night. he was fine. i think he had fun at the party. he even had fun during brunch, when the guys from seattle came over to cook for us. and i fed him the dried bloodworms. he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to eat the whole bunch, but i was told that is common. so the next day (this would be sunday) same thing... i fed him the fish food... he still didn’t seem curious. so i never really knew if froggy ate anything at all. i did notice however, that his water was just a tiny bit cloudy. so i decided to change his water.

now mind you, i have never changed water before. i placed froggy into another bowl, and continued to clean out his bowl with soap and really warm water. and when i put more water into the very clean and sanitary bowl, i put warm water. i just figured froggy would like that. so then i placed froggy back into the bowl with his green pebbles and his fake vine of seaweed and watched him. he looked like he was having seizures, swimming supper fast up and down and left and right. he wouldn’t stop. ed told me to let him get used to the water for a bit, and so i did. a couple hours later, froggy seemed his old self again. just mellow... not really doing anything. a few more hours pass, and i’ve not checked on froggy. ed sees him though. he’s dead. when i walk up to the bowl, i glance at him. he’s floating... upside down. r.i.p. froggy. we tell the kids immediately, and they are fine with it. hmmm...

the next day i give dana a call... to tell her of the sad news, and i tell her that i’m trying to get a hold of trey to let him know. so this is the email that dana sent to trey:

Trey,

Marie already killed her frog. She thinks it's the food we got her.
She wants to talk to you. How was the game????

trey:

Hi, Marie.

Interesting about the food. I have fed my last two DAFs FD Blood worms. This
one has lived for two years now. There may be another explanation. I did
rinse the marbles, tanks, and plastic plant. However, I did it rather
quickly. It may not have been adequate.

Are you going to be around tonight? I can bring one of his brothers by for
you.

T

so anyway, i don’t know if it was the fish food or the change of water... maybe a little bit of both? well, regardless, froggy died on sunday. and trey did end up bringing one of his brothers by... a sister, actually. stella named her amadala (yes, after the star wars queen). i thought the name was perfect. i thought to myslef, “sweet! this frog is a winner. this frog is named after a queen!”

not so. this frog was weird. i would occasionally check it out, and it looked like it was self-destructive. it would beat itself against the green marbles at the bottom of the bowl. i just excused it as playing. but it would do that often. so again, i fed it the fish flakes. and it lived passed the two day mark (the mark that froggy made it to). and i was hopeful. well, on the fourth day, i couldn’t find her. i picked the bowl up and swished the water around, and still, there was no sign of her. and then i looked on the bottom of the bowl. there she was.

amadala had managed to find her way through about seven or eight layers of the green marbles, only to get stuck underneath them. i don’t know how long she had been there, but it was another frog lost... in one week. i really am not a frog person.

needless to say, i am done with frogs. maybe i’ll try goldfish.