My newest obsession is The Big Bang Theory. For any unfortunate souls who have not seen the show, the Wikipedia article for it is here.
My favorite character and newest fictional crush is Sheldon. He’s a brilliant physicist and obsessive sci-fi geek, he’s 6’2 and he has an adorable smile and beautiful eyes. (Which is basically my boyfriend wish list.) However, his brilliance comes at a price. He’s socially awkward, emotionally stunted, and arrogant. (None of these are on my boyfriend list.) But in spite of his less desirable qualities, he still manages to be irresistible.
I think that Sheldon’s appeal is due to both his intelligence and the fact that he’s played by Jim Parsons. Jim is incredibly sweet, charming, and humble. I think his goodness must shine through and soften Sheldon’s disagreeable qualities, allowing him to remain lovable. In my personal opinion, combining Sheldon’s brains with Jim’s sweetness would create the ideal man.
Finally saw the new Star Trek movie! It was an interesting experience…
The casting was excellent, for the most part. I was particularly happy with Karl Urban as McCoy. He captured the spirit of the character very well. He was so much McCoy that it took me forever to realize that it was Eomer from The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t figure it out until I saw the actor’s name in the credits, although it had been bothering me the whole time because I knew I recognized him from somewhere. I also enjoyed Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty.
Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine both looked the part for their characters, with the exception of Chris’s blue eyes. (There were a ridiculous amount of close-up beauty shots of William Shatner’s hazel eyes in TOS.) I even had the occasional Geeky Spock-Fan Squee when it was Zach and not Leonard Nimoy. This is quite impressive since I am a devout Spock Purist. However, the writing kept getting in the way of my truly accepting Zach and Chris as Kirk and Spock. I know it's an alternate universe and all, but I think sometimes they took too much liberty in changing up the characters. Also, to quote Hank Green of YouTube, the movie as a whole wasn’t “quite as cerebral as I generally like Star Trek to be."
The Kirk-McCoy friendship was done very well. I enjoyed every scene they had together. I would have liked to see something more between McCoy and Spock, though, since they have such an interesting relationship in TOS.
The Kirk-Spock relationship was a huge disappointment for me. It’s not that I don’t approve of them starting out as rivals, it’s just that I don’t think the resolution was satisfying. The only part of the movie that hinted at the depth of their friendship was in Spock Prime's dialogue. Kirk’s friendship with Spock is deeper even than his relationship with McCoy, but the movie didn’t lay the foundation for it nearly as well.
Spock/Uhura. Spock/Uhura??? Ok, who let the crazy shippers get hold of the script? There isn’t even the slightest hint at Spock/Uhura in all of TOS or the movies. This is on the same level as the whole Susan/Caspian nonsense. It seriously felt like a Spock/Uhura shipper stole the script and added in those scenes. I understand that they did it as a way to show Spock’s humanity and blah blah blah, but I’m sorry, it was stupid and out of character.
Speaking of Uhura, I’m glad she got more to do than in TOS and how they showed that she really is intelligent and not just a “glorified secretary.” (Quoting Hank Green again.) I thought that Zoe Saldana did a wonderful job, although I had to get used to how thin she was since I’m used to Uhura being played by the much more curvaceous Nichelle Nichols. My only real problem with her character was the whole Spock thing. Uhura never struck me as the type to be interested in Spock in the show or movies. Maybe they should have spent more time showing that the deep, lifelong friendship between Kirk and Spock transcends even alternate timelines rather than cooking up a contrived romance for Spock.
All in all, I would have to say that it was a very well-made, enjoyable movie. There were a lot of things that bothered me as a fan, but I'm still going to want to buy it.
(Added later:) Oh man. I can feel the Quinto-Spock fangirliness rising. I’m not really sure why. I guess he still managed to be deliciously nerdy in spite of the objections I mentioned.
The Torkelsons was one of my favorite shows as a kid, and Dorothy Jane was one of my heroes. I still consider her to be one of my favorite fictional characters. The Torkelsons was a fantastic show. It was funny, touching, and even profound. One of its most insightful moments was Dorothy Jane's opening monologue in episode 9, "Return to Sender." You won't find this kind of speech on TV any more. It's very beautiful and I encourage you to read it. You can also watch the clip below.
"Man in the moon, there was a point of discussion at our dinner table tonight about why I talk to you all the time and if I am insane to do so. My brother Steven Floyd was the leading proponent of the lunatic scenario, but my little sister Mary Sue understood completely, having frequently engaged in conversations with her doll Martha Lou and her other assorted imaginary friends. My younger brother Chuckie Lee defended me with no good reason because he has always taken my side and he has always loved me.
But my remaining sister Ruth Ann Torkelson, who has never before exhibited any flash of recognizable brilliance, tonight stopped the conversation cold when she said that my talking to you was actually prayer, and that I sit in my window and talk to God using the man in the moon as a front.
Well, after giving this very careful consideration, it scares me to think that I could have so casual a relationship with God as I do with you. Because when I do consciously pray I'm always a little bit more formal, which I'm not when I tell you my feelings. But if God is so inclined to listen in because he knows I'm actually trying to pray to him, then I hope he will forgive me for being so foolish as to not realize who I'm talking to.
Like most girls, I have a thing for men who can sing. I love finding out that actors I like are also fantastic singers. Here are a few of my favorite actors/singers.
1. Anthony Stewart Head He played Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm the kind of girl who doesn't even get involved in the Angel vs. Spike war, because of course the librarian is hotter than either of them! The musical episode of Buffy shows that not only is Giles the most attractive, he also has the best singing voice.
2. Matthew Broderick When I saw Inspector Gadget in the theater in 1999, I had no idea who Matthew Broderick was. What I did know was that those were the sweetest brown eyes I had ever seen in all my 12 years of life. I was the only little girl I knew who had a crush on Inspector Gadget. It was because of this that I discovered Ferris Bueller's Day Off and one of my favorite movies, War Games. Of course I was thrilled when The Producers came out and I discovered just how well he can sing. (I never did see his version of The Music Man for some reason.)
3. Ewan McGregor Ewan McGregor is a "bad boy" type. I don't like bad boys, generally. However, I do like bright eyes, infectious grins, and beautiful voices. Ewan McGregor has all of these. He is also the only good reason to watch Star Wars Episode I again, and that's saying something. (Ok, so Liam Neeson is another good reason...) He's also rather breathtaking in Moulin Rouge.
4. James Marsden This one is a new discovery for me. I first saw him in X-Men and thought he was very handsome, but didn't really think anything of him beyond that. That's not very surprising, though, since he didn't do a whole lot. But then I found out that he has a fantastic singing voice. And now? Well, he just looks that much more handsome.
I was inspired to do this by DeeDee Baldwin's wonderful Austenbook! And as she pointed out, the news feed should actually go in reverse, but this makes for easier reading.
Here is my review of the new Harry Potter trailer for The Half-Blood Prince. The trailer is embedded at the end of this post, or you can download a high-quality version here.
My overall reaction to the trailer was extremely positive. (Unlike my reaction to the new Star Trek trailer, but that‘s a different story.) However, the very first line spoken by Harry was pretty ridiculous. Dumbledore says, “You are, of course, wondering why I brought you here tonight.” Harry replies, “Actually, sir, after all these years I just sort of go with it.” What? Where did that come from? Yes, I realize it’s an attempt at humor, but I really don’t think it was in-character at all. Harry would never say that.
Next we see Harry and DumbledoreApparate, although the next scene that they show is clearly out of order because we see Dumbledore leaning on Harry after Harry had Apparated the two of them back to Hogwarts. (Though technically they should have gone to Hogsmeade first, but I understand they cut it for time.)
Professor Slughornisn’t quite what I imagined, but I still think that Jim Broadbent was a great choice and I’m sure he’ll do very well. In the scene in his classroom we see Hermione’s hair looking very different from the previous movies. At first I thought, “What, are they finally making her hair bushy? Isn’t it a bit late for that now?” Later we see her with normal hair again, so maybe it was just the steam from the cauldron making her hair frizzier. Who knows.
Next is the scene where Ron is head-over-heels for Romilda Vane because of the love potion. Of course all the Rupert (Ron) fangirls think he was brilliant in this scene, but I’ve heard that some people found it kind of dumb. I personally enjoyed the dialogue and thought the delivery and timing were pretty spot-on. So I definitely didn’t think the scene was dumb, but unfortunately I can’t say that I find either Rupert or Dan (Harry) to be “brilliant.”
Next we see Luna in her spectrespecs. Ok, so the effects for the spectrespecs was slightly cheesy, but I didn’t really care because I absolutely adore Luna. I’m tempted to call Evanna Lynch brilliant for her flawless portrayal, but if you’ve seen any interviews with her you know that she practically is Luna, so I’m not sure how much actual acting is involved.
Ok, what is it with all the head-smacking in these movies? Last time it was Snape smacking Ron and Harry, and now we have Hermione smacking Harry with what appears to be a folded-up newspaper page. I am personally at a loss to know why the filmmakers are apparently obsessed with this form of comedy, but oh well. I thought Harry’s response to the smack made a much more amusing moment than the smack itself.
The most amusing (not in a good way) scene of the trailer is a short clip of Hermione crying, wearing what looks exactly like a Gryffindor fan t-shirt that you could buy online. Seriously. It doesn’t look anything like what you would ever see a Hogwarts student wearing. It looks like a freaking fan shirt. Is this a ploy to sell more merchandise? I think so.
I’m really interested to know how they handle the whole Harry/Ginny thing, since we get basically zero lead-in in any of the previous movies. It’s only in the last one that they figured out they needed to give her more screen time. Hopefully they’ll get it right.
The island in the cave with the Inferi does not look like I expected. Rather more treacherous with all the crystal-looking things sticking up all over the place. Still, I have confidence that it’s going to be an amazing scene. Just thinking about it makes me want to go re-read the book.
In fact, the whole trailer makes me want to go re-read the book, and I’m taking that as a very good sign. It means that so far it looks like they’re going to properly capture the spirit of it, which is really all I can ask at this point.
I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but I had a long discussion with the guy sitting next to me at work about religion. I work as a video game tester, so there is just row after row of people testing games, and conversations aren’t exactly private. The guy I was talking to is interested in learning about different religions, but doesn’t know which one he wants to follow.
I thought it was really cool that we had this big long public discussion where I was able to talk about why Christianity is different from all other religions, some of the reasons why we can know it’s true, and various theological points that he had questions about. Apparently he’s had a lot of negative encounters with Christians, such as judgmental and condemning churches and people whose whole explanation as to why they believed in Jesus was “because I do” or “because I was raised with it.”
I was able to hold my own quite well during the conversation and came up with intelligent responses to his questions. I think I was able to provide him with a really positive example of a Christian who knows what they believe and why they believe it.
It was a really wonderful experience to be able to be an ambassador for Christ like that. God has really been preparing me for this situation and hopefully similar situations in the future. Being used as a witness for God has given me even more of a hunger for his word, and I’m going to continue to pray that he will use me to accomplish his will.
I went to my first Harvest Crusade today! It was wonderful! It's late right now and I'm tired, so instead of trying to write a full report, I'll just make a few random observations.
1. Greg Laurie is awesome. 2. Leeland's "Tears of the Saints" is beautiful and never fails to make me teary. 3. I really need to get a Marty Goetz CD.
On to the pictures!
Waiting in line.
In the stadium with David's mom.
Pastor Greg speaking.
The best part: 3,704 people came forward to accept Jesus tonight! (The total for all three nights is 11,084!)
I used to see Jesus and what (relatively) little I knew of the Bible through the filter of my own experience and culture without even knowing it. It would never have occurred to me that it might be good to learn about Jewish history and culture. After all, what's the use of that in the here and now, right?
However, at that point my knowledge of God's word was somewhat less than intimate. I had heard sermons all my life and had memorized some verses for Sunday school, but that was basically it. Now I'm only about a month away from finishing my first full reading of the New Testament. (And then I can't wait to get started on the Old Testament!) I like topical messages in church as much as the next person, but it just doesn't replace actually reading the Bible all the way through in order. For me, reading it through makes it less about what I want to get out of a particular passage and more about what the author is really saying. When you're looking at it from this perspective, it becomes obvious that the more you know about the history and culture that the Bible deals with, the deeper your understanding of God's word will be.
In his book The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey says, "Alone of all people in history, [Jesus] had the privilege of choosing where and when to be born, and he chose a pious Jewish family living in a backwater protectorate of a pagan empire. I can no more understand Jesus apart from his Jewishness than I can understand Gandhi apart from his Indianness. I need to go back, way back, and picture Jesus as a first-century Jew with a phylactery on his wrist and Palestinian dust on his sandals."
In addition to the fact that understanding the Jewishness of Jesus will lead me to a better understanding of Jesus himself, my interest in this subject is also inspired by what the Bible says about Gentiles being "grafted in" with the people of Israel to receive God's promise to Abraham and his children.
Romans 11:17 (NLT) "some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—-some of the people of Israel—-have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree."
I like how this site puts it: "The words ‘Grafted In’ memorialize the affirmation of our true identity as a people, Jew and Gentile, securely rooted in the finished work of Yeshua HaMashiach. If you believe in Yeshua, you are Grafted In!"
I even got a new necklace because I'm looking forward to learning more about these things.
It's been a while since I've been a complete and utter spaz in front of someone, but today I managed to pull it off. The question is, do I resign myself to the idea that I'm just a dorky loser, or do I rise up and take it as a challenge to show people that I'm capable of more than what they expect of me?
Right now I'm working on balancing being away from home 13+ hours a day (working and driving to and from work) with still having interests and hobbies. And also cleaning, which is always important. Poor Leora is by herself all the time now.
One thing I am maintaining is my daily Bible study. We always get to work early and David and I both read our daily chapter in the morning. By the end of next month I will have read the entire New Testament for the first time! I'm really excited about that, and I'm also eager to start reading the Old Testament.
Well, it's late and I have to get up super early again tomorrow so I don't have time to write anything thoughtful. This entry was rushed. Like I said, I'm working on balancing. In the meantime, I'll be updating Twitter, which is easy because it doesn't require any thoughtfulness whatsoever. I also replaced my photo slide show with my TwitPic badge, so at least those things should get updated regularly.
It's pretty sad how messy everything gets when I work all week. I leave the house at 6:30 and don't get home until anywhere from 7:30 to 11:00, depending on if there's overtime. Today's project is to clean up. The first thing I tackled is my desk. Check out the before and after pictures.
If for whatever reason the widget isn't working, you can watch the teaser here.
I'm serious, did you watch it? Doesn't it look fantastic!? Joss Whedon is a genius, no question. Even though this isn't online and I haven't purchased it on iTunes yet, I've heard some of the songs. I loved Doogie Howser when I was younger, but I had sort of forgotten about Neil Patrick Harris until this came along. Let me tell you, the man can sing. He is so cool. *fangirlyness*
Edit: Dr. Horrible is available to watch for FREE on Hulu! Go watch it! But don't forget to buy the DVD when it comes out to support the project! For more on why you should care, read this page.
As you can see, my blog has just gotten a makeover! I really wanted the background (the part that's currently gray) to be light pink, but there doesn't seem to be any way to change it. But other than that, I'm really happy with how it looks. Much nicer than before, I think.
I was playing with the settings and it says I can have up to 10 e-mail addresses notified when I make a new post. So if for some reason someone out there is interested in something like that, leave a comment or send me a message with your e-mail and I'll add you to the update list.
Edit: I figured out how to change the background color! You can't do it the normal way, you have to change the template code directly.
Today I passed training for Activision. (It was Vivendi Games, but they just merged with Activision.) Starting Monday, I'll be working full-time, plus overtime when my project gets farther along. At most of my previous jobs I worked between 20-25 hours a week, so this is going to be a big change for me. On top of that, I'll be spending almost 3 hours in the car every day getting there and back, so I'll almost never be home except on the weekend.
But still, it's going to be way better than any customer service job. It's pretty laid back here as long as you're getting your work done. I'm sure time is going to pass much more quickly here than at most of the places I've worked in the past. Plus I'm excited that I have a job where I don't have to wear a uniform.
And the best reason why this is a good thing is: we should finally stop running out of money mid-week!
