This is all that I can think about right now

It's 

to the

and I'm 

and

and so 

because

Happy Easter!

Welcome to Writer's Block. Population: me!

I labored so long and hard over what to write about this week that it suddenly turned into the next week, and I still wasn't sure what to write about. So instead, I'm going to provide you with a supply of amusing videos and whatnot that will kill time, and hopefully make you smile. If they don't accomplish the second thing, then you must not have a soul, and I'm not sure we can be friends...(JK! I <3 guys..most of the time...)

Anyway, this was Google's grand April Fool's prank yesterday, here for your convenience if you hadn't seen it yet:

I'm totally changing my major to "Technomathmagician"


I don't know what this show is, where I can find it, or why Hulu can't show full episodes, but I'm pretty sure it's the best thing in existence right now. Ever. For whatever reason, Hulu's code embedding abilities don't want to agree with me right now, so alas, you must click a little extra. My two currently favorite clips give the rules of house sitting, and show a very elaborate game of hide and seek, which I want to do. So badly. After-party and everything.

And then there's this music video for Coldplay's song "Life in Technicolor ii," which I don't recommend watching if you have some aversion to puppets. Otherwise, it's pretty entertaining:

I just love the puppet stage crew!

And while we're on the subject of music videos, here is one by the always amazing Florence+The Machine. Sadly, it was for the Twilight movie, but that doesn't change the awesome of the song. Video is freaking creepy, though:

Can we be best friends please, Florence?

Anyway, I think that's enough time wasting for now. Go accomplish things! (or, you know, don't, whatever your plans for the day were).

Stuff and.....stuff....

*WARNING* This post may be composed of way less awesome than previous posts have been. For your own safety, lower all expectations now! *END WARNING*

'Sup. As you may or may not have noticed, I didn't post anything last week, my reasoning being that I had given you two posts the week before and you could just deal with my self-proclaimed vacation (well, one post and a half, but still....). Also, the last two weeks were when the Grad School Beast goes on it's bi-semesterly hunt, fattening itself up before it's mini-hibernation during Spring Break. Long story short, I haven't had the time to read, watch, or hear anything new and wonderful to write about, and I've already used up my current stash of potential topics for when I have no topics (yes, it was a pitifully small stash. Shut up). So I said to myself "Self: Spring Break is coming up. You'll finally have some time to sleep and think and get back on all your tracks. Woo!" 

And then Spring Break came along (that's right, it's right now for those of you keeping score at home), and I came to the horrifying realization that I still had nothing to say, mostly due to the same reason stated above, which hadn't yet had a chance to rectify itself. 

So instead, I could just tell you about my Spring Break Adventures in Catsitting. Except that, as mature cats and therefore no longer adorably rambunctious kittens, they don't generally do much but eat and demand to be scratched. Then there's this, which pretty much exactly happened this morning:

except I'm not a dude, the room's not quite that messy, and it was the horrifying sound of something fragile falling from a high place instead of a baseball bat to the face. Same effect though.

-PS- I looked all over the room, and couldn't find anything that looked shattered, so the good news is that nothing seems to be broken. The bad news is apparently I'm hearing things now.

I could also tell you about my new venture into Dungeons and Dragons. It was the "Dragons" part that won me over. And also that I could make a character who was a dragon-person (don't ask, I don't know either), complete with working dragon wings, who radiates dragon magic, breathes dragon fire and is on a quest to learn about dragon heritage type things! DRAGONS! Otherwise, I've learned that D&D in it's entirety is apparently far more complicated than I care to know at the moment (or possibly ever, but definitely at the moment). 

Or I could just continue making blandly lame excuses about why I didn't sit and wrack my brain grapes for a better post idea.

Yeah, I'll go with that last thing. 

So. How 'bout that daylight savings thing again? It keeps happening, just like clockwork..hehhehhehee...

Ok, ok, I'm done. See you next week with what will hopefully be a much more post-like post!

In Response to Birdsong

Dear little songbirds,

Yes, we are all very excited that spring is here, and we can share in your jubilation that you have made it home safely after your winter-long visit down south. We understand that you must have a lot of catching up to do with the neighboring birds whom you haven't seen all winter. However, beyond your trees are windows, and beyond those windows reside various inhabitants who would be very much obliged if you would quell your vocalizations until a more a reasonable hour. Three-thirty in the morning, for example, is not reasonable. You see, we humans tend to associate birdsong with daylight, particularly in the early morning. You could then imagine our confusion when, while sleeping fitfully for fear of waking up late, we are suddenly startled awake in the middle of the night upon hearing your many warbles and believing it to be much later than it is. Therefore, in the interest of everyone's sanity, we hope that we can all come to the agreement that all birdsong should be postponed until dawn is actually breaking. In other words, we would all appreciate it if you would please find it within yourselves to SHUT THE HECK UP!!

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Some Concerned Citizens, otherwise known as "The Humans Contemplating Getting Cats Just to Hunt You Down"

Happy Heart Day!

I found the tool on the blogspot dashboard that shows you where your pageviews are coming from, which is both slightly creepy and wonderfully awesome. I say awesome because I then learned that this blog has been viewed at least twice by people in India, Poland, Germany, and Australia. WORLDWIDE, BABY! Granted, that's probably all from other people doing image searches on some the of the pictures I used in the New Year's post, but hey! That still counts as WORLDWIDE VIEWAGE, BABY!!!

Alright. Celebrations aside, today is technically the all hallowed holiday of chocolate and roses erroneously named after St. Valentine. So here is your obligatory heart:

romantic organ, ain't it?

Somewhere down the line we went from that, to this:

which is infinitely more marketable.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a couple of other awesome things to include this week, but they deserve more time than I can afford this weekend, and you probably have romantic plans to attend to anyway, so hop to it! I'll be back next week for some actual average nerdiness.

*while really tired, reading out a description from some personality test*
Mandi: It also says that you tend towards really flamboyant....
Dayna: Wait...I'M GAY????

Potpourri

You know, like the Jeopardy category that could be about anything and everything? So is this week's post. Also, in case you couldn't tell, the Grad School Beast has finally resurfaced after it's long winter break and snow day hibernation, and it's hungry for some student attention. So the "weekly" posts may become less wonderful as the semester continues, but I'll do what I can!

So! Captain America!

Patriotically smashing into theaters this summer!

Now, granted, I'm not as familiar with the Captain America mythos. All I know is that he was a WWII hero and the first Avenger, so the movie can't really ruin anything for me. The casting all looks pretty good too, Hugo Weaving and Tommy Lee Jones are both set to be in it. But who's going to play the Captain himself?

um, hi. Imma war hero 'n stuff

Now, if he could look more like this for the role:

I could see it better. Rugged looks good on him, makes him look older and whatnot. But military is all about clean-shaven, and Captain America was a military hero, sooo....

iz me again. hai. 

But you may or may not recall the role he already played in a major Marvel franchise:

Yep. Somehow, I feel like playing two major dudes in different Marvel universe films will cause some kind of breach in the Marvel-space-time-continuum. And one more breach would probably just be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back, because the Marvel universe is pretty precarious as it is. 

But enough about that. I have a question for you, internet: Did you see Inception? And if so, did you get it/enjoy it? It was never supposed to make perfect sense, the whole point is for it to be kind of a mind trip that leaves you questioning, but wasn't that the best part? I ask because I had an encounter with some non-nerds the other day. I was a little shocked, as I've somehow imagined the whole world was populated with nerds on some level. Apparently that's not true. Inception came into discussion, and these are just some of the heated complaints that suddenly flew around the room:

"Oh man! I can't believe I wasted my life!"

"It was so boring!"

"I just didn't get it! Why did he keep spinning that thing?"

"I tried watching it, but I just ended up texting the whole time."

I wanted to cry a little. I always thought that even non-nerds could appreciate some nerdy things on some level, why else would Spiderman and Star Wars have been so huge, right? Nope. My faith in humanity was killed a little bit that day. So to feel better, I obsessed over the soundtrack (yeah Hans!), particularly this one:

Quite possibly one of his best tracks ever (and why he didn't win the Globe, but Social Network did, I'll never understand)

Speaking of the Globes, what's up with the Social Network? No, I haven't seen it yet, but did it deserve best film score, best screenplay, best director, and best motion picture-drama? Especially if that meant beating Black Swan and Inception? It didn't even stay in theaters for very long, it acted like it was a bust movie, and now all of a sudden it's expected to win every Oscar it's been nominated for (which is like all of them, apparently)? What happened? 

Me too, baby, me too

Finally, in the world of the Hunger Games movie, Debra Zane has been recruited to be the casting director for the movie. They aren't holding any open casting calls as of right now, if you had high hopes, but they are working on the cast. So far, we just know that Hugh Laurie is unavailable to play Haymitch, which makes me sad. Also, Lionsgate has announced the opening date for the movie: March 23, 2012. Why is this brilliant? You may recall a certain other wonderful movie releasing about the same time last year, How to Train Your Dragon. It works because all the other big young-adult movies of the year like to be released in late summer or November, so now the Hunger Games won't have anything to compete with. Smart Move, Lionsgate, smart move. 

Well, that's all I've got for this week. Tune in next time for some more average nerdiness!

Ashley: "Oh yeah, didn't you notice the lettuce growing on my balcony?"

Britt: "How did it survive the snow?"

Ashley: "It's iceberg."

*and yet, if someone had written that into a sitcom or something, it just would have been corny*

The Post That Will Not Be About Something Medieval, I Promise!

Looking back through some of my posts recently, I realize that I've been on a bit of a medieval kick lately, between the dragons and Robin Hood and King Arthur and even more King Arthur. So it's time to branch back out to that little bit of everything that I'm supposed to be about. But first, I have a single complaint. The Golden Globes come on tomorrow night, right? I looked up the nominees to see what's up. For the most part, all stuff I could expect...but then I got to "Best Original Score." Can anyone tell me why in the name of all that is good and right in the world John Powell was not nominated for How to Train Your Dragon, but Danny Elfman for Alice in Wonderland was??? Granted, I understand what Inception is doing there, Hans Zimmer is da man and all, and I haven't yet seen the others, but geeze! Where's the love for John Powell??

See? You even made baby sad :( 

Ok, the pout-fest is over now. Let's move on. Today is all about anime. Woo! But first, I need you to understand something about me, as a disclaimer of sorts. I will read/watch/listen to almost anything in this nerdy world of ours except for romances. Or rather, anything but modern romances. I'm ok with the old fashioned kind of romances that require sword fights or possibly explosions before the romantic part is possible, ala The Princess Bride or any superhero movie with a love interest. But romance for romance's sake, like The Notebook or anything else that Nicholas Sparks vomits up? Can't stand it. Usually. Exceptions: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre (does that even really count as a romance, in the end? It's an awfully pragmatic conclusion...), Moulin Rouge, and this anime, Kimi Ni Todoke. 

This is about a highschool girl, Sawako, who is generally rather shy, socially awkward, and comes across as gloomy. Because of that, people started calling her Sadako, the creepy girl from The Ring, and believed that she could see ghosts and cause unfortunate things to happen if you stare into her eyes for more than three seconds. Meanwhile, all she wants to do is be able to successfully say hello to her classmates without disappointing all their expectations about her supernatural powers. But she meets Kazehaya, the popular boy in her class, who slowly helps her make some friends and be seen as a good luck charm rather than the school curse.  Ultimately, of course, she begins to understand her feelings towards Kazehaya, deals with some nasty rumors, meets her first romantic rival, and is all the while simply adorable in her naive little way. Youtube didn't have any clips of the episodes, just various versions of the theme song, so here is the full first episode. Watch it!

Their whole little puppy-love-tension thing is just so cute in that chivalry-is-not-actually-dead kind of way. Also, I feel like it clicks with people who ever felt like the outsider for whatever reason. Stop making me try to explain it. When I talk about it, it just sounds like every other romance I've avoided watching, yet it hooks you in a way that all those other movies couldn't. Bottom line, it's kind of adorable, and if I like it, anybody with half a romantic bone in their body would probably devour it. 

But enough with the romance, eh? Frequently when you think of anime, there's something supernatural going on. Or at least, there is when I think of it. So then there's Pandora Hearts, which initially hooked me in with the theme song. 

Pretty much I've listened to this on repeat more often than I'd care to admit...

Pandora Hearts focuses on the young Oz Bezarius, heir to one of the noble houses. On the day of his coming of age ceremony, all Hell pretty much literally breaks loose, and Oz is sentenced to the Abyss. What was his crime? Apparently, his very existence. He escapes by making an illegal pact with a powerful Chain named Alice. The whole show has this twisted Alice in Wonderland thing going on, but with classic animeness (and when you think about the original Alice in Wonderland, you know you can expect something rather trippy). I'm not gonna lie, it has a lot of the "what the crap?" factor going on, yet that's part of the hook; you keep watching it just to see if it all  ever gets explained or make sense. But also, you experience everything through Oz and Alice's perspective; Oz is a pampered and inexperienced kid thrown into an adventure bigger than he is, and Alice supposed to be this powerful thing who can't remember anything about herself other than her name. There's espionage, nobility and secret society power plays, apocalyptic explosions, time travel, and general mind trips. Oh, and also this scene where everybody gets drunk

Yep. That's pretty much it.

Well, I'll stop there with two opposite extremes. Tune in next time for some more average nerdiness!

Robin Hood vs. King Arthur: The Final Showdown (among other things)

Before I get into the second and final round of our legend battle (which I know has been keeping everybody on the edge of their seats!), this needs to be shared with the world, because it's just so darn cute in that cavity-inducing kind of way:

Don't be smiling by the end, I dare you

But if you're one of those that can't handle too much niceness, there's always the world's most disturbing holiday peanut commercial (not a very populated category, but it doesn't change the fact):

Yep. I can now sense demented nutcrackers going for my head when I'm sufficiently sleep deprived.

Also, in the world of the Hunger Games movie, Gary Ross is to be the movie's director. He's the guy that brought us Seabiscuit, but otherwise hasn't really done much of anything. Suzanne Collins seems to like him, which is a good sign, but time shall tell. Now that a director has been chosen, a casting director and subsequently, a cast, is only a matter of time. Here's hoping they don't go with Kristen Stewart. 

Ok, now onto the moment you've all been waiting for (or perhaps not, but here it is anyway): Robin Hood vs King Arthur, Round 2-Movies.

Here's a doozie. Just like there have been crap tons of King Arthur books, both terrible and great, there have been tons of King Arthur movies....mostly just terrible. Robin Hood, on the other hand, has a bit more of a 50/50 chance of getting a decent movie. Let's start with the obvious, the Disney incarnation. King Arthur had the classic Sword in the Stone, which focused on Arthur's childhood and training with Merlin.

It all looks so magical and pretty!

Too bad it's anticlimactic (oh yeah, spoiler alert, I suppose). It's technically based off of TH White's version of the story, including all of Merlin's more magical lessons that required being transformed into various animals that don't have kingdoms or something like that. Of course, Disney being Disney, they took a few....artistic licenses? Hey, everybody else who read The Once and Future King, I have a question:

Do you remember her? No? Me either...

I can only assume she's supposed to be Morgan LeFay or something....oh good lord. Now, granted, I didn't grow up with this one, somehow it slipped under my radar and I didn't think to watch it until a year or so ago, so maybe it just wasn't enough for my inner child. Or maybe it just wasn't that good. But it seems to me that the only part of this movie that really lasted was it's depiction of Merlin. You don't see little Arthur in Kingdom Hearts, do you? No. You know who shows up? Merlin. (It all seems to keep coming back to him, doesn't it?). 

Ok, Robin Hood's turn. This movie I DID grow up with, what with all of it's anthropomorphic animals robbing each other and whatnot.

Oh, the memories!

So, of course Disney had to take some liberties with this one as well, but I feel like it didn't take nearly as many, except for the ending (another spoiler alert, they never actually get married according to a lot of versions. Sorry Robin!). Perhaps the minstrel rooster was unnecessary, but you have to admit those songs were catchy, or am I the only one who can instantly recall the tune to "oo-de-lally oo-de-lally, golly what a day"? 

And maybe I'm just biased towards this movie as opposed to Sword in the Stone, but what the heck, it's my blog and that's my right dangit! I say Robin Hood wins the Disney movie. But what about all those other movies?

Thanks to Mark Twain's book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hollywood has been asking what would happen if various modern day people found themselves in Medieval Camelot. And asking. And asking. And asking some more. We get it, alright? Modern day technology+medieval culture=InstaWizard (just don't let Merlin catch you!). So you know what? I'm just going to skip all those. There were a lot and they were mostly dumb. There was that newest King Arthur movie titles, you guessed it, King Arthur. Remember? That one with Kiera Knightly and some other people? Ok, like a bad nerd, I haven't seen it yet, though it is on my list. Although I have to say that the reviews did not seem astounding, so I have my doubts. 

I already expressed how underwhelmed I was with Russell Crowe's Robin Hood. He's just too darn old and grizzled. 

I feel like that image would work better with a burning skyscraper behind him and a machine gun instead of a bow and arrow in his hands. And also an eye patch. And a lit cigarette in his mouth. So it's not like he's a pansy or unfit for the outlaw role, he just doesn't seem the medieval outlaw type. Therefore the movie was interesting enough in it's own right, what with the political intrigue and sword fights, it just wasn't really a Robin Hood movie. You know what it was missing? A tournament. Robin Hood must win an archery tournament in disguise or else it's just an incomplete movie. And I'm pretty sure this one didn't have a tournament. If it did, it was just THAT uninteresting. 

Then there's the always fantastically awful Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. That's already been demolished in full by the Sugary Cynic, so I suggest you go read it if you haven't already. Or go get a refresher. It's ok, I'll still be here when you get back. Ok, back now? Pretty terrible, right? But it's because of Prince of Thieves that Carey Elwes graced us with Robin Hood: Men in Tights, which is just always entertaining to watch and great for so many reasons, not least of which include Patrick Stewart playing King Richard and a subtle-ish Abbot and Costello reference. 

Ok, So far the movie score is King Arthur: 0, Robin Hood: 2, but we owe our legendary king a few more movie chances. Hey! How about that one, First Knight, starring Sean Connery as King Arthur! You know, because he's Scottish, and Scotland is on the British Islands, so it counts, right?

Oh, right, he's old enough to make me cheer Guenevere on towards Lancelot myself (Sorry Sean, nothing personal, you just needed more roles with leading ladies who didn't look like they could be your daughter...or granddaughter, for pete's sake). Also, most of the costumes looked like bad sci-fi movie leftovers. Just sayin.

Oh hey! Remember that not so great book from round one, that one by Meg Cabot? Well Disney channel made it into a movie! Now, I know what you're thinking. "Hey, her books may be subpar, but they can make a decent movie out of them. Princess Diaries was lovable, right? So maybe it's just one of those things where she translates better onto film than page?" Yeah, probably not. I couldn't bring myself to watch it the first time around, and since Disney doesn't seem to be cramming it down it's viewers throats, it must not have been all that successful. But then, it's just a tv movie, sooooo......

So for the movie round, Robin Hood is the victor! Both have had terrible movies, but at least Robin Hood had some more lovable ones. But wait! With King Arthur winning round 1, Robin Hood winning round 2, it's a tie! That means it's time for

SUDDEN DEATH!

Where we have the two legends face off, mano y mano, one final fight to the death! *cue fanfare and whatnot*

So, who would win in a fight? Robin could pick off Arthur from a distance with his sharp shooting skills, no contest. But that's boring. Robin Hood was supposed to be a expert swordsman as well as marksman, so we'll say that both contestants are limited to steel and steel alone. In this case, as long as Arthur has his magical sword of cheating death in battle (Excalibur, duh), Robin has no chance. But what if this is post-Guenevere/Lancelot affair? Then our brave king has no will or spirit left, so he's dead, sword or no sword. But you know, it's the other characters that make each legend what it is, so let's bring them in too. Arthur had his Knights of the Round Table (minus Lancelot, let's say), all pretty much undefeated in battle, all pretty much walking tin cans (have you seen those suits of armor? What would it take to just push them down a hill?). Robin Hood's Merry Men have speed and stealth on their side (plus Little John's massiveness, Will Scarlet's knife prowess, and Friar Tuck's, you know, Catholic Church) and are infinitely more nimble without all that armor. I'm going to say that if this was the final lineup, Robin Hood would win. BUT! Who's King Arthur's favorite trump card? MERLIN! If he's not trapped in his cave yet. In that case, Robin has no chance. None. It's over. No contest. Unless Morgan LeFay joined Robin for some reason...but that's just ridiculous. 

I guess that means that, with the old sorceror, King Arthur pulls ahead. Without, however, Robin Hood destroys Arthur, most likely with a hand tied behind his back. So if Arthur's victory is dependent solely on Merlin's influence (I mean, all the best Arthur-related stories and movies, and also that one tv show, are only the best because of Merlin), is it really a victory for Arthur, or just for Merlin? Food for thought. 

Ok, I need to sleep, but in the meantime, I'd say this sums most of Arthur's...Arthurness nicely. 

If you'd like to see any other face-off's, do tell, and I'll see what I can dig up. Tune in next time for some more average nerdiness!

Sheldon: "Why did the chicken cross the mobius strip? To get to the same side! Bazinga!" ~Big Bang Theory