Showing posts with label zimmer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zimmer. Show all posts

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Common Ailments of the Average Student (and suggested remedies)

Recreational Insomnia (to be fair, this one was coined by Megan, but I have since thoroughly adopted it).
Symptoms and manifestations: The Recreational Insomniacs may find themselves, as the name suggests, unable to sleep for fear of missing fun. When school requires a sizable chunk of your life, sleep becomes less important than time with friends. The typical symptoms of insomnia (including but not limited to heightened looniness, decreased stability, and increased spontaneity) often become a desirable side effect, resulting in the insomniac being deemed as "more fun," much like being in a state of inebriation. Eventually, not sleeping becomes habit, and the insomniac will be unable to sleep regardless of the circumstances.

Suggested Remedies: Invest in Kevlar, high tech weapons, a loyal domestic servant, a sweet ride, and hire Hans Zimmer to compose a personal theme song for you, following the obvious course of action once said investments have been made. 


Spotlight Mind-blanking Syndrome
Symptoms and Manifestations: This is the effect one experiences when placed in the center of attention with a particular message to convey. The sufferer may prepare exhaustively before the presentation in question, only to instantly forget simple concepts once all attention has been focused onto him or her. Some symptoms include: nausea, sweating, uncontrolled gag reflexes, total memory loss, and verbal incoherency. 

Suggested Remedies: 
-Imbibe copious amounts of alcohol immediately before the dreaded event. (Youtube insists that no version of this clip be embedded, else it would already be here for your convenience)
-Clone yourself, sending said clone to do all the dirty work involved in presentations. *WARNING* Chances of clone retaliation are high. Also, the clone is highly likely to have the same conditions as the host.


Chronic Public Incoherency: 
Symptoms and Manifestations: This disorder is frequently and erroneously associated with Spotlight Mind-blanking Syndrome. The sufferer of this particular disorder is fully aware of what information needs to be presented (thus, there is no memory loss involved), yet is unable to communicate with the audience. The resulting frustration often manifests as gibberish, a regression back to a native language if in a foreign environment, or the frequent misspoken word. 

Suggested Remedies: The same alcohol solution for Spotlight Mind-blanking Syndrome can apply here, provided that the sufferer is careful not to reach the point of slurred speech. Otherwise, the sufferer can sacrifice entertainment in order to focus on being understandable. This often has the affect of ensuring that the audience isn't paying attention anyway. 


Quantum Performance Effect
Symptoms and Manifestations: This is less of a disorder, and more of a natural phenomenon that occurs when an individual's performance suddenly increases when being observed by an authority. The name is derived by a common notion in quantum mechanics, stating that a particle's behavior will change due to the influence of observation. In much the same way, a sub-par teacher or employee may suddenly acquire skills and discipline that were previously nonexistent, merely because of the addition of a third-party observer. The observer must, however, carry with him the threat of unemployment, or else the phenomenon does not occur.
This phenomenon extends beyond work performance, as can be seen here. 

Suggested Remedies: You can't remedy a phenomenon. Third party observers with no authority may acquire entertainment at the Quantum Performer's expense by periodically declaring that the boss has suddenly arrived. 

Sunday, January 30, 2011

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*

Saturday, January 15, 2011

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!