grrgoyl

I'm kind of tired today (been working since 5 a.m.) but still feeling the update taskmaster slavering at my heels. So I'm going to pad my words with some pretty pictures.

Tery and I have learned the meaning of "A picture is worth a thousand words" when using our cell phones. Since discovering we could send photos as easily as text messages, we've been letting the pictures speak for themselves.

For instance, the night I was going to see HP and the Goblet of Fire with friends, Tery complained she didn't have anyone to hang out with. I good-naturedly invited her along, to which her response was, "Screw Harry." My reaction looked a little something like this:



And the time I informed her that my sister and I had discussed her hands-free microphone usage (it rubs on her clothing, producing a deafening rustling sound in my ear) and both come to the conclusion that she had to be doing something wrong, her reaction looked a lot like this:



You can just see the long years of suffering and tolerance etched into every tired line of her face. I'm pretty proud of that.

This next picture requires some longer explanation. I'm still fixated on Snarry, and when I reach this level of obsession I find ways to incorporate it into my everyday life. I was idly speculating one day when it occurred to me how like Snape and Harry my two boys are. Not in appearance, but definitely in temperament. Hear me out. Giddy (the sable) is very energetic, playful, affectionate, fearless and extremely fond of ignoring rules and subsequently getting in trouble. This is how he ends up in places like the bottom of the hamper, or behind the washing machine, or in the cutlery drawer, or even once memorably on the top shelf of my closet (he's a climber), all places he certainly is not allowed. Xander (the albino, which is the exact opposite of the color you'd associate with Snape) is more reserved, quiet, doesn't much enjoy being touched, and typically can be seen scowling darkly beneath the furniture, watching Giddy's antics disapprovingly. I know thinking about things like this is gay, but I can't really help it. I believe this picture illustrates their polarity nicely:



See, Giddy prefers being the center of attention whereas Xander likes hanging back a bit. I've petitioned Tery to change Xander's name to Severus (since he doesn't seem especially attached to "Xander" anyway) but as stated earlier, S. names (never mind S.S. names) are anathema to our ferrets, and changing it would almost surely result in his untimely and tragic death within a week. And that would definitely put a big old damper on Christmas.

Finally in this series, I'm throwing in a picture of Nemo, cuz he's just too damn cute not to:



I went to see Chronicles of Narnia yesterday all by myself in the middle of the afternoon. I read the book(s) in elementary school. I don't remember them as well as the 1979 animated version I grew up with. If you've seen that, you've seen this movie (although the effects are much better). It's very faithful to the cartoon, practically a frame-by-frame adaptation (except thankfully leaving out the queer and purely superfluous part with Aslan hopping and flying about after the Stone Table incident). The effects are really well done, but what else do you expect from Weta Workshop, the geniuses behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Particularly the centaurs. Why, back in "my day" (i.e. Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess) the centaur effect was created with guys wearing some kind of furry contraption and shifting restlessly from foot to foot to simulate a horse standing in place (but more often looking more like they just needed to pee really badly) for closeups, and looking like a photoshopped nightmare pasted into scenes as an afterthought by a Tandy computer, grossly out of proportion to their co-stars, in far-away shots.

Tilda Swinton was perfect as the White Witch, being naturally abnormally pale and scary-looking. As for my favorite character I have just two words: Mr. Tumnus.



He was perfect. Adorable. Sweet. Sexy in an innocent, unassuming (unclothed) kind of way. I wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home, but Tery would probably make a fuss.

The movie had its flaws. The plot dragged in a lot of places, even the big exciting battle. I found myself wondering why jaguars fought on the side of good while Siberian tigers were evil. I'm sure this kind of drifting off wasn't what the director intended. Also, I know C.S. Lewis is commonly associated with Christianity (I even studied him in college with regards to this) but the metaphors in the story aren't terribly clear-cut and I feel like it would take too much energy to study them any more intensely now that I can't get college credit. For instance, I feel the whole "innocent willingly being sacrificed in a traitor's stead" should smack of Biblical references, but it doesn't quite fit that neatly. And the White Witch (especially appearing in the Amazonian getup during the battle in this movie) SHOULD represent Paganism, but then Aslan sure has a lot of wild creatures fighting for him as well. Oh, it just gives me a headache.

In summary I don't see this taking off like, say, Harry Potter, even though there were 7 books. I'm not even sure I liked this movie enough to own it forever and ever. I'll have to see what else is around when it's released.

I went straight from this to a rental, White Noise. I got excited when I saw this was about EVPs (electronic voice phenomena), but the only thing scary about this movie was how frightfully stupid it was. Another film with a good premise that ended up tripping over itself at the end and leaving absolutely nothing explained (not to mention a very lame attempt at a last-minute shock which, I kid you not, was only the actress turning her head suddenly for no apparent reason). The 5-minute segment I saw on SciFi's Ghost Hunters when they caught a real EVP was 100 times creepier than this thing. Ugh. I hate being this jaded and hard to scare, I really do.

One last pic, to make velmaneuwirth happy. Tery and I in our younger, happier days:



I was just a wee baby. She totally seduced and corrupted me. Blame her.

Lastly, for ohdeve (because I keep my threats word):

Oh unicorn, my unicorny
You make me warm and kinda horny
Splashing through rainbows and rivers all day
Sweet, sweet unicorn, never go away

I shall now sit back and await the inevitable deluge of comments.