My week... (May 3 - May 9)

Am I actually gonna use this blog like I said I was gonna use this blog?

I guess I am.

This past week has been a rough one, and I'm not entirely sure why. It started off fine and was super awesome in the middle, but once Thursday came around I was just super blue.

Guess it's time to stop "forgetting" to take my meds.

So this will get really personal from time to time. I'm okay with sharing, but if you don't want to get that personal with me I would stop reading.

:)

Mondays have been my "take grandma to her appointment" days and let me tell you just how much fun that is. I call her (or she calls me) around 9am to make sure that we are both up. I remind her that her appointment is at 3pm. She tells me she's just going to get ready. Then around noon I get ready and head over to her house and usually find her sitting in her pajamas worrying about some little thing. Usually it's the cats, but this past Monday it was that she was feeling tired. I feed the cats, make a shopping list, and other things. I didn't think we were gonna make her 3pm appointment this week, but somehow we did. She had a list of errands that I had to do while she was in her appointment, so I didn't have to be bored for the hour it take. That was nice. Then we go home and that's it.

Tuesday I mowed the lawn at Grandma's and got a slight sunburn. Then I took our new dog, Rusty, to the vet. For being a free dog, he is turning out to be quite expensive. Heavy matting, hook worm, dirty ears, no RFID chip, Lyme's... just to name a few. But he's the happiest dog I've ever seen.

Wednesday I took my Aunt Peg to RiffTrax: The Room. It was great.

Thursday started great. I had time in the morning to get all my shit in order. I scheduled my month and started working on a budget. Money is something that I've always had a fleeting relationship with. (Please click the ad on the side... I would very much appreciate it.) But since I'm getting everything else in order, I might as well learn to save money.

Then I drove home. There is just something about my house that drains everything out of me. It's hard to explain. I would love to clean the damn place up, but every time I enter the door all motivation drains and I just want to lay on the couch.

Friday started good... I learned how to fill cream puffs and freeze soup at work. That may not sound like anything much, but it is. Then sometime around 2pm I just didn't want to be anymore.

I occasionally get like this. I have talked to people about it. I'm not suicidal, I want to stress that, I just have really low moments and there's nothing I can do about it. So I just veg for a bit and wait for it to pass.

So when Mom got home last night to me just laying on the couch... that was why.

But today was better. I got up early, for no reason, and just went to work. Seriously... I was an hour early. So I took my time getting everything ready for the day. It was nice.

So that was my week. I didn't do much in the way of working on my diet, but I had other things on my mind. I will say that I did hit my ActiveLink base line 6 of 7 days and hit my goal 3 of 7 days, though I was really close 2 other days. And I logged my food this morning. Then again I did have McDonald's breakfast and that's the worst thing in terms of points I could chose to eat. Just something I need to work on.

Laters,
Harper.

I made this!

I've been working with media media collage and stencils.

In other words... I've been arting!!

Here are my latest masterpieces.

I also have a triptych that I'm wishy-washy about showing to people. And I don't have pictures, so I guess I'm not showing them right now either.

Oops...

Anyway, I really like this style. I have two more pieces in my head right now. Putting them on canvas is gonna be the hard part.

Laters,

Harper

You know what I mean?

You know when you are watching a movie and the movie is trying it's hardest to foreshadow something that it's painfully obvious?

The ones where you suddenly care for a character because everything in the movie is telling you that this character will die at the end of it so you better be prepared.

The ones that make this character the most important character in the movie even though he or she may not be all that important.

The ones where you sit through it chewing your thumb because you care about this character and you absolutely will walk out of the theater if you hurt one tiny hair on his or her head.

And then in the end it was all a ruse and some other character dies instead and you feel absolutely nothing for that character.

I kinda hate those movies.

Accidental cosplay

Today I realized something as I was walking to my car from Walmart...

This was my outfit today.

All I need is a raccoon mask and a giant bag with a dollar sign and I'd be the burglar from The Sims.

Oops...

Hello...? Is anyone here...?

Hmm... it seems like this thing still exists.

Well, then... I might as well put it to some use.

I am beginning a journey. A journey that I would like you all to accompany me on.
My journey will officially start tomorrow, but I felt as though I should get the place all tidied up.

But what, you may ask, will I be doing.
Well... I'll be doing a number of things. There may be the occasional movie review post still, but I will also be using this blog as a way to keep myself on track with my goals. I have found that I need some place to log my activities, my weight loss struggles, and really anything else on my mind. So I will use this page as that.

Now that I'm this far into this dribble I should mention that I had a tooth pulled today, so if any of this doesn't make sense it's because my head to whooshy right now.

Anyway, tomorrow will be the beginning of a brand new adventure. I'm glad to share that adventure with all of you.

[insert creative tagline here]
Harper

I've moved!

Come follow me at tumblr. It's so cool and I can post pics, videos, music, quotes, and lots of other things.

http://enigmaharper.tumblr.com

That is all.

Eclipse...

... or why I really, really, really dislike the Twilight books/movies.

I started writing this on June 29, 2010. I mention this because that marked the eve of Eclipse, the latest in a long line of fake vampires and glorified unhealthy relationships. If you are a habitual reader you will know that I am employed at a movie theatre – spelled ‘re’ cause we’re fancy – and as an employee I get to, on occasion, sit in on a midnight showing. I watch for unruly guests, misframes, and any sound issues.

I did that last night…

For Eclipse…

I curse the day these books were written… and the day they were optioned to be movies.

Now some of you may be saying, “Erin, that is quite harsh. Surely, as a movie critic, you don’t mean that.” And I would agree. It is harsh, but having read the so-called books, and seen the movies, I stand by my statement.

Mainly for the following reasons…
1) It makes girls idolize an unhealthy relationship.
2) It bastardizes the mythology of the vampire.
3) It creates an unhealthy level of obsession.
4) I hate cleaning upholstery.

Now I will be elaborating on these points for a bit before reviewing the movie. For those of you who would like to skip my rant, I’ll leave a large gap to indicate when to continue. For the rest, I continue.

A brief word on unhealthy relationships. If you feel as if your partner is controlling your life, you are in an unhealthy relationship. If you think that you have to stay with your partner because he or she might do something drastic if you leave, you are in an unhealthy relationship. If you find that have lost all contact with family and friends because of your partner, you are in an unhealthy relationship. Now I know it may feel like you are the only two people that matter in the world, but if he doesn’t want you to spend time with your family, it’s not healthy. Sorry. This is a bit of a personal matter for me. I know firsthand what an unhealthy relationship is and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. So having a popular series of novels idolize this awful situation hits me hard. Edward is controlling. He may not show it explicitly, but he controls every aspect of their “relationship.” He controls how far they go, he controls what friends she had, and she has no say in anything. Of course it’s not just Edward. Take a look at Bella. Edward can never leave her because she’ll kill herself. That is class A psychosis. She has issues that several prescriptions and a few hours of therapy should be able to help. But living with this kind of fear would really hamper their relationship. And then when they are together they don’t care about anyone else. Your family is your rock. You at least can use them for guidance. Bella keeps her relationship secret from her father because “he wouldn’t approve.” Did she ever stop to see why he wouldn’t approve? Sometimes Father really does know best… or Mother… and definitely Sister.

So their relationship is completely unhealthy and yet people want to be them. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

It is strange to create a creature that has no weakness. Vampires, real vampires, have plenty of weaknesses. They burn in the sun, and with they touch silver, or crosses. They are repelled by garlic. And the only way to kill them is a wooden stake through the heart or to completely severe the head. Twilight vampires are not vampires. They have no weakness save ripping them to shreds and lighting them on fire. But that would kill anything. The allure of vampires is that they are dangerous, but there is a downfall – you don’t have a soul. As far as I can tell, Twilight vampires have no downside. You are faster, stronger, prettier, and you can’t die. It loses all effect when you are perfect.

Obsession is not just a stench by Calvin Klein. I know all about obsession and I am probably not the right person to rant about this, but the kind of people that… I just don’t know what to say about this. We sold out of three theaters for the midnight, and I’m sure that we could’ve sold another two if we had the capability. The crowd was rabid, and dirty, but mostly rabid. As soon as the doors were open the swarmed the place. I was in charge of the smallest of the three, but that doesn’t mean they were the nicest. I even had to get authoritative and tell the people to squeeze together to make room. I’ve never had to do that before. We had someone bring in a life-size cardboard cutout and wanted to be seated next to it so she could “watch the movie with Edward.” I mean what is missing from your life that you need to fill it with such drivel? I just don’t understand.

Again, some of you who know me will call that last statement hypocritical. And I probably am. I get obsessed about small things – don’t get me started on The A-Team – but I just don’t understand the allure of Twilight. I really wish someone would explain it to me.

My fourth point is more of a theater joke. After the last movie, I made the comment that I was going to need to re-upholster the seats because of… let’s call it happy fluid. I could not believe how many squeals a heard every time Jacob was on screen. This movie was no different, and this time he was even more shirtless. If that was even possibly.

(OT: Even more shirtless? That makes me think of Robbie Williams’ “Rock DJ” video. You couldn’t get more shirtless than that video.)

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Back to the review.

While in box someone asked me what I thought of Eclipse. Even though I hadn’t seen it yet, I told him I thought it was 2 hours too long. I stand by that review.

Eclipse runs 2 hours and 15 minutes of which 2 hours are spent DOING NOTHING!!!!

We end the last movie with Bella choosing Edward over Jacob.

This movie is entirely Bella choosing Edward over Jacob.

I have NEVER seen someone take SOOOO long making a decision before.

The other 15 minutes are okay. There are one of two good lines, some good back story for a couple useless characters, and two fight scenes that if you blink you’ll miss.

This was an unnecessary movie. You could’ve taken the end of the last one, the promising 15 minutes of this one, and the “good” parts of the upcoming Breaking Dawn part 1 and made a decent movie. Of course that would’ve taken away my chance of calling the last movie Breaking Dawn 2: Electric Boogaloo, but I would’ve been okay with that. Listen Summit; don’t waste my time making crappy movies. Oh wait, they are all crappy movies.

I’d give this movie am “Oh please,” but I don’t rate the movies I watch. You’re gonna have to make up your own mind whether or not you are going to see this movie. But I’ll tell you one thing; you will not see me in the theater with you if you do go to this movie. Once was more than enough.

Fiser, OUT!