Movies! Movies! Movies!

I have realized, since I returned home on Tuesday, that I haven't truly been up-to-date on my movies lately. I used to be the movie kid who, when asked, could name the relationship between two actors/actresses and what movies they had starred in. Unfortunately, my memory has been slipping a lot within the past two years, and I have trouble remembering people's names. Since I have arrived at Purdue, I haven't really had the chance to watch a bunch of movies like I did at home. Now, I'm behind, but I hope to catch up over winter break. 

On Wednesday, I saw Transiberian. It is a movie about a couple who are missionaries riding a train across Russia and Siberia to China. They get mixed up with their cabin mates, who are drug-traffickers. This leads to a struggle between the two couples. I stopped watching it about two-thirds of the way through because I lost interest.

The second movie I saw on Wednesday was Get Smart. It was funny. Maxwell Smart is a CONTROL analyst who is seeking a promotion to field agent. After the CONTROL headquarters are attacked, he becomes an agent and works with Agent 99, a woman who underwent plastic surgery after a bad fling within the agency. They are searching for CHAOS, a villainous group that plans on destroying the United States.

The third movie I saw was Tropic Thunder. It is about a group of actors that are slated to play a Vietnam War movie. Unfortunately, they are too amateur to play the parts, so the director decides to drop them into a forest in Vietnam where they will be recorded on video cameras, and the video footage will be spliced together to create the perfect film. The director is killed, and the actors are left on their own to find their way out of the jungle. It is funny, but in a stupid kind of way. I liked it.

Those are the movies I saw on Wednesday. I saw a BUNCH on Saturday, but I figured three was the perfect amount to talk about.

ThAnKsGiViNg BrEaK!

Over Thanksgiving Break, I was very busy. I came home Tuesday night, arriving at the Sirloin Stockade where my mother was giving her food sanitation presentation at around 6:30 p.m. After she gave her presentation, we went to get some supper at Applebee's. I got to see all my coworkers that I hadn't seen in what seemed like forever! Then, we went home. My dog Ella was excited to see me, unlike last time, and she spent the whole night following me. On Wednesday, I stayed home all day, leaving the house only once to go to ShopKo to buy some warm underclothes to bring back to Purdue and to Family Video to rent some movies, which include Tropic Thunder, Get Smart, and Transiberian. I watched all but Tropic Thunder that day. My mom came home from work, and we made chicken and noodles for supper. Around 8:30 p.m., I went to hang out with my friends. We went to the cinema and saw Role Models, which is actually pretty funny. Afterwards, we went to Taco Bell and sat in the parking lot, talking and catching up on stories until 2 a.m. I returned home and fell asleep in my bed.

The next day (THANKSGIVING!!!), I woke up and helped my mom set up. We held Thanksgiving at my grandparents' house, but my mom was the one who hosted it. We made sure everything was spick and span, and my cousin arrived to prepare drinks. For about an hour, everyone sat in the living room to chat, then dinner began. I didn't fully realize how much I had missed Thanksgiving until I saw the options I had for dinner: dark or light turkey meat, inside or outside stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes and/or gravy, green beans, oysters, or Jello with fruit in it. It was AWESOME! I stuffed myself so completely that I couldn't eat another bite. Then I had pumpkin pie. (The sentence before last was meant to be an exaggeration.) It was amazing! I LOVE pumpkin pie! We cleaned up, and left to nap. Later, around 6:45 p.m., Mom and I returned to Gram and Gramps' house to have leftovers for supper and complete the puzzle. The puzzle this year was a picture of a small town with a giant lit Christmas tree and a street filled with shops lit up for the night. It was pretty. Unfortunately, we didn't finish it before we left. 

On Friday, I worked all day. I work at Applebee's, and I chose to work a double that day. It was alright, but I was tired when I returned home. The next day, I had to leave to spend the night with my dad. I hadn't seen him since I left this summer, and we had a fun time watching a movie marathon. Today, I had to leave him and return home to finish packing at 10:30 a.m., but I didn't feel as though I spent enough time with him. I finished packing and carpooled back to Purdue at 2 p.m., arriving here at 7 p.m. in this time zone. It was a busy 5 days!

Black Friday

So, as everyone knows, that day of the year is coming up to get everything bought for Christmas! I decided this year to research "Black Friday" (considered by some to be the busiest shopping day of the year) and see what it's really about. These are some fun statistics I found:

~National Research Foundation

Men spent an average of $393.63, which is almost $90 more than the women's average!

Most people said that they planned on getting to a store at 6 A.M.

~Christmas Shopping Facts and Figures (guess what? One of our own Purdue professors came      up with this list of retailing feats! :))

Black Friday is the fifth to tenth busiest shopping day of the year! 

Most stores start decorating for Christmas on Oct. 15th.

Approximately 7,720 children visited Santa in 1999.

~Do You Believe in Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday is the internet form of Black Friday. It occurs the Monday following Thanksgiving.

There is also the possibility of an "eFriday" which, according to Deloitte & Touche USA, had one point higher for shoppers than Cyber Monday (20% of people surveyed shopped on Friday, 19% shopped on Monday).

Fun history: Black Friday was named for the day on which people shopped so much that stores' accounts would come out of the red and "into the black".

Born into Brothels--Should Children Be Allowed to Decide If They Want to Be In a Documentary?

     In the documentary, Born into Brothels, several children of prostitutes are filmed, and their lives are revealed through their own photography. A question is raised, however, about if it is "fair" to the children to be displayed to the whole world. I believe that it is the children's choice. If they wish to be seen by the whole world, then let them. I don't believe it is fair to their mothers and caretakers, though. They should be the ones to give consent to see inside their homes. The parents own the homes, so they should be the ones who control it. I think it would be fair to allow the children to show videos of school or of others around the neighborhood, but the parents should decide to let the cameras into their homes.

In terms of the children's success, I believe Zana Brinski did help them. By teaching them photography, she guaranteed them at least one portal into equality with others in the world. Considering that Avijit became a successful student in the United States, and the others are all currently learning new things and continuing their education, I would totally agree that they are finally getting the education they deserve. However, I don't completely agree with her methods. By exposing the children to the world, she took the risk of giving them no privacy once they grew up. Maybe the children didn't want so much attention? I think she was successful, though, and I'm pretty sure that the children are all thankful now for what she did. 

This Season of Saturday Night Live

     My dad and I always used to watch Saturday Night Live late at night on Saturdays. For the past few years, I have lost track of what is going on in Saturday Night Live. But this year, I'm not going to miss it. I have ordered it on iTunes, and I won't miss the sketches. For those of you who don't know what Saturday Night Live is, it is a sketch show that makes fun of anything and everything. It covers politics, the latest gossip, and random ideas.

   This season of Saturday Night Live has been okay. As compared to other seasons, I don't think this ranks the top 10 in my mind. However, there have been some good skits and good actors that have hosted the show. Here are a few sketches I personally liked:

Ben Affleck as Keith Olbermann

Jon Hamm's John Ham

Anne Hathaway as Mary Poppins

The Looker (a parody of The Closer)

The OJ Jury Trial

Night School Musical

and any political sketch they have showed so far!

If you're ever feeling down and want to watch something funny, these can be pretty hysterical. I will warn you, though, that some of them have very dark humor (such as the Anne Hathaway one, John Ham, and Night School Musical). Anyway, I hope you enjoy these!

P.S. I'm watching the Paul Rudd-hosted episode right now, and it's going really well! :)

Traces of Me... Unfortunately.

Surprisingly, I use less than the average U.S. citizen in everything. My mother is very frugal, and she tends to focus on saving money. By the way, I based this on my home life because I haven't truly been here long enough to know how much of everything I use. 

Carbon footprint: Mine = 49.2,  Country = 91.4

Food footprint: Mine = 65.7, Country = 65.7

Housing footprint: Mine = 21.9, Country = 31.6

Goods and Services footprint: Mine = 42.5, Country = 57.7

Total: 179.39 global acres

People would have to inhabit 4.62 Earths if they all live the way I do!

     I wouldn't exactly say it is "fair" that Americans take more than their share of resources. But, at the same time, there are a LOT of people living on this Earth. Since we are a dominant species (humans, in general), we are taking up more and more room and resources. Before long, we'll run out of food, water, and space, and everything in nature will be out of balance. 

     Therefore, we can try to redress the Earth for what we have done to it, but, in the end, it won't do any good if we can't stop our population from growing. Currently, we have engineers working to solve the problem, but not every problem can be solved, only delayed. I don't believe we can repair what we've done to the Earth, but we can try to relieve the suffering as much as we can.

Oh, How I Hate You, Canker Sores!

      Within the past couple weeks, I haven't been eating very well. It has become evident in the presence of a canker sore in my mouth. On Friday, I had passed the night with a dull pain right inside of my lip, so I checked it out in the mirror, and it turned out to be a canker sore. I've had them more than once before, so I knew I just had to wait it out, and the worst was yet to come. The next day, I was going to make a trip to WalMart anyway, so I decided to get some Anbesol or other pain ointment for my mouth. I spent over fifteen minutes just trying to locate some, and then spent some time getting the rest of my things. By the time I was ready to leave, some guy ahead of me in the checkout had two WalMart gift cards, and neither of them would scan through to the register. Keep in mind that I had a bus to catch, and the whole ordeal took an extraordinarily long amount of time (in my rushed mind). Finally, I got up to the register, and the poor guy checked everything through, and the receipt printer was jammed. So, I decided I really didn't need the receipt; it would be fine because I paid for all of it with cash, not a debit or credit card. He was about to let me go, and I was very impatient because the bus was supposed to be there right then, when his manager stopped by and told him he needed to print it out. So he told me it would take a couple of minutes and proceeded to print the receipt out. The printer finally finished, and I walked out the door with my bags in hand, and just as I reached the door, I saw the bus. The last two people were about to load onto it. I ran through the crowd of people coming in, mumbling my "Sorry"s as I passed by them. I felt incredibly rude, but at the same time, my adrenaline was pumping because I didn't want to miss the bus and wait another HOUR for the next one. I reached the bus and finally made it back to the dorm. 

     When I got to my room, I put some Anbesol on my lip, and the numbing took effect. I worked on homework and caught up on some of my TV shows online, and finally fell asleep at around one o'clock in the morning. When I woke up at ten thirty the next morning, one half of my lips was swollen. The bottom lip was huge and blistered, and the top lip looked affected too. I started panicking. My first thought was that I was allergic to Anbesol, and I needed to get it checked out. So, I stopped by the urgent care center at PUSH, and they told me it was just a canker sore. I have never had a canker sore that large, and it really bothered me. Since Sunday, the swelling has gone down, but I feel a little embarrassed that I wasted their time and mine over something so silly. So... That was my weekend! :)

The Questions I Would Have Asked Margaret Edson

     On Thursday, the "Margaret Edson Event" took place. Margaret Edson came to discuss the process of writing the play and vignettes were acted out in between her explanations. She explained how she wanted to make this play about grace and redemption. It was a struggle between her and her main character Vivian. Edson wanted her to become herself, the sensitive real person inside that tough, scholarly exterior. But Vivian didn't want to become that person. Edson told us that she controlled Vivian, even though Vivian struggled against her, and that Edson controls us, that we, the audience, are against her too. Vivian Bearing undergoes a transformation, morphing from a scholar seeking knowledge, to a woman in fear, to a beautiful woman in her original form (completely naked). 

     I was really surprised not to see Susie in any of the vignettes. I would have asked her about that, but she showed some surprise in it too. Otherwise, I didn't really have any questions. The whole experience made me understand the play better. I understand now that The Runaway Bunny was Vivian's transition into her real self. It was put into terms that she could comprehend ("an allegory of the soul"), and it allowed her to go peacefully. Overall, the experience helped me learn a little bit more about what is happening in the play and the author's intentions for the play.

Counting Down to Thanksgiving Break

     I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving Break. It seems that even though the exams are just now ending for a short period, it is still the eye of the hurricane. Exams will be coming a week or two before Thanksgiving Break, and it's almost inevitable. Mostly, I'm looking forward to going home. It seems like it's been a long time since October Break, even though it hasn't, and I'm just plain ready to be sitting at home, eating my turkey and mashed potatoes. On Thanksgiving, my family usually has a big feast, including but not limited to: turkey (of course), mashed potatoes and gravy, bean casserole, cranberry jelly, rolls, and Jello salad with lots of fruit in it. I especially love Thanksgiving (and Christmas) because after stuffing ourselves with food, my family goes home, naps off the excess calories and tryptophan, and comes back for a puzzle. When we return to do the puzzle, it is around supper time, and we try to finish off the leftovers from the feast we call Thanksgiving lunch. The puzzle normally isn't finished when everyone leaves, but we have fun doing it. I wonder what puzzle we'll do this Thanksgiving? 

     In addition to delicious food, I can't wait to see my friends. I didn't see them over October Break, and I'm having friend withdrawals. I miss seeing them practically everyday and talking about how our classes are going. Anyway, I can't wait to get home for Thanksgiving Break!

The Election

This year, I was very excited to be able to vote. Our high school history teacher would always stress how important it was to vote since the people control their leaders and their government through their choices of candidates. So, I went to the drivers' license facility in our little town, and I signed up to get a voter's registration card. Sure enough, it came a few weeks later through the mail. But not too long after, I lost my voter's registration card. I have searched all over for it, but I have been unable to find it. This partially influenced my decision not to vote. The major influence, however, is my lack of knowledge about the candidates' campaigns. I haven't devoted much time to researching their platforms, and I don't truly know what they are promoting. Yes, I see the commercials and flyers and chalked sidewalks, but I don't really understand what is going on in our economy and government. I am more of a science and math person, not politics. Anyway, I decided not to vote because I am ignorant of the issues in government, and my vote would be made for the wrong reasons. I currently don't really have the time or focus to vote, and it would be too late for registration, so, this year, I am not voting, despite the huge implications for gender and race in government it will have.