DailyDirt
How You Doin'?
Friday, May 28, 2004
1. How are you feeling right now? Bored but pleased.
2. What made you feel like that? I fixed up the ASA gallery website. Yay access! But there wasn't anything to do today, really. Web design is good.
3. What could improve your mood right now? Seeing Troy. Rather, seeing Orlando Bloom in Troy, for purely aesthetic reasons, I assure you.
4. What do you do when you're feeling really down? Read a good book and mope.
5. Who's someone you can depend on to make you feel better? My dad.

Posted by Jen at 6:12 PM | Permalink

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Well, I got everything returned/exchanged last night so Jen is a happy camper. So not only did I get a dvd that works, (Yay Siege of Gondor!) I got the Aragorn figurine I forgot to pick up (rather, they forgot to give me) which I got for pre-ordering, and a massive RotK theatrical version poster. Alas no Legolas, so it won't go up in my room Yay free stuff!

And I got an award last week for moving up in CW:

And Nile sent me this sweet little gift for being her supporter:

Sweet!

Posted by Jen at 11:22 AM | Permalink

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...but that's partly because I did massive situps and crunches on monday night after not having done any for oh, months years and my abs are tight sore. Seriously. You Will Laugh Your Ass Off. Caution, strong language.

Occupation: Girl - Troy in Fifteen Minutes
Excerpts:

Paris is practicing archery on a nice straw man nailed up to the wall. He hits bulls-eye after bulls-eye.

HELEN: Wow, I had no idea you were so good at this.

PARIS: Neither did I. Weird, isn't it? And I really want lembas now.

HELEN: What?

~~

ACHILLES: Briseis!

BRISEIS: Achilles!

PARIS: *shoots Achilles in the heel*

BRISEIS: NOOOOOO!

PARIS: *gets his Legolas on, shoots Achilles 15 more times*

BRISEIS: PARIS, NOOOOOOOOOO!

PARIS: OH MY GOD, I FINALLY DO SOMETHING GOOD AND PEOPLE STILL YELL AT ME!

Posted by Jen at 4:23 PM | Permalink

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Oh my goodness how much it has rained. Flooding-type weather here, hail in some places. Thank goodness nothing's flooded around my place yet, but some of the low roads have standing water and the highways were a mess last night. I hate to say it but St. Louis drivers on the whole are pretty bad. Now, you can't lump me in with the whole because I'm a very good driver (almost always ) and I've never had (read: caused) an accident, but gosh, the people in my town can't drive if there's severe weather. When my car was hit (about a year ago, I guess) it was only slightly rainy and the lady sure had the choice of going up on the curb or hitting my car...sheesh. Go slow, turn on your lights, and don't tailgate like the stupid van behind me this morning.

And so I have finally seen Return of the King on DVD, which makes me happy...however, it's also the first dvd that I've ever bought or rented that is defective. Nearly all of chapter 28, the Siege of Gondor, flickers, breaks up, and just plain stops until there's only five or so minutes left to the chapter. *yes it's a long one* The rest of the movie plays fine. So I'll have to exchange that today. blah. Somehow I managed to buy two copies of the Hidalgo soundtrack, so while I'm at it I'll return the duplicate...and return the cd-only version of the new Hanson album because I found the cd-dvd version at fye. Yay returns! (heavy sarcasm there)

Some subtle improvements could have made Troy a much better movie...

From the end credits of the Return of the King:

Me mahara tonu taatou nga Uri-aapakura noo tuaanuku nei, noo te waaotuu te tu kekehua ana o ngaa Eldarin kua hohouu mai i te Uru-moana.
�Let us dedicate our memories to the spirits of the Eldar who came to us from the Ocean that lies to the West.�

I missed Sir Ian McKellan's birthday yesterday. Happy belated 65th, Gandalf!

I want a Legolas t-shirt! I don't know when I would ever wear it, but it would be so nice to be able to see him all day I love my elf.

Stop raining! At this rate we'll never play a softball game...

Posted by Jen at 10:06 AM | Permalink |

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Well, after months of waiting, RotK comes out on dvd today. I've had my copy reserved for a while now, and I think I even get a King Aragorn figurine when I go pick it up. Someone from the store called yesterday just to make sure that I remembered to come by the store...like I would forget. I reserved mine at FYE, but I should have gone to Borders...they had a midnight release party. I think I could have gotten another t-shirt. Ah well. I don't really need any more t-shirts, though it would have been cool. But then I would be tired today. See, I have some common sense.

I wouldn't be surprised if our softball game gets rained out on thursday. not because it's actually raining, but the 'field conditions' thing again. Sigh. I remember griping about this before...it's april showers, not may showers. bah.

Oh yeah, the "extended cut" of Underworld comes out today as well. Maybe I'll pick that up too You know me and werewolf/vampire flicks What to watch tonight? Healthy wholesome family flick or dark bloody horror? Or the 24 "season finale you'll never forget"? lol.

Too bad Alex and Leo are going down to Texas. I'll just have to have fun without them. Be safe you two!

Posted by Jen at 9:35 AM | Permalink

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Well, you may or may not have noticed that there are now colored scrollbars! Yahoo! And the site doesn't get bigger than 1024x768. Thanks to SN for telling me what's up with CSS.

In other news, the first softball game was cancelled because of field conditions. Ah well. Next week, perhaps. Hopefully we'll get some in before it gets too much hotter...though it's plenty hot now. mmm. summer in St. Louis. Gotta love it. Or not.

I'm interested in web design again funny how it comes in cycles.

Posted by Jen at 4:45 PM | Permalink |

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Those of you who actually read this thing know that I now use Movable Type for my blogging software. Basically this means I downloaded the script and changed some variables and now when I visit a certain URL I can just type something in (e.g. this entry) and it shows up at etoiline.com. Amazing! I used to use Greymatter, which does the same thing, but it had fewer add-ons and a little less flexibility, so during the server snafu of February I decided to switch over to MT. This is version 2.something or other, and MT kept saying how they would introduce a new version with some features that I would like to have, so I've held off on trying to modify (read: hack) the code to get what I want. But Six Apart (the company that distributes MT) announced recently that while they would offer a free version of MT 3, it carries certain licensing restrictions, namely it can only have one author and a max of 3 (or 5, don't remember) blogs. Well, this sounds silly to me. I actually fit into that category, because even though I plan on having many different blogs here, they're all under the etoiline.com name, so according to them that's alright. And as I'm the only author, I've got no problem with that. I just wish they would lower their prices. I was thinking about upgrading and now I probably won't, seeing as I'm doing fine without a 'currently listening' section after each post anyway. It just bugs me that things I like, i.e. MT, YaBB forums (I used to use YaBB (CGI base) for my forum until the server change, when I got YaBBSE, which is php based, but about two weeks after I installed it I realized they were no longer supporting my version and were changing over to a totally new script) are moving to the paid version. Ah well.

Read about the french guy who supposedly wrote a book (223 pages) without verbs. Weird.'Fictitious' author publishes the first book without verbs

And now what you've all been waiting for, I'm sure: my review of Troy, or what I can remember about it, anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed Troy. And as much as I said in the beginning that I probably wouldn't go see it again, I bet I will end up seeing it one more time...if only to see more of Orlando. Silly, I realize. Alas it's not quite what I'd hoped, but it was still a good movie. The battle scenes were terrific, if sometimes a little contrived or unbelievable. There was decent acting from most of the actors, some pretty bad accents, and some very cringe-worthy moments. Sometimes those moments were needed; that's the way Homer wrote them. Of course, there's a whole bunch of people who died and shouldn't have (and vice versa) and there are no gods and they eliminated quite a lot of the history of the war...but me the non-purist didn't care all that much.

I will say that this is not James Horner's best score. It crescendos in odd spots and sometimes it just didn't fit with the picture...then again, when you think about the fact that the score was written only about two months before the movie opens...It's a shame we didn't get to hear Gabriel Yared's original score. I don't know if I would have liked it any better (but I certainly like the current end credits song better than Yared's) but I bet something written over the course of filming the movie probably fit the film more. And Mr. Horner didn't write a Paris and Helen theme

This will go on my I-want-this-dvd list, but it's not on par with LotR. Then again, what can be? The Post-Dispatch critic gave it 2.5/4 stars. I'd probably have to go with the 3/5 star rating. I'm a terrible critic because I like seeing a movie twice before I make judgement: once to just enjoy and the second (or more ) to make criticism.

Of course, I could just say that men in skirts make up for any shortcomings. Orlando is FINE! Even when he's playing a nincompoop. And damn you cameraman, why couldn't you have panned down just a little bit more?

I would say go see it. But don't get the big soda

Posted by Jen at 5:36 PM | Permalink

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Because I can. Found an icon tutorial and I had to use it. yay.

[ETA: This is my new current LJ icon. Go comment there too.]

Troy review tomorrow, perhaps.

Posted by Jen at 5:51 PM | Permalink

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which is what there will be tonight. You know, if we had trouble keeping the charcoal lit when there wasn't dampness, imagine what it will be like tonight. sigh. the wonders of having no roof over our deck. Ah well.

I'm so behind on my tv shows. But as Leo pointed out there won't be anything new shortly so I'll have plenty of time. I just need plenty of videotapes.

Troy tomorrow! Yay Alex for picking up tickets.

Posted by Jen at 5:35 PM | Permalink

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Thanks again for moving me up. Be sure to click'n'vote!

Sheesh. late every time. You do realize this was from last week, right?

Posted by Jen at 12:45 PM | Permalink

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Remember by Josh Groban. On the Troy soundtrack.

Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
Remember
When your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
Just remember me
I am the one star that keeps burning
So brightly
It is the last light
To fade into the rising sun
I'm with you
Whenever you tell my story
For I am all I've done
Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
Remember me
I am that one voice
In the cold wind
That whispers
And if you listen
You'll hear me call across the sky
As long as
I still can reach out
And touch you
I will never die
Remember
I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me
Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
Remember
When your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever
Remember me
Remember me
Remember...me...

You can try this link if you want to have a listen...not sure if it still works or not. *whine* wanna...see...movie...now! meh. back to work.

Posted by Jen at 12:27 PM | Permalink

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I've officially been at the lab for a year. Doesn't seem like it...then on the other hand it feels like forever. Good things have come out of it...I'll have my name on two papers, at least...of course, it's stressful, sometimes, but what job isn't? At least I have my own room, mostly, and I get to do whatever I want when I'm done with my work. Of course I have to report and I feel bad when I'm using company time to do fun stuff, but I just can't see myself working in an office where I have to wear a suit and look professional all day.

Troy is going to be so cool. I got the soundtrack last night...it's long. I love soundtracks that actually approach the movie running time...even though Troy is supposed to be pretty long. But 75 minute long cds are good things. I have to say it's not James Horner's best work and it sounds an awful lot like The Mask of Zorro and Legends of the Fall, but that's ok. James Horner is composer god. And Josh Groban rules. I think the soundtrack will be better when I hear it in context of the movie.

boo to having to download stuff to my iBook so I can make a cd that plays on both Macs and pcs. Silly pcs. They say that they can make cds that play on macs as well but I don't believe it.

Two days to Troy!

Posted by Jen at 12:13 PM | Permalink

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I should have gone to church with my mother yesterday. I didn't end up seeing her at all. I did try to get in touch with her before she and my dad went to church, but after that I got on the internet and spent about two and a half hours doing 'internet things' during which my dad tried to call to get me over there for brunch. Course, we all know how that works when you have dial-up.

And then Alex and Leo and Kate and I went to see Van Helsing, which was a fun movie, in my opinion, then we had cheap chinese, which is always good, so I didn't end up calling home until after the news was over. Bad move on my part.

Mom wouldn't talk to me.

You know, I really don't like going to church. Sometimes it's beautiful and moving, but mostly I just go for the singing. I'm so close though, I really should have gotten my butt moving and tried to meet them there. I didn't even go to Alex's football game, and I was up. Damn me.

I don't know what to do. I gave mom some presents but I didn't spend any time with her. She's not feeling good, either. Dear God, what do I do? I hope she forgives me.

I'm a trainwreck, waiting to happen

Although, on the upside, the new Josh Groban song on the Troy soundtrack is pretty cool. I'll get it tomorrow when I buy the cd. More money to fye.

Posted by Jen at 5:57 PM | Permalink

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Well, as some of you know I didn't have much to do today. I did clean one of the water systems but that didn't take very long...I mostly improved my skill level on games.msn.com.

But while I was hiding in my little room filled with humming freezers something scary was going on...the other two girl techs got fired. Sigh. And Mark, the semi-cute guy...his mom was in a very bad accident about two weeks ago and he hasn't been here since. I mean, he was only part-time this semester while he took nursing classes, but he's been here longer than me so there are things he knows that I don't, like about lab maintenance and such.

So now it's back to just me...next week or so Michelle will come back from U of I, so at least I won't be the only tech...

And Luigi leaves this weekend to go back to Italy for three months. Weird weird. I asked him to send me a postcard so I can get some sort of mail more interesting than bills. Which actually I don't get, as most bills are online nowadays...so I guess I should say more interesting than grocery store circulars.

So I'm a little scared about my job. I figure they can't fire me right now anyway because Luigi likes me and then they'd have no techs, but it's still a little worrisome. That and the fact that I'd hate to lose my job before I'd been here a year (coming up next week, btw).

Eh. NO worries. I'm going to go to Borders and then head to the 'rents place so I can see cable programs about Troy. Then we'll go down to my grandparents' place for one last time...sniffle. Alas. That's a story for another day. Keep my grandparents in your prayers, especially my grandmother...she's short one son this year.

And I almost was going to end this on a happy note...meh. Oh, wait, here's one...Troy opens in a week!

Goodnight.

Posted by Jen at 5:20 PM | Permalink

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I'm fairly excited. I just found out via elflady that the Troy soundtrack comes out next week, just before the movie does...guess what I'm buying? lol. You should check out her site, it's got amazing links to all things Orlando, obviously, but quite a bit about the other people in his movies She's getting pretty hard hit with bandwidth though so make sure you take advantage of her niceness and send her your ftp info to download stuff Enjoy!

And happy Cinco de Mayo! I have no idea if I'm going to get drunk tonight but someone out there I'm sure will for me. I might try to stop by and get some margarita mix so we can party

*giddy!*

Posted by Jen at 1:40 PM | Permalink |

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yes, yes, I know. things are wonky around here. but at least you can still read. *knock on wood* I'll fix it...soon.

[ETA: Now it's working again. And no more unsightly search boxes! Although I'm probably pulling lots of kbs on the background jpg ]

Remind me to tell off all the people who come here talking about how I was wrong about Imana Nushif. Read the rest of the journal, people! And I've asked it before and I'll ask it again...why are you coming here for it anyway, if just to put me down? Thanks. More later. Maybe. Gotta go catch 24.

Posted by Jen at 7:18 PM | Permalink

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Alex won't like that I'm not reading the Iliad but this morning when I was waiting for bloods I made an AIM Expression. Go me. I am so creative. You can check it out here. Be warned, it is Troy themed and focuses mainly on Paris. Yay antihero.

I taped Oprah yesterday because Brad Pitt was on...yes, they showed scenes from Troy...and Eric Bana came on too...and Orli taped a bit because he's still shooting Kingdom of Heaven over in Morocco. Sigh. Hunk o' hot men on that show. Can't wait for Troy! whee!

Posted by Jen at 2:58 PM | Permalink

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Take a look at Lyrnessa, the little nation I created Who knows how long I'll stick with this, but it looks like fun.

Posted by Jen at 4:58 PM | Permalink

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From Owls' Court - in the absence of light, darkness prevails and various other places...

Literacy Test: Highlight in bold those books you've read. (Although I don't know how accurate this may be. I do realize I read a lot of drek but I'm certainly more literate than your average-woman-on-the-street. I just chose not to read classic literature )

Author - Title

-- Beowulf
Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
Agee, James - A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice but nothing else. I should, really. Does seeing the movies count?
Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot
Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March
Bront�, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
Bront�, Emily - Wuthering Heights Have it, haven't read it...
Camus, Albert - The Stranger
Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop no, but I did read O, Pioneers! and lordy how I hated it.
Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales my mom did, and can still remember the first few lines from when she memorized it in high school
Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage
Dante - Inferno and the two smash sequels!
de Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe Does it count if I read the abridged version when I was a kid?
Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities etc I loved Oliver Twist.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy
Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers

Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man I tried to read this once, but I don't think I got through it
Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays I know I read essays by him junior year of high school but for the life of my I can't think of which one
Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby It was too hot to read the whole thing so we watched the movie with Robert Redford.
Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust in two languages!
Golding, William - Lord of the Flies Lord how I hated this book. And it's so unfortunate that it has the same title form as Lord of the Rings. Bleah.
Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph - Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
Homer - The Iliad
Homer - The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame but not Les Miserables?
Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World Another terrible english class requirement.
Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House
James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior
Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, Sinclair - Babbitt
London, Jack - The Call of the Wild
Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel Garc�a - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener
Melville, Herman - Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur - The Crucible
Morrison, Toni - Beloved
O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find
O'Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey into Night
Orwell, George - Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan - Selected Tales
Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49
Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front and there goes a sophomore english class horror
Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep
Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye What's the hype about this? I just don't get it. I suppose that's because I don't have the conservative mindset of the time.
Shakespeare, William - Hamlet
Shakespeare, William - Macbeth
Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer Night's Dream Had to do a monologue from this one.
Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet and just about everything else
Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles - Antigone in two languages!
Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath What about Of Mice and Men?
Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer
Voltaire - Candide
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth Egad! Not Ethan Frome?
Welty, Eudora - Collected Stories
Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray I always wanted to.
Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse and plusieres autres titres
Wright, Richard - Native Son

Sheesh. Well, at least those boring english class books made me more literate

Posted by Jen at 4:30 PM | Permalink

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"...So one of these days I want to pull out those tap shoes, and character shoes, and be part of the actors on a stage. I won't say I'm great actor, or dancer, or singer, but I feel like I can hold my own. And I just hope that when I'm old I won't still have this regret..."

Troy - Orlando Bloom (Advance)

Buy posters at AllPosters.com

Read more at my livejournal. It was too good to leave there, but too long to write here...

And the Troy poster? Just for fun. A little levity to an otherwise melancholy post.

Posted by Jen at 10:15 AM | Permalink

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Look at that. Only one week in competition and I'm moving up already! Thanks so much, guys. Be sure to click on the picture to vote for me today...or any of the various other places where you can click to vote *smooch* love!

And check out my poster store, which may or may not be actually up when you read this, but at least I'm trying, eh? Feel free to buy any of those for me

Guess I should go check on that blood.

Posted by Jen at 9:35 AM | Permalink

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