Harvey Milk

I love it when I watch a movie that has a profound impact on me.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I love movies that are pure fluff, feel-good pieces of entertainment.  But once in a while it feels good to watch something that gives me a better perspective on humanity, that things aren't always just black-and-white, that there is ALWAYS a different way to do things.

I just got done watching the movie Milk.  Honestly, I watched it for three reasons.  One, because Sean Penn won an Academy Award for it, and two, because Lucas Grabeel from High School Musical is in it, three, James Franco is in it and he is amazing.

But I'm glad I watched it for totally different reasons.  Yes, Sean Penn is masterful, yes, Lucas is still one of my heroes, and yes, James Franco is delicious even when he is making out with Spicoli.  But beyond all that, the movie has an awesome message.

I consider myself politically moderate, but I guess I would say I'm an uneducated liberal.  Not uneducated in that I can't read or was raised in the backwoods and am "ign'ant", but uneducated in that I don't take the time to research an issue enough to have a concrete reason to back it up.  However, I often find myself leaning toward the left more often than not, and I'm not sure why.

I think Milk let me feel a little more comfortable with my hazy political labels.  For those who don't know, the movie is about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person elected to a major political office.  He was elected to be a city supervisor of San Francisco, and he and the Mayor of San Francisco were both assassinated by a fellow city supervisor.  

Harvey Milk was a Democrat, but honestly I had to look that up on Wikipedia.  I do not recall them ever mentioning his political party in the movie.  His whole campaign was about the rights of humans.  Any human in America has rights, the right not to be fired from a job they have already obtained based on qualification and performance, simply because he chooses to have sex with a man instead of a woman in the privacy of his own home.

I'll be honest; I'm not an open supporter of the GLBT movement.  I don't attend rallies, I don't buy t shirts, I don't plaster Facebook with it.  However, I am an open supporter of humanity.  I don't think the government can legislate who we can love.  I don't think that America is going to disintegrate into moral chaos if we allow gay people to get married.  I don't think that all gay people have a less stable home life than heterosexuals.  And guess what?  I was raised Catholic.  It's cliche, but there are many parallels between the story in Milk and the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s.  

I DO think that people should be judged by their character, by their choices, and by their actions.  I would oppose a gay couple adopting a baby if they were abusive and malicious, the same way I would oppose a heterosexual couple adopting a baby if they were abusive and malicious, the same way I would oppose an interracial couple adopting a baby if they were abusive and malicious.

I think what Harvey Milk did was honorable and courageous.  He had his faults, he had his failures; but that proves that he was human just like all of us, homosexual or not.  He was a human, and he loved humanity enough to make the ultimate sacrifice.  I read that something like 30,000 mourners turned up on Milk's home turf of Castro Street and marched quietly to City Hall, holding a candlelight vigil in memory of their hero.  That is remarkable.

I Know What You Did Last Night . . .

Intriguing and slightly menacing title, right?  I know.  I don't really know what you did last night.  I wish I did, because I am nosy and I love gossip, but I do not have the ability to know what you did last night without physically being there.

The title stems from this program we are doing in housing.  My fellow RA/sorority sister Sam and I are in charge of it because we like to volunteer to do more work than we are required to do.  So basically residents sign up for it and every day for a week they will get an envelope under their door.  On Sunday, the envelope will be their new identity (Joe the hockey player, Anna the StuGov president, etc.).  During the week, though, they will get a new envelope every day with the phrase "I know what you did last night . . . " and then it will say something like "you studied" or "you gave Lucy oral sex" or "you had unprotected sex with Kevin".  

At the end of the program, all the participants gather for a party in which they can see the whole web.  Even though Gina may have only had unprotected sex with Kevin once, he had unprotected sex with Lisa who gave Justin oral sex and Justin has herpes, so now Gina has herpes.  It's just a sexual education awareness program, and at the end everyone gets to meet and eat pizza and find out who they had sex with.

Anyway, Sam and I spent the last four hours assigning identities, making the web, and assigning and tracking STDs and pregnancies.  It was kind of depressing, we got really excited when someone had protected sex twice in the week with the same person.

But it made Sam and I think about it, so I hope it makes the residents think about it as well.  It gets kind of dirty, I mean, one girl has HIV, crabs, and she's pregnant, but she's pregnant by a different guy than the one that gave her HIV.  And then one guy had unprotected sex with another guy, and that guy gave his girlfriend chlamydia.  

The message:  ALWAYS BE SAFE!!!

New Medicine

This isn't good!  I tried this new form of Albuterol, which I need to take occasionally for the mucus build-up in my lungs (yucky, I know).  Normally I take it through breathing treatments, which means I empty a cartridge of liquid Albuterol into this cup thingee with a mouthpiece, turn on the machine, and it vaporizes it so I inhale it.  Afterward, I'm shaky for about a half hour, but it goes away and I feel better.

Lately I'm so busy I don't really have time to sit down for an hour, breathe out of a machine, and then wait for the effects to wear off, so I tried a 12-hour Albuterol pill before I went to bed last night.  I slept fine, but I woke up this morning SO SHAKY!  Like, I could barely get out of bed.  I had to sit down in the shower and it took me an hour to get ready for work!  Usually I get up a half hour early and try to do Pilates (when I'm not sick, and I thought I would feel good enough to do it this morning) but I could barely stand!  

I feel a little bit better now, because I took it at about midnight last night so I'm expecting it to wear off at around noon.  But that's the last time I take the Albuterol pill unless I'm planning on lying around for 12 hours!  

Because even though I'm shaky and messed up . . . at least I'm not coughing!

What Am I Watching?

I think a more appropriate question is what am I NOT watching? 

My favorite TV shows of all time are Gilmore Girls and The Office.  I don't understand why more people don't like them.  I own all the episodes on DVD -- well, I own the entire series of Gilmore Girls, but The Office is still on TV so I just have all the seasons besides the one that is on TV currently.  

Even though I have every episode of Gilmore Girls, I still watch it on ABC Family when it's on.  It's like a surprise -- which season will be showing?  Is Rory still at Chilton or has she moved on to Yale?  Is Lorelai at the Independence Inn or the Dragonfly?  Is Rory with Dean, Jess, or Logan?  Is Lorelai with Max, Chris or Luke?  

The Office is just, plain and simple, hilarious.  I know that some people don't get the comedy.  It's true that most of it is not "in-your-face", it's more in the awkwardness and the political incorrectness of Michael Scott and his number-two, Dwight Schrute.  Plus Jim is like, PERFECT, and I want to be Pam.  And Andy Bernard (The Nard Dogg) just makes the show that much better.

Another series I am watching currently is The Adventures of Pete and Pete.  It used to air on Nickelodeon in the early 90's and I absolutely adored it.  So when it came out on DVD of course I bought seasons 1 and 2.  It's a kid's sitcom, but it's so weird and quirky that sometimes it feels adult.  It's about two brothers, both named Pete Wrigley, their dad, their mom who has a metal plate in her head, Big Pete's best friend Ellen, Artie the Strongest Man in the World, Bus Driver Stu, and Little Pete's tattoo Petunia.  I can't explain it because it's just so strange, but I love it.  From Big Pete and Ellen's friendship turning into love on the marching band field, to Little Pete and his friends staying up for 11 days straight calling themselves "The Nightcrawlers" breaking a world record to murdering the school's mascot, a squid, with a discus. . . STRANGE.  But awesome.

I'm also a huge fan of Arrested Development, though I still need to get my hands on second half of the second season and the third season.  I have the first season but never got around to buying the second season and have been getting the disks on Netflix periodically.  But I love the Bluth family.  I think it's sad that it was cancelled -- the same fate that befell Freaks and Geeks; the network moved around a show it didn't particularly care for, so it couldn't gain a loyal following.  One of my favorite quotes ever is from Arrested Development:

Michael Bluth:  [talking to George-Michael about prison]  Scary?  No.  No, it's the opposite of scary.  It's like a carnival.  Without the half person on the skateboard that grabbed your knee to steady himself.

Other shows I enjoy are Jon & Kate + 8 (say what you may, but I LOVE Kate), GREEK, Little People Big World, Bones, and Girls Next Door (RIP).  I'm not a fan of reality TV in general, but I like the TLC shows because they are not trashy, and I like Girls Next Door because they don't try too hard!  And they are just funny.  

I don't know -- I love TV a lot.  It's an escape.  I always make time to veg out and watch some, because without some relaxation I would go crazy.  I need alone time with my fictional lives every once in a while.

Sister bonding time.

So I interviewed my mom and my sister for my TV writing project.  I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time.  The whole thing is about my sister's struggle with ADHD -- she wasn't diagnosed until she was 14, but she has clearly had it her whole life.  Nikki just recently started talking about it; she was very sensitive about the issue until about a year ago.

I recorded the interviews on GarageBand so I could go back and transcribe them later.  However, my sister wants me to convert hers to an mp3 file so she can put it on her myspace!  It's that funny.  We weren't even trying to be funny, and she did answer the questions honestly and I got a great interview, but we couldn't stop laughing!  She would say something kind of depressing, but then we would both crack up for no reason.  We sound pretty heartless, but for some reason the whole thing was hilarious.  It didn't help that we were literally lying in a bed in our pajamas, so it was extremely informal.

My mom's interview was a bit more serious -- we were at the kitchen table while she was eating lunch.  She still cracked jokes and we laughed, my family is kind of incapable of being serious, but my mom is probably the most serious out of all of us, so she gave some really great responses.

It was really nice to sit down and talk with them about something that has affected our whole family for so long.  Most of the time we are a let's-just-not-talk-about-it-maybe-it-will-go-away family, so it cleared the air a bit!

Diet Coke

I'm not a pop drinker.  I just don't like it; for the most part, it's too sweet and doesn't quench my thirst.  I LOVE water, milk, Propel, iced tea, and of course, COFFEE.

However, if I had to pick a pop, I would pick Diet Coke.  Not for the reasons most do. It's not like I want to lose weight.  Well, five pounds wouldn't hurt.  But the reason I like Diet Coke is because of the fizzlessness.

I seriously think Diet Coke is less fizzy than regular Coke and therefore does not make my eyes water and my nose run.  And I like the fake sweetener.  

That is what I think about Diet Coke.  I thought you should all be enlightened.

Spring Not-a-Break

I want to sue LTU for false advertisement.  Spring Break here is NOT A BREAK.  I had so much *expletive* homework - every single professor seems to think that because you have a week of no classes that you have time to do massive projects and multiple assignments.  Um, hello?  I still had to work.  I still had to fulfill my other obligations that don't have to do with school.  And I had to climb the mountain of homework you all assigned me!

So what did I do over break?

I made 4 videos and posted them on Facebook and Youtube.  I slept.  A LOT.  I watched each Harry Potter movie twice with my mom.  I went to the bar.  I sat in my friend Matt's basement.  I talked to my boyfriend on the phone because he goes to LTU and also had a crap load of homework and projects to complete.  

And the rest of the time? I was plopped on my couch with my cat, staring at my computer and completing my dumb homework and studying for a stupid midterm exam about lighting and audio that is the same day our huge project is due.

I DON'T mind having a bit of homework over break.  I understand giving us a few reading assignments, maybe an online quiz, a small mini-project.  But what if I had planned a trip?  No way in hell I would bring my homework to South Padre and sit on the beach studying up about kairos while all my friends sit around me and soak up the sun and the alcohol.

I just feel like if you're going to advertise this hiatus as a BREAK, it should really be a BREAK.  If not, that's fine.  Call it "classes-are-cancelled-but-you-have-MORE-work-than-usual" week.  It's just building up hopes that come crashing down.

**TV Writing class was not overwhelming over break, just so everyone knows.  That was manageable.  And kind of fun.

Anne Hathaway

I LOVE ANNE HATHAWAY.  I just really want to tell everyone that.  I'm watching The Devil Wears Prada and I tried to think of a movie with her in it that I have seen that I have not absolutely loved.  

I like so many things about her.  She is funny, but she can act.  She is pale, like me!  And isn't afraid to show it.  Get Smart is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time, and I was so pumped that Anne Hathaway pulled off 99 the way she did.  I thought it was perfect.  I like that she looks normal.  She is gorgeous in an unconventional way.

I just wanted you all to know that Anne Hathaway is a-w-e-s-o-m-e.

The Glass Office

In the summer I work at my city's pool.  The job itself is very boring -- I'm a cashier and literally, I answer the phone and take people's money and don't let people swim without a bathing suit.  Because, you know, it makes perfect sense to come to a public pool WITHOUT a bathing suit.

Anyhow, resulting from our boredom, we decided to make our own version of The Office.  It took me this long to sit down and figure out how to convert the files from .wmv to .mov, but I succeeded finally and threw them together on Final Cut Express.  They are not what I would call good, because of limited time and resources, but I would call them entertaining.

I hope you enjoy these.  However, if you have never seen/don't like "The Office" you might not understand the humor and therefore will not find it funny.  

I should explain the title.  It is called "The Glass Office" because the main office where our bosses work is enclosed in glass so they can see the entire pool deck.  We call it the Glass Office.  So, yeah.  That's that.

I should explain that some events are for real.  Kathy really is our boss.  The bird trapped in the building was real, and Kathy seriously did name it Morgan Freebird and try to lure it out with a crumbled up ice cream cone.  I have about 15 minutes of footage of this.  How lucky was I that I had the camera right next to me when a stupid bird flew in the door?  The audio for that part is actually really funny because my sister starts screaming at Kathy not to put the cone on the floor because my sister is the one who will have to sweep it up, but it doesn't fit with the overall tone of the show so I had to do VO.

But the rest of it Kathy and I did write.  On some occasions we sat in the girls' locker room and tried to think of the funniest situations that could possibly happen and they all had to do with Vince, the pool supervisor, who we all agreed would not want to take part in this endeavor.  So we included him in a controversial drawing.  

I should also point out that almost all of this footage was shot when there were no swimmers or only 2 or 3 swimmers.  We would never purposely put people in danger for the sake of a movie.  The only exceptions are scenes that Kathy is not in.  I shot many of my talking heads during peak hours, but since I see everyone that comes in and out and am not responsible for saving lives, I figured it was okay.  There are many occasions where we stayed after hours and shot scenes off the clock just because we genuinely loved it!

I probably won't work there again this summer because I have to get a "real job", but I will show up there to shoot season 2 for sure.  

Hogwarts Live

OK, so I know I make a big deal about HogwartsLive.com.  Basically, in a nutshell, it's a text-based Harry Potter RPG [role-playing game] in which you can chat with other players and kill creatures in the forest and gain experience and defeat Voldemort.  Why is it so addicting?  Because it's what I call an active time waster.

Facebook can only be so active.  Commenting on photos, statuses, walls, etc., you are only talking to one person at a time.  HogwartsLive is weird because there's a chat in which a lot of VERY different people participate -- and they think about the game in various ways.  Some people see it as a way to make friends.  I don't, because I have RL (real-life) friends.  In fact, 4 of my real-life friends are on HogwartsLive which I will refer to now as HL.  My goal is to get to 200+ Voldemort encounters and get a Ford Anglia as my mount.  But others don't see it that way.  I have the sneaking suspicion that many HL players have very few real-life friends and a disproportionate amount of HL friends.  My evidence is that people who have been on HL for a smaller amount of time than me have waaaaay more Voldemort Encounters than I do, and seem to take HL "drama" much more seriously than I do.  This can only be because they are on a crazy amount more time than me, because I am on a decent amount and I rarely chat, I usually just fight in the forest.

However, I am relatively hated on HL because of the way I chat.  I make fun of almost everyone on there because of how seriously they take the drama.  I like to cause the drama because it's funny as hell.  If I am out of forest fights and have nothing else to do, I will be contrary to anything anyone says on HL just to start a fight.

Because what is the fun in an online RPG if everyone loves each other?

New cousins = joy.

So, I have a LOT of cousins.  My dad has 6 brothers and sisters and he is the youngest.  His older brother Tom is 23 years older than him and was married and had a daughter before my dad was born.  My dad has a total of 56 nieces and nephews:  19 nieces and nephews and the rest are great- or great-great. I just had to make an Excel spreadsheet to count them all and make sure I didn't forget anyone.  My mom has 11 nieces and nephews, 3 of those are great-.

So my sister and I have 67 cousins.  And let me tell you, one of my favorite hobbies is getting new cousins.  I like to try to brainwash them into telling everyone that Janelle is their favorite cousin.  Usually it works for a few years until they wise up.  Kids usually like me, which is cool because there's a freakin' ton of them around ALL THE TIME.

My cousin and blog-friend Karin is having another bebe!  I'm so excited because her son Liam is awesome.  I watch him on YouTube all the time.  They live in Chicago so I don't see them as much as I would like to, so YouTube is wonderful for that.  I'm saddened because I will be in England when this bebe is born.  I just hope that she posts a lot about the bebe in her blog because I love getting new cousins!  This one will be hard to brainwash from across the Atlantic so I will have to find a new tactic or learn telepathy over long distances.