Archive for the ‘Let Me Tell You About My Life’ Category

The Hobbit Reawakens An Obsessive Fangirl, and I Couldn’t Be More Thrilled

Have you missed me? Don’t get excited, the blatant blog sabotage perpetrated by any combination of these suspects has yet to be foiled! Alas, I am writing to you from the public library. Seriously, you know my love of public libraries, but if you want to see desperate and sad, Friday afternoon at the library study tables is it. Everyone looks hella depressed, like they’re not sure what life decisions brought them to this point. Maybe I do too, who can say? I’m sure we each have a story to tell. Though no one is going to beat mine for excitement, since I have a villain with an evil laugh and a case of stolen identity (or split personality?). Yeah, I’m really taking advantage of my ability to link while not having to type out the html on my phone, whatever.

Steven has supposedly traced the issue and has moved to the “procrastinating talking on the phone” stage of the process (the longest in any process since Steven fears all human contact). And maybe he’s been a bit distracted lately because, oh yeah, WE WENT TO THE HOBBIT AT MIDNIGHT LAST NIGHT!!!!

Steven almost had to sit next to someone wearing fake elf ears, THAT’s how much we wanted to see this!!

I admit, I was skeptical. As you may or may not know, I was obsessed with the Lord of the Rings movies when they came out in high school. I saw Fellowship of the Ring 11 times in theaters!! That’s MORE THAN A DAY OF MY LIFE, y’all. I can’t really explain that, and I was nervous that The Hobbit could never live up to my insanely high 15-year-old expectations. Because even if it was good, nothing is as good as when you’re an obsessive 15-year-old fangirl, right?

WRONG!!! SO GOOD!!! I even think I liked it better than the original three? As this io9 review points out, the themes and characters of The Hobbit are much more human and relateable than the sprawling, world war majesty of the The Lord of the Rings. Martin Freeman plays Bilbo with just the right mixture of hesitation, courage, selfishness, and heroism that makes him seem entirely human (even though he is a hobbit, of course!) but also admirable. I know it makes me a bad librarian, but I’ve always liked Peter Jackson’s movies more than the books they’re based on. I just feel like he does a better job of telling a cohesive, understandable story with characters I can understand. Whenever I have this discussion with Steven, he’s always like “Well, but if you read The Silmarillion…”, to which I always respond, “Shut up! I should not have to slog through hundreds of pages of dense symbolic afterthought to understand the original story.” Which maybe makes me lazy, but whatever. I think the movies are better storytelling. Especially this movie.

I think a lot of the comparison that comes up in The Hobbit‘s favor stems from my dislike of Frodo. He’s just so whiny and kind of tiresome. I get that the Ring is hard to carry Frodo, but there are only so many long, drawn-out shots of you looking consumptive and yearning that I can take before I lose patience and scream “BRING BACK DIRTY UNSHAVEN ARAGORN ALREADY!” Thankfully, I didn’t have any of these moments of annoyance in The Hobbit, probably because Bilbo is awesome, and Movie!Bilbo whines less than Book!Bilbo, to the best of my recollection.

I know people are complaining that it’s just “three hours of Gimli and Gandalf”, but, guys, that is like my DREAM. Twelve gimlis+Hot Thorin+snarky Gandalf the Grey+not a Legolas in sight??? That is the equation for my perfect movie, and we haven’t even talked about Radagast the Brown!! It was hard for me to imagine Sylvestor McCoy doing the whole dirty forest wizard thing, because my only exposure to him in the past is as Doctor Who in the late 80s, but he was the perfect blend of whimsical, ridiculous, and then, just occasionally, DEADLY SERIOUS.

Steven was pleased about how they incorporated a lot of the songs, but not in a cheesy, annoying way like in the animated Hobbit movie (okay, maybe “cheesy” and “annoying” are my words, not his), and I enjoyed laughing at how amazingly posed Galadriel always looks, like maybe her ring of power gives her the ability to arrange the folds of her impractically long dresses just so whenever anyone looks at her. Also, all the dwarves got personalities!! And ridiculous facial hair that I wish real life had more of because please braid your beards, hipsters, I will love you so much more.

I also don’t really see this as a shameless money grub like most people. I mean, obviously money is definitely a factor. They wouldn’t be making them if they didn’t think you would see it. But it’s not like the last Twilight movie where they turn no plot into two movies just because. As Peter Jackson proved with the trilogy, each book could have easily made a six hour movie, and I like that we get more back story and information from the appendices than could have been included in one movie, or even was just in the one book. I like how Peter Jackson always seems to be looking at the Middle Earth mythology as a whole and working to tie that together, whether it’s providing a better explanation for things (like where Gandalf is always disappearing to, or who the Necromancer is) or cutting out some of the distracting shit that makes no sense (Tom Fucking Bombadil. I hate you and am glad you’re gone. Yeah, I said it. That’s what happens when you’re a blatant Mary Sue that speaks in annoying rhyme). Movies are necessarily a new format anyway, and I’m often a little disappointed when a movie just mindlessly mirrors the books without providing any insight or utilizing the visual storytelling format more. The book already has illustrations, the movie should at least try to be its own work.

Admittedly, I did not see it in 3D, because I hate 3D and refuse to pay more money for something that makes me feel ill. So your mileage may vary on this entirely shameless outpouring of joy. Also you might not like it as much if you don’t have any magic in your soul. I mean, I can’t help you there.

I tried to find a picture for you of High School Me dressed as Gandalf or something (you know how I love wizards), but there’s nothing on my laptop and, like I said, I’m at the library. I’ll look when I get home and try to upload it from my phone or something ridiculous. BLOG SABOTAGE WILL NOT STOP ME!!!

Can you see this? I can’t

So I haven’t been able to access my blog since last Thursday. It just won’t load on any device on my home internet connection, wired or not (I’m typing this on my phone–it’s exactly as fun as you would expect). Steven says it’s probably a problem with some data center between our ip and whatever and I stopped listening to his explanation around then because all I heard was “Blah blah blah SOMEONE IS TRYING TO SABOTAGE YOU”. There are so many suspects. Let me see if I can format a list on this graspin interface:

Plaid Pladd’s Most Wanted
1. Brian Reinhart
Ugh I was going to link you to my Brian tag (“brian is a weather witch”) or maybe his blog but inserting a link is like a million times harder on my phone, so that is all you’re getting. Just know that Brian is often my nemesis (link to something about NaNoWriMo would go here) and one time lied to me about IKEA free meatballs. Clearly he is just jealous of my blog and wants to bring it down!!! Just because you don’t care enough to update your blog ever doesn’t mean you have to drag the rest of us down to your level, BRIAN.

2.Bova
Does that link even work? Whatever, my blog has a search function that everyone not me can utilize right now so you can find Bova if you want. She’s another suspect who I assume might be jealous of my blogging prowess. Plus she has a mystery commenter on her blog that she assumes is me, so she may be trying to get misguided payback? Misguided because it’s totally not me. Seriously, if I could make links or insert screen caps right now I would build my case in great detail since being mistaken for Mysterious Commenter is hurting my rep in more ways than potential Bova reprisals. Like I would ever listen to Cake? Or brag about what I’m listening to at the end of my comments like someone’s livejournal from 2002? I mean, I can see why the correct spelling and punctuation might make me an obvious choice, but other people care about grammar. Namely, old people, so I’m personally betting on Dr. Dodds. Send your internet attacks to H-Town, Bova, I am your friend!

3. Caitlin
Caitlin is another blogging friend who has expressed envy in the past about my amazing blog and all of the fabulous spam comments it generates. Caitlin seems kind of busy right now so she probably doesn’t have time for l33t internet hax but maybe that is JUST WHAT SHE WANTS ME TO THINK.

4. James Fox (one of them)
Awhile ago two people each claiming to be James Fox commented on my NaNoWriMo post. Or one person creating an elaborate fake fight with themself for some reason. Whatever, the point is, one or both of them trash talked me a year in advance for NaNoWriMo 2013 so maybe SOMEONE is having a hard time coping with the fact that I dominated at our annual competition again this year. Not cool, Fox or possibly Imposter!Fox. Not cool.

5. Steven Wiggins
Steven Wiggins is doing absolutely NOTHING to fix this dire situation despite the fact that he has also lost access to his personal email which is hosted on the same server or something. Is this complacency just the mark of someone too tired from slaving away in the website mines everyday to care about my blog troubles? OR is this the nefarious work of someone who can’t stand to hear about Sam Neill anymore????

6. Sam Neill
Dude, you should be THANKING me! I have raised Sam Neill Awareness among my immediate social circle by like 300%!!! Most of my family can now recognize you on sight and no one has confused you with Hugo Weaving in like three months. I’m sorry I sometimes make fun of your outfits or complain that you are in way too many Australian history pieces, but it is just my way. Mocking things is the only way I know how to show love. And hate. It gets kind of confusing, but for you it’s love, I swear!

7. Dark Wizards
You can never be too careful.

Anyway, since I have no idea how long this problem will persist and doubt that I will have the patience to actually leave my apartment and find somewhere else to Internet, please enjoy I Detonate Around Him, a tumblr James, Steven, and I started to make fun of 50 Shades of Grey.

November Apology

It’s time again for my annual November Apology for being bad at updating. I like to blame NaNoWriMo for this, but recent evidence suggests the problem goes further back. For instance, of the 14 years I’ve kept a journal, November is easily my least prolific month. May, the month during which I’ve written the most entries, has twice as many.

Of course I made a chart, do you even know me?

In fact, of the seven days on which I have never written a journal entry, 3 (or 43%) are in November:

Also a bunch of them are on the 6th for some reason.

So clearly this problem dates back to 1998, way before I ever heard of NaNoWriMo. Incidentally, since I know you’re curious, the date I’ve written the most journal entries (7) on, is a tie between February 6th and October 17th:

Anyway, this year is my 5th doing NaNoWriMo, so it’s a little less exciting. I write a lot, so I’m pretty good at churning out the required word limit every day. I decided to try to spice things up by writing a Pick Your Own Adventure novel, complete with so many grisly death scenes. This is more complicated and confusing, but actually makes it easier to write a lot of words. I’m already three days ahead.

The green bar is James

He was ahead of me, until the third day, and then never regained his lead. YOU CAN DO IT JAMES JUST GOTTA BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! In case you don’t remember why this is important:

Come on, James, if you can learn the Hoedown Throwdown, you can do this

Anyway, in the meantime, I managed to make a peach slump:

Peach and berry!

Slumps are kind of weird. I like that they don’t require an oven, and therefore seem like less work, but the way the biscuit topping is steamed in the pot on top of the fruit instead of baked gives it a weird consistency that Steven hated and I was just kind of meh about. Probably will not be slumping it again!

Also, this is the tree outside my window right now!!!

Fall!!! I love you!!!

So, yeah, I have stuff going on. Expect reports on how I am still MASTER OF MY OWN THANKSGIVING soon!

The Best Cider Ever

Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary! I prepared a delicious feast of warm things, because it was really cold and raining outside.

Anyway, one of the recipes I found was a four hour slow cooker apple cider recipe! If you have a slow cooker, there’s no reason not to try this. If you don’t have one, how do you eat on weekdays? You could probably also make it in a pot on the stove.

First you take about 8 cups of cider from the store and put it in your slow cooker with six sticks of cinnamon:

I may have pretended they were olympic divers as I threw them in

Then you take an orange, poke holes in it with a toothpick, and fill those holes with cloves!

The weirdness of how it looked and felt was only eclipsed by its weirdness after cooking

Then cook on low for four hours, until it smells delicious and you’re super cold!

Steven had his with rum and a cinnamon stick, but I went for plain.

But there was nothing plain about it! Delicious and spicy and warming from the inside out! This is a recipe I will definitely be making again. Like maybe everyday this winter? We’ll see.

Also, since it was our anniversary, we finally lit this cool Halloween candle we got as a present! The spooky skeleton bride and groom seem perfect, but the best part is the red insides that drip down gradually like blood!

So romantic!!! And gross

Way more exciting than eating freezer burned cake!

James’ Visit + Patriciagenda Update!!

After a week, I’m proud to report that James Fox and I have crossed 28 items off the Patriciagenda!! That means that (for the moment) we’ve actually accomplished over half of the total 118 items on the Patriciagenda (62 complete vs. 56 incomplete). But, like the Constitution, the Patriciagenda is a hallowed, living document designed to change with the times, so I’m sure that statistic will be invalid soon enough. Here’s what we were able to accomplish this week!!

21. Read through our script!!! (any of them!)

This year our script was probably 1/4 montages

46. Play Liebrary
75. Find Alana the best North Carolina present!!!
76. Go to a bunch of free museums!!!

Including the one-room Cary History Museum!!

78. Umstead Park!
79. Canoeing??
82. HEYEAHYEAHYEAH!!!!
83. Mellow Mushroom Pizza
84. James and Patricia both dare to try Gummy Bear Juice to see if it makes them bounce/defeat ogres

Also, we met some statues

85. Condiment-themed servery challenge! (more on this later)
87. Creepy cemetery visit!!!
88. CORN MAZE!!!!
90. Visit Steven at Work!!!
91. Cause all kinds of drama

Punch You In The Face Bike levels of drama!

92. COLOR!!!!
94. Get James pumped for NaNoWriMo in a training montage!!!!
96. HIPSTER HOTDOGS!!!
97. James asserts his dominance over the fancy coke machine at hipster hot dogs

James could assert his dominance over anything

98. Find Toby a birthday present to celebrate his becoming a man in the eyes of the National Alcoholic Beverage Control Association
99. Patricia punches someone in her knitting class
100. Go on a hike!!!! Pretend we are Lewis and Clark (I CALL LEWIS!!!!)

James, naming everything in sight after him/William Clark

Me, failing to climb some rocks and lying on the floor instead, just like Meriwether Lewis

104. Prank calls with Rob!!!! (or TO Rob?)
105. Dramatically throw something into the sea/a body of water
107. Call people we know; sing to them
113. Name the scary giant spider to appease it

I dub thee, Shelob Jr.

115. Dessert Dip!
116. Mustache Consultation Session with Steven
118. Draw self-portraits!!!

Bam! We’re awesome

Patriciagenda

Happy Friday, friends, frenemies, and spambots!

I don’t have time to write much because my BFF James Fox is coming to visit today!!!! No doubt I will soon bring you tales of our dramatic exploits. An important part of any James Fox visit is The Patriciagenda, a magical document kind of like the fabled List from way back at the beginning of this blog. The Patriciagenda currently has 114 items on it, and I usually print it out (or at least the ones we’ve yet to accomplish) and tape it to the wall to give us motivation to be completely awesome at every waking moment. Yes, the Patriciagenda can be exhausting, but it is always worth it. Here are some things we may or may not be able to accomplish in the next few days:

2. BOY BAND (writing? singing?) CONTEST
16. Dictate a novel while playing Just Dance just to show James it can be done
20. Find the Holy Grail. Drink Cheerwine from it.
25. MIDNIGHT MILKSHAKES
30. Destroy-a-bear!!!!
90. Decide which of the three corn mazes is the best
91. Visit Steven at work!!! Cause all kinds of drama
94. Get James pumped for NaNoWriMo in a training montage!!!
100. Go on a hike!!! Pretend we are Lewis and Clark (I CALL LEWIS!!!)
101. Take cyberbullying old school with postal bullying
105. Dramatically throw something into the sea
108. Celebrate Rice’s Centennial; do something for the glory of the R-Man

Get ready for adventure!!!

I always am!

Regressing: First Grade Journal Game!

Okay, I lied when I said we were done going through the archive of my life. Because I just found my first grade journal! It’s really short, and mostly pictures.

Once again, awesome cover design provided by Fairfax County Public Schools

I guess because writing is super hard in 1st grade, the format of this journal is: blank space for a picture on top, giant lines for words on the bottom. Each entry is clearly written from a one word prompt, probably written on the board, judging by my strange ability to spell it correctly, unlike every other word. Since I numbered my sentences and occasionally broke up the accompanying picture page so as to illustrate each one, I’m pretty sure we had a minimum requirement of five or eight or something (it seems to change randomly).

Anyway, I’m glad there are pictures, because my spelling is so much worse than last time. Not that the pictures are always obvious. See if you can guess the topic of the following. And *bonus points* if you can guess the one I drew this morning just to fool you! Click the pictures if you want a bigger image, and answers after the cut.

#1

I like how the sun’s expression changes.

#2

#3

#4

At least I tried to give you a hint by labeling that one (badly)

#5

This one is the only entry without a sticker on, which I assume means I failed:

#6

And here’s the hardest to guess, probably because the subject is a little more abstract:

#7

Ready for the answers?: Read the rest of this entry »

The Supper Club Tour

Music seems to happen to me by accident.

Like a lot of things that everyone else seems to know about effortlessly, I stopped trying to keep up somewhere around eighth grade. Before that, I’d dutifully bought NSYNC and Backstreet Boys cds, learning their names so I could participate in “Who’s hotter?” conversations at lunch. But after awhile I fell further and further behind until it didn’t seem to be worth the effort to pretend anymore. I never listened to the radio. As with make up and celebrities, the effort of blending in with everyone else just didn’t seem worth it, so I quit. Defiantly. I guess you have to do something defiantly when you’re 15, and I defiantly read the complete works of Charles Dickens instead of watching MTV. I know, what an exciting rebellion! I guess I didn’t realize that most people rebel against their parents instead of their peers.

Anyway, since I wasn’t seeking it out, most music comes to me completely by accident. My favorite band in high school was a folk-rock band from New Foundland who play sea shanties with electric guitars. I only discovered them by mistakenly downloading the wrong song one night (Don’t worry, Great Big Sea, I’ve bought enough of your albums since to more than make up for this small crime). Things got a little better–or at least more normal–when I went to college and had to contend with the peer-pressuring juggernaut that is Rob, convincing me to listen to his favorite songs until I liked them to, through familiarity. I never minded so much, really, although I think my lack of strong opinions about music has made some people question my sincerity. Am I really just agreeing to anything because I lack a strong personality? Am I pretending? For some reason it’s harder to believe that someone could be musically ambivalent. Why do I have to have strong and narrow musical tastes if I’m not required to have much of an opinion about cars or curtains? I don’t know, but I’ve accepted that to most people it makes me pretty weird.

So here is the story of probably my greatest musical-acquisition accident. I think it was my senior year at Rice, maybe in the fall of 2008. I was walking through the Rice Memorial Center with some time between classes, but not enough to actually do anything constructive. I was contemplating buying a smoothie. I noticed the ballroom was full of tables because KTRU, the Rice student radio station, was having a cd sale. I went in because I wanted one of their bumper stickers. I wasn’t interested in any of the cds–KTRU’s musical tastes have never really interested me.

Mission accomplished, by the way. I put it where I put all stickers.

I didn’t own a radio, so I’d only had a few opportunities to decide this, but even I with my eclectic taste didn’t really feel like owning “Experimental Didgeridoo Concertos” or “Mozart played entirely with sounds from nature” or whatever it is KTRU plays (played? I’ve heard they are no more, maybe because of this). Still, while I was there, I might as well look, and maybe I would like something KTRU was getting rid of for being not weird enough, right? There was no way to actually listen to the tables of CDs they had, so I was judging primarily based on cover art. As a librarian, you’d think I’d be against this, but I actually do it all the time. We all do. Here’s the cover art that I’m glad caught my eye:

The Silver City by Jeremy Messersmith

I don’t know what it was about this. Maybe the fact that it looked sort of like a children’s book. For whatever reason, I bought it. It was a pay-whatever-you-want type of fundraiser, so I think I paid a dollar. I didn’t know who Jeremy Messersmith was, what he looked like, anything about him. Only later would I discover that we have Minneapolis in common, which only made me love him more. At the time, though, all I had was his music. And for the rest of the year I woke up to it every morning. It’s the perfect thing to wake up to: soft, mostly acoustic, a little bit sad. Here’s one of my favorites:

It’s amazing how waking up to Jeremy Messersmith everyday can improve your mood! Anyway, he’s going on tour soon and actually coming to North Carolina, so maybe I will get to see him in person! If he finds a host, that is. See, this tour is the Supper Club Tour, which is probably the greatest idea in all of music history ever. From the website:

This fall I’ll be embarking on a solo house show tour.

There’s one thing though-I want you to bring food to share! I want to try your best, most mouthwatering dishes- the kind passed down through battered cookbooks, the recipes you’ve sworn to keep secret.

Yes!!! I am so into this concept!! I love trying other people’s favorite recipes and sharing my own! Plus, I am usually the most awkward concert attender ever. It’s like I don’t know how to sit still and just listen, probably because I’m only used to listening to music while doing something else (driving, cooking, cleaning, working out, writing). This idea sounds like the perfect solution! If I lived in a suitably-sized house instead of a tiny apartment you can bet I would be volunteering to host in a hot second! Even if I don’t get to go to one of the events, I love that this is a thing! So I thought I would spend today informing you that something awesome is happening in the world. In case you hadn’t realized.

If you’re interested: all of his albums are currently pay-whatever-you-want downloads! I’m surprised to see he also has his latest album available for real-life purchase on CD, vinyl, AND cassette. So hipster right now! But also awesome.

And here’s a song about Tatooine amazingly stop-motion animated with paper cut outs:

Site and contents are © 2009-2024 Patricia Ladd, all rights reserved. | Admin Login | Design by Steven Wiggins.