gryffindorseeker's imagination journal.

so i failed NaNoWriMo, but i did end up with a 40,000 word piece of mediocrity masquerading as a novella. it was a good experience and i learned many valuable lessons, at any rate.

[edit: i posted a lengthy tidbit from the upcoming wg chapter on my hpff forums blog. it's here, or if the link doesn't work, it's entitled Hello Blogosphere. and it's in the general list thing.]

fuck it, i know i just blogged a few days ago, but this warrants its own post.

'Arrested Development' film gets closer, says The Hollywood Reporter.


squee!!

The "Arrested Development" feature has moved closer to reality, with Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard reportedly closing deals for the long-gestating project from Imagine and Fox Searchlight.

reportedly closing deals?? and mitch hurwitz is going to write the screenplay and maybe direct with help from ron howard???

oh happy day!! finally, FINALLY, the arrested development movie is moving from myth to reality! if (when?) this unquestionably prolific film hits theaters, i am going to scream and squeal and giggle like a twilight fangirl every time jason bateman comes onscreen and when george-michael and maeby inevitably kiss and when tobias pulls his analrapist stocking over his head! (note: that's anahlrapist, a contraction of analyst/therapist)

considering that they've already had charlize theron, ben stiller, liza minelli, carl weathers, henry winkler, et al., i wonder what famous hollywood stars they'll get to co-star in the movie!

let's play "guess what movie roger ebert is reviewing!"

Should a woman fall in love with a man because he desires her so much? Men seem to think so. It's not about the woman, it's about the man's desire. [...] [At its core, this movie is] about two good-looking kids who want each other so much because they want each other so much. Sometimes that's all it's about, isn't it? They're in love with being in love.

while you mull it over, watch this video of suburban youths hurling compliments at pedestrians:



that was dickishly charming. okay, ready to hear the title of the mystery movie?

twilight. but roger does concede that the movie is "lush and beautiful" and well-cast, and that robert pattinson "is not unaware of how handsome he is."

it's official: everyone has jumped on the "r.pattz is smexy" bandwagon except me.

i know i rag on twilight a lot and i genuinely don't want to offend anyone, what with its small and generally dispassionate fan base,* but this franchise is EVERYWHERE and it's driving me CRAZY. maybe i love to hate twilight as much as bella & edward love to love each other, but roger's first quote sums up what i don't like about the story. that and its racist portrayl of native americans. (to be fair, twilight does better than pocahontas. have i ranted about how disney brainwashes kids with its racist and misogynistic agendas, in addition to taking all of the cool violence out the films based on fairy tales and all of the fact out of those based upon history?)

in other news, we gryffies will probably be pushed further back because i won't even be able to begin writing it until mid to late december. i know i suck and that this post is just full of happy thoughts, but i presume you'd all prefer honesty to false promises. also, i'm having a rare "i hate the world" sort of day. later, biznitches.

*tee hee, that's meiosis!†
†and that's sarcasm!‡
‡which is original!§
§now i'm just being obnoxious.‖
‖shame on you if you didn't catch the dr. horrible reference.

dear log,

it is Day 11 of National Novel Writing Month (i.e. NaNoWriMo) and much to everyone's surprise, i have not quit yet. this is my first attempt EVER at an original piece of fiction and it's going almost well. in fact, the thing i like the least about my novel is its title (The Wicked Witch of West Hollywood) which i am thinking of replacing with something like Seurat's Monkey (which makes sense if you read the narrative, i promise). my NaNo page is here, if you want to friend me or laugh at my pitiful word count.

i am so sorry that i am so behind with answering reviews, i really am. please don't be offended if it takes me several weeks to respond to your review(s), but NaNo + school are both absolutely killing me right now. i think i have a decent track record of responding to reviews overall, so please bear with me during this masochistic month of november.

hmm, i don't have any fun stories to share, since NaNo sort of dominates your life by necessity. everyone seemed to like the story about my english teacher from a few posts ago, so i'll make a list of the many life lessons he has taught us. (we haven't learned as much about literature, sadly - he spent the first HOUR of yesterday's class on various tangents. they were entertaining, but the class is only an HOUR AND TWENTY MINUTES long.)

13 life lessons i've learned in english class this semester:

1. your life is meaningless. there is no higher power, there is no afterlife, and karl marx was right when he said that "religion is the opium of the masses." (this went over REALLY well considering that 95% of my class is RELIGIOUS.)
2. all white people should feel guilty for the genocide of native americans and the rape of their culture. (this also went over well considering that 100% of my class is WHITE, including our TEACHER.)
3. never follow the directions for daily contact lenses - don't throw them out and wear them until they start to hurt or get sucked behind your eyeball. (you'll save a fortune!)
4. watch out for your australian buddy from graduate school - he is probably secretly dating your little sister and will probably marry her one day. (this was actually a cute story.)
5. suburbia is just an outlet for men to prove their masculinity, by having the greenest, most well-maintained lawn in the neighborhood. men are always trying to prove their masculinity.
   
6. a subaru outback wagon is not effeminate. not compared to a minivan.
7. bono and aragorn are the two ideals all men should aspire to.
8. you can never read ernest j. gaines's "a lesson before dying" too many times or feel too guilty for racism/segregation/slavery, if you are a white person.
9. if you want to make a woman fall in love with you, leave shakespearean sonnets in her mailbox. if this doesn't work, she is obviously a robot. (only 10% of our class is male, but i suppose that statistically, some of the girls are gay.)
10. if you want to make a woman think you're perverted, leave a copy of john donne's "the flea" in her mailbox. (personally, i prefer donne to shakespeare, but maybe i'm a perverted robot.)
11. there are three different kinds of moles, and all are bad.
12. don't buy your children toys. they will pick a stick they found in the woods over a store-bought toy every time.
13. the most effective way to kill the animal variety of mole is not by poison or guillotine, but by beating it with a stick.

and this guy isn't even the weirdest teacher i've ever had - far from it. see why i always write weird characters? either i'm surrounded by weird people, or just notice the weirdness more than other people do...

hi guys!! i have not been blogging much...i actually started a blog at the hpff forums, but i sort of like this one better...it's colorful and stuff...

i figured i'd let you all know that i hope to post we gryffies ch. 22 by halloween...it's half done at this point, but i'm participating in nanowrimo which means that if i don't give up on writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, i won't be able to update wg until december. and that's no good, hence my manic panic to finish ch. 22 by the end of october.

since i have no shame in pimping tv shows that i love, i think i'll do that now. i have recently discovered It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Skins, which are both AWESOME.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is the funniest show on television today, i am convinced. it also might be the most "offensive," but i don't necessarily agree with that. it simply tackles topics that other shows are afraid to. (for example, the first two episodes are titled "the gang gets racist" and "charlie wants an abortion.") it has also been hailed as "Seinfeld on crack," which i think is also misleading: Always Sunny attains a level of sophisticated humor that Seinfeld never even attempted. (and i like Seinfeld!) Always Sunny is about a group of misanthropes who run an irish bar in south philly (i suppose i'll watch any show that takes place in an irish bar...The Black Donnellys, anyone?) and get into the craziest shenanigans you ever did see. while it isn't exactly a groundbreaking show, the acting and writing are excellent. note: it's on FX so they do swear, and this show isn't for everyone. if you're easily offended (personally, it takes a LOT to offend me), then you might not like Always Sunny, and i would feel really bad for recommending it. but if you're bored and in the mood for giggles, it's on hulu. (also: it's rated MA so children probably shouldn't watch it...)

also, charlie kelly is the greatest character on television today. (the passionate passionate night man!)

all you brits out there are probably like, "wow, you must've been living under a rock if you haven't heard of Skins" and to that i reply, "no one in america has even heard of Skins!!" except now i have and am catching up on all the episodes. like how i will watch any show that takes place in an irish bar, i am also inclined to watch shows with lots of swearing. (and on Skins they drop the f-bomb, which they can't on Always Sunny!) simply put, Skins is a teen dramedy that makes the kids on The O.C. look like saints. (e.g. they drink and do drugs and other bad things.) but, unlike absolute crap such as 90210, Skins is well-written and makes you actually care about the characters. (however, i might just think it's clever because the kids talk with english accents.) anyway, it's smart and compelling and almost provides an accurate portrayal of teenage life. (not that i was as cool or badass as these kids when i was in high school, but i KNEW people who were this bad.) again, this show probably isn't for everyone (if you're disgusted by Gossip Girl, Skins is possibly more nefarious), but if you like indulgent television then you might enjoy Skins.

also, i'm still catching up on all the episodes, but sid is the most adorable bespectacled character ever.

i'm such a tv dork, but that's okay. hopefully we gryffies will be done soon, and in the interim check out Always Sunny and Skins. (or not...particularly if you consider Two and a Half Men to be cutting edge programming.)

neil patrick harris + some other guy, singing les misérables:



i heart nph. i was obsessed with watching doogie howser reruns when i was five, i love harold & kumar, and i LOVE dr. horrible. when faced with adversity, i say to myself, "what would nph do?"

it's almost 4 am so i find this reeeally entertaining. oh, and wg is updated.

this is potentially worse than her inability to name a single newspaper.

2:02 mark:

Katie Couric: Why, in your view, is Roe v. Wade a bad decision?

Gov. Palin: I think it should be a states issue, not a federal government-mandated [pause] mandating yes or no on such an important issue. Uh, in that sense I’m a federalist, where I believe that states should have more say in the laws of their lands and individual areas.

who remembers the federalist papers from high school history class? the ones written by "publius" (a.k.a. james madison, alexander hamilton, and sometimes thomas jefferson) advocating a strong central government, where states have less say in the laws of their lands and individual areas?

d'you think she meant "new federalist," which means the exact opposite of federalist? you see, this complete 180 in the definition of the word is a fairly recent development, spurred almost exclusively by the prominence of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, an association of libertarian lawyers counting among its members the appointees john ashcroft, michael chertoff, and justices scalia, roberts, and thomas.

maybe sarah palin is trying to keep us on our toes. maybe she does read every newspaper in the world every day and knows that there's a secret new definition of "federalist" that is the opposite of the definition that we learn in school!

maybe not. she can't even name one supreme court case other than roe v. wade. and that doesn't count, because roe v. wade was part of the prompt.

joe biden, i could kiss you!