Videos worth watching: Marching band edition

So, I am a fan of marching bands. I have friends in them, and I great respect for what they do.

The other day, I came across what just might be the coolest half time show ever. And I mean that.

Ohio state university is widely considered one of the best marching bands in the world, and this video only adds fuel to the fire. It is really remarkable what these guys and gals pull off.

~Elessar

Politics, the VP debate

Well, one thing is for sure, this debate is not as clear cut as the first presidential debate was. It seemed to me almost like a cat fight at times! Here are my goods and bads for each man:

Ryan: He hit the jobs point home really well. Romney is a business man, and Ryan is an economist, they are jobs guys. I also like how respectful he was, much more so than Biden was. I think he handled himself very well, though he did say "I agree with you" to much.

Biden: he handled the foreign policy question very well. Some of what he said simply wasn't true, but that was his question, for sure. Now that I have said something nice about him, Joe Biden is an ass. The man was so disrespectful with all his chuckles and stupid smirks, I would be mad at any one doing that to anyone else. He also recited a number of flat out lies, about what Obama has and hasn't done, and Romney as well.

And don't even get me started on that abortion question. Joe Biden calling himself a catholic is an insult to Catholics everywhere. It is really quite simple, you cannot call yourself a catholic and agree with abortion in any way. I am actually against Ryan's "except in circumstances of rape, incest, and health of the mother." Why should an innocent child have to pay for what some a$$hole did to a poor woman? I realize the woman is traumatized, but that is no reason to kill a baby.

All in all, it was an interesting debate, and I must admit Biden did speak more eloquently than I thought he would. I may write some more about this for my catch of the day, but right now I am way to tired.



~Elessar

Thursday politics. HEADSUP

Hey guys, so I'm totally still planning to do my Thursday politics post. I just want to give you a heads up because it's going to be really late, as I want to talk about the VP debate.

So, expect my post half an hour or so after the debate ends. : D

~Elessar

First weekly meeting of BAA

Hi everyone, my name is Elessar, and I'm addicted to books.

My username is from Lord of the Rings (it is Aragorn's name, before they tell him he's Aragorn. It also means star in Elvish) my blog title is a combination of LotR and Harry Potter. I am a hardcore book addict.

Currently for school I am reading "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.

I read this book once before, and utterly hated it. I am not a huge fan of Charles Dickens in general, but this story of goings on in Paris and London during the French Revolution just seemed to go on forever.

Since then, I have fallen head over heals in love with the play/book "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo. That gave me a new interest in the French revolution, and now I am finding I can stomach ToTC much easier this second time around. I might even go so far as to say I and quite enjoying it.

~Elessar

Song of the day: Year 3000

This song literally represents the beginning of my tween/teenhood. The Jonas Brothers were my first major obsession, and this is the first time I ever heard them sing.

They wrote "Year 3000" for the soundtrack of the movie "Meet the Robinsons." The movie was so-so, but this song got me hooked. Not long after hearing it, I had every album the JoBros put out, not to mention pictures of them plastered all over my wall. One of the highlights of my life so far was attending a live Jonas Brothers concert.

I have fallen out of love with them as I grew older, but the Jonas Brothers, and this song in particular, will always be a gold star on the map of my childhood.

~Elessar

OH SNAP!

So, I just found out there is a ten thousand dollar scholarship for college students with quality blogs.

This is happening.

I am going to post once a day, on the following topics:
Monday: Life in My world (observations)
Tuesday: Song of the day
Wednesday: Weekly meeting of book addicts anonymous
Thursday: Politics
Friday: Videos worth watching
Saturday: A movie a day keeps the zombies away*
Sunday: Catch of the day (something random)

There will be a lot more detail than what it sounds like on that list, and I'm really excited. Gunning for this scholarship also means I'm going to try and get some more readers. We'll see how well that goes.

Here goes nothing!

~ Elessar

* Just a note, I did not make that phrase up, I saw a guy on tumblr who had a blog called that, and I liked it.

Feeling down?

So, given a number of stressors and other things, I have been feeling a little low lately. Naturally, I turned not to family or friends as most people would, but to books, movies and music. Here is my personal tears of joy/get happy playlist. Some are deep and moving, some are laugh out loud funny, and others... I'm entirely sure why some of these just give an automatic serotonin rush. But they do. And now I share them with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Through Heaven's Eyes

Happiest bit: "When all you got is nothing, there's a lot to go around."

Why: Well, first off, the entire movie "Prince of Egypt" is pretty amazing, and certainly gets me happy every time I watch it. This song in particular, is a beautiful and resounding reminder that you can never see how truly important you are to the world. God put you here for a reason, and whether you currently know it or not, you have a purpose, you are worth it.

Miss Congeniality

Best bit :"Man, with all this foil in my hair I'm getting HBO."

Why: This movie is just to darn funny. It's about a rough, tough, very tomboy-ish FBI agent who has to go under cover at a beauty pageant. I can't not laugh my head off every single time I watch this movie.

Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King

Best bit: "But you forgot one of the most important characters! Samwise the brave... Frodo wouldn't have gotten very far without him."

Why: It should be known that I can open any book with the title "Lord of the Rings" on it and be ecstatic in mere moments. The third book in the trilogy is especially wonderful because everything turns out just as it should. Happy endings, joyous but sad partings, and above all else, good triumphing over evil no matter what.

Carpe Diem

Best bit: "There's no such thing as just an ordinary day."

Why: first off, I should hope everyone knows carpe diem stands for "Seize the day." carpe diem was around centuries before that stupid effing phrase "Y.O.L.O." And it sounds cooler too. Phineas and Ferb just happened to put that loverly phrase to music, and it worked.

Amazing Grace

Best bit: "No one our age has ever been in parliament."

"Which is exactly why it must be now! We are to young to realize such things are impossible, so we will do them anyway!"

Why: This is the story of William Wilberforce, the man who gave his entire life in the pursuit of abolishing slavery in England. Wilberforce is played perfectly by Ian Gruffund, and this movie is a perfect example of the triumph of human spirit.

The Avengers

Best bit: "There's only one God ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

Why: come on, did you think I would write a post about what makes me happy and not include at least one superhero movie? It's loud it's action packed, it's wild, it's funny, it's the Avengers. 'nuff said.

The River Flows in You

Best bit: the whole song

Why: This is a very peaceful, pleasant tune, and it just makes me feel good.

My Curious Uncle Dudley

Best Bit: everything

Why: Just read it and thank me later.

Jump

Fun, loud, old school rock and roll, it's just a great song to blast.

Runnin' With the Devil

See explanation for Jump

The Dark Knight Rises

Best bit: Anyone can be a hero

Why: I have talked about this movie before. It just hits me. And it's actually a rather depressing movie at times, but every time I watched it I just come out satisfied and happy... and crying. Always crying.

Miracles

Best bit: "“Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature.” "

Why: I love Lewis's scientific, logical approach to talking the case for miracles. It's refreshing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alright, I'm sure I missed a few, but there is at least half of the list of stuff I got to when I need some happy time. 

Enjoy.

Movies and tv

So I have decided when I move out of the house eventually and into my own apartment I'm not gonna worry about cable for a while. I have a list of movies to long to copy here, and a handful of television series on DVD to get.
Angel
Firefly
Supernatural
True blood
Mad men
Vampire diaries
Alias
Oz
Once upon a time (all though this isn't on DVD yet)

So yeah, even though odds are I will get to a couple of these before I move out, cable will not be needed. For some time. I just need to make friends with the library.



~Peace out nerdyo

Heroes and Cliches

I'm going to try to write a post about how I feel about "The Dark Knight Rises." It's going to be hard, because this movie really impacted me. Odds are I'm going to stray a bit, because this post is also about the "hero" cliche. First, a few disclaimers.

1. I am going to talk about movies very seriously, to the point where most normal people would say "Yeah, your a dumbass."

2. I have always loved and will always love the cliched, stereotypical hero, so that's part of what fueled the post.

3. I am a Marvel girl through and through, but My favorite Super Hero ever has always been Batman.

So, I'm going to start with the basic reasons I liked the movie so much. And seeing as the listsseem to be helping me organize my thoughts, we're just going to stick with the format.

1. Hans Zimmer's score I certainly think is worthy of, at the very least, and Oscar nomination, if not the award.

2. I think Michael Caine deserves a supporting actor nomination for Alfred, he kinda stole the show in every scene he was in. Tom Hardy was pretty intense as well, his eyes were all you needed to see to understand the malice in his character.

3. Christian Bale... Ok, I love this dude period because he's a great guy, but I sincerely think he might very well have been made for this role. He has done such wonderful justice to the characters Batman and Bruce Wayne over the past three films, and his coup de gras was this film. He just owned it.

Ok, no for the hard part. This is probably just going to sound like rambling nonsense, but I have to get it out of me. Oh, and major spoiler alerts, if you haven't seen the movie you may not want to read on.





I have a problem with movies. I watch them all the time, I can watch a movie once and be able to quote nearly the entire movie. Because of this, I gravitate toward movies that have memorable quotes. My favorite quote from this movie is "Anyone can be a hero, even the man who puts his coat around a little boy's shoulders and telling him everything is going to be alright." Part of the reason I have always loved Batman is this principle. Batman always made sure no one could tell who he was, so he could be anyone. Batman was a symbol, not a person, and I love that. I also really loved the prison sequence, although I saw the whole "need to fear death, don't use a rope" thing coming as soon as they flashed back to the kid. I still loved that the prisoners chant "rise" whenever someone climbs, and Bruce hearing his father was beautiful. "Why do we fall? So we can get back up." I live by this phrase. For real. I literally bawled my eyes out the last twenty minutes of the movie. One place I nearly squealed with Joy and sadness was when Kyle was telling Batman that he'd given Gotham everything, and he simply said "Not yet." It was then you knew he was going to die. Now granted, if you are paying attention to how the story arc was going in the other two movies, you kinda knew Batman was going to die, but it was still a very intense moment when he flew out over the water. Then the end with Alfred in Europe, "I would look at you, and you would look at me, and we wouldn't say anything, but I would know you were happy." I could barely stand it. I think part of the reason I loved this movie so much is Batman is just the ultimate hero for me. He takes the fall for Dent's murder, because he knows that Gotham needs someone to love (Dent) and someone to hate (him) to feel right. The Dark Knight never gets any credit for all the good he has done for the city, and that just tugs at my heartstrings. I love Batman, everything about him. Because he's so humble. I just... My eyes are tearing up just writing this.

Ok, that felt good. I'm done.

have a graphic, on me.

Random writing prompt: an auto-biography

Time for another random writing prompt!

" imagine you are writing an auto-biography, what would the title, and table of contents be?"

Then I realized, God was probably laughing at me.
Table of contents
    1. My kind of town, Chicago is.
    2. Time for a little bro.
    3. Off to Wisconsin, or somewhere thereabouts
    4. Friends,homeschoolers, Wisconsonians, lend me your ear.
    5. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was highschool.
    6. I start getting political, theatrical, historical
    7. Then I realized, God was Probably laughing at me.
    8. What next?


I suppose the name bears some explanation. When I was younger, I used to play pretend all the time. I mean all. the. time. I would be everything from a medieval knight to a teacher/ student at Hogwarts. I was an elf who had fallen in love with Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. I did all kinds of stuff. I even do a lot of fantasizing these days, just coming up with ideas in my head to put myself into stories I like. Every once in a while I wonder if something I'm doing is bad, or blasphemous. I wonder if God might not like what I'm thinking.

Then I realized, God was probably laughing at me.

Randome tidbit

I was just looking through some tabloid the other day, and they were talking about looks, and they pointed to some guys I really don't find attractive. I think I've probably said it before, but I am way more into the stereotypical masculinity than what people are trying to push these days. Example time!

Masculine, beard, strong, hard jawline. Gorgeous.

Eh.

Don't get me wrong, Ian Sommerhalder is mighty attractive, He's just got slightly more feminine lines on his face. and no beard. te he.

On a side note, as can kind of be seen by my actor choice, I just started watching LOST. yesterday. And I'm on episode ten. It's officially and addiction.

That I will not be seeking help for.

controversial stuff

Ok, to be honest, I have mixed feelings about gay relationships. My religion says it's wrong, and I stand by it, but I don't think I will ever find myself arguing about it face to face with someone.

Abortion, though, I will argue abortion 'till the cows come home. I just had the misfortune of reading this article, and was almost physically sick, especially when I read the comments. One of the comments argued "It's whether YOU think it's a fetus or a baby that matters." How is human life a matter of opinion? How could anyone possibly rationalize that much?

I normally consider myself very good at civilized argumentation, but this just has me at a loss for words.

I am not a people person

I'm really not.

I work in the shelving department in a library, and three of my coworkers have moved up to circulation in as many months. My mom and friends keep asking why I don't go for a cerc position, because it's better pay. Well, for two reasons.

1.) I'm not even old enough yet. You have to be at least 18. Not to mention the fact that I don't know Spanish, which would hinder me.

2.) to quote a certain mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, " I hate people." being an actress, (and having to deal with it my whole life) I can fake my way through casual conversation when need be, but I hate doing it. If there was honestly a way for me to live without talking (except on certain occasions, like, whenever books and movies come into the conversation) I would love to take it.

In circulation, I would have to spend my whole flipping day talking to people. In shelving, I might go the whole day without talking to anyone! The biggest reason I love my job is because I can plug in headphones and just loose myself in the world of books, only having to occasionally stop a point someone to the bathrooms or offer a recommendation ( which I thoroughly enjoy doing. )

I'm pathetic.


~Peace out nerdyo

random writing prompt: know thyself

I am at a loss for stuff to say, at least stuff that wouldn't be mindless blather on what a traitor Obama is.

In ancient times, there was a plaque in front of the entrance to the oracle at Delphi.


γνώθι σαυτόν
Know thyself


Oh boy. You know, it's really rather hard to describe yourself well? Here goes.


I think it's pretty safe to say I am clinically shy in public, and often times in private also. There's this silly phrase "People who don't know me think I'm quiet. People who know me wish I was." That fits me pretty well. I don't talk unless it's something I'm passionate about. I seriously take to heart a quote from Hamlet (that happens to be one of the many posters in my room) "Give every man thine ear and few thy voice, take each man's censure but reserve thy judgement." Basically, talk little and listen a lot.


It is for this reason that it's so strange to look at me on stage. I am so so so shy, but when I walk onto a stage, it's like a switch is flipped. I can get big and bold and crazy when I have a definitive purpose. That's part of the reason I love theater, you get to be totally who you aren't.


Part of this horrible shy/introversion is that I literally get sucked up heart and soul into books and movies. I read obsessively, and pretty much the same with movies. People call me weird for all the behind the scenes info I know about movies and actors, but that is my hobby. Some people follow sports, some follow politics (I do that also) I follow movies. I have favorite actors, directors, musical composers, and I even have certain production people I enjoy following. I can spot a movie with Hans Zimmer or John Williams music within seconds of hearing the track. I'm also getting pretty good at catching Howard Shore. John Favreau  is one of my favorite directors, I like him as an actor too. I also can read a book or watch a movie once and quote word for word most of the movie. Then don't even get me started once I've seen the movie a couple times, especially if I liked it. My brother is this way too, although not quite as good as I am.

I am a hopeless romantic and a cockeyed optimist. That's part of the reason I'm actually rather picky when it comes to movies. I refuse to watch a movie with a sad ending. This is part of the reason I have become a Marvel Maniac. My entire family sat in a movie theater for almost 16 hours to watch all five Marvel movies and the midnight showing of  "The Avengers." We then proceeded to go see that movie three more times in the theater and have plans to buy the DVD.

Now, part of the reason I like "The Avengers" so much is it has three of my top five actors. Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr. and CHRIS-SEXINESS DEFINED-HEMSWORTH!! I love that man. Legitly love him, my desktop background is currently plastered with his gorgeous face. The other two actors in my top five are Johnny Depp and Russel Crowe. I will watch a crappy movie if those guys are in it. I also like that it doesn't take itself to seriuosly, it's just a fun one liner-fest  with lots of excellently done combat sequences.

"Yeah, well, last time I was in New York I kind of.... Broke Harlem."

Lord of the Rings. Let me say that one more time, LORD OF THE RINGS. These five books (Hobbit, trilogy, Silmarillion) are my drugs. I kid you not. If I'm having a crappy day I can literally pick up any one of the LotR books and open it to a random chapter, and get high. These books just plain make me happy. I can't not smile reading any of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. I'm that way with C.S. Lewis also, but a bit more with Tolkien. Part of the reason I love these books so much goes back to the unquenchable optimism. Lord of the Rings shows us there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Frodo Baggins literally travels through hell and back, and saves the world. With the help of Sam and the others, nothing can stop him.

Good does triumph over evil. It has to. It will. That's just how my mind works.

So, there is a little dive into my twisted mind, hope you enjoyed the ride.

The boogeyman

Ok, it just occured to me I have yet to tell one of the funniest stories of my life on this blog. let's start with a flashback shall we?

Back to around ten years ago, I can't remember the specific date, the point is I was very young. I am sleeping over at my grandparents house, and J, the son of  a friend of the family (and my brother's godparents) is a good deal older than me, in his late teens already. I'm getting ready to go to bed, and he decides he wants to try and freak me out. So what does he do? He starts going on about how the Boogeyman is hiding in the closet, and as soon as I fall asleep he is going to come out and get me. My response?

"COOOL!!!!! WHAT MUSIC IS HE GONNA BRING!?"

Odd response eh? Well, here's the deal. My parents are not young, so I grew up with a lot of oldies music... and disco. For anyone without knowledge of that time, disco dancing was also called the boogy.

When most kids think of the boogeyman, they think of this horrible creature who is going to come out and kill him. I grew up with boogy music. I hear the phrase boogeyman and I think of a guy with a big afro, neon green suit, doing the freaking boogy. That's just always what I imagined.

It annoyed the living hell out of J. Because he couldn't scare me with it. Then he started trying other tactics like monsters in the closet or under the bed. Well, by this time I had read books like Narnia and the Phantom Tollbooth, and seen movies like "Monster's Inc." I just couldn't be scared as a little kid.

Dear Supreme court,

forgive me if I am wrong, but are you not supposed to uphold the Constitution? Where does "universal healthcare" fit into the Constitution? It just seems not quite right. This healthcare you have so thoroughly forced upon us seems rather to go against it. One clause, if I'm correct, actually states that anything not specifically listed in the Constitution belongs solely to the state... well, perhaps I'm wrong.

Lucky for us citizens, we will soon have an opportunity to undo your unfortunate mistake.

Your humble servant,
Silence Doogood II

random writing prompt: Three perfect hours

Time for another random writing prompt!

Three hours. Three hours of total perfection in life. What is it?


Sitting outside on a pleasantly cool day. A big, poofy, obscenely comfortable chair on a deck looking out over the ocean. Next to me is a table with a large pot of Earl Grey tea that has been perfectly brewed with just the right amount of milk and sugar. I have a medium size cup with no handle (they bug me) that doesn't let my tea get cold. I can hear the calming sound of the waves, and an unseen source is quietly playing a mix of Bach, Yiruma, Vivaldi, Pachabel, and Mozart. I have a large, thoroughly enjoyable book (most likely Lord of the Rings, but really anything I just can't put down) and can just immerse myself in it, and leave reality for three hours.

My perfect three hours.

random writng prompt: Imaginary Eden

I ave decided every few days I am going to pick a random writing prompt from one of many websites and write about it. Just to get the creative juices flowing. Here is what I picked today:

What is you imaginary Eden? The perfect getaway, with everything you could ever want or need

Alright, I have actually thought about this type of idea many times. The landscape would be very picturesque, pretty much how Tolkien describes Rivendell in LotR. Hilly, with mountains to look at in the distance, and a beautiful lake that I could swim in, or go boating on. The climate would be temperate/cold. I definitely prefer chilly weather, but I wouldn't want to be freezing all the time. just cool enough to wear long sleeve shirts most of the time. Taking that into the real world, it would probably be somewhere in Austria, Switzerland, or maybe Germany. but we're not really talking real world here.

The house would be very large (because naturally I would not ave to worry about cleaning it) with large high ceiling rooms. The grandest and most important room in the house would be the library. When I picture my perfect library, it's a mix between "Beauty and the Beast," and "High Society." It would be absolutely huge, with hundreds of books of all kinds, with a big roaring fire place and over sized furniture around it. I'm a chair, rather than couch, person, so they would be big fluffy chairs with a decent sized hearty side table next to each one (for the mount of books and tea that will undoubtedly be occupying it) The "High Society" part comes to play in that I would love that hidden bar that comes out of the wall. There would be alcohol, (not gonna lie, I'm really looking forward to 21) and a large tea kettle with many different kinds of tea to choose from. 

My bedroom would be just off the second floor of the library, and be spacious, but not huge. A luxurious four poster bed would be on one side, and there would be at least one more bookshelf in there. Once again, a nice big fireplace is a must. There would also be a big balcony over looking the lake, and preferably facing East so I can watch the sunrise every morning.

Outside of the house, away from the lake, would be a winding path through a large vegetable and herb garden. the plants closest to the path would be things like tomatoes, mint, bell pepers, etc. The things I could just pick off the plant and take a bite of. beyond this garden the path would branch off in two directions. One would lead to an orchard with all manner of yummy trees, the other would lead to a large walled garden in the English style. In this walled garden would be lots of very smelly plants, especially roses and carnations. Through ought this garden, and indeed the whole property, there would be lots of comfortable benches for me to sit down and read.

So that's my perfect world. I could get into things like a media room and the kitchen, but what I just talked about are the things that really matter when I imagine a dream house.

Chris Hemsworth

This man.... My god this man is the physical embodiment of sexiness in my own humble opinion. He is six feet and three inches of muscular man-ness, an insanely sexy Australian accent, and ice blue eyes. From what I have heard he is not such a horrible guy either.

and it helps that he is an epic actor. He just... Gah... words cannot describe the amazing-ness of this dude.

plus the beard... I am a total sucker for beards. Russel Crowe, Robert Downey jr, Chris Hemsworth, Matt Lewis... Beards are my weakness.

Letter

Dear anonymous person henceforth referred to as "you,"

Man you have become a bitch. We have been friends for how long? And yet when I unfriend you you don't even notice! We always talked about how guys were awesome, but we didn't feel like we needed to go scrounging for one, and yet here you are.

Subject one asked your friend out in front of you.
Subject two just up and ditched you.

This latest subject is younger than your gosh danged brother! Now I realize that three years is not a huge age difference, but when one person can drive and the other hasn't even hit puberty yet it's a little awkward.

Okay, time to list the other crap bugging me and be done with it.
You have become an insufferable gossip, swear like a sailor, dress like a tramp, your hair looks retarded, I can't believe you would debase yourself to listening to a type of music you have always hated just to have a pathetic excuse to hangout with certain people, and you pretty much dropped me like a hot potato.

In short, you suck. And I'm not really sorry to have you out of my life.


~Peace out nerdyo