Prozac Nation

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So I just finished watching Prozac Nation. It's based on a book that I've picked up several times (I adore the cover, I'm not sure why, but it always catches my eye) and tried to read as many times. I somehow never quite manage to get through it. It may be because it holds the same potential that anything I've ever read by Joyce Carol Oates does: a destroyed sense of self worth and an abundance of interior monologues. Be that as it may, the film adaptation popped up on the movies page of Hulu today and I figured why the heck not.

Having watched the movie, I'm even more certain that the book would be a mind-altering experience for me, and not necessarily for the best. I found the movie to be powerful and confusing and depressing and entrancing all at once. While I don't know that I could particularly put my finger on any one part of it as responsible, I thought that it did an excellent job of capturing a sense of futility and terror and, well, depression.

Everything about the film - the narration, the color fill, the flashes of others - served to highlight and enhance Lizzie's difficulties, the state of her mind, and to help the viewer feel something of the same. I don't know if it's a movie for everyone but I certainly found it to be powerful, and I hope it does the book justice.

Honestly, my head is still kind of reeling from it, and I certainly wouldn't suggest watching it if you're already in a bit of a down mood. But if you like pseudo-biological stories of people experiencing and overcoming mental illness - or if you want to voyeuristically (my spell check says that's not a word...) experience mental deterioration - then I highly recommend the watch. Plus it's free on Hulu.

Heck, just go watch the movie. It made me want to write, so that must mean it's good art.

#play

The I.T. Crowd

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So I've loved Big Bang Theory since it premiered (TV junkie extraordinaire and nerd that I am, I knew I'd watch the show from the moment I saw previews for it.) It's wonderful for a whole host of reasons, but mainly because, especially in the early seasons, they got being a physicist/astronomer/engineer down so well and Penny was just lovable. As an aspiring astrophysicist myself, well the humor just hit the right chord.

Anyway, I've tried to get my Computer Science boyfriend to watch it for ages, but he just doesn't particularly like the humor. Not sure particularly why, if it's the his mum is British and he just doesn't think American funny is funny, or because Computer Science majors are just a different breed. Regardless, TV junkie that I am I determined to meet him half way and watch I.T. Crowd. Which is sort of a British Computer Science version of Big Bang Theory.

I'm now half way through season 3 and it's just delightful. The only thing that I think it lacks is the properly second level of what I'm going to call "smart humor" - you know, jokes about Schrodinger's cat and all that. But any show that says "The elders of the internet would never stand for it!"
 is good in my book.

Oh and if you want to watch - as of 7/8/2013 it's free on Hulu!

[play]

OUaT - The Miller's Daughter

kittenPAUSE

I had to say I was initially not all that pleased with hearing about Cora's back story on Once. What did I care what made this horrible woman as horrible as she is?

Of course all that changed the minute I realized Rose McGowan was playing young Cora.

Rose McGowan has been a favorite actress of mine since she was on Charmed and I was sneaking into my mom's sewing room late at night to watch the slightly racy show. She was as beautiful and excellent an actor then as she is now. So good, in fact, that it took me a moment to realized who young Cora was - her mouth is held in an entirely different way.

Aside from Rose, I enjoyed the spinning straw to gold story, looking forward for most of the episode to the moment when Cora would turn on Rumple, having learned his name. I found the alterations to the contract and her own removal of her heart to be well… fascinating.

And poor Regina… Well who thought I’d ever be saying that?

Thoughts on the last Once?

kittenPLAY

Grad School vs the Real World

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Hello again, been a while.

I've been working on a mountain in SoCal for the past two months, and I have to say, overall it's pretty great. I mean, for one thing I've been doing things I've never done before. Go on a zipline? Check. Climb to the top of a pole and jump off 30 feet from the ground? Check. Become a lifeguard? Done and done.

The people here are amazing, and I'm finding my niche, but as excited and happy as I am to be here, it's already time to start planning my next move. That is, I have to figure out what I'm going to do this summer and next fall.

Notes on applying to grad school:
Do: procrastinate to the last possible minute, give your recommenders absolutely no time to write their letters, don't proofread anything, don't check your internet connection

Don't: plan everything out months ahead of time, give your recommenders a ton of reference material, contact the department ahead of time and the person you are interested in researching with, get everything in at least 2 weeks early

Or was it the other way around? Eh, too late now.

So I applied to three schools and now is the part where I wait with bated breath. Well to be accurate my backup has already accepted me, but I'm still waiting to hear from the other two schools who might be more financially sound decisions.

...yep. My life is full of thrills.

kittenPLAY