Be Kind Rewind

Interesting fact. I no longer own anything that can rewind. It's true. With the addition of my new Tivo to my entertainment center, I got rid of my VCR. My stereo doesn't even take cassette tapes! But even though I no longer rewind, I still thoroughly enjoyed the film, Be Kind Rewind when I saw it on Tuesday night.

One thing I really liked about this film is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. With Jack Black and Mos Def leading an ecclectic cast of characters, you can't expect it to be serious, right? When Black's character Jerry tries to sabatoge a power plant that he believes is trying to control him through microwaves, he gets more than he bargains for - he gets magnetized. The next day, when he enters the failing video rental shop where he and his friend Mike spend most of their time, he inadvertently erases the video tapes in the shop. The store has been left in Mike's hands while the owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover in a wonderful performance) is otherwised engaged, so Mike and Jerry have to figure out how to keep the very few customers happy until Mr. Fletcher returns.

The plan is born out of that despiration - they will shoot the movies themselves and rent them to an unsuspecting public. They were not prepared for the popularity of these "sweeded" versions of popular films, however, and they soon receive a lot of requests for a variety of different films.

I'll be honest, the plot surrounding the sweeded films was not as fun to watch as the films themselves. I died laughing at their rendition of Ghost Busters, and the very small piece they showed of their version of Men in Black was hilarious as well.

As it turns out, renting sweeded versions of movies to the public is a violation of copyright, which creates a snag they were not expecting. Their attempts to save the video store from demolition and to save the owner from prison and fines for copyright violations seemed inadequate until the community got together and created their own film.

It is surprisingly touching in the end, but what I personally remember most about the movie is how much I enjoyed the sweeded movies. Back in high school, some of my friends did this to amuse themselves. Who knew that years later someone would make a movie about it?

Journal topic: Strengths

This is the first of the journal topics, which I found here and copied over to my blog to make it easier for me to go through one at a time. I'm going to try to do at least one a week, maybe more, in an attempt to write more here on the blog, even if my daily life isn't interesting! I find sometimes that my days are similar and I hate to write about the same thing every day, so these journal topics are my attempt to mix it up a bit and gain some insight into myself at the same time. My version of the list can be found here, but go here for the entire list and more topics.

Today's topic: What strengths have you developed over your life?

I thought about this a great deal while interviewing for jobs. You know the drill, "what are your strengths and weaknesses." For work, I always say things like: multitasking and the ability to handle stress and deadline pressure. These are great strengths in the workplace and are characteristics that serve someone well in my field, where there is always deadline pressure and stress is a part of the daily routine. I also usually try to fit in there somewhere that I can improvise when things do not go as planned. This is something I've picked up just recently with my previous job experience and I think it's a pretty good skill to have, especially as it translates into daily life. But what do I consider my real strengths? The non-job interview answer is that I'm a survivor. Who could have imagined when I was 18 that I would have to handle a divorce at 23? I know, it happens all the time, but it wasn't something I was prepared to deal with, and it wasn't something I could talk to anyone about because nobody I knew had endured a similar situation.

Another strength I have is that I don't give up easily. When I got the phone call from the stage manager for the current play at my theatre, she said "I hope this won't discourage you and keep you from trying out for other plays." That thought never crossed my mind, really. A few failures do not discourage me from doing what I love, whether it is acting or writing. I was talking to my mother a few weeks ago and I made the comment that everything I love to do, everything that means a lot to me, comes with a certain amount of inevitable rejection. She said that she wasn't sure she would keep doing it if she had to deal with that kind of rejection, but I have learned that it's just a part of the process and if you love something enough, you will handle the rejection the best way you can and keep going. In fact, you find a way to use that rejection as motivation to try harder, to keep trying, and to never, ever quit.

So that this won't turn into a lovefest from me to me, I'm going to stop now, but it was a great topic and a wonderful chance to look inside myself and see the strengths that I have developed, just in the last 10 years or so. It's nice to look back sometimes and see how far we've come. If you decide to use this journal topic, leave me a comment - I'd love to read what you wrote!

knitting disaster!

I finished my swap hat and for some reason it came out way too small! I'm not sure what happened, but there's no way I can give it to my swap partner. I sent a message to the leader of the swap telling her that I was going to be a bit late sending mine off because of the disaster and I started over. This time I did a gauge swatch and changed needle size. I think that's why it was wrong. So now I'm freaking out a little because the deadline is tomorrow and there's no way I'll get it finished by then! Yikes!

I do hope the swap master is understanding about it. I'd hate to be banned from the swap because I messed up my gift and wanted to start over.

No big news otherwise.

swap hat

I did some knitting this weekend. I need to finish my swap hat. It's not a difficult pattern. I chose the only hat pattern I've done before because I know I can do it and it will look decent. I don't want to try a new pattern when I'm making it for someone else. It may turn out to be a disaster and then what? So I'm sticking with something I know I can do. I got to the point in the pattern where the knitting goes fairly quickly, so I should be able to finish by the deadline, which is this week sometime. I'll have to check to make sure of the date, but I know it's this week. I might sit out the next swap, just to give myself a break and work on some of my other projects. I still haven't finished the purse I've been working on forever. I really want that purse, so when I'm finished with the swap hat, I'm going to concentrate on it.

outlining, outlining, outlining

I worked on the Draha outline over the weekend, but I don't have a word count. I'll update it later today or tomorrow. The framework of the story is really coming along. I'm glad I decided to start over and outline. It's really helping me organize my thoughts. I'm happy with the new direction and I think it'll make things so much easier when I'm finished with the outline and I actually start writing. My goal now is to finish outlining all five books by October and start over on the first one, probably for NaNo this year. The NaNo goal is only about half of the first novel, but it'll be a good start. Maybe I'll push myself and do NaNo pace through December too, that way I can finish the first book by the end of the year. It's so much easier with an outline, so I know I'll be able to do it. The first NaNo I won was actually easy for me because of the detailed outline I had already created for the story. There are a few other stories dancing around in my head right now, but this one takes priority.

the kids

I got to spend some time with my sister's kids this weekend, so that was good. They were with their dad on Saturday, but yesterday, I picked them up and took them shopping. Noah's birthday is Friday, he'll be 12 years old, so I thought it was time for him to have a grown-up bicycle. He picked out a great one, and rode it around my front yard for about 30 minutes before I had to take him (and the bike) home. I think he's going to enjoy it. He has a lot of room to ride it at his house, and he has a friend who lives about half a mile away from him down a small gravel road that no traffic ever goes down, so he can ride it to his friend's house when they are going to hang out. He lives close enough to the high school that he could actually ride it to school when he goes to 9th grade, but that road has a lot more traffic, so I'm not sure if it's the best idea for him to do that. It's ultimately up to my sister, but if it were up to me, I would have to really think about it first. On Friday, we made a date to go see a movie. He's having a party Saturday, but I wanted to have him on his actual birthday. That will be fun, I'm sure. He's a great movie buddy!

here we go...

This week marks the beginning of the intense work on the upcoming work project. It's going to be great! I always love being busy at work. I can't stand having nothing to do. That's why I always hated all those retail jobs I had before finishing school. There were times every shift that would be so dead that all you could do was stare around the store looking for something to straighten or clean. But of course, there's only so much of that, so once you go over the entire store, if you still don't have any customers, you're back to staring around looking for something to do. Boring! Anyway, jobs like the one I have now are so much more interesting, because there's no such thing as being bored!