Even On a Plane I Can Find a Way to Totally Judge You

Four and a half hours into my ten hour flight and I've already eaten all of my snacks and drank all of my water. This is my review of my direct flight from New York to Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines.

One of the things that suck about living so far away from home is the long journey it takes to get back there. Since moving to the big city this is my first time visiting my home town in almost a year.  I have to say on my journey to New York, I spoiled myself by stopping in San Fransisco for a couple of days so this is my first time flying directly from New York to Hawaii or vice versa.  I have to say so faaaaaaar.... I'm not exactly enjoying it, but it's not total Hell.

There are the normal airplane irritants.  Crying babies, person in the back moving my chair, the fact that I can't sleep for more than an hour.  And the cherry on top is, I'm on the aisle so that means that everyone who passes me pretty much brushes my shoulder and/or leg.

It's a ten hour flight.  How pleasant can it really get?  Being stuck in this seat is like my own personal Hell.  If I'm going to stay in one spot all day, like say my bed, or my living room carpet, I want it it be my choice, because to be honest sometimes that is my choice.  But I want it to be MY choice.  And at least I get room to stretch out and go to the bathroom without having to strategically plan out when I'm going to empty out my bladder.  And also I don't have to sit next to a complete stranger who is currently hogging the shared armrest.

So I admit I don't like flying and I don't think any sane person really does.  But I do have to say that if I had to fly I would defiantly choose A) a direct flight over one that I would have to transfer planes and B) that has excellent customer amenities.

When I'm traveling I don't want to be stressing over making a transfer to my next plane, making sure there is enough time to walk to the next terminal or if your first flight is delayed even in the slight it can totally screw up your transfer plans.  Also I am forever worried that the plane crew will somehow lose my bag in a transfer.  I mean it's not that difficult to misplace a bag out of the thousands of bags one deals with.  So I can only imagine how awful it would be to have a misplaced bag.  On a direct flight there isn't any stress about these things.  No transfers mean all I have to stress about is getting on that one flight on time.  And, I mean how incompetent does the crew have to be to lose a bag that only have one destination.

Also the customer amenities I realize are what really makes a flight bearable.  I remember when I would fly when they have the big over head screens that would show movies I would really be pissed when I didn't have good viewing access to the screen.  Also I'm kind of short and the airplane seat are kind of tall.  Not only that but when I actually do get to fall asleep on the plane I would be pissed if I feel asleep before the movie.  And of course since I normally can't stay asleep for more than an hour on the plane I always wake up in the middle of the movie wondering what the hell is going on.  So little things like this can really make or break a flight for me.

Thankfully Hawaiian airlines have these personal screen things that if I shell out $6.99 then I have access to a bunch of TV shows, some old movies and some games.  I wish that these have more episodes of each TV series, but I guess having a wide variety is the pay off.  Fortunately there are a bunch of shows that I actually love.  I'm currently watching an episode of "Bones" with a serious gross out factor of ten cats in heat. So props to Hawaiian for actually having decent shows even though they only have random episodes of all of the shows.

These video screens also feed into one of my all time favorite hobbies, judging strangers.  I can just look in front of me diagonally and I can see what all the people in front of me are watching.  I'm so nosy I watched this guy watch two really awful action movies... that he paid $7.99 per movie.  So that means he shelled out over $14 for, in my opinion, totally caca.  And then there's this awesome dude sitting right behind action movie dude, and he is watching episodes of "Arrested Development" and "Bob's Burgers".  However he is laughing out loud at all of the funnies so Imma just say that he's comfortable with who he is?  Also there's this old man sitting across of the aisle for me and he is having some serious difficulty getting his screen to function.  If I wasn't a decent human being I would watch this man as if he were my own personal TV sitcom.  Old people working with technology, another one of my favorite watching sports.

Another decent thing about Hawaiian is that they give out complimentary meals.  I'm the type of person who loves me some free stuffs.  I mean especially if it's a whole meal.  Also what person is not going to accept a free meal.  I mean yes,I'ms airline food and it is obviously not going to be even a three star meal, but mama is gonna get hungry on a ten hour flight.  And the mushroom broccoli pasta they served as the first meal was actually pretty decent after I added some salt and pepper.

Even the paid food service seems to be so good here that everyone is getting up (much to my dismay) and has been buying food from the stewards for like the past hour.  Unfortunatly that means more people walking back and forth, touching my shoulder with their butts, kid's feet and what nots.  Also it means I smell airplane wine, which I had a really bad experience with on my flight to San Fransico.  But I suppose this just means happy flyers, which equal a happier flight for everyone.

Overall my current experience is not overly exciting, nor is it as awful as it could potentially be on another airlines.  So I rate this flight 6.5 planes.... Out of 10 planes (planes are pretty much equivalent to stars, I'm just trying to be cute here...).  Of course, once I'm off this stupid plane all the awful things will be forgoten because getting to go home after almost a year over shadows even the worst experiences on a plane.

I'm Back In the Emperor's New Groove, With Predictable Procrastinating and all the Usual Distractions...

I don't know how to start this blog. I mean I've been away from it so long that I've been practically obsessing over how I should make up for all these past months. I've thought of giving my usual lame excuses. Like the fact that I've been working two jobs over the summer and I've been nothing but a work zombie and practically living to just work... or I was contemplating just starting up again as if I never stopped writing my blog. But I thought well it's not like anyone but me cares where I've been, but I'd like to think someone out there does.

So I've been playing around with ways to "get back into the groove" and start writing again. I've been writing other things that I've planned to post later because I don't want to make like nothing happened, because I've always thought that was weird for people to do. So in the progress of thinking of how to "get back in the groove" I've been procrastinating and putting it off and in the process not been "getting back in the groove".

All this talk about groove makes me think of the movie "The Emperor's New Groove". I love that movie so much. I remember when I first watched it, it was an amazing adventure of a man-llama that is David Spade (who I grew to love because of this movie), and a man-man who is John Goodman (who I've already loved since seeing the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou"). I mean when you think about it logically, this movie just seems really funny. It's a LLAMA and a MAN... okay so it's extremely stupid, but in a totally awesome way.

But do you see what I mean about "getting back into the groove" I have a disability to ever stay on track of things. But you all know this already... I mean in the half a week course of me writing this one entry, I've written one and a half other entries, listened to two episodes of Judge John Hodgman, one episode of MBMBAM, posted something to the MBMBAM forum. And then I googled Jude Law's fucked up teeth in the movie "Contagion" and then pondered over if I should rent the movie "Singin' In the Rain" on the retarded-ness that is the iTunes movie rentals, because I can't, for the life of me find this movie in any store. And then I learned that the movie is coming up on it's 60th anniversary so they are probably going to come out with a 60th dvd collection for this movie. But in the process I bought a bunch of other older musicals on DVD and began watching those. Then I decided what I was writing for this entry wasn't good enough, deleted all but the first section, and then re-wrote all of this. Searched on iTunes some more for music from the musical Sweeney Todd, then came back to edit this post a little more.

But now I'm finishing up this post because you know what, I have decided that I am and will post on my blog... it's just been taking me a while. Because I do enjoy writing, I really do. I've just been really busy and ya'll don't want to hear me just rambling about work right? Right.

So in short, I'm back. I'm getting in the groove. I promise. And I plan to resume my posts on this blog.

That is all.

Random, Randomness, Jake Gyllenhaal and a Velociraptor. I Think I'm in Love.

Conversational Tangents. I'm famous for them. Whenever I talk to my friends I tend to go off on the weirdest tangents. Now that I think about it all of my friends go off on the strangest tangents. We'll talk about one thing for a few moments and then just bring up something completely random. And then after that moment of randomness is over and we want to get back to the original conversation it takes us a while to remember what the hell we were talking about because the conversational tangent was so freaking random.

I don't think the word random has ever been used so much in a single utterance.... Random.

It makes me feel like I have a bad memory and I have an early onset of Alzheimer's. Because Alzheimer's totally runs in my family and it's one of my greatest fears to grow old and not be able to remember anything, like the old lady in "The Notebook". I won't be able to remember who I am, what I accomplished in my life, who my kids are, who my husband is. And then what would be the purpose of living if I'm just going to forget it in a couple of minutes? I suppose living for the moment? But how could I live in the moment if I don't even know who I am? But I digress... And do you see what I mean? I mean do you know just how much effort it takes me to just stay on topic for this blog?

It can't be normal how easily I get side tracked with things. And it's not just conversations that I get side tracked in. Whenever I browse the Internet or YouTube, I always seem to deviate from the originally searched item, or video.

For example, one day I decided, hmmm... I really like me some Jake Gyllenhaal, I'm gonna look him up to see what other movies he was in. Wikipedia, sure I love wikipedia *click*. Oh "Love and Other Drugs" I love that movie. Who the hell was the dude who played the brother, he was funny *click*. Oh he was in the broadway musical "25th Annual Putnam County Fair" oh cool, I totally love that musical. And he was also in this other play called "The Book of Mormon" oh cool *click*. The creators of that play is the same people who did "Avenue Q" cool. I love that musical too *click*. Oh my gosh I love the song "The Internet is for Porn" from AveQ, what are the lyrics to that again. Oh yeah, here they are. What was I on the Internet again for?

I mean thank god for a back history button on the freaking Internet browser, because if not I wouldn't be able to keep track of what the hell I was originally searching for. Especially if it's something important. Like for research papers, those are the worse. It's cause I have self diagnosed ADD. I can never really focus on the task in front of me.

But, like I was saying earlier, the worse tangents are conversational ones with my friends. A very good example of me having conversational tangents are with my friends when I'm on the phone. I don't know why, but random thoughts always seem to pop into my mind. A good example was of me and my friend, we started talking about dreams, then about giant squids, then randomly talking about velociraptors. It gets to the point where we have fun just tracking how we came to a certain point in our conversations. Sometimes it takes us a while. Because unfortunately my conversations do not have a back history button.

If you can logically make out the path my friend and I took that lead to that conversation I"ll give the first person who gets it right a little something something. Because lord knows that it took us a couple of minutes to figure out where we went in that conversational journey.

But in all honesty, I don't think my conversations, or life for that matter, would be as interesting as it is if they weren't for my weird tangents.

Tell Me To Do Something, and I'll Do It... Just Six Years Latter

I've always been the type of person who doesn't like to do things just because everyone else is doing it. But at the same time I very much like to do certain things because everyone else is doing it. So here I am constantly in a loop of not wanting to do things and then caving in, and I totally end up doing it. Not illegal things. Like drugs or something like that, for those kinds of things I can keep a firm stand but it's for trivial things like watching a TV show or movie, or listening to music, or checking out web sites. Granted these things are really minor, but sometimes I just feel so... I don't know... Like a not-wanna-be-follower or something along those lines.

My most recent experience of this has been in regards to the TV show "The Office". Everyone has said how much they enjoy the show, and how it was so funny, and how everything about it was so awesome. So here I am with everyone telling me I should watch it and that I'd just absolutely love it. But what do I do? I don't watch it of course. I mean first of all how can I? I can't just watch a show from the middle of a serries and expect to get all the inside jokes of the show. And did I mention that I hate being one of those people who just like things because everyone else likes it. So in conclusion I decided that I just didn't and wouldn't ever get "The Office" and I'd just let everyone enjoy their show that I just would never watch.

But after all these years of friends telling me I should watch it, when I finally get me some Netflix instant play on my iPad, I cave in and watch from the beginning. I mean really all shows should be watched from the beginning to get the full effect of the program. So I watched the first few episodes and surprise, surprise... I'm in absolute love with the show. Like everything else in my life, I began obsessively watching episodes like crazy. I mean it was all right there for the watching, so I watched them. I watched them all in like a week and a half.

And now I'm one of those people who watch "The Office". I never thought I was going to be one of those people, but I turned into one of those people. And now that I'm watching this show all I can talk about are Office references, and because I'm so behind everyone watching "The Office" no one really gets the references, they just kind of smile and nod and look at me like I'm a crazy person.

I suppose this is what I get for hopping on "The Office" train so late. Perhaps the lesson here should be to just try things before I make absolute decisions that I'm totally not going to keep.

Harry Potter and the Crazed and Obsessive Fan-Girl.

Soooo... The new Harry Potter film is coming out soon. Like in a little over a month. And I'm kind of freaking out. Why are you freaking out you may ask? Well... Because 12 years of my 21 years of life has been filled with the obsession that is Harry Potter. What am I going to do when this chapter of my life has officially come to an end? What am I going to do when the final movie comes out on DVD and there will be nothing new of the Harry Potter world coming to life, because everything is official done with? I fear I'm going to be one of those people who live in the past and I'll be telling my kids all about the time I stood in line for midnight openings, and how those were the days. Uggg! I sound like a grandma.

You may be thinking, stop being such a drama queen. Harry Potter couldn't have taken up that much of your life. Well.. let me tell you... From the moment I picked up my first Harry Potter book my life changed forever. I know that sounds dramatic, but it is so true. When I read I become so engrossed, a natural disaster could be happening around me, and if it's a good book, like Harry Potter, I wouldn't notice a god damn' thing. I feel like Harry, Hermione, and Ron have become members of my imaginary, awesome, fictional family. When Harry went through things I was right along side him cheering him on. When the golden trio were fighting I wanted they so desperately to get back together. And the many times I thought all hope was lost, I was beyond devastated.

Granted I sound like a crazy person, but this is truly how I feel about the Harry Potter books. when I finished the last book, it really was quite bitter sweet because it was over. I knew the ending, but there was going to be no more stories of the-boy-who-I-fell-in-love-with. I felt like, well now what? So what I did I do, I immediately started to re-read the last book again. I was in such a state of shock that ther serries was officially over that I NEEDED to re-read so I wouldn't go into a deep dark depression. I'm dramatic, so sue me.

What about the movies? you may ask. Well, like any TRUE Harry Potter fan, I hate them. Well I don't hate them but I'm not as in love with them as I am the books. The only reason I go to midnight movie openings is because it is Harry Potter. I'm one of those people who complain about what they left out of the movies, and how horrible the acting is, and how I could have potentially written the screen play much much better. But at the same time I love it, because anything to do with the Harry Potter universe I'm instantly love it.

So after I finished the last book I at least had the movies to look forward to in my Harry Potter universe. But now that the last movie is coming out soon, what am I going to do? How am I going to react to this major chapter in my life coming to a close? What will my life amount to? Okay so I know that's dramatic but it's how I feel okay... I know I'll get over it eventually, but right now in this moment, I'm kind of freaking out just thinking about it.

So I guess to get over this I'll start re-reading from the beginning. I have about a month and a half. Let the Harry Potter reading marathon begin!

Like a Koala to a Eucalyptus, MBMBAM is My New Drug.

In ninth grade it was Xanga. In tenth grade it was Myspace. In my junior year it was Youtube. In college it was Facebook. (well it's still Facebook) But now, in this very moment, it's podcasts. I was never the type of person who was the listening sort. I've always been a more visual and physical learner. Like I would always have to use all of my mind powers to really focus on a class lecture, and I've always learned better when there were cool power points to look or even a kick ass hand outs to follow along with. So when my friend told me I should listen to this podcast that he's been listening to, you have to understand my imediate hesitation.

Like I said, I'm just not a good listener when it comes to the JUST listening part. I hate audio books because my mind always drifts and I always end up going on the Internet and reading something else or I just fall asleep, and then the audio book is all lost on me. Not to mention the person reading the book is usually just creepy to me. like the dude who reads the Harry Potter novels reads it so weird, and that is not the voice I want to hear when imagining the very precious Harry Potter universe. So when he said I should listen to this podcast I didn't think I could physically and mentally listen to this podcast. I thought it was going to be so weird listening to these guys blabber on for 30-60 minutes. I just never really understood why people would listen to podcasts. And I'm not gonna lie, I always thought podcasts were for people all into politics and stuffs, or for people who need self confidence boosters, or they needed knitting or crafting advice. But I decided what the heck, my friend has never wronged me, I'll give it a listen.

I downloaded the first episode and I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was. These dudes were funny as shit and I was super, mega (Jesup), ultra, entertained. So I downloaded a couple more episodes to listen to when I had nothing else to do. And the thing is the shows got better and better as it went along. I was hooked, addicted, obsessed by episode two, and it went beyond only listening when I was bored, I was listening like it was my new drug and I would carve out time in my day to listen to... Ready for the name of the show... Wait for it.... My Brother, My Brother and Me. (or if you are a true fan MBMBAM, that's pronounced ma-bim-bam)

So I had about 30 episodes to work my way through, and they usually do a show once a week (usually Mondays), so I was quickly running out of shows to listen to. It was like a huge double edged sword where I could listen to all the shows and enjoy them over a shorter period of time, or I could stretch it out over a longer period of time. The thing is, if I caught up with their shows, then I'd be in the loop. But if I caught up with the show, I'd have to wait a whole week before I can listen to a new episode. It was my Sophie's Choice, it was me wanting to have my cake and eat it too. But me being me, I live in the now, in the present, and I went into a show coma, and I just ate them all up like a deliciously moist cake not caring about the calories that would be on my proverbial hips, and I was soon out of episodes to listen to.

It was like finishing the last Harry Potter book, I almost didn't know what to do with myself. I felt like well now what? I can't wait for four more days (I started on a Sunday and finished listening to them all on a Thursday)for a new episode. So like the obsessed fan that I am, I stared listening to my favorite episodes again. Yes, I'm one of those people. I'm one of those people who re-read books, re-watch movies (especially Tangled) and who now, re-listens to podcasts. It's not that I don't remember what happened, it's the fact that I enjoyed it so much that I'd like to experience that joy over and over again. I mean I've re-read Ender's Game so many times the pages are brittle and are starting to fall out of the book. and don't even get me started about the Harry Potter serries. Every time a new book came out, or a new movie, I NEEDED to re-read the whole serries from the begging. Not to mention all the times I've just read the whole serries just to read it.

So yes, I re-listened to some of the podcasts until the next Monday. And even now I'll re-listen to older episodes, waiting for the new podcast. But no matter how many times I listen to an episode, they never get old and they never disappoint. There are always episodes were I can't help but chuckle or smile to myself. And I'm always listening to MBMBAM in the most public places, like on a bus, walking to class, in a store or waiting in the doctor's office, and I probably look like a psycho killer walking around seemingly smiling and laughing to myself. Or I try to hold back my smile and I look like I'm either really constipated, or like I'm holding back a fart. In either case I don't think people want to be around me while I'm listening to my MBMBAM. But at the same time I really don't care because it is freaking HILARIOUS!

And it's all thanks to MBMBAM that I'm all into podcasts. Because of MBMBAM I've gotten hooked to another podcast, Judge John Hodgman, and it is wonderful! I'm like a podcast listening freak now. Instead of my once obsessed self of listening to music I'll gladly choose an older episode of MBMBAM any day. When I don't have access to a DVD player to watch me some Tangled, MBMBAM is my choice background noise. And I'll continue listening to the podcasts until the new one comes out next Monday. Then I'm all over that new one, like a koala to an eucalyptus.

MBMBAM-bino for life! *fist chest bump*

If you wish to dip your paws into the awesome honey trove that is MBMBAM give you ears a sample with this handy little sampler... It won't disappoint! http://bit.ly/itsmbmbam

The AI Robots, Dug Holes in My Tangled Up Heart

So I recently got a new DVD and I honestly just can't stop watching it. In the past like five days I think I've watched it at least 20 times. And I even lent out the DVD to a friend for a day... Granted I watched it at her house one and a half times.... But... I mean I went a whole night without the DVD.... But I made sure I got that shit right back the next day... Hahahahaha...? I mean it doesn't seem normal to be watching this over and over again... And when I mean over and over again, mean quite literally the second it's over I'm hitting the replay button to start the movie again from the start.

So I'm crazy(what's new right?), but ya'll must be thinking WTF YO? What DVD is this where you are watching it over and over again and just can't seem to get enough of it? Well, before you make any judgments I just need to say, I have no f-ing clue! I don't know why I have such a need to be constantly watching this movie! And I also have to say I'm not watching-watching it the whole time... I mean I'm doing other things while watching this fine DVD, like typing out this post for example, or playing a game on my iPad, or like browsing Facebook. So I mean it's not like I'm glued to the screen watching-watching this movie. It sort of kind of just plays in the background of my life.

With that said, the DVD I've been watching like a crazy maniac is... Tangled. Yup, you read right, the Disney version of Rupunzel. Uggggg.... I know right?!? I'm like a six year old girl who is obsessed with a Disney princess. I really honestly have no clue why I feel so compelled to watch and watch...

Okay confession time, I know exactly why I'm so compelled to watch and watch, it's because I love the music, and I think all the characters are so lovable. And who doesn't sometimes feel like a person stuck in a tower, with no where to go? Who doesn't have dream that they want fulfilled? And who doesn't want to fall in love and live happily ever after? I'll tell you who, robots. That's right soul-less robots who have no human emotions, unless you live in some alternate "Artificial Intelligence" universe, where suddenly robots can feel and in that case it's apocalypse now bitches! (that's right I made an AI reference, deal with it.) But now I can never tease anyone ever again for obsessing over a movie.

I remember the summer before I entered high school my cousin and I went to go see the movie "Holes". It was a good movie and to this day I still think it's one of the best book to movies I've ever seen, but my cousin LOVED this movie. Well it was a little more than love for her. She made me go see it with her again and again(she was lucky it was playing at the dollar theatre or else I wouldn't have gone to see it with her)... And then when it came out on DVD, forget it! She admitted to watching it everyday when she came home from school. I remember thinking gah, isn't she sick of that movie yet? luck for her though, she out grew this phase and no longer watches the movie "Holes" everyday.

But now it's like 8 years later and now I'm the person watching a ridiculous movie over and over again. Well actually it's a very good movie, it's just ridiculous how overly obsessed I am with it. Hopefully like all other things, I'll get over this weird ass obsession in a week or two. We can only hope.