the Dalaverse

Awww, I love my new default. Somebody did their presentation on "The Wizard of Oz" last semester, and she chose her clip from the opening scenes to illustrate the Great Depression of it all. She was just about to turn it off when "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" started, and the entire class went "No! Let it play!" We did the same thing with the scar-comparing scene in "Jaws," actually. Good god, I love movies. When they're good, they're awesome.

Man, I was lazy today. Like, too lazy to do a damn thing except attend my one class and laze around watching TV. I suspect I got up too early this morning. I really can't sleep when it gets light outside and the sun shines through my blinds and curtains. If I'm awake, I'm awake for good. It's annoying. Especially since I couldn't be arsed to go to the gym when I've been so good about it. I do plan to go tonight, though, as soon as I'm done digesting dinner.

I hated last night's "Gilmore Girls" so much that it distracted me from "Veronica Mars" for a good half-hour, so now I'm downloading that from iTunes as soon as it shows up. Dude, they have the first season of "Xena" now. That is fantastic. I also need to rewatch "Six Days," both parts (I missed the first twenty minutes or so of Part I), but I need to build up some emotional stability first. Seriously, father-child relationships are my kryptonite. If George happened to be a girl it would be even worse, but the hospital setting -- it's so close to what might have been that gender doesn't make much of a difference and I'm still a total mess. I watched it with Gina and her roommates the first time around, so I wasn't really able to let go. This is the main reason why I need to watch it again -- it's good to get all that out sometimes.

Reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and while she's a very engaging writer, I don't usually sit through so many pages of nonfiction in one setting. Dad really wanted me to read it, though, so I'll get through it.

I got a grant from FAFSA this year, because apparently they had extra money to give away or something, and it finally came in today. Huzzah! I can buy my scuba equipment now! And the rest is going into savings for grad school. Well, it's actually being deposited in some empty account my mother has somewhere because she doesn't trust me with money anymore. Which on the one hand is insulting, but on the other...it's true that this is probably safer ::hangs head:: Being better about finances is one of my 2007 not-resolutions.

Oh for the love of -- my N key started sticking while I was typing this, and apparently one of the little plastic frames from the B space had wandered off and gotten stuck under N. I took it out. Stupid key!

I was really starting to worry that I was losing my mind yesterday -- I opened up my jewelry box to get the earrings Mom gave me for Christmas and found only one. They're really pretty, dangly fanciful gold things -- the first really nice pair I've had in years, and certainly not a thing where I could go out and find a replacement. I felt awful both for the loss and how it would hurt my mother's feelings. However, at the end of the day I found the missing earring on the floor by my chair (I'd thought that it might be at home if truly not lost). Now the box was still in my bookbag from moving back, and it's got a broken clasp but had two ponytail holders wrapped around it. I hadn't opened it or even picked it up until now. So I haven't the faintest idea how it managed to jump onto the floor; I'm just really happy it's not lost after all.

If you'd like to play, the timestamp fic meme stolen from various people on the flist:

Give me one of my own stories, and a timestamp sometime in the future after the end of the story, or sometime in the past before the story started, and I'll write you at least a hundred words of what happened then, whether it's five minutes before the story started or ten years in the future.

(The only one I'm declaring off-limits is Brothers in Arms in the future, because it'll give away as yet unwritten -- but not unplanned! -- plot development)

Man, I really do need to write. I am woefully out of practice. I think I'll work on something when I get back from the gym, likely the small Jack/Will bunny that struck me a couple of days before DMC came out and never had a fighting chance, poor thing.

And one more -- Oscar best picture nominees since 1970, with the ones I've seen bolded (from laurelin_kit. My conclusion: I need to watch more movies, although I was really good about it the last few years. Also, I either didn't know or had totally forgotten some of these were nominated for Best Picture. "Deliverance"? "The Towering Inferno"? "Fatal Attraction"? "Ghost"? "Moulin Rouge"? "Babe"? (Not that I don't love that talking pig! Totally better than "The Hours," in any case). And I really need to see more of this year's nominees; "Babel" is playing next week (even though I wasn't really interested in seeing it for some reason) and hopefully I'll be able to talk Mom into "The Queen" instead of "The Pursuit of Happyness" (btw, does anyone know why the word is misspelled? Does it have any relevance to the plot? Not that it won't irritate the hell out of me regardless, but I'm curious).


1970 (43rd)
Patton
Airport
Five Easy Pieces
Love Story
MASH

1971 (44th)
The French Connection
A Clockwork Orange
Fiddler on the Roof
The Last Picture Show
Nicholas and Alexandra

1972 (45th)
The Godfather
Cabaret
Deliverance
Sounder
The Emigrants

1973 (46th)
The Sting
American Graffiti
The Exorcist
A Touch of Class
Cries and Whispers

1974 (47th)
The Godfather, Part II
Chinatown
The Conversation
Lenny
The Towering Inferno

1975 (48th)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Barry Lyndon
Dog Day Afternoon
Jaws
Nashville

1976 (49th)
Rocky
All the President's Men
Bound for Glory
Network
Taxi Driver

1977 (50th)
Annie Hall
The Goodbye Girl
Julia
Star Wars
The Turning Point

1978 (51st)
The Deer Hunter
Coming Home
Heaven Can Wait
Midnight Express
An Unmarried Woman

1979 (52nd)
Kramer vs. Kramer
Apocalypse Now
All That Jazz
Breaking Away
Norma Rae

1980 (53rd)
Ordinary People
Coal Miner's Daughter
The Elephant Man
Raging Bull
Tess

1981 (54th)
Chariots of Fire
Atlantic City
On Golden Pond
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Reds

1982 (55th)
Gandhi
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Missing
Tootsie
The Verdict

1983 (56th)
Terms of Endearment
The Big Chill
The Dresser
The Right Stuff
Tender Mercies

1984 (57th)
Amadeus
The Killing Fields
A Passage to India
Places in the Heart
A Soldier's Story

1985 (58th)
Out of Africa
The Color Purple
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Prizzi's Honor
Witness

1986 (59th)
Platoon
Children of a Lesser God
Hannah and Her Sisters
The Mission
A Room with a View

1987 (60th)
The Last Emperor
Broadcast News
Fatal Attraction
Hope and Glory
Moonstruck

1988 (61st)
Rain Man
The Accidental Tourist
Dangerous Liaisons
Mississippi Burning
Working Girl

1989 (62nd)
Driving Miss Daisy
Born on the Fourth of July
Dead Poets Society
Field of Dreams
My Left Foot

1990 (63rd)
Dances With Wolves
Awakenings
Ghost
The Godfather, Part III
Goodfellas

1991 (64th)
The Silence of the Lambs
Beauty and the Beast
Bugsy
JFK
The Prince of Tides

1992 (65th)
Unforgiven
The Crying Game
A Few Good Men
Howards End
Scent of a Woman

1993 (66th)
Schindler's List
The Fugitive
In the Name of the Father
The Piano
The Remains of the Day

1994 (67th)
Forrest Gump
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Pulp Fiction
Quiz Show
The Shawshank Redemption

1995 (68th)
Braveheart
Apollo 13
Babe
Il Postinoenta
Sense and Sensibility
1996 (69th)
The English Patient
Fargo
Jerry Maguire
Secrets & Lies
Shine

1997 (70th)
Titanic
As Good as It Gets
The Full Monty
Good Will Hunting
L.A. Confidential

1998 (71st)
Shakespeare in Love
Elizabeth
Life Is Beautiful
Saving Private Ryan
The Thin Red Line

1999 (72nd)
American Beauty
The Sixth Sense
The Cider House Rules
The Green Mile
The Insider

2000 (73rd)
Gladiator
Chocolat
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Erin Brockovich
Traffic

2001 (74th)
A Beautiful Mind
Gosford Park
In the Bedroom
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rouge!

2002 (75th)
Chicago
Gangs of New York
The Hours
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Pianist

2003 (76th)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Mystic River
Seabiscuit

2004 (77th)
Million Dollar Baby
The Aviator
Finding Neverland
Ray
Sideways

2005 (78th)
Crash
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Good Night, and Good Luck
Munich

2006 (79th)
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen