Time for a hearing test

My mother pops her head into my room and says:

"Angie, would you like some semen sponge cake?"

an9ie: WHAT?!? (Walks into kitchen.) I really hope you said, "cement sponge cake". (Looks suspiciously at baked goods on plate.)

Mum: CINNAMON! CIN-NA-MON SPONGE CAKE!

Time to shift some pounds

Yes, I know we're on the metric system in Australia, but "pounds" just flows better in a sentence. (I also like to use terms that help my American readers feel at home. Hi guys!)

You know how in the Nancy Drew books they always, ALWAYS describe poor Bess as "plumply pretty" and George as "athletic" or "tom-boyish"?

Well, I'm a Bess who desperately wants to be a George. I saw a video of myself at the zoo (we could have all sorts of fun with that one, so I'll just let you use your imaginations) and the camera really does add 20 pounds. So plump an9ie here looks like she could paint herself grey and then creep into the elephant enclosure, and no one would notice.

If we had no cameras, there would be more happy women in the world.

I think I'm going to join a religion that forbids people from taking my picture, because they might capture my soul.

Take that, technology!

An evening with the Candyman

So MFC and I watched Candyman last night. We were pretty excited for most of the movie because we thought Gillian Anderson was playing the lead character (Helen Lyle).

Eventually, we found out that Helen was played by Virginia Madsen, who looks uncannily like Gillian Anderson. Perhaps not so much now, but in Candyman, wow, they could be twins.

We didn't discover this fact until the end credits, and kept saying things like, "She looks different in X-Files. Has she had a nose job since then?" and, "OMG! We're seeing Scully's boobies!" (Well, that's what I was saying. MFC just kept going, "Mmm ...")

This is what happens when you do not pay attention to the DVD cover.

It took a bit of cajoling from MFC before I agreed to watch the movie with him. As you all know, I have something of a love-hate relationship with horror. I love reading it (and sometimes, watching it, or at least reading the spoilers over at themoviespoiler.com--warning! This site is addictive!) but I am unable to withstand the mental trauma that my imagination doles out later.

I mean, I was doing so well, falling asleep with the lights off, and not worrying about ceiling demons or vampires in the back yard or serial killers in the front yard or soul-eaters in the mirror.

an9ie: Fine, I will watch Candyman with you. But you have to promise not to scare me before or after the movie.

MFC: Sure.

an9ie: I mean it. No creepy whispers, no waiting outside the toilet door and making scratching noises, and no hiding behind the corner waiting to jump out at me.

MFC: Deal.

(4 minutes later ...)

Eerie whisper: Aaaaangie ... What's that noise, Angie? Ooh, it's getting louuuuuder.

an9ie: YOU COULDN'T HOLD IT FOR FIVE MINUTES, COULD YOU?

Philip Glass composed the soundtrack for Candyman, and the man is a master of suspense. I am such a sucker for those quiet moments where the character (and you) are just minding their own business, and then BAM, something scary happens. And the music is such a huge part of that.

So most of the evening involved me providing a lot of entertainment for MFC, and ended up sounding like this:

(Silence and then - BAAH, someone pokes their head through the window.)

an9ie: AAARRGH!

MFC: *snort*

(Scene continues, and then - BAAH, something else happens with loud clashing music.)

an9ie: EEEE!

MFC: Hahaha!

an9ie: (Clutching heart area) My chest hurts.

MFC: Hehehe.


Update (Tuesday, April 7th): OK, so I managed to fall asleep with the light on last night, but then I woke up at 5am for no reason and kept thinking Candyman was standing in front of my bed, so I had to have my interrogation-strength reading lamp on until dawn broke. GAH.

An update

Sorry I've been so quiet on the personal blog front, guys.

On the plus side, I've been very busy over at my professional site. It is a little animation and art-centric, but you might find something there you like, no?

We had a creativity class yesterday, where we had to work in changing teams and 1) think of a story from scratch, 2) given a specific character, think of three different stories with that character in it and no one else, 3) given a set of random words, tell a story on the spot using those words, 4) make up a character (mine was a doggie) and a story using only a sock and a balloon, then 5) use that character to interact with other characters, and 6) given a specific product, think of a way to sell that product to a new market.

This was meant to show and teach us the following:

• We will frequently be asked to create things on the spot, and given no guidelines.
• We will often work within limited parameters, like client preferences and set budgets.
• New ways of thinking up ideas, using word association, or by mixing up different random elements and forcing ourselves to use these elements.
• How working in a group leads to creating ideas, characters, stories, that you would never have thought up by yourself.
• That anyone can think of next year's trend, simply by looking at this year's. To stay ahead of the crowd, you have to think about what's going to be needed/wanted in a future beyond that - five, or ten years from now.
  
• That you will often be required to think of a new way to sell something old/existing.
  

Some of my classmates found it difficult, but I loved it! My adrenalin was up and truly (warning! Warning! Overused cliché approaching!), I have never felt more alive. I was a junkie, high and hooked on creating new ideas, thinking on my feet, and bouncing these ideas around within a group. (I seem to do my best work under pressure.)

I never wanted it to end, and all the little stories we came up with held such a seed of promise that I wanted to make them all into short films! I will admit that I can be bossy, and I may have railroaded some of my teams into picking my idea. (Hmm, perhaps I should work on curbing that ...)

In a nutshell--I had a great day. This is the life for me!