The Movie Meme

Since I just read three people's blogs doing this meme (Alan W. Davidson, Jameson T. Caine, and Natalie L. Sin), I can't stop myself from picking it up too. Besides, I love movies!

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
The original Star Wars, of course. I've probably seen FOTR ten times by now. Anything animated that I own on DVD I've definitely seen at least ten times.

2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater.
On Friday I saw the new Harry Potter movie, and Mom and I went again yesterday. I'm a big movie-goer, so I see a lot of movies multiple times in the theater, especially anything animated.

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Alan Rickman. Mmmm.

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
I can't stand whatshisname--rubbery-faced guy, not a very funny comedian, plays the same type of character in every movie he's in. I can't think of his name. The only role I've ever thought he did a decent job in was The Grinch. Somebody help me out here, who is that guy?

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
My family is big on dropping movie quotes into conversations, so I could list about a million here if I thought about it. One of my favorite movie quotes is "Now you see that evil must triumph, because good is dumb" from Space Balls--a movie I otherwise didn't find all that hilarious (although my brother did).

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Hairspray. In fact, I may have to watch that one tonight.

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
Hairspray again, and Chicago, and of course Rocky Horror Picture Show. And a lot of Disney movies. I love a good musical, and I like to sing along with the DVDs or soundtrack CDs.

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
Spirited Away. It's the most amazing animated film ever made.

9. Name a movie that you own.
The three sitting next to my TV right now are Ratatouille, Kung Fu Panda, and The Forbidden Kingdom. (I have sort of a martial arts/food theme going there.)

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Natalie mentioned David Bowie in Labyrinth on her blog. He was also in The Prestige a few years ago (a pretty good movie) and he was very good in that too. If not as yummy as he was when I was a teenager.

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
I saw the original Star Wars at a drive-in one of the times I saw it, and I remember seeing Grease at a drive-in too.

12. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven’t yet gotten around to it.
Sweeney Todd.

13. Ever walked out of a movie?
A few times. I walked out of Swordfish, From Hell, and The Hills Have Eyes (the remake). That sort of tells you the kinds of movies I don't like, I guess. In the case of Swordfish and The Hills Have Eyes, I got so depressed that I wanted to slit my wrists, and I go to the movies to have fun. I was at From Hell with my mom and she wanted to leave; I probably would have enjoyed it if I'd stayed.

14. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
I cry very easily, especially at movies. I think the strongest reaction I've ever had was at Up, the new Pixar movie. Parts of it are so poignant that I sat in the theater with tears streaming down my face. When I went back and saw it a second time I thought I wouldn't react like that since I knew what to expect, but it was actually even worse. I expect when I get it on DVD and watch it at home, I'll actually be sobbing out loud. But most of that movie makes me laugh, so I don't mind crying too.

15. What’s the last movie you saw in the theater?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (I actually have a little movie journal I got in 2000, and I have jotted down a one or two sentence review of every single movie I've seen in the theater since then, with the date I first saw the movie. I'm going to be really bummed when I fill that journal up.)

16. What’s your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Animation. I'm not too picky about the subject, as long as the animation is well done. Beyond that, I like comedies.

17. What’s the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
I honestly don't know. My mom's a HUGE movie fan, so I was going to movies as soon as I could reliably sit still through a feature film.

18. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
Epic Movie. It was abyssmal. The only reason I saw it is because I was doing movie reviews for a local paper at the time, and nothing else was out. I gave it (as I recall) one star, and that was for the acting, which wasn't bad.

19. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
I'm not sure. Weird is so relative. There's a bizarre and excellent little movie called The Triplets of Belleville that I do love dearly. Oh, and the Gundam Wing Endless Waltz movie makes absolutely no sense, even if you've committed the entire GW series to memory as I have.

20. What is the scariest movie you’ve seen?
I truly don't remember ever being actually scared in a movie. Tense, sure; grossed out, sure; but not scared. I think I disengage when I start feeling too scared, and start to look around at the darkened theater and the people around me, and think about what I need to do when I leave the theater, etc. As a result, when someone says, "That was such a scary movie," I say, "Really? I wasn't scared, I just got bored."

21. What is the funniest movie you’ve seen?
There's no way to pick one, so here are three: Kung Fu Panda, Mystery Men, and Galaxy Quest.

TV pressure is killing me

Carrie Harris, Query Ninja, has ninja'ed one of my queries. Now I have to rewrite it--but I know the direction to take it, so it won't be so bad. I hope.

We're a Nielsen Family this week, with official booklets for each TV and everything. It started yesterday. I'm frankly embarrassed to have to write down that I watched four of the five hours of VH1's One-Hit Wonders of the 80s show this afternoon, and that I'm watching one of those awful police car chase video shows right now. Not only that, but I feel oddly compelled to keep the TV on and watch it. There is a column for "TV on but no one watching/listening" but that feels like I'm not taking the Nielsen Family thing seriously.

Mom must be feeling the same way, because earlier when I went down to get some lemonade, she came out to ask me something, then said, "I have to get back--I said I'm watching this show about pyramids." I'll be glad when our Nielsen Family Week is over.

And the week from hell hath ended with a whimper

I missed WIP Wednesday! And I actually have been working on a project, although not, alas, today. Today I didn't do jack except work work work workworkworkwork and I still didn't get everything done, including something rather important that is going to backfire on me and cause me (I can see this clearly) to be unable to take any time off in August.

On the other hand, I'm off work for the weekend, because the five hours I work on Saturday don't really count. And Mom picked up tickets to Harry Potter for tomorrow!

This weekend I want to edit "Standard-Bearer" and get it sent off, and I'd like to finish that story I was working on all week too. I'm about halfway through and can't tell if it's going to be any good. Since it's a short story, my guess is no, it will not be any good. But maybe it won't be all that bad.

Because my last post was a complaint

I thought I'd better post so people dropping by my blog for the first time won't know immediately that all I do is complain. Unfortunately, all I can think of to blog about is how someone stole my sandwich out of the fridge at work today and I ended up getting a burrito at (urp) Taco Bell instead, dammit.

Ah, yes, I know. I'll mention casually that despite my having worked 20+ hours in the last two days, I have somehow managed to write about 1,000 words of a new short story. I was going to write a tiny short little flash story, but I couldn't come up with a tiny short little idea. Unfortunately, as usual the short story idea I had is trying very hard to turn into a book idea. I am resisting this impulse.

Why this week will suck

Indulge me for a moment while I talk about work. I'm a proctor, which sounds vaguely dirty but basically just means I give college-level tests; I work at a state college. This is my schedule this week, which is unusually weird:

Monday: Due entirely to my inability to count (long story), I have to work a regular day or at least most of a regular day, then I drive out to one of the satellite campuses to help give a placement test. Start work 8am, leave work about 9pm.

Tuesday: Depending on who else is going to be available today, I may have to work a long day, or I may start late and work late. Start work either 8am or 10:30am, leave work 7pm.

Wednesday: This summer Wednesdays are my long day. Start work 8am, leave 7pm.

Thursday: This is a regular day for me--except that I may have to drive out to one of the satellite campuses this evening to give a placement test. I am going to fight hard to keep from having to do this, so I optimistically predict I will start work 8am, leave work 4:30 pm. Otherwise I'll start work 8am, leave work 9pm.

Friday: This summer I'm off on Fridays. I plan to spend the day sleeping and feeling resentful of my coworkers, even though none of this is really their fault. Well, some of it is.

Saturday: A regular Saturday, which means I have to work. Start work 8am, leave work 1pm.

Don't get me wrong, I do really like my job ordinarily. Just not this week. Oh, and keep in mind that I have a 45-minute commute, one-way.

My writing goal this week: write the shortest flash story I can manage. If I have time, I'll write two!

Finish Friday: The Weredeer

Yes, okay, it's only just barely Friday still (11:59 pm as of right now), but I just finished my final editing pass on The Weredeer. It's good. I don't think I can improve it anymore right now. In other words, I've rewritten it to the limits of my current ability, which was my goal; I'm more proud of this book than I am of any other I've ever written. I think Little Sparrow is actually better written, but Little Sparrow isn't finished.

My next step is to finish polishing the query letter and then the synopsis. Then I'll try querying a few agents and see if I get any nibbles.

WIP Wednesday: Standard-Bearer & Little Sparrow

I've almost finished "Standard-Bearer," which is flopping all over the place and way too long, but hey, it's almost done. I'm glad, because I'm tired of short fiction. Both Little Sparrow and the still-unnamed new project are pulling at me something fierce. I hope this means my subconscious has been working on both.

I have been thinking (consciously) about Little Sparrow on and off lately. Originally, Sparrow and Hildy were going to leave town after Sparrow witnesses a murder, but the second I got them out of town the plot just dropped dead. That's why I stopped working on it; obviously, I've got to figure out why my plot isn't plotting. Now I'm starting to wonder if they need to stay in town after all, at least long enough to get into worse trouble.