Bumming Off the Folks
Jun. 9th, 2004 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedPick a topic of interest:
Sometimes I think I'm an independent adult. Then I realize that the only job I'm going to get this summer comes courtesy of my dad. Come to think of it, it was like this last summer too - only then I had some independent work and wasn't completely dependent on nepotism. Oh, sorry, they're calling it "networking" now. It's a vital life skill.
My delusions and idealism aside, I finally have a job (YES YES YES YES YEEESSSS!). It's only for a week or so, but it pays $10 an hour, or $400 total, which is better than I did independently last summer. I was painting houses then, and had to split the profits with my brother (useless except as an extra pair of hands).
I came out of this year at college down by about $400: it looks like I'll be breaking even. Awesome! Although since my dad's name is a part of the company's I don't suppose it will look terribly good on the resume. No matter, I get to be a receptionist! It's ten times easier than painting houses and yet just as profitable.
Next summer is Physics Research, I can feel it. That twitch in my left eye? That's opportunity.
Perhaps of wider relevance, the MTV Movie Awards! Usually I wouldn't care about these, but the Oscars were so disappointing this year that I needed the MTV awards to, I dunno, balance them out. At the very least, I'd know that more than one movie wins stuff.
Don't get me wrong - I loved Return of the King. Not as much as the other two, but still, LOVE. It's just, well... it won Best Film Editing. To which I say what editing? Are they referring to the part where Gandalf suddenly loses his horse, or the part where it didn't end? Plus, Anne Lennox was off-key. Speaking of Gandalf - he does no magic in that movie. Or, no, he does perform exactly one spell. I call it his "impersonation of a lighthouse" spell. With a horse and a flashlight, I could've done the same.
But enough boring old stuff. Mostly, I just wanted to watch an awards show where the people I know will win, don't. One with surprises, where the odds-makers scratch their heads in bafflement and call of all the bets. That said, there's not exactly an element of surprise here, since, you know, they've already filmed the thing and picked the winner and everything.
I'm confused. I know it's not a live show, but should they really be announcing the winners before the broadcast (this Thursday)? Isn't that kind of not the point of an awards show?
Anyway, here's what my predictions would have been if I hadn't already known what was going to happen:
Best Male Performance: Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean. Although I wouldn't call it acting since he's naturally a crazy pirate who wears too much makeup. As an aside, Jesus from The Passion of the Christ was nominated. I can't say why this is disturbing, but it is.
Best Female Performance: Queen Latifah, Bringing Down the House. Terrible movie, and Latifah vacillates between love interest, comic relief, plot device, and mother hen. But the other choices are just as bad, except maybe for Uma Thurman. I didn't see that movie.
Best Villain: I'm going to say Lucy Liu just because she went to my college. Otherwise, Jeffrey Rush from Pirates. Great villain, better actor.
Best Comedic Performance: I heard Jack Black was good in School of Rock, and I am getting tired of voting for Pirates of the Caribbean. So, him.
Best Kiss: Shawn Ashmere and Anna Parquin, better known as Ice Man and Rogue from X-men. I have massive love for Shawn, and Wolverine was too old for her, anyway.
Best Fight: Queen Latifah vs. Missy Pyle! It was the highlight of the movie! Tae-Bo style! More seriously, it was probably that one from Kill Bill. I'm assuming.
Breakthrough Female: Scarlett Johansson. She was great. Lindsey Lohan, while also great, is not a breakthrough but a Mouseketeer.
Breakthrough Male: Shawn Ashmere. So much love. Although I really like Shia LaBoeuf too, he's a funny guy. Holes was a good book.
That's everything I feel qualified to judge. I didn't see many movies this year, and most of the ones I did see (Captain & Commander, The Triplets of Belleville, The Butterfly Effect, Pieces of April, Lost in Translation, a few more) weren't on the ballot. I do want to say that Return of the King shouldn't be the best movie of the year. Oh, and that I really like all of this year's breakthrough males. They're all guys I've kind of seen before, and that's always a good feeling.
I'm regressing. First it's cartoons and then it's MTV and now it's guys who are (mostly) younger than I am. Gah.
(Someone Else's Article)
This is more for me than for anyone else, but I will put up Less Than Ideal - Chapter 3 tomorrow. It is mostly done, and I'm only lying a little bit when I say that. I still have to finish another couple pages, and then I have to take out half the words since that's what I always do when I edit. If you've wondered why the chapters are so short, that's part of the reason. The other part is I suck.
At some point, it's important to stop establishing character and start establishing stuff happening. I know this. So why can't I do it? Rhetorical question, I know why.
A Preview, just the very beginning of the next chapter:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Story Start<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
His first solo mission, and he was late. Not the best way to impress the villagers, Naruto thought, but… Screw 'em. It's all about results, anyway. Since I'm going to succeed where they failed, they can wait a few extra hours.
It was all Sasuke's fault anyway. Well, sorta. It had begun at Uncle Chen's restaurant - Naruto, Sakura, and that jerk had just barely arrived at the threshold when he'd excused himself, giving some crap justification that Naruto didn't believe for a second. Looking for Kakashi, my ass, he thought. Looking for a mission to do while I'm gone… there's no reason that he couldn't have waited 'til morning for that. No one was that dedicated to Konoha, least of all Sasuke.
So, in order to prove that such things could indeed wait until the next day, Naruto hadn't done any of his own packing that night. He hadn't even thought about packing, or about his goodbyes, or about the mission he'd be going on. Not at all. And then, just to rub it in, he'd slept in extra late the next morning.
Packing was hard. He'd never had to do it alone before. Or, he had, but then someone else had always helped him to do it right the second time. This time he hadn't dared ask anyone for help, not even Sakura - he was supposed to be proving he could complete missions on his own, right? And so he'd bought everything himself, and then lugged it all up to his empty apartment himself, and then stuffed it into packs himself, and then had to return half of it so that he'd only have one pack. And then half of the shopkeepers wouldn't give him refunds, and then he'd realized that he'd forgotten something important, and then he'd run out of money to pay for it all.
By the time he'd finished, he'd been too upset to even think about seeing anyone before he left. So, he'd decided get up a little earlier the next day, make a few quick stops before going to see Tsunade for the rest of the mission details. How long can it take to say goodbye? he'd thought, it's only two little words. And it's not as if I know that many people anyway, right?
Wrong.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Sometimes I think I'm an independent adult. Then I realize that the only job I'm going to get this summer comes courtesy of my dad. Come to think of it, it was like this last summer too - only then I had some independent work and wasn't completely dependent on nepotism. Oh, sorry, they're calling it "networking" now. It's a vital life skill.
My delusions and idealism aside, I finally have a job (YES YES YES YES YEEESSSS!). It's only for a week or so, but it pays $10 an hour, or $400 total, which is better than I did independently last summer. I was painting houses then, and had to split the profits with my brother (useless except as an extra pair of hands).
I came out of this year at college down by about $400: it looks like I'll be breaking even. Awesome! Although since my dad's name is a part of the company's I don't suppose it will look terribly good on the resume. No matter, I get to be a receptionist! It's ten times easier than painting houses and yet just as profitable.
Next summer is Physics Research, I can feel it. That twitch in my left eye? That's opportunity.
Perhaps of wider relevance, the MTV Movie Awards! Usually I wouldn't care about these, but the Oscars were so disappointing this year that I needed the MTV awards to, I dunno, balance them out. At the very least, I'd know that more than one movie wins stuff.
Don't get me wrong - I loved Return of the King. Not as much as the other two, but still, LOVE. It's just, well... it won Best Film Editing. To which I say what editing? Are they referring to the part where Gandalf suddenly loses his horse, or the part where it didn't end? Plus, Anne Lennox was off-key. Speaking of Gandalf - he does no magic in that movie. Or, no, he does perform exactly one spell. I call it his "impersonation of a lighthouse" spell. With a horse and a flashlight, I could've done the same.
But enough boring old stuff. Mostly, I just wanted to watch an awards show where the people I know will win, don't. One with surprises, where the odds-makers scratch their heads in bafflement and call of all the bets. That said, there's not exactly an element of surprise here, since, you know, they've already filmed the thing and picked the winner and everything.
I'm confused. I know it's not a live show, but should they really be announcing the winners before the broadcast (this Thursday)? Isn't that kind of not the point of an awards show?
Anyway, here's what my predictions would have been if I hadn't already known what was going to happen:
Best Male Performance: Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean. Although I wouldn't call it acting since he's naturally a crazy pirate who wears too much makeup. As an aside, Jesus from The Passion of the Christ was nominated. I can't say why this is disturbing, but it is.
Best Female Performance: Queen Latifah, Bringing Down the House. Terrible movie, and Latifah vacillates between love interest, comic relief, plot device, and mother hen. But the other choices are just as bad, except maybe for Uma Thurman. I didn't see that movie.
Best Villain: I'm going to say Lucy Liu just because she went to my college. Otherwise, Jeffrey Rush from Pirates. Great villain, better actor.
Best Comedic Performance: I heard Jack Black was good in School of Rock, and I am getting tired of voting for Pirates of the Caribbean. So, him.
Best Kiss: Shawn Ashmere and Anna Parquin, better known as Ice Man and Rogue from X-men. I have massive love for Shawn, and Wolverine was too old for her, anyway.
Best Fight: Queen Latifah vs. Missy Pyle! It was the highlight of the movie! Tae-Bo style! More seriously, it was probably that one from Kill Bill. I'm assuming.
Breakthrough Female: Scarlett Johansson. She was great. Lindsey Lohan, while also great, is not a breakthrough but a Mouseketeer.
Breakthrough Male: Shawn Ashmere. So much love. Although I really like Shia LaBoeuf too, he's a funny guy. Holes was a good book.
That's everything I feel qualified to judge. I didn't see many movies this year, and most of the ones I did see (Captain & Commander, The Triplets of Belleville, The Butterfly Effect, Pieces of April, Lost in Translation, a few more) weren't on the ballot. I do want to say that Return of the King shouldn't be the best movie of the year. Oh, and that I really like all of this year's breakthrough males. They're all guys I've kind of seen before, and that's always a good feeling.
I'm regressing. First it's cartoons and then it's MTV and now it's guys who are (mostly) younger than I am. Gah.
(Someone Else's Article)
This is more for me than for anyone else, but I will put up Less Than Ideal - Chapter 3 tomorrow. It is mostly done, and I'm only lying a little bit when I say that. I still have to finish another couple pages, and then I have to take out half the words since that's what I always do when I edit. If you've wondered why the chapters are so short, that's part of the reason. The other part is I suck.
At some point, it's important to stop establishing character and start establishing stuff happening. I know this. So why can't I do it? Rhetorical question, I know why.
A Preview, just the very beginning of the next chapter:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Story Start<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
His first solo mission, and he was late. Not the best way to impress the villagers, Naruto thought, but… Screw 'em. It's all about results, anyway. Since I'm going to succeed where they failed, they can wait a few extra hours.
It was all Sasuke's fault anyway. Well, sorta. It had begun at Uncle Chen's restaurant - Naruto, Sakura, and that jerk had just barely arrived at the threshold when he'd excused himself, giving some crap justification that Naruto didn't believe for a second. Looking for Kakashi, my ass, he thought. Looking for a mission to do while I'm gone… there's no reason that he couldn't have waited 'til morning for that. No one was that dedicated to Konoha, least of all Sasuke.
So, in order to prove that such things could indeed wait until the next day, Naruto hadn't done any of his own packing that night. He hadn't even thought about packing, or about his goodbyes, or about the mission he'd be going on. Not at all. And then, just to rub it in, he'd slept in extra late the next morning.
Packing was hard. He'd never had to do it alone before. Or, he had, but then someone else had always helped him to do it right the second time. This time he hadn't dared ask anyone for help, not even Sakura - he was supposed to be proving he could complete missions on his own, right? And so he'd bought everything himself, and then lugged it all up to his empty apartment himself, and then stuffed it into packs himself, and then had to return half of it so that he'd only have one pack. And then half of the shopkeepers wouldn't give him refunds, and then he'd realized that he'd forgotten something important, and then he'd run out of money to pay for it all.
By the time he'd finished, he'd been too upset to even think about seeing anyone before he left. So, he'd decided get up a little earlier the next day, make a few quick stops before going to see Tsunade for the rest of the mission details. How long can it take to say goodbye? he'd thought, it's only two little words. And it's not as if I know that many people anyway, right?
Wrong.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
