Gattaca, The Lake House, and My Busy Week

I've watched two movies recently, I'll be reviewing Gattaca and then The Lake House.

I liked Gattaca, but it's quite sci-fi. If you're one of those people that can't get into science fiction, then I don't recommend this movie. However, if you're interested in science/genetics, then WATCH GATTACA!

The acting was pretty good in my opinion, and the story was fascinating. The movie was made in 1997, and I'd already seen it once before, but I liked it so much that I watched it again : P I'm lying, they made us watch it in class last week, but I still enjoyed it a second time!!

The main character, Vincent Freeman, is a natural born person. See, in his future time, all parents ask geneticists to make their children genetically perfect. These super people are the upper class of their futuristic society, and the natural born people like Vincent are only allowed simple and boring jobs like being a janitor.

Being a janitor isn't good enough for Vincent, though. He wants to travel into space, specifically through the space station/research center called Gattaca. He teams up with a genetically perfect man, Jerome Marrow, who is paralyzed from the waist down. Jerome, who's paralyzation lost him his dream of being a top swimmer, decides to help Vincent achieve his dream of going into space. Using blood, urine, and hair samples from Jerome, Vincent successfully fools Gattaca by pretending to be Jerome. Soon, he'll be in outer space, following his dream.

Unfortunately, a murder is committed in Gattaca before Vincent's launch into space. This delay brings swarms of investigators into Gattaca, and soon Vincent is suspected of being an "invalid" (naturally born) man. Will Vincent and Jerome keep their ruse up long enough for Vincent to reach his dreams of space travel? Or will Vincent be convicted for a murder that he didn't commit, just because he's an "invalid"?

My mother wanted me to watch this movie. Basically, the two main characters fall in love as they write letters to each other because she sold him this lake house (which led to them getting to know each other through these letters). They live in the same area, but they have to write letters because she lives in the year 2006 and he lives in the year 2004. Odd, huh? I thought it was.

The movie held my interest, the acting was good, and I liked the ending. Overall, I don't have much to say about it. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. *Shrug* If I was really pressed, I guess I'd lean more towards the "I liked it okay" end of the spectrum. There are better movies out there to watch, though (like Gattaca).

So, I've had quite the busy week. There hasn't been a single day after school so far that I haven't had something going on! Between my volleyball practice and then game, chorus rehearsal then chorus concert, and book club I've had a lot to occupy my time. I love to stay busy (idleness is the devil's playground), but this week was just go, go, go from the start. The weekend is pleasantly calm (so far).

In my speech class, we've had to tell scary story speeches as our latest speech topic. I thought mine went well considering that my audience seemed to be paying attention, I got a lot of applause at the end, and my teacher even complimented me before I left class that day. Sorry, I'm a bit smug about that speech 'cause I was worried that I wouldn't remember certain parts of it but it worked out well in the end. Anyway, I enjoyed listening to my classmates' stories, but some of them REALLY freaked me out! *Shudder* I won't be watching any horror movies for a while, I can tell you that! I've had my fair share of frightening stories for now.

I saw Synfan for the first time in about six months or so. She came to my chorus concert (which went well) and we've been catching up over the phone. It was great to see her, I really wish that she would come back to my school! *Sob* I've actually been talking to several people over the phone today, but I managed to take a nice long bike ride around my neighborhood, too : ) It was a beautiful day outside, and the combination of sunlight, green leaves, and lovely flowers was incredibly relaxing. I hope the weather stays like this, it's been too cold for too long...

I have a biology study group tomorrow at the library, which I'm actually (being nerdy to the core) kind of excited about. That's mostly because Bubbles and Merrickle will be there, though, not just because of biology. We always end up having fun when we hang out, no matter what our topic for meeting is.

Oh, and I have so many good books to read that I'm doing something that I almost NEVER do: I'm reading more than one book at once! *Cue Loud Chorus of Gasps* I know, it's very exciting stuff : P Seriously, though, I typically pick one book to focus on at a time, but I have so many amazing books at the moment that I can't choose just one! It'll be interesting to see which one I finish first, and which one I like the best.

~I'm thinking of changing my blog template again, should I stay green or choose a different color?

Moonlight Mile and Snow Days

Wow, it's been an interesting couple of days (to say the least). We got about four inches of snow, and it only snows about once every few years where I live. Even then, we hardly ever get a lot of snow, so four inches is amazing to us. Everyone takes advantage of it when there's enough to play in, which is exactly what I've been doing for the past few days : )

But first, I'd like to talk about Moonlight Mile. I've discussed in previous posts about my love for Jake Gyllenhaal, how I pull out random movies simply because he's in them. This was the case for Moonlight Mile, if Jake Gyllenhaal weren't in it there's no way that I'd have picked it up.

Actually, there were many famous actors in this film. Dustin Hoffman, Holly Hunter, Susan Sarandon, and Ellen Pompeo also starred in Moonlight Mile. Needless to say, the acting was phenomenal. The characters really came alive, thanks to the wonderful acting.

However, the acting was the ONLY redeeming quality in this film. The story didn't capture my interest at all, and the plot went absolutely nowhere for the longest time. It was slightly better towards the end, but for the most part there was a giant question mark present in my thoughts while I watched this one. I don't recommend Moonlight Mile to anyone who wants to be entertained. This movie was a joke next to other movies that members of that cast have been in. All in all, don't watch Moonlight Mile. Ever. End of story.

Now, I'll do a journal dicussion of my treasured snow days ^_^

I was woken at about 9:00 by the kids in my neighborhood knocking on our front door. I wasn't ready to come out, of course, so I told them (in my pajamas, which was slightly embarrassing) that I'd eat breakfast and catch up with them later. While I ate, GOS and NHC both called me to talk for a bit, which was nice of them. I'm a pretty slow eater, though, so it was about 11:00 before I finally walked out the door. My first order of snow business was to play with my dog, Hershey. She LOVES the snow, she frolicks through it like a puppy : )

Eventually, three of my neighbors came by and brought their dog, Sandi. We all ran around in my backyard (which is pretty large, and fenced in. Perfect for doggies) throwing snow at each other and our insanely happy dogs. We soon left, though, eager to do some sledding before we made the walk to Bubbles's house.

There is a small-ish hill by the creek down our hill which is good for sledding. . . . . as long as you don't run into trees. Haha, that sounds funny but it really is a pain dodging trees all the time. I live in a very foresty neighborhood, some of my friends joke that I live in the middle of the woods : P

We were met up at the creek by Will, (finally, I use an actual name!) another neighbor of mine. Together, the five of us walked to Bubbles's house towing two plastic sleds.

When we got there, they were of course playing my most hated game. Football. It was Bubbles, Joey, Door (THAT'S a nickname), Jake, Walter, me, Will, Maddie, Jesse, and Lily (who are Maddie's little identical twin sisters). Just my luck, some idiot decided that we should play guys against girls. Maddie, Jesse, and Lily can't play football to save their lives. So basically it was Bubbles and I against five to six (Hunter joined us a little) guys. I got tackled a lot. Mostly by Will, who was covering me the whole time. We held our own, 'cause Bubbles is good and I can catch pretty well (I fell down a lot, though. . . . .). It quickly turned into a snowball fight before we could finish, which was WAY more fun!

However, the snowball fight was also guys versus girls. We were more evenly matched for that one, though, 'cause Maddie and her sisters (Jesse and Lily) didn't have any trouble with THAT game! Muahhahahahahahaaaa, it was revenge time.

Both teams got each other pretty well, but the guys ultimately won. Even though we lost, it was a great fight, we went at it for quite a while before we were called in to watch Obama's inauguration. We all clumped into Bubbles's house and took off our outer layers of clothing. We tossed these by the fireplace, and made TONS of hot chocolate for everyone. We all gathered in the living room to watch Obama be sworn in, sipping our cocoa as he gave his acceptance speech. It was a great moment, though I had to shush Maddie's little sisters often for their impatient whispering. We didn't stay in for long after his speech, just long enough to warm up a little more and throw on our outer layers and boots.

Next on the agenda was more sledding. Not just any sledding, however, this is what we'd all been waiting for. This was what the twins (Jesse and Lily) had been bugging me about since the start of autumn. Dare Devil Drop.

There are some advantages to living in the woods, and I consider Dare Devil Drop to be a HUGE asset of my neighborhood. If you hike a bit into Bubbles's backyard, you come to a steep (almost a 90 degree angle- no joke) hill which we call Dare Devil Drop. From the top of this GIGANTIC hill, you can see much of the snowy forest. I wish that I'd taken pictures of that view, it was breathtaking.

Now sledding down this hill takes some major guts. Not only is it incredibly steep, but the creek is VERY close to the bottom. If you're not careful, you might just slide right into the creek, which is not only freezing in this weather but we've also seen many snakes in the creek before. Even in the winter, we've seen the occasional snake slithering by.

Walter is the greatest daredevil, he's always the first to try everything. He bounded forward, slammed his sled down and we all watched him fly down Dare Devil Drop at an alarming speed. It truly is frightening when you try it for the first time, but we've all done it before so it wasn't as intimidating as it used to be. The biggest pain is climbing back up the stupid hill. It takes tons of leg strength, and even with incredible power it's easy to slip and fall all the way back down. It's very tiring, and Joey had the worst time getting back up. He was stuck at the bottom for quite some time, so the other guys all laughed and threw snowballs at him from the top of the hill.

I went down mostly on my butt, I'll admit it. There's less dignity in it, but it's a little slower, which makes it easier for those of us who are terrified by heights. I don't have much trouble getting back up, but it didn't take before we all sat at the top panting, just enjoying the view.

The hike back was fairly uneventful, but it seemed much longer than the journey there. It probably just seemed that way because we were all muddy and sore. Even though Dare Devil Drop is frightening and messy, it's by far our most anticipated snow activity. Words can't describe how exhilarating it is to sled down that hill, it's one of my most cherished memories.

That was pretty much the end of day one, 'cause after that we just huddled inside Bubbles's house playing poker and other card games. There were only a couple of casualties that day, one fist fight between Door and Joey was the worst of it. Oh, and we played basketball in Jake and Hunter's snowy driveway, which Bubbles and I killed at. Whenever she didn't win, I won >: )

Day two of my snowy days was far less eventful, the snow was all melted for the most part of it. I did a little more sledding on the smaller hill by the creek with Maddie and her sisters, and I had a couple more snowball fights. It was still fun, though, and I'm glad that we finally got some snow. It's been long overdue, even if it is at the most inconvient time for me.

The snow just HAD to come during exam week *Sigh* Oh well. It's pushed everything back, but I'm not really complaining. I'm just glad that we got the snow. I'll maybe post a few pictures later, but no guarantees.

~Enjoy our new president, everybody!