Les Miserables: SPOILER ALERT

Some movies leave deep impressions on me that itch at my soul and sometimes depress me briefly; they eat at me and occasionally I'll get a feeling that makes me need to watch them; Les Miserables was not one of these movies.  But don't get me wrong, I really, really, really enjoyed it!  It was a wonderful story, delving realistically into the workings of human beings.  No one was an absolute "bad guy" while no one was perfect either.  Often, movies will portray an imperfect protagonist with an absolutely evil antagonist with very few (if any) redeeming qualities, unless of course it is a movie where the bad guy turns good (but even then the bad guy is usually entirely bad and replaced by an entirely good side of him).  I also appreciated the acting, singing, and scenery.  The costumes were mediocre.  Occasionally some of the parts were excessive and not one hundred percent necessary, like the crunching sound Russell Crowe's character makes when he hits the concrete when he decides to kill himself.  Coming from someone who vehemently despises most musicals, I was absolutely contented by this film.

I have to admit I was very surprised to find that Eddie Redmayne and Russell Crowe could sing, that Anne Hathaway could sing better than Amanda Seyfried, and that Helena Bonham Carter was in the movie.  This all blew me away.  I was also blown away by the movie as a whole; it was beautifully created, yet so simple.  The scenery was believable, yet it seemed very stage-like.  I also liked that some virtually unknown actors and actress graced the performance along with known actors and actress as well as superstar actors and actress.  I liked the movie a lot without being driven to extreme emotion, which is very unusual for me.

I definitely recommend that everyone everywhere goes to see it.

Bryn Mawr College in the Fall

Here I present some photos of Bryn Mawr College in the Fall of 2012.

Goodhart Theater and some of Rock on the left
9/30/12

Thomas Hall
9/30/12

Rock Dorm
9/30/12

Taft Memorial Garden
9/30/12

View of Taylor Hall Bell Tower
10/26/12

Senior Row
10/26/12

Cloisters on First Snow 2012
11/27/12

Cloisters on First Snow 2012
11/27/12

Cloisters on First Snow 2012
11/27/12

The Dark Knight Rises: SPOILER ALERT

Tonight was the first time I've seen The Dark Knight Rises; I viewed it at my college as one of the "Bryn Mawr Film Series" movies, which take up most of my early Friday and Saturday evenings.  Preparing to watch this infamous film, my thoughts were mixed with paranoia and anticipation.  Other than knowing that Cat Woman was involved and that there was a guy with a breathing device and that it was about Batman and the creation of Robin, I had no idea what the actual story was going to be like.  Also because of the films infamous opening night there was a smidgen of anxiety and sadness, especially since the film began so violently.  I have to admit, other than the violence, the beginning was really hard to follow and I'm still not sure how it fit in with the rest of the plot to be exact.  I also am confused about some of the other plot points, like who was Miranda's father in relation to the earlier movies and story, as I am not a Batman fanatic.  Many times in the movie, I had no idea what was going on, like how was Batman transported to the prison, and how did he get to Gotham from the prison?

I must also admit that until almost the second before the unveiling of Miranda, I had no idea that she was the real bad guy and mastermind.  I did however, even though I had mostly forgotten that Robin appears, anticipate Joseph Gordon-Levitt being Robin and giving up the police force.

The movie was very dark at the beginning and quite depressing at first; however, as it progressed, it became lighter and lighter. By the end there was much hope and happiness; in other words, it had a very happy and mostly satisfying ending.  The only unsatisfying thing I can say about the ending is that there really was no build to the romance between Cat Woman and Batman...  They had no real connections; Cat Woman just flirts and kisses Batman.  That is no reason for them to end up together.  Their relationship had no real progression.

My biggest criticism of the movie is that if you haven't recently watched all the Batman movies preceding this one, you (like I) would be totally lost on much of the plot and references.  The only reason I don't criticize Batman's escape from the nuclear bomb is that I'm sure they'll explain it in the next film.

I don't know whether this is a criticism or a congratulation:  But, other than the obvious subliminal similarities, they made a STARK reference to Gotham actually being New York City when they flashed by Saks Fifth Avenue in one of the battle scenes towards the end.

By the end of the movie, I determined that overall, I enjoyed the film, although it was very confusing and the beginning was a little to dark and violent for my preference.  I think the fact that most of the actors are very beautiful, helps a lot in my determination of it being an mostly satisfying movie.

Oh, I almost forgot!  In the scene where Cat Woman drops Batman off at the underground lair, I was reminded of the scene in Star Wars where Luke finds out that Darth Vader is his father.  Not that the situation was similar, but the look of the set and characters.  Batman looked like Vader while Bane looked more like Luke, but with the Vader voice....

On Another Note (sort of):  Christian Bale is from (according to IMDb) "Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK".  Bryn Mawr <3

Halloween Special

Trick or Treat?  Scorpio, ruled by Pluto (the planet of death and riches), is the sign that contains one of my favorite holidays, Halloween.  Not only is the death part fitting, but also the declaration of "trick or treat".  If a Scorpio went knocking on Halloween and the homeowner chose "trick", you can be sure that Scorpio will find a way to trick them for their audacity at not delivering a treat.

Without doing research, I've gathered that Halloween is a spin-off of The Day of the Dead and All Hallows Eve, which fall around this time (October 31st).  At least in America, it is a day for children to get dressed up in a costume and go door-to-door declaring "trick or treat?" and expecting to get treated.  It also may be known as "Mischief Night", as a day to toilet-paper, egg, and graffiti private and public property.  For college students, and who am I kidding...high school students, it's a time to dress slutty (for guys and girls) and party.  If it weren't for the Frankenstorm, you'd be sure to see tons of students dressed is slutty costumes today.  Because of the Frankenstorm, people like me settled on something warm and orange.

My celebrations for Halloween included going to see a scary movie, "The Cabin in the Woods", on Saturday evening, then going to two Halloween parties on campus, dressed as Minnie Mouse - I have a flapper costume, but chose not to wear it for convenience  I would have worn it today had it not been for the Frankenstorm.  Also, most nights since I've been back at college from Fall Break, I've watched a Halloween-themed movie, like "Coraline" last night.  We were supposed to have had a Trick-or-Treating in the dorms for professor's children last night, but the Frankenstorm prevented this.  Tonight I'm going to a reading of scary Classics stories in the Great Hall from 11:30pm to midnight.

Not only is Halloween surrounded by these celebrations, it is also a time to decorate.  I love decorating....  This year, I have three mini pumpkins around my hearth and desk, Halloween-themed movie posters I cut out of the New York Times hanging on my walls, some Fall themed decorative items I got from Michaels, a "boo" pillow, and a "boo" blanket - or so I call them.  The pillow and blanket are fleece with adorable white ghosts on them!  They are so soft and I love them!

Halloween is also a time for companies to make money.  Obviously this is a peak season for the candy companies.  It is also a good time for decoration and craft stores.  And, lots of TV channels can make special programming just for Halloween.  ABC Family did a 13 Nights of Halloween, Disney Channel does a theme for Halloween each year in the month of October, etc.  It also allows for TV show specials, like this week of "Once Upon A Time" featured Victor Frankenstein, which was pretty obvious from the time he said to Regina "I prefer Doctor" (not necessarily a direct quote, he said something along those lines).

My suggestions for enjoying Halloween are:  watch a scary movie (or at least "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" - which I'm so sad to be missing), carve a pumpkin (or at least paint a pumpkin), wear a costume (even if it's something stupid like a name card saying "Hi, my name is Mitt Romney"), and make traditions (I always watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and "Hocus Pocus").

Movie Suggestions:
- It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
- Hocus Pocus
- Scream (any of the four)
- Coraline
- The Haunting Hour:  Don't Think About It
- any scary or supernatural-themed movie goes
- any cutesy movie, like Charlie Brown, goes

Music Suggestions:
- Thriller
- Harry Potter's Double Trouble
- The Monster Mash

If you're throwing a party, spend the extra money on Halloween-themed cups, plates, napkins, etc.  It really livens up the party, even if it's just a Horror Movie party.

Just have fun and be safe!  Happy Halloween!

Snow White and the Huntsman: SPOILER ALERT

For starters, WORST TITLE EVER!  It would have been significantly more fitting for the title to be just plain "Snow White".

Summary:  Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, Avatar, Twilight, Wizard of Oz, Joan of Arc, Stardust, and of course, Snow White.

I don't mean for you to think that the movie wasn't good, because it was very good.  I was impressed with it.  I just couldn't help but be distracted by the similarities between this movie and many other recent epic movies/stories.

My least favorite parts:  the creepy alien fairies, the stag, the confusing declaration of Snow White's Christianity, Snow White kissing her childhood friend (who turned out to be the Queen, though the part that he turned out to be the Queen wasn't the part I didn't like), the fact that the mirror wasn't destroyed necessarily, the pathetic ending.

My favorite parts:  the subtle similarities between the original story and the remake, the troll, the dark forest, Snow White's escape from the castle, the line "he couldn't lift his sword" - or something very close to that - said by the Queen referring to Snow White's murdered father, the death of the Queen.

The most interesting thing for me about this movie is its relation to one of the original vampire stories that I learned about watching "Vampire Secrets" (I believe it is a History Channel movie).  The evil Queen is extraordinarily similar to the Countess/Duchess in that movie/documentary.  They both were mistreated by men; they both stole young, beautiful women and killed them seeking youth from their lives; they both weren't adverse to consuming the young, beautiful women to maintain youth; they both had minions.  I suggest watching "Vampire Secrets" if you've seen or plan to see "Snow White and the Huntsman", though otherwise I wouldn't suggest watching "Vampire Secrets" because it's totes creeps.

I enjoyed the epic proportions of "Snow White and the Huntsman", though some of the lines were weak and it was almost annoying because of all the similarities to other stories.  It was well made and certainly worth seeing.

And just fyi, Sam Claflin will totes be the young actor a bunch of annoying teen girls constantly gush about in approximately less than a year.  He's been in a lot of movies I've seen lately, like "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", "Any Human Heart", "The Pillars of the Earth",  and now "Snow White and the Huntsman".  Though, apparently, he's not that young, as he is almost twenty-six years old, according to my IMDb search of him. I also learned from this IMDb search that Ipswich is an actual place.

Class T-Shirts

Although we've had the tradition of class t-shirts since seventh grade at my school, I don't know where my seventh grade shirt is and I didn't buy the eighth grade one.  I do have all my shirts since ninth grade though, as the shirts become more important with Spirit Week at my school, and happily, I have remained a "medium" the whole time!  So here they are:

This is my ninth grade shirt.  Obviously, it was the Monster energy drink theme.  I think it's so appropriate for Freshman to have the saying "unleash the beast" because it's the year we were "unleashed"!  Haha.  Along with the shirt, here is a short personal anecdote!  In both seventh and eighth grade during the competitions between classes, I would be in the tug-of-war competition, but I couldn't my ninth grade year because of my broken spine issue.  So, instead, I volunteered to be in a gum chewing contest for our "Inferno", which is a "blind" competition with multiple challenges.  I didn't know what I was getting into when I volunteered.  It was a bowl of whipped cream supposedly with a piece of gum at the bottom of it; you couldn't use your hands to retrieve the gum.  I would have actually won it too, because I got down to the bottom of the bowl the quickest and realized there was nothing there almost immediately, the Juniors prepping the game rigged it by not putting gum in any of the containers except the Junior's and Senior's.  Needless to say, I was sticky the rest of the day from submerging my hair in the whipped cream.  I tasted good though!  I also began my tradition of participating in the Academic Challenge that year.  The Academic Challenge is a battle of the classes again where you are quizzed in a competition-like style with buzzers on specific subjects.  Each year I did the History/English section.  I also participated in the "Pass the Lifesaver" in the Spirit Games that year.  Never again.


Spirit Week that year consisted of a Homecoming Dance, the normal competitions (special dress-up days, the class walls, Spirit Games (where I would have played tug-of-war), the Inferno, Idol, and the Academic Challenge), and a large bonfire in which we burned a wooden figurine of the opposing team's mascot the evening before the Homecoming Game.  The bonfire was so much fun and was by far the best "bonfire" of my high school career.  After the bonfire, a group of my friends went over to one of our houses and had our own little campfire and ate s'mores.  We took lots of pictures!  One picture that ended up on my friend's camera when we uploaded them, made no sense, because in the picture, you can see her camera sitting on a chair.  I was in the picture with my eyes closed reaching for something and down below, in the fire, it looks like a woman is rising out of the fire with her hands clasped, at least that's what I see.  Someone who I've shown the picture to thought it looked more like a unicorn.  You decide, it's zoomed in on the "woman" in the picture above.


Also, Freshman came in third place, but I might as well mention that the games are rigged with the Seniors already getting an unfair advantage with Senior Hat Day, because only Seniors are allowed to wear hats, and the Powderpuff Football Game, which only gives Juniors and Seniors the ability to gain points.  Though, only Seniors can win that anyway...

Here is my Sophomore shirt, and by far my absolute favorite!  It's the Mayan Calendar on the front with "SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST" on the back.  I think it's so funny and clever!  


Sophomore year, I participated in the Spirit Games in the "pie" eating contest.  Which is a whipped cream and cherry sauce pie with pieces of gum mushed up.  You have to pick up enough gum to be able to blow a bubble.  But, because the games are rigged, once again, I came in first, but the judge decided to ignore me and give the win to the Seniors who came next.  Sophomores are rigged to lose Spirit Week, so of course we lost (came in fourth) that year.

I was/am very upset about our shirt choice Junior year, especially since I don't watch the show.  Obviously, our shirts were after Jersey Shore.  Such a stupid show.  It shouldn't exist.  I wanted us to be Junior Mints!  It was funny though, with the quote we chose, "WE GOT A SITUATION", because some of the boys cut out a hole in their shirts to show their "situations".  And technically, on another note, we won Powderpuff, though the Seniors cheated.  So typical.

Again, like Freshman and Sophomore years, I participated in the Academic Challenge.  I also helped create the Junior Wall, which is a design based on a theme; our theme was lacrosse, as the overall theme was sports.  To the side is a picture of our loveliness, which was much better than this year's!  It's obviously the middle section of the picture with the quote, "Juniors".




I was very let down with our Senior t-shirts, this year.  The back was fine, but the color was all wrong and the "Seniors" is just pathetic.  It's supposed to be every other year that changes between blue and white shirts.  Last year's Seniors had white shirts with blue writing, so we were supposed to have blue ones with white writing.


We didn't have a Homecoming Dance this year, which was disappointing because I bought a dress.  Instead of wearing it to Homecoming, I'm wearing it for my graduation party.  I yet again competed in the Academic Challenge, but I had to film for my Mulitmedia class, so I didn't compete in anything else.  We won Powderpuff, and for real!  Yay!  I also helped with our class wall, but it was just pathetic.  To the left, there is a very blurry picture of it.




Well, there are all my class shirts.  They are certainly worthy of note.

Cover the Night: Kony 2012

I did not participate in Cover the Night mostly because I didn't want to buy a box and partly because I didn't want to get in trouble.  The evening of April 20, 2012, I went down to my college for next year just because my mom and I were totes bored.  We drove around the little town and then toured (in our car) some other college campuses fairly near by and some not as near.  We also stopped for some brief shopping on our way back home.  When we finally arrived back in our town, driving down the main road of our neighborhood, I spotted a Kony 2012 sign attached to a mailbox.  I don't know if that's a legal place for it or not, but I was suddenly reminded that it was Cover the Night.  That was the only sign we found on our way home.


The next day, while driving around, we noticed more signs.  Tied around trees, posted on signs, etc.  But, overall, there weren't very many up.  Definitely a fail in my neighborhood, but not a total one.  They are still noticeable, and a few are still up.

This Is Spreading Like Wild Fire

or visit:  Kony 2012 Video

Although I seriously agree with spreading the video and even a bit with supporting the cause by ordering one of those boxes, I don't agree with graffiti-ing the world by illegally putting up posters during the night.  Definitely watch the video and write to either your Congressman or one of the featured ones.

Fun Stuff for Saint Valentine's Day

In my AP Literature class (my English class for Senior Year), we decided that we shall have a small Valentine's Day party tomorrow, in which we will exchange cheesy cards like we used to in Elementary School (since it is most likely our last opportunity to do so).  I almost purchased Barbie cards that come with little tattoos for this occasion, but my mom noticed some Tinkerbell ones that came with lollipops.  So, of course, I instead chose the Tinkerbell ones.

While preparing my cards this afternoon, I listened to "Love You Like a Love Song" by Selena Gomez ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgT_us6AsDg&ob=av2n ) and "You Da One" by Rihanna ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3HeLs8Yosw&ob=av2n ).  Although both songs aren't totes lovey-dovey, they are the current generation's (or at least my generation's) version of love songs. However, if you're looking for stereotypical love songs, try:  "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHyJTpDFgc8 or "All My Loving" by The Beatles:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWvurnpKjE4.

I think the most forgotten thing about Valentine's Day is that it is actually Saint Valentine's Day.  Because I didn't know the story of St. Valentine, I thought I would do some research and share it here on my blog.  I, of course, began with Wikipedia, but soon progressed to History.com.  So here's the story in summary:  Although there were a few Saint Valentines, the main legend is that some mean Roman emperor outlawed young men from being married because apparently they were better fighters in war.  So, Valentine (a Catholic priest) illegally married young men and women in secret.  He was discovered and then executed, being considered a martyr and eventually a Saint.  February 14th was probably chosen as the feast day because it fell around the same time in February as the pagan celebration of Lupercalia to help alleviate the need to celebrate the unChristian festival.  If you want more information go to:  http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day.

On Another Note (sort of):  I've had this Valentine's card for years that is absolutely stupid, but I've kept it for its dry humor.  It is not one that I've received, rather I bought it because I thought it was worth it.  I haven't yet had someone worthy of giving it to.

On Yet Another Note (sort of):  Here are some romantic movies to watch if you're bored:  The Princess Bride; Lost in Austen; Valentine's Day; Tristan and Isolde; Romancing the Stone; Casablanca; Titanic; Much Ado About Nothing; Leap Year; The Proposal; Made of Honor; Troy.

Bryn Mawr College

Here are some pictures of the college I will be attending next Fall:

There are dorms on each wing of this building!

There is a courtyard like the cloisters at Hogwarts and a Castle-like atmosphere on the inside of this building.

Apparently, President Woodrow Wilson taught there.

Just some more random pictures of the beautiful buildings:

Bryn Mawr College is one of the Seven Sister Schools, and I am very excited to be attending in the Fall of 2012.