#anecdoteword

[wordstreamer]

Would you rather be right or famous?

Right.  Bitterly right.

[wordstreamer]

In a single night, my number of followers has doubled.  o.O

[wordstreamer]

Holiday

Despite the fact that I can't be there to see everyone else opening all of their presents (which I always like), or for the big dinner (with the finer dishes!), or for the games afterwards, or for the hijinks that my uncles will get up to, etc., this was still not a bad one.

(The cats are lucky that I didn't just wrap them all up, adorable little brats.)

I'm glad that it was only pneumonia (not to poo-poo pneumonia, but it could've been much worse), and I'm glad that I got to hear some of the piano playing, and to see everyone at least for a little while.

And I'm now a little scared of ever jokingly asking for anything expensive again.  (Grateful, mostly; but my point stands.)

Also, it was beautifully snowy on Monday, and now it is here, too.  It's been snowing and drifting and blowing in the wind pretty much all night.  

Happy winter to everyone.

[wordstreamer]

Frozen (with Spoilers!)

NiBu loves it hardcore.  I love it, too; the visuals are lovely, and I'm glad that it doesn't carry any sort of message that the snow/winter are evil.  Yes, the characters in the movie start off fearing it, but when they embrace it (while acknowledging its danger), it's controllable and full of beauty and magic.  

Winter is dark, it is dangerous, but it's still beautiful.  And I'm glad that that's a present theme.

So, Anna annoyed me a few times, especially towards the beginning.  I remember thinking, "pff, if Disney had any balls, they'd make Prince Hans evil, or else have a real love triangle between that puppy-love-infatuation and the deeper connection that Anna made with Kristoff.  I'll bet instead, Elsa comes home and finds something appealing in Hans".  

Clearly, I squeed at the actual resolution there.  I turned and looked at NiBu and was like "EEEE", but in a silent way.

And I remember thinking, "oh, is it going to be true love's kiss?  It's a well-founded cliché, yeah, but what about sibling love; the love between sisters?  That'd be nice", and then as Anna's rushing around to her manly love interest, I was like, "mmmm, it would've been nice, wouldn't it", in a disappointed way.

So I was pretty happy how that turned out, too.

I feel less than impressed with the soundtrack (the singing was fine, and I'm not talking about the score; that was quite fine as well), but it's catchy, and it's about on par with Tangled.

The snowman was actually kind of funny.  He was blatant, obvious kid-friendly comic relief, and his song was a little awkward, but I did like him the rest of the time.  Especially because he's not trying to be funny; he's just so inept that it comes off that way.  

Yeah, it's not a lot like The Snow Queen, and maybe one day we'll get one that's more similar to that.  But we still had a better romance than that of movies even as recent as The Little Mermaid (I meet you!  I love you forever!  It's perfection!), we had a critique of those romances, in fact; and we had sisters saving each other rather than relying on the big mighty man to do it.  

Elsa is the queen now.  The movie is resolved when Elsa comes to terms with being queen, being in control of her power and her feelings; she doesn't need to find a man to be her king or to help her.  She's confident and strong and self-aware, and that's her happy ending.

While Anna may have a love interest at the end, she's not so involved in him that she ignores everything or everyone else.  She's less inept than Rapunzel was in Tangled, and while she's blundering around almost as blindly as Merida did in Brave, she still takes more of a stand, and knows a bit more about what she's getting into.  

Not to mention that we have two fairly strong female protagonists rather than just one and some token support.  Baby steps, guys.  Maybe next they'll both be stronger characters.  

(And of course there was going to be a romance tossed in there; it's a Disney movie.  An animated Disney movie aimed at kids.  Come on.  Complaining that they gave one of the main characters a love interest is like complaining that there are songs.)

Overall, it was fun, visually beautiful, and everything else was somewhere between okay and pretty good.

[wordstreamer]

An Open Letter to My Brother-in-Law:

I can't believe that you cut off both the Bugs Bunny Christmas special AND the Claymation Christmas special.  On the same tape.  Why?

But thank you for not letting NiBu electrocute himself by cutting live wires with a bloody nutcracker when he was (apparently) far too young to know better.

[wordstreamer]

Star Destroyers

NiBu: What was the name of Vader's Star Destroyer at the end of Episode IV?

Me: You know, I'm not sure?  All I can think of is The Executor, but that wasn't it yet, right?

NiBu:  Right.  No, it was The Tyranny or Command or The Crush Everybody Under Our Boots or something.  

Me: Right; in case you couldn't tell it was evil.

[wordstreamer]

Movies!

So, I'm totally looking forward to seeing Frozen and The Hobbit 2.  Wouldn't mind seeing Thor 2 again, or seeing Catching Fire.  (But I'm cheap, so probably not until the DVD releases and the sales.)  I also kind of want to go and see Saving Mr. Banks, plus Don Jon is still showing at a theatre near me.  

Not to mention that after talking to shu this morning, I kind of want to just curl up and watch all of the schmaltzy crappy (mostly crappy, anyway) holiday specials that we watched when we were kids (even though we only watched half of the same ones).  Did order Disney's Christmas Gift on VHS from someone on eBay, and sometime in the next week or two, we're going to go a little north to buy He-Man and She-Ra's Christmas special on DVD.

I did watch White Christmas a week or so ago; I think I'll do Holiday Inn next.  After celebrating with his parents on Saturday, it feels very holiday.

[wordstreamer]

So, we go into a gas station last night.  He's clutching his hand to his eye, more than a little irritated.  I'm half trying not to laugh, half apologies.  We walk around (because neither of us is super awake; this trip was to get out of the car for a few minutes when we're at hour 29 without sleep), looking for something to buy.  When we get to the register, the attendant looks between the two of us.  "I probably shouldn't ask, should I."  

I glance at Fishy.  "Probably not."  

The attendant rings me up.  "Was it your fault?"

"...Yes."  

"Well, don't do it again."  

"It was an accident..."  

That whole exchange is with smiles on both parts, but I did try to blind Fishy about two minutes before going in.  Luckily, his eye is now fine.

Not-at-all-related, first real snow!  It's still sticking a day later, there was some ice leaving the apartment this morning; it's wonderful.