This is very, very true

Source: justnerdgirlproblems.tumblr.com via shiloh on Pinterest

Loki vs. Zod

That second weakness made me giggle.

Is it bad that I had to explain to my daughter who General Zod is? Apparently we haven't kept up with her DC education as well as we have with Marvel. I see some Superman movies in our future...

Kirk Douglas: We Are Spartacus [Recently Read]

Kirk Douglas: We Are Spartacus:

"After 95 years on this planet, I have come to the conclusion that the human spirit can never be crushed, no matter how cruel the oppressor or fanatic the belief. If we remember that simple truth--and act on it every day in small ways and sometimes in large movements--then freedom will ultimately win.

And then we are all Spartacus."

What's wrong with this ad?

I just noticed this ad in the sidebar on Facebook:

I read the title and was very excited for a moment, but then I looked more closely at the picture and my excitement turned to "HUH?!?"

I do love the shoes (a friend of mine just got a pair which I was drooling over) but..."Captain America Approved"???

I'm Batgirl!

My daughter refuses to wear dresses (we won't go into her many reasons why) but she says she would make an exception for this one:

from Goody Goody Tutus via Fashionably Geek

A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable [Quote]

A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It's only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate. - Steven Pressfield, Do the Work

Source: Uploaded by user via Jon on Pinterest

This is how my morning went. How about yours?

Friday Fun: Bonus Scene from "How The Avengers Should Have Ended"

Here's a bonus scene from "How The Avengers Should Have Ended."


Spoiler warning: Don't watch it if you haven't seen the movie!

Dangerously Bad Ideas

"All the creativity books in the world aren't going to help you if you're unwilling to have lousy, lame, and even dangerously bad ideas." - Seth Godin

Source: uk.moo.com via Jon on Pinterest

This is a reminder I need quite often.

Captain America lipstick...and a question. [Avengers]

This is gorgeous. Wouldn't this be fun for the Fourth of July?

But I have a question: if you do this, do you just not talk, eat, drink or lick your lips? I know I'd ruin this in about 3 seconds. :( 

via Fashionably Geek (Click through if you want to see the Batman and Superman versions.)

The Dark Knight + Music From Vertigo = Woah!

I came across this video on Set Phasers to LOL last night. Plan 9 Pictures put music from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo with the opening scene from The Dark Knight. The way the dramatic beats in the scene match up with the music is a little freaky. The longer I watched, the more drawn in I was. I'm wondering how much Hitchcock's work influenced Christopher Nolan, even subconsciously, for the timing to be so close. 

Another thought: This music also amps up the tension of the scene, I think, though I'm not sure if it's because it's this music or simply because it's different than the music I'm familiar with in the scene. I think the removal of all the dialogue adds to the tension, as well. 

Today's Google "doodle" honors drive-ins

Today's Google doodle is a short video honoring the 79th anniversary of the first drive-in theater. Like any good film, it has rewards for those who pay attention.

A few fun things I spotted:

• A Google doodle within the Google doodle
• The ubiquitous Wilhelm scream
• A little Android guy in a grass skirt on a dashboard

Were there any other interesting things you noticed? Share in the comments!

Missed the transit of Venus? You can still check it out on Flickr

I missed out on the transit of Venus yesterday, but with any astronomical event, Flickr's users are there to keep me covered. NASA always provides especially good views:

via NASA Goddard Photo and Video's Flickr stream

Click here to see this photo LARGE and you can see more photos and videos here and here.

Dreams don't work unless you do [Quote]

Source: allthatinspires.me via Jon on Pinterest

Here's a little fun for your Monday!

see more Set Phasers To Lol

A humorous piece about that one clock tower in London

by Me

"It sounds like Big Ben is to be renamed the Elizabeth Tower in honour of the Queen, after a majority of MPs backed the proposal. We’ve no beef with this — the tower has long had a history of confusing names and nicknames and this latest appelation just adds to the glorious complexity..."

Click through for the rest (it's short and funny): 

Big Ben: The Tower With Five Names | Londonist

You've been watching too much Avengers when...

...you don't notice what's wrong with this picture. (It took far too long for me to notice because, obviously, Thor is everywhere, right?)


see more Set Phasers To Lol

Look what popped up on my Kindle this morning!

Winning the Widow's Heart is my friend Sherri Shackelford's first book. The Kindle edition just released today (since I'd pre-ordered, this greeted me when I got up this morning. I just love that about my Kindle.).

I'm so proud of you, Sherri! You inspire me.

Finally: How The Avengers Should Have Ended

One of my favorite sites on the web is How It Should Have Ended. They create alternate endings for popular movies (and occasionally video games) and often their ending makes more sense than the original movie's did. At the very least HISHE's is funnier than the original. I've been waiting (not so) patiently for them to do The Avengers, and they finally released it yesterday.

Here ya go:



If you're confused by the appearance of Superman & Batman, watching a few of the HISHE videos (you want to anyway, don't you?) will show you that they tend to pop up in these videos, usually to hilarious effect. This is one of my favorites:

Google has a gorgeous doodle today

via Google

This doodle is in honor of Peter Carl Fabergé's 166th birthday. I've always found Fabergé eggs fascinating.

This video made me cry such happy tears

Yes, I'm a big ol' sap, but it's so sweet I dare you to not be moved by this:

Towels, Star Wars...oh, and Avengers

Today is Towel Day (we miss you, Douglas Adams!) and the 35th anniversary of the release of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, so I marked the day by seeing The Avengers for the third time with my daughter. (I mean, of course. What else would one do?). I think that's the last time or there might be an intervention.

Conveniently, here's a comparison of Star Wars and Avengers characters I recently found:


see more Set Phasers To Lol

I love that last one. :)

Now I just need to figure out where my towel is...

Sadly, I fall into this all too often

via GoComics

Do you know what today is?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!


Sorry. I couldn't resist. You can go back to your day now.

Loki'd!

The Avengers-itis continues: 

 Tom Hiddleston possibly takes his role as Loki a little too seriously...

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

via MTV

And after watching that, I just love this:

via julinspiredgirl

Some random thoughts on The Avengers

I'm going to do one long post of some of my random thoughts about The Avengers, and then I'll try not to let this slide into becoming an Avengers blog the way my Tumblr did (but I feel like my Tumblr is just for me, so I don't really care over there.)

This isn't a review - I don't have much to say in that vein that hasn't already been said by a million others. This is more of a gathering of my random thoughts:

• I want to watch this movie over and over and tear it apart layer by layer, doing GMC, looking at the Hero's Journey or the 8-sequence structure, studying the dialogue, etc. I feel like there's a lot to mine here. Can't wait for the DVD so I can. (Who am I kidding? I'm getting the DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital Copy package)
• I've got a mega-crush forming for Tom Hiddleston - I love him as bad-boy Loki (that grin! that hair! the hug-needing!) but then I find he's doing not one, not two, but THREE Shakespeare plays this year (which will show on BBC and I’m hoping will come to PBS), he studied classics at Cambridge and he knows it's pique, not peek or peak - be still my Shakespeare-fangirl, grammar-nerd heart!
• OMG the Joss Whedon dialogue! Anyone else would let the villain finish his speeches before the good guys retaliate, but every time Loki is just hitting his crescendo he's cut off mid-sentence in some demoralizing way. Love it.
• I think I enjoyed the Hulk in this movie more than I did in any other story. I didn't care for either of the recent Hulk movies, but not because they weren't decent movies. I just find the Hulk too much of a tragic figure to enjoy a story hung entirely on his character. He seems completely bereft of joy and hope. I come away from Hulk movies feeling weighed down, not lifted up, and that's not what I want from entertainment. In The Avengers, he seems somewhat less tragic, and I think that has a lot to do with Mark Ruffalo's acting (and Joss Whedon's directing, I'm sure) - the way he carries himself, the way he almost-grins through half of the movie. He's not as worn down as the other Bruce Banners, I think (or maybe he's hit bottom and is on the way back up?).
• If I bought the soundtrack on cassette (remember those?), it would be worn out already. Thank goodness for digital music. Good thing I have headphones or everyone around me would have hurt me by now.
• At our second viewing, my daughter pointed out that most of the people on the bridge of the Helicarrier are women. It's awesome that they're there, and awesome to me that she noticed.
• More on this later, but I found myself rooting for Loki - not to get what he wants but to get what he needs.
• Speaking of Loki, I do have a question for anyone who didn't see Thor before they saw The Avengers: What did you understand Loki's motivation to be? I'm curious whether seeing Thor gives you a different impression of Loki's character. I want to explore this later, so let me know.

How Avengers characters see common items

This cracks me up:

via Twitter / @Esperacchius

I've conquered the basement, now back to the blog!

I haven't posted here in over a month. What have I been doing instead? Reclaiming my basement!

For years, the basement has been the catch-all for anything not wanted in other parts of the house. I've occasionally tried to clean it up from time to time, with varying degrees of success, but I finally reached the end of my patience with the mess about a month-and-a-half ago and started in earnest to clean it out. After many trips to Goodwill and filling the trash & recycling bins to the brim every week, I've finally got the room to where it's use-able and presentable. It's not done, but what's left is more fine-tooth comb type stuff as opposed to the bulldozing I've been doing (for instance, the boxes to the right of the desk in the pictures now are all items to be sorted and ultimately discarded, probably, with just a few things needing to be scanned, filed away or shredded).

Last year, I apparently already had it in my head that I was going to do this major work, even though at that point I wasn't ready to discard with the vehemence that I mustered up recently, but I was thinking ahead enough to take "before" pictures. I finally got to the point that I could do "after" pictures yesterday. Looking at them on my computer last night, I realized I took the "before" pictures exactly a year before the "after" pictures. The before pictures really are the basement at its worst. It got better, but then bad again, before I finally reached the end of my rope and started in on it last month. These pictures should give you an idea of the extent of the transformation:

The basement is now going to function as my office and craft room, freeing up the spare bedroom to actually be a spare bedroom (imagine!). I've got so much more room to work down here than I had upstairs, with my two folding tables in the middle functioning as one big table. I'm excited to be creative in my "new" space!

Now that this is (mostly) done, I feel like I can bring my brain back around to writing, and that includes this blog. I have to warn you, though: In the time since I last posted, I've seen The Avengers twice (and LilGirl and I have plans to see it a third time this weekend). I'm a leeeetle obsessed. I promise not to be nearly as fangirly here as I have been on my Tumblr. There's just so much I want to explore and dissect about the movie and this is probably the best place to get it out. I hope you'll bear with me and that I'll get over Avengers-itis soon. :)

Drop Everything and Read!

Via D.E.A.R

It's D.E.A.R. day in honor of Beverly Cleary's birthday! I remember the Ramona books fondly, and I'm a little sad that I never could get LilGirl interested in them, but she was much more into the Magic Tree House books and books about dragons.  Maybe I should have convinced her Picky-picky was really a tiny dragon?

What were your favorite books as a kid?

Happy Library Week!

Source: atyourlibrary.org via Mary on Pinterest

Check out more quotes about libraries at atyourlibrary.org's board on Pinterest.

How to find your writing voice [Recently Read]

How to find your writing voice. | Jon Acuff's Blog:

"The only way to find your writing voice is to write. Fear will tell you that you must have your writing voice figured out before you write...Fear is a liar."

Happy Pi Day!

Via www.piday.org

Did you notice the video is 3:14 long? I love it when there's such attention to detail.

Via www.piday.org

Happy Buffyversary!

Fifteen years ago today, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" premiered on TV. 

And I don't think I watched it. 

Even though "Buffy" eventually became my favorite show, when it first aired I was just appalled that anyone would take one of my favorite funny movies and try to turn it into a teen drama. The horror! But, as it turns out, it was awesome. I have since learned to trust in the wisdom of Joss Whedon and he's never steered me wrong.

Here's a fan-made "trailer" of season one:

Thanks to the Buffy Facebook page for the heads up!

Still itching for winter to end...

Just a couple more weeks...

Cut! Costume Exhibit, or Encountering Fantasy in Reality

My daughter and I visited the Cut! Costume and the Cinema exhibit at the Durham Museum during her Christmas break. It broke my heart that we weren't allowed to take photos, but I came across this video last night which lets you get an idea of how amazing some of the costumes are:

 


I have to admit the costume that took my breath away wasn't the most spectacular or elaborate. I've always loved the movie Howard's End - E.M. Forster is one of my favorite authors, I've had a long-standing obsession with Merchant Ivory films and I just lurve Emma Thompson - so encountering a dress Emma Thompson wore in that film (below) made me tear up just a little bit. That emotional response was surprising. I think it was a result of encountering such a familiar item from fantasy unexpectedly in reality. I even considered snapping a clandestine picture of the dress, but didn't feel confident in my sneakiness, so I didn't. Maybe I'll have to go back before the exhibit leaves, just to visit Margaret's dress one more time (and to check out Captain Jack Sparrow's outfit, as well. You know, as long as I'm there).

via  Enchanted Serenity of Period Films: Howard's End (1992)

If you can't get to the exhibit, but would like to see some of the costumes in more detail than what is in the video, I just found a Flickr set by annesstuff  which shows many of them when the exhibit was in another venue.

Dreaming of spring, remembering summer

We get to the beginning of March and I start really itching for spring, so I thought I'd share a picture with a bit of green today. I took this last summer in Custer State Park.

As I was looking through my photos recently and came across this one, my first thought was "I don't remember getting down in the grass near the buffalo..." and wondered how I'd had such an adventure without remembering it (after all, being out of your vehicle this close to these animals could be really dangerous). Then I realized I shot this from the car window in an area where the road was down an embankment from the area where the buffalo were grazing. Sometimes great shots come from working with what feels like a less-than-ideal situation at the time.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License (which means you can repost the photo where you want, as long as you give me credit - and it'd be nice if you include a link back here or to the Flickr page)

Only create things you can’t not create [Quote]

By Me

"Fear of protecting your platform can’t be what drives your creative process. Only create things you can’t not create. Even if that means losing some of your audience."

from Dear musicians, authors, bloggers & me. | Jon Acuff's Blog

As always, some great points from Jon Acuff (make sure you click through and read the whole post).

Oh how true [Information Overload]

Boy is this true:

by Jessica Hagy at Indexed

I hate to miss any of the interesting stuff floating out there in the world, so I find my list of "to read" stuff is impossibly long. Not just books, but blog posts, articles, product descriptions, street signs, etc.

Between my email, Google Reader, Read It Later, paper books, ebooks, and on and on, it's a little overwhelming whenever I sit down "to read" unless I have a specific item in mind before I begin.

Once upon a time, I only got that feeling of being overwhelmed when I stepped into a large library. Now it's almost constant. Years ago, who knew we would ever have to plan and structure our reading time (leisure reading or otherwise) in order not to drown?

Happy Leap Day!

By stuant63

Cool student-produced steampunk short

This is a fun short film created by students at Media Design School in New Zealand.

(via Set Phasers to LOL)

And some of the students talk about making the film:

Doesn't Miley Cyrus look like...?

Via CocoPerez

This morning, when I saw a clip of Miley Cyrus at one of the Oscar parties, I didn't even recognize her at first. In fact, I wondered if Madonna had found a time machine in the 80's and jumped forward.

Via Wikipedia

I guess Madonna went through her Marilyn Monroe phase, Miley can go through her Madonna phase...

via CocoPerez

And I just have to add my opinion on Miley's dress. Although I give her points for not going with something revealing, the dress looks far too old for her. It looks like something made for Joan Collins (and Joan would probably rock this dress. But for a barely-twenty pop starlet, it's just not the thing.)

Use caution...on Google Maps

I love it when Google Maps puts little Easter eggs into search results:

via Nerd Approved

Han shot.

Saw this last night. Funny after yesterday's post:

 
see more Set Phasers To Lol

Mal vs. Hammer, Indy vs. Han...

By Gina Biggs

A friend shared this cartoon on Facebook, and I love it. I have to say, that IS what would happen should Captain Mal meet Captain Hammer. (Just in case you're not familiar with Firefly or Dr. Horrible, I'll let you in on the joke: Nathan Fillion played both characters).

So, that got me thinking, and reminded me of this picture I saw on Flickr awhile ago as part of JD Hancock's "Duel 365" series:

By JD Hancock

What would happen if Indiana Jones met Han Solo? I mean there is this scene:

but, as we all know, Han shot first:

So, how do you think it would go down?

Dreams vs. Excuses [Quote]

By nicole.pierce.photography ♥

"If you really want something you’ll find a way to do it. If you don’t want it that bad, you’ll come up with excuses for why it can’t be done." Brittany Castanos

 via Quit Your Day Job: Daughters of Simone | The Etsy Blog

This is clever:

see more Set Phasers To Lol

Downton Abbey Paper Dolls - Adorable & Funny!

I found these paper dolls by Kyle Hilton via Jane Austen's World. I just love the "assortment of emotions" for the Dowager Countess:

Jane Austen's World has gathered links to the paper dolls of other characters (Mary & Matthew, Lady Sybil, and Thomas & O'Brien) here: Downton Abbey Season 2 Finale: Tonight You’re Mine Completely. I think I'll be printing all of these out & having a good ol' time playing paper dolls (no, I have not outgrown that. I don't think I ever will.)

Just an hour and a bit until the season finale!

The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper

Here's an adorable film from 1908, courtesy of the British Film Institute. I wonder if I could teach my dog this trick...

Happy Valentine's Day...from Valentine!

I found a special treat in the mail yesterday: My parents sent us all valentines postmarked in Valentine, NE!

There's even a special image stamped on the back of the envelope:

This is so cool! Thanks, Mom & Dad!

(If you want to do this for your valentine next year, here's how.)

Life moves pretty fast...

Ferris Bueller's Day Off  is one of my favorite movies, so I was super excited to see this commercial. Part of me wishes it was a whole movie, but in a way, this is enough and having more might ruin it.

I would ABSOLUTELY watch this show

DORK TOWER, Tuesday, January 24, 2012 
(Click through to see the full-size cartoon)

True, I'm waaaay behind on Dr. Who and I haven't even started Sherlock yet (I hear it's great and I intend to start on season one soon)...but a show like this would be just mind-blowingly awesome (England, will you still let me in?)

Flickr Favorite: Paris

Just like birds on a wire, I'm a sucker for pictures of the Eiffel Tower against a sunset. This one is by Flickr user  [phil h].

No need to panic, the mystery's been solved:

see more Set Phasers To Lol

Some days the dragon wins

When I read this post last night just before bed, I immediately emailed myself the link with the note "OMG YES!"

The whole thing is short and worth reading in its entirety for the full message, but this is the part that really hit me:

"Your manuscript was not written. Your miles were not run. Your dream was not dreamed. But, and this is an awful big but, that was just today. Tomorrow is a new day."

I have a tendency to fall into the trap of "I didn't achieve my goal today, so I'm never going to." I'm slowly learning to climb out of that hole and keep moving forward, brushing off the dirt of self-doubt and negative self-talk that clings to me afterward.


The dragon definitely won most of the last week. And I think the last couple days, I barely stood up to fight it. I'm back to fighting today, sword and shield in hand, partially thanks to this post.

photo via Library of Congress

I think I'm going to create a prominent "Having a bad day?" bookmark on my computer which links to that post so I can read it whenever I need to.

There Be Dragons by Jon Acuff

Does the movie of your life need a new writer?

Photo By Hal Dick

An interesting read:

"If they made a movie about your life, would it be titled, It’s a Won­der­ful Life? Or would Speed, You've Got Mail, or Nightmare on Elm Street be more fitting? Unfor­tu­nately, too many peo­ple are liv­ing lives like those movies that come out every sum­mer. You know, the over­hyped ones with big bud­gets, lots of action — and tired sto­ries with thin plots. Just because a movie costs a lot of money and has a lot of things going on doesn’t mean it’s a very good story. The same is true of your life...If you’re less than thrilled with the direction of your story, it is time to hire a new writer: YOU."

Check out the whole post here: How To Live A Better Story | Jungle of Life

Making yourself miserable?

Here's an interesting list by Keri Smith. I've seen it floating around a bit lately and find it eye-opening every time I come across it. I do several things on this list on a regular basis. I won't say which I do, but I know all creative people probably do at least a couple at any given time - we're all human. We all fall into these traps. But being aware of them helps us climb out of the holes we dig for ourselves and hopefully avoid falling back into them in the future.

 via Rachelle Gardner