My sisters love the movie Despicable Me. I haven't seen it, though I do like what bits of it I have seen. When I first heard the plot - Steve Carell's character wants to steal the moon - I joked that Carmen Sandiego had done it first (though now I can't remember if she ever actually accomplished it. I know she got thwarted in the cartoon, but maybe her henchmen succeeded in the computer game and/or game show). Now that I've seen parts of it (sisters were watching it while I ran around and had stuff to do), I totally have a backstory in my head that the whole moon-stealing plot was spearheaded by a mysterious woman in a red coat and fedora, and Gru is really Steve Carell's character's first name, and his last name is Some. (All Carmen Sandiego henchmen have to have criminally bad puns as names. It's one of the fundamental, immutable laws of the entire Carmen universe. Like gravity. Some of the ACME staff have bad puns as names, too, but I didn't play those games growing up.) This mysterious woman doesn't mind that Gru has adopted three orphans - she was once an orphan, too - but she still expects Gru to give 110% to the organization. Next stop, the Great Wall of China. (Oh, and Dr. Nefario only goes by his last initial - S.)

Now that I hear there are plans for a Despicable Me sequel, I would actually see that movie in theaters if they were to write this mysterious woman into the script/evil syndicate infrastructure. I just need to figure out who to address the letters to.

***
Christmas is fast approaching, and I'm nearing the finish line of the Advent-ivity Calendar. Tomorrow should be simple - I've got four hours of temping to do, and then all I have to do is film tomorrow's video. I still have one more gift to make, and another to buy (unless Mom & Dad are buying it, and it's from the whole family), but now that I've made one bracelet, making another shouldn't be too difficult - plus I don't need to gift those until Christmas Eve. I'm hoping to film Christmas Eve and Day's videos at the same time, and then I'll be done. This has been the Martha Stewart-est Christmas I have ever attempted, and while it's been fun, it's driving me up the wall. I'm seriously debating whether to do another 25 activities next year, or try something different. It might depend on what the work situation is like.

At any rate, now I really get why people are frazzled at Christmas. Today I had plans to get stuff done, and then I found out we were meeting my dad's parents tonight for Christmas dinner at Applebee's - and I still had to make Nana's gift! So I struggled with the aforementioned bracelet for at least an hour. Jewelry wire can be finicky. And in the end it was gorgeous, but really long. It fell right off my hand, and Nana could just get her hand through. So I ended up taking the bracelet back home, and I'll remake it after Christmas... Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I wouldn't put in this much effort if I didn't. But at this point, this is my favorite Christmas song.

So I just discovered So much Pun from the ICanHasCheezburger people, and some of these puns are so bad I want to cry. But here's one that takes the cake...


see more So Much Pun

Tasteless, but omg. Oh, the *facepalm* is strong today.

Apparently, if you search for heraldry of anne boleyn on Google images, my default icon shows up. Wonder why...

(It might be because I list heraldry and Anne Boleyn in my interests on the site? Really, no clue. If so, though, I'm only further connecting myself to those search terms with this post.)

It was weird to basically see myself looking back at me from the search page. A few pages later I saw one of my "Middleman" icons...

I'm going to keep looking and see what else I can find...

Update: I've found some of my moodtheme pictures...

Shmoop.com has translated 29 famous quotes into lolcat. Can you identify them all?

http://www.shmoop.com/news/2010/09/21/famous-quotes-translated-lolcat/

Yeah, I only missed two. I'm awesome (though a little embarrassed about one of the ones I missed, but in my defense, I hated reading it).

(German for "I'm bored." Why know bits of several languages if you don't use them?)

I was cruising through past entries because I have little better to do (I officially gave up on Big Brother tonight, since the one player I was still rooting for got evicted. The rest of the house is full of useless fools and catty people), and realized that half of my Epic Music Post Meme of Doom! from almost a year ago was still unidentified, and - not that you all were losing sleep over it - I should share the answer sheet, if for no other reason than to share my eclectic taste in music.

( Here you go... )

That's for one of the short stories I wrote in college for Creative Writing. I also ran the first three journal entries here (or, the three that follow this one) and got (in order): Stephenie Meyer (gag me), Chuck Palahniuk (who?), and Dan Brown (okay, I guess).

So the moral of the story is: when I'm really trying, I write great stuff. Or at least stuff that has a similar style to great stuff. When I'm being conversational, I write like (shudder) Twilight, some guy I've never heard of, and/or the guy who ticked off Christians everywhere.

Clearly I need to try more.

Next week is my last week temping, and thankfully so, because between working 8 to 5 and the crippling heat, I haven't wanted to sit in my oven of a room (or in the living room with a hot laptop on my lap) and blog. (Or craft my next review video.) Which is a shame, because I need to share my adventures going to San Francisco to see Paul Freakin' McCartney(!) last weekend (more accurately, adventures getting home), and to Sacramento to see Spamalot. (I'm seeing Spamalot tomorrow, but I'm assuming I'll have adventures. Apparently I can't take big trips to see shows I've wanted to see for ages without having some sort of madcap adventure that makes for great blogging.)

Couldn't sleep last night, and these gems popped into my head for some reason. With them* I intend to win at games of Stump the Trivia Master.

In 1997, it was discovered that Earth surprisingly had a second moon. What happened to it?

(Apparently in my insomnia-addled brain this one needed to rhyme.)
Catherine Howard had an infamous mate.
Catherine Howard met an infamous fate.
Which infamous cousin of hers can relate?

I'm not specifically challenging anybody here to answer them, but if you do, no fair using Google/Wikipedia. Look them up the old-fashioned way. :-P


*and the vast knowledge of interesting facts I have been learning from QI these last few months, but one of these would make a great coup de grâce...

It's a cyclamen, and I love it because the head of the flower bends down, but the petals stand up. Essentially this plant blooms upside down. It's so cool. Plus, it's one of my favorite shades of pink.

I also love it because it's proving very hardy... I've been watering it every other day, and it only needs indirect sunlight (but lots of it), so its spot by the door is the perfect place. Me owning a plant is like the kiss of death. I have killed lots of flowers, mostly because I try to take such good care of it, but end up screwing up anyway, so the fact that it's still alive and looking relatively happy is a big coup for me. Turns out, according to the Cyclamen Society, I've been watering it perfectly. Yay me.

I've decided it needs a name (because giving things names is a lot easier than talking about "my plant" or "my laptop" (especially since I've had so many laptops)), but I can't decide what to name it. The first thing I thought of was Hilda, but I don't know why. I'm also not 100% in love with that name, so the hunt continues...

Taking a break from ornaments... I only have seven (eight if you count the special ornament Joel is getting) more to do, so I've got time.

EDIT: Right now I'm debating between Aveline and Tzeitel as a name for my plant. Yes, I am aware of Tzeitel being a name from Fiddler on the Roof. But it's Hebrew (Cyclamen are the national flower of Israel), and it means "princess" without going with Sara(h) like everybody else does.

Aimee (gonzo1385) told me I should update, so...

A couple of days ago, I was watching Riverdance: Live in New York City, one of my favorite things to watch and one of the DVDs I'm most jazzed about owning, mostly because I just stumbled upon it in FYE. (The next one will be The Middleman - once my DVD set arrives, that is.) Anyway, even though I've seen it about 100 times - many times on VHS on the only TV we had, much to the chagrin of my mom and sisters, who hate it, and my dad, who introduced me to it but only mildly tolerates my fan-ness - I still get a thrill out of watching it.

( And then that's when it hit me. )

If this works, I would like the title "Total Genius" to be officially added to my name. Y'know, post-nominal style, like "Diana, Princess of Wales."

Not long after I got my daybed, one of the crossbars of the frame (that keeps the springy net from sagging) came unwelded (it had obviously been repaired, then come undone). Every so often it'll move a fraction of an inch, and if left unchecked, could cause an unwelcome surprise when the mattress sags a bit. I've put up with it for so long, until tonight.

Right now it's being held together with aluminum foil, saran wrap, and some scotch tape, and the bar can't move. (Very much.) It totally works for now, and I'm feeling really proud of myself. I just hope it holds up.