Lars and the Real iGallop

So tonight we had an impromptu "Mommy Movie Night", at Prof. Hallstrom's house, named thusly due to Prof. Hallstrom's nickname: "Mommy Dearest". A bunch of us headed down the mountain to watch "Lars and the Real Girl", a movie about a man who falls in love with a mannequin. We had a great time, and a torch was passed on... sort of.

"Lars and the Real Girl" tells the story of a man named Lars, who is emotionally damaged after his mother dies giving birth to him, leaving him alone with his brother and severely depressed father. His brother leaves as soon as possible, and Lars is left with deep scars. Later in life, he lives in the garage/apartment of his brother's house, while his sister-in-law frets that something is wrong because Lars spends all his time by himself. Eventually Lars receives a huge package, and introduces his family to his new girlfriend: Bianca, a Brazilian/Danish woman raised by nuns and confined to a wheelchair. Bianca also happens to be a mannequin, though Lars speaks and responds to her as though she were real. The rest of the movie follows Lars' relationship with Bianca while the people of the town he lives in "play along" because the local doctor says that's the best thing that they can do. Bianca becomes part of the town ("volunteering at the hospital, and even joining the school board.") while Lars talks through his problems with the doctor as though they were Bianca's. I don't want to spoil it, but suffice to say that it's an excellent movie, and very thought provoking.

After the movie was over, we got to talking and "mommy" pulled out something she said was going on craigslist soon. An iGallop. Basically, it's a chair that imitates the motion of a horse, supposedly to work out your abs, though I think it was invented for the amusement of physical therapists. We had fun laughing at people riding it, and we even forced Jordan to sit on it (though not before she curled up in fetal position in protest.)

Speaking of Jordan, I learned recently that the Trifecta (Alysha McCullough, Katie Jenkins, and Justin Johns) has elected Ann Jones, Me, and Jordan Linkston as the next Trifecta. Basically, that means that we three are expected to do...something. Not really sure what, I guess have comedic chemistry or something. We apparently are rather amusing to watch interact (i.e., dragging Jordan onto a galloping chair while she "cries" and goes into fetal position at my feet.) I guess the combination of hilariously insane, faultlessly innocent (seemingly), and then whatever it is that I am is funny. Eh, works for me.

Also, we proved that Zach McElrath is not a cat, once and for all, since he can open catproof doors.(Although, it does take him a while.)

The Post I Forgot to Name Until I Re-read it After Publishing

So... I learned recently of a cool-weird trend. (cool-weird meaning both cool, and slightly disturbing, like men who bend railroad spikes with their teeth.) Apparently people have been googling their names, and discovering my blog. This is cool, because it means that people are reading my blog, and that "tinkles well in my ego's ear" (to paraphrase Vondel badly). It's weird, since occasionally, people will mention that I've mentioned them, and I'll forget what it was that I wrote about them, and that's just awkward.

Anyway, all that aside, this has been a crazy week. Lucifer opened on Friday, which meant that this week was mostly spend in Sanderson, working like mad to get this thing ready for the stage. I'm pleased to say it went well, and the two performances this week went really well (aside from me and J.D. spinning Lucifer's chariot around both times we tried to get it on/off stage. It's not a Disney teacup, but it's darn hard to move.) We have two more performances next week, but only one rehearsal, so life should regain some normalcy (fingers crossed.)

Most of my week was spent in classes or in rehearsal, but I did have time for a couple of awesome things. First up, my family came down from Maryland to visit! It was awesome to see them, and we got to catch up. I introduced them to some of my friends, and they got to see Lucifer last night, which was cool. We went to church/lunch today before they had to go to the airport, but we still had a great time. Saturday we made an attempt to visit the Tennessee aquarium, but due to a bout with food poisoning, I couldn't get all they way through. It stunk, but I got to hang out today with them, which was a lot of fun. My dad, who goes by "COG" (crotchety old guy) apparently is getting coggier, having bought a pair of suspenders. My mom is trying to get an NCFCA tournament hosted at Covenant next year, while my sister is learning how to portray portly British men and wear a tie.

Now that I've got time to breathe, sleep, and otherwise act normal, I hope to get my room clean (as far as I can), and learn to play the guitar my sister gave me. Here's hoping that I at least manage to get the floor visible again. hehe. With two weeks left till spring break, I'm holding my breath for one last plunge. On another note, my sister showed my an awesome iPod app, the Awesome button. Basically, it's a button that says "Awesome" whenever you press it. It's from a great video from Rooster Teeth studios about a narcissistic superhero, with no real talent. It's really funny, and I highly recommend it. You can find it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yff3jH8NECs

Well, that's the news for this week. I'm aiming to update at least weekly, so that I don't fall behind, and so that I have enough to write about each week before I blog. Let me leave you with a taste of backstage life, by writing here, for the first time, some of the things written on the back of the whiteboard informing everyone not to come backstage. The side, that 'till now, only actors and crew have seen. Enjoy!

"Ben, you'd make a beautiful woman"- J.D.

"Winter turned my robe into a bikini" -David P.

"Oh...brothers....why? This is not meet? Why such sadness? ... I wonder what Apollion would think? I'm sure he would be vexed?"- Liz Brink, ad-libbing after someone missed cue line.

"Satan reads Twilight!" - Unknown

"Speaking of food, where's Alan?" - Angela Beall
"Isn't he a little small to eat?" -David P.

"They have SHARP cheese!" -Evelyn P.

Till next time, adios!

Alaska! Alaska!

I was accosted yesterday at lunch for my failure to update my blog recently. Sufficiently chastised, I again set keyboard to digital non-paper, and begin anew.

My second semester at Covenant has been busy thus far. Compared to last semester, I've had significantly more homework, most of that coming from my math course, Finite Math. While it's not the worst time I've ever had with math (anyone else tried to teach themselves Algebra II?) its not fun either. I'll survive though, and by God's grace I might even manage a good grade. Otherwise my classes are going really well, and I just got permission to switch from the oh-so-frustrating software we've been using to supplement Arabic class to my own copy of Rosetta Stone. This has relieved a great deal of stress, since instead of spending an hour a week wondering if I'm using the product of the fabled million monkeys at keyboards, I'll be able to reinforce the stuff I need to know for quizzes.

A couple of weeks ago I found out that I won't be spending Easter Break (not to be confused with my Spring Break in March) sitting around at Covenant. Instead, my friend Mitchell Mitchell invited me to come home with him for the weekend. I'm looking forward to it! More recently I was introduced by the gang to Firefly, a sort-of sci-fi-western TV show. Very funny, and watching it with friends was an awesome way to spend two afternoons.

As we get closer to parent's weekend, and Lucifer's opening, things are getting both exciting and crazy. Exciting, because my family's coming down to visit and because I think Lucifer's going to be Epic, but crazy because getting it Epic is taking a lot of work, and because I'm going to have to clean my room in the near future. heh heh.

Speaking of Lucifer, we've gotten some cool insights into how the whole thing is going to work. Each character will have a different costume depending on rank, which is shown using the do-re-mi scale. For example, I'm a Fa, which means that, using the scale, we can see where my character ranks in the hierarchy. Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do. Basically, I'm a military-caste angel, and that means that I get a greenish-blue tunic, with a white wig which so far reminds me of Haldir's hair in the Two Towers. Cool. Makeup is going to be interesting, since we're supposed to look nonhuman. We'll have totally white faces with lines the same colors as our tunics on our faces, going along with the lines of our facial bones. Kevin Hartzell and Ann Jones were made up during a rehearsal to we could see what it would look like. Definitely inhuman, but totally cool.

Brethren Hall has recently been abuzz on weekends with tournaments of the Gamecube (and as of yesterday, Wii) game Super Smash Brothers. Basically, the game consists of a bunch of Nintendo characters from across all of their games (ranging from Mario to people I've never even heard of) trying to knock each other off of a stage using a variety of kicks, punches, telekinesis, laser guns, magic yo-yos, eggs, or in one case flying bacon. Crazy, zany, and a lot of fun to play when you've nothing better to do.

Other fun events going on include Assassins, which starts on Wednesday. Sponsored by Mac Council, Assassins is a game where participants each are given a water gun and a piece of paper with a name on it. Their goal is to "kill" their target with the water pistol, while avoiding being assassinated by the person who has their name. If a player kills their target, they get the name of that person's target as their new target. The whole game can last weeks, and apparently everyone playing gets crazily paranoid. I was issued, instead of a tiny, easily concealable gun, a massive pistol which is more in line with an action hero than an Assassin. That's okay though, because I've figured out a way to hide my Dirty Harry gun, and I think it's actually kind of cool.

Last week, Covenant was hit by a double-whammy snowstorm followed immediately by an ice storm, effectively snowing us in for a weekend. The campus was beautiful, and in true David fashion I utterly failed to take a picture of any of it. *facepalm* It was also rather dangerous, however, as I learned while walking down to Alysha McCullough's apartment with her, Mitch, Liz Brink, and Katelyn Hickey. Walking under the power lines, I turned around to say something to Mitch, and a six-inch icicle fell and buried itself three inches into the ground about a foot in front of me. Whew! Most of the weekend, we watched movies, and I was very good about having to watch "The Jane Austen Book Club" since Mitch and I were outvoted in a room full of girls. I kept my mouth shut, mostly. I couldn't resist poking fun at the caption at the end of the movie, when a flash forward was revealed with the phrase "The Very Next Year". I believe I commented that it was SO next year they had to have that extra adjective. Alysha glared at me. I am unrepentant. :)

However, sitting through that movie meant that later that night we got to watch "Hot Fuzz" down on Catacombs. I really can't describe this movie other than to say its an absolutely ridiculous parody of every American action movie ever made. No cliche is sacrosanct. Best line: "No! I've never fired two guns into the air while jumping and yelling 'AHHHH!'"

Three or four days ago I was talking with Kevin Hartzell and somehow we started joking that Covenant needed to have a major program in how to hold doors. (he contends I came up with it, but I still think it was his brilliant idea). Highly amused by the conversation, wherin we kept adding classes that would go into such a major, I sat down afterward and wrote it up as a Facebook note, using the catalog entry for the Chemistry major as a template. Kevin thought it was funny, and sent it to the guy who actually writes the catalog entries. I hope that's a good thing. 0_o

Well, I think that's about everything that's happened recently. I'll try to keep this more current than I've been, so as not to leave you in the dark again for so long. Until next time....um...I'm out of ways to say good-bye. Bye? I guess that will have to do.

Good bye!