Oscar Review #2 - District 9

(Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen this movie, there may be information in this review that might be considered a “spoiler” - although I consciously try not to put major spoiler info in my reviews. Proceed with caution.)

For my second Oscar nominee viewing, I chose – well, Netflix sent – District 9. I only vaguely recalled the commercials for this and I thought there were aliens involved, but other than that, I didn’t know much else. However, to paraphrase Stephen Colbert, it was the “Craziest F%&$ing Thing I’ve Ever Seen.”

First, the premise. About twenty years ago, an alien ship comes and stops over Johannesburg (think Independence Day), and just sits there. After some time, the humans have to break into it and inside they find severely malnourished aliens. The ship had lost its command module so they couldn’t go anywhere or, I suppose, even leave the ship. The aliens are moved to a detention area in Johannesburg – the titular District 9. So time passes and District 9 becomes a violent, filthy slum (think Slumdog Millionaire) and the government hires a company, MNU, to go into District 9 and evict the aliens and move them to District 10, an area about 200 miles outside of Johannesburg. Needless to say, hilarity ensues! J

The film starts out in a documentary-esque format, obviously from the hindsight point of view, with talking heads commenting on the events from their comfy offices. The documentary follows Wikus van der Merwe (that’s what I’m going to name my first child, BTW), as he leads the group of humans into the District 9 to evict the “Prawns.” While inspecting the shack of one of the Prawns, Wikus finds and accidentally squirts a strange, inky black liquid in his face. Subsequently, he gets sick and starts turning into a Prawn (think The Fly) and he is taken into the custody of either MNU or the government, it was hard to tell, and they perform all sorts of medical experiments on him and discover that his DNA is merging with the Prawn DNA which allows him to use Prawn technology, specifically weapons and machines.

When the doctor prepares to hack off Wikus’ arm/flipper, Wikus makes a run for it and finds safety with a Prawn, Christopher Johnson, and his son. While hiding out, Wikus discovers that Johnson and his son have been searching for, and actually found, the lost command module from the ship that still sits above Johannesburg and that the mysterious liquid was a fuel of some sort to allow the thing to work. They get the command module working and there is a HUGE battle during which Wikus fights off the “bad guys” from MNU to allow Johnson and his son to reunite the module with the mother ship. At one point during this battle, I took my eyes away from the screen for just a minute and next thing I know, Wikus is roaming around in this Transformers/Iron Man type suit shooting the bad guys. I have NO idea where that came from.

But Johnson and his son are able to reunite with the mother ship (think E.T.) and fly home, presumably to round up troops and bring them back here to whoop earthling butt for putting their people through 20 years of slumdum.

Ok, having basically just given you the entire plot of this movie, I apologize if I spoiled any surprises for you. Rest assured, there is still plenty of stuff that I didn’t tell, so…

I have several observations about this movie. First, and in no particular order, it was directed by Peter Jackson of the Lord of the Rings fame. Having seen all of the LOTR movies, I can only ask what was this guy smoking to want to make this movie?? I didn’t expect to see Hobbits, but I was expecting a good ol’Independence Day type of movie – that was not what I got. I should have known better than to think that that type of movie would have been nominated for Best Picture. Duh! Rose.

Observation #2 – back to this being the “Craziest F%&$ing Thing I’ve Ever Seen” – I thought that “In Bruges” had the most f-words in it, but then I saw this movie. If they bleeped all of the f-words in this movie, the end result would sound like some new age weird techno-pop type music. With the one exception of a (relatively) tender phone call between Wikus and his wife, I can’t recall a single sentence that didn’t contain at least one f-word. In fact, after a while, I was thinking that if I could stomach watching the whole thing again (which I could not), I would attempt to count them.

Observation #3 – it may have been on purpose, I don’t know, but as I jokingly alluded to in my summary of the plot, it seemed like this movie couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. First, a documentary, next a shoot’em up. I saw it described as a “thriller” in a magazine.

There must be something to this movie that I missed because I can’t see WHY it was nominated for anything other than special effects. So having said all of this, I did not enjoy this movie. It wasn’t the worst movie I’ve sat through, but I’m glad I didn’t pay to go see it at the theater (technically, I didn’t pay anything, it’s mom’s Netflix account.) I just don’t see this winning the Best Picture.

Oscar Review #1 - Up!

(Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen this movie, there may be information in this review that might be considered a “spoiler” - although I consciously try not to put major spoiler info in my reviews. Proceed with caution.)

Anyone who actually KNOWS me would not be surprised that I chose the animated film for my first Oscar review. In fact, if Netflix didn’t have so many of the Oscar choices available, I could easily be convinced to make this my only Oscar review! Of course, I’m talking about “Up” - Pixar’s 2009 release featuring the voice of Ed Asner as Carl Frederickson, a crotchety old man who ties thousands of helium balloons to his house to float it to South America.

The movie starts out with Carl as a little boy, sitting in the theater watching a news-reel about the great explorer, Charles Muntz, and his attempt to prove the existence of a rare South American bird. Carl, the little boy, idolizes Muntz and is running around pretending to be him when he discovers a little girl, Ellie, doing the same thing. Ellie maintains a scrapbook of Muntz’s adventures and the back section of the scrapbook is empty, saved for her own adventures. She informs Carl that she intends to go to Paradise Falls, the place where Muntz does his exploring, someday. We then see time pass as they grow up, get married, and grow old together. Carl finds the scrapbook and remembers Ellie’s dream to go to Paradise Falls. He gets plane tickets and plans to surprise her, but before he can, she gets sick and subsequently dies. At this point in the movie, I’m bawling like a baby.

Flash forward to current times - Carl has a lonely existence in the same house he lived in with Ellie refusing all offers from the construction company who is building all around the house. (Picture the Bugs Bunny cartoon where he refuses to move his hole for the building of a super-highway and the thing ends up with the highway built around Bugs’ concrete-encased home.) Back to Carl. Events happen and he’s going to be put in a home. Carl appears to play along with the plan, but then when the men in the white suits come to pick him up, he lets loose the thousands of balloons he has attached to his house, and the house starts floating through the city. With a compass and the picture of South America from Ellie’s scrapbook, Carl sets course for Paradise Falls.

Shortly, Carl discovers that Russell, the Boy Scout who he’d previously sent on a snipe hunt to get rid of him, was a stowaway on the house. Carl, as I previously mentioned, is crotchety so they do not get along well. Along the way, Russell befriends a strange but friendly multi-colored bird who he names Kevin and a dog, Dug, whose owner has fixed him up with a collar that allows Dug to speak his thoughts. Of course, like most dogs, Dug’s thoughts aren’t very deep, centering mostly around smells and squirrels.

I don’t want to say much more, so as not to spoil any surprises. Nevertheless, hilarity ensues as one would expect from an animated movie and all turns out well. Carl learns a few lessons, including if you get rid of the baggage of the past, your load gets lightened enough that you can head out on adventures. Also, that life is an adventure, if you look at it with the right attitude. By the end of the movie, Carl has become a grandfather figure for Russell. They and Dug have many adventures.

I’m a fan of animated movies. I have been since I saw my first, Disney’s Robin Hood (which reminds me, Haley's supposed to be burning that soundtrack for me..), back in the .. um.. early 70’s. My criteria is simple, memorable characters (especially the kind that make good Happy Meal toys), a good story, good laughs, a few tears. Up met my criteria and then some. Two thumbs up for Up! It is movie that kids and adults will all enjoy. Mom and I both enjoyed it, so I can guarantee you it won’t win the Oscar, but there you go.

Is There Anything Worse than Sick Kids?

My babies have been sick the past couple of weeks with some respiratory virus that cats get. It’s related to the herpes virus and neither of my babies have ever gotten it before, so I blame Winifred. Winifred was sick with something when we first brought her indoors, and she’ll occasionally have the sniffles and sneezes ever since, but nothing major. I’ve taken to calling her Typhoid Winifred. I figure her immune system is, well, immune to this thing, but my babies had pure unadulterated immune systems and they caught it.

Well, first, Gizmo started sneezing. And if it hadn’t been rather pathetic, it would have been funny. He started sneezing on a Friday morning and by Saturday morning, he looked all feverish around the eyes. So I took him to the vet in case there was something they could do. Now, this was Giz’s first vet visit in a long time and he howled the entire way up there. Giz does not enjoy car rides… his theme song definitely is not “Life is a Highway”! Turns out the poor creature had a fever of 104 degrees. The vet gave him a shot of something and an Rx for me to give him at home. I got him home and drugged up and he slept the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday. By Monday, he was looking better and by Wednesday, he was back to wrestling with Winifred on the living room carpet.

Meanwhile, on Sunday evening, Sophie started sneezing. I took her to the vet Tuesday afternoon. She goes to the vet frequently, generally for hairball-related symptoms, so although she does mew on the drive up, it was nothing like with Gizmo. She and I listened to my book on CD. Now, her fever was not as bad as Gizmo’s – probably because I’d been slipping her some of Giz’s antibiotics. So the vet didn’t give her the “shot,” just more of the same antibiotic that Gizmo had been given.

Poor Sophie. Whereas Gizmo was running and playing and totally back to health, Sophie just got worse. For a day or two, she was forced to breathe through her mouth, which in a cat is just freaky. And because she was mouth-breathing, she was drooling. Also, she fights the medicine, so I end up getting some on her. By the following Saturday, she was a crusty, drooly, sticky mess. Just plum disgusting. But she must’ve been feeling somewhat better because she allowed me to plop her in the bathroom sink and soap up her crusty chin and try to clean up some of the ick. Unfortunately, a week later (and several scars for both me and Mom) she just wasn’t getting better. So I packed her up in her carrier and Mom drove her to the vet. She still had a slight fever and Mom told the vet about our issues with dosing her, so he gave her a shot of some antibiotic that is supposed to stay in her system and work for 14 days – to which I’m thinking WHY don’t you ALWAYS give us this?? Do you KNOW how many scars I have from trying to give her medicine!? Sigh.

That was Wednesday. Sophie spent the remainder of Wednesday and all of Thursday hidden under my bed. Once each morning and once each evening, I’d get done on the floor and talk soothingly to her, but otherwise leave her alone. I was SO happy this morning when I woke up and saw her peering at me from under the chair at my desk. And when I ambled into the bathroom for my shower, she followed me (as is her usual), albeit at a much slower pace. I’m happy to say that I think we’ve rounded the corner and she’ll keep improving.

Mama Always Said I Was Special...

Back in December, I and another girl here at work were informed that we were going to “get” to become “Special” Kentucky Notaries. Neither of us live in Kentucky and generally, you are only a notary for the state in which you live. But our firm has been doing more work in Kentucky and none of the employees here live in Kentucky, so something had to be done.

Low and behold, Kentucky has this “Special Commission” notary thing. So Julie and I were off, like a herd of turtles in our quest to become “Special.” So, you ask, what is the difference between becoming a “regular” notary and a “special” notary? Well, to become a regular notary, as with most states, you fill out the form, send a check for the bond and mail it to the secretary of state and a couple of weeks later you receive your certificate and your squeezie thingee.

To become “special,” there was still the lovely form, but instead of just mailing it with a check, this thing had some travelling to do. First, we had to take it to a clerk’s office in Kentucky and have them sign off on it. Henderson County is right across the bridge, about 20 miles round trip from the office, so one crisp day in December, we hopped into my little red wagon to take our forms to the Henderson County Clerk’s office.

Our first observation upon arriving at the Courthouse in Henderson is that there is absolutely NO security. You just walk right in. Not that I’m advocating such a thing, but if someone had it in their mind to do something malicious in a government building, this is the place to go… Anyway, we walk into the clerk’s office and a nice lady at the front looks at us and, without anyone saying a word, points us to the right. Julie and I happen to notice the sign that says “Marriage License” and points to the right. We looked at each other and decided that Henderson must be a more progressive county than we thought!

The lady behind this counter took our forms and wandered off in search of the clerk. After a couple of aborted attempts, she was finally successful and came back with the signed forms. She asked us if we were over the age of 18 and of sound mind – to which I responded, “as far as you know.” She returned the forms to us and we made our escape from Kentucky as quickly and orderly as we could before someone realized we didn’t belong there.

Then came the Christmas holidays and like a lot of people, our forms did some travelling. They were mailed to the KY Secretary of State in Frankfort. After the first of the year, another form came back from the Secretary of State and Jules and I zoomed back off to Henderson to pay the fee and be sworn in. Now here’s the fun part. We’d heard and joked about how when attorneys go to be sworn in for the Kentucky Bar, they have to swear that they haven’t participated in any duels. And I’ll be darned, if we didn’t have to do the same thing. The language that made us giggle a bit was basically that we “…have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this state, nor out of it, nor have [we] sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have [we] acted as second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person…”


One would think that after being sworn in it would be over and we would be official, but no, the form made one final trip to Frankfort.

Today, we got our certificates, they even have a gold seal on them, and our squeezie thingees. So our quest has been successful and we are now Special Commission Notaries for Kentucky. Rose has another thing to put on her resume! Now I just need something to notarize….

Anyone Want to Go See a Movie?

The votes are in and the following have been nominated for Best Picture: "Avatar," "The Blind Side," "District 9," "An Education," "The Hurt Locker," "Inglourious Basterds," "Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire," "A Serious Man," "Up," "Up in the Air."

As my long time followers know, the only time I’m game to go see a "serious" movie is at Oscar time and any other time I’m more into explosions and fart jokes. But this year, with the expansion of the field from five movies to ten, I’m happy to say that there are several in the list that I’m half-way interested in going to go see. Although I will say that I was sort of hoping that Julie and Julia would be nominated since I’d already reviewed it. J

What follows here will be my movie-by-movie inner-waffling of which movies to spend my hard-earned fundage on. The actual reviews will be contained in separate blog entries.

"Avatar" – I’ve been told by various people that this is a great movie. And of course it’s already surpassed James Cameron’s previous behemoth, Titantic, in money. But I was holding out to see if it was nominated before spending the money to go see it. I’ve also been told that if I’m going to go, go for broke and spend the money to see it in 3-D at the IMAX. I think this is a definite.

"The Blind Side" – I wanted to see this movie after I saw the first preview of it last summer/fall. The only reason I didn’t immediately go see it was that I didn’t have the time, what with moving, and Christmas shopping, and holiday travel. Another definite.

"District 9" – I know almost nothing about this movie other than I think it involves aliens coming to Earth and being herded into the eponymous "District 9," a containment area of some sort (hilarity, no doubt, ensues). This one might be a possibility, but I’m flexible. We’ll see what my schedule is like.

"An Education" – I know absolutely nothing about this movie, but from the name, it sounds educational, so it is not on my "must see" list.

"The Hurt Locker" – ditto, only from the name, I’m guessing that not much hilarity ensues.

"Inglourious Basterds" – Looks good, involves killing Nazis and Brad Pitt (although he’s almost another one of those actors who, if he did nothing but read from the Dictionary for two hours, they’d nominate him for an Oscar!) From the commercials, hilarity definitely ensues… so a good possibility.

"Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire" – I know next to nothing about this movie – I think it involved a poor, black pregnant teenager. Sounds "deep" and therefore it is not high on my "must see" list.

"A Serious Man" – I know absolutely nothing about this movie.

"Up" – An animated picture, so there’s a plus on its side. There’s a talking dog ("Squirrel!"), so another plus. I would consider this to be a definite go see.

"Up in the Air" – Well, see now here’s my problem. First, this movie has George Clooney in it. And as I’m pointed out before, I just don’t "get" George Clooney. It’s like almost everything he’s ever been in (post the "Facts of Life" era) automatically gets the "Oscar-buzz." Is the man so faboo that anything he puts his name to is award-worthy? I just don’t think so. On the other hand, I’ve been told this is a great movie… but that was by a woman who has the hots for George Clooney… so how much of her opinion of the movie is based on her hots for him? I’m not going to put this one on a list, either the "Most Likely See" list or the "Eww" list. We’ll see how things work out with my time and money as to whether or not I go see this one.

So, to sum up:

Most Likely See: Avatar, The Blind Side, Inglourious Basterds, and Up

Eww: An Education, The Hurt Locker, Precious, and A Serious Man

Like, Either Way, Man: District 9 and Up in the Air

Let the movie-going begin!! Where’s my popcorn?

Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water... I Will Comfort You...

As I think I’ve discussed previously, for the past year and almost a half, since October 2008, I’ve been doing my job as well as a goodly amount of the subrogation responsibilities. I was given these responsibilities as a stop-gap measure until other arrangements could be made for this work. However, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and I find it hard to squeak. And frankly, the OT bucks were very nice, coming in handy to pay off my Discover card bill. But things couldn’t continue in this vein forever.

So beginning a month or so ago, the cracks began to show. I should have recognized the signs. I’ve been struggling with Kelly Bundy Syndrome for a couple of months, but I just chalked that up to extended senior moments and vitamin D deficiency. But last week, I lost it. There was this big project that I was working on for Steve, even working 9 hours on a Sunday. He was being very needy, and I found myself not being myself anymore, snarking at him, or anyone, really, and crying at the drop of a hat. Fortunately it would appear that even when I think I’m being a completely unreasonable bitch, other people just think I’m "off" from my usual. So obviously it’s not as bad to others as it appears to me. Which I suppose is good. That week I drove home more than one night in tears.

Then a week ago Monday, I lost it. I was working on an Excel spreadsheet (another project of Steve’s) and had a question about it, so I went to Shawn (our HR person)’s office. I know, I know, we have an IT Department, but don’t get me started on that or we’ll never get to the end of this story. In the process of discussing my question in Excel, I broke down in tears and blubbered out my story. It hadn’t come as a shock, as she’d been watching it slowly happen. Ok, that sounds bad, but I don’t think she was waiting with glee or anything, just she expected it sometime. Plus she’d been helping with the big project for Steve.

As it turned out, Steve was in the office next to her office talking to the attorney in there and she saw him leaving and asked me if I wanted her to get him. In a moment of weakness, I nodded my head yes. Now, if I had not been blind with snot and tears, I probably would have laughed at what I can only imagine Steve’s reaction to walking into a room and seeing me there blubbering was. He gets this uneasy grin on his face when he’s not sure what’s going on – I can see it in my head now.

Anyway, I managed to blubber my woes out again. Basically everyone - Steve, Carrie (who was not in the meeting, but would have been happy that it happened, as I’d broken down in her office the previous week), and Shawn – all agreed that I’d been doing the work of at least 2, if not 3, people for a year and more, and it was time to remove some of that responsibility from my shoulders. Now I, being a control freak, hate the idea of not being able to do something, and I just know that if the job goes from me to someone else (it doesn’t matter who), that person will NOT be able to do it as well as I did it, so the client’ll suffer and the whole world will go to heck in a handbasket. Now, rationally, I realize that isn’t the case, but I’m saying what my irrational self goes through.

Steve, Lord love him, jumps at the chance to remove subro from my life (with, according to my mother, more than just a little self-interest). Subro is a beast and it needs continual feeding. There were several parts of subro that I was responsible for: the filing of suits, monthly reports and disbursal to the client, and dealing with the files in settlement status. After all of the fallout, the parts of subro that I was doing are being doled out to three different people. Something that makes me feel sort of proud that I was doing so much, but also sort of pisses me off that it’s so much work that it gets divided amongst three people, but that while I was doing it all and not complaining, "we" didn’t have a problem letting me do it all. Sigh. I guess that’s why I earn the big bucks…. and the OT was nice.

Long story short, the pain in my lower back disappeared THE DAY that I broke down in Shawn’s office, it was obviously psychosomatic, and I’m not dreading coming to work like I had been. I’ve planned my vacation… but that’ll be another blog. And I’m going through separation anxiety while doling out the subro work I was doing. Not all of it, mind you. I had really got to the point where I was hating having to file the suits.. mostly, though, because I was having to obtain copies of the forms that each piddly county in Indiana uses for their small claims cases and then make that document into a merge form. Note to our elected officials: couldn’t you find one form and make it the official small claims form for the entire state??

New Years Resolutions - 2010

Never being one for either making or keeping resolutions, I'm taking this opportunity to list area in my life which need serious consideration and at the end, I'll think about picking one to work on. Ok?

1) McDonalds - According to my mother, there was a time, in my youth, when we didn't have enough money to go to McDonalds all that often - it was more of a 'special' thing. Now, when I look at my bank statement each month, I see a third to half of all my debit card charges going to McDonalds. I've already sort of tamed the Sweet Tea demon in my life and at least 9 out of every 10 visits to McD's I get regular tea instead of the diabetic-coma inducing liquid which I would prefer. Since moving to Wadesville, the only McD's on my way in always has 15 cars in the drive-thru in the mornings, so I need to work on taming the McD's Sausage Burrito demon so I don't waste 10 minutes each morning in the drive thru.

2) Weight Watchers - No, I'm not suggesting the ubiquitous resolution to 'diet and lose weight.' What I need to do is either resume going to the damn meetings or stop paying the $40 a month to them. The actual weight loss is not my main concern. It's the $40!

3) Walking - As you may or may not know, depending on whether I'm imaging that I blogged about it, I bought myself good walking shoes and a pretty purple iPod earlier this year for the sole (hahaha! shoes? sole?) purpose of getting out and walking for exercise. When I lived in town, I lived near the University of Evansville and had good sidewalks and nice neighborhoods and a campus that I could walk around. Did I do it? Um.. about 5 times in the 4 years I lived there, yes. I know why, well, other than the obvious fact that I'm lazy. I grew up in the country and am used to wide open spaces. I could take a walk down the road with my Walkman and sing along to the music at the top of my voice and no one could hear me but the residents of the cemetary (and they were not complaining.) I couldn't really do that in town. Might've gotten arrested. So, now that I live back in the country, and I have the shoes, and I have the pretty purple iPod, Rose needs to get her footies in gear and start walking up and down the road.

4) Facebook - Again, as you know, I have a serious addiction to Facebook. Not to the friendship aspect. I don't really like people. But to the games. I have a farm in both Farm Town and FarmVille. I grow and sell crops on an island in Island Paradise. I desperately dig for relics in Treasure Madness f/k/a Mania. And I am currently maintaining both a clan and mafia in Vampire Wars and Mafia Wars, respectively. I'm exhausted. So, I need to decide on one, that's all I'm asking for, just one, FB application and drop it. I was going cold turkey on Treasure Madness this past week, as I'd finished all the maps. But then they drag me back in with more maps! Vampire Wars, well, I'd gotten bored with that, but then they started this special New York thing and I've almost mastered all the New York jobs. Mafia? Well pretty soon after New Year's they'll open the Hong Kong part... and I am on level 200 or so, it seems a waste to give up now.

Yikes! This looks difficult, doesn't it? Well, as promised, I'm going to think about this, and I'll let you know next New Year's which one I picked. Sound good? For now, though, I need to run by McDonalds and get me some tea so I can have something to drink when I get home because I have a lot to do... I have crops to harvest on FarmVille and I'm almost done on that last Christmas island on Treasure Madness. And I'm listening to this great book on my iPod...

Oh, well, Happy New Year's to all!