Funky Movie Stuff

So I've come to the conclusion that I do a lot of weird things while watching movies. Name any movie, and if I haven't seen it, but I know the genre, I can generally tell you what I will likely do. I've decided to share this list with others to see if there is in fact, others that do this, or if I'm just a really weird dude... well, more than usual :D

Action: General heart pumped, and I really get into scenes that tick me off (generally consisting of a lot of yelling at the TV)

Science Fiction/Fantasy: Im usually very quiet, so that I can pay attention to the awkward language that is generally used, or I'm just completely confused the whole movie, in which I then say "What?" a lot.

Horror: Yeah, at first I act all tough, but these freakin' things bring out the kid in me. I get scared shitless with most of these (if they're good), and generally a pillow is being pushed right up close to my mouth, and I tuck my legs in so that nothing under the couch can grab my feet :P

And yeah, that's all I really watch. I mean, there are chick flicks (with girls, of course) and the occasional documentary, but I really don't have any kind of weird things I do with those. Generally just a blank look on my face. Like a lawyer. Or a poker player.

Now, I thought that I'd tell you some other stuff that I do whenever I watch one certain movie: Harry Potter 6

-- In the scene where Harry is first talking the Slughorn after the Slug Club meeting, when Harry says "I'm sorry sir... He killed my parents..." I instantly... (NOTE!!!! BIGASS SPOILER ALERT!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!) think of Harry and Ginny when they're married, and Harry just being all over Ginny, like he's ready to "woo" with her, and Ginny saying "Huh, not tonight Harry..." And then Harry's like "Fine... but you know, Voldemort killed my parents... and I just thought this would take my mind off of that fact." and then Ginny, being so nice, is like "Alright, fine..." And then bam! Harry deceives his own wife! OMG!!!

-- During the scene where Ron offers Harry pies, after awkwardly breaking up Harry and Ginny's special moment (go figure), I've realized I'm never hungry, like, NEVER, during this scene.

-- In the first scene with Harry in the subway station, and that waitress girl, I always get weirded out with thinking of any other girl, rather than her, with a fro that big.

-- I totally get tense when Hermione is crying in that one scene after she sees Ron kissing Lavender, and I really want to give her a hug. I do in my head, but I don't want to be weird, hugging the TV or anything.

-- I get chills when watching the Quidditch match where everyone is yelling and cheering. I'm not sure why, cause it's not me that it's happening to, but it just happens.

-- I secretly harass the director for not putting in parts of the movie that I found important, but not out loud, and then I think of what I might've done in that scene, if anything different. So I'm like a critic, sort of, just in my head.

-- I always whisper with Ginny when she and Harry are hiding the Half-Blood Prince's book, when she's like "Close your eyes..." I don't know why, but I just think that line is hysterical

-- During the scenes where Harry takes the Liquid Luck, I always do what he does. I whisper "Sir" and talk, and then do the pincer thing, and clap when he does... all of that stuff, and it always makes me laugh

-- Finally, when watching the Cave scene, I ponder on how so many freaking dead bodies got into that lake. I knew Voldemort killed a lot of people, but Geez, why bring 'em along? What the hell was he thinking?

"Avada Kedavra!.... Alrighty! Wormtail! Take this body to the lake, and just, uh, dump it in there for me, will ya? I'll catch up in a bit... just gotta go kill more people."

Yeah, I bet that's what he says.... :P

Thoughts of Spring

Alright, so I had to post this, mainly because it was a huge "OMG" moment for me.

So I'm sitting in Spanish class today, doing the general not listening to the teacher thing we all do, mainly because we don't speak Spanish much here in New England. (We're more French people) We're sitting in class, and this kid asks if we can open a window, since it was a little warm in the class room, and I was like "Holy crap! It's actually hot in the classroom!" Thus I came to the conclusion that it was finally, OFFICIALLY, spring. There was now no denying it. And that made me happy :D

I mean, spring is just the best time of year! Except... not. I mean, seriously, those goddam black flies... I swear, I'm gonna kill 'em all. And there's a ton of mud, and it rains a lot, and its still a little cold every now and then, but besides all of that, it's great. The flowers come out, we can see grass having snow for, like, months, all the snow melts (which contributes to the mud... woo hoo), and the birds come back from their vacations in South America, and other warm, snow-free regions (lucky bastards)

And then there are spring sports, like baseball. Actually, I used to play baseball from, like, 2nd grade to 8th grade, cause it took me that long to realize that I absolutely SUCK at baseball. I mean, I can throw really well, and I stole bases really well, but other than that I pretty much was the worst player on the team.

Because of my height (back in 8th grade I was about 5' 11"), I played in the outfield, which I'm sure you think doesn't really make sense at all. Actually, you're right, it doesn't. I thought I should've been playing first, cause you know, gotta have a big man on first. Yeah, no. I was stuck in the outfield my whole career of baseball. So I got really good at it... sort of. Actually, not really. I still sucked, but we needed people on the team, so, yeah.

I think it was the end of my 8th grade year that I finally realized that baseball REALLY wasn't my sport. It was probably the whole having a 2 hour game in the pouring rain that really did it. Which, by the way, happened more than once. But with differences in how soaked we all got. Generally though, we were drenched. Someone could've taken a shower with how much water our uniforms and hats had sucked up (but thank god they didn't. That would've been really gross)

And thus ended my "love" for baseball. I suffered through the rest of the season (we lost, like, every game. Just another reason to quit) And then, I finally said goodbye to baseball. And I think you have to quit something to really understand just how STUPID it really was. I mean, sure, America's Past Time... maybe back in early America, but nowadays I'd say it's more football or basketball than anything. I mean, 16,000+ people to NBA games on average, and EVERYONE watches the super bowl, even if you have no idea what's going on (but then, who actually pays attention? We just watch it for the commercials. Though, who doesn't?)

But there are other cool things about spring. There's... well, flowers.... and things grow... including grass, which then needs to be mowed.... And there's nice(ish) weather, and that's always cool to have... Actually, I really see no point in spring, other than the fact that it basically just has to do all of the dirty, disgusting, we-all-hate-this-part-of-year work, so that summer gets all of the awesomeness!!! YAY FOR SUMMER!!!

So I guess you can say that spring is kind of like summer's bitch, in a way... I mean, seriously, think about it! Spring does all the melting, the growing, and takes all of the hate for it, and then summer is basically just free to do whatever the hell it wants! Spring's a tool! OMG!!!

And I feel horrible saying it, but I just thought it was kind of a funny thing that I thought about. I don't want anyone to think that I hate spring. No no no no no, I love spring!!! It's great to watch all the snow melt (I'm like Calvin in those Calvin and Hobbes comics where he builds snowmen just to watch them melt... which, now that I think about it, is really dark) and I love being able to go outside without, like, 2-3 sweatshirts and a hat for school, or to be able to shoot hoops in my driveway. But I just thought it was funny that everyone likes summer so much better, but spring just does so much more work and everything... just another random thought in my head :P

Stories of Middle School Dances

Im sure everyone remembers middle school. Finally not having to deal with little kids running around anymore. No, now you're a free kid, ready to take on the world.... Just as soon as you get through 3 years of high school prep work, of course.

Yeah, I'm sure everyone remembers the famous "high school preparation" speech from pretty much all of your teachers. On your first day, heck, almost your whole first WEEK, all you do in class is just blabber on about how you're going to be "prepped and ready for high school!" Yeah, ok. Tell that to me now, as I get 3 hours of homework a night, not including projects.

Of course, middle school isn't all that bad. Sure, the homework sucks, and sort of ruins the whole "I love school!" phase in pretty much every single kid, but there are other things to look forward too. Now that you're older and more mature (sort of), you get to do all kinds of cool stuff! For example, middle school dances!

I still remember my first middle school dance. It was the Fall dance back in 6th grade, kind of like a "Welcome Back to School! Say goodbye to your childhood innocence!" dance. My friends and I had been waiting for this moment our entire lives. We were going to show everyone just how awesome we were!

Yeah... we kind of forgot that we were still 6th graders. To a good 75% of the people at the dance, we were still little kids, not quite ready to handle dancing with anyone, especially someone of the opposite gender when it came to a slow song. So what did we do? What any other 6th graders with no confidence of our dancing abilities would do: chilled by the wall the whole night.

Now I'm sure you're thinking, "Wow, you wasted, like, 2-3 bucks (it was actually 5 bucks, in case you're wondering) to go stand against a wall for 3 hours. Aren't you smart," but it really wasn't that bad. We met and talked with new people, and we weren't like, hugging the damn wall all night. We just weren't in the middle of everyone. That's where the 8th graders danced, so they could go grind without getting caught.

So my friends and I are just hanging out by the wall, and the first slow song comes on. Great. Unlike my friends, I couldn't get the balls to go ask someone. So I just sat around looking like a loser, while I watched my friends dance with people. And it's not like they grabbed random people either. They just went up to someone they knew, and asked them to dance. Simple, right? Well, not for me.

I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't seem to move to go ask someone. It was like my brain was saying "Umm.... just where the hell do you think YOU'RE going?" and totally froze me up. After the dance, we gathered back up, and things went back to normal. Awesome!

No. The whole night went like this. After a ton of fast songs, a single slow song would come on, and my friends were gone. Finally it was the last song of the night, and it was a slow song. Well, I wasn't going to go the entire night without at least asking anyone. I didn't want to be THAT much of a loser. So I took in a deep breath and went right into the crowd to find a dance partner (for the purposes of the story, and not revealing names, let's call her Sally)

So I finally spot Sally, and the song's already a quarter over. But the thing is, I had spent all of this time trying to find Sally, that I hadn't thought of anything to say (Way to go, dumb ass).

Now, I had grown up with Sally (she was in the class) but we weren't like, close or anything, so I wasn't super nervous, but I was kind of freaking out (I was later told that I looked like a crazy man on drugs. Awesome!)

Deciding to just go with it, I mustered up my courage and walked right up to her. A quick, but gentle, tap on the shoulder, and Sally turns to look at me. This is how the following dialogue went, except for maybe a few words.

Me: "Hey Sally, do you wanna dance?"

Sally: "Oh, no thanks" (followed by an embarrassed "Im sorry" look)

Me: "That's fine. See ya later"

I had done it. I had asked a girl to dance. Now, I was turned down, but whatever, she apparently didn't dance with anyone all night, so that was cool. But after that, things started getting easier. My friends and I realized that if dances were going to be any fun whatsoever, we were going to have to slowly make a name for ourselves.

So now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna skip ahead 2 years to my 8th grade year. Like I said before, my friends and I had to make a name for ourselves, and we had all finally managed to do so. It took a while, and it took some major guts, but we got it done. Now my 8th grade year, for both dances and other school related activities, was the absolute perfect image of an 8th grade year. I was popular... well, to an extent. I had chosen the people I hung out with wisely (no drugs all the way, baby!), which sort of limited the numbers to only a few groups of kids at dances.

Anyway, so my friends and we arrive at the dance (I don't even remember what dance, cause it's not important, it's sort of an example of every dance we went to 8th grade year) and instantly we find our friends. Hugs are exchanged, and our awkward, "we're here to have fun" dancing commences. Now, I'm sure you all remember Cotten Eye Joe, Soulja Boy: Crank Dat, Apache Jump on It, and the Cha Cha Slide (Part 2 of course). If you don't, you need to hear them, because they are classic middle school dance songs. At least, they were, back in middle school.

Well, these songs would come on, generally evenly spread out through the dance, but when everyone single one of these songs (yes, all 4 of them) came on, my friends and I (we'll call them Billy and Robby, for the story's sake) would rush to the front of everyone, right in front of the DJ, and we would do all of these dances. My personal favorite was Crank Dat, mainly because I had finally mastered it in 8th grade, after not knowing how to do it in 6th and 7th. Well, this was how we made a name for ourselves. Everyone knew we would be up there, and every time we went up, there was cheering, mainly from the girls (which wasn't a bad thing, of course), and it was awesome.

Now there are bad stories of middle school dances. Heart breaks, fights, drug busts, and the occasional stink bomb, but I would say I really remember mainly good things about dances. Now granted, they all completely ruined what WAS my innocent mind (now it was not), they were all still an experience I will remember forever... Which is why when I'm a father, my daughter will be wearing a turtle neck sweater and snow pants to every dance she goes to :P