Interests:loving the Lord, my friends, graphic design, scrapbooking, reading, eating sour gummy worms, the backstreet boys, point of grace, romantic comedies Expertise:quoting "while you were sleeping" as often as i can, checking my email every ten minutes, writing extremely witty and entertaining top ten lists Occupation:Graphic Designer
It's hard to believe I've lived in Madison for nearly a year (will be one year August 17th)! So far it has been a great experience. By far the best part about living here is my job. Best career decision I've ever made. I LOVE being a graphic designer for InterVarsity, working for 2100 and working at the NSC. I miss parts of my campus staff work but for the most part I really feel like I have found my niche. What a blessing!
The least favorite part about moving to a new place, however, has been meeting new people for 12 months straight. I am constantly meeting more people I don't know and it is exhausting for this here introvert! If only I could find some way to skip ahead beyond all the small talk and actually get real with people. Instead I have felt like a broken record, repeating myself over and over again to people who are just being polite and asking me the normal questions. But it has been pretty tiring saying it over and over again and not really getting past these things!
Perhaps I should make this list a t-shirt so people can read all my answers without me having to respond?
"Are you a student at UW?" No, I'm not. I have not been a college student for six years.
"How long have you been here?" Moved here August 2009. You can do the math.
"How do you like Madison?" For the record, I like Madison. Is there a WAY to like Madison? Someone help me know how to answer this question!
"Where do you live?" I live in Middleton, across the street from the Chinese grocery/gas station.
"Do you have a roommate?" Yes, her name is Brooke.
(after I've said yes) "How do you know her?" She's friends with someone I work with at the NSC.
(upon finding out I work for 2100) "So do you do videos?" No, I don't.
(after I've corrected them and tell them I'm a graphic designer) "So, do you like, design graphics?" Um, yes.
"So, were you really involved with Urbana?" Yes. That's all I did for the first 4 months.
"Are there any exciting projects you're working on?" >> This may be the one question I actually enjoy answering! Maybe because the answer is always different.
So, I did go see this movie in the theaters. Grete, Val and I made a night of it on Tuesday. haha. After having dinner with a whole bunch of little kids at Noodles & Company, we caught the 6:30 showing of the movie. We realized that girls our age don't usually see movies at 6:30 on a Tuesday night. But you know who does? Old ladies. The only other people in the theater were this group of about 8 old ladies. It was almost as fun watching the movie with them as it was watching the movie.
We noticed that we were laughing at and reacting to completely different moments of the movie. For example, when the line "Husbands are like fine wine. They mature with age." was spoken, the old ladies ALL cracked up. On the other hand, when the younger male actor took off his robe and jumped into the pool, well, they were silent and we definitely were not. haha.
The movie itself was okay. There were some funny moments and some heartwarming moments, but it was fairly predictable, and I cringed at some of the horribly cheesy writing. Yes, even I, lover of cheesy romantic comedies. Plus, the male actor looked suspiciously similar to Heath Ledger, so that was kind of distracting. There could have been a lot more character development but instead there were lots of scenes of the actors just staring at each other. But overall it was fun to watch and it made for some great memories w/ Grete and Val.
I just have one thing left to say: "Can you move?" "Only my lips."
Apparently people are saying this movie was bad. But I liked it! I haven't seen the first movie in a while so I can't compare it at the moment. But here are my thoughts on my first summer movie!
What I liked:
Robert Downey Jr. - my brother and I basically think that RDJ IS Tony Stark. It hardly seems like he's acting, that's how perfectly cast he is. I thoroughly enjoyed him, both as Tony Stark and as Iron Man.
Action scenes - there was far more action in this movie than the first. More fighting, explosions, fast-paced chases, etc. That made it fun to watch.
War Machine - it was fun to see the addition of the sidekick. I typically like the sidekicks in movies (Robin in Batman, for example) so I'm glad they got some action time together.
What wasn't great:
Weak Villain - As I've mentioned before, a good villain needs to be threatening and charismatic. Sam Rockwell was charismatic but not threatening. Mickey Rourke was threatening but not charismatic. So, it didn't quite gel for me.
Don Cheadle as the new Rhodey - Terrence Howard wasn't great but I'm not sure Don Cheadle was better. I lost the character development in the casting change.
Scarlett Johanssen - in general I just don't like her as an actress, so having her walk around with the same expression on her face and barely any character development was kind of annoying. I wasn't really buying her in her action/fighting scenes.
Overall though, I liked it and I think they did a good job progressing the story line of Iron Man. They had some good lead-ins to Thor and Avengers also. There was a funny moment with Captain America's shield too. hehe. Exciting!
According to imdb.com summer movies start in April. But what came out this month? Nothing memorable, since nothing comes to mind. But in my mind, May is really when things kick off. I always get excited about summer movie season because it's the only time of the year I bother going to the movies. (Although, I did manage to get out during the cold winter to see Princess and the Frog and Sherlock Holmes, both of which were great!)
Sooo, which movies will it be this summer?
Iron Man 2 - May 7 Yes! As much as I'm reluctant to admit, I think RDJ is a very charming actor, and he makes all his movies better just by being in them.
Letters to Juliet - May 14 Maybe Uhhh... I didn't know about this rom-com until recently but after seeing the trailer I kinda want to see it. hehe. It may be one of those wait-til-the-dvd, but I am pretty sure I will be watching it at some point.
Shrek Forever After - May 21 Eventually. Really? A FOURTH Shrek movie? sigh. I don't think I'll pay money for this one.
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time - May 28. Puh-lease. Jake Gylenhaal as an action hero? Don't make me laugh! (A side note - what's up with the subtitle "Sands of Time"? It's like they're already planning the sequel!)
Marmaduke - June 4 Um, I don't think so. Um, did you not catch that comic strip animal characters turned movie stars do not do very well? (coughGarfieldcough!)
Toy Story 3 - June 18 Can't wait! Yahoo! So, I'm not sure how this will do... But so far Pixar hasn't had a miss. So I will probably be seeing this one. :) Have you seen the 80s-esque commercial Pixar made for the new character, Lots-o-Huggin Bear? It even has the grainy VHS look! Pixar you are so cool!
Twilight Saga: Eclipse - June 30 Never! I feel like the second one just came out! These vampires, they sure do work fast! Let's hope they all manage to keep their shirts on this time.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - July 16 You must be joking. I don't quite understand how Nicholas Cage continues to be employed as an actor. Him and Brendan Fraser.
3-Step Up D - August 6 Nope. No offense to Joyce, who loves the Step Up movies. But I don't really understand why it has to be 3-D. I mean, will peoples shoes come flying out into my face? Is that supposed to be cool?
What? I only have 2, maybe 3 movies to watch this summer? Sad. Well, I guess I'll be able to save some money!
Whenever I watch documentaries I always feel good that I've been enlightened in addition to entertained. But I also feel somewhat depressed because of the truth (or at least closer to the truth than a regular movie) that it reveals about our broken world.
I just caught Food Inc. on PBS tonight. I wasn't planning to watch it but I was drawn in by the cool design of its opening credits (I'm a sucker for good design!). I have heard about a lot of the things talked about in this documentary, but it was definitely eye-opening to see and hear for myself. The ways that the food industry has become so warped, so powered by the value of efficiency and the bottom line of huge corporations... so that it has abused farmers, animals, plants, land, workers, and also consumers. It's just crazy! And the thing that's craziest is how unseen all of it is... how we go about our daily lives, buying and eating this food. When all along there's so much going on.
I may be behind on this... I know a lot of friends who have been 'buying organic/local/etc.' for years now. But I don't think the solution is as easy as that. Even though I will definitely think twice about where I buy groceries, and what I buy, I'm also aware that it's a privilege to have the resources to choose. Not everyone can just start buying organic to solve this problem. What I come away with is actually more about the root of the problem. It's really about sin and injustice. It's about greed, and materialism... and consequently lack of care for others. On our part, it's our desire for huge amounts of food at low (monetary) cost. Our desire to perpetuate myth that America is the land of plenty, when really, to support this industry, a lot of people are suffering and being taken advantage of. A lot of people are getting sick, having major health issues, being sued/bullied, deported, etc.
It's easy to get depressed when you step back and realize the size of the problem. It makes me ask the age-old question: "WHY is this world so broken?" Why is there so much injustice and evil?
And this is only one issue in a world of suffering.
I know there isn't a lot of good in just feeling overwhelmed, and that the easy answer is to say we need to pray and work towards renewing the world and bringing in a system that works, a gospel-oriented system.
But sometimes, I think it's okay to just say, you know what? The world IS broken. It sucks. We really ARE in need of a Savior and a proper Ruler.
