A) That word just seems weird right now.

B) Jobs and applications galore, followed by 40 hours a week of working.

C) Writing and submissions in the works.

D) Crafts and activity planning/executing.

E) READING the beautifully gigantic stacks of books with which I find myself surrounded.

I have never had a summer even approaching the anticipated bustle of this one.

Oh, sure, the story is sad.  It would be, given that it was originally written as a redemptive tale from Jacques Tati’s to one of his two daughters; is it the legitimate or the abandoned one?

But MR HULOT!!!  What business does he have giving up or giving in?  For me, he was meant to always be the gently opposing force to conformity and middle-class emptiness/boredom.  It was a gorgeous and ridiculously cruel film to show at the end of a semester in which we watched Mr. Hulot’s Vacation (1953), Mon Oncle (1958), Playtime (1967), and Traffic (1971).  Traffic being so upbeat with the many reflections of Mr. Hulot’s image bobbing around the immobilized traffic jam/parking lot, I had decided upon an optimistic ending and overall tone for the series (though I don’t get to watch Parade). 

He was deteriorated.  Yes, he was lovingly aged from the Hulot of Traffic, but his rigid form and bobbing, prancing step slacken and grow slow.  His bows at every turn are not so sharp.  WHY IS IT SO PRETTY BUT SO SAD!?!

Pete Smalls Is Dead (2010).

Apart from being pretty meta, and just plain pretty, the film is a lovely example of Dinklage’s ability to entice with his…um…awesomeness?  Playing the protagonist, K.C., trying to rescue beloved dog, Buddha, Dinklage is capable of realistically conveying humor, drama, and elegant (rather than farcical) dramedy (perhaps it would be better to call it seriocomedy…). 

And OH GOD HIS VOICE!!!  He delivers the film’s rather poetic first-person narration, and obviously not with the dreaded halting and ill timing typical in ANY level of poetry course.

Interestingly, I recently watched Four Rooms (1995), partly directed by Pete Smalls is Dead’s director, Alexandre Rockwell.  So…next I think I’ll try 13 Moons (2002), also with Peter Dinklage.  All three are available on Netflix. 

sweetsassymollassy:

omg, this video is hilarious.

WATCH IT.

I mentioned earlier that the school magazine never got back to me by the time they said they would if my story was accepted (early March).  Well, now I am informed that it WAS accepted.  Take that, building self doubt.

Additionally, I originally titled this post “Well, that makes me feel better about my poor exam today,” and, feeling better, I began to realize that I may not have done poorly.  I simultaneously, or very close to that, realized that the professor mentioned the grades might be up later in the day.  This time was later, so I checked.

and…

100%.  I was quite pleased.  I had been feeling down because I got some less than highest of the high grades on assignments/tests that I felt I could have if I had tried a little harder.  (Two tests, a paper, and a quiz.)  I feel better now.

Duolingo: Here’s the video (also on the site).  I like the whole getting points thing…levels and such making it like a game.

There is Spanish and German, for now, with sweet promises of French, Italian, and Chinese.  I’m focusing on Spanish at the moment, but I really and deeply desire some Nordic languages (I don’t know how else to refer to them, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian…).  I’m become irate at the thought of the languages I could know if the people of the past hadn’t forced each other to give up their “old” languages when they learned English (and how can we still be doing this???).  MULTILINGUALISM FTW!  Yet I, sadly and embarrassingly, am fluent in only English.  I like it, the language, but I want MORE.  All the books I don’t know how to read.  I cry.