The Romantics

The Romantics screened at Sundance Film Festival last week. I haven't seen the film yet (obviously), and I'll be the first to admit that regrettably, I did not follow the festival very closely this year.

But this interview with The Romantics director Galt Niederhoffer makes me wish I'd gone to the festival. And had gotten to meet her.

In addition to showing how incredibly articulate and intelligent she is, Niederhoffer talks about the difficulties of making a film in the Romantic Movie genre, like how to steer clear of the cliché while being truly sincere.

My favorite quotes from her include:

" . . . I mean [romantic movies] have a purpose — they make us feel good, and they remind us of the universal fact that we all are pitting this enormity of emotion against the question of that emotion’s validity in real life."

"Sincerity goes very easily to the point of sentimentality, and I wanted to ride that line, which is a hard thing to do. Emotions are as tricky in stories as they are in the real world. They’re big and unruly and often the very unattractive sign of absurd and compulsive narcissism, you know? That quality is so true of young people and their emotions that you really have to navigate it with some care. The question kind of becomes: are young people fools, or are young people honest?"

Where I want to be right now...

Adventure

"The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences."— Chris McCandless

Doppelgänger Week

There's this thing going around Facebook where everyone is changing their profile picture to a famous celebrity and calling it Doppelgänger Week, posting this in their status:

It's Doppelgänger week. Change your profile picture to someone famous you have been told you look like. After you update your profile with your twin or switched at birth photo then cut/paste this to your status.

I didn't get the Doppelgänger reference, so the first thing I did was look it up on the Internet.

Doppelgänger-- noun-- the ghostly counterpart of a living person; any double or look-alike of a person.

Well, that seemed fair enough. Nothing surprising there. Then I wikipedia'd it (I like how that word has become a verb in popular vernacular now), and I found this:

Doppelgänger-- The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death.

Everyone on Facebook is embracing bad luck, eh?

Well, not to be left out, I decided to look up what celebrity I look like. Of course, I will forgo posting it on FB and will instead indulge you, dear readers, by sharing with which famous individual I share a similar facial structure.

Sadly, with the first photo I uploaded, I was told that I look like no one famous. A disappointment (or not?). But then I just chose another picture. Apparently, according to MyHeritage.com, I look like:

Helen Hunt (72%)

Emmy Rossum (62%)

Kristin Davis (61%)

Enid Blyton (61%)

That last one is probably my favorite. And she's an author. Rather fitting, I suppose.

You Make My Dreams

Currently Listening To:
Song-- You Make My Dreams (Album Version)

Artist -- Hall & Oates

From-- (500) Days of Summer soundtrack

This song makes me want to prance down the sidewalk snapping my fingers in a chorus line. Or, like in the movie, join a giant spontaneous dance number in the park. It's such a fun song.

. . .

"Fear the time when the strikes stop while the great owners live - for every little beaten strike is proof that the step is being taken … fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe." -Steinbeck

To Live...

"Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem." -Whitman

Love

"The world we live in will either be better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we always strive to become better than we are."
- The Alchemist

Epic Snow Day

The Greek community at OU is split up into North and South Greek (according to where our houses are located in respect to campus), and today we had an epic North Greek v.s. South Greek snowball fight.

Well, first it started as a snowball fight between the SigEps (a N. Greek fraternity), Theta, and Chi O (both N. Greek sororities).

Hence, the SigEps (note the flag) laying siege on our house...

Then they ran off to lay siege on Theta down the street...

Of course, that was short lived, and the group (pretty much led by the guys) ran on down to South Greek, crossing busy streets en masse and banging on the doors of all the sorority houses along the way.

After our saunter around South Greek, banging on doors and throwing snow at the passing cars (again, I'll blame this on the guys), we headed back up to North Greek. Just as we arrived, we noticed that a few from South Greek had assembled and followed us back, taking up our previously-broadcasted challenge.

We totally won.

Tired, cold, and happy, we returned home.

(I'm in the yellow boots.)

We de-layered out of our snow-caked clothing...

(This was supposed to be a "Look at all our stuff!" picture.)

(Please admire our leggings and tough faces.)

... and rewarded ourselves for all the hard work with hot chocolate. And extra mini-marshmallows.

My Home

Pretty, isn't it?