Okay, forgive the very low quality technical aspects of this blog. Here is me (Jen) sitting in my living room gabbing about books. In this blog (maybe the first of many) you can try not to get distracted by the giant Harry Potter posters in the background and my cat Hermione almost makes an appearance. Here are the books that I talk about:
Well, Tuesday was my official one year anniversary of living in Illinois. I seriously didn’t know if I would make it this long, so I am really proud of myself. A part of me feels like this year has lasted forever, but another part of me feels like it has gone by so fast.
I remember a year ago when my parents’ car pulled out of the parking lot and I was all alone in my apartment for the first time. I think I cried for like two whole hours. I still feel homesick a lot and miss Iowa like crazy (the milk here just doesn’t taste the same), but I have settled in pretty well. A lot of that has to do with how awesome my co-workers are. Whatever anyone says about my library, it does attract some exceptionally cool people as employees.
I thought I would come up with little list of some of the things I have done in the past year. Most of them are completely useless facts, but this is what I could come up with off the top of my head.
-I’ve been to the city 7 times
-I’ve been to one Cubs game (they won 6-1!!)
-I survived a police blockade
-I went home at least 10 times (I was too lazy to actually count)
-I went to the Sandwich Fair twice (unfortunately, it is not a fair all about sandwiches)
-I’ve been to Woodfield Mall 5 times and IKEA twice (which is hilarious because they are both literally right next to my apartment…I can actually see IKEA from the parking lot)
-I’ve ridden in a cab 5 times (twice all by myself!!)
-I played Whirlyball and didn’t die
Though not an overly impressive list, I am pretty proud of the fact that I didn’t run screaming back to Iowa after the first week. So, happy anniversary to me! I don’t know how many more there will be after this, but I am just taking it one day at a time.
P.S. I am planning a blog about a book I just read that is now one of my favorite books of all time. Here is the book trailer for a little tease. I was going to do a video blog about it tonight but the dogs upstairs are barking and I haven’t washed my hair, so maybe tomorrow.
So guess what! They’re remaking Children of the Corn! (Duh, I kind of alluded to that in the title of this post, but whatever) It’s only for the Sci-Fi channel, but still. Apparently the original movie had too happy of an ending, and the remake will stay closer to Stephen King’s book. Now how do I know this? Is it because I am a horror fan? Ha – ask Amber what happened when we tried to watch The Exorcism of Emily Rose (hint, I made it maybe 5 minutes into the movie, started to hyperventilate, and then we turned it off and watched The Princess Diaries). No, I know because apparently they will be filming the movie in the QCA! QCA? Quad Cities Area aka Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois. But actually, they’re just filming in the Iowa half.
Apparently the first movie was filmed in Sioux City, Iowa (who knew?) but supposedly takes place in Nebraska. My question is – why couldn’t they just shoot it in Nebraska, but whatever. Filming is supposed to start tomorrow, so I’m tempted to drive around and try to find out where, but I’m lazy so I probably won’t. Oh by the way, I’m in Iowa until this Sunday! Hooray for not being in Nashville by myself (hubbie is leaving for New York for a science geek conference tomorrow morning).
But anyways, Children of the Corn??!! Neat that they’re remaking it in my hometown, not neat because that movie terrifies me. I’ve seen bits and pieces of it, enough to kind of get a feel for it, but not enough to scar me for life. I highly doubt that I will even watch the remake, even just to see if I can figure out the locations or if I know any of the local kids they picked to act in it. The guy who plays Adam (wait, is that his name?), the guy who can heal and was the great samurai from Japan who’s all evil now on Heroes is supposed to star in it. So that’s kind of cool.
So did you guys watch Children of the Corn back in the day? Did it frighten the bejeezers out of you? Can you no longer drive through cornfields with a sense of security? Hahahaha, that reminds me – I watched Signs (a relatively un-scary movie) at the drive in theater near Maquoketa, IA, which is in a cornfield, and got super freaked out. I honestly think the best freak out would be to take someone into a corn field, make them watch Children of the Corn (the original or the remake), and then have a 10 year old with ketchup smeared all over his mouth sneak up on the movie watcher. Oh good grief, just thinking about it makes me shiver and laugh at the same time, because HOW HORRIFYING WOULD THAT BE???
<3, lindsayF
Care for a drive through the Heartland any time soon?
So I went home this weekend to celebrate my parents’ birthdays and something weird happened along the way…When one of the cars was passing me on the highway, the guy in the passenger side had his face pressed up against the window staring at me. This made me feel very uncomfortable because I was unshowered and rather gross. I thought it was very rude and strange, but that was all. Then it happened again…and again…Once a kid in a backseat who appeared to be asleep woke up just to turn around and stare at me.
After a while I finally figured out what was going on. This was my first long trip with my two brand new bumper stickers. My two brand new bumper stickers that read “My Other Car is a Portkey,” and “The Whomping Willow Ate My Other Car.”
Apparently letting your true HP colors fly invites a lot of stares from “normal” people. I got my bumper stickers at Terminus, but you can see a whole bunch of them at Whimsic Alley. If you buy one, you will probably make a lot of new friends along the road (and by friends, I mean creepy staring people).
So I was laying in bed one night and this thought came into my head: If the cast of Gossip Girls were the American Girls, who would they be? ****Gossip Girl characteristics mostly taken from the show on the CW; I have only read the first book****
My answers:
Blair–Samantha this is was the most obvious of the selections–the hair is just so spot-on right? But even more so is the style, the wealth, the moments of mischief and rebellion (hello, bloomers)
Serena–Felicity I desperately wanted to say Kirsten for Serena (once again because of the hair), but it just wasn’t a good fit. Once again, Felicity has the wealth and status, while being quite a bit of a free-spirit and fighting against the Tories.
Vanessa–Kit I haven’t actual read any of Kit (I’m not a big fan of how they portrayed Herbert Hoover), but from the trailers for the movie she seems like a witty, lower-class, confident go-getter who says what she thinks, um =Vanessa!
Jenny–Addy Jenny was a hard one for me, mostly because she went through that little phase in the middle of the season. But I decided on Addy in the end because they are both dreamers and sweet and sew clothes. And I guess were both fighting a class system.
Dan–Molly Sorta nerdy and awkward.
Nate–Kirsten Blond, low-maintenance, and not completely comfortable in their current worlds.
Chuck–Kaya or Josefina? I haven’t read of either of their books either and know nothing about them really. But they’ve all got dark hair? Somebody had to be paired with Chuck.
AHHHHH, SEASON TWO OF GOSSIP GIRL PREMIERES TONIGHT OMG! haha, I had only seen like three episodes of this show before Aug. 19th, but that was enough to make me hulk out and go stampeding to the store the day the series came out on DVD and thanks to mono I had plenty of time to watch the entire season before tonight.
Have you ever wondered what digital effects were available to a low-budget tv-movie production crew in the mid 1980’s? Lucky you, because one of my favoritest movies from my childhood, The Worst Witch, answers that question in just a three minute song about what is possible on Halloween:
Fantastic.
I wish I could remember if I thought Tim Curry was creepy in this movie as I do now–he sort of has a David-Bowie-in-Labyrinth vibe, you know? I totally love Tim Curry though—have you listened to any of A Series of Unfortunate Events on audio??? so good that I think I have only read actually one of the books because listening to them just feels so right.
