I heard there was a secret chord.

Because I am too lazy to actually write anything. Also because all I do lately is write papers, study for exams, and watch movies.

Can you name all the movies?

- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

- Half Nelson

- American History X

- Boy A

- What's Eating Gilbert Grape

- The Last King of Scotland

- Titanic

- The Wind that Shakes the Barley

- J Edgar

- Body of Lies

- Gangs of New York

- The Ides of March

- The Godfather

- Pulp Fiction

- Braveheart

- Winter's Bone

- Shutter Island

I am you.

I watched The Last King of Scotland. 

Forest Whitaker won the Academy Award for best actor for his role as Idi Amin, the Ugandan dictator. He was scary. The movie was a bit terrifying when you know that it was based on real life events. Some of it was fiction. The movie relies heavily on the story of the doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, who is not a real person. There was an Englishman whose life the role was loosely based on, but that is all.

It was good. 

A few scenes were hard to watch. The one where Dr Garrigan (James McAvoy) is hung off of hooks in chest in particular. Since the movie was low budget, the set up for the scene was a bit cheap and James McAvoy was afraid he would actually get hurt. Apparently he actually passed out on the first take. Crazy.

- Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

- Half Nelson

- American History X

- Boy A

- What's Eating Gilbert Grape

- The Last King of Scotland

- Titanic

- The Wind that Shakes the Barley

- J Edgar

- Body of Lies

- Gangs of New York

- The Ides of March

- The Godfather

- Pulp Fiction

- Braveheart

- Winter's Bone

- Shutter Island

I had that dream again where I was lost for good in outer space.

School is starting wrap up, it is crazy. Next week is one of my busiest weeks. I have a final and two midterms within a span of 3 days. One of those midterms is for my hinduism class. I have not done any of my readings for that class since the last midterm a few weekends ago. And this teacher actually tests on readings. I just looked up all I have to read before next week, and it is a total of 20 chapters from 3 different books. This is a major loss for procrastination. I have my work cut out for me. Aside from that reading, I have a good amount to read before my final next monday. I have an essay to prepare for that final and another rather large essay to work on. But it's okay, because it will soon be over.

My hinduism class has actually been super interesting lately, so I am hoping the readings will be interesting too. We have been learning about the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which are Indian epics. They are really cool stories. We have only gotten to hear bits and pieces of them (they are both quite long) but I think I might read them on my own at some point. The picture above is of a scene in the Mahabharata where Krsna instructs Arjuna on the battlefield. This section of the story is often removed and read on its own. It is called the Bhagavad Gita.

A few days ago I made a list of movies I want to see. I have some to add to it:

- Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

- Half Nelson

- American History X

- Boy A

- What's Eating Gilbert Grape

- The Last King of Scotland

- Titanic

So my list as of now:

- Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

- Half Nelson

- American History X

- Boy A

- What's Eating Gilbert Grape

- The Last King of Scotland

- Titanic

- The Wind that Shakes the Barley

- J Edgar

- Body of Lies

- Gangs of New York

- The Ides of March

- The Godfather

- Pulp Fiction

- Braveheart

- Winter's Bone

- Shutter Island

Infectious disease.

There is nothing like an epidemiology class on infectious disease to make your skin crawl. And to make you never want to leave North America. 

There is a fungal infection where your lungs fill with balls of fungus. And you think that you just have a cold, or phlegm in your lungs, but it is actually a bunch of fungus balls. I think the fungal infections are the worst, but the parasites are a very close second. I don't think I could handle worms burrowing around in my skin. I realize that you wouldn't realize that you had a parasite in most cases, your symptoms would be a fever, or other cold/flu-like symptoms. But sometimes, you would know that you had a parasite because a worm would be burrowing out of you (Guinea worm disease - google pictures of that I dare you).

But on a less disgusting note, I got some interesting homework. We have to watch the movie Contagion and write a little response. I like this kind of homework. Unless of course the movie is as gross as the infectious diseases we looked at today or it makes my paranoid that I am going to die of some crazy, deadly disease.

Hello... is it me you're looking for?

I have been thinking about making a list of books I would like to read this year.
I am going to start one, and I will probably add to it later.
Here goes, I would like to read:

- The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- 1984 -- George Orwell
- The Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck
- Les Miserables -- Victor Hugo (maybe)
- The Big Sleep -- Raymond Chandler
- Mother Night -- Kurt Vonnegut
- While Mortals Sleep -- Kurt Vonnegut
- Look at the Birdie -- Kurt Vonnegut

That is all I can think of for now. I am really really fighting the urge to re-read both the Harry Potter and the Hunger Games books. I said I wanted to read 18 books this year, and although I didn't say it, I meant new books. So far I have read 8. And technically I have read two of them before, but that was at least 4 years ago, so it doesn't count.

I thought it might be interesting to try and make a list of every book I have ever read. Of course I won't be able to remember them all, but I can probably get most of them. And by books I mean novels that I read past elementary/jr high school. I wouldn't have a hope of trying to remember any of the books I read that long ago. Maybe I will attempt it sometime.

I think I will also make a list of movies I would like to see. So often I just watch whatever because I can't think of the movies that I really want to see. If I made a list, I would always have a place to go to when I wanted to watch a movie. Then I would probably watch less crappy movies and more movies that I legitimately want to see. Perhaps I will see how many of those I can think of now too:

- The Wind that Shakes the Barley
- J Edgar
- Gangs of New York
- Body of Lies
- The Ides of March
- Fight Club (I have seen most of it, but I missed the first half hour)
- The Godfather
- Pulp Fiction
- Braveheart
- Winter's Bone
- Shutter Island (maybe, I can't decide if I am too scared to watch it or not)

J. Edgar

Since I am done exams on saturday, but not going home until monday, I thought to myself, 'perhaps I will go to a movie on saturday.' In fact, I was excited because the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie is at the movie mill. So I looked it up, and tonight is the last night it will be there. So sad. Poor me. I blame school. It has been far too busy for me to make it to the movies for the last few weeks. And, why was Leo's new movie so under-advertised? He was nominated for a Golden Globe in it! Why had I never heard of the movie before it hit the theatres?

And while I am on this, why has Leonardo DiCaprio not won an Oscar yet? Come on, Inception, Catch me if you Can, Blood Diamond, The Aviator, The Departed... It is due time. When I was a younger, teenage me I thought he was just that pretty boy, heartthrob actor from Titanic and that ridiculous Romeo + Juliet movie. But last year when Inception came out, I did some reflection with a little research and I discovered that Leo is quite the actor. He doesn't have that long list of terrible movies most actors have at the beginning of their careers. And in the last ten years.. he has been top notch. I have been making a point to watch more Leo movies over the last year, and I have not been disappointed. I even have a few on my shelf I haven't seen yet. That's right. I buy Leo movies without having seen them. I have that much faith.

And the point of this post is.. I want to go see J. Edgar. I am sad it will not be in the theatre after today. I will have to wait a long time to see it.

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

Last night I watched Fight Club for the first time.

Unfortunately, I already knew what the crazy twist at the end was. But, the fact that I knew made me notice lots of subtle things. Things that screamed, 'He has a second personality! Tyler is really just him!'

It was intense, but good. I didn't quite understand how he could kill Tyler at the end without killing himself. That didn't make sense to me. I was totally expecting that he would have to die in order to get rid of Tyler, but apparently not.

I had Fight Club dreams last night. I can't remember exactly what I dreamt about, but I know it was weird. I woke up without any actual memories or pictures in my head, but I definitely had the feeling that I had been dreaming about the movie.

You can't trust a guy who acts like he's got nothing to lose.

I watched The Departed yesterday.

Good movie.

I am finding myself becoming more of a Leonardo DiCaprio fan as of late. I think Inception may have been what really started it, but he was very good in The Departed. And that got me thinking about other movies he had done... The Aviator, Blood Diamond.. It made me decide that I should watch a few more of his movies.

On that note, these are some movies I would really like to see:

- Body of Lies

- Gangs of New York

- V for Vendetta

- Dirty Dancing

- Revolutionary Road

- The Talented Mr. Ripley

- Inside Man (I have already seen it, but I remember it being quite good)

- The Wind that Shakes the Barley

You got a fast car, but is it fast enough so we can fly away?

I just got back from a weekend at Crowsnest Lake Bible Camp. Which is one of my favourite places on earth. But it is weird going there in the off-season.

I went to help with a rental group. They needed a head climbing instructor.

It was a Mennonite group, which was interesting. I definitely felt weird being the only girl present during the "men only" climbing time (they had separate climbing sections for girls and guys). But it was fun. It reminded me that I am definitely back in a 'I am enjoying climbing zone' and that I should really get climbing at the University.

Also, there was hardly anyone around at camp. When I have gone to help with other rentals there has always been other people coming into help as well. This time there was no one else who came except two ladies to cook from town. It was empty... well except for the big group of mennonites.

But, I still had a good time. I spent some time with some of the full time staff there, had a sauna, did some studying, and watched some movies. I finally saw Gladiator. Good movie.. good movie.

I can't stop listening to Fast Car, by Tracy Chapman. I think I am going to learn to play it.

You can listen to it here.