RBOC: "Running (out of) Battery, Of Course"

• Hello from Dulles Airport, where I have been waiting for the past 3.5 hours and will be waiting 1.5 hours more for a 75-minute flight. My stopover choices were either this or a 50-minute wait, which would have been eaten up in seconds. I'm glad I didn't choose that one!
• The queues were MASSIVE at Heathrow today, but they moved really quickly. Sometimes Heathrow's really good like that - they know it's crowded, so they do things to speed it up. From getting off the bus to getting through security to the gate, it took only an hour. I've had the queue for security take that long before, and the queue to check in take even longer.
• The end of the flight was horrible. It was really windy and I think the plane kept circling. I actually threw up during the centuries-long landing.
• You know what I missed? Eating a burrito made by people who know how to make burritos. I had a burrito tonight, and it was awesome.
• My battery sucks on this laptop. I've been on for minutes and it went from 91% to 24%.
• A veces me olvido de que hay tantos hispanohablantes en este país, especialmente en Washington. Me hace feliz oír a la gente hablando en español, no occure a menudo en Inglaterra. :)
• The next time you hear from me, I'll be in CT. Catch you later!
  

What to watch

Since it's hard to keep up with TV here, I have a Season Pass for Ugly Betty on iTunes. The day after a show is aired in the US, I can download it and watch it on my computer here. I think the price is reasonable compared to buying the season on DVD, and you get it much sooner.

Anyway, with the writers' strike, the new episodes have been very sporadic. As a result of this, and the possibility of ABC shortening the season, iTunes has given me 3 free video credits. (I didn't ask for them - they just gave them to me. Awesome!) I can use the video credits to download TV show episodes, short films or music videos.

I think TV episodes are the best value - I don't know or care much about short films, and music videos are maybe three minutes long. But now the important question: which shows to buy?

Any suggestions for what to download? What's everybody watching lately?

And do you know if they offer The Sopranos on iTunes?

Tree Hugger

I went to see Juno on Sunday night with Jenni (Justin also happened to be there with Darcy), and I really liked it. My favorite thing about it, I think, was the soundtrack. I love acoustic guitar music, and all of the songs were just fun. So this morning I downloaded the album from iTunes.

Most of the songs were pretty wordy, and they seemed to be stories about things - definitely not standard love songs. And they fit really well with the mood of the movie.

I had the song "Tree Hugger" by Kimya Dawson on repeat for most of the day:

The flower said, "I wish I was a tree,"
The tree said, "I wish I could be
A different kind of tree,"
The cat wished that it was a bee,
The turtle wished that it could fly
Really high into the sky,
Over rooftops and then dive
Deep into the sea.

And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.
And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.

And the flower
Would be its offering
Of love to the desert.
And the desert,
So dry and lonely,
That the creatures all
Appreciate the effort.

Et le jackalope a dit
Je voudrais être un yeti
Pour voler dans la nuit
Et m'en aller loin d'ici
Mais le yeti a dit
Je voudrais être un monstre marin
Pour pouvoir rentrer dans la mer
De tous les requins.*

And the rattlesnake said,
"I wish I had hands so
I could hug you like a man."
And then the cactus said,
"But don't you understand,
My skin is covered with sharp spikes
That'll stab you like a thousand knives.
A hug would be nice,
But hug my flower with your eyes."

The flower said, "I wish I was a tree,"
The tree said, "I wish I could be
A different kind of tree,
The cat wished that it was a bee,
The turtle wished that it could fly
Really high into the sky,
Over rooftops and then dive
Deep into the sea.

And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.
And in the sea there is a fish,
A fish that has a secret wish,
A wish to be a big cactus
With a pink flower on it.

And the flower
Would be its offering
Of love to the desert.
And the desert,
So dry and lonely,
That the creatures all
Appreciate the effort.


*And the jackalope said, "I would like to be a yeti to fly into the night and go far from here." But the yeti said, "I would like to be a sea monster so I could return to the sea of all the sharks." (ETA: Thanks Loryta for the translation help!)

RBOC: "I should be packing" edition

• ETA: Massive apologies for the shameful blog neglect. I promise it won't happen again.
  
• So the term has ended and I go home on Thursday. I met with my supervisor on Monday, I'll return all my library books tomorrow, and I'll have a few "goodbye" gatherings with friends for the rest of the week.
• This is the first time I've gone home over the Easter vac since I've been here.
• I don't know what it is about this year - I don't go out partying and stuff like I used to do. This year has been about staying in and hanging out with the other JDs and watching movies and stuff. It's not as though I'm dying to go out partying - when I'm out, I actually look forward to getting back and watching Catherine Tate or the Sopranos or playing Guitar Hero III on the Wii.
• Speaking of movies, I've seen quite a few lately, all very good for the most part:
• The Constant Gardener, which the JDs watched when we were on duty for the final Entz of the term. It felt like a long movie, but I didn't get bored by it like I thought I would. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it already.
• Yossi & Jagger, an Israeli movie recommended to us by some friends, which Enrique and Maria and I watched in the MCR last Sunday. It was kinda boring because nothing really happened. These two soldiers were in love, but we never see much of them being in love.
• Top Secret!, which Justin, Enrique, Maria and I watched in the MCR on Sunday after we had already watched Yossi & Jagger. It's a spoof of WWII movies, and I thought it was hilarious. I totally recommend it.
• The Accidental Husband, which I saw with Elizabeth, Reb and Kylie on Wednesday. It was a cheesy chick flick and had some obvious features of the cheesy chick flick genre, but it didn't end like I expected, which was great. Not only does it feature the delightful Colin Firth, it also starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan - one of my favorite characters from the otherwise boring P.S. I Love You. Here is a pic for your enjoyment:

• Tonight I am going to see Juno with my friend Jenni. I've been wanting to see it for a long time, and everyone I know who has seen it speaks very highly of it.
• Other than seeing movies, I've also been packing. My college makes the students pack up their entire rooms over the break (yes, that means everything, pictures on the walls and all that) so they can have rooms for the conference guests. If you pay to stay over the break and you happen to have a nice ensuite room, they still make you pack up and move to one of the smaller rooms so they can have all the nice ensuite rooms for their guests. I was scheduled to move into a non-ensuite room, but since I'm coming back on the third day of term, it wasn't very ideal because the original owners of the non-ensuites will be coming back on the first day. So, I'm putting my stuff into private storage, which the college loves because it opens up a room for conference guests.
• I did ask friends if I could leave stuff with them, but I realized that would end up being too complicated. Most of my friends have room for a few boxes here or there, which means I would have to make arrangements with all these people to store stuff and then make arrangements with all these people to pick stuff up when I return. I figured that private storage would be convenient because it would be one trip in each direction.
• Added bonus: Ali, one of the JDs, has a car and is able to transport me to the storage place.
• The price of the storage isn't all that bad: $150 for 5 weeks. When you think of how much I've saved on the flight this time around, I still come out ahead in my opinion.
• But dear God, I really hate packing.
• And dear God, I've acquired a lot of crap over the past three years. (But this is normal, isn't it? You live and work somewhere, you get a lot of stuff.)
  
• On the other hand, I'm almost done packing, which means my last few days should be relaxing.
• I'm very much looking forward to San Francisco. I'm staying with Chrissie, and hopefully I will see Adam and Christian while I am there.
• That's all for now. Almost time for lunch, which means I should think about getting dressed soon.

xxxxx