Christmas and such.

Wow, I haven't written in here in a while. Maybe because nothing notable really happens in my life.

New obsession: Jimmy Stewart.

Oh my god he was such an amazing actor (and cute!). They just don't make movies like his anymore, and it's sad. Stuff from the 30s and 40s is the best. My Jimmy obsession has helped me discover some truly amazing classic films. So that's good. You just don't find actors like Jimmy Stewart anymore.

Blah. Movies suck so hard nowadays, it's hard to sift through all the teen sex comedies and violent action movies and gory horror crap to actually find a decent movie. Occasionally you find one, but good movies are getting rarer.

But let's not get me started on that topic, because I could go on forever.

Anyhoo, Christmas. It was hectic, I'm broke, I spent time with some family members that I dislike, and I'm glad it's over.

Here's the stuff that I got, because that's all Christmas seems to be about anymore.

From my parents:
~Pirates Of The Caribbean 3: At World's End (the 2-disc special edition!)
~a POTC shirt w/ Johnny Depp on it <3333
~SpongeBob hot cocoa & mug set
~fleece Happy Bunny pajamas
~$20 Bath & Body Works gift card
~gold claddagh earrings <333
~Life Magazine's The Most Notorious Crimes In American History

From my cousins:
~$25 Borders gift card

From co-workers:
~crate of clementines (Pat)
~Chipmunks Christmas CD (Pat)
~pretty nail polish and pretty headband (Pat)
~cookies (Stef, Karen)
~candy (Maria, and Bob though he doesn't work with us)

So what did you guys get, anything good? I hope you all had a nice holiday!

And Happy New Year to all of you if I don't post here again before then! :)

<3 Eliza

Official Iron Man Trailer!!!!!

Watch Robert Downey Jr In Official Iron Man Trailer

RIP Warren Zevon, 1/24/1947-9/7/2003

Unique. Quirky. Absolutely Genius.

My idol.

I can't believe it's been 4 years since he's been gone.

But I listen to him every day, so it's like he never left.

His music was so different than anything else, I miss it.

I miss him.

You were "too old to die young but too young to die now."

Rest in peace, Warren.

Why Today Sucked

1. I worked 4 hours, blah. Didn't get a chance to sit down once. My legs are killing me.

2. My cousin Tif was supposed to meet me at the library at 2 but missed her bus twice so I waited at work forever for nothing.

3. When Tif got to my house, she had one of her kids with her (Alice, who's not as much of a problem as the other one), I'd figured it'd be just the 2 of us. So I had to keep Allie occupied so, I still didn't get a chance to rest for 5 minutes.

4. Tif got into a huge screaming/swearing match with my bitch of a neighbor that already hates my family. Tif had every right to flip out at her, but I fear retaliation, such as animal control or city hall stopping by sometime next week to harass us some more.

5. My dog Rosey got sprayed by a skunk in my backyard. The yard, the dog, and the house reek so badly my eyes are still watering. I had to rub her down in tomato juice but I smell like crap and she still smells too (but not nearly as bad).

6. Alice slammed my elbow in the car door when we went to Shaws. Not purposely (I was reaching in to lock it and she closed it on me, she loves closing the car door), but it still freaking hurts and is still swelling. Hit my damn funny bone! I had frozen raspberries on it while we were in the store, swelling went down a little, but it hurts like hell and it's starting to bruise. I don't want to think about how it will feel tomorrow.

I do believe Warren Zevon's lyrics are quite fitting for my crappy day:

This just ain't gonna be my day
Trouble waiting to happen
Things just ain't gonna go my way
Trouble waiting to happen
I'd write this down if I could hold a pen
I might get better but I don't know when
So I'm gonna wait right here 'til then
Trouble waiting to happen

Look at all of the fun things...

I made on imagechef.com!!!







Go to imagechef.com, it's pretty much the most funnest thing ever!

<3 Eliza

I'm disgusted at the media. As usual.

WTF is with Lindsay Lohan. All I've heard about all freaking day is the crazy DUI/cocaine/chasing someone in her car and then getting arrested, blah blah I DON'T CARE. I never liked her anyways, and I don't feel bad that any of this is happening. She's an adult. She caused her own problems and she should deal with them, not get special treatment because she's a celebrity.

But what ticks me off yet kind of amuses me is that a lot of articles I read today are calling her the "Robert Downey Jr of her generation". We all know how much I love Robert, but sadly this is true. I like the way this article puts it:

Lindsay Lohan is now officially the Robert Downey Jr. of her generation. And I say that with all due respect to Downey, who once was a mess but who has cleaned up his life and is back to doing excellent work, as in “Zodiac.”

The Downey comparison is appropriate because when he was going through his troubles he kept going before a judge and kept pleading for another chance — and to stay out of jail. After numerous run-ins with the law, he told one judge in 1999: “It’s like I have a loaded gun in my mouth and my finger’s on the trigger. And I like the taste of the gun metal.”

Downey spent a short time in prison. Three months after he got out, he was arrested again on drug charges. That killed his gig on “Ally McBeal.”

One of the big differences here is that Downey was an Oscar nominee, in 1992 for “Chaplin.” In other words, he had a career. He reached a certain rarified place in the business. Creatively, he fulfilled his potential. But drugs plagued his career from a business standpoint. He became unemployable for a time. Only a slow march toward sobriety enabled him to rebound and work again, and the cold slap of jail time undoubtedly had something to do with setting him straight.

Lohan has an enormous amount of talent, but unlike Downey she hasn’t distinguished herself as an actress. Sure, she was good in “Mean Girls” and “A Prairie Home Companion,” even “Herbie Fully Loaded.”

Yet Hollywood is all about perception. And what do people remember most, her roles in those films and others? Or the car accidents and partying?

That’s why she belongs in jail. For her own good.

At least it doesn't make Robert sound totally horrible. But it has a point, jail turned him around, look at him now. Maybe it would do the same for LL, because as much as I dislike her I wouldn't want to see her die. Too many people die from drug and alcohol abuse. It's sad. She needs jail time, but also some real help.

Blah. No more ranting. No one cares. I'm just mostly sick of this being treated as the most important news ever. Hello, there's still soldiers in Iraq dying every day, campaigning for next year's election, etc. Celebrities aren't that important.

I hate media.

The end.

Avril is SUCH a fake (like I didn't already know??)

So...my least-favorite Canadian Avril Lavigne is being sued by the 70s band the Rubinoos because they say she took a lot of her song "Girlfriend" from their (much cooler) song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend".

If you listen to the two songs, you can clearly tell that she totally ripped them off.

She was also accused recently of stealing songs from someone she used to work with.

She denies all of this here.

But just watch this video, which compares the two songs, and try to tell me that it's not basically the same song. Beat, tune, almost everything is like the Rubinoos song.



Talentless crap like her make me sick. If you can't come up with a decent song yourself, don't steal one. And if you do, don't release it as as single so everyone (including the original artists) can hear it and call you out on your plagiarism.

What a dumbass. I hope she loses everything. The Rubinoos deserve so much more than she does.

Tagged!

Tracey tagged me!

Choose seven random facts about yourself and post them on your blog. At the end, list seven people you are tagging.

1) My throat really really hurts.
2.) I love love love 70s British comedy (Monty Python, Are You Being Served, etc)
3.) My favorite musician of all time is Billy Joel.
4.) I'm currently blasting Everclear, therefore annoying my parents :)
5.) My cell phone is blue.
6.) The last book I finished reading is Such A Pretty Girl by Laura Weiss. OMG read it!!
7.) I haven't filled out my FAFSA for next school year yet and it's due soon. I should probably get on that.


I'll tag: Pat, Andrea, and Veronika. Because they're my only blogger friends besides Tracey and she obviously already did it :)

<3

Everclear - AM Radio

I remember being so obsessed with this song when it came out! Wow that was like 7 years ago, haha. I still have it on my mp3 player though. Yay for Everclear! This is one of the coolest music videos ever.

recent reads and other randomness

Hey :) Haven't updated in a while, because nothing has really gone on. The weather's been hot and nasty, though. Eww. I did some shopping yesterday, because Savers had a 50% off everything sale. I got a Billy Joel shirt (that brings my total of Billy shirts up to...25? hahaha), John Saul's most recent book, a Carl Hiaasen book, and a few other things I don't need.

Speaking of books, I've finished quite a few in the past week. The best/worst thing about working in a library is all of the books I find to read. I finished up the most recent in the Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison, they're quite funny.

I also finished Strip Tease and Basket Case, both by Carl Hiaasen. He's such an awesome author. His books are really funny but they totally suck you in! I discovered him through Warren Zevon, actually. They were close friends for years, and Hiaasen co-wrote some of Warren's songs, such as "Basket Case", which was used in the book as the biggest hit by the rock star character. I started out with Skinny Dip, the book dedicated to Warren after his death (he came up with the title). But I can't stop reading his books, they're addictive! I highly recommend anything by him.

Just today I finished Peter Abrahams's new novel Nerve Damage. Sooooo good. He was really nice when I met him earlier this month at the RILA conference, so I started reading his stuff and he's great. Stephen King (my second-favorite author) says Abrahams is his favorite American suspense novelist. So if King likes him, I had to check him out. And he really is an awesome writer. I'd recommend Nerve Damage to anyone like me who's a fan of King, Koontz, or Saul. Also check out Oblivion. I haven't finished it yet but I'm in the middle and it's pretty damn awesome!

Enough ranting about reading. I'm an immense nerd.

On the music side of things, I've been really into Everclear lately. I've always liked them but I got the urge to download more of their stuff and they're really awesome. Art Alexakis is gorgeous (I can't believe he's acting in a crappy Disney Channel show now). I think my favorite songs are still "AM Radio" and "Wonderful", but I'm really liking "Now That It's Over" and "Unemployed Boyfriend" too.

Off to update my GJ and LJ, so goodbye for now :)

<3 Eliza

Edit: I IMDB'd Art Alexakis and am relieved to find out that he was only in one episode of a crappy Disney Channel show, and it was a small part. But how weird is it that I happened to flip by the other day and he was on? Weirdness!

NOT in a good mood.

I'm hot, miserable, frustrated, exhausted, homicidal.

And not in the mood to be messed with.

I'm NOT a people person.

My experiences today summed up why I really truly cannot stand people.

Blatant stupidity, attitude problems, children in general, laziness.

And the disgustingly weather isn't helping my mood.

Blah...

Today was pretty good I guess. My cousin Tif came over for a while, I kicked her butt at Monopoly on my computer, then we played around on other games. My mom and I took her home around 6:30, then dropped her boyfriend off to his class. My mom & I went to a few stores, I didn't really get anything. There's a CD player at Wal-Mart I really want to get though, maybe when I get my check. It's SpongeBob! <3 It's so freaking cute.

I really do need it though, because I've had my current CD/cassette player since I was 5. I'm 18 now, do the math. The thing hardly even works anymore. Hmm, only need to save up $17. Not bad.

I'm not feeling so great,m y stomach's killing me. Let's hope it's not the stomach flu or something as icky. But you know lil' ol' susceptible me :( Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow?

Till then,

Eliza

nothing matters much but love and money

Hey :) I'm listening to Warren Zevon, as usual. Right now it's the new collection of rare/unreleased recordings. So so good.

Also ripping Jackson Browne CDs to my computer. Much love <3 He really has a lot of better songs than "Running On Empty" and "The Pretender". Stuff like "For A Dancer", and "Looking East". He's so underrated, much like Warren was, but at least Jackson's had more commercial success than Warren ever did.

I'm so glad I invested in the 160gb hard drive a few months ago :) I have so much music on here, it's nuts. 16 hours of it is just Warren Zevon, and I have 160 hours of music total!

The weather sucked today :( I hate rain! I hope tomorrow is better!

Oh well, off to bed for now, I want to get some reading done.

<3 Eliza

RILA Conference 2007

So...the conference was pretty fun! I went with my co-worker Veronika, we took the bus together and got to the JWU library kinda early. There were breakfast-y snacks and whatnot. There were sponsors who had free pens and rulers, so I loaded up on free stuff XD The first program I went to as about blogging. We were taught how to create a blog and stuff...using Blogger! Too bad I didn't wait a few more days to get one of these things! So I helped Veronika with hers. We had a half-hour break after that, then went to the next program, which was about the RI Historical Society. It was pretty interesting, I didn't know it was free to get in. So now I really want to go!

When that was over there was some sort of meeting but I skipped that and had a muffin and read for a while. Then I went to the presentation room to see the speaker, (awesome) author Peter Abrahams! He's really cool. When he was done there was a book signing, so I bought a copy of End Of Story and he signed it for me :) Then came lunch! I love going to school at JWU, because we're known for the amazing food. Which is what we got for lunch! I sat with some people I didn't know, I'm trying to get over my social anxiety disorder so stuff like that helps. They were really nice. I met back up with Veronika and we went to the presentation about foreign films. I got a lot of links to cool video and archiving sites that I'll have to check out.

All in all, it was a fun day, and I'd love to go again next year!

conference tomorrow

So...the RILA (Rhode Island Library Association) conference is tomorrow. I'm kinda excited. It's a day full of various lectures and programs about library-type things. But the thing I'm most excited about is meeting Peter Abrahams! He's Stephen King's favorite suspense novelist. I started one of his books today, and he's quite good! He will be speaking at the luncheon, fabbity-fab-fab!

The conference is being held at my college's library, Johnson & Wales, and all of the food-y snacks are being provided by the JWU culinary department (JWU is most famous for the culinary part of the school). Sooooooooooo tomorrow should hopefully be good.

Though 8am-6pm is a very, very long day.

I'm taking the bus downtown with my super nice co-worker, Veronika, so we'll get there nice and early for registration and whatnot.

Whee!

Top 5 reasons I love Monty Python

One~I'm a sucker for 70s British comedy. I grew up with it because my dad loves it, so I've been inundated with Python since I was little.
Two~The Bruces' Philosopher Song is brilliant. I don't think I'd know who half of those philosophers were if not for the song. Of course, all during my Critical Thinking class last trimester, when we learned about Immanuel Kant, the song got stuck in my head XD "Immanuel Kant was a real piss ant..." Haha. I can't look at a Heidegger book in the library because I start laughing like a loon.
Three~Michael Palin was adorable. Well, he's still cute, for a 60-something year old guy. Haha.
Four~They pretty much changed the face of comedy in general. Because they were so...out there. Very different, stream-of-consciousness, and Gilliam's animations added so much to the material.
Five~.....................Noooooooooooobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

bored

I am up far too early. I'd usually go back to sleep but I want to get to work at a decent hour. Occasionally I'll drag myself in there around noon, but then I don't get out till 3, therefore missing Passions. So I like to get there earlier :)

So what shall I do to keep myself awake for another 3 hours???

Hmm. Maybe a game of virtual Monopoly, or I could watch one of the trillion movies I have downloaded on my computer that I haven't watched yet...

Blah.

first post

Hi! First post in my new blog! :)

I have a trillion bloggy-things, but I mainly only use the ones listed on the side of this page. Though I'll try to use this one too!

There's not much to say about me that hasn't already been said in the little sidebar-thingy there, sooooo...yeah.

Guess that's it for now!

<3 Eliza