things that are good:

The last 30 seconds of "Wheels" by Cake where the lead singer starts in singing "WHY YOU SAY YOU ARE NOT IN LOVE WITH ME?" I like to sing it loudly while I walk from the parking lot to my apartment at night. Sometimes it gets a response.

Lauren Ming's apartment, as seen from the soccer field on my way inside. Namely, the large fome finger that I always thing kind of looks like a giant fake turd, and the makeshift poster of George Clooney she has on the wall. She has a ton of cool stuff on her wall, but something in George's expression, that twinkle in his eye makes me think that nothing could go wrong on his watch. I'm not even especially fond of George Clooney in reality.

The moon. It's been so beautiful lately with all of this odd weather-- it's either raining or very sunny, so the moon is either like a perfect pane of glass or a very bright star with eerie clouds passing, I like to think, through it.

Nice teeth.

Buffalo '66. Specifically, this scene, which is so charming weird and, uh, kinda beautiful.
This movie was not at all what I thought it was going to be, and while it's on the self-indulgent side sometimes I still thought it was pretty fantastic. I especially loved these sorts of moments (click on the picture to see the youtube vid, it's wonderful):



actually, just add christina ricci to the list. she's always weirded me out but she finally won me over with Black Snake Moan and now this one.

Hell Yes by Beck. I hate Beck, aside from the general line "I'm a driver, I'm a winner" which my old driving instructor used to chant to me. Anyway, HY makes me want to be a japanese robot. in a good way. Mostly the "my beat is correct" part. and the creepy "hi."

There's a funny little guy in one of my screenwriting classes. This week we started work-shopping scripts, and another screenwriter had written a fairy-tale comedy for us to read aloud. She gave the part of a dancing dwarf or something to this kid, and he proceeded to sing the lines loudly and emphatically, one line being "RING AROUND THE FAIRY..." He was dedicated to that role. I hope he gets an Oscar someday.

A voicemail from a few weeks ago was listened to today, and I heard my friend Dominic at the tail end of the message say "I miss you." It was unexpected, unremembered, and great. A rare, earnest "I miss you" as if in that very moment there was an abyss in his life because I am not there. I replayed it.

The story "The Judge's House" by Bram Stoker. I had to read it for my Irish Gothic class, and devoured it. There are two incredibly creepy moments in that story, but the one that made me actually say "DRAT" out loud in a room by myself involved the book-throwing bit. Right now I'm reading Dracula, by the same fellow of course, and I have to admit the guy is good.

I'm a bad Shakespeare student, so I basically haven't been to class in forever. But we had the privilege to read (or in most cases reread) the Merchant of Venice last week, and this line (as a part of Shylock's amazing speech that I have always loved) just makes my heart gasp:
"If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction."
I'm a Shylock fan, I really am.

Creamsicles. They make me remember life in Florida, in fact many specific moments of me breaking from splashing around in my kiddie pool and watching creepy giant rainbow lizards to trot up to the backdoor and take an orange creamsicle from my mom. This weekend I splurged and bought a box of them. They're all gone now.

This totally odd picture:

yes. that is marlon brando. AND jack nicholson.

The realization that someday I'll probably make a good film theory teacher. Actually, I'd make a good film theory teacher now.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The book. Not the movie. The book has some utterly beautiful moments, even if the book as a whole doesn't feel.. like a whole.

The way Virginia Slim cigarettes look between someone's fingers.

That my bed currently has 6 diet sunkist cans balancing precariously on its edge and my room-mate hasn't said anything.

Very Serious Kids Riding Scooters (good band name). Today while I was walking from class to class, I heard a rolly- sound behind me and noticed a tot, part of the daycare program they have going on here or something, rolling close behind me on his scooter. I smiled that condescending smile that you smile at little kids and kept going, but he gets next to me and gives me this serious look like "you think i'm playing, old lady? imma beat you." He proceeded to keep up with my pace, all the way to my class, where he finally turned around.

The sun reflects off of the apartment across from us, illuminating the room at about 9AM, even though we're in the basement.

A repair man came to our apartment last semester and broke our blinds, so we have an awkward, totally split blind. I'm really fond of it, kind of like George Bailey and his staircase thingy.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. - Deuteronomy 31:6 .... kinda speaks for itself. <3

and no list of happiness is complete without my once and future husband, robert downey jr. specifically, in zodiac, in which his 70's chic outfits make me want to find a time machine built for two.