I've asked Andrew to help me put a picture of myself in my Blogger profile because that task has been giving me a hard time. (That's to the upper right and under the About Me). He hasn't done it yet, because I think we had a miscomunication and instead he just posted the picture of me to the blog and not to the profile. Despite the fact that I believe it was a harmless unintentional error, I am going to be vindictive and put a picture of him on my blog until he fixes it and I have a picture of myself in my profile. Now you can all look at him. Look at him and laugh. And post comments making fun of him...although I don't know why because it's a good picture and not in any way funny. But if he fixes my profile for me I'll take it off my blog.

Answering honestly...


You are Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy 67% The Joker 62% Apocalypse 61% Dark Phoenix 61% Venom 55% Mystique 53% Magneto 51% Two-Face 49% Mr. Freeze 47% Dr. Doom 46% Catwoman 41% Lex Luthor 38% Riddler 36% Juggernaut 33% Green Goblin 33% Kingpin 28%

You would go to almost any length for the protection of the environment including manipulation and elimination. . Click here to take find out what super villian [the Joker] are YOU? http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/villain/

I'm Expecting!

It's official! I ordered a laptop computer yesterday and I will be recieving 5-7 days after January 30th. My first computer all my very own! I've never had a new computer before. The closest I've come to having ANY computer was my parents' old Gateway after my mom got a new Dell in 2003. The PC was functional but had barely enough memory to run a DSL connection and a weird Fellowship of the Rings "wizards" screensaver my brother put on there (not that I'm complaining).

Now I will have my very own laptop that will store my writings, my recipes, my pictures, my music and eventually connect to the internet. It will allow me to watch DVDs and keep in touch with all of you while I'm in Romania. And I bet it will come in handy for work too!

Oh I'm so excited for my new laptop computer to get here! Why? What did you think I was talking about?

Speaking of keeping in touch, just so you know I'm on Facebook now too. I'm still figuring it out so I don't know how to do a lot, but it seems like a neat social tool.

Because I haven't said it in a while the Recipe of the Weekend was vegetable stew. One thing I miss while being a vegetarian is stew. I've tried a delicous recipe for squash stew which I like very much, but this recipe was basically Vegetables (roots to be more specific: parsnip, carrots, potatos, onion, turnip) + water + salt&pepper + rice + cumin. After I got it all in the pot together it didn't seem very promising. My mom was teasing me it looked like Great Depression Stew. Her dad used to tell her his Great Depression recipe for Cabbage Soup made from cabbage, water and pepper (and perhaps a ham bone - so the vegetarian version would be as stated and quite dull.)

Luckily I was able to swoop in at the last minute and save MY stew by adding vegetable broth, garlic powder, parsley, oregano, bay, lemon juice and a little tomato paste. Stew it is, but cut out for a life of poverty, perhaps I'm not!

Who cares?

I'd like to comment on the Academy Awards for this year and that comment being, I don't care.
My Brother The Film Student maintains that the Academy Awards are overrated. I think everyone probably thinks the Academy Awards are overrated until they are nominated. I don't think the awards mean little to nothing - I just don't get in to them every year.

Wait a minute Laura, I know how into the awards you were last year. Are you saying you only get into the Academy Awards when movies you like are nominated?

No. Before last year the last time I cared about the Academy Awards was 2003. So more rightly I only care about the awards when movies I LOVE are nominated. Movies that touch me deeply and make me think differently about who I am and my place in the world. Movies that STILL make me cry every time I watch them. Movies I had to see six times in movie theatres.
Those are the movies I care about and most of the time I don't care whether they are nominated or not. But when they ARE nominated - it's that much more fun. Otherwise I am able to acknowledge that the awards are mostly political (Witness Denzel Washington not winning as he should have for The Hurricane, and then winning the next year for a mediocre role in Training Days.)

So Laura, are you saying that in 2003 you only cared deeply about Return of the King (award winner for mostly wildly anticipated movie of MY LIFE) and last year you only cared about Brokeback Mountain (second most anticipated movie of my life).

No. I also cared a great deal about CRASH and I was very proud of it for winning Best Picture. I was also SO proud of BBM (we're so close we have appreviations for eachother) for being nominated and interested in how Munich would be acknowledged for what it brought (or didn't bring) into the dialogue about terrorism.

But how can you say you cared about CRASH when we never heard you talk about it or write about it on your blog (the blog you temporarily renamed Brokeback Bloggin') ?
Well, in an early blog entry I explained that the subject of racial privilege is a sensitive one that deserves much care and attention when discussing, so I left off writing about CRASH on my blog - as important a film as I believe it was - because I like to reserve such delicate issues for conversations when I'm drunk.

I guess what I'm trying to say is it is not every year films come around that I get so emotionally invested in them that I care whether they win awards. Most of the time good movies are good movies and whether or not they win doesn't change how much I love them. I'm proud to see the movies I love get nominated and win, but it doesn't always happen. (I was shocked by the way to realize as I did in high school that The Dark Crystal never won anything!)

Maybe I haven't seen enough movies this year to care who even gets nominated. (except for Earagon.) Or maybe after such an emotionally exhausting 2006 - I need to take a year off.

Needless to say when another one comes around that I care about - I will let you know.

The Journey Home

Train ride to Andy's from dinner - approx 1 hour
Go to the bathroom, pick up bags, say goodbye to Michelle, Greta and Humphrey - approx 16min
Train ride to Penn station from Andy's - approx 1 hour
Train ride to airport from Penn station - approx 15 minutes
Shuttle ride to monorail plus monorail ride to terminal - approx 35min
Wait for United ticket counter to open - approx 1hour 20min
Wait at the gate for delayed flight - approx something more than 2 hours
Flight - 1 hour 45 minutes
Sleep on the flight - something more than 1 hour
Time change - lost one hour
Breakfast at IHOP in Chicago with Chris - 3 hours ?
Cups of coffee: 3 plus a stop at Starbucks for something with Expresso in it
Hours slept upon walking in the door to my house - 4
Bedtime- 10:30 after The Daily Show

I'm home in WI, where I will stay without getting on a plane again until mid Feb. It was a great trip to NYC! Thank you Andy, Greta, and Humphrey for putting up with my tissues and eating your mac and cheese! Thanks Andy for the appetizers and for everything! Thanks Sam for coming into town last night! It was good to see you! Thanks Michelle for some great discussions! Thanks Natalie, for everything, and mostly for being there. Thanks Chris for picking me up at the airport and listening to me rant about Supernatural on virtually no sleep. I WILL SEE YOU ALL AGAIN! Good times!