Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

I just got back from watching Gake no ue no Ponyo, Hayao Miyazaki's latest masterpiece.  The crew started out five strong, but by the end of the movie, only Sunny, Bob, and I remained.  Hmm, I guess you really have to be Asian to enjoy the movie.  Y (^_^)

Then again, perhaps part of the reason we liked it so much was because it showed us what Josh would look like as a cartoon fish girl and what Ed would look like as Josh's underwater sorceror father.

Josh as Ponyo

 

Ed as Fujimoto

Josh and Ed, I'm sorry I had to use such frightening photos of the both of you.  But you have to admit, the resemblances are uncanny.

It's Richie's Day!

Well, it was Richie's day yesterday, anyway.  Lee and I planned to make him dinner to celebrate, but we certainly did not allot enough time to go to the grocery store, prepare the meal, eat the food, and clean up afterwards.  It ended up being a much larger ordeal than I had expected, and while I enjoyed every minute of it, my stomach was left to pay the price.

We decided to make fajita burritos, and I kept telling Lee to cook more chicken, because I felt like we didn't have enough.  Well, it didn't occur to me that in addition to the chicken, we also had rice.  And beans.  And red peppers.  And yellow peppers.  And onions.  And tomatoes.  And lettuce.  And cheese. And sour cream.  And black olives.  And guacamole.  By the time we finished making our burritos, they looked something like this:

Do I regret eating all of this?  No.

Do I regret making a second one and eating that one too?  Umm, possibly, yes.

Early Bird Gets the Gig

I made the terrible mistake of not picking up my phone yesterday afternoon.  I was studying in the library, and for once I decided to enter the Zone and ignore all incoming calls and Gchats.  The call that I missed happened to be one asking me to play piano for the Drama department auditions this Sunday.  I returned the call in the evening and left a message, only to find out this morning that they had already found another accompanist for the job.  Ugh, I really could have used the money, but I suppose I should study and go to church on Sunday morning anyway.  Welp, that'll teach me to screen my calls ever again.

Here are a few pictures to cheer both you and me up after that sorrowful tale.

From Jenna's Facebook page:

From Nosheen's e-mail:

Oh, teh lulz!

I Was Weird

I was just looking for an old file on my computer in my folder from college, and I came across the Bio that I had written for my role as pianist and rehearsal accompanist for the First Year Players' production of Fiddler on the Roof.  Apparently I was weirder than I ever remembered.  Why didn't somebody tell me??

Sam Zhao has studied piano for fifteen [trillion] years but secretly wishes he played the xylophone.  He enjoys eating shrimp and talking about himself.  And shrimp that talk about himself.  Like Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina, he wants to win gold as badly as he wants to mother his own child.  He would like to thank his two sons, Hambone and Flippy, for their constant support.  Sam is actually dead.  In lieu of flowers, please send shrimp.  No pun intended.

Lecture from the Future

This morning, JDT (I mean, Dr. Turner) gave our HIV lecture from her new office in Michigan.  They worked out some crazy broadcasting system where JDT's computer screen was projected into our classroom while she watched us on some camcorder system.  Well, I use the phrase "worked out" very loosely.  I went to class solely for the purpose to see how often the connection would mess up, and I was not disappointed.  It was immensely entertaining when the lecture was interrupted... the first four times.  The next five times were not as funny; I just felt like we were playing on Chatroulette.

Cockadoodledoo

This morning, Pastor Leland gave a great sermon on the second Beatitude, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."  He talked about how it is natural to mourn after a difficult loss and also gave us advice on how best to comfort those around us who are mourning.  But the part of the service that I remember best was at the end, when he was giving the weekly church announcements.  While he was still talking, a cell phone went off in one of the back pews.  To have a cell phone go off during a church service or a class lecture or a theater production is bad enough, but this particular ringtone was... wait for it... a rooster's crow.

I kid you not.

And, for the next twenty seconds while the perpetrator searched for his or her cell phone, the entire congregation got to listen to the high-pitched sound of "Cockadoodledoo!" over and over again.

Consumers Beware

I just signed up for Shop It To Me, a website that matches your size and brand preferences.  It sends you an e-mail when clothing in your size goes on sale from the stores you normally shop at, saving you the trouble of searching for deals yourself.  This is especially useful for people like me who wear size XS, which is for some reason is NEVER in stock when things go on sale.  Why does the rest of America have to be so big??

Then again, the website might not be very useful for me if I say I'm interested in stores like Banana Republic.  The e-mail I got last night featured this "Sale Alert."  Whew, that $70 hat I've been wanting is finally on sale for $45!!!!11!!111!

Okay, seriously, as I was writing this post, the item sold out.  WHO IS OUT THERE PAYING $45 FOR A BR MONOGRAM SHADOW-PLAID WOOL DRIVER CAP!?  WHO???