November 28, 2013

Today was the first Thanksgiving since the year 2000 that I didn't work at the theater. It was incredibly weird.

Instead, on this day of giving thanks, I watched movies about journeys of self-discovery. I could use one of those journeys.

The first movie was One Week with Joshua Jackson. A man is diagnosed with stage-four cancer and decides to take a spontaneous motorcycle trip west, across Canada. I have often dreamed of going on a cross-country road trip (and I kind of have with my trip to Washington D.C., but not really). I think it would probably take something as serious as terminal cancer to get me to go on that journey alone. I don't have the balls. And I have always thought it would be more fun, and meaningful, to at least do it with one other person.

The next movie was The Way, briefly starring Emilio Esteves (who also wrote the screenplay and directed it) but mostly starring Martin Sheen. It is about a son (Esteves) who dies on a pilgrimage in Europe and his father (Sheen) spontaneously decides to go on the pilgrimage himself when he goes to pick up his son's body. He meets people along the way, each struggling with some aspect of their own life, and they help each other open up and find at least some sort of resolution. I enjoyed the movie and the soundtrack was really good. Much like my dream to go on a cross-country trip, I would also like to go back to Europe. That was a trip I will never forget.

Next I could have watched Into The Wild because I really enjoy that movie, but the ending is just too depressing. Not that One Week was bright and sunny, but yeah. Instead I watch one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who, when Donna meets back up with the Doctor for the first time after the wedding episode. Then I watched a few of my favorite Psych episodes, including the one at the sorority.

Then there was a little break for dinner. A big, delicious dinner. I had green bean casserole with tater tots, mashed potatoes, stuffing, a cheddar biscuit, a hawaiian roll, and a piece of amazing chocolate pie that my sister made. I gained at least a few pounds but it was worth it. And I exercised today so I don't feel as bad.

After dinner I went back to watching stuff, starting with Killing Season. A movie I had never heard of with Robert De Niro and John Travolta. It was... interesting. Not awful but not anything to write home about. One of the things I didn't understand about the movie, other than all the other stuff, was that one of the bigger fight scenes took place in almost pitch black, and it went on for several minutes. They probably spent all their money on the cast and didn't have enough to film a dark scene.

I watched the epic opening for Flight because it is amazing but stopped watching after that because the rest of the movie drags on a bit. And I ended up going to Target with my mom after that. The 3DS XL popped up in another flash sale on Amazon and I managed to get on the waiting list but didn't get it. So my mom talked me into going to Target. They opened their doors at 8:00PM and we got there around ten o'clock. The place was pretty busy but it was a pretty laid back environment. I had looked at the Black Friday map for Target and knew the 3DS XLs were going to be in the men's wear section so we headed back there. And I got one. It was in a pretty big bin so I don't know how many they started with but there were only about six left. I got the black one because that is the one I wanted. I think I may end up putting a skin on it. Over in the electronic section I found one of the Mario and Luigi ones and asked a clerk about it but he said something about it being listed at the street price and that it wasn't supposed to be out so he took it from me. It would have been cool to get it but I was fine with the black one since that is the one I originally wanted. I also looked at games while I was there but everything they had was a least ten dollars more than on Amazon, or higher in the case of Animal Crossing: New Leaf because I got that on a flash deal today. It would have been nice to get a 3DS game but I couldn't bring myself to spend the extra money. So I'll play my old games until I get new ones. In the end, I had to be talked into going but I ended up getting the 3DS XL for $50 off the regular price. And then another $58 dollars off because I had my gift cards. And then for free because my mom said she would count it as an early Christmas present. So it helps to go to Target with your mom at ten o'clock on Thanksgiving night.

Oh, and I got tortillas, because I needed tortillas.

When I got home I set up the 3DS XL and messed around with it for a bit. I didn't play any of my games but I tried out the AR card thing, where you put a little card down and a thing pops up out of it and you shoot a targets or a dragon and whatever else. It was pretty cool.

I also watched Rock Jocks, a movie about gamers who work at a secret facility, blowing asteroids out of the sky, saving Earth on a daily basis. It was a very small movie but I liked it quite a bit. Good stupid fun.

And lastly, because that seems to be a thing, this morning I made my first GIF. I woke up with the idea of making a stereoscopic 3D picture, and that didn't really work out, at least not how I wanted it to, so I went with a GIF instead. I took several pictures of a small figurine I have, rotating it a bit after each picture. Then I put them together using Gimp, which can apparently make GIFs. I had no idea. You just put all the images in order as different layers and then save it as a GIF. Very cool. What isn't cool is that when I moved my figurine back to where I had it before the pictures, it tipped over and the hand broke off. And I was out of super glue. But, I picked some up at Target tonight. How convenient. So I am going to fix it tomorrow.