You knew I'd jump aboard this meme

And, knowing how, erm, vocal I tend to be about my favorites (and non-favorites), I'm sure this is going to be ridiculously easy. Enjoy!

Stolen from about thirty people, but deltagrl, jendaby, and shell524 that I can remember deserve credit by name:

The rules:
+ Pick 15 of your favorite movies.
+ Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
+ Post them here for everyone to guess.
+ Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
+ NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions.

ETA: I'm not posting the answers, just the people who guess them. So that way, I can congratulate the person with the most guessed right, not just the first person to reply. Either way, I think glvalentine is gonna take it because she hardly looked at it and got ALL THE ANSWERS.

1. "Oh, that's sarcasm. That is so awesome."
2. "My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are." (glvalentine)
3. "It's because I like you I don't want to be with you. It's a complicated emotion.
4. "As a man, I'm flesh and blood I can be ignored, I can be destroyed but as a symbol? As a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting." (glvalentine, ivy03, feiran)
5. "Wait! We are doctors. We won't hurt you, we only want your organs!" (droidguy1119)
6. "I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them." (glvalentine, ivy03, feiran)
7. "I have great fear of tools. I once made a birdhouse in woodshop and the fair housing committee condemned it."
8. "All I did was cross the bridge and I was in Brooklyn. Amazing."
9. "Never send a human to do a machine's job." (deltagrl, viridian)
10. "It's time to put your mouth where our balls are." (glvalentine)
11. "He was always a rather stupidly optimistic man. I mean, I'm afraid it came as a great shock to him when he died." (ivy03)
12. "In two hundred years we've gone from 'I regret but I have one life to give for my country' to 'Fuck you!'?" (snugglebunnyjm)
13. "In vain have I struggled, it will not do. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." (glvalentine, jendaby, feiran)
14. "Psychopaths kill for no reason. I kill for money. It's a job. (droidguy1119, viridian, shell524, feiran)
15. "You seem somewhat familiar. Have I threatened you before?" (jendaby)

(no subject)

I dreamt that I was so in love with something about the Blu-Ray edition of season one of Heroes that I stood around in Best Buy trying to calculate whether I could afford to buy a Blu-Ray player just to watch it. Some rational part of me railed against the expense and scoffed at the idea that Heroes was worth dropping that much money ever, let alone now-now-now.

It's sad when my dreams only recapitulate real-life circumstances. Minus Blu-Ray, I can't tell how many times I've gone into a Best Buy and had to argue myself out of unnecessary expenses.

HEEEEARRRRRT

Dr. Tatiana, you can horizontally transfer DNA with me any time, ::WINKWINKNUDGENUDGEENTENDRE::.

This is just fabulous, smart writing. It's not too complicated, it's fascinating science writing, and it's factual. As a bonus, many of the commentators are smart enough and educated in related fields well enough to tell the idiots of the "IF IT IS RANDOM HOW DO YOU KNOW IT'S GONNA HAPPEN! AHA GOD MUST EXIST!" variety where to stick it.

Answers!

Pretty well done, I'd say. As predicted, glvalentine took this one. She got five right and in less time that it took for me to post the damn thing.

Lines not guessed are in bold.

1. "Oh, that's sarcasm. That is so awesome." Dawn of the Dead (2004)
2. "My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are." Aliens(guessed by glvalentine)
3. "It's because I like you I don't want to be with you. It's a complicated emotion." Finding Nemo (can't believe no one got this one! feiran was kicking herself
4. "As a man, I'm flesh and blood I can be ignored, I can be destroyed but as a symbol? As a symbol I can be incorruptible, I can be everlasting." Batman Begins(guessed by glvalentine, ivy03, feiran)
5. "Wait! We are doctors. We won't hurt you, we only want your organs!" Monkeybone(guessed by droidguy1119)
6. "I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them." Memento (guessed by glvalentine, ivy03, feiran)
7. "I have great fear of tools. I once made a birdhouse in woodshop and the fair housing committee condemned it." Better Off Dead (where were you on this one, droidguy1119!?!)
8. "All I did was cross the bridge and I was in Brooklyn. Amazing." Arsenic and Old Lace (for shame, ivy03! I wouldn't know this movie if not for you!)
9. "Never send a human to do a machine's job." The Matrix (guessed by deltagrl, viridian)
10. "It's time to put your mouth where our balls are." Dodgeball (guessed by glvalentine)
11. "He was always a rather stupidly optimistic man. I mean, I'm afraid it came as a great shock to him when he died." Clue (guessed by ivy03)
12. "In two hundred years we've gone from 'I regret but I have one life to give for my country' to 'Fuck you!'?" Speed (guessed by snugglebunnyjm)
13. "In vain have I struggled, it will not do. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." Pride and Prejudice (guessed by glvalentine, jendaby, feiran)
14. "Psychopaths kill for no reason. I kill for money. It's a job." Grosse Pointe Blank (guessed by droidguy1119, viridian, shell524, feiran)
15. "You seem somewhat familiar. Have I threatened you before?" Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (guessed by jendaby)

Grammar help

I know, right? Moi!? Needing of the grammar help? But I totally do.

For my news and feature writing class, I got marked down on an assignment for mixing tenses (SHOCKING!). I want to be sure that he doesn't try to mark me down again for something I feel that I navigate pretty well in my academic writing, so I have to ask:

In an essay where you are writing in past tense but need to describe things that are a perennial thing, you can switch to present, right? My example:

A competitive cheerleading routine lasts two and a half minutes, divided into three segments. There is gymnastic tumbling; group stunting work where some girl, the flyers, are lifted and tossed; dancing; and, of course, cheering for the local team. She summarized routines thusly: “It’s like holding your breath for two and a half minutes, running a marathon, doing sprints, and smiling all at once. And making it look like nothing.”

Describing the events, I used past tense. But describing the rules of the thing--which are not linked to the past, and are immutable givens at any time--it is right to switch to present tense, correct? It was in French...

(no subject)

This video STILL creeps me out. You'd think I'd get over it. I'm not eleven any more. But there's nothing about how NOT OKAY all the crazy looking people in this video that means I'll ever get better about this. Must focus on Chris Cornell. Yes, okay, calming down now.

Gah, every time I think that there is absolutely a creepiest person in this video, someone even creepier comes along. ::shudder::

Well, I don't know if I agree, but it's a thought

The Academy Awards = Sexist!

It is an interesting question. Does gender-segregating an award automatically create a separate-and-therefore-inequal metric? On the one hand, we don't segregae major awards that recognize talent, as the woman in the video says. On the other, we do segregate awards for achievements of physical natures--men and women's sports, for example. Acting is in the unfortunate category where we sort of demand both. I'm not saying you must be an athlete to win one (Jack Nicholson certainly isn't), only that your body is honed to best express your craft as much as your mind is. Your mind ennervates your body to bring about the performance you wish. If I had to compare it to a sport to defend the sex-segregation of awards, I'd say acting is closest to rhythm gymnastics or ice dancing.

But acting isn't ice dancing. The nuances of physical difference of typical muscle mass hardly play into determining who is the better actor. Yes, you use your body to act, but your body's set of dangly bits hardly has an impact on how well you use it to emote and carry across a scene. In this case, the body is a tool, not a temple. Or perhaps it is an instrument, and while you get lovely sounds out of different instruments and it's hard to pick a favorite, you can certainly choose the best from among them based on how well they're played. A Stradivarius played poorly is nothing to a master on a cheap trombone, is my thinking here.

Do I want them to give out only just the one award for Best Actor? Honestly? No, I don't. In the video I linked to, the woman mentions the paltry showing of women among Nobel laureates. I fully expect, with the current climate in Hollywood, that the singular Best Actor award would go to a man every year until I am eighty. They might have the token female award, but that would be it. Because there is a serious crisis over roles for women in film, has been for nearly thirty years, with no immediate end in sight. I like her phrasing it as the "hookers, victims and doormats" problem because it is. Helen Mirren's win for The Queen was one of few roles to break that stereotype of late, but she is friggin' Helen Mirren, and I'm sure if she stooped to playing a hooker, we'd all be looking for horses two, three, and four of the obviously imminent apocalypse.

Does maintaining the segregation of awards mask this dearth of meaty roles for women in film? Possibly, but I think the change will not come by reforming top-down. It has to come from the bottom up. Better scripts, to start. Promoting films with female leads who aren't Angelina Jolie would be a big change. I'm such a pessimist, however, because Hollywood is a fantasy factory. The dominant fantasies of our day continue to demand women be skinny, busty, beautiful and everything else is secondary. Literally, even though they might be fabulous in a role and have serious skill, the first thing mentioned is their looks (Remember the fuss about Charlize Theron uglying it up for Monster? I'm sure many people couldn't tell you anything about A Mighty Heart other than Angelina Jolie had frizzier hair than she normally does.) All that has to change before the Oscars will have a chance to reflect upon the great performances of the year and then give out awards proportionate to populations of people.

For now, I'll take my token "papered-over" awards for women. If they can use it, as they do, every year, to complain about how there were so few to nominate, even, maybe some day the complaint will resonate down to the ground floor from whence change must come. Maybe.

(no subject)

I apologize for the posting of incredible seriousness just now. I make it up to you all, okay? Have a new Iron Man trailer!

In the words of a certain Flash animation, "I DECLARE IRON MAN TO BE THE NEW COMMISSIONER OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL."

Seriously, great trailer, with even new stuff from the last one! Only concerned that they're giving too much away at this point, but a lot of Robert Downey Jr.'s lines still crack me up and I've watched the trailer a hundred times. I can only imagine the things I'm not seeing will also be awesome. Jon Favreau has proved to be nearly bulletproof with his marketing technique for this. He gives the right amount of suggestion, promise, and awesome in everything he's put out for this so far. His marketing guys better be really, really well paid, too, because their work has been stellar.

Also, how cool is it that on the homepage, they have a section devoted to fan art? That's love, baby. Fan-love. It's an example of what I would call the Rowling Principle--show your fans respect, and they will love you. Mega-love you. I already do. At this point, I'm pretty sure the film could be at least as bad as Spider-Man 3 and I'd still like it.

Happy Belated!

I can't believe I forgot to do this on the day, but here goes:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, bigscary!!!!!

(Look! Five exclamation points = madness! Meaning I'm just maaaaaad that I forgot to say as much on the day, roight!)