Sweet Dreams

I missed out the first time they showed a Sailor Moon movie in theaters, but I was able to go this time! Last weekend was a double feature of the R and S movies. I didn't go to that one since I already own the new release of the R movie and it was my mother's birthday weekend anyway, but we did go today to see the SuperS movie/Ami's First Love showing with the new dub. It was a blast!

Only about ten to twelve people were in the audience. A couple of the girls showed up with odango hairstyles, which was fun, and I wore one of my Sailor Moon T-shirts. Before the movie, they showed previews of the various Sailor Moon boxsets that are out and trivia questions about the series. (Got them all right, of course!) I loved the dub of Ami's First Love, which they showed first. It was freakin' hilarious! Mom and I were cracking up the entire time. The SuperS movie dub was great, too, but I'm not a huge fan of how they translated Neptune's infamous "There's so many fun things to do as adults" line, though. I can't remember exactly what she said in the new dub... Something about "pleasurable experiences", maybe? It still got the point across, but I don't know. It wasn't...zingy enough, I guess? Oh, well, minor thing!

The one disappointing thing was that I thought they were supposed to be giving out free posters, but we didn't get any. If I remember correctly, the ads said "as long as supplies last", so maybe they ran out during the R/S showings? Eh, I don't know. If they're the posters I've been seeing all over eBay lately, I didn't really like them anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter. 

The Academy Awards tonight, and I've actually seen some of the movies nominated! O.o So, a little more invested (and informed) than I normally would be.

Here are my predictions:

Best Picture: Les Miserables, but I don't think it'll actually win... I just really want it, too!

Best Director: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Best Actor: As much as I would love Hugh Jackman to win, I'm 95% certain it'll go to Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln.

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Best Supporting Actress: ANNE HATHAWAY, Les Miserables!

Best Animated Feature Film: Oh, man, this is tough. I saw both Brave and Wreck-It Ralph and loved them both... Can it be a tie? Well, if I have to pick one, I guess I'll give a slight edge to Wreck-It Ralph.

Best Foreign Film: Obviously, it'll be Amour, since it's also nominated for Best Picture and a few others. That's a lock if I ever saw one.

Best Original Screenplay: Django Unchained

Best Adapted Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook

Best Costume Design: Sorry, Les Miserables, I want you to win everything, but I also saw Mirror, Mirror, and those costumes blow yours out of the water.

Best Original Song: Okay, so it'll probably go to Skyfall -- because, hello, Adele! -- but I haven't actually heard it and again want Les Mis to win all things, so I'm going with Suddenly.

Best Original Score: So I'll just put Skyfall here...

Best Documentary: The Gatekeepers

Best Documentary (Short): Redemption

Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Les Miserables

Best Production Design: Les Miserables

Best Film Editing: Argo

Best Cinematography: Life of Pi

Best Sound Editing: Skyfall

Best Sound Mixing: Les Miserables

Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Best Short Film (Animated): I think I've actually seen one of these! If Paperman is the one I'm thinking of, it played before Wreck-It Ralph and was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen, so that's my pick.

Best Short Film (Live Action): Henry

I love Christmas movies, but one thing always bugs me about them. You know how Santa Claus usually turns out to be real after all? Why are the parents always surprised by this? If he was real, the parents would have to know, because every year (and not just the year that Santa Claus is "proven") there would be presents under the tree that they didn't buy. Okay, maybe some people are absent-minded enough that they might think they just forgot about buying that particular present, but certainly not all of them. The "Santa Claus is real" plotline, as enjoyable as it may be, just doesn't work when you think about it logically.

 

First: If you've been tagged, you must write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new question.

Second: Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.

 

I tag (Only if you want, since apparently I have to): 
 

samuraitercatalina_bella

 

dark_branwen

 

dejana

 

nephthysmoon

 

sea_thoughts

 

amazonqueenkate

 

rosesablaze

 

( Questions )

On an unrelated note, anybody remember a couple of years ago when my sister gave me the Blades of Glory DVD for either my birthday or Christmas -- I forget which -- and I promptly lost it, without even having the chance to watch it? Well, Mom just found it. Where? On one of the shelves with all the DVDs. -_- We're both like, "Bwah, where did this come from?" because it was not there before. Honestly! We checked those shelves like a hundred times trying to find it when I first realized it was lost and could not find it anywhere, It's like a total mystery... And now we have two copies of the same movie (including the replacement). Don't know what we'll do with the extra.
 

Wow, can you guys believe it's already the 22nd. It feels like Thanksgiving was, like, two minutes ago, and now there's only two days left until Christmas Eve (when my family opens presents). Where has the time gone?! Seriously.

Oh, right, I spent most of it playing Sims. *laughs*

But I've done very little of the things I usually do before Christmas. I've only listened to a couple of my many Christmas CDs (btw, got Sarah Brightman's yesterday -- fabulous!), watched only one Christmas movie, not counting the usual TV specials (my fave -- the remake of Miracle on 34th Street), haven't read the Snow Princess Kaguya manga side story or watched the Sailor Moon S movie (not to mention all the other anime Christmas episodes I usually watch), or read any Christmas fanfics. This isn't right. -_-

Well, I guess it's better late than never, huh? I think today I'll listen to Christmas music all day long, read the Snow Princess Kaguya story, and reread some Christmas fanfic classics -- namely Lianne and Amethist's Psychotic Sailor Moon Christmas Carols and sophiap 's As God is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly...". Then tomorrow I can have an anime Christmas marathon.

Yeah, sounds like a plan.  I think that's what I'll do. ^_^

Some of you might remember that my sister gave me a Blades of Glory DVD for my birthday last year (although I actually ended up getting it around Christmas since she kept forgetting to bring it when she visited). Even though I usually watch DVDs right away when I get them, I never watched it, since I had already seen it at the theater and had a backlog of anime to get through.

Well, last night I was really in the mood to finally watch it, except I couldn't find it anywhere. :(

Mom and I must have searched twenty minutes for it with no luck at all. I just don't understand where it could be. Mom thinks it might have accidentally been thrown out with the Christmas trash (you know, wrapping paper, bows, and boxes), but I'm almost certain I've seen it on one of our DVD racks well after Christmas. It's not like I've lent it out to anybody, so it should still be there.

This is driving me crazy. Mom has promised to buy me a new copy if we can't find it, but I don't want my sister's gift to be a waste of money. I mean, I never got the chance to watch it.

*sigh*

This sucks.

*yawn*

Yes, I am up at 7:00. Mom didn't want to go to Midnight Mass last night, so we're going to the 8:00 mass this morning.

I want to go back to beeeedddd.

*yawns again*

Well, anyway,  Merry Christmas everybody!

We opened our presents last night like we do every year. It wasn't quite as bad a haul as I thought it would be, considering. I thought since Mom knew she wouldn't be able to spend a lot of money this year, she would get lots of silly, cheap gifts that we didn't really want just so that we would still get a lot of stuff, but really the only useless gift I got was yet another journal. (She gets me one practically every year, even thought I only really use them to write down computer passwords and the occasional story idea. Oh, well. At least it's cute.)

Here's the rundown:


I think that's about it. I'll edit this later when we get home from church. 

EDIT: Okay, we're back.

Amusing little anecdote about Laura's gift: While she was here for Thanksgiving, Laura kept pestering me and Mom about what we wanted for Christmas because she didn't want to take the easy way out and give us gift cards. Mom gave her a list of movies she wanted, but I couldn't think of anything at the time. A few days later, though, I sent her an email with a short list of things she could choose from: Princess Tutu boxset, Diamond Daydreams boxset, or Blades of Glory. As it turned out, she had already gotten me Blades of Glory for my birthday gift (which I finally got last Sunday, almost two months after the fact). However, when it came to our Christmas gifts, what did she give me and Mom?

Gift cards. *laughs*

Granted, she did originally get Mom a couple of movies, but she had to take them back because Mom went ahead and bought them for herself, and she was planning to get me one of the boxsets I wanted, but she lost my email, but still, I thought that was pretty funny, especially since the one person she was planning to give a gift card to -- Daddy, who is horrible to shop for -- actually got a movie and coffee mug. 

As for what I ordered with the $50 gift card, Right Stuf had an awesome sale on a Rumbling Hearts bundle that I couldn't pass up. Originally it was $90, but I got it for $20! O.o (I really wish I held off on the first FMA boxset. They had a sale on that, too.) I also got the FMA movie and the next volumes of Absolute Boyfriend, NANA, and Someday's Dreamers: Spellbound.

I am extremely proud of myself right now.

My mom had the day off today, so we decided to go see License to Wed (which is absolutely hilarious, by the way). While we were waiting for the movie to start, we went to Waldenbooks so I could buy the missing volume 5 of NANA I needed to get up-to-date. Well, it just so happened that the store was having an awesome sale where if you bought three Viz titles, you could get a fourth one free. NANA was one of the included titles, but I'm up-to-date on all of the other Viz (mostly Shojo Beat) titles I'm currently collecting, so if I wanted to take advantage of the sale, it meant I would have to buy three volumes of a new series.

I was tempted. Boy, was I ever tempted. I must have spent at least twenty or thirty minutes browsing the manga section, going, "Oh, Skip-Beat looks kinda interesting... Ooo, La Corda D'oro! I've been wanting to read that... What about Full Moon? All seven volumes are out and in stock, so if I bought all of them, plus the NANA volume, I could buy six and get two free!"...etc., etc. You get the picture. *laughs* However, in the end, I decided I really did not need to start collecting another series right now (and buying all of Full Moon would have meant breaking into my savings wallet), so I just bought the NANA volume I needed and Vol. 7 of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles.

*pats self on the back*

In somewhat related news, for the life of me, I cannot understand why Vol. 5 and 6 of NANA were shrink-wrapped and slapped with a mature content label when those two volumes are actually tamer than some of the earlier volumes. There was sex, sure, but nothing detailed. I've seen more explicit stuff in the earlier volumes and in Watase Yuu manga. The only reason I can think of to justify it is the fact that one of the characters makes references to the fact that he has sex for money. Is prostitution really considered "mature content" now? *scratches head* I can think of plenty of other things I've seen in manga that I would consider more "mature" than that, yet they didn't get the label. It's strange. Oh, well.

(And I hate, hate, hate getting that shrink-wrap off!)

EDIT: I just checked out AnimeOnDVD and found out that the second season boxset of Kaleido Star is coming out September 4! *dances around happily* YES, YES, YES, YES, YES! Finally, I'll be able to buy it! This is great! Unfortunately, the suggested retail price is a bit higher than I would like to pay ($60), but I'm sure I can probably find it cheaper at Right Stuf or Best Buy. Even sixty would be worth it, though, to be able to watch all of my favorite anime again.

*resolves to save money until then*

THE RULES:
[1] Pick 12 of your favorite movies.
[2] Then pick one of your favorite quotes from each movie.
[3] Post the quotes in your journal.
[4] Have those on your friends list guess what the movie is.
[5] Extra points for knowing the actor and character's name.
[6] Strike out the quote once it has been correctly identified.

1. We had a nice couple of minutes together. She threatened me, I patronized her. Didn't have anything to eat, but I thought there was a connection.
2. Gossip's worth its weight in gold.
3. Whoa! Listen to what you're saying. You're telling me that I was supposed to be sensitive to the possibility that a Catholic priest might have a crush on my secret girlfriend? Keeping the Faith, Rabbi Jake Schram (Ben Stiller)
4. I have never worn pantyhose, but it sounds very dangerous.
5. I swear to God, I couldn't love a human baby as much as I love this comb.
6. Maybe there won't be marriage, maybe there won't be sex, but, by God, there'll be dancing! My Best Friend's Wedding, George (Rupert Everett)
7. A girl's got a right to know what kind of hound she's saving herself for.
8. The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all. Mulan, Emperor of China (Pat Morita)
9. I'll hire the muscular descendants of Roman gods to do the heavy lifting.
10. I would like some wine in a glass, I would not like it in a mug, I would not like it in a jug.
11. Darling, nothing is final 'til you're dead, and even then, I'm sure God negotiates.
12. I tried to have cybersex once, but I kept getting a busy signal.