So anyway, I’m kind of in love with 1970s Joan Jett. Well, I’d be in love with her today if it weren’t for the whole 30-years-older-than-me thing. But 1970s Joan Jett is my age. See how I get around that?

Seriously. She's hot. And she rocks.

I’ve been listening to all sorts of 60s & 70s rock. Stuff from the early days. I’ve found I’m quite a fan of glam rock and punk. I’m also learning how to play guitar. So far I’ve practiced for about 4 hours and I can now play “Sunshine of Your Love” by Cream. Very slowly. Scorrrre. My fingers really hurt. I so better be a rock star after this. Haha. Kidding.

Found out Charleston is having Gay Prom in February to raise money for our first ever Gay Pride in May. I’m a little excited. Okay, lots. I love a good prom. In other news, I think the iPad looks really pretty and nifty, but I doubt it will be actually useful. It’s just a giant iTouch, and i already have an iPhone, so there’s no point. And I think the people in the Naming Department at Apple should probably be shot. They did a failure job on that one.

That’s all I have to say at 3 am on a Thursday morning.

Anyway, retrospective over.  I go home for summer in 3 days. I will be working, once again, at Domino’s Pizza. I’m hoping that if I agree to work full-time, I can get my boss to give me a decent raise! Saving all my money this summer for rent and tuition in the fall, fun stuff.  Also, I want to read a lot more this summer, which will be totally easy if I’m opening at Domino’s all the time, because there are a lot of lull moments in the middle of the day. The first two things I plan to tackle are Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien.  Then who knows? We’ll see if I can get through those two first, huh? Quite an undertaking, each of them. I was dismayed to realize, however, that I have evolved from a very well-read child to a rather lazy adolescent who hardly reads at all, and that I must rectify this situation immediately. So off I go.

In other news, finals have completely screwed up my sleep-schedule, and I sleep very little, if at all, anymore. The summer is going to be QUITE interesting, I have no doubt.

It's Not Me, It's You

British singer-songwriter Lily Allen released her sophomore album It’s Not Me, It’s You, on February 9.  While the lyrical style is somewhat reminiscent of her debut, 2007’s Alright, Still, it’s clear that she did head in a very different direction. This album has much more of an electronica feel to it than Alright, Still’s more piano-driven retro-chic. There’s also a great deal more seriousness to the subject matter in It’s Not Me, It’s You; clearly, Allen is no longer just writing songs to scorn her exes and belittle family members, especially as evidenced in the track titled “Back to the Start,” which sounds like an honest apology to family member, although it isn’t clear which one. “Never Gonna Happen” is a very cheeky little number about a fling that ends badly; and while that would lead one to believe that it sounds almost exactly like Alright, Still, it still shows a surprising amount of maturity that was not present in Allen’s previous album. Also, Allen is showing something of a social conscience on this album with “Fuck You (Very Much),” a direct attack on homophobia and racism. As a side note, this particular track was previously titled “Guess Who Batman” and “Get With the Brogram”; do the initials remind anyone of anything? One can feel much better about the romantic interests alluded to in It’s Not Me, It’s You; Allen doesn’t seem to be assaulting them as brutally as she was in Alright, Still. The songs “Who’d Of Known” and “Chinese” are actually about new, happy relationships, unlike the trainwrecks we all witnessed in Alright, Still. All in all, Lily Allen has done a wonderful job evolving from sassy, spiteful smart-mouth to a still sassy, but much more poised artist with this album. My favorite songs: “Who’d Have Known” and “Everyone’s At It”. My least-favorite: “He Wasn’t There.”

An OM tattoo on the back of my neck.

A Faerie on my right hip... like this one but altered slightly

A celtic knot on the inside of my left ankle

An Ouroboros on my left ribcage

They each hold a specific meaning for me. Ask me about them!

Here’s the list. Winners are in bold, my picks are in italics. If I picked it and it won, it’ll be bold AND in italics (like this).

Best Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams, Doubt
• Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Viola Davis, Doubt
• Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Best Original Screenplay

• Frozen River
• Happy-Go-Lucky
• In Bruges
• Milk
• Wall-E

Best Adapted Screenplay

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Doubt
• Frost/Nixon
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire

Best Animated Feature Film

• Bolt
• Kung Fu Panda
• Wall-E

Best Animated Short Film

• La Maison En Petits Cubes
• Lavatory- Lovestory
• Oktapodi
• Presto
• This Way Up

Art Direction

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Duchess
• The Dark Knight
• Changeling
• Revolutionary Road

Costume Design

• Revolutionary Road
• The Duchess
• Milk
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Australia

Best Makeup

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Best Cinematography

• Changeling
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire

Best Live Action Short

• Auf Der Strecke (On the Line)
• Manon on the Asphalt
• New Boy
• The Pig
• Spielzeugland (Toyland)

Best Supporting Actor

• Josh Brolin, Milk
• Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
• Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
• Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Best Documentary Feature

• The Betrayal (Nehahkoon)
• Encounters at the End of the World
• The Garden
• Man on Wire
• Trouble the Water

Best Documentary Short

• The Conscience of Nhem En
• The Final Inch
• Smile Pinki
• The Witness- from the Balcony of Room 306

Best Visual Effects

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• Iron Man

Best Sound Editing

• The Dark Knight
• Iron Man
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Wall-E
• Wanted

Best Sound Mixing

• The Dark Knight
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Wall-E
• Wanted

Best Film Editing

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk
• Slumdog Millionaire

Best Music (Score)

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Defiance
• Milk
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Wall-E

Best Original Song

• “Down to Earth”, Wall-E
• “Jai Ho”, Slumdog Millionaire
• “O Saya”, Slumdog Millionaire

Best Foreign Language Film

• The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
• The Class (France)
• Departures (Japan)
• Revanche (Austria)
• Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

Best Director

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire

Best Actress

• Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
• Angelina Jolie, Changeling
• Melissa Leo, Frozen River
• Meryl Streep, Doubt
• Kate Winslet, The Reader

Best Actor

• Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
• Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
• Sean Penn, Milk
• Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Picture

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire

I’m dancing around to Katy Perry because she’s still one of my fucking heroes. If I could grow up to be a cross between Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel, with a bit of Xena: Warrior Princess and Lorelai Gilmore thrown in, life would be amazing. Speaking of Zooey Deschanel, I need to pick up a copy of She & Him’s new CD. Speaking of new CDs, I need to pick up Lily Allen’s new CD. And speaking of picking things up, I need a job so that I can afford to buy nice things. Anybody in the market for a cute and bubbly personal assistant? 

In other news, the house-hunting is faring well. Sarah-Love and Laura and I are strongly considering 2 places, both very nice and in close proximity to campus. We shall see before the month is out where we will finally end up.

In other other news, Valentine’s Day is in two days and I don’t have a Valentine (that isn’t currently 300 miles away, that is) and I’m slowly convincing myself that I don’t care. I’m going to see Friday the 13th on Saturday, so there’s nothing like a nice gory slasher movie to put you off love for a little while. Plus my brother is coming into town again, and if that doesn’t drive a knife further into any romantic pursuits I may have, I don’t know what will. Whatever. Again, I’m pretending I don’t care. Speaking of, I’ll be participating in the CofC Radio Kissing Booth tomorrow afternoon, so come give me a (chaste) kiss for 50 cents. Nobody with any communicable diseases, kthanks. 

Now I’ve got to study for a Latin quiz and a Precal quiz tomorrow, plus a Mythology midterm on Tuesday PLUS a Latin midterm on Wednesday. Madness is SURE to ensue.

My new hair is only a part of my new year that I’ve worked up for myself. I’m not going to get my hopes up too high though. That’s how you set yourself up to fall, I’ve found.

Conclusions I’ve Come to Today

• My exes must have some sort of magical radar to know who I’m with and whether I’ve just been talking about them. They mysteriously always call (although I don’t always answer).
• Working at Domino’s does not suck any less than it did during high school. The only difference is that I’m more capable now and for the first time ever, am now making minimum wage (i was making above minimum wage before). Lame, huh?
• Bleach burns your scalp like a motherf$#%er. I should have already known that, but the last time it didn’t hurt. I swear!
• They killed Jenny! Okay, I didn’t come to this conclusion today, I came to it a couple of days ago. But I haven’t posted since then. So it falls into the “today” category.

Things I Like Today

• Getting my hair did! (Sorry, there’s a South Carolina-ism slipping out. Couldn’t help it.)
• “Lifesize” by A Fine Frenzy
• Christmas pajamas!
• My phone. To be fair, I like it every day.

Things I Have Distaste For Today

• Bleach. It burns my scalp like a motherf$#*er.
• My exes. Another daily occurrence. That’s why they’re exes, I suppose.
• Flaky people!

Listening to: “Scars” by Papa Roach

2008 seems to have been the opposite. Again, not to say that SOME things didn’t go right, but there were a great many things that didn’t. More so than most years, I believe. I don’t want to recount it, because it’s pretty personal and I don’t want to sound whiny, but suffice to say that I’m VERY eagerly anticipating the New Year. Only 26 hours, give or take twenty minutes or so….

In other news, I have decided that I need to be drinking more water, thus, I have been. I don’t know if I feel healthier yet or not, I’ve only started today. I’ll keep you posted.
‘Εχω διδαχει τα ελληνικα επισης. Sorry. That’s Greek for “I’ve been teaching myself Greek, also.” So says my translator, anyway. I’m not yet ready to write coherent sentences in Greek yet, but on the bright side I know the alphabet!

I’ve definitely decided I’m going to Australia for my study abroad in the spring of 2010. I want to go to the University of Sydney. I want to do so much, I’m focusing less on what I want to do formal-academically, and what I want to do to just do. I’m feeling restless. I’m feeling the wanderlust. I’m spending too much time in one place and I can’t take it. Argh.