Movies I'm Psyched Out of My Mind For!

So, last night I finally managed to see "Star Trek" and it was everything I dreamed it would be! I'm just waiting for someone to do something crazy so I can ask "Are you out of you Vulcan mind?!?!" The cast was freaking amazing, I love Simon Pegg more than most any other actor, so it was great to see him. Then there was Zachary Quinto/Sylar, amazing! Then there was Anton Yelchin, John Cho, Karl Urban and Eric Bana! Oh my gosh! Plus they brought in Leonard Nimoy too! I was on total dork overload by the time I got home! Oh, good gracious. It was great.

So, while there are many other things I need to blog about, I will take a short cut and blog about the movies I'm looking forward to, I'm too busy to post pics of things that require pictures. So take a gander at these trailers, and get psyched for a hyper dorky summer!

First off, "The Brothers Bloom." This might have already come out, but I haven't seen it anywhere yet. It looks hilarious, a little off-beat and totally awesome.

Then there's the new Tim Burton movie, 9. I still haven't seen Sweeney Todd or Coraline, but I will, then I'll see this one. The list of people doing the voices is amazing enough, then there's the concept of creations with the spark of life hiding from machines that have taken over the world. So much cooler than "The Matrix." Also, they have "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria as the music in the trailer, I'm a sucker for good trailer music.

I'm also pretty stoked for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Thinking about the book just reminds me of the time I couldn't stop reading it, despite it making me cry while I was working. I'm curious how they managed to rate it PG, so that's really reason enough to see it.

I love most anything Johnny Depp does, and Christian Bale is really a close second. So you can imagine how excited I am for "Public Enemies." It looks to be an amazing film!

Another actor I love it pretty much anything is Robert Downey Jr., how adorable is he? The next movie he's doing is "Sherlock Holmes." It look hilarious. I'm pretty amped for it.

Last night I was really surprised to discover the trailer for "G.I. Joe" made it look cool. It will probably have terrible dialogue, but the effects look pretty rad. Also, totally love Channing Tatum (who is chronically offering terrible dialogue, but often acts without a shirt on, and I love that).

I'm a little confused about "The Ugly Truth." Kathrine Heigl is kind of hit-and-miss with me (I couldn't stand her character in "Grey's Anatomy."), but I always love Gerard Butler (that man is hands down of the most gorgeous fellows around). I feel like I know how its going to end, but I hope there's a few surprising laughs along the way. Other drawback, the trailer music, I hate that corruption of a really good song.

Another chick flick, "The Proposal," looks like it could be decent. I generally enjoy Sandra Bullock movies, and I love love love Ryan Reynolds. I won't say I'm amped, but I will say I'm looking forward to it.

And the ultimate dork movie I'm psyched for: "Transformers!" There are no words to describe how action-tastic this looks. Just watch it.

So there it is, I'm a big movie dork who will be spending a good portion of my income this summer on movies. Hope you enjoy the trailers (if you click on the highlighted titles, the link should take you the the Apple Trailers page for that fill), if you ever need something else on the Internet to take up your time, go to www.apple.com/trailers. It's wonderful, much better for finding trailers than You Tube.

Adventure Week Part 3: Cheyenne

Gus has had a troubled spring. Coming back from Washington after spring break he started getting the shakes really bad. Eventually this lead to replacing the pitman and idler arms (which got rid of the brain-jarring part of the shaking), then getting a front end alignment, and eventually replacing the leaf springs and u-joint. It was a long journey, but Saturday I got Gus back. He was behaving very well on my way to Denver. He was doing even better on the way back, then I took the interchange between I-25 and I-80 and my clutch stopped working. It was mildly alarming, because I thought it was all my pedals. I did manage to pull my truck out of gear and stop on the side of the clover-leaf interchange. From there I managed to procure a tow truck, which left me in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Cheyenne (it was the only place I could think of stopping, it seemed convenient). I spent the rest of the day wondering what time it was and where to explore in Cheyenne, Wyoming. There wasn't a lot to see, but I managed to enjoy my day.

I found a green way that was entertaining to walk down. There was some interesting information about the solar system on signs around there. Plus, they had constructed a wetland through the center. Very nice.
I spent quite a lot of time trying to find 'balance.'
I love tunnels. It has something to do with Golom from "Lord of the Rings" and the fact that tunnels are awesome. I found it entertaining that these tunnels were so well labeled, I would hate to see the type of pedestrian-bicycle-tunnel accident that could result in there.
I want to go to Superday, just so I could wake up knowing its Superday, rather than Saturday.
Then I found some weeds growing through AstroTurf that was laid down by the sidewalk. Ridiculous and awesome.
Then I went back to my domain, where I read a book and napped. I enjoyed my downtime, it forced me to relax a little. However, I must conclude that Cheyenne doesn't have much to offer.
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Adventure Week Part 2: Denver

Thursday morning I headed out for Denver. As much as it makes my legs stiff, I really enjoy long drives. A few people have lost faith in Gus's ability to road trip, I hoping he gets it back, because I like to road trip in him.

Thursday night I rolled into Aurora (a mildly shady suburb of Denver) and spent the evening chatting with my friend Tiffany. The next morning we got up to explore downtown Denver. It was kind of crowded and scary working to find a parking lot. First stop was the 16th Street Mall, a great pedestrian friendly street with a lot of places to eat and shop. After stopping by and talking to a lovely woman who gave us a map and explained some of the places we could go. Next stop, the Colorado State Capitol Building.

We found some phone booths that were wicked awesome, but they didn't have any phones in them. Weird.
We wandered around the building for quite some time before we found our way to the top. After 4 floors and 99 stairs, we made it. It was a pretty good view from up there. And it was totally cool to wander around place we shouldn't be in the capitol.
Next we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens. They had this awesome exhibit about plants that were around during the Jurassic Period. It was great. And sunny.
Later that night we went to a club in downtown Denver, it was a debaucherous good time. I ended up tripping in the middle of the road a bruising myself up quite nicely. All in all, it was a great trip.
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Adventure Week Part 1: Southern Utah

Whew, its been a busy week. Monday morning I headed out with my buddy Lou to southern Utah. First stop was Little Wild Horse Canyon. It took a while to find, but it was totally worth it.There was a little rock climbing to be done. Fun!

There was an awesome old juniper to climb in. I had this obsession with "bad ass" trees (they're all over Southern Utah), this one was not only old, but it had survived flash floods.
It was a gorgeous canyon. Unfortunately, areas like this had water pots full of old poo-smelling water. I was happy I was slogging through it in my Chacos instead of tennis shoes. But unhappy to be putting my basically bare feet in the poop water.
I had to make this shot happen. When Mom saw it she said "You could have gotten your arm smashed by that!" And I laughed.
We had to haul tail out of the canyon (as fast as you can speed walk through a slot canyon) because it was starting to rain a little. It would have been so awesome to see a flash flood while we were there, but also sort of dangerous.
We spent the night at this awesome primitive campsite on the east side of Capitol Reef called Cedar Mesa. It was really quite beautiful. Plus, the sand was wonderful, I could walk around our camp without my shoes on.
Tuesday morning we set out to do some hiking around the park. One of the first things we saw was this awesome lizard. I don't know what type it was, but it's cool.
This is the Strike Valley. I would like to put a house in here and become a hermit. It was epically gorgeous.
Surprise Canyon was the first hike we took that day. It was very pretty. I was counting on something surprising, but didn't encounter anything. It was still enjoyable though.
It was nice and shady up at the the top of the canyon. Mostly I just like this picture because Lou didn't think he was in it.
We took a really pretty drive down the Burr Trail Road, re-entered the park, and hiked up to some tanks. Usually these hold water, but it seemed like it hadn't rained there in a while (though there were also rain clouds there that afternoon).
We also hiked to the Golden Dome. Well, tried to hike to the Golden Dome. It was a pretty walk, with some great views of Capitol Reef.
I think that there in the back is the Golden Throne, but I suppose I won't know until I get back there again (and yes, I am going back).
There weren't any camp spots open in the park, but we found this Forest Service camp ground called Sunglow. It was quite pretty. Unfortunately, the wild blew almost all night long.

Wednesday morning we headed home. We ended up hiking about 20 miles in 2 days, which makes me declare that trip a success.
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More Things to Be Miserable About

I'm actually having a pretty decent day, despite waking up earlier than I had to and having a pretty serious case of Draggin' Ass. Anyways, thought I'd share all the things I've found to be miserable about (my new favorite hobby).

1. The weather forecast. Next time I need to remember that God has a great sense of humor I'll just remember how he spends all of March, April and May taunting Logan-ites with good weather. Right now its 62.1 F (more reason to be miserable, I'm here in the library working away with my laptop, not running synthesizing more vitamin D), tomorrow it will likely rain (more misery, I'll be out there learning how to delineate a wetland), Wednesday its supposed to snow.


2. My Hotmail Junk inbox. I tried to highlight all the things to be miserable about with this screen capture.

3. Gmail reads my emails and comes up with terrible recommended ads. It took me a while to figure out exactly why the ads they came up with changed so much. Then I typed "yo yo yiggity yo" into an email (so there would be some text there) and it came up with this.
(Bummer, this one didn't show up well. They put up ads for several yo-yo websites and a Yo Yo Ma concert)

4. Jose O'Flannigan is getting worse. It stings when I put on the anti-fungal medicine, so that must mean its working...right?



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My Life Right Now

So, last week I was stressed out of my mind. This week I should be moderately stressed, but I'm struggling to make myself care. In general, things are good, and I thought I'd share some images of the the pressing issues in my life right about now.

Exhibit 1: Jose O'Flannigan, my potential ring worm candidate. It's gotten worse since last week, it looks really bad in the shower (where I'm deeply paranoid about spreading the potential ring worm around beyond my arm). I plan on looking into ring worm more later, I'll let you know what I find.

Exhibit 2: I won $100 from a poster contest! I looked a little dumb for, as I wasn't there to accept the certificate because I didn't know there was even a contest. Silly me. Either way, it makes the stress I was experiencing last week a little more worthwhile. (On a negative note, I'm kind of worried that the only reason any male came up and asked questions about my poster was because they thought I was pretty)

Exhibit 3: Dill Pickle Sunflower Seeds. One day I went out this guy who was like "Becka, you should try the dill flavored sunflower seeds, it'll change your life." Well, he was right, they've changed my life. I sit all day long and spit sunflower seeds into a mug and do my work. You may say "That's gross." I don't care, I love them very much. I recommend you all try them.

Exhibit 4: Google Earth and Google Maps. I could spend all day chewing sunflower seeds, mapping out my adventures on Google Maps and checking out satelite images of places I want to go on Google Earth. If I could do that, my life would be amazing. This here is an image of where I live right now.

Exhibit 5: Random books in the library with intriguing titles. Maybe I would know more about myself if I were more in touch with my thymus. I guess I'll never know.


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Now playing: 311 - I'll Be Here Awhile
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Things To Be Miserable About

Well, I started this morose list on Sunday. Last week was pretty busy and crappy. This week managed to be worse. But I've made it, and things aren't so bad anymore. Anyways...

So Ry-Guy bought this charming book the other day called "11,002 Things to Be Miserable About." and I love it. Saturday I had been thumbing through it when I found out my truck was leaking mystery oil. I was tired, and just wanted to go home, and I've been meaning to get my truck into the shop to stop the shaking...Anyways, it seemed I was going to have to spend the night in C-Town, which wasn't such a terrible thing, but I was tired and really just wanted to sleep in my own bed. The moral of this story is that while I went on a walk and compiled a list of things I was miserable about my dad fixed my truck up enough for me to be able to get home. Because he's awesome. But then I woke up this morning on death's door, and decided to be miserable again.

So here it is, the things I'm miserable about right now:

1. I puked at least 25 ounces of water, saltine crackers and stomach bile this morning and Sunday afternoon.
2. There's mold growing on my bathroom ceiling and wall.
3. I might have ring worm. I do have gross toe nails. Why do fungi like me?
4. My face. It sucks right now.
5. Katy Perry is popular. Why?
6. Incidents of anti-biotic resistant bacteria are on the rise all over the country.
7. It snowed a boat load up here today.
8. I've let the alignment problem on my truck get so bad its shaking random bolts loose.
9. Toilet re-gurge.
10. Flame colored urine.
11. It's almost April, and I'm still gathering my research data.
12. Sciatica.
13. People that kiss at stop lights.
14. Happy people.
15. Making wishes at 12:34, 11:11, etc (3:11 is the only legitimate celebratory minute).
16. Gerbils.
17. Gus's steering and spring components are in multi-system organ failure. I've had the pitman and idler arms replaced (which stopped most of the shaking), and gotten a front end alignment (which stopped a little more of the shaking). Now I've got to replace the leaf springs.
    
18. Liars. Tuesday night the leaf spring story was "That's not a big deal, call tomorrow and we'll track down how much the parts will be." Wednesday the story was "$1,500." That's a freaking big deal.
    
19. My face, again. After the $1,500 debacle I bawled for a bit. It made my face swell up and get all blotchy. However, the zits on my face managed to show up well, despite the extra red.
    
20. Ugly cry face. My own mother said I have an ugly cry face. Its a curse.
    
21. My hair. I hate it right now. It just lays there. I only get a chance to straighten it like once a week. (If anyone has ideas for how I should cut it, I know someone that will do it, I just don't know how I want it done (no bangs)).
    
22. Cats. (The pets, not the musical)
23. Optimism.
    

But in the end, there are many things I can be happy about:
(This is the happiest picture I had on my camera. The sky was really cool looking that day, but by the time I got my camera out it was only this cool. Then 5 hours later it snowed.)

1. Anti-spazmodics
2. It's almost April, which should be warmer than March has been.
3. Depeche Mode is coming to Utah, and I'm going to go see them. Plus Taking Back Sunday and 311 are coming the next few months. Boo ya!
4. My truck usually manages to become incontinent in my parent's driveway, rather than on the freeway. No car trouble-induced accidents for me.
5. I haven't hit another car in like 3 years. Yeah me!
6. I saw American Avocets, Northern Shovelers, Double-crested Cormorants and other birds at the Migratory Bird Refuge the other day. Quite wonderful.
7. Saltines.
8. Netflix. I love it. Right now "Dexter" is waiting for me to have some time to watch it.
   
9. Heroes. Its getting back into mystery and intrigue. Yeah!
   

In the end, life is good. I started this list on Sunday, and despite the odds being stacked against me, I've made it to Thursday. Tonight I have to stand in front of a poster I just got printed off (and its pretty), then tomorrow I get to hear some speeches I'm looking forward to, then I'm going rock climbing.
(One last reason to be miserable: the only time I've been out to my study area with a camera its been too cold for the vegetation to look pretty. However, I still think wetlands are cool)


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Now playing: Sublime - Waiting for My Ruca
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