Movies in the Park combines four loves of mine: 1. Being outdoors 2. Relaxing with friends 3. Watching movies 4. Things that are free
Check out the complete list of Movies in the Park by clicking here.
Let's kick off this summer movie season by adding "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" (Tuesday, June 12) in Millennium Park to the calendar.
Which reminds me, my yearbook quote in high school came from this PWBA. While the other girls in my graduating class wrote quotes from Dave Matthews Band's song "Lie in Our Graves" ("Would you not like to be/ Sitting on top of the world with your legs hanging free"), I chose:
"You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel."
I've made a lot of mistakes in life (thinking I could pay $100,000 for college on my own, a bowl cut that made me consistently mistaken for a boy from age 8-9) but this was not one of them.
Spoiler alert: If you haven't seen Friday Night Lights: Season 2, close your eyes and start furiously clicking until you're sure you've closed your browser.
Edition 1: Friday Night Lights, Season 2: Landry & Tyra
When you accidentally kill a man trying to rape your girlfriend in a
parking lot at night: go to the cops first. Don't put his body in your
car and then throw it off a bridge. Also: check to make sure you haven't left your grandfather's gold watch with your name engraved in it on the body.
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
I recently became addicted to the TV show "Lie to Me," a TV show about a man who figures out crimes by reading subtle facial expressions and body language. He is often enlisted by the FBI to interview suspects, but he also takes on non-crime related tasks - in one episode a very rich man wanted to know if his wife loved him for himself or his money. It's like CSI meets the Davinci Code. I've been fascinated by the idea of what our bodies give away about ourselves. And one interesting thing I found is that how we sleep says something about us.According to the Internet, there are essentially six different sleep positions with distinct personality characteristics:
Fetal Position (41%)Curled up on your side. Women are twice as likely to rest like this and it is listed as the most common position. These sleepers are said to have a tough exterior but are still sensitive and may appear to be shy but warm up quickly. Log Position (15%)On your side with legs outstretched and arms at your sides. If you sleep on your side with both arms down, you are a social, easy-going person who is trusting, sometimes to the point of being gullible.
Yearner Position (13%)Similar to the log, but with arms outstretched. A close third is the side-lying position with both arms out in front of the body, with 13% of partipants sleeping like this. Yearners are noted to be open-minded and still cynical, suspicious, and stubborn about sticking to decisions once they are made.
Soldier Position (8%) Flat on your back with arms at your sides. These sleepers lie on their backs with arms down and kept close to the body. This 8% study is said to be reserved, quiet, without fuss, and hold themselves and others to a high standard.
Freefall Position (7%) Flat on your stomach with arms at the head or ears. Those people who lie on their bellies with arms under or wrapped around a pillow with head turned to the side, make up 7% of the population studied. Freefallers are brash, outgoing, and are very uncomfortable with criticism. Starfish Position (5%) Lying on your back with arms and legs outstretched. These people are good listeners, helpful, and are uncomfortable being the center of attention. For those of you who haven't slept with me, I spend most of my night curled up in the fetal position like a hedgehog or velociraptor tightly clutching a nest of eggs. But I can't fall asleep in that position. I can only fall asleep on my back (a la "soldier" or "starfish"). But it's not really either one of these because I can't sleep with my arms down at my sides or over my head. Instead, they are comfortably resting on my chest. It is clear to me that they have left out an important segment of sleepers: the mummy vampires. Mummy vampire (1%) Lying on your back with arms covering your heart. Indicates a trustworthy and faithful corpse. He or she makes friends easily, but will let few into the inner circle. Sensitive, introspective and likely to drink your blood for sexual arousal. What else has the Internet missed?
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This was originally posted this in theRobot vs. Dinosaur blogin August 2010, but I liked it to so much I thought I'd share it here, too.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to record a web-commercial for work on one of our merchant's products: a spy pen. These screenshots, provided by film maker Joe Avella, remind me that life is filled with ugly moments.
My new improv team is in the process of shedding our 'slave name' and re-branding ourselves. Each of us was allowed to suggest one team name. My choice: Karate for Dummies.
This name is near and dear to my heart because it's inspired by my pathetic childhood self. My mom would take my older sister and I to the Forbes Library; while Carrie perused cool teen dramas (including Spellbound by Christopher Pike that had a sex scene in it that I could never find), I typically went for the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and books about space, geology, or dinosaurs. But on one fateful day, I found a book on how to practice karate.
Truth be told, it couldn't have been a "...for Dummies" book since they published their first "how-to" software guide in '91 and didn't expand into general interest topics until the late 90's, but according to the Forbes online collections, there are two books that it could have been:
Karate Made Easy by Ralph Corrigan or Facing the Double-Edged Sword: the Art of Karate for Young People by Terrence Webster-Doyle.
While I don't remember the title, I do remember the instructional photos. I studied the poses in my room and drank in the details of each photo, calculating how far apart the feet should be, what direction the fingers should point, and where that clenched fist should rest on the chest.
But we lived in a small home that wasn't much bigger than my current apartment and soon my sister uncovered what I was up to behind my closed bedroom door. She teased me relentlessly. I shamefully returned the book to the library and claimed I was over karate.
Although I had given up on the sport, I never gave up believing you could learn anything from a book. As a high school sophomore, I impulsively bought an electric guitar because I thought, "There's only six strings, how hard could it be?" and picked up a copy of Guitar for Dummies. This actually worked; I've never had a lesson and play guitar well today, but what took me eight years to achieve I could have easily done in two years with regular lessons. But I didn't want lessons. What I liked most of all was pouring over the book and figuring it out on my own. I felt like a scientist.
To this day, it's hard to see a bookstore and resist the temptation to go in. Bookstore have an irresistible energy. They're so full of potential. In those silent books are world of information and stories, just waiting to be unleashed.
In December of last year, I bought Making a Good Script Great so I could transfer a story from my head in a logical, coherent screenplay. In January, I bought Easy Spanish: Step-by-Step because I wanted to be prepared if I met my (ex)-boyfriend's Mexican parents. In February, I bought The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet because a friend said it was a great story and beautifully written. When I moved a year ago, I fretted over which books to keep and which to give away, just like the stars of Hoarders who can't let go of empty soda bottles and pet-hair tumbleweeds. I absolutely love books.
It's funny now that I thought I could teach myself an ancient art form with a 4th grade reading level guide book, but I admire Young Susie's willingness to try. That's one of the things that I still like about myself: if something interests me, my (lack of) skill doesn't prevent me from pursuing it. I go after my dreams and am attracted to people who aren't bystanders in their lives, but are a driving force toward their success.
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