Battle of the Bulge

Last month, I became a Weight Watchers Lifetime Member. I got a little member card and everything, and was able to add that last "key to the future" charm to my key chain.

This month, I'm up about a pound and a half over the two-pound "limit." You're allowed to be two pounds over your goal weight. I'm 3 and a half pounds over mine.

I wouldn't mind so much if I could just keep blaming the cruise to Alaska, with its rich foods and midnight buffets. But I have been running my butt off, rock climbing, weight lifting, and staying on plan, and three weeks later, those pounds just won't budge. I even weigh more some mornings. How ridiculous is that?

Ugh, now I just want chocolate...

I'm not sure if my monthly weigh-in is today or tomorrow. I hope it's tomorrow, because there's always that imaginary chance that almost 2 pounds will disappear over night.

Maybe I can magic it away, Harry Potter style.

Speaking of: Harry in only 4 days! Excited yet?

More Harry woes

Leave it to my best friend, Amanda, the ultimate Harry fanatic, to bring up the biggest downfall of the film. It was something that I had completely forgotten about, but was a huge flaw.

Amanda: my biggest beef with the movie i think was the harry handed the prophecy over to lucius
me: ooo, yeah, good point
Amanda: other than that i could deal with the inaccuracies, it was really that no matter what Harry wouldn't do that

Very true. That is completely out of character for Harry to give up so easily. What were they thinking?

Harry, my love...

I had a date with Harry last night. And oh, what a date it was.

I arrived at the Harbor in Rockwall to view the fifth movie in the Harry Potter series an hour early, with some dried pineapple, a diet root beer, and Book 6 stuffed in my purse.

I left almost four hours later, feeling exhilarated. Normally by 11:00, I'm exhausted.

The film was chock-full of action, suspense, thrills, effects, and teen angst--exactly what I was hoping for from The Order of the Phoenix.

I loved the portrayal of Bellatrix Lestrange, and I thought Umbridge's character was spot on (although I thought a much more accurate version of Umbridge in the flesh was my ninth grade history teacher, Mrs. Stiles, because of her evil ways and similarity to a toad.) I also thoroughly enjoyed the attention to detail in many of the scenes: the ministry's gilded entrance, the room of requirement, Umbridge's office with the mewing cats.

I am not one to mind when a film basically turns into a "Cliff's Notes" version of the book (especially when it has taken me 15 or so hours to listen to 13 chapters of Book 5 on my iPod at work while I pore over spreadsheets.) I do mind, however, when things are inaccurate, not because of a time-saving change, but because "this would look cool."

(Slight Spoiler below.)

In the D.A. lessons, Harry is shown teaching the other students "Levicorpus." This is a HUGE mistake, if you ask me, on the part of the filmmakers. "Levicorpus" is a nonverbal spell that Harry learns in Book 6 from The Half-Blood Prince's potions book, when he accidentally uses it on a sleeping Ron. He remembers seeing his dad use the same spell on Snape (in Book 5) when he hung him upside down in the air, taunting him. Hermione is furious when she discovers Harry's careless experimentation with HPB's spells, reminding him of the Quidditch World Cup (in Book 4), when Death Eaters used the same spell on a Muggle family, and warns him that HPB might not be so innocent. So, Harry would not be teaching this to the D.A., because A) he doesn't know it yet, B) they haven't learned nonverbal spells (and will not until next year), and C) it is possible that the spell isn't something they would learn at Hogwarts at all. Speaking of nonverbal spells, I was a little annoyed when some of the students, especially Harry, seemed to be wordlessly issuing sparks from their wands, when none of them are that experienced--a choice that I assume was made to avoid having to create dialogue in those scenes and focus instead of effects and the crescendo of the score.

Okay, I'll climb down off my soapbox now. Overall, I thought they did a good job bringing the many Book 5 characters to life, and creating the new gray-colored world of Voldemort's return. Now to finish listening to Book 5 (again) and reading Book 6 (again) before Deathly Hallows arrives on my doorstep in 9 days.

Oh my...did I learn anything in college?

Last night, I hooked up the old VCR for a resume tape viewing session. (Connecting the VCR took longer than expected--I had pretty much forgotten how to do it, in this age of DVDs.) My husband had never seen my resume tape that I had to make in my advanced broadcasting class junior year. I wasn't especially proud of it, because I don't think it displayed my best work (it was created in a sort of finals-week rush), but I do remember it being fairly good. I think this is what we called "rosy retrospection" in psychology. The tape gave us a pretty good laugh...and although I think it does lend to the idea that I can handle a camera, my skills in just about everything (audio, on camera presence, script writing, etc) have improved SO much since then. I feel like such an adult now, a professional. I thought I was so grown-up then, it's hard to believe, looking back, that just 2-3 years ago...I was a kid.

I plan on showing the tape to Karen as proof that I can do video work, but with plenty of "don't pay attention to's" and "don't judge me on's."

A creative outlet at last!!!

I had my employee review last week (which I passed with flying colors - and a raise!) before Gretchen left, and in it, she promised me some training in Flash and more work with the multimedia team. Well, it looks like it's actually going to happen! I'll be getting flash training in August, and Karen (head of the Web design team) came up to me today and asked, "so how are your video shooting and editing skills?" I responded with, "Well, that is what I graduated in..." I promised to bring her in a tape tomorrow to show her my stuff (and hopefully inspire confidence in my work.) She said that she has several video projects she would like to give me, that dallasnews.com is starting some new initiatives, and that I will be working with the new hire on some multimedia projects when he starts (which is this week.) I couldn't be more thrilled. Finally, a creative outlet in the "cave of cubes." Take that, Google keyword spreadsheet. Soon you'll be a thing of the past, and I'll be moving on to much greener pastures.

God created cookies...

...then Satan made them fattening.

Don't drink and drown

Driving to work this morning, I saw a sign that surpasses such highway slogans as "Click it or Ticket" and "Stay Alive - Don't Drink and Drive" in both its wit and morbidity.

Okay, so I lied about the witty part, since it does lack creativity...but it's most definitely morbid.

The light-up sign on the side of Interstate 30 this morning near downtown said something to the effect of "Roadways may flood this week...blah blah blah." It's the second screen that caught my attention. It said, "Do not cross roadways covered by water. Turn around. Don't drown."

Thanks, road sign. I may have chosen to drown if it weren't for you.

Amanda...this one's for you

To my one blog reader, my best friend Amanda: this one's for you.

She may not be my only reader, but she's the only one who has told me that she reads this blog, and since I don't have facts and figures on who's visiting my blog...her comment is my only indication that anyone is reading at all.

So Amanda, thanks for reading. Thanks for being there. Let's take wit by storm.

Another Gretchen?

My boss, Gretchen, has left the building.


Gretchen was one of the people who hired me here at The Dallas Morning News, and has been not only my boss, but my Weight Watchers buddy, my cute-animal-photo e-mailing pal, my fellow fashion critic, and the person I know I can go to for a good movie review, a tasty recipe, or to complain about how fat/out of shape/hungry/lazy/unmotivated I am. Gretchen is my friend, and now she's my friend who lives and works in Kuwait.


That's right, that tiny country in the Middle East with all the oil. She's moved there for a year and taken a DMN hiatus, with the understanding that there may or may not be a job waiting for her when she returns.



We are interviewing her potential predecessor today. She has a background in advertising/sales. It's a group interview with the interactive operations team, which consists of five people. If you ask me, that's not an interview...that's an ambush.



I'm keeping an open mind, but really, the thought of replacing Gretchen just makes me queasy. So much uncertainty...

Transformers: "Gloriously dorky"

Tonight, we're going to see a film about monsters from outerspace that can transform into planes, trains, and automobiles...and we are so pumped.

Transformers is barely squeaking by with a “fresh” rating of 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, but of those who are gushing about its glorious splendor (or at least saying it’s some silly fun), these are my favorite review snippets:

“The most surprising thing about Michael Bay’s much-anticipated, blockbuster-bound Transformers is how funny the movie is. I don’t mean funny in an unintentional, Pearl Harbor kind of way.”

It gets better:

“Transformers isn’t just dorky, it’s gloriously dorky.”

And the one that takes the cake:

“Better than sex.”

Really, I’m not joking about that last one. A grown man actually said that. You can read the entire review here.

OPTIMUS PRIME!!!!!!