Apocalypse isn't the End of the World

As I write this I'm trying not to sweat. My air conditioner is pointed directly at me and I'm still disgusted with myself. I can't help it, I come from a sweaty people. A customer at my restaurant today said "It's nice we finally had a day of good weather." To which I responded, "I'm only outside for one minute and then my shirt gets wet." Which was probably more information than she wanted, but that's what she gets for making small talk about the weather. People like to get cheeky; "You'll miss then when it's snowing!" No, I won't. I'll wear all my favorite hoodies and my snow boots and be fine.

I've come up with one good trick for beating the heat this summer: tear off your skin. Makes it harder to sweat.

The sweat is also not helping this feeling of being burnt out. I've seen two plays these last two weekends and each one required a review written for The Pittsburgh Stage Online Magazine (go, click, give them a follow, all that crap. I'm obviously not in charge of marketing.) I'm not complaining about getting tickets to see theater because it is absolutely something I love doing. But each review requires a recap of what happened, some opinions of performances/writings/designs, and then a bit of an explanation as to what I think the play's message or theme is. All of which has to be written in a way where I feel I come off as intelligent. For these last reviews I've been struggling with that last part.

I've just seen a wide variety of shows lately and they're all fighting for space in my head. I've seen ancient Greek tragedies, an Irish play, a Sherlock Holmes play, and a musical from the fifties that is still incredible to watch. I know, I'm just too cultured. Or as cultured as someone with underboob sweat can be. But the ability to watch and understand theater is important and I write my reviews to encourage people with similar tastes (possibly in my age group?) to see theater whenever they have the opportunity. As I wind down on my month of reviews I'll be singing a musical (that I love) based off a movie that's starring a cast member from Glee. Art comes in all forms don't it?

Speaking of art, last week "they" released photos of the new X-men movie Apocalypse, which is coming out months from now. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm someone who doesn't get excited until I'm actually seeing the movie. Trailers and photos aren't for me. But people were up in arms about the appearance/design of the character Apocalypse (Oscar Isaacs):

That's him in the middle.

I'll be honest; I think it's fine. It doesn't spark anything in me one way or the other. But from the way people carried on you'd think Apocalypse was the end of the world (HA, goodnight everybody). For one thing, this is one shot of the movie. The character could go through some changes, this could be early on, we don't know if this is what he'll look like. Even if it is, this is a superhero movie and things should be allowed to look a little silly.

Look at his face though; there's some emoting going on there. Maybe a bit of sadness. Like acting. Who knows? Let's judge after the movie is over. Remember how we all hated Quicksilver's design and that turned out fine? Just relax. It probably won't be as bad as this guy:

Yeah, Juggernaut was never meant to exist in live action.

But some people had the audacity to negatively compare the above Apocalypse design to Ivan Ooze, the villain from the 90's Power Rangers: The Movie.

Excuse me? That's fucking awesome! Ivan Ooze was great; he was centuries old and wanted to rule the world, same as Apocalypse. You could have the actual Ivan Ooze stand in for Apocalypse in the X-men movie and it would be great. Have Paul Freeman reprise the role, it'll be even better. Ivan Ooze almost succeeded in killing a whole city's parent population, tell me that's not evil. Almost orphaned thousands of youths. Shit.

I feel myself getting silly the more I talk about it. Does this discredit what I said earlier about being cultured? Eh. Oh well.

Music to listen to: "We Need a Hero" - Power Rangers Redux (*makes me wanna go out and kick something)
Last Book I finished: Silence of the Lambs
Here's a Picture of a Rainbow I saw the other day

My Laptop is "Catching Fire" (and my plans for today)

I tried to write this post in the comfort of my bed on my 7-year old laptop. Unfortunately it's on borrowed time at this point. The above picture is a cable I ordered that came in the mail a few days ago. It now has a nice scorch mark from the input hole on my laptop. After countless times of knocking it off the bed the thing has always been difficult to charge and now it lives to burn any cable I plug into it. I'm planning on removing any files I feel attached to from it and then "pull the plug".

So I'm writing this from my awesome desktop and I'm writing it because I don't have to go to work today (either of them) and it's the first time that's happened in a long time. And so excited am I for the day I'm going to have that I decided to write my feelings before it starts.

This week was a long one. Starting on Wednesday I worked both of my jobs three days in a row. My first job starts at 10 and my second job ends at 10. Neither job is particularly stressful, but it's just a matter of being around people and wearing pants that bothers me. But I got through it, next week's paychecks should be bangin', and I got stuff to do today (stuff I can afford, thanks to all the working).

 I will share this: during yesterday's shift at the restaurant (we've had a very slow week as far as mornings go) someone put a "Kick Me!" sign on our dishwasher's back. Classic prank, right? I'm not sure why but I laughed like a little girl when I saw it. It's the little things that get you through work, am I right? I snapped a creeper picture of the sign, and gave it a weird Instagram filter because, well, bored at work. 

Anyway on to today. After I finish writing this I'm heading off to the library to pick up some books I got ordered. One is a book called Haunted West Virginia by Patty Wilson. I've been getting into West Virginia ghost/monster stories, and for a specific reason that I'm not gonna get into just yet. I'm also picking up an X-men comic and David Sedaris' Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls for when I get too scared or overwhelmed from reading about monsters.

This afternoon we're going to see Catching Fire and I'm really looking forward to it. I enjoyed the Hunger Games book series and the second book is very good so I'm hoping the movie adaption will be a good time. Then later tonight we're going to see Blue/Orange at the Pittsburgh Playwright's Theater, put on by new theater company The Phoenix. I will review both of these things and put them on my other blog, hopefully by tomorrow evening.

And then tonight, I'm unembarrassed to say, I plan on staying in with a bottle of wine and watching Josh Hutcherson host Saturday Night Live (I don't care, I went out last weekend). This combined with seeing Catching Fire is going to make for a very heavy Josh Hutcherson day which is totally fine. In fact let's start it right now.

There ya go: a little Catching Fire preview and some arm appreciation for both sexes. You're welcome.


Eek I don't really have a topic to talk about in full detail. This blog has become a sort of diary for me, sharing my thoughts no matter if they're mundane or interesting. It's also a way for me to force myself to write something, which is not something I'm always in the mood to do. So if you've made it this far, hey thanks for indulging.

I'll tell you about the dreams I just woke up from, because they were pretty weird and scary. I went to bed last night after reading about the Flatwoods Monster so of course it haunted me a little. It's a little hazy, but I recall being home in West Virginia and there were cars full of strangers parked outside (like a family reunion, they seemed friendly but I don't know who they were). Some of the cars were on fire, others had weird bird-like creatures inside scaring the passengers. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out someone's car, something I doubt I'd be capable of doing in real life.

I woke up suddenly because I thought THERE WAS A CAT IN MY BED AND THERE SHOULDN'T BE. I haven't lived with a cat in a while now but I swore I felt one jump over me in my sleep. Woke me up and had my heart racing. Stupid imaginary cat. At least I hope it was imaginary, I never did check under the bed.

Alright there, my plans and my dreams. Short and sweet, and now I'm going to abandon my computer for most of the day. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I'll leave you with Josh Hutcherson holding a dog.