New Year's Eve 2013 into 2014

This has become a bit of a tradition, to fill out a survey of sorts that reflects on the previous year. For this year, something slightly different, but still just as good.

TEN of this year’s movies you liked
These can be movies that weren’t necessarily released this year, but movies that you discovered and saw for the first time this year and fell in love with. 
1. Silver Linings Playbook 
2. American Hustle 
3. Hunger Games: Catching Fire
4. Thor (more so the second one than the first though) 
5. The Hangover Part 3 (yeah, not that great, but good to see the whole series go full circle and what not) 
6. Pitch Perfect
7. The Help (the movie was so much better than the book in this case) 
8. Psycho (yup, finally saw the original…holy crap!) 
9. The Fighter (finally saw this one too three years after it came out, and the more I think about it, the more it grows on me) 
10. The Avengers 

NINE things you are thankful for this year 
Things, people, places, anything that you’re thankful for, list them. And if you want to say why, go right ahead. 

1. My mom: She's become so much more than just a mother to me as I've gotten older. We've always had that good bond where we're friends as well as mother-daughter, but when something goes wrong, she's the one that I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I can go to for help, reassurance, or just a hug.

2. My Friends: They may come and go, they may drop out for a bit and then return, or they may be there every single day, but the true ones are great and I couldn't ask for a better bunch of them.

3. My Dog: Yes, he's my best friend. Taurus cracks me up every day, he's a great listener, and he's the best snuggling buddy a girl could ask for.

4. My Grandma: She drives me crazy sometimes, but she's more like a sister to me than an actual grandma. (This includes all of the sister fighting that occurs with siblings over stupid stuff too.)

5. My Books: They are like a second home to me. (Well, 2nd all the way through 2000th home if you really want to get technical since they all take you to different places.)

6. My Career: Teaching is not only what I do, but it's who I am. I'm thankful that I was able to find a job again this school year (though it will be done at the end of January sadly) so that I could continue to do what I love. 

7. My Job: Starting to work at UNYTS in February was a blessing, not only because it gives me time to read (yay!) but it also makes me feel good that it's such a wonderful organization to work for that is making such a difference (Donate Life!)

8. My Fitness Pal: I've made some amazing friends on there (Agent 13!) who are there to call me out when I eat what I shouldn't or if I say that I'm going to go to the gym and don't. This past year, I balanced out at having lost 12 pounds, which isn't a lot, but that's a pound a month, and it's better than having gone up that much. MFP has helped immensely with that!

9. Gluten Free Products: There are many, and it would be silly to thank them all, but I'm thankful for all of them. It makes living this way much more tolerable.

EIGHT things you learned this year 
Can be anything from a simple, interesting fact to a gigantic life lesson. 
1. Rudolph's red nose is caused by a parasite. (Yes, I'm the queen of useless science facts!)

2. We may be living inside of a black hole and not even realize it. Like what if the whole universe was inside of a black hole, and another universe was studying that black hole trying to find out what it was and everything. (Thank you Penn State!)

3. I can hike. I may hurt myself and end up with bruises and bone contusions that you can still see on my legs, but dammit, I can hike!

4. Barnes and Noble is my personal heaven.

5. I finally gave in to Twitter and hate it. Then I started up a Tumblr and am hopelessly addicted.

6. I am really good at cooking when I put my mind to it. Give me a recipe once, and I'll make it my own, and it will be delicious!

7. There's always a silver lining. You might not know what it is right away, but just wait for the clouds to clear and you'll see it.

8. Being honest with yourself is even more important than being honest to those around you.

SEVEN best memories/moments 
Things that, no matter whenever they happened this year, you could never forget. Not this year. Not ever. These are the moments that mattered. 
1. Penn State Black Hole Conference 
2. Fossil Giveaway in Ithaca at the Paleontological Institute 
3. Hunger Games Day at Science Camp (nothing could have gone better that day, it was a dream!)
4. The phone call from the principal at a school that I interviewed at this summer. I didn't get the job, but her phone call made that okay and was the push I needed to stick with this. 
5. Being called "Elmo" by one of my students…because "everyone likes Elmo, and everyone likes you too." 
6. Hiking along a stream/creek outside of Albany carrying a giant boulder that had a ton of garnets in it (so that I could give it to my mom since garnet is her birthstone and I was so proud that I found it) and just appreciating how beautiful and peaceful it was and that I was able to do it, especially after how "wonderful" my knee was at the start of the year. 
7. Gluten Free Expo in Toronto with Mom

SIX accomplishments 
Everyone has at least six accomplishments. They don’t have to be big accomplishments. Just what you think are accomplishments, don’t be shy about it. 
1. I lost 12 pounds. 
2. I got my knee back in working order.
3. I got accepted to participate in a Penn State Astrophysics Conference/Workshop, which about 200 people apply for each year, and only 20 are accepted.
4. All of my ESL students passed their Regents Biology exam that I prepped with for months.
5. I survived another summer of science camp, while interviewing for what seemed like a million teaching jobs, taking two geology courses (4.0 GPA still!), and working at UNYTS part time.
6. I am getting better, and that’s probably my biggest accomplishment this year.

FIVE things you regret 
Everyone has regrets. Here’s your chance to admit to them and hopefully vow not to repeat them in the next year. 
1. Allowing myself to be fooled by some people, including myself.
2. Not telling people what’s on my mind when I needed to.
3. Slacking off with taking the Earth Science CST, so now it will be a bit harder.
4. Thoughts of giving up and feeling trapped. While I don't really regret them, because they would have happened anyway, I regret letting them take over my life for so long. 
5. Not following my budget as well as I should have the past couple months, so now I'm starting to go into panic mode.

FOUR favorites this year 
Pick any four favorites you want. Food you discovered. Book you read. Movie you watched. TV show you started watching. Video game you played. Class you took. Vacation you went on. Song you heard. Highlighter brand. Anything you feel like should be a favorite, include it. 
1. Movie: Silver Linings Playbook
2. Book: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock 
3. Book Series: The Mortal Instruments 
4. Food I Discovered: Bone Marrow outside of Albany…OMG absolutely amazing, so much so that it should be a sin!

THREE plans for next year 
Everyone’s got plans for the next year. These three should be your most important plans…the ones that mean the most to you. 
1. Finish up my Earth Science teaching certification and get my professional teaching certification finished up (everything is done for it, I just need to get everything in order and submit for it)
2. More professional development/conferences/workshops this summer (which will definitely include another NYS Geology workshop…this year's is in the Finger Lakes)
3. Enjoy life to the fullest, and find a way to separate the little things that shouldn't matter from the big things that always will matter.

TWO major changes in life 
Has anything this year changed your life? To better? To worse? What has made you restructure your life? What made you improve? What opened your eyes? 
1. I found out that I definitely need to exercise every day, because even one day of being lazy will cause me to barely be able to move thanks to my knees. Just those 15 minutes every morning of knee exercises before getting ready make a huge difference, and I need to do them.
2. I've come to the conclusion that I am the one. Seriously…I've been in a couple short lived relationships this year, and they all fizzled. But I'm the one who has to deal with myself 24/7, and so long as I love myself, I'm happy and content.

ONE resolution for this coming year 
This is your resolution. The most important thing you need to do. 
2014 is going to be happier and healthier than the rest. That is all.

Most importantly, I know not many people read this, but I would like to wish you all a very happy new year. Cheers to 2014 being amazing and better than the past!

Book Versus Movie: Silver Linings Playbook

I don't know why this comparison has been sitting on the back burner for so long for me. Matthew Quick is one of my favorite authors this past year, and Silver Linings Playbook seriously is my favorite movie in the whole wide world lately. The book and film are quite different, though both wonderful.

I watched the movie on my 31st birthday this year, rented from Redbox. As you all well know by now, Bradley Cooper is amazing in my humble opinion, and I wanted to give Jennifer Lawrence a second chance, since I really didn't care for her much in the first Hunger Games film (my opinion has since been dramatically changed for the better.) It just so happened that my boyfriend at the time gave me the book the following day for my birthday, which was a total coincidence. The first time I saw the movie though, I knew it was something special. I raced to read the book and read it in one day...again, something special.

Basically, this is the story of Pat. He's a guy who's down and out, after finding out his wife was having an affair, he breaks down and is set to a mental institution instead of jail as his plea bargain with the courts after a minor incident. While there, he finds out that he has had undiagnosed bipolar disorder and has really been white knuckling it for many years. When he gets out, he tries to put together the pieces of his life with his newfound philosophy, that there's a silver lining to every story including his own. Oh yeah, and "Excelsior"...which pretty much means the same thing in his mind. Pat meets Tiffany, a recent widow who is dealing with her own social anxieties and depression in her own ways, and they embark on their journey together. And what a journey it is...

Like I said, there are quite a few differences between the book and movie. In the book, the last names are different, and the story takes place in New Jersey (Philadelphia in the film.) There are a few differences in how things play out, though the round-about story is the same. The same things are achieved in both, just the way that they happen is different in some instances. I don't want to tell too many of the differences, because I don't want to give it away what happens and all...it's something you need to experience yourself. The book is laugh out loud funny, it's heartbreaking, it's so many things...but it is one of my favorite books that I've read this year (just finished reading it a second time tonight.) Fast read, short chapters, amazing.

The film? Wow. Seriously, there was magic made with this. I've seen many postings on Tumblr and comments in interviews that Bradley Cooper (Pat) and Jennifer Lawrence (Tiffany) bring back chemistry on the screen as we know and should expect it, and well...they do. Big time. The whole cast does actually. Robert DeNiro plays Pat's father, and Jacki Weaver plays his mom (based on Bradley Cooper's mom actually in many ways.) They were all nominated for Academy Awards for the film, in every acting category, and while Jennifer was the only one to win (who can forget the gorgeous dress that caused her to trip up the stairs?!), this was the first movie to have this happen in quite a long time. You really feel the family vibe, the good and the bad, ups and downs, and it's wonderful to watch. And watch it I have...easily 50 times since May (probably more if we want to be fully honest here.) It's my feel good movie, whenever I'm down, it's what I watch (sorry Matthew Macfadyen and Pride and Prejudice, you've been replaced.) Not only for Bradley, but for the whole thing.



Bradley's Pat will make you laugh and cry. There's one scene where he's in his therapist Cliff's office waiting room and has an outburst, and the look on his face afterwards will break your heart, because you know that he knows what's happening and that he doesn't like it and wants to change it, but he doesn't know how. It's a different side of Bradley Cooper than people had been used to, after his stints in The Hangover trilogy and Wedding Crashers...but it's something that us fans knew he had in him all along.

Jennifer Lawrence's Tiffany totally rocks my socks when she arrives about 25 minutes into the film as Pat's friend ("with a capital F.") In interviews, everyone says that this character is the most like her, a girl who refuses to play anything similar to herself for fear of losing herself (and she thinks she's boring and would never pay to see her life on screen...ha!) She has so many great scenes, from the diner ("hot!") to where she literally schools Robert DeNiro about Philly sports (all of the facts are correct based on when the story takes place.) She shows so many dimensions to the character right from the beginning that take nearly 200 pages to find in the book.

Robert DeNiro sat down with Bradley Cooper's uncle (Coop is from Philadelphia) to get down the Philly accent, actually making him say each of his lines so that he could fully get it. So many scenes make you want to reach out to Pat Sr. as he himself tries to reach out to his son while dealing with his own OCD issues.

Pat and Tiffany meet for the first time, and well...it's rather awkward.

Now here are a few little tidbits. The soundtrack is great, though if you're going to purchase it, go with the various artists one, not the score. I'm not bashing the score, but it is a circular loop, just like how Pat's mind is working throughout the film. If you buy the various artists soundtrack, you will get the main parts from the score included, and that will be enough for you.

The film was inspired by David O. Russell's son's dealings with bipolar and OCD, and his son appears in each of his movies. (Yup, even American Hustle where he plays one of Carmine's children.) In this film, he plays a kid from down the street wanting to film Pat's story in a documentary for school. It's an honest film in this area of mental illness, and Bradley Cooper and David O. Russell have both been in Washington DC promoting reform in diagnosing and treating mental illnesses such as bipolar, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and OCD. There's a scene where Tiffany asks Pat what meds he's on, and while it's funny in their descriptions of how the different medications make them feel, it's true and it can be scary trying to find the right balance in time to help the person affected.


This includes the dinner with Tiffany's sister and brother-in-law who is friends with Pat. Some of the best parts...

Russell is a master at finding the humor in the littlest things, especially family dealings, and much like his other films, you do need to watch the film more than once to get the full effect. Pay attention to the big picture the first time, and then the second time you will notice the small intricacies that make it truly great. For example, pay attention to Jennifer Lawrence's facial expressions during the tour of her sister Veronica's house, or Bradley Cooper's side comments while Tiffany is schooling his dad. If you don't like it after the second trip, then well...I can't help you. Instead, I'll just feel sorry for you.

If you rent it, please try to get the version with deleted scenes (I know some rental copies don't include these.) Especially the extended ending and the rehearsal warm-up sequence. Otherwise, YouTube them after seeing the movie, because it is a pity they weren't included in the final version of the film. (Bradley Cooper attempting to do a back bend alone is worth this extra effort of finding the clip.)

Another book cover...I just love all of the different facial expressions of each character. And I forgot to mention that Chris Tucker does a great job as well as Pat's friend Danny..."black it up, Pat!"

All in all, well...there isn't an all in all. You just have to see it and experience it for yourself. If you want to just watch the movie or just read the book, that's fine. Obviously, I recommend both. It doesn't matter which order you do it in. This is one of those cases though where seeing the movie first helps put a voice to the characters in the book, at least in my opinion. And that way, if you didn't like the movie (after the second try...remember, give it two!) you won't waste your time reading the book. (Though you should read Matthew Quick anyway. He's worth your time.)

Book: 5 stars
Film: 5 stars (duh!)

Movie Review: American Hustle

Let's start this out by saying that I've been waiting for this film since I saw Silver Linings Playbook and thought what an amazing combo deal Cooper-Lawrence-Russell was for film. Then I saw The Fighter and realized that Bale-Adams-Russell is a good combo too. This film takes the best of everything and wraps it up into just over two hours of crazy twists, turns, one-liners, scamming, and heart. I can definitely see the hype it's getting, including all of the award buzz, and it is warranted. This is a film made for awards.

Brief summary without giving spoilers? Let's go. Picture it…1978…New York City and New Jersey. Irving (Christian Bale) is a small-time con-artist who teams up with Sydney (Amy Adams.) They get caught and are recruited by Richie (Bradley Cooper), a FBI guy who wants to make it into the big leagues by catching filthy politicians such as Carmine (Jeremy Renner.) Things are especially twisted up by Irving's wife Rosalyn's (Jennifer Lawrence) passive-aggressive schemes. The script really is brilliant…superbly written. It may start off slow, but it's a steady burn throughout until the end, and you'll appreciate it for that. It comes across as being a crime flick almost, but it is a comedy. Not always a laugh-out-loud kind of comedy, but the subtleties are brilliant which makes it a comedy.

This movie has so many cameos from other David O. Russell films, and it was great to see them all together again, often without even being recognized or getting credit for it. The transformations were…well…I had to use IMDB a lot afterwards to figure out why I recognized the voices of people but couldn't place them. (For example, Richie's mom is the same woman who played the principal in Silver Linings Playbook.) The costumes were amazing, the hair was elaborate, and the actors totally hid within the characters. And the soundtrack…let's just say I made it through work last night dancing (thankfully in a building alone) to the soundtrack, disco included. Yes, this girl can hustle…though maybe it looked a bit more like this:

But anyway…you will be immersed in everything that was wonderful and awful about the 1970s (not that I know, but I'm told…I hear stories…) David O. Russell goes all in with his films, and it makes him one of the best directors/writers out there.

In my humble opinion, Bradley Cooper was the stand-out star. Richie starts out so simple, but he brings so much depth to the character, and your opinion of him totally changes throughout the film. Actually, it's not a simple change, but a bounce around, like you're in a pinball game.

Yes Bradley…I like you too. A lot. Okay, maybe a little too much.

Christian Bale totally disappears into Irving. At first you hate the guy, almost disgusted by him, but then he starts to shift as well. I guess we all hustle for a living, but sometimes heart shows through. With him, it does.

Jennifer Lawrence is also really good, though she's only in the film maybe 30 minutes. That's just a sign of how good she is though, when she can still get nominated for so many awards based on that. I do have to say though, for all the hype of the Amy Adams-Jennifer Lawrence show-down in the bathroom, I was hoping for a bit more in that scene. Instead, I was left a bit disappointed by how short it was, but maybe that's for the best? This is one of my favorite scenes that I could find a clip for…though I think her son Danny steals it by wailing "another fire?!" "Thank God for me" has become my new line though.

I find it funny that this clip is titled "Jennifer Lawrence Catches Fire"…a la Hunger Games.

All in all, this really is a great film. I went in with high expectations, and left with them having been met. This is a smart movie, and you really have to be willing to go all in and pay attention to every detail in order to get the deal. I do feel that it may need to be watched more than once in order to get the full effect, something I will gladly sacrifice by doing. After all, if I can see Bradley Cooper swivel those hips doing the hustle again, I will.

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

Book Versus Movie: Catching Fire

Let's start off at the beginning. I didn't do a review of Hunger Games because I didn't have these awesome reviews on the top of my mind when the first movie came out. If I had, well, it wouldn't have gotten very good crossover ratings. Too many differences, I really didn't care for Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, I'm really not a Josh Hutcherson fan at all, blah blah blah. This review is not going to be like that.

Mostly because, well, Catching Fire was F*CKING AMAZING!!!!!!

This was my favorite book of the series. The twists and turns, the alliances, the storyline, the character development...it was amazing. And the movie was literally like turning each page for each scene. Sure, there were a few differences, but they were far and few between.

I'll just give a brief synopsis without giving away too many spoilers. If you've read the book or know the basic gist, you can keep reading. Don't worry...I won't tell about the end or major twists. Katniss and Peeta return to District 12 after winning the 74th Hunger Games. They need to go on a victory tour to the districts and Capital, which they do, all while trying to calm the masses who are on edge and wanting to rebel against the Capital. President Snow threatens Katniss's friends and family if she can't convince the districts that her and Peeta's love is true, and well, nothing seems to satisfy him, so she fails. The Quarter Quell 75th Hunger Games bring back two victors into the games again, and Katniss and Peeta end up in the arena for the second year in a row.

I saw this as a double feature, with the first movie starting at 5:15pm and then the new film at 8pm on IMAX last night (yup, day before it officially opened...you wish you were as cool as me.) It was worth the money to see it on IMAX, because this one was specifically filmed on special IMAX film I guess. The colors were bright, the sound was surround, and you felt like you were in the rainforest-esque arena with the tributes/victors. No one left the entire film, no one moved, people cried, people laughed, people sat with their jaws on the ground at the final image of the film.

Cast? Perfect. Absolutely Perfect.

Jennifer Lawrence really became Katniss this time around. From her first scene to the final one, she literally killed it. I get that most action film actors/actresses don't get nominated for high awards like Oscars and Golden Globes, but I could totally see her getting the nominations for this role and film, just in the emotional roller coaster she takes us on. Josh Hutcherson impressed me as Peeta this time too...well, more than he did the first film. Liam Hemsworth is a gorgeous man, and he brought through Gale again just as he is in the books. My heart went out to him in the square and with the snow coat. Woody Harrelson rocks as Haymitch, making me laugh and cry all at the same time. Elizabeth Banks brought something more to Effie this time that touched your heart. Lenny Kravitz wasn't quite as good this time as Cinna, but wow the scene as Katniss goes up in the tube into the arena...I wasn't looking forward to it to begin with, and I cringed. Philip Seymour Hoffman was a welcome addition to the cast as new head gamemaker Plutarch, though I felt like his acting was pretty forced at times. Jena Malone and Sam Clafin were great in their roles as Johanna and Finnick too. And Donald Sutherland as President Snow is terrifying in his calm ability to scare the shit out of you.

Here's one of the trailers to take a look:


During one of the climactic scenes in the arena, I did find myself wondering if it's a good thing to know the books so well or if it's a bad thing going into the movie. I mean, they were so similar in this case, more than any other book to film adaptation I've read or seen, that it held no surprises. But that's not saying that it was not spectacular and totally worth the wait for it.

All of that said, GET THEE TO A THEATER TO SEE IT!

Book: 5 stars
Film: 5 stars

Wordless Wednesday: One More Day!!!