h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm glad you got to get out and have some fun Wink. I used to sing back in high school; I was part of what we called Glee Club. We sang a collection of Christmas songs every year, and I got one of the coveted solo parts. I've never been to a karaoke place, but it sounds fun.

I've been reading a book about artist Mary Engelbreit. She's well known for her greeting cards. Are y'all familiar with her? I like her stuff. It's very colorful and whimsical. The book says she worked in an art supply store for a couple years. I did too, a while back. My neice is moving into a new house, so I will get some studio space back at my sister's house. Maybe I can get some painting done this Spring. I like working with oils. I wish I could get some fresh flowers to paint. I saw a bouquet of flowers at the grocery that would be great, but it cost $60. I couldn't spring that much for one painting. Too bad I don't have a photographic memory. I wonder where Van Gogh found all his sunflowers.

By the way, Wink, did you go to see Dragonfly? Just wondering.

P.S. Do y'all ever follow the "Tell Us a Joke" thread? There are some really funny ones!

That's great Wink! Sounds like a lot of fun. And what am I doing over the weekend? Going hysterical whenever Paul says "I killed a man." (It's all a joke; don't worry. )

And thanks for the thanks on the entry. It didn't turn out that great after the sub, but ... *shrug* The other one still exists anyway.

Ever have people around you who no matter *what* you do or *how* you are, it's never enough? Ever have people around you who whenever you're there make you feel like you really shouldn't and that you are only because they feel sorry for you? Ever feel lonely in a crowd of people? So alone that your only solice is the voice inside your head?

Now... open your eyes and it's your family.

I had a psychiatrist tell me once that my family was poisoning me from the inside out. She told me that my only salvation was to stay the hell away from them. I didn't listen. I gave in. I said I was sorry - for what, I *still* don't know. I'm the one who picks up the phone after a week and a half or so of silence. I'm the one who packs up and drives out for the visits. I'm also the one who is alone.

Today I can't stop crying. I've tried. I feel like I'm a little kid again. Nothing ever right. Nothing ever good enough. Alone in the dark. Hiding in a closet. Socially isolated by choice... by fear.

I'm feeling kinda blue today. Don't mean to dump on you guys. I just don't who else to tell it to.

WINK

Hugs and good wishes speeding your way Wink.

It sounds like you are having a "long dark tea time of the soul" as Douglas Adams would say. This is a good place to vent, Wink. It is better than blowing up at your family, which you may do if you can't get some of this off your chest. I know work has been stressful too. Well, I'm always hear to listen, even if it is a little time delayed. [LOL I typed "hear" instead of "here", but I'll leave it that way, it's appropriate] I jotted down a few notes when I read your email, and hopefully tomorrow I will have time to write you a nice long email. I don't know how you will read it all at work. Maybe you can read a little at a time, or print it out and read it at home. Be gentle with yourself Wink, be as kind to yourself as you are to all of us. It's 1am here - I hope you are fast asleep and having lovely dreams. And a good morning to follow. Ellen

Thank you Ellen.

I don't have much to say today other than I'm feeling a little better. At least I'm able to keep the tears at bay. I will post some more soon and I will look forward to your email as well.

Thanks for thinking of me. You are one of my best friends.

WINK

Love you, Wink. Just take it day by day, don't dwell on bad thoughts of what might happen, or what has happened... And make sure you get enough sleep, okay? I hope I'm not coming off "bossy" or anything like that, but lack of sleep has always made a big difference on how hard I fall and how badly I react.

thinking of you,
Shee

Thanks guys. You two are truly special to me. I think you might be right about that, Shee. I've not been sleeping well at all lately. Not only am I covered up in work, my insomnia is kicking into overdrive and most nights I just lie in bed staring at the passing car lights on the wall for hours. Then when I do sleep, I have bad dreams or I just don't remember it and wake feeling like I ran a marathon... more tired than before I went to sleep. I've strayed from my diet too. I think that might be part of it. I have to get back to it and serious. I don't know what my problem is. Really, I don't. I just feel... like I'm a kid again. Behind a wall. Afraid to come out. And it's making my heart break. Does that make sense?

I hope this passes soon.

I love you guys. Thank you for listening to me.
WINK

If I can get myself out of bed in the morning I'm going to eat at a great little Italian deli called Fino's. And then I'm going with my sister to see Iris, the new movie with Kate Winslet. Hope it is good. I saw 40 Days and 40 Nights this week, and it was good for a laugh. Kind of trashy and lowbrow humor, but it hit a funny bone. I like Josh Hartnett. There was a sexy scene with him and a girl and a flower. It wasn't very explicit, but it was hot! Shows what you can do if you engage the audience's imagination.

I didn't get to go see Iris because my sister got sick. I'm hoping she will feel better on Saturday and that we can go then. She has jury duty next week, so we can't get together next week. *Sigh* And I had my taste buds all set for Fino's. The best laid plans of mice and men as they say.

I tried to watch Beloved this week, but I couldn't get through it. It was very strange. Maybe you have to have read the book to appreciate it.

I thought I would quote something light and sweet:

The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat;
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy my love,
What a wonderful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a wonderful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married; too long have we tarried;
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong tree grows;
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, one the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

I have a question that I've been thinking about lately... What's happened to Sho? Can we expect to never see her anymore then? I thought that it was only a bit that she wasn't going to get on h2g2...

I always liked that poem. Reminds me of nice things I guess.

Sorry I've been out of sorts lately. Work is really overwhelming me right now. Hopefully, though, when I'm through with this project I'm on right now I can get a bit back to normal.

So here's me... popping in for a little 'hello' to check on my friends and let them know I'm still out here... somewhere. Hmmm.... what *did* happen to Sho?

Looking forward to The Oscars Ellen? My friend Trent is having a get together on Sunday to watch. We're going to place bets, like the SuperBowl. We all have our picks and they're different this time 'round. Should be interesting to see who wins. I'm opting for Beautiful Mind to sweep it with Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Direction... Trent is opting out on Lord of the Rings. Saw 'In the Bedroom' Monday night. I needed Prozac after that film... it was deeply depressing. Great acting though. The only Best Picture nominee I've not seen is 'Gosford Park' but I was told I'm not missing anything. 'Memento' was robbed from nomination. It should've taken something.. if not Best Picture. Hmmm.. All political isn't it?

Well... the BOSS is here and it's off to a meeting about the project. Can't you just *hear* the excitement in my voice?!

WINK
*look.. my smiley's back* ha!

From what I've heard (from lots of people), Beautiful Mind should get Best Picture over Lord of the Rings... ('Course, I haven't seen either And I want to see both...) And I've heard that Gosford Park was a waste of time, as well... At least, that the reason they stayed in the theatre was because they kept hoping it would get better, and it didn't. But again, I haven't seen this one either, so this is all my hearsay. *grin* Really should get to the theatre, shouldn't I?.

Sho seems to be much less active on h2g2. She hasn't posted a journal entry since November, but she is still active occasionally on the Drool thread. I don't think she'll be back to this one. I hope I didn't do anything to run her off. If y'all wanted to say hi I guess you could hop over to the Drool thread and give a wave.

One of my best friends is in the hospital right now for depression. I went out to visit her tonight, and I tried to take her a get well balloon, but the staff wouldn't let me take it in. Isn't that stupid? What harm is a helium balloon going to do? Even if you inhale it, it's pretty harmless. Oh well. Anyway, my friend has decided to move home to stay with her parents in North Carolina. She needs a break financially and emotionally. I am very blue about it. At least I have AOL and can stay in touch with her via email. But it still makes me very unhappy.



Yes Shee, you really must make it to the movies before all the Oscar nominations go off. Beautiful Mind, Moulin Rouge, and Fellowship of the Ring are all must-see movies. I would give them all five stars. As for predictions, I too think Mind will sweep. I'm basing my prediction on the fact that Shine (a mental health movie) did well at the Oscars, while Star Wars (a fantasy epic with lots of nominations) did poorly. You're right Shee, a lot of it is politics. My brother said one of the rival studios started a smear campaign against Mind, saying it wasn't true enough to Nash's life. I think that's dumb, because you can't put every single thing in a person's life in a two hour movie. I must say though that I can't remember a year when I truly liked so many of the nominations. (Next year I'm sure I'll be rooting for Gangs of New York, hehe.)

My brother Mike and sister in law Betsy came over for dinner on Wednesday. (Which was the Spring Equinox by the way) We had Chinese food, it was so yummy! After dinner, Mike told a funny story about how a co-worker brought in some Girl Scout cookies. My brother saw them and thought they were thin mints, so he popped a whole one in his mouth. But it wasn't thin mint, it was peanut butter! My brother hates peanut butter. He said he looked just like Tom Hanks in Big, gagging and spitting out the food. LOL

Hey Ellen, what did you think about the Oscars? I didn't get to see much of them... I heard the orchestra playing the bits of soundtracks (and noticed John Williams got to conduct Star Wars ) and saw the best soundtrack and honorary award for Syndey Paltei- something... Not at all good with names, am I... Especially French-based names...

Anyway, then I went to bed because I was tired. *grin* Beautiful Mind took best pictures, so I was happy about that... (Listen to me, haven't even seen the movies, and making judgements by what others say! Well, it's been recommended top to me by 4 people, and nothing else has ever really gotten a mention so... )


Shee

Hi everyone!

Well, I was wondering the same thing Ellen! What did you think? Personally, I have some gripes about the Oscars this year. What was up with Denzel Washington winning Best Actor for "Training Day"?! I could see him winning in the past for "Malcolm X" or even "The Hurricane" or even Best Supporting on "Philadephia"... but "Training Day"???!!! Tell me that this year's votes weren't racially based... please?! I like Denzel. No offense to any Denzel fans out there. None at all. But do you really think that if Denzel hadn't given an honorary Oscar to Sydney Portier, with that 20 minute speech about how he was the 1st (and only) black actor to win the Best Actor award, that he would've won?! His performance was good. But not Oscar quality. Hell, Ron Howard said it best... he wouldn't be standing there with the Oscar in hand if it weren't for Russell Crowe playing the part of Nash... it's that simple. And "Amelie".. didn't take one award home. NONE! I thought it was a cinch for Best Foreign Film with all the great reviews and press it got. NOTHING! And although I didn't see "Iris", I hardly think that no one was more deserving of the Best Supporting Actor than Ian McKellen. He's a jewel! Funny thing is that I printed out all the nominees from the Academy website and some friends and I went through and picked out the winners beforehand. Even the sound and editing and stuff like that. I was dead on for all of them, missing Best Supporting Actor, Best Actor, Best Foreign Film and Best Documentary Long Subject (since I hadn't seen any of the documentaries I think I did pretty good). It was a shock! But I am glad that "A Beautiful Mind" won Best Picture. It deserved it. I have to say though that next year's should not be as long and they should limit the honorary recipient's speeches a bit. I thought Robert Redford was going to talk for an hour! Although I really like Redford I was really wanting him to shut up after a bit! And Whoopie wasn't as funny as she normally is. I wasn't fond of her failed attempts at comedy when it came to "A Beautiful Mind" being introduced... with the man in the coat standing next to her she referred to him as her imaginary friend. Tacky. Very tacky. Especially with Dr. Nash in the audience. I think she should have refrained from making light of mental illness. I did like the speech from the associate producer with Ron Howard... his name is failing me. He was compassionate. I liked that. The only real amazing thing to me was the Cirque de Soleil's performance and the fact that Tom Cruise totally disappeared after his brief appearance at the beginning of the show. He couldn't even stick around to see if Nicole would win anything. Talk about bad blood.

WOW! I've really rambled on here haven't I? Guess I had a lot to say about that! I got done with the major project I've been working on and I hope that I'll be able to post a bit more regularly. Keeping my fingers crossed anyways! Gotta run. It's almost time to go home and I have to tell you.. when I get the chance to leave.. I leave! I've stayed up here for the last two weeks at least 25 hours overtime. Time to hit my sofa for a rest! But I will *talk* with you guys soon! Take care.

with love,
WINK

Finally, here it is, Ellen's take on the Oscars. LOL

I didn't see Training Day, so I'm not really sure about Denzel's performance. I don't think it's a movie I would get into. It's definitely not a chick flick. Russell Crowe would have had a hard time winning anyway, since he won for Gladiator. I think it's unfair that Leo Dicaprio and Harrison Ford have never won Oscars.

I was very sorry that Amelie didn't win anything. That was such a delightful flick.

The evening's clips made me want to see In the Bedroom, even though it looks sad and intense. It looked very well acted.

I was pleased that A Beautiful Mind won Best Picture. I can vouch for how authentically it portrayed mental illness. I really think though that the Oscars should have seperate categories for Dramas and Comedies/Musicals - like the Golden Globes do. Then Moulin Rouge or Amelie could have gotten Best Picture nods too. It would be more fair.

I was really miffed that Moulin Rouge did not win Best Editing. The editing in that, especially the tango scene, was awesome.

And I can't believe that James Horner didn't win for Best Score - the music to Beautiful Mind is beautiful and extraordinary. But again, it hurt him that he had already won (I'm pretty sure) for Titanic not too long ago.

Don't get the wrong idea from all my nitpicking. I really did enjoy the Oscars. Whoopi didn't seem to have as many lines this time, but she was funny. And all the actors seem like friends of mine - I see them so often at the movies. I enjoyed watching the Oscars over at my sister's house too - that way I had someone else to say "Wow, look at that!" or "No way!" Last but not least I thought the Cirque was very cool, always have been.

Oh yes, congrats Wink on wrapping up that major project.

"In the Bedroom" is good. I really liked it. You're right, the performances are extraordinary. But it is very intense. The only *light* part of the entire film is when the father is in his car and he is staring out at the car in front of him and the license plate has something funny on it... that's it. 2 hours of intense drama, but it's worth it.

I agree that it would be nice if the Oscars followed Golden Globe format. I would like to see more comedies make it to the Oscars and Musicals should definitely be separated from other pictures. That just makes more sense to me. I just don't agree with this "you can only win one year at a time" mentality that the Academy seems to have. If you win one year, odds are you're not going to win the next - no matter how brilliant your performance is. So why bother doing a wonderful job, eh? It was sort of sad to see that "Moulin Rouge" didn't win much on the picture aspect of the film. I sorta figured they'd take the Best Costume and Best Set Design awards.

Nitpicking?! Who? You? LOL Look at me! I think I'm nitpicking more than you! I ended up watching the full 4 hours and I found more entertaining than not. And funny how right you were that Whoopi didn't have more lines than she did for 4 hours worth of show! Maybe it was because of the longer speeches this year.. who knows. I'm with you on the friends aspect of the actors.. or at least some of them. I was so proud of Kevin Spacey's speech before the "In Memoriam" part of the program and I almost felt the pain of Russell when he realized his name wasn't the one that was called. I'll keep watching, but I hope things change with the Academy. I really do.

WINK