Skyfall

I went and saw Skyfall this afternoon. And it was awesome. I think Casino Royale has a better story, but Skyfall is definitely more epic (we won't worry about that other movie). The cinematography was fantastic, and I loved the lighting, too. Plus I enjoy how Daniel Craig plays Bond - much more restrained and dryly humorous than any of the previous actors. Not quite so smarmy as Pierce Brosnon (but I'll always love him nonetheless), but still suave. I thought the opening credits were fantastic, and the titular title track [is that redundant?] was an instant hit with me.

All in all, it might be a movie I have to see twice in theaters. Yes, it will come out on DVD and still be awesome...but not as awesome as seeing Daniel Craig's face five or six times as tall as a man on the big screen.

I'll Tell You What I'm Not Thankful For

...the GRE. Specifically, that I have to take it in T-6 days. The Quantitative Reasoning sectioning is gonna kick my booty. Just reviewing the properties of numbers -- you know, with those fancy ones like exponents and roots thrown in for fun -- is giving me headaches. And obviously my times tables have suffered a little since I memorized them in second grade and was quizzed on them in fourth. And it's been ten years since my last geometry class. Well, okay, only five and a half technically, if you count Euclid freshman year at SJC. Which was awesome, but it's not algebraic geometry. Sadly, the GRE isn't going to ask me to construct an equilateral triangle using only circles and a line. (I probably couldn't do that, either, but I bet I could make a decent go of it. A better one than remembering the rules of exponents or roots.)

2 + 2 = ...4? Really?

If the GRE tested on Korean pop culture, I would totally rock that section.

Gratitude, Part I

November is the month of Thanksgiving, but that's not the reason I've decided to list at least five things I'm especially grateful for each day. It's just a happy coincidence. That being said, here are today's five things.

1. I'm grateful I have a job. I have spent too much of my recent life unemployed to not appreciate being able to bring home a paycheck each month, even if my income and my time is split up among three different jobs. I may not have been particularly productive this last summer, but I have learned a valuable lesson about work: work is not something to be avoided (which is my first inclination), but in fact a divine principle. Work is enlightening and ennobling. Unemployment is degrading and soul- and self-esteem-destroying.

2. I'm grateful I can walk to my job. It's not terribly fun to be without a car, but every time I'm tempted to grumble (...very loudly...) about it, I remember that I'm so blessed to be so close to my various forms of employment. Without a car I could be jobless, but I'm not. Plus, walking is healthy and keeps me active. 

3. I'm grateful that the local public transportation is reliable and free. It's not as nice as Seoul's public transportation, which is both vast and much more efficient, but I save a tremendous amount of money each month by not having to pay anything for transportation costs. Yes, it's inconvenient when I want to go grocery shopping or go anywhere after 8:00pm, but it's hard to argue with free and reliable.

4. I'm grateful for a good education and parents who value education. For this reason taking the GRE with only two weeks of preparation is only stupid and stressful instead of impossible.

5. I'm grateful that I listened to the prompting of the Spirit when I walked out of the library from picking up my GRE prep book (see above) and stopped to ask the girl crying on the bench if she was okay. As soon as I saw her I knew I needed to ask if she was okay. [Side note: It always puzzles me that we ask that question when people are obviously not okay.] I walked out the door of the library and immediately made eye contact with her tear-filled, red-rimmed, pleading eyes. As soon as I did I knew I needed to talk to her; as soon as I knew that my first impulse was to squash that knowledge and walk on past pretending she wasn't sitting there crying her eyes out in public. I took a half step past her and immediately felt horrible about myself, so I stopped and asked, "Are you okay?" I asked if she needed anything. She gave a half-choked sob-laugh and said something about relationship stuff. I sympathized a little bit and tried to be comforting. She stood up and gave me, a complete stranger, a hug. I think it was more for herself than anything, but it felt like a thank you. I complimented her scarf and told her to have a good day. I hope she did have a good day, because I sure felt fantastic as I walked to the bus stop to catch the bus home.

6. I'm grateful for friends who are awesome enough to crawl under my bed to help me put it on risers. No kidding, my friend Wendy did this last night, and in a dress no less. That's friendship, people. Thankfully for my embarrassment level under my bed is clean, uncluttered, and dust-free so it wasn't a terrible ordeal for her.  

7. I'm grateful for gorgeous fall colors. I love fall. Right now the tree in our front yard is a stunning, intense yellow. Sadly most of the trees have lost most or all of their leaves, but a few brave souls are holding out. 

Presto Clean-o!

I spent my Halloween 2012 making this...

 ...into this.

If only the actual cleaning was as easy and instantaneous as the pictures make it seem. I still have my desk left to tackle, but first I have to figure out where to keep all my hoodies (which are currently draped over my desk chair). My closet is full to capacity; I certainly can't fit four bulky hoodies in there. The two peacoats in there already are pushing it.

You can't see in the first picture, but the bookcase that is now on the far wall used to be where the shoe crate is now. I liked it there better, but since I put my bed up on risers (which have a wider footprint than the bedframe) it doesn't fit in that space anymore. Boo. But I need the storage space under the bed more than I need my bookcase within arm's length.