New Years Resolutions

Yes, they suck. Yes, they (usually) never get completely fulfilled and all attempts die by the middle of January, but this time, I'm going to try to push myself to fulfill my resolutions and keep fulfilling said resolutions. Speaking of which, I should probably list them out for the coming year:

RS' RESOLUTIONS FOR 2013:

1. Hang out with friends more often
2. Not spend as much time on this machine as I do now (which doesn't mean CVON will be destroyed)
3. Do something other than spend 24 hours online like GETTING A JOB!
4. MAKE more friends
5. Encourage more dates with friends (kind of repetitive to #1, but you see where I'm going with this)
6. Find ways to maintain the relationships I currently have
7. Actually finish a short story/novel and show it to the public (sorry!)
8. Go to a midnight premiere of some awesomely-amazing movie with my friends
9. Get a significant other!
10. Do something amazing to someone/yourself

Anyway, I encourage you to follow your resolutions in 2013. Oh, by the way, Happy New Year, CVON fans! Goodbye, 2012, hello, 2013!

<3, RS

What I Thought about "Les Mis" (SPOILERS!!)

Well, I've seen the musical a couple times before and have the music on my iPod, so I've listened to it enough times to know the lyrics and know the story enough to know what's going on. I wouldn't say that I've listened it enough times that I've become super-obsessed with the show. I like it, but I don't LOVE it like any other "Les Mis" fan would admit. But that doesn't mean that I didn't like the movie when I went to see it. Here are the things I liked about it (feel free to skip over this post if you haven't seen "Les Mis"/you don't want the whole franchise ruined for you b/c you're such a huge fan):

1. Anne Hathaway's performance as Fantine. Heartbreaking and passionate, which deserves an Oscar (PLZ!)
2. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thenardiers. 'Nuff said.
3. How the movie set its tone. Instead of the happy, bright mood that the musical usually goes through, Tom Hooper went for the dark and gritty underbelly of the French Revelation (?), which was very refreshing than the happy-go-lucky, "even though some people's lives sucked in this play, it's totally fun!" attitude
4. Tom Hooper bringing people like Colm Wilkinson and Samantha Barks, who've done "Les Mis" so much that they know everything about the play, into the main casting
5. Hadley Frasier was in it! If you missed it, he was the soldier from the opposing force in the Barricade fights with the manly mustache and yelling all that stuff about "you have no chance, no chance at all, etc."!

Of course, where there's good, there's bad stuff. Prepare to break down and cry at my accusations, "Les Mis" fans.

1. Hugh Jackson as Jean Valjean. Didn't really work with this choice of casting. I mean, I kinda know why they did it, since he's been on Broadway and Hollywood for a number of years now and has a built-up career, but it didn't work. I really, really wanted to laugh out loud whenever Hugh was belting out a climactic solo because he sounds like a singing goat instead of the grand voice that the previous Jean Valjeans gave the audience. My respect for Hugh (whatever was left) has gone from watching him as being Jean Valjean for about three freaking hours.
2. Not that much time on the Thenardiers. This was a HUGE problem for me because I consider the Thenardiers as a treasured "Les Mis" classic. I mean, they spread out the Thenardier couple and their humor so much in the play but in this movie, it's just like "oh, here they are and we need to go back to Hugh Jackman's awesome-azing singing". I would have loved it if Tom Hooper had spent A LOT MORE time on Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thenardiers. I probably would have laughed harder at all the jokes that were being sped by.
3. The camera shots. Some of the choices for the camera shots bothered me. There's this one scene at the very end that had a person on one side of the screen and a huge chunk of empty wall space on the rest of the screen. It was really distracting.
4. Here, I should be criticising how Russell Crowe wasn't a good-enough Javert and how he can't sing, blah, blah, blah, but I actually liked him in this role. Sure, he wasn't that great of a Javert, but he was better than other stars would have been. I certainly thought that he did better than Gerard Butler had in that cursed POTO movie (a bit off the point, but I digress). Anyway, I liked Russell Crowe as Javert.

Anyway, go see it, but expect a lot of cringing. Dream of a better Dream, or go see the 25th anniversary concert.
<3, RS

P.S. PLZ LET ANNE HATHAWAY GET AN OSCAR NOM 4 "LES MIS"!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!! (and other things)

Well, I guess I should explain why I was AWOL on CVON for such an extended period of time (for how much I usually post on this blog).

I was in the glorious city of New York...City...
I saw the usual things an average toruist would see in NY; Times Square, the Empire State Building, 30 Rock, except for the Statue of Liberty. I didn't have enough time or energy to go see it from where I was staying in Midtown. I also went to the M&Ms store and Hershey's store in Times Square, Dylan's Candy Bar, and even to the American Girl store, where I dreams I'd work there along with my best friend. Turns out that's not where I would give my left foot to work for... I even saw a couple of Broadway plays: The Heiress and The Book of Mormon (both of which I LOVED).
So, in the briefest summary I can manage, I saw a lot of art, sculptures, taxidermy, what have you, walked entirely too much, got a cold halfway through the trip, was delayed a day on the flight home and was extremely tired every night. But it wasn't as bad as it sounds like. Every night, I was treated to cable TV in my room and free hot chocolate that was a kind of "serve yourself" kind of thing. But I'm super glad to be home for the holidays.

Speaking of which... MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! I hope you all are filled with Yuletide cheer and tons of goodies from Santa! I certainly am! There's nothing like drinking yummy eggnog in a warm house with tons of snow falling outside, creating a Winter Wonderland. I hope you got to experience this with your friends and family this holiday season and I wish you the merriest of Christmases around the world.

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Froeh Weinachten, Feliz Navidad, God Jul, Llawen Nadolig, Gerlukkig Kerstfeest, and many more to you on this silent night, this holy night...

LOVE IN BIG CAPITOL CHRISTMASEY LETTERS, RS


P.S. Did you know that today is also the Feast of the Unconquered Sun? Pretty convenient in making this day the Birth of the Lord Savior...

The Hobbit P1: What I Thought About It... (Warning: SPOILERS!!!)

Oh my God...
IT WAS A-MAY-ZING!!! I totally thought I would seriously nerd my pants at the very beginning and/or way before the movie actually started, but somehow it was like i was watching any other movie, until Ian Holm narrated the first lines of the original text of "The Hobbit". It brought back memories of my dad reading it to me when I was little and just bringing me back to PJ's Shire made me feel all warm and fuzzy. To tell you the truth, I felt like I was back home (yes, very nerdy of me to say, but it's true!) I couldn't help letting some tears come out of my eyes and almost breaking down in the movie theater. But I calmed down enough to enjoy the rest of the movie.
I enjoyed seeing Ian Holm and Elijah Wood as Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, as well as seeing Galadriel, Elrond, Christopher Lee, and Ian McKellen again, not to mention having a whole ten minutes with Gollum again [:DD]. Plus the kick-ass awesome giant eagles of Middle Earth! :) The only problem I had with this movie was the villain (besides Smaug): it looked like something out of a World Of Warcraft game.:(
Anyway, I'll see you all later, when it's not so late! Happy Hobbit-days to you once more and try to go visit the Hobbit Hole sometime! ;)
<3, RS

Happy Hobbit-days!

Strangely enough, I was awake at midnight last night, but I wasn't at my local movie theater watching the midnight showing of "The Hobbit" (although now I'd give my left hand to be there right now). Although I was sleepily excited for the film's release. I totally geeked myself throughout today, screaming "HAPPY HOBBIT-DAYS!" to anyone I knew like a nut. I actually kind of feel bad for them now; they were probably like "WTF is wrong with her this time?"

But anyway, I'm getting sidetracked...

I'm extremely excited that it's finally came out! I even heard a couple talk about how good it was (!!!) as I was making my way through the day. Now I'm super excited to go see it and get that extreme-nerd adrenaline rush I only get when I watch awesome things I look forward to in epic surround sound! But it won't be tonight. Nope, sadly I will be busy tonight. And the night after that. And the night after that. And the night after that. And... well, you get the idea. But I'll find time out of my busy schedule to go and see it. After all, I want to see the updated Gollum, and the singing dwarves, and the elfin Cate Blanchet and Hugo Weaving, and Ian McKellen as a freaking wizard, AND TO SEE ELIJAH WOOD AND IAN HOLM AS FRODO AND BILBO BAGGINS AGAIN OMG I CAN'T WAIT ANY MINUTE MORE WHY IN THE NAME OF HELL IS IT SO FREAKING AWESOME I WANT TO GO SEE IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry about that. My nerdness knows no bounds...

Anyway, I hope you guys who saw it think it's awesome. Is it awesome? PLZ TELL ME!!! And I'll sign off by saying the very traditional greeting:

MERRY HOBBIT-DAYS!!!

<3, RS

P.S. I know this has gone around so many times it's almost sickening, but my sympathies to the families of the victims in Connecticut. I'm sorry about the losses of loved ones and I'm sorry things happened the way they did.

I. Effing. Love. Peter. Jackson.

I don't know if you guys know this, but I effing love Peter Jackson. Imagine a world completely void of Peter Jackson: it sucks! I seriously contribute everything good in life to the amazing Peter Jackson. Why am I praising the Almighty PJ, you ask? Well, for these reasons that I'm going to force you to listen to (jk):

1. He's from New Zealand, aka location shots for Middle Earth in the LOTR movies (we'll get to this later...)
2. He's a freaking knight. Apparently, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2010. How nice of the New Zeals!
3. He's married to Fran Walsh, one of the writers of the LOTR movies. Fun fact: she's the unearthly screetches of the Nazgul. I totally geeked my pants when I found out.
4. He directed the LOTR movies! He oversaw the location shots, the principal photography, the artisty, the everything, and created Middle Earth for those poor people who couldn't read the books...
5. He won a freaking Oscar for Best Picture in 2003. That's pretty good considering that he directed three fantasy movies.
6. He produced District 9 and The Adventures of Tintin, and directed the King Kong movie with Adrien Brody in it.
7. He's making The Hobbit into three movies, which is good but bad. The bad part about this is not knowing if he'll pull off telling the story of Bilbo into three different sections, adding some stuff that wasn't in the original book. But it's PJ! He'll do wonderfully as always (I hope)...
8. He helped create WETA, which contributed making movies like LOTR (duh), James Cameron's Avatar, District 9, and other films freaking amazingly cool.
9. He's a great director hands down, no questions asked.
10. He actually cameoed in some of his films. I won't give them away for those who want to find out for themselves, but here's the link for those who can't wait and want to make sure I'm not being a lying prick.

So, here's my list. If any one of your friends/enemies/frenemies goes up to tell you that Peter Jackson's movies are quote-unquote gay, give them this list and say "screw you, PJ rocks!"

As always, have a smashing day, and all the New Zeals out there in the world, I heart you guys!
<3, RS

Quick News on the Cats

As of the beginning of this week, Fred, George, and Hermione have been adopted and are probably still exploring their new homes! The only ones who are left in this family are Harry and Skeeter. If you're in the Seattle area, please visit them and consider adopting one of these sweet cats. I'd hate to think if they weren't adopted by the time Christmas was over...

Anyway, just hope you wanted to hear about the cats (if you didn't, you really had no choice)! Now go back to your lives!

<3, RS

Info on Harry
Info on Skeeter

You're Still Here! :)

I feel like I haven't posted anything in the past couple of weeks (when it was only a couple of days), but I still see people checking up on CVON, probably thinking "is there anything new? Oh, okay, I'll just sit all depressed until that RS character posts something again..."

Hopefully, you don't really think that... 0_0

Anyway, the reason I haven't been posting anything in the past couple of weeks (really, in the past 24+ hours) is because I'm pretty busy on something. I don't want to give anything else away, otherwise I'll lose interest. Just letting you know that if I don't post anything in the next couple of days, I'm busy concentrating on my "busy-ness".

In the meantime, enjoy this video during your temporary stage of RS depression. I'm so glad that you're still here to join the ride and that you haven't lost hope yet! :)

<3, RS

Christmas Fever!

It's weird that about this time of season I get this strange illness named "Santa-Clausus Evergreen-with-Snow-itis Syndrome". You might know it as the time when you get overly-obsessed with Christmas drawing ever closer and so you contract the common illness that is

CHRISTMAS FEVER

 

Anyway, I'm obsessed (like you didn't know that). And it's not helping that I'm watching Christmas movies from the 1950s, drinking the most delicious soy-eggnog you will ever have the grace to taste, and looking out my window, wondering WHY IN THE NAME OF SATAN CLAUS THERE IS NO EFFING SNOW YET??!!! I mean, really, I'm ready for it! At least one day of snow that covers everything before I'm set loose to create Merry-Christmas-and-Happy-New-Year-ing with my family with friends (with a bunch of work to take home, I'll bet you a billion dollars >:( ).

Anyway, what I'm trying to get across is that I'm really, really excited for Christmas (WITH SNOW!!!!!!!!!!) to come around and I can't wait to be free to celebrate this jolly time of year! :)

<3, RS

The Ultimate Happy-Maker-Thingy!

So I came home today, feeling all pissed off from the day's bullsh*t and came onto the wonderful Internets to find this little guy. Let's just say it turned me from this,:

X^(

to this:

0__0

in a matter of seconds.

I hope this has enlightened your day and filled your heart with exploding rainbows and cute puppies.

<3, RS

P.S. Sorry on the no-FanFiction-activity-thing! I'm having a hard time trying to write the right words I need to get this thing going! Hope you aren't too disappointed!

PCDS (Post Cat Depression Syndrome)

Yes, I have entered PCDS. The room that occasionally went bump in the night (and the day) is silent and I'm choking back tears of sadness and of cat litter smell. The once furry kittens I helped take care of are now gone, probably being viewed by volunteers down at the MEOW cat shelter and, hopefully, some loving family hoping to adopt a sweet pair of kittens to love and to take care of.

Yesterday was the last chance to see them before they would be transported to the shelter. I went in for about 30 minutes in the afternoon, a quick visit compared to the one I'd make later that night. At that last visit, I went from normal, to happy, to melancholy, to overly depressed in the hour that I last visited them. I had one last play with them, one last final cuddles with the ones that would tolerate being held. I heard all of them purr at the same time, which didn't help me compose myself free from tears. They were wonderful when I held them, not as wild as they normally were. I held Fred and Hermione for about five minutes, just peacefully lying in my arms, purring (once again, not helping me from bawling my eyes out). George was nice in not trying to gnaw on my fingers as I stroked under his chin and over his back. Harry was the worst of it: he was so sweet when I held him and he was so soft when I was holding him and petting him and he was purring! I couldn't help but hug him and gently squeeze him over and over again.
Finally, I had to leave the cat room to get on with my life. I looked at them all playing on the opposite side of the room and went out the door, not without taking one last look at them and saying "goodbye, kittens". Afterward, I was crying like this the rest of the night. After a while, I thought I was going to be okay when I noticed that the light was still on in the cat room (it was about 11:15 at night). I opened the door to turn off the light and saw all four kittens sitting right behind the opened door, looking up at me. I could barely take it. I lay in bed crying again and again and again and again.

And so, that brings me to today. Well, I'm still kinda bawling my eyes out, binging on ungodly non-healthy foods, really wishing I had ice cream....
Do you want to make a donation of one large tub of ice cream? Just send a coupon to theoriginalrspencer@gmail.com!

jk, jk....

Anyway, I'll wallow in the tides of my PCDS. But I'll be okay....eventually.....
<3, RS

P.S. Here are the pages for the cats! I would so appreciate it if you at least took a look at these wonderful babies in person:

Info on Skeeter
Info on Fred
Info on George
Info on Harry
Info on Hermione

Happy-Almost-the-Apocalypse!!!

I almost forgot that it's almost time for the End of the World (aka the end of the Mayan Calendar). In the preparations for the Mayan gods killing us all, I decided to let you know how long you have to do whatever the heck you wanted to do before you die. Enjoy the last days of your life!

<3, RS

;)

All I Want for Christmas is...

To be honest, I don't really know. I mean, it's great that my family and friends give me stuff for Christmas, but if they had to ask what I specifically wanted, I would have no idea. Well, besides the regular request for Barnes and Noble gift cards...

What do I really want? Well, something cool, like if Claire's teamed up with MLP and sold a bunch of cool merchandise. I'm totally into the Claire's merch, not so much the weird brand-name stuff, like the Nightmare Before Christmas or Hello Kitty, but small stuff like cute, nerdy necklaces and hipster glasses. I also like the David and Goliath t-shirts at Fuego...

IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU WHEN YOU HAVE NO EFFING IDEA WHAT YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS??!!

I'd actually want some more movies and music to listen to, so maybe I'd ask for another iTunes card. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!

Well, it would be really cool if I met someone famous for the day, but those famous people are busy with their own schedules and meeting less-fortunate kids with cancer.

I'm such a mess...

I'll leave you with the sane thoughts of Linus as I go and try to gather the rest of my dead brain cells to figure out some kind of wish list.

<3, RS

Dear Santa Claus,
How have you been? Please don't get the idea that I'm writing because I want something. Nothing could be further from the truth. I want nothing. Spend your time elsewhere. Don't bother with me. I really mean it. If you want to skip our house this year, go right ahead. I won't be offended. Really, I won't.

OMGZ! WRITING!

Hello there, my annoyed fans. I personally promise to stop posting 3 times a day and try and narrow it down to 1 post per day (how will I adapt?! jk). Even after two days of over-posting, I was starting to doubt if I would ever write on this blog again (since when I usually over-do things, I typically give up and try to forget about the embarrasing dorkness that just took place). Anyway, I'll try to limit myself and keep your urge to create an angry mob at bay. If I forget, however, you have my full permission to send an angry e-mail to theoriginalrspencer@gmail.com. I swear, this e-mail is real. I'm not trying to hack your e-mail accounts. It's a legit e-mail, so don't be afraid to e-mail me.

Anyway, I'm getting beside the point...

I found a mini-short story that I wrote not to long ago in one of my piles and piles of notebooks. I thought it was funny then, and I hope you guys find it funny now, my international viewers!

<3, RS

"OH MY GOD!" Tiffany looked manic.
"What?" I moaned. Knowing someone like Tiffany, it was probably something like...
"MY MASCARA WAND BROKE!" I groaned even more. It wasn't enough that we'd just crash-landed, not counting that we were most likely the only survivors, but I was going to live with Tiffany whining over her stupid stick for however long we were stuck in God-only-knows-where. Not only that, but she would also slow me down in gathering food, building shelter, etc. Maybe I can feed her to the wolves...
"OH MY GOD!!! THERE'S NO ONE LEFT! WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!!!" She started sobbing the most pathetic sob I have ever heard. For Tiffany.
"Don't worry. All we need is a working cell phone, if there's one left..."
"I've got one!" She immediately perked up (crap) and handed me her cell phone from inside her Pink jacket pocket.
"Well...call for help!" She dialed a number on her keypad and I wished she hadn't.
"Hello, this is Tiffany Brown. I'm calling to order a fuzzy, pink miniskirt please." It must have sounded weird on the other end as Tiffany grunted to avoid my mad tackle. "Oh, by the way, we're stuck in the middle of nowhere..." I slapped the phone out of her hand, sending it flying into a patch of burning wreckage.
She was so wolf food.