We saw Avatar yesterday afternoon (after an hour digging out Matt's car from where it was plowed in, what a workout), and I have a lot of thoughts about it.

Overall, I give it a solid B+. I do think it was worth seeing, but I also think it's fairly deeply flawed in a lot of ways. I liked it and I had fun, but I've got a lot to criticize. Matt's contention is that I see more of the flaws because I'm overeducated about how to read cinema, and he's likely right, but that doesn't invalidate them, so.
( Not heavy on spoilers but fairly robust on some points. And comments may have spoilers. )

One final note about the tech and cinematography, if you do see this movie: I thought the 3D really was at its best whenever we're looking through glass: scratched helicopter glass, pristine holding-cell plexi, whatever -- those moments when you could see layers in the film, the way you really see layers in reality, brought the physical world of it to life and I definitely see that sticking around in the next decade of cinema to come. Also, 3D has made great progress in even the last 2-5 years, and I can see it starting to be a viable technology (and not just a gimmick) in the future.

But James Cameron, using Papyrus for all of the subtitles makes you look like a 14-year-old.

Attention:

The snow in DC is every bit as bad as the forecast said... and the forecast got worse every 30 minutes all night long.

And Matt still has to go to work today. (After getting in a fender-bender on the way home last night. And yes, all involved parties and their vehicles are fine.)

I am going with him. I'll be packing my laptop, and food, and a warm sweater, and we'll be traveling together. If all goes well I'll still just be kicking around online all afternoon same as usual. If all doesn't go well, at least we'll be warmer together!

ETA: After I wrote this, I packed up the laptop and my sneakers and spare socks and lunch and the laptop and so on. Then I went to put on my boots... and looked out the window. Complete white-out blizzard conditions. We couldn't see the CVS literally across the street. The roads are gone... they're indistinguishable from the sidewalks and medians. Arlington county is not plowing residential streets; they're only doing the most major arteries, and that means my car's stuck in the parking lot until further notice. (And our parking lots have also not been plowed.)

I basically made him call in. If it clears up a bit later he may go in late (his normal shift is 3 - 11; it's a 35-minute drive which means, in this, a 90-minute drive) but I'm guessing not. And now I'm really mad at this snow for making my husband and his job disappointed in each other.

Okay, admittedly, I'm one of those people who make fun of DC for totally failing to cope with 6 inches of snow.

Except now our forecast for this weekend puts us in a 15" - 20" zone.

More than 18" would likely cancel schools even up home in New England.

Not looking forward to seeing how Virginia copes.

Work did a really cool thing, this year: since 2010 is our 25th anniversary, they just issued every full-time employee of the company a $25 gift certificate to Global Giving and directed us to spend it as we best saw fit. I gave mine towards Music Education in Harlem: something dear to me, someplace I've lived.

And this year, the country's hurting but I'm doing the best I ever have been, and have finally come to a stable place in my life (that I hope like hell lasts) so I doubled my donation to Child's Play, which I plug every year as one of my favorites. I like watching geeks and gamers worldwide try to bring more good into the world. And it may not be saving lives, but it is making them better.

Though on that note, I'm hoping to find a nearby food drive. We've ended up with a lot of canned goods that we don't really need and won't use, and I'd prefer to put them to good use. I'd even buy some extra. (Work's having a coats drive, but you can really only give away your old coat once, and I already did a year or two ago.) Too many people are going hungry right now... I can't help them all but at least I can help some.

I want to win the Powerball. Then I'd give a million dollars to soultoad to build a dog rescue & shelter, and I'd give a million dollars to build a shelter / school for homeless youth in honor of a friend who's not on LJ anymore, and I'd give a million dollars to marriage equality groups, and I'd give a million dollars to my college marching band, which has always been seriously chronically underfunded, and, and, and...

The world is so needy. Always has been. Probably always will be. My couple-hundred dollars a year isn't even a drop in the bucket, but it's more help than I used to be able to give. And maybe I should go buy a Powerball ticket...

Something's gone grievously wrong with my old hotmail account. I logged in this morning to find that "I" had sent a spam e-mail to everyone in my address book, including myself.

These days I only use it for sales lists, LiveJournal comments, and my @livejournal.com e-mail forwards there. If you get mail from me at hotmail, and you didn't send me an e-mail first, don't trust it.

10		empire of the sun
		walking on a dream
9		phoenix
		wolfgang amadeus phoenix
8		st. vincent
		actor
7		passion pit
		manners
6		mos def
		the ecstatic
5		animal collective
		merriweather post pavilion
4		diane birch
		bible belt
3		tegan + sara
		sainthood
2		metric
		fantasies
1		dirty projectors
		bitte orca

I'm planning two big posts this week: one trip write-up, and one discussion of A Song of Ice and Fire. But in the meantime, just a heads' up to everyone that a few international cards went out before I left, and the remaining two internationally-destined cards (both to the UK) and all od my domestic ones (about 25) are going out on Monday. So you should have them by Christmas or at worst by New Year's, and before the end of Hanukkah. ;)

Am back! No way that I am going to catch up on 6+ days' worth of either LJ or Facebook, so if you know specifically of anything interesting, important, or cute, leave me a note. :)

It's that time of year again.

the latest ten fictional characters i'd be all up ons

	annie community
	"Pick up your pompoms, stuff your bra, and get ready for the team bus to forget you at a Taco Bell, because life is tough."
	anna V
	"You still don't understand humanity."
	kate beckett castle
	"It's accompany and observe, not participate and annoy. Got it?"
	kelly erin hannon the office
	"He heard you made a big 'splash', at the meeting... oh my god that was so mean what I just said and I didn't mean it."
	adrianna tate-duncan 90210
	"Remember when I was on coke? Am I acting anything like that right now?"
	cheryl david curb your enthusiasm
	"What are you doing in the lobby 20 minutes before the show fighting with a Sikh?"
	betty draper mad men
	"You shouldn't be kissing boys. Boys kiss you."
	lexie grey grey's anatomy
	"I still love you whether you are capable of letting me or not. So, I forgive you."
	april ludgate parks + recreation
	"I gave my gay boyfriend's boyfriend a hickey and it totally made my gay boyfriend jealous."
	teresa lisbon the mentalist
	"He's a pain in the ass. But he's making sense. You sure you don't want to change your story?"

first list
second list
third list
fourth list

? -- this is not a '10 actresses who are hot' list. The internets have plenty of those. These are fictional characters for whom one can't help but fall head over heels in love with through the course of a television season. As a wise man once said in a fast food joint, personality goes a long way.