Courtship is a preparation for mounting.This will certainly turn out to be one of the most memorable lines I've ever heard. Dr. Jugo, our illustrious prof in Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, said it while discussing Charles Darwin's requirements for the survival of species (namely: reproduction, competition for limited resources, and survival of the fittest). You get the picture. It was a shocker, really, considering that Dr. Jugo is a self-confessed gentelman who you'd think wouldn't discuss, erm, sensitive topics in a frank and in-your-face manner, however scientific he made it sound. His message to guys: if a girl rejects your suit, take it personally because it means that you're not man enough. Riiiiiiiight.
Anyway, I pulled one of my over-analyzing stunts over this interesting statement, and guess what: I formulated a conspiracy theory based on it! Cool, huh? Observe that the themes of most of the products of art (e.g. music, theater, literature, etc) are based on or related to love and courtship. These products of art form an integral part of human culture and identity because they are expressions of the collective experiences of the society. Thus, does it mean that
human culture and civilization is driven, or at least majorly influenced by, the desire to mount?
Scary thought. If Sigmund Freud, God bless his soul, had heard of this, he would've had a field day. What do you think? :)
Tagged by Mia:
First, you state the rules of the game. And the rules are:
1. State the rules.
2. Make your list of "6 weird things/habits"
3. Pick 6 people you wanna tag and have the world see their names at the bottom of the list.
4. The 6 people you tagged are gonna have to write an entry about their list.
6 weird things/habits of Steph Jordan:
1. I have difficulty sleeping before 12 midnight.
2. I love tea. As in pure herbal tea, with no milk or sugar. (Unusual for kids)
3. Disney, Nickelodeon, MTV, Discovery Channel, and HBO are the only TV channels I watch.
4. I think nerds are cute.
5. Chuck Taylors are my only rubber shoes. I have different colors of them (magenta, blue, light blue and yellow, orange, black).
6. I have insane powers of concentration when reading a book I like. I can read a full-length English novel (even the ones with insanely small fonts) for about 5-6 hours straight. I once stayed up from 10pm-8am reading Anne Rice's Blackwood Farm for the first time.
Tagging: Everyone who happens to read this. Yes, that means YOU.
From
MiaSUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 80 movies, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 168 movie titles on this list. Put your score in header and repost.
( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
(x) Starsky and Hutch
( ) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
( ) My First Mister
( ) The Virgin Suicides
Total: 3/11
( ) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan: The Legend of Ron Burgandy
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
( ) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
(x) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total: 1/12
( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total: 0/11
(x) Harry Potter
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil I
( ) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total: 6/10
(x) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
(x) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
(x) 13 Going on 30
(x) I, Robot
( ) Robots
Total: 5/10
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
(x) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG
Total: 4/12
(x) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
(x) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
(x) The Ring
(x) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
( ) Flubber
Total: 6/14
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
(x) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
Total: 2/9
(x) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child's Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
(x) Gothika
(x) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
(x) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
(x) the Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total: 7/14
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Se7en
( ) Ocean's Eleven
(x) Ocean's Twelve
( ) Identity
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Total: 3/13
( ) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Boss' Daughter
(x) Maid in Manhattan
( ) Frailty
(x) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total: 3/12
( ) Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She's All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
(x) Ever After
( ) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) Terminator 2
Total: 4/12
( ) X-Men
( ) X2
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
(x) The Others
(x) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) Cruel Intentions 3
(x) The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total: 8/17
( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(x) A Walk to Remember
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total: 4/11
GRAND TOTAL: 57 movies
Wow, I actually have a life! But where are the Star Wars films, pray tell?
Watched these two movies with Jodie this week, and I thought I'd review them (ala-Sir Ron). Just my two cents, that's all.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!I didn't watch X-Men 1 and 2, so I won't be comparing them to X-Men 3. However, after reading reviews on the internet, I gather X-Men 3 is widely considered as mediocre compared to the previous two (it was even compared to the third film in the original Star Wars trilogy in this respect). Taking into consideration the film on its own merits, I'd say this is true. Sure, we get all the amazing effects, loud explosions and testosterone-charged fights required in a high-budget blockbuster action flick, but the characterization is lacking. There were just too many characters; although I guess this would illustrate the scope of the mutant issue and would be cool service to us comic- and cartoon-obsessed, you feel like they were just really pawns in the whole war thingy. Angel's backstory was shown in the first part of the film, but after that he disappears (despite him being featured prominently in the trailer). Other supporting heroes and villains looked as if they were just given 10 minutes to show off.
Now on to the major characters. Storm? Pffft. I didn't feel any leadership or power from her whatsoever. Cyclops? A broken man, but why was his death off-camera? Jean Grey definitely strutted her stuff, but she wasn't that intimidating as Phoenix. She just stared at the camera with her hair going poof (the veins and yellowish eyes were a nice touch though). I liked the scenes at her house (i.e. Professor X's death) and at the medlab, but during her time with Magneto she was just standing around looking pretty. Wolverine was great (of course). Cameron Bright really owns the role of the ethereal child. I'd have to say that Patrick Bateman and Sir Ian Mac-gay-en (hehe) did the best jobs with their characters; Magneto and Prof X looked like they were having the time of their lives being manipulative DOMs.
The fights were great. Mutants and humans kicking butt (oh wow). Iceman vs Pyro: who's hotter, fire boy or ice boy? I liked the chase scene between Kitty and Juggernaut; it proved that Juggy is a big lumbering eeeeediot
(Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!). It was really weird when Magneto moved the bridge to Alcatraz though; one moment it was the day, then the next it was night. And why'd he have to move the bridge anyway; shouldn't he just have asked Jean to levitate them there? And where was Angel during the fight, huh?
X-Men 3 is an okay movie, as expected from its big budget. However, it suffered from featuring too many characters and storylines (i.e. the mutant cure, the Dark Phoenix saga, the war, the love triangles...) in just 1 hr and 30 mins.
The Omen. I've been told the original movie was creepy as hell, but this one just ended up funny. The subject is overused; how many times have we watched/read something that warned that the end of the world is coming? The prophecies describing the "son of the devil" were too forced; the boy emerging from the "sea of politics"? A photographer predicting his own death based on a random picture he took of himself? Ridiculous. In the end, the psychological torture of Julia Stiles ended up more interesting than the whole omen storyline. A lot of questions were left hanging: Why did the hospital people kill the ambassador's real child? What was the reason behind the priest's paranoia and desire for repentance? Why did the nanny commit suicide? If the mark of the beast was on the child's scalp, shouldn't the parents have noticed it early on when the child was a bald infant? Who really were the nanny and the dog?!
The ending of the movie had implications, though. The son of the devil being the adopted son of the US President, making him a future power player in the world's leading economy? Just peachy; the "sea of politics" indeed! And how does that lead to the end of the world, exactly?
Thus, instead of giving me insomnia for many nights to come, The Omen earned more cynical scoffs from me than a true horror flick deserves. The apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo sounded implausible, a lot of plot elements were simply pointless, and the movie failed to give a larger scope of catastrophes than you might expect from a self-respecting devil. And oh yeah, was it just me, or did the kid look scary mainly because of his extremely dark eyebags?
It was my dad's birthday last Saturday. We didn't have a party; we didn't even have a special family dinner in some fancy restaurant. My dad is the epitome of the workaholic; he doesn't take vacations if he can help it. I guess he was working all day during his birthday (but maybe they did throw him a bash at the office...not sure though). So we didn't really get to spend time with him. In fact, the only time we spend "quality time" with dad is during Sundays.
That said, I kinda had difficulty thinking what to write in the birthday card we were supposed to give him. I mean, I don't know what exactly was going on in his life; I sure as hell don't understand business-speak (like IPOs, investments and all that crap). But then, I know a lot about his character, because he's a lot like me. We're extremely private, we value our "alone-time", we're not expressive of our feelings, and we generally do not meddle in other people's business. We both tend to act like know-it-alls, and we aspire for achievements because they bolster our self-esteem. We feel that other people don't really need to be updated on every new development in our lives; it's just important that people trust that we have responsibility for our actions. I guess I don't really mind the distance, because I understand him.
My mom pointed out to me that I'm becoming more and more like my dad as I grow up, as shown in the similarities in our behavior and personal preferences. I've started to read his magazines (Time, Fortune, and BusinessWeek), and I'm as hooked on them as he is (I'm starting to understand the business-speak). When we're working or watching TV in the living room after a stressful day, we tend to shoo away people in order to relax in a quiet, peaceful, solitary environment (poor mom, she always gets shooed away, but we tell her not to take it personally). We both like action/suspense movies and hate sappy romances. We're careful when it comes to money and meticulous about saving it.
Of course, we do have differences (since I'm my own person after all and I also have my mom's genes). I highly doubt that my dad will ever read gothic horror Anne Rice novels (if he did, he might forbid me to read them ever again...heehee). He detests cartoons because he thinks they're juvenile and backward. He doesn't love Star Wars as much as I do (I inherited the Star Wars, Anne Rice and comic book mania from my mother's side). Although, it kinda surprised me when he started to like Justice League after watching some episodes with me, even going so far as to implicitly declare that Superman was his favorite character (maybe he identifies himself with him...oh the ego of men).
So my dad is mostly passive and I mainly feel his influence through the behavioral qualities we share. But that doesn't mean he didn't spare me the fatherly pep-talk we all go through. As private as he is, he often gives me and my sis advice because he likes to feel that he has done his share of guidance. Because of the similarities in our outlook, I've rarely heard him say anything I didn't already know (my mom's the one who teaches me the more practical stuff), but of course it's nice to know he cares so much, especially about our future. His favorite quote is "history man, history," that you should rise above mediocrity in order to leave a legacy, thus giving meaning to your life (of course, we don't take this
too seriously).
So when I had figured out all this, I wrote to him that although we don't spend a lot of quality time due to his responsibilities at work, and although we don't normally express our feelings due to our loner behavior, we're always assured of our trust and love for one another. For us, parties and chit-chat aren't that important; words are less important than the understanding and empathy we share.
