I'm just sayin'

So, check it out, I made this in like, 2005 (maybe 'aught four).


(It says, "Look, nothing was going to keep Bethany from surfing, ok?")

And NOW...



Oh! My! God! Look what happens about 1 minute and 10 seconds in!

It's YOUR MOVE, Helen Hunt!

40 days of rain

One of the fun things we did in LA was visit the Skirball Center where they have a Noah's Ark exhibit. They built a really beautiful interactive ark that you can wander through and play with a bunch of animals and climb on stuff and break stuff and scoop up fake poop and stuff. A lot of the animals are made from recycled materials, like, check it out, this sheep is made of a bike seat and handles, a mop and funnels. It's a really fun place, but probably best to go if you have a kid in tow, otherwise you might look pervy.

We also wandered around the Venice canals one day - that was really fun and I highly recommend it. You can peek in people's tiny yards and admire the architecture of this really unique area. And, if you're me, go home and try to figure out how much it would cost to live there (don't ask.).


Here's me and C on a sunny (but cold!) day!

Sucker Punch

When we were in LA, little M kept pointing at billboards and asking what Sucker Punch was all about. We told him it was about a "surprise punch" that was "for aunties and uncles only." I was quite interested in seeing this movie despite its horrendous reviews, because I like the actress in it. She's that young woman who was in Lemony Snicket? I love that movie. There's also a few other actresses that you may remember from child-roles, trying to prove they're All Grown Up now, a la Lindsay Lohan in (the hilarious) I Know Who Killed Me.

Anywho. Sucker Punch is by that director who made 300, so it's really stylized like that and frankly would probably have made a better video game. But, it's ostensibly about grrrls kicking ass, and it's kind of goth and steam-punk, with a Blythe-doll aesthetic, so that's kind of cool. The story is a dumb "dream within a dream" Inception-y kind-of-thing where this girl is put in a Dickensian mental institution, and to escape that reality, she imagines she's in a Dickensian bordello, and to escape that reality, she imagines she's fighting lunatic things like zombie nazis and orcs and the robots from iRobot. In all of these realities, the girls have some ridick faux eyelashes and buckets of Urban Decay make-up. For once I'd like to see a movie in the Girls Kicking Ass genre that wasn't executed as if by a 12 year old boy. I can guarantee you there'd be less fetishistic outfits (but maybe keep the faux eyelashes, amirite, ladies? Whatwhat?!)

Vacay

Last week we had a little vacation to LA for some warm weather and a nice visit with sister and beloved nephew. We didn't end up getting any nice weather, but but we did have a lovely visit with C and Little M. You wouldn't believe how many things went wrong, but nicer moments included dinners with old friends, a visit to Venice beach and wandering around the canals, seeing James Franco's installation at the Gagosian Gallery and getting mildly obsessed with River Phoenix. Also I got some super-cute Tarina Tarantino earrings. Here's a little video. 4 mins.

Things that have gone wrong on our vacation so far...

1. I destroyed my new G2 fone when water leaked all over it in my bag.
2. We left the lights on in my sister's car and had to call The Guy to jump it.
3. M & I were sitting in a bench and the back broke and we fell on the ground.
4. And everyone looked at us and it was embarrassing.
5. We went to war with Libya.
6. LA is having crazy downpours and there's flooding. No sun.

But, aside from that, we've been having a lovely time visiting with sister and beloved nephew. Pictures later.

W00T PWN: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Husband has been playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (PS3) for a loooong time now with no apparently intention to stop any time soon. In fact, when I said I was ready to write my review, he said, "I haven't even started the multi-player yet!" Pity.

As far as I can tell, in Assassin's Creed you plays this dude in a cape and hood who sneaks around and climbs up the side of buildings, like Spiderman or Jason Bourne. He goes on dopey "missions" in Rome in the 15th century (I looked it up on Wikipedia). The graphics are pretty nifty and I like looking at the city and the buildings. Thank GOD or I would have gone completely bonkers! M is somewhat obliging when I'm like, "Wait, go back and look at that fountain" or whatever. Also some of the characters mutter or shout in Italian like, "Andiamo" or "Scuzi" or "basta" and that's pretty cool. There's actually a TON of Italian in it. Also a lot of the locations are actual places. I wonder how much of the map of Rome is truly accurate? The dopey bits are that there's some kind of weird back and forth in time and like, the main character is actually like this contemporary dude in a laboratory or something? I don't really get it. And the missions are like, Go over there and knife that guy or Help that hooker find out who roofied her. And then later they're like, Drive Leonardo da Vinci's tank around.

You can buy a run-down doctor's shop and fix it up and then when you get stabbed you can go get "health". Or you can buy a tailor shop and have them make you a new cape and hood. You can also buy other stuff like art in a little shop on a side street and choose from any number of Raphael paintings like The Resurrection of the Christ or St. Michael and the Dragon. Ha. Well. I mean. Come on. That's very unlikely.
Also one day he bought the effing COLOSSEUM.

A video game just wouldn't be a video game without a gang of prostitutes. (M corrects me that they are "courtesans") They are actually the assassin's sister and mother! (M corrects me that they aren't actually courtesans, they just run the brothel.) All the courtesans have funny hairdos that make them look like they have kitten ears.

I think it would be a lot more fun if there were no killing and instead you just walked around Rome looking at stuff and visiting your friends' houses and talking in Italian. And maybe if the character had a wife and they went out for coffee and gelato and went to nice concerts at night and stuff.

I would rate this game pretty darn unbearable, at this point. It's never ending. Basta!

Oscar recap... well, not really

So, did you watch the Oscars? I live-tweeted them, although I think only approximately 2 (possibly less) people read them. I thought the Oscars were terribly dull, and I was a bit disappointed with the couture as well. Which reminds me - I took this Oscar Dress Quiz and was at once both incredibly proud and embarrassed by my excellent results. Why don't you take it?