Busy Update

Sorry to have lacked in the updates today. I started putting together my I Love Money 3 fantasy league and I started to feel slightly pathetic / I need more time to finish it. At noon, my boss called and gave me a huge project, which I've been furiously trying to finish before she gets here at 4:30pm.

I work for a non-profit here in DC that focuses on getting more Latinos to and through college. Its a great organization - small, but great. I like how it is important work I believe in - not just something that pays the bills (although it does that, too). I get paid next week and I'm so stoked. The pay is pretty much a third percent increase on what I was making at the restaurant. It'll be great to save when I get the new roommates in.

Speaking of new roommates, this weekend is going to get crazy, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to update. Tonight mom is taking Jijad and I out to dinner at the Palm before we send him off back to San Francisco. Then, Jijad is doing this crazy going away thing tonight at Wonderland, at which I'm sure I'll get thoroughly trashed. Then, tomorrow, we're having a board meeting here at the office, and I'm expected to take minutes. Not cute.

On Sunday, I'm having five people come in and look at the house, so Saturday after the board meeting I have to go home and clean. Then, its off to Lindsay's for Howard's surprise birthday party. Tomorrow night my aunt Susie also comes into town, and we're probably all going to go somewhere for dinner on Sunday night. Monday is going to be incredibly busy at work, and my boss will probably be in the office with me all day working on this big project. Yikes.

Anyway, boring! Lance has been in Michigan for two days. I miss him a lot. Read more!

Question About A Latino Issue

Question: What do you think is a bigger issue for Latinos today - immigration, or education? Read more!

Best American Apparel Underwear Model?

You decide! I'll take one of each!

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Colors, that is! Teehee. Read more!

Mel Gibson: Best Gay Boyfriend EVER?!

Check this video out. It'll make you LOL, especially if you're a pop culture junkie like me.

Read more!

Lovely Update

So, since getting back from the west coast, things with Lance have cleared up. We went to Chromeo (AMAZEBALLS, as Lindsay would say) and he kept grabbing me like he forgave me the entire duration of the concert. We went to Wonderland afterwards and it was clear that there was tons of hesitation but we both missed what we had had. I was really surprised when he left with me, and I coaxed him into my house with his gift from California as a bribe.

I bought him his gift at Urban Outfitters in San Francisco, where they had a bay area exclusive t-shirt of a TACO with checkered slip-on Vans, an iPhone, riding a fixed gear. Underneath, it read: THE MISSION. Perfect. I had to explain the shirt to him, but once I told him about it, he loved it. I'd like to think he thought of me as being the taco, and that was the reason he loved it so much. Afterwards, he said he'd like to spend the night.

I cleared off my bed of my suitcase and all the clothes and gifts spewing out of it and we lay on it, facing each other in the soft yellow light. I told him I was sorry, and that my intentions were never to hurt him. I've never been into guys with longer hair (his is eye-length), but I enjoyed brushing it out of my face as we spoke. Lance told me he knew, and that he felt like he had a stronger idea of who I was than to be completely turned off by what had happened. We kissed. It was wonderful, and I woke up with him in my arms. And my "spooky" alarm (his words, not mine) going off at 7:30 AM.

Last night I had a total mental breakdown around 7pm because Lance is going back to Michigan for 2 weeks and I really wanted to see him, but he had to work the dinner shift. I waited around, and finally succumbed to a beer to ease my nerves. I tried to burn off some of my anxiety every way I could - working out, listening to music, a veggie steak and cheese, a beer, watching Terminator: Salvation (which I should review later) - nothing worked. I even considered going out with Steve last night, but he was with a bunch of Heights kids and I wasn't sure if I should go out at risk of seeing Lance and him thinking I was stalking him or something.

As I finished my movie around 11pm, I got a call from Lance, saying he was outside, about to leave for Michigan, and he wanted to say bye. It eased my nerves. I slept like a baby after that.

I haven't acted this way in a long time. What's changed? Read more!

Toy Story 3 vs. Inception

So, I'm hunting for two new roommates (which I will write about later), and one of the potentials wrote in his email that he likes debating lots of things, including why Toy Story 3 is better than Inception, which I am in total concurrence with. So, although that will not likely be a controversy in the house should be become my roomie, I still think its worth debating.

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ROUND 1: PLOT

Toy Story 3 is the third in a trilogy, a hard department because the production staff must not only remain loyal to the first two in the series, but also be innovative and bring something new to the table. Inception is the first of what will likely be a series, with absolute freedom over plot because of this, and also because the plot takes place where anything is possible.

Toy Story 3 takes place approximately 10 years after the second film, in which Andy's last toys (Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Bullseye, the Potatoheads, Rex, Hamm, the Pizza Planet aliens, Slinky Dog, and Barbie) find themselves donated to a daycare after their owner prepares to leave for college. Along the way, they encounter seemingly harmless toys with insidious intentions, incarceration, a child's room which gives Woody a glance into his past, and a horrific, heart-stopping trip to the city dump. Toy Story 3 is relentless in the best possible way - giving the audience genuine heroes to root for, who all the while wonder how the geniuses at Pixar can make a story about plastic junk so heartfelt. The creators of Toy Story knew they were tapping into good stuff - the bare bones love that a child shares with their toys, which most of us can relate to.

Inception, on the other hand, is a sci-fi thriller about Dominic Cobb, a dream stealer of sorts, in which he and his team (including the handsome Joseph Gordon-Levitt) infiltrate their subject's minds to either get information or implant ideas. Through special effects and the hackneyed usage of "a dream within a dream," the plot gets twisted and lost as entire scenes become irrelevant because they are not real. A thread that runs the course of the film is Cobb's troubled relationship with his wife and her violent death, and his urgency to get home to his children after being expatriated against his will.

ROUND 2: EFFECTS

Lets face it - lots of us go see movies these days to see things that we can't in real life. Special effects have a large role in this. In Toy Story, we are invited into the wild and colorful world of toys, which not only lassos us back into the wonder of being a child, but also makes us think twice about what we throw away. Although made to look more like a cartoon than real life, most of the animation replicates our world in a new and interesting way, and all of it feels authentic. Real expression appears on the faces of the characters, which makes us feel for them that much more. Even though he's a toy made to be played with by kids everywhere, Big Baby (a new character introduced for this film) still seems scary. Very quickly, one forgets they are watching a movie about things that don't actually move and speak, and are brought into the film despite the cartoonish animation.

Inception is hands down one of the most visually interesting films of the year. The key difference between Inception and Toy Story 3 in this regard is that it is live action, and the animation and special effects in some of the scenes are just breathtaking. Towards the end of the film, a fight sequence breaks out in the hallway of a hotel where gravity keeps shifting - probably the coolest fight sequence since the first Matrix film. There is also one scene where "architect" Ariadne (played by Ellen Page) folds a part of the city over in on its other, more physics-oriented half, which can be scene in many of the promotional photos and trailers for the film. Most of the film takes place in a beautiful dream world where anything is possible, however, most of the time the characters (nor the creative directors) allowed themselves to truly dream up ridiculous and amazing things, which was my number one gripe with the film.

ROUND 3: CHARACTER

The characters in a film can make or break a film. If you don't have a character one can relate to or care about, then the journey isn't as exciting or, in some cases, completely ineffective. Most people who saw Toy Story 3 have seen at least one of its predecessors, and, if you're like me, you saw them when you were a lot younger. In fact, I was Andy's age when the first film came out, so I could totally relate to his love for toys, and I could even relate to the toys themselves. A common theme between the three films was abandonment - more extensively explored in this film than the first two. Not only do the toys feel abandoned by their owner, but because Andy is leaving for college, we get to briefly glimpse into his mom's onset of empty nest syndrome. There is even a sad scene in the final moments of the film which takes Andy's breath away, indicative of the same feeling of loss that the rest of the toys deal with throughout the course of the movie.

Cobb's character in Inception is dealing with loss, as well - the loss of his wife, the loss of his family, and maybe even the loss of his sanity - which isn't clear cut by the end of the film. Most of the characters in the movie are one-dimentional, as well, given specific roles (the architect, the chemist, the forger) which leaves room for very little development. We do see the aforementioned Ariadne develop throughout the film - a character likely built into the script to provide the audience with explanations while learning alongside her. Even after we go into Cobb's mind, its as though the curtain is blatantly lifted off of his mystery rather than slowly unwrapping it like a good suspense film would do.

VERDICT: TOY STORY 3

So, I don't think its any surprise. I think that Toy Story 3 was far superior. In the words of my sister, "K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple, Stupid." When you try to go into complex ideas like Inception, you have to go all the way - not just happily tie every knot in the end for the layman American audience. You have to be willing to throw your characters under the bus the way the writers of Toy Story 3 did (well, in their case, into the dump) and then justify why it matters. Because Inception takes place in a dream, it ultimately leaves the audience with the same feeling that Dorothy feels upon waking up at the end of "The Wizard of Oz" - disappointment. Read more!

Hang in there, baby!

Miss u.

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Happy HUMP Day!

Something tells me grandma likes it!



And something tells me I'll be blogging a lot more again. Watch out, now. Read more!

Moving Forward

I have done a lot of things, many of which I am not proud of. The list is actually so long, if an average-heighted man was holding it up to his eyes, the bottom would hit the floor.

I am in the middle of a really ridiculous breakup. Not because the guy is out of line, but because I am a fuck up. I'm not sure how things are going to pan out. I want to say that I can see us living happily ever after, because, lets be honest, this was a guy I actually seriously saw myself tying the knot with. Because I am, apparently, a big hoe, that may not happen.

Who was I kidding, thinking I could get away with the same shenanigans I pulled in the past? I mean, if anything, this is a wake-up call to prevent me from messing things up with future boyfriends. But I'm not willing to just give up on Lance. I really, really like him. He was right when he said that the first few weeks with someone should be euphoric newness. Instead, I was getting my last minute jollies in before I settled down. And it fucked me up, good.

I always thought it would be me doing the breaking up. Especially since Dugaldo. I knew I would never let anyone fool me again, the way he fooled me. Speak of the devil, I am currently in at Brainwash, a laundromat restaurant and bar, where a washer is actually called "Dugalho." Coincidence? A scorned ex-lover taking their anger out in a much more clever way than I ever did? Pictures to come.

Anyway, I'm seriously bothered by this. I want to move forward, but I'm not sure how. I get back to Washington DC on July 26th. Lance leaves for Michigan on July 28th or 29th for two weeks. Not enough time to build things back to where they were. I just hope he gives me the opportunity to.

Its the only thing I can think about. Read more!