SleepyJane just asked me what my thoughts were on the fourth season of Supernatural, and I'm sorry to say it opened the floodgates.

Ah, the Oscars... I have such a love/hate relationship with you.

Frequently I sputter in outrage over the movies selected to receive the prestigious awards. Frequently I cry out in frustration at the long acceptance speeches. Frequently, and this is my favorite part, I shriek in horror at OSCAR FASHION.

Yes, the only reason I watch the Oscars at all is honestly just to check out who is wearing the ugliest dress, and though Oscar Fashion was kind of boring this year, I had plenty to scream and avert my eyes from.

Behold my discoveries.

Amanda Seyfried may well have escaped my notice completely were it not for the giant bow in the middle of her dress. Without the bow, the dress would have been boring, but sometimes boring is the lesser of two evils.

Beyonce, your dress was as terrible as your performance. In fact, I don't even want to talk about it.

I really like Heidi Klum's shoes. I do not love her dress. The neckline sort of makes me feel like her dress wasn't quite finished yet, but she wore it to the Oscars anyway even though there were still a few seams that needed to be sewn. "I'm Heidi Klum!" she probably announced airily. "Everyone will think this is what it's supposed to look like, and I'll be stunning!" You are pretty neat, Heidi, but no, bad dress.

Jessica Biel gleefully snatched a curtain from her picture window and wrapped it around herself with a flourish while brandishing her empty wine bottle. "I'm going in THIS! I'll just tuck a table runner into it, and I'm ready to go!"

I think Marisa Tomei is a stunning creature. However, and you may not be able to tell from the angle of this photo, from the waist down her dress looks as though it was created by stapling a bunch of those fold-out paper fans together. TOO MANY PLEATS!

The next time Melissa George appears at the Oscars will be for her ground-breaking role as a mermaid. Seriously though... super skinny, tight, constricting dress suddenly exploding into a mass of tulle? No.

Miley Cyrus.... if I never hear her name again I'll die a happy woman. I'll also die a happy woman if I never have to see this dress again. I just... I don't even know what to say about it, except.... EWWW.

I actually think Penelope Cruz looks lovely. Lovely if she were at her own vintage wedding. Which, if I may point out, she is not.


Sarah Jessica Parker. How I loathed you in Sex and the City. How I have often scoffed at your clothing, and true to form, last night was no exception. I am somewhat grateful to you, however, for your attempt to look like a fairy princess with smashed boobs bulging out of your dress certainly gave me something to laugh about. (Seriously, you can't tell so much in this picture, but the boob bulge was BAD.)


Now I don't actually know who Vanessa Hudgens is (or even how to spell her name) but I do know that the random sprouting of feathers and whatsits from her chest, paired with the boufy (shut up, that's a word!) bottom, really make this dress a piece of work. A piece of burn it in a bonfire work.

Now that I've insulted several famous women on their choice of outfit, I'd like to turn to the actresses that I thought looked amazing:

Although I was not fond of (and by "not fond of" I mean "hated with a firey passion") Amy Adam's necklace, I thought her dress was stunning. Dramatic, flattering, and interesting without looking weird from any angle. Lovely.

I heard Freida Pinto caught a lot of flack for wearing this dress because it was "too old for her". To be honest I can kind of see where the nay-sayers are coming from, but the color is so gorgeous on her, the lace is so pretty, and it has such an awesome sari-like feel to it, that I say good job.

This is Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman. I don't know who Georgina Chapman is, but her dress is awesome. It reminds me of some crazy tapestry or maybe an awesome rug. I know it sounds weird, but I really like that dress!

Natalie Portman is a wee, petite sprite of lovely. I'm not 100% crazy about the color, but I just love the overall look.

Most everyone at the Oscars feel into three catagories: LOVE IT, GROSS, and BORING. There were a few, however, that I simply couldn't figure out how I felt about.

I think Jennifer Aniston is quite pretty, even if she's never been one of my favorite actresses (and MY GOD I hated 'Friends'!) but I think her dress is okay. It's the hair that's making me nuts! Elegant, fairly simple dress, with that hair! I just... I don't know.

Kate Winslet could show up at the Oscars wrapped in a shiny black trashbag with thigh high hooker boots and I would still comment on how gorgeous she was. But still... I'm not crazy about the dress. And again with the hair! You can't really see it in this picture, but it totally ruined everything. With great hair I'm pretty sure I would have liked the dress.

Taraji Henson has an awesome name and an awesome necklace. However, I can't decide if I adore her dress, or if it looks like someone ran in circles around her really fast with a roll of paper towels.

Lastly, there is always a person or two who you love because they're so crazy, and you secretly hope they'll show up wearing something bizarre.

Mickey Rourke, the only man who stands out enough in a crowd to warrant making it into my blog post. How I adore you and your craziness!

As far as award show getup goes this is tame as far as Tilda Swinton is concerned. But... it's TILDA SWINTON! I both worship her, and am sort of scared of her.

And so ends Oscar Fashion 2009 with Becca. I missed the Oscars last year, but I did cover Oscar fashion in 2007. The formatting broke when I transferred it from Wordpress, there are typos, and the writing is poor, but you get the idea.

Until next year!

*Photos were jacked from here: http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/02/oscar_red_carpet.html

I originally posted this on Power Word: Totem, but thought it was worth another post. It may be World of Warcraft related, but it has enough real world significance that I threw it on here as well. Plus, I'm having some serious writers block. Give me a break. ^_^

The Art of Persuasion.

I was playing World of Warcraft and running my toon Härpy around the Borean Tundra powering through quests when she ran into that one. It took me by surprise. I carefully read the quest text, then re-read it.

"It is fortunate you're here, Troll.

You see, the Kirin Tor code of conduct frowns upon our taking certain 'extreme' measures - even in desperate times such as these.

You, however, as an outsider, are not bound by such restrictions and could take any steps necessary in the retrieval of information.

Do what you must. We need to know where Lady Evanor is being held at once!

I'll just busy myself organizing these shelves here. Oh, and here, perhaps you'll find this old thing useful.... "

"WTF is THIS?!" I typed incredulously to my boyfriend. "I'm being told to torture a prisoner?"

Until just recently, America had a president in office who staunchly defended the use of torture techniques. Movies, television shows, and video games constantly glorify that barbaric approach to gaining information, and suddenly I was faced with my favorite game jumping on the filthy bandwagon.

I used to scoff at the idea that the entertainment industry was the cause of violent crimes. When the Columbine shooting occurred I shrieked in outrage every time I read an article that held metal bands responsible. "I listen to metal, and I'M not about to go shoot up a school," I snapped. "How about some personal accountability!" But since then I've seen our entertainment become more realistic and grim, and witnessed the emergence of the "torture porn" cinematic genre. When Hostel was released, I'm ashamed to say I went to go see it. Within the first half of the film I literally felt sick to my stomach, but worse than the film was the fact that I was surrounded by young men who laughed through the entire duration of the movie.

I am still reluctant to blame the media, blame entertainment. It still feels like a cop out to me, a way to dodge the personal responsibility. But I don't think there's any escaping the fact that we are building a culture of desensitization - perhaps have built. And I know that this quest seems insignificant. Click, click, the prisoner says a few cheesy lines, and it's done. From how I look at it, it feels like all Blizzard is doing is adding to the commonplace nature of torture, and not only that, promoting it. What does Librarian Normantis say to you?

"You see, the Kirin Tor code of conduct frowns upon our taking certain 'extreme' measures - even in desperate times such as these."

Even in desperate times such as these. I say that in desperate times such as these, and by that I mean the world we, as players, have to inhabit in real life, we need to stand up and object to this casual integration of brutality into our every day entertainment.

This is a smaller point, but one I'd still like to mention.

Children play this game.

I'm a twenty-four year old adult, I was raised with very strong moral values, and I know the difference between right and wrong. World of Warcraft is rated "Teen", and I know twelve year olds who play. Now don't get me wrong, I believe very strongly that parents should be involved in what their children are doing, and the games that their children are playing. But even if you're an attentive parent and you're watching your fourteen year old play WoW here and there, it seems all right. Cartoony graphics, bloodless battle. Odds are you probably wouldn't notice the quests to torture helpless prisoners slipped in there under the radar. What's next, torture in children's books?

And don't even get me started on Forsaken biological warfare.

I decided this year that I need to start writing in a diary again. I was pretty good about writing when I was fifteen and sixteen, and let me tell you, re-reading the things I wrote back then is freaking hilarious! The angst! The drama! In addition to the hilarity, it really makes me happy that I'm not a teenager any more.

Humor is not the reason I want to keep a diary again, although it probably will be pretty funny to look back in ten years at my twenties ("the angst, the drama!" my thirty-four year old self will giggle). No, the real reason is that if I'm unexpectedly murdered, I want the attractive police detective or FBI agent to have something juicy to search for clues in.

I get such a kick out of reading a book or watching a movie where someone is murdered and the investigator discovers the treasure trove of wicked little secrets - The Diary - in the victim's bedroom. Stories of stalkers, illicit affairs, furious parents... all held within the pages of The Diary, and inevitably leading to the arrest of the murderer.

Now, if I was murdered, the attractive cop or FBI agent wouldn't have a diary to read, thus lowering the chances of my murderer being caught. Clearly this problem needs to be rectified, because we never know when we might find a serial killer waiting for us in our coat closet.

My diary won't be a composition notebook like it was when I was fifteen, nor will it be a cute or pretty book with 'Diary' emblazoned on the cover. No, mine will be a forbidding, thick, leather bound tome that I'll keep hidden under the false bottom of a dresser drawer. The detective who finds it will feel a chill when he touches the cover, not quite able to bring himself to pick it up yet, because a book like that just screams 'scandal'!

Of course, it will be quite a let down when the detective starts reading:

"Jan. 6: Came home for lunch today. I had a peanut butter sandwich and some vegetable beef soup. SOOO GOOD! Kitty has fleas again."

"Jan. 7: I remembered to pick up some Advantage at the vet's office for kitty. Pat's coming over. We're going to play Grand Theft Auto and watch Resident Evil movies! Yay!"

"Jan 8: Forgot to set my alarm last night! I've never gotten ready for work so fast!"

Obviously I'm going to have to introduce some more scandal to my life to make sure my diary isn't a disappointment in the event of my murder. On the plus side, my blog will get a lot more interesting! Don't expect all the details of my new, scandal-filled life, though - I have to leave some secrets for The Diary!

!Dry, Boring Post Warning!

Oh, the beautiful world of real estate sales.

The Monday morning staff meeting started off fairly quietly. The Boss was out of the office taking a class, and one of the agents was off getting a certification (real estate agents sure like those important looking letters after their names), effectively leaving the meeting with just four attendees; myself, Office Manager, and two agents. We discussed a new listing, bickered good-naturedly over who was holding a house open for the agent tour tomorrow, talked about our newest overhaul to one of the company websites....

Then we arrived at our list of closed and pending sales.

It's no mystery to anyone in the country that the real estate market has plummeted, a fact that is driven home every time I look at statistics, and especially so when I glanced at the office's closed/pending sales report this morning. There's not much on there. It's a low number. Scary low. Lower than I've ever seen. Granted, here in my small corner of Western Washington we're not as bad off as some parts of the country, but it's still not a pretty picture.

There are a few things I wanted to touch on here concerning the real estate market in my town. The first is Washington's new(ish) "Distressed Home" sales law. This law, enacted somewhere around June of this year, created new duties for real estate agents and brokers who were selling "distressed" homes; that is, homes that are in danger of/ in the process of foreclosure. An agent/broker who agreed to help someone sell a "distressed" home is now a Distressed Home Consultant, which entails additional duties and much greater liabilities, including the potential for incurring much greater actual damages in the event of a violation of the law. From my take on things, this was an extremely important step that needed to be taken. Foreclosures have skyrocketed as homeowners default on mortgages, leaving them vulnerable to foreclosure rescue scams. Unfortunately the extreme increase of liability associated with taking on the responsibilities of a "DHC" caused many larger real estate offices to refuse to allow their agents to accept a distressed listing, leaving homeowners little option but to have their homes repossessed, something I'm sure the banks weren't all that thrilled by. They don't want the houses back.

The swell of foreclosures was met by an equal tide of cheap new construction homes, leaving resale houses to linger on the market.

Interestingly enough, home prices have not fallen all that much in my county (in comparison to other areas). Of course, the trade off is that there are fewer and fewer sales. Home prices are being forced to adjust until affordability is again on par with income, and from my personal experience, sellers are unwilling to acknowledge the fact that prices are dropping. They insist that the price of their home is exactly where it should be. The value of a home is a touchy subject for homeowners. It can be deeply personal, especially if the homeowner has done a lot of work to the property; put in a new deck, perfected the landscaping, added that bonus room.... they are often unable to recognize the fact that prices are dropping around them as their home spends more and more time on the market, with newer, lower priced listings leaving them behind, trailing in the dust. All listings are engaged in two separate battles - a pricing war and a beauty contest. Homes have to win both to even attract a showing, much less a reasonable offer. Top real estate agents in the country are now encouraging brokers to be extremely selective with the listings they accept - taking a listing is extremely draining financially with all the marketing and time necessary to attract a buyer, and if the seller isn't motivated and understanding of the current market, it is frequently, to be perfectly honest, not worth a broker/agent's time to attempt to sell it.

As more houses maintain an unrealistic asking price and don't sell, additional houses appear on the market, swelling the inventory.

Of course in conjunction with the rising home inventory, it has become more and more difficult to obtain a loan. We had a meeting last week with a lender from Countrywide that we frequently do business with. Countrywide has recently been purchased by Bank of America, and the lender expressed considerable relief. "Hey, at least Bank of America still has money," she told us. She explained a lot about mortgages that were still available though it is more difficult to qualify.

I'll admit, I'm not as knowledgeable as I probably should be. I don't know all that much about loans, though I do think it's probably a good thing that companies aren't handing out mortgages left and right to people who can't afford them. What I know about the statistics and seller reactions are what's staring me in the face every time I come to work. I could do more research, but I don't. Why? Honestly, I'm kind of freaked out. It's not a real fun time to be working in real estate. Agents are having their own homes foreclosed on, and dropping out of the business. An agent working in my office, two years older than I am, told me today that he thought he was going to have to find a second job. He's brilliant at what he does, and has done exceedingly well in the last couple of years, only to tank in this difficult market like so many other agents.

So....

Most of this morning's meeting was taken up by discussing the market. One of the agents asked my office manager (my boss's husband) and asked if he had ever seen a market this bad.

Office manager shook his head. "Honestly? No."

I know this has been a pretty disjointed ramble, but hey, it's Monday. Give me a break. ^_^

(By the way, I had to write that note backwards for Photobooth. My handwriting really isn't that bad, promise.)

It was exciting. It was intense. It was well written. And except for the one atrocious actress stepping in to fill Katie Cassidy's role, it was everything I had hoped for.

Yes, I watched Supernatural's season premiere last night.

And just in case anyone was worried, Dean Winchester (a.k.a. Jensen Ackles) is still the most beautiful man alive.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Okay, now we can move on (unless you want me to find and post more pictures of Dean? No? Damn).

I had re-watched seasons one, two, and three in preparation for the fourth season (meaning I've watched every single episode two or three times now... wow, that's sad) and the season premiere definitely didn't disappoint.

Except for one thing.

WHY WHY WHY did they choose to replace Katie Cassidy, who was a very decent actress, with What's-Her-Name-Never-Mind-Who-Cares-Please-Go-Back-To-Acting-School?

I mean seriously, this woman opens her mouth and her voice is so irritating that it instantly makes me cringe. Which isn't her fault. But the fact that her lines are wooden and her expression robotic is.

She might as well just been blatantly holding the script out in front of her during the few (thank goodness) scenes she was present for. It probably would have had about the same effect.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I guess no television show, not even Supernatural, can be perfect one hundred percent of the time.

Moving on from heinous actresses, I think it's wonderful how the character development, which has been deep, consistent, and believable through all three seasons, appears to be on a great track with the fourth season.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the premiere episode left me beyond excited. I have a feeling that this season is going to go in a really good direction. You know, as long as they quickly get rid of/replace the drama school dropout.

I know what I'll be doing every Thursday night. ^_^

This morning I was reading one of my very favorite blogs, in which Le ShallowGal talks about House Hunters. She showed me what one can buy for under $300k in certain parts of the country.

I work for a real estate company in Washington, and have for about seven years. I'm pretty out of touch with the real estate market in the rest of the country, so to read that there is actually a place in the US where one can reasonably expect to purchase a five bedroom house with a pool for under $300k completely blew my mind.

Now we're going to play the comparison game! I'm going to do a quick search and pick out a few houses from my area in Washington, then pick a few random states and do the same.

So, for around $300k in my neck of the woods one can reasonably expect to purchase these:

Two to three bedrooms, small lots, definitely no pools. And that first one is a manufactured home.

Of course, $300k would be completely out of my price range, along with the vast majority of other young adults in their mid twenties. Lets think about the first time home buyer and take a look at what we have for under $200k.

Ermm, no offense, but eww. Tiny, old manufactured homes on itty bitty lots in my least favorite area of the county.

BUT! Lets check a couple of random states!

If I felt like moving to Portland, Maine I could buy this:

So it's pretty ugly, but with some paint and landscaping it could be cute. I kinda like how weird it is. And it's four bedrooms, two and a half baths on over an acre with an in ground pool. For $158,200. And I love Maine.

Or if I took off to Huntsville, Alabama I could get this (I just have to point out real quick that in Huntsville one can get an ACTUAL HOUSE for under $20,000. WHAT?!):

Uh, this is pretty cute for a first time home buyer. Know how much it is? $65,900.

Hazen, North Dakota?

Three beds, two baths. Over two thousand sqaure feet. Larger lot. $89,900.

I've reached a conclusion.

I'm living in the wrong state.

It's frustrating to look around where you live and think to yourself, I will never be able to buy a house here. I hate paying rent, but even with the housing market crashing and burning and prices dropping like stones everywhere I look, there's still no way for me to buy something halfway decent.

Single men and women with decent jobs cannot buy a house in this area, unless they want to take a dive into the nasty part of the county. And I think there is something seriously wrong with that.

I visited my SiteMeter stats today for the first time in a looong time. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of my site hits come from people googling various search terms for Brazilian Wandering Spiders.

Maybe I should put a disclaimer in the header:

"The author of this blog knows very little about and is in no way, shape, or form an expert on Brazilian Wandering Spiders. She has an irrational fear of them and has made two or three blog posts about them over the past three years."

Anyway...

It's nice to know I have a niche...

I have to have a very loud alarm clock to wake me up and convince me to get out of bed if I expect to get to work on time (especially recently - I've been having a much harder time getting up since I started dreaming about Dean Winchester.... I've gotta stop watching Supernatural....).

One of the things that I hate the most about my morning ritual is this alarm clock. But not when it first goes off. No, I understand and appreciate the need for the alarm to go off at 7:30AM, even with the vast amount of emotional distress it causes me. What I hate is when I push the snooze button then get up and go take a shower without actually turning the alarm off. Then when I get out of the shower, feeling a little bit more awake and alert, almost cheerful, and I'm greeted by the hideously abrasive BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP that never ever stops. I rush into my bedroom swearing and clutching my towel with the ultimate goal of ripping the alarm clock away from the wall, running to my back deck, whirling it above my head, then releasing it, where it should fly down the street and into the bay, never to be seen or (more importantly) HEARD ever again.

So far I've managed to control my rage by the time I reach my bedroom and just flip the little switch that turns the alarm off before stalking off to get dressed.

It's just one of those random pet peeves that drive you absolutely nuts. And on a Monday morning, it's not really a great way to start the day.

So......





Happy Monday everyone.

The worst part of a bad sunburn isn't the day or two after the initial burn when it feels like someone tarred your back and set it on fire. You're expecting it to hurt, you're prepared for it. It sucks, but you suck it up and deal with it.

No, the worst part of a bad sunburn is when it's been almost a week. You've been religiously keeping the burn moisturized with aloe lotions and it's finally starting to not hurt that much any more. You're even able to go to your yoga class and stretch without crying.

THEN.

Suddenly, without warning, huge sheets of skin peel off. The skin underneath HURTS LIKE HELL and the aloe lotion that was the soothing balm you relied on so heavily a week ago just makes this new skin STING (and when I say sting, I mean STING). So you're back at square one, with the tar and the fire feeling, except you weren't ready for it this time and it really really hurts AND it's still not done peeling so it itches....

Damnit.

This sucks.

Wanted
R
2008
*** out of ****

I wasn't expecting anything out of this movie. I mean seriously, I'd heard some pretty awful reviews. It's always great when you go into a theater expecting to see the worst thing to ever hit the big screen, and end up with something ten times better. Besides, how could I not go see a movie about a bunch of assassins led by Morgan Freeman?


Premise: The Fraternity. A deadly brotherhood of assassins (plus one woman) formed a thousand years ago, graced with near supernatural abilities, taking the names of their targets directly from fate. Enter inconsequential cubicle dweller whose life gets completely turned around when he is recruited by The Fraternity to hunt down the traitor who killed his father.


Okay, I'm going to come out and say it now before I go any further.


Why does Angelina Jolie look like a holocaust victim? And furthermore, why does she think that she can be an action hero with arms that look like toothpicks?




I spent every scene where she did something that would have required any kind of strength or stamina laughing behind my hand. Oh, and the scene where she's beating up McAvoy? I wasn't even bothering to laugh behind my hand. I'm assuming her character was meant to by alluringly dangerous, and Jolie fails utterly and completely to provide that kind of magnetism. Why is this stick-thin ideal still perpetrated? Who thinks that sunken cheeks and frail limbs are attractive? If Jolie ever wants to act in an action movie again, I would suggest she gain some freaking weight. MUSCLE, Jolie, MUSCLE. It is your friend.


You know who would have been BAD ASS as Fox?


Rhona-Fucking-Mitra.






There's an action heroine.

It's too bad, really. Fox was a wickedly cool character who was beautifully illustrated and fleshed out through the film, and held true to her motives until the end.



Anyway. I'm done ranting now, promise.

The movie was surprisingly well done. I wasn't so sure when it started - it has a pretty shaky beginning - but if you can get through the silliness of the first third you can start to appreciate the character development and killer action scenes, especially the ones that start popping up towards the end of the film.

James McAvoy (Wesley Gibson, main character) did a fine job. His character's transitions from Disinterested Slacker to Eager Wannabe to Determined Warrior to Wrathful Son were very black and white and didn't allow for a whole lot of room for easing into each phase of the character, but McAvoy did very well.

The storyline was entertaining and fun to follow, and though it throws in the usual quota of predictable twists here and there, it leaves you satisfied. This movie also features my new very favorite 'go in guns blazing' scene ever.




(Keep in mind before you watch this that this flick is rated R for a reason, and this is a violent clip)

So this afternoon my mom texted me at work with this: