Top Ten Movies, Take 2!

Back in 2004, I made top 10 lists of my favorite movies. Clearly, I have seen quite a few movies in the past five years, so I thought I’d update the lists to see how everything has moved around.

Live action comedies: 1. The Princess Bride 2. Office Space 3. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 4. Monty Python and the Holy Grail 5. When Harry Met Sally 6. Napoleon Dynamite 7. Mallrats 8. Dumb and Dumber 9. Beetlejuice 10. Empire Records

Live action non-comedies: 1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2. Almost Famous 3. Garden State 4. Roman Holiday 5. American Beauty 6. Requiem for a Dream 7. Moulin Rouge 8. Across the Universe 9. What Dreams May Come 10. Lord of the Rings

Animated: 1. The Little Mermaid 2. WALL-E* 3. Lilo & Stitch 4. Sleeping Beauty 5. Aladdin 6. The Lion King 7. Finding Nemo 8. Cinderella 9. Toy Story 10. Monsters, Inc.

Movies I might put on the list, but I’ve only seen them one time: Juno, Once, Beauty and the Beast, Gone with the Wind, The Notebook, and Interstella 5555. (Hint: This means I wouldn’t mind having them on DVD.)

You can see that comedies and animated films didn’t change alot, but the dramas did. Probably because I watch way more of them.

*Clearly, this has disrupted my car naming, since Ariel was my first car and Lilo was my second. I guess I’m going to have to name my next one EVE instead of Aurora.

RIP, Ariel.

I was driving home from work yesterday evening when things started to go wrong. My first indication something was happening was the battery/alternator light came on. I wondered if it really meant anything, since my emergency brake light comes on all the time without my emergency brake being up. The airbag light (which I didn’t even know existed) came on next. Which actually made me worry less about the battery light. Then the car started driving weird. The RPMs started fluctuating wildly. The tachometer eventually stopped working. “Hmm,” I thought to myself. “I wonder if the battery is dying.” It had been raining, so my windshield wipers and lights were on. The windshield wipers began to slow down. The interior lights in the car started fluctuating from very dim to very bright. I shut both the wipers and the lights off, as well as the radio. The car behaved itself for awhile. Then the speedometer died. The low fuel light came on, even though I nearly had a full tank. The interior lights (the clock) dimmed to where I couldn’t see them. At this point, I was just praying that (a) it didn’t start raining again (since the windshield wipers and lights no longer worked…I didn’t even have a turn signal and I’m supposing I didn’t have brake lights at this point) and that (b) I could make it home. Surprisingly, I actually did make it home without it raining. After turning off my car, I tried to start it again, and not surprisingly, it did not start.

My parents happened to be in town, so they came over and went with me to Advance Auto Parts to have the battery checked. They told me the battery wouldn’t hold a charge at all, and sold me a new one for $85. I was ecstatic that it was the battery and not the alternator. After putting the battery back in my car, I started it. The battery/alternator light was still on. So, great. It’s not the battery at all.

After wasting $85 on a new battery, there’s no way I can afford a new alternator plus labor to have it replaced (it’s a Ford, the thing is kind of buried). Plus I was planning on getting a new car in like a week anyway. So, for now, I’m working different hours so I can carpool with Wayne, and trying to figure out how to get myself down to the dealership without appearing desperate for a new car so they don’t try to screw me over….

So, say good-bye to Ariel. She was a good car for the 9.5 years that I owned her, but it’s time to move on to something new. With a working CD player. And working air conditioning. And heat. And a blinker that doesn’t blink at the speed of light. And an emergency brake light that doesn’t come on whenever I give the car gas.

More car problems…although this one is actually my fault.

The apartment complex has rows of mailboxes on the side of the main road. There’s about 10-20 mailboxes in each row. So, I was getting the mail yesterday. I got it out of the box and closed the box. As I was setting the mail down in the passenger seat of the car, my foot slipped off the brake pedal, sending the car rolling down the hill. Since I was getting the mail, I was at a slight angle toward the mailboxes, so the side of my car went careening into the boxes before I slammed on the brakes again. Something flew through the window, landing in my lap. Horrified, I looked down, assuming I had just ripped off the door to my neighbor’s mailbox. Instead, it was the driver’s side mirror of my car. Who knew that running into a mailbox at 5 mph could knock off a mirror? So, the driver’s side of my car is in rough shape right now.

Ben and I went to the The Break-Up on Friday night. We both thought it was very good, although Ben was a little iffy about the ending (the acting during it, not the actual story). It was very relatable. Then on Saturday, we went to McClung Museum on campus to view an art exhibit on “The Faithful Samurai,” which was very interesting. After that we went and saw X-Men: The Last Stand. I never saw the second one, but I thought it was okay. Ben, however, said too much was wrong with it and he didn’t really care for it, but he used to read the comics and such, so he would know better than me.

I have a hair appointment tomorrow night. I meant to dye my hair beforehand, but I forgot to go get hair dye, so I hope my stylist doesn’t comment on the 2 to 3 inches of roots showing, hehe. Maybe I’ll just get her to dye it, although I usually deem that a waste of money since it comes out looking exactly the same.

Annoyance of the day: selfish people

Why don’t people think about anyone other than themselves? Look at what I found today (sorry if they are a little unclear and blurry, took them in the dark):

A nice gaping hole on the trunk of my little green Escort. No note. No witnesses (at least none that cared to tell me about it). I don’t even know WHEN it happened. Grumble.

I lived a video game today.

Okay, not really, but I was greatly reminded of one.

It all began as I was driving back to work after my lunch break. I stopped at a gas station, because my fuel indicator was teetering precariously below the red line. I turn the car off, get out, and swipe my credit card. “See cashier,” the display read. Grumbling, I lock my car and go inside. I get my gas paid for, come back out, and pump the gas. Then I go fumbling for my keys. Not in my jacket. Not in my purse. Oh, yeah…I left them in the ignition. Great.

I go back inside. I call work to let them know I’m going to be late. Then I call Ben, since he has my spare key. He left his keys at home.

So in order to get in my car, I need to go to the apartment, get a lock-out key, get in the apartment, get Ben’s keys, give back the lock-out key, go back to my car and use Ben’s keys to get my keys.

Like I said, it’s one of those hokey-pokey video game puzzles.

I eventually got back to work after Ernie so graciously came and got me to carry out this intricate puzzle.

June, already?

Sabrina and Matt’s wedding was beautiful. Pictures are up in the photo gallery, as usual. Brina sent me some of the pictures she had too, and I might get around to posting some of those as well.

My car died last week. Some belt broke and it died on the way to work. Cost me a pretty penny to get it fixed and, therefore, I cannot afford Bonnaroo this year. Chance thinks we should all set up a tent at the Manplex and create our own Bonnaroo. I wonder if we could get Mars Volta to come…

Ben and I will be going to Atlanta on the 25th of this month for Dear Friends - Music from Final Fantasy. That should be pretty cool. I haven’t really played much of the games (hey, I’m working on FFVII!!) but I do enjoy the music a lot.

Then in July I start summer school. Ew. And then in August, fall semester starts. My two month reprieve from school is not long enough. Thankfully I will be graduating in December. That can’t come fast enough. Please donate to my “new car OR buying a house” fund.

Being without vehicle is not fun.

My car is being worked on, so I can finally get that huge dent out of the side of it. However, it won’t be ready for about a week. Therefore, I get the joy of relying on other people for rides everywhere. I hate this. I would really like to go driving around right now, as I always do about this time of night, but I can’t. Grr.

All I can do is sit here and play the Six Flags theme song in my head (”We Like to Party” by the Vengaboys, for the curious, but without all the corny lyrics).

Speaking of Six Flags, we are definitely planning another trip for October. We’ll probably go ahead and get season passes, even though the year is almost up. Season passes are basically cheaper than tickets for two days, and we want to spend our whole weekend there. Note to self: see if they sell season passes at the ticket office on campus. Going to be an even better trip. Cooler weather, less people, less daytime, open later, Fright Fest.
Ben and I are going to enter the Great Knoxville Rubber Duck Race this weekend. Should be a lot of fun. Cross your fingers for our duck!

I should probably have another board game party in a month or so. It’s been awhile.

Lydia is psycho. I came home today to find her in the cabinet where her food is stored. Apparently she learned how to open it. There was also a glass broken on the floor in the kitchen. And potpourri everywhere.

I got into a wreck today.

Knoxville has the worst drivers ever. I have lived here for four years now, and every day I witness the stupidity that is Knoxville drivers. I lived in Clarksville for 18 years of my life and never witnessed the number of wrecks or near wrecks that I have here. So, with all these psychos on the road, I figured one day one of them would come out of nowhere and get me.

Today was that day.

I had just gotten off work. It had been raining all day, but had momentarily stopped. I was driving down Bearden hill on Kingston in the right lane. I put on my blinker and moved into the left lane. A tan Blazer was in the turning lane to the left of me. She didn’t see me. She hit me.

I knew she was going to hit me. I immediately checked my mirrors to see if I could possibly escape it, but there were cars all in the right lane. She ran right into my driver side door. Grr.

I got over into the right lane and moved over into the Amsouth parking lot, so I wouldn’t be a pest and block up rush hour traffic. She couldn’t get over right away, so she went on. I wondered if she was coming back.

I called 911 and gave them all the pertinent information. They said a cop would be right out there. After I hung up, I realized that they never asked me if anyone had gotten hurt. Although, I suppose if someone was lying here bleeding to death, I would have mentioned that. But still.

While I was on the phone, the psycho driver shows up and parks two spaces away from me. She comes up to my car and explains that she doesn’t have a cell phone. I told her not to worry, I had already taken care of it and the cops were on their way.

So we wait…and wait…and wait…and wait…

After I had been waiting about half an hour, I called Sabrina to see what she was up to. I talked to her until the cop finally showed up.

We each told our side of the story, exchanged information, blah blah blah, and then we were on our way.

Now I have a huge dent in my door.

Just to make this worse, today I went and had Marble Slab ice cream for lunch. And I was wearing a white shirt. And chocolate ice cream and white shirts don’t mix well. I was so just looking forward to going home and changing shirts. Instead, I had to stand around looking like an idiot who can’t keep her ice cream on her cone.

So, an hour after she initially hit me, I finally got to go home. And now I can change shirts.

Happy birthday, Mom.

Let’s see…what have I been up to lately?

I found out today that I’m getting a slight raise at work. I’ve only been there for three weeks, but apparently I’ve been doing a pretty good job or something. So that’s very awesome. Especially considering that…

I’m broke. I just ate scrambled eggs for dinner cause that’s the only thing I could find in my refrigerator (besides ketchup, Cool Whip, and a bag of year-old carrots). And I desperately need new tires. I fear for my life every time it rains and I go around a curve. My two back tires are completely bald. Speaking of my car…

I think my car hates me. My passenger side door is broken or something. Half the time, it won’t really open. It gets hung or something and you have to stand there and pull on it as hard as you can to get it to open. Plus like the connectors on my battery are loose, so half the time I try to start my car, it won’t, and I have to open the hood, tighten them, and try to start it again. The most annoying thing ever. Especially in the rain. I need to get my tags renewed before the end of the month. I wonder if I can scrounge up $30 somewhere.

I haven’t seen a whole lot of new movies lately. Can’t afford to rent anything and definitely can’t afford to go to the theatre. Rented Bad Santa the other day; it was pretty funny.

Overall, life is pretty good right now. Except for being broke. But I will deal with it. I’ve been broker.

I think I have some pics on my camera to stick in the random pictures folder.

Okay…

I put my new sticker on my car, after going through the car wash and using goo gone to remove my Linux fish (will have to get some more sticky stuff in order to stick him back on somewhere). And I took some pictures of it. And it glows. It’s really odd. Click on this pic to see it on my car. If you compare it to my Wardriving sticker on the opposite side, it’s really obvious. It also makes it really obvious how crooked that wardriving sticker is.

Well, I got those stickers today.

One looks great, the other is a little off. It’s supposed to be the APC logo (see right), but right now, the only way this sticker will work is if the band changed their name to A Perfect Oval. It’s a little elongated. Anyway, I plan on running Ariel through the carwash and sticking the good sticker on after I get off work today, so I will take pictures of that one. I’m still trying to figure out what I can do about the oval.

I have a test in 365 tomorrow. Missed the review day because of snow last week, so I’m gonna be studying hard tonight (around the final episode of Average Joe, of course).

Today’s life lesson: Pay attention to where you park.

Yesterday my car got towed. Had to walk two miles to the towing place to pay $90 to get it back. It really was not fun at all. I’m beginning to think my car is bad luck.

I saw Legally Blonde 2 last night. It was really cute. I don’t know if I liked it or the first one better, because it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen the first one. I need to watch it again.

Welcome to my blog! I got bored…

Let me introduce myself. My name is Jessica. I’m 21 and a senior at UT Knoxville. I am majoring in Computer Science and minoring in English (such a weird combo, I know). I’m into computers, reading, and music. That’s about all I do.

Not much has been going on in my life. I wrecked my car and had to get an entire new side put on. Then someone broke into it and stole all my CDs and my CD player. My cat died at age 10. I’ve lost all my friends. You know, the usual.

The crappy thing about having all my CDs stolen is that now I have all these empty cases. And you can’t just go somewhere and buy just the CD. No, you have to pay $5 for a used CD with case and booklet, when all you need is the CD. The other crappy thing is I just got the new Jewel CD that came out less than a month ago and got to listen to it, oh, about 5 times before they took it.

I am thankful that they didn’t see my Revis CD that was not really hidden. Of course, I still don’t have a CD player in my car anymore. So I’m stuck listening to the radio and all the crap it plays. But I’m not bitter.

School starts in less than two months. Not looking forward to that. I have a nice 18 hour load again this semester, complete with two Comp Sci classes, two English classes, and two classes that I wish I didn’t have to take. If I am still alive in December, then I think I could live through anything.

BTW, I’ve tested this blog on several browsers, but can’t get it to look right on Konqueror (grr…), so use Mozilla or Netscape or IE or something if you want it to look right.