Angry Birds and Movie Trivia

In a previous post, I shared some of the bulletin boards I've created while working as a CA. I promised to post a picture of an Angry Birds one I created, so here's that picture, as well as one of the bulletin board I just hung up last night/this morning (I finished at about 2 AM. When you're 5'2", it's difficult to single-handedly hang up background paper by yourself. But I digress...)

Angry Birds: Finals week board

Because who doesn't love bad puns?

As an added bonus to you, dear readers, I've typed up the movie trivia tidbits too! Enjoy!

- The little girl in the lake flashback scene in Click is Kate Beckinsale's daughter, Lily Mo Sheen.
- Melissa McCarthy (Megan) and Ben Falcone (Air Marshall Jon) from Bridesmaids are married in real life.
- In the movie Up, a Lotso Hugging Bear from Toy Story 3 can be seen in the little girl's room when Carl goes up.
- The only actor from The Muppets whose appearance was never announced or rumored was Jim Parsons.
- Mariska Hargitay, best known for her role in Law and Order: SVU, turned down the role of Miss Honey in Matilda.
- The first letters of the main characters' names in Inception spells "dreams": Dom, Robert, Eames, Arthur/Ariadne, Mal, and Sato.
- In Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Scott is 22 and Stacy is 18. In real life, Michael Cera is younger than Anna Kendrick and Ellen Wong (Knives Chao).
- Juno was the highest grossing film of all five Best Picture Oscar nominees in 2008.
- David Krumholtz and Peter MacNicol starred together in Addams Family Values and later in the TV show NUMB3RS.
- In (500) Days of Summer, the narrator states that Tom meets summer on January 8; therefore, Tom meets Autumn on May 23.
- The Doors have the most songs in the movie Forrest Gump: "Soul Kitchen," "Hello, I Love You," "People are Strange," "Peace Frog," "Break on Through," and "Love Her Madly."
- Lisa Edelstein, Cuddy from TV's House, can be seen in the background of the break-up scene in Legally Blonde.
- To make sure she didn't hear Alan Arkin swearing, Abigail Breslin did listen to music during various scenes in Little Miss Sunshine.
- In The Proposal, Sandra Bullock's character is Canadian. In real life, Ryan Reynolds is actually from Canada.
- Betty White provided the voice of Grandma Sophie in the TV movie The Wild Thorneberrys Movie: The Origin of Donnie.
- Amy Poehler is only 8 years older than Rachel McAdams, even though they are mother and daughter in Mean Girls.
- Each frame (1/24 of a second) of the CGI scenes in Avatar took an average of 47 hours to render.
- In 10 Things I Hate About You, Kat gets into Sarah Lawrence College. Larisa Oleynik, who plays Bianca, attended school there.
- The logo of the bank in The da Vinci Code incorporates phi, whose value can be derived from the Fibonacci Sequence.
- Jim Carrey and Josh Harnett were considered for the role of Loki in Thor. The role went to Tom Hiddleston instead.
- Julia Stiles auditioned for the role of Pam in Meet the Parents, but had to drop out due to filming 10 Things I Hate About You.
- In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, there is a scene of guards coming out of a hallway that is similar to the credits of Hogan's Heroes.
- Jean Stapleton was the first choice to play Mrs. TeeVee in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but went on to star in All in the Family instead.
- The Japanese version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail is translated as The Holy Sake Cup.
- The battle scene at the end of Alice in Wonderland resembles a chess set from afar, in tribute to "Through the Looking Glass."
- The names of the boats in Finding Nemo are Sea Monkey, Major Plot Point, Bow Movement, iBoat,  KKnottie Buoy, For the Birds, Pier Pressure, Skiff-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, and The Surly Mermaid.
- Sully from Monsters, Inc. had 2,320,413 total animated hair strands. It took 11-12 hours to render a frame of him.
- The real Lionel Logue's diary was found 9 weeks before the principal photography on The King's Speech began. Quotes from the clinical notes were worked into the film.
- Rose McGowan and Claire Danes both auditioned for the role of Lisa in Girl, Interrupted, which went to Angelina Jolie.
- In the Frisbee scene in Good Luck Chuck, Dane Cook is wearing a Super Club hat, where his character worked in Employee of the Month.
- Peter Billingsley, who played Ralph in A Christmas Story, has a small role in the movie Elf.
- In the baseball game scene in Employee of the Month, Super Club wears red and Maxi Mart wears blue, a spoof of the Red Sox vs. Yankees rivalry.

...Coming next month:  life lessons from Pixar!

The Beginning of the End: Of Steroid Shots and Other Things

Sometime later today (now that it's 12:54 AM), I'll be moving back to my home away from home. The last time I'll ever move into a room on the little campus I've called home for the past 3 1/2 years. I still can't believe it's been that long. It's...scary, awesome, and unbelievable, really.

To be honest, I've not done much since my first entry this year. I worked at my part-time job for 15-20 hours a week. I read a lot. I slept in, made door tags for my residents, saw friends and family. It was nice to just relax and have no classes to go to, bulletin boards to make, or deadlines to meet.

Kudos if you got the reference to
Lost in the title of this entry.

I'm still not all the way packed for my trip back to school. I have a few loads of laundry taunting me while I write this. A few last things to put in my mom's car.

And a last doctor's visit. I finally went to see an actual doctor yesterday (Monday). (Don't take this to mean I've never seen an actual doctor. It's just that I've been seeing a pediatrician up until this point.) Lately, my eczema has been flaring up. A lot. Usually I can get it under control with some Aveeno cream, but that didn't seem to be helping.

I've never really pinned down the cause of the eczema. I know I get flares when I'm stressed, but I've not been stressed at all lately. So, I finally saw my parents' doctor about it. And it was an adventure to say the least. Because it was my first visit, I had to fill out what seemed like a 500 page autobiography (really, just 5 pages of medical history, my SSN about 17 times, my father's work information twice, and what I plan on naming my first grandchild. Or so it seemed.)

"Live Long and Prosper."

Anyhow. My (new) doctor is definitely a character. For some reason, he reminds me of Leonard Nimoy. Even though he was wearing cowboy boots, a black scrubs shirt, and jeans. Seriously. It amused me.

So, after the quickest diagnosis on the planet, he said four things to me...
1) Go see a dermatologist (yay! I've been waiting for a referral forever).
2) Take Allegra daily to help ease the itching (sounds reasonable).
3) Get some blood work done (been there, done that a bunch.)
4) You're getting a shot (wait, what?).

So, long story short, I got a steroid shot. He said it should help for about a month. All I know is that my arm still hurts. >.<

...Well, it's now 1:17 AM. I get to have my blood work done in the AM (meaning in 6 hours because it's a fasted blood work and I am so thirsty right now...), so good night/morning, dear readers. I hope my next post isn't as delayed as this one has been.

This must be it... Welcome to the new year

2011 has been an interesting year, to say the very least.  Like any year, much like the ocean tide, it had its ups, downs, swells and ebbs.  To be honest, I don't recall much of the early part of the year.  I was still in my first few months of being a newbie CA.  (Pandora and irony must be good friends... Green Day's song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" just started playing.)

Would there be things I would go back and change?  Of course.  That's how life is.  But to quote one of my favorite shows, "what's done is done" and "whatever happened, happened."  I've slowly come to accept that I can't change my past.  There are stones left unturned, mistakes made, etc., but that's beside the point.

I really started to get into blogging this year.  I went from two or three followers to twenty-two.  I've realized how much it truly helps me express myself, to let my voice be heard in an otherwise voiceless world.  It let me face many of my fears and inner demons that battle back and forth about my future.  I still don't know exactly where I'm going, but I'm excited to see where I wind up.

I saw more of the world this year (well, New York for the first time and California for the fourth time, but first with just a friend, and Ohio with the same friend).  I made more memories during those two trips than I thought possible.  I also strengthened a lot of friendships this year.  Some went by the wayside, but others blossomed.

I also got the chance to work intern/volunteer for the Red Cross this past summer and also work part-time selling over-priced office supplies.  Needless to say, it was quite the busy summer, but enjoyable nonetheless.  I came back to school early as always for CA training.  It was then I learned I had 70-something residents.  I was scared shitless to hear this.  There's only one other CA on campus who has that number.

At the wax museum in Hollywood

But this year has showed me that I'm meant to be in this field.  I really can only think of a few complaints about my residents (good thing they don't read this!), and they're minor things anyway.  I have one resident who calls me his favorite CA and the best he could ask for.  It's the little stuff that makes this job worth it.

Academically, this semester has had its ups and downs.  For the second time in my college career, I had to drop a class (the only negative repercussion is having to take 15 credits next semester instead of 12.  Considering I started my major and two minors a year late and still graduating in four years total is pretty awesome).  Additionally, one of my classes didn't start off strong ... at all.  I basically bombed the first test (read: less than 50%).

This year, I almost had a full-blown, stress-induced panic attack on December 8.  I remember the date because of the anniversary of one of my favorite musician's deaths.  It was also the day of the second shooting at Virginia Tech.  As I had mentioned, one of my cousins lives very close to campus (he was there for the first one actually), and I didn't know for about 2 1/2 hours if he was okay.  I have never been more afraid in my life.  I was so relieved to hear he was not anywhere near campus.

With my youngest cousin.

After an interesting experience at a casino later in December, my family and I went over to my grandparents' house for their annual Christmas party.  Four of my mom's seven siblings and their families were there, and it was awesome to see them.  Having a big family is, simply put, a lot of fun.  My cousins range in age from 6 to 28, and I'm the fourth oldest.  I love seeing my cousins grown up (even if it does make feel old!).

My Christmas was pretty low-key.  For the first time in a few years, it was just my younger brother, my parents, and me.  Usually we have my grandparents over, but this year, they went to my uncle's house.  Before she passed away 4 years ago, we would always have my great-aunt over every Christmas because we were the closest family she had.

...Wow.  This entry is a heck of a lot longer than I thought it was going to be.  So, thanks, readers, for being with me through the thick and thin of it.  I really, truly could not have done it without your help.  I hope you have an amazing New Year's and it brings you all the happiness in the world.  You all deserve the very best and nothing less.