It's the new year. 2009. Yippee.

Well, the good news is that in less than 3 months, I will be 18. I can sign my own stuff and actually do things.

The other good news is that it's looking like an ok year for movies - Coraline, My Bloody Valentine 3D, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Final
Destination 4 (3D), Saw VI, and Frankenweenie are all due out this year. And those are just appetizers.

My classes for the next semester are Intermediate French II (bleh), World Cinema (cool), Non-Western Theater (cool), and Americal Musical Theater (ok, should have some dark materials).

When I turn 18, I'm auditioning for a reality TV show. Should be cool, though I'll probably end up killing someone by the end of it.

Ok, maybe the new year will be better than last year. No crazy boyfriends. No depression. No classes that make me sick.

Oh, who am I kidding? Something will go wrong.

Tis Christmas day. A time of happiness and joy. For most, anyway.

True, I got nice presents. A cookbook, 2 CDs, some socks, a loofa. (Along with the ugliest angel statue on the face of the planet.)

But for me, Christmas is depressing. You're expected to get gifts for people A - X, and if you don't buy them something, you're considered a bad friend. What if I don't want to buy something? What if I just want to save my money this year and chill out at home watching "Gremlins" and "Silent Night, Deadly Night"?
But NO. Gifts must be bought and sent. To your mom. To your bff. To your weird uncle Steve. It doesn't matter. Materialism has taken over the Christmas season.

Seriously. I DON'T WANT TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS. To me, it's just another day, along with the other 364/365 (leap years) days of the year.

You may ask, "Well, don't you want to celebrate the birth..." STOP right there.

#1. NO. I'm not a Christian, as much as my family would like to think otherwise.
#2. Christ was born in the spring. Do your research. The only reason Christmas is celebrated in the winter is because the Christian Church wanted to convert the Pagans to Christianity, and so they held their most important holiday the same time as Pagans held Yule, or the Winter Solstice. (Of course, when that didn't work, the Church resorted to accusing people of being heretics and sending them to be executed.)

So don't say anything to me.
I'm quite content to eat some chocolate and watch "Black Christmas" while others scramble about and increase the national suicide rate.

It's December.
Christmas/Hanukkah/Yule/whatever else is approaching. (Kwanza does NOT count.)

But guess what we have to get through before it's time for hot chocolate and Christmas trees? (which isn't fun anyway...I hate hot beverages and the trees are more hassle than they're worth)

FINALS.
Yes, that's right. Finals week is here! (Well, next week for me)
But this week, I have my *written* tennis final, as well as 2 final projects and 2 final papers. Then, I have two finals that are going to kill me. (French and Anthropology)

I truly depise and detest tests and exams. What do they prove? They prove whether or not you can cram as much knowledge into your brain as possible, vomit it back up onto paper, then forget everything that you just wrote. It doesn't prove whether or not you actually learned anything - that's only proven by doing stuff in the field you've studied. For French, you would have to move to France for a while and actually survive. For Anthropology, you would have to go someplace and study them and write about them. (Which I am NOT doing - I already had to do it for this semester!) For Science, you'd have to work in a lab/other scientific place. For Religious Studies, go work in a church/mosque/temple/etc. For me, school teaches you everything and nothing. It's what you plan to use in the real world that counts.

But, no matter. I need to attend to my studies so I can get good grades and keep coming to this school.
That doesn't mean I'm happy about it.

As I had said in my last entry. I had been looking forward to watching Alien. Alien is a horror film, which is the genre I consider to be mine. I find horror relaxing, but at the same time stimulating.
Having said that, I found Alien to be a disappointment. I had heard many good things about Alien - it's scary, it's dark, Eli Roth (the director of "Cabin Fever" and "Hostel") threw up the first time he saw it, etc. But perhaps that's what ruined it - I came in with very high expectations, and came out feeling pissed that Ripley kept throwing the cat carrier everywhere.
And no, I didn't think that it was scary. There was one point where I jumped, but I did not think it was truly scary at all.
Anyway, I now have to go and review it for my class. Then I have to work on my timeline project. (Which, FYI, I have no idea what the hell the teacher wants. She was very, very vague.)

I am lucky enough to attend a college and study a subject where I get to watch movies for class credit.
However, the class I am taking for this is 1970's Film. Nearly every single film we have watched in class has been lame, or boring, or just plain unlikable. The exceptions so far have been Harold and Maude (1972), which is a dark comedy about a kid and an old lady who become friends, and Star Wars (1977), which everyone should know about. I have also gotten to show clips from 70's films such as The Omen to improve the feel of the class.

However, today all of that is going to change. Today, at 2:50 pm, we are watching "Alien." At last. I have been counting down to this moment from the very beginning of the semester, and today it is finally here. Finally, a movie I can straight up enjoy. And a horror movie. This makes me as happy as a morbid woman can be. I get to watch a film in the genre that I love, and it's all for class credit.

As of right now, it is 4 hours and 20-odd minutes until I am seated in that auditorium. It feels as if time has slowed down. But I know that when the clock reads 2:50 pm, it will have all been worth the wait.