Overdue list

So
I am definitely overdue for a list! School's been super busy so I haven't got to it yet, but here I am! Ready to list shit and make my life look a little brighter. So some things that made me happy this week:

British television

Sherlock

Jamaica Kincaid

Spivak

Ballet

Lazy mornings

Tumblr

Lace up boots

Curry noodle soup

WIN

Free soup

Rupert Grint

Shakespeare night

Kittens 

Movies

In my ventures through the interwebz I came across the AFI list of 100 great movies. I have, of course, seen this list before, but not recently and I've always wanted to see all the movies on it, just for fun. So I am going to post the list in its entirety on here, crossing out the movies I've already seen. I have seen parts of some of these movies, but never the entire thing or I may have seen them once and not remember; those movies will be indicated with a star. I will try and keep you up to date on my progress, this will probably be christmas break sort of thing. Enjoy!

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941) 

2. THE GODFATHER (1972)*

3. CASABLANCA (1942) 

4. RAGING BULL (1980)

5. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN(1952) 

6. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) 

7. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

8. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)

9. VERTIGO (1958)

10. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) 

11. CITY LIGHTS (1931)

12. THE SEARCHERS (1956)

13. STAR WARS (1977)

14. PSYCHO (1960) 

15. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) 

16. SUNSET BLVD. (1950) 

17. THE GRADUATE (1967) 

18. THE GENERAL (1927)

19. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)

20. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) 

21. CHINATOWN (1974)

22. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)*

23. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)

24. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)

25. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)

26. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)

27. HIGH NOON (1952) 

28. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)

29. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

30. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

31. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

32. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)*

33. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)

34. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) 

35. ANNIE HALL (1977)*

36. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)

37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)

38. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)

39. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) 

40. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965) 

41. KING KONG (1933)*

42. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)

43. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)

44. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) 

45. SHANE (1953)

46. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)*

47. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)

48. REAR WINDOW (1954)

49. INTOLERANCE (1916)

50. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001)

51. WEST SIDE STORY (1961) 

52. TAXI DRIVER (1976)

53. THE DEER HUNTER (1978)

54. M*A*S*H (1970)

55. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)

56. JAWS (1975)

57. ROCKY (1976)

58. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)

59. NASHVILLE (1975)

60. DUCK SOUP (1933)

61. SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941)

62. AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)

63. CABARET (1972)

64. NETWORK (1976)

65. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)

66. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)

67. WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966)

68. UNFORGIVEN (1992)

69. TOOTSIE (1982)

70. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)

71. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998)

72. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)

73. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)

74. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)

75. IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)

76. FORREST GUMP (1994)

77. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976) 

78. MODERN TIMES (1936)

79. THE WILD BUNCH (1969)

80. THE APARTMENT (1960)

81. SPARTACUS (1960)

82. SUNRISE (1927)

83. TITANIC (1997)

84. EASY RIDER (1969)

85. A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)

86. PLATOON (1986)

87. 12 ANGRY MEN (1957) 

88. BRINGING UP BABY (1938) 

89. THE SIXTH SENSE (1999)

90. SWING TIME (1936)

91. SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982)

92. GOODFELLAS (1990)

93. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)

94. PULP FICTION (1994)

95. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971)

96. DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)

97. BLADE RUNNER (1982)

98. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)

99. TOY STORY (1995)

100. BEN-HUR (1959)

Tally so far 23/100

Getting that christmas spirit back!

Since I've worked in a busy retail store for the past three years christmas has been ruined for me. I wish I could say the magic was still there, I still got excited around the holiday time, bells and bobtails made me grin etc, but this is not the case, I feel a gnawing fear of what will I get for everybody this year? Do I buy something for the grandparents? the cousins? The best friends? I can never tell. So I've decided I need to feel a little more christmas spirit-y-ish and I'm gonna write this weeks list in honour of christmas! I know it's early for a christmas list, but I'd like to get into the christmas spirit early so I can have a better christmas this year. This i'll be one of those no negativity lists. Stuff I like about christmas time: Christmas movies Candy Stockings the food eggnog Christmas morning no school dressing up baking Craft fairs Presents Doctor Who Christmas special! Christmas dinner Christmas parties

30 day writing challenge, day 1!

I promised I'd post some of the writing challenge thingies I'm doing so here is the first one, please excuse the roughness of this piece it was mostly written in the middle of the night and not at all edited. It is short because I decided to keep them all under 1000 words which I guess makes the fiction ones flash fictions... Any suggestions on improvements/critiques are welcome!

Day 1 —Select a book at random in the room.  Find a novel or short story, copy down the last sentence and use this line as the first line of your new story.

The new rains will come down soon. I kick my heavy combat boots against the tufts of yellow grass sticking out of the sandy dirt, and I wonder if they feel as dry as they look. I’ve been standing, watching and waiting for something to happen for too long now. I watch the sky, the distant horizon, the land sits static and waiting for the water to give it new life, hope perhaps. I could do with a drink myself, but something a little stronger than water. I turn away from the distance and start heading back towards the rust coloured hills, watching them for movement for any sign of life in this desolate land. I’ve only been here a week, searching, waiting, jumping at every noise, every crackle of the fractured, hardened earth, every scavenger calling and every rattle of the snake’s tail. But I’m stuck, stuck waiting in the alone and empty place. It isn’t that hard of task for me, I’ve done it so many times before I hardly notice the emptiness, the silence, the fear, but it still overwhelms my senses– how alone I am out here. I’ve learned to suppress my emotions so deep I don’t even know where to find them any more. So I walk back each step is heavy and my feet feel hot inside the shoes. My faded blue truck sticks out against the hills, I could see why they choice this colour, no chance of losing this vehicle. The small trailer hitched on the back offers scant protection when your in a desert. I’m getting impatient here, running out of water, food, canned beans are all fine and dandy when your packing them, but when you get out there, where ever it is they’ve assigned you, those beans, they taste disgusting after the first couple of days, then again I guess anything would taste awful after 7 days straight of eating it, although I can't image ever getting sick of apples. Apples are always delicious.

So I wait and I wait and I wait and finally on the seventh day the man comes. I see him in the distance near mid-afternoon, but he doesn’t reach me until it’s almost dusk. He doesn’t speak to me, probably because he can’t. His jaunt is hindered by the presence of a large duffle back across his back, it appears to be heavy because he moves so slowly. When he finally reaches my encampment he doesn’t say a word, just walks up to the pick up truck and drops the duffle bag into the back. He then turns to me and gives me a nod, holds out the delivery slip, which isn’t a slip at all, but a device used for checking blood sugar levels, except this one has been modified to check and match DNA quickly and accurately without the help of an outside computer. I know it, I designed it myself. I stick my finger in the end he holds out for me, and wait to here the machine give a confirmatory beep. Nothing happens. I keep my finger in the socket and wait, but I know the reader should have finished by now and determined whether I was the correct person or not. It had to be malfunctioning, that was the only explanation. I inspect it with my eyes, attempting to see if something is amiss. I can see nothing wrong so I peel my eyes away from it only to look straight into the barrel of a gun, the old man winks clumsily at me and rolls his chapped lips together in anticipation of the kill.

Tense situations usually lead to irrational actions, but I’m lucky I’ve trained for this exact scenario my entire life. Before the old man can even begun to move his finger I lift my leg in a roundhouse kick and knock the gun to the ground causing a muffled clattering sound. It goes off into the desert. The old man jumps, his face pale, he knows he hasn't got a chance of killing me now. Before he can even scream I’ve got him pinned to the ground. I can feel his hot little body starting to gasp for breath under my weight. He struggles against my height, as I sit on top of him, but I don't budge. I can feel his lungs heaving and I know I don’t have a long time till he’s gone. I want to ask who sent him, why he thought he could kill me, if it was all a trap or a test? But I already know he can't sleep, his silent screams tell me all I will ever know. He stops struggling to breathe and goes limp, his body hot under mine. I can leave now, go to my next destination, kill my next assassin. I leave one last thing behind me, the take the large black bag out of the back of my pick-up and toss it next to the old man, I don't care what's in it, I can guess. I get in the truck and gun the engine outta there, when I'm about a mile away I look back to see the barren land exploding behind me.