Updated: Interactive Movie Meme

Cause it's Friday, let's meme. This one is kind of fun.

Courtesy of Ms. Sizzle

* Pick 15 of your favorite movies
* Go to IMDB and find a quote from each movie (or quote them from memory because you are that bad ass)
* Post them on your blog for everyone to guess
* Fill in the film title once it’s been guessed
These are your rules
* No Googling or using IMDB search functions (Don’t cheat!)
* Leave your answer(s) in the comments

1. "You mean, you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword, and we'll try and kill each other like civilized people?" (The Princess Bride - guessed by David and also Sizzle.)

2. "You can't just DIE and leave me here on this stinkin' earth without you."

Hint: "You mean you were diagnosed with something called a brain cloud and didn't ask for a second opinion?"

(Joe Vs. the Volcano - FINALLY Guessed by Crescent!)

3. "Don't tease me about my hobbies. I don't tease you about being an asshole."

Hint: "Can you imagine being the guy whose job it is to argue for the right to build a mall on top of a geological phenomenon?"

(Garden State - finally guessed by Victoria)

4. "It's amazing. You look like a normal person but actually you are the angel of death." (When Harry Met Sally - guessed by Sizzle.)

5. "Just look at the face: it's vacant, with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who's lost a bet."

Hint: "I'm quite all right, Barbara, I ran it under a cold tap."

(Shaun of the Dead - figured out by no one!)

6. "She's a drag. A well known drag. We turn the sound down on her and say rude things."

Hint: "Look, I thought I was supposed to be getting a change of scenery. But so far, I've been in a train and a room, and a car and a room, and a room and a room. Well, maybe that's all right for a bunch of powdered gee-gahs like yourselves, but I'm feeling decidedly strait-jacketed."

(A Hard Day's Night - guessed by anonymous)

7. "No more reading. Time for rock." (School of Rock - guessed by Sizzle.)

8. "I can't believe what a bunch of nerds we are. We're looking up 'money laundering' in a dictionary." (Office Space - guessed by David.)

9. "Listen to me, I got no reason to lie to you, don't make the same mistakes I made when I was young. Fuck a lotta women kid, not just one woman, a lotta women." (Little Miss Sunshine - guessed by Sizzle.)

10. "So that you might come to a reading in Paris and I could walk up to you and ask, 'Where the fuck were you?'" (Before Sunset - guessed by Elisabeth.)

11. "No I mean, do you really know where Harvard is? It's another planet man, another universe. Totally unlike the one we know. Filled with big blond guys who eat ivy and row boats."

Hint: "What's with you? Yesterday you were normal and today you're like the Chinese guy from the Karate Kid. What's with you today?"

(Empire Records - figured out by no one!)

12. "They're poor, they're the unwanted, yet they're fighting for our society and our freedom. It's weird, isn't it? They're the bottom of the barrel and they know it. Maybe that's why they call themselves grunts, cause a grunt can take it, can take anything."

Hint: "Maybe I finally found it, way down here in the mud. Maybe from down here I can start up again, be something I can be proud of, without having to fake it, be a fake human being."

(Platoon - guessed by anonymous)

13. "Did you just call me Coltrane?" (The Royal Tennenbaums - guessed by Elisabeth.)

14. "Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place." (The Breakfast Club - guessed by David and also Sizzle.)

15. "You could argue he'd done it to curry favor with the guards. Or, maybe make a few friends among us cons. Me, I think he did it just to feel normal again, if only for a short while." (The Shawshenk Redeption - guessed by David and also Sizzle.)

A Christmas Meme

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot chocolate, mostly. Egg nog on occasion.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?
Santa always wrapped. Unwrapping is half the fun!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

I like white lights - the colored lights give me a headache.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
Never.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
Now, I don't put up any, really. I stay with my family for days at Christmas, so it seems silly to decorate my house, when I won't be there.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Turkey and mashed potatoes, with gravy!

7. Favorite Christmas memory as a child?
My sister and I digging into our stockings on Christmas morning. My mom (um, I mean Santa) always had a stocking for each of us with candy and some small toys. We were allowed to open our stockings before my parents got up, but everything else had to wait.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I don't even remember. I'm guessing at school, I think in first or second grade. I do remember my mom making me pretend for a few years, for the sake of my younger sister.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
When I was a kid, we opened one gift on Christmas Eve, after we got home from Grandma's house. Now, as adults, we save them all for Christmas morning when my sister comes over from from her house (since I'm already staying at Mom's).

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?
I don't have one right now. Once I start celebrating Christmas in my own home, I'll get one. I do have several of my childhood ornaments saved, including a giant clay-fired gingerbread man I made in first grade that weighs about 2 lbs.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Now, I kinda love it. As a kid, we usually didn't get much. Now, I like it, until I have to slush around in it.

12. Can you ice skate?
You could call it that, though I'm better at falling down.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
No, but one thing I do remember is that once I was in college, and for several years after, my mom would always give me a box full of sundries - shampoo, underwear, toothpaste, etc. so that I wouldn't have to spend money on that kind of stuff for a while.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Remembering to be nice to people, even when they are forgetting.

15. What is your favorite holiday desert?
This german cookie my grandma used to make. We called them "radakuchen" - I don't know their real name, or what's in them. They're a hard, vanilla-flavored cookie, covered in powdered sugar. My uncle has the receipe now, and still makes them every time we have a family party.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Getting together with my mom's side of the family (her parents and brother and sister, and their families) on Christmas Eve. As sappy as it is, and as much as my cousins and I try to make our parents "forget", I love when we sing Christmas carols together. It's mostly hilarious, because we're all horrific singers, but we do it anyway.

17. What tops your tree?
My mom always had a traditional angel.

18. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
I like the melancoly, so I've always loved "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

19. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Full-length movie, Scrooged, hands down. Of the Holiday shorts, I like the Rankin-Bass specials, like Rudolph and Twas the Night Before Christmas.

20. What do you leave for Santa?
When I was a kid, my mom and sister and I used to bake sugar cookies using a press, so we could make little trees, wreaths, etc. We'd use food coloring on the dough. Santa always got some.

alphabet soup

I'm memming because I'm kind of irritated right now, and I need to do something mindless for a few minutes. Please indulge me.


A - Available or Single? totally available. (cute rich geeks, call me)

B - Best Friend? D. she finds me hilarious, which is an excellent quality in a friend.

C - Cake or Pie? Pie, but only if it's Key Lime, or Chocolate mousse. Those fruit pies can suck it.

D - Drink of Choice? Coca-cola

E - Essential Item(s)? comfortable shoes and a world to explore

F - Favorite Color? teal

G - Gummi Bears or Worms? bears. the worms look too real.

H - Hometown? west carollton, ohio. home of the Fightin' Pirates.

I - Indulgence? chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream

J - January or February? february, because it is shorter and closer to spring

K - Kids? not yet, but eventually, even if i have to get a turkey baster

L - Life is incomplete without...love

M - Marriage Date no idea - eventually, even if I have to get a turkey baster

N - Number of Siblings - 1 sister, and two step brothers that i rarely see

O - Oranges or Apples? apples, for the juice and the sauce

P - Phobias/Fears - dropping my glasses off a balcony; being hit by a truck and not having my license on me so that my body can be identified

Q - Favorite Quote:“Some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity...” – Gilda Radner

R - Reasons to Smile? i have people in my life who stand up for me when i need them to

S - Season? summer - vacation and beaches!

T - Tag Three - Hixx, Gena, Crescent

U - Unknown Fact About Me - i hate Spam (both digital and edible)

V - Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals? animals were made to be eaten. that's why they taste so good.

W - Worst habits? nail biting, chewing on pens, etc.

X - X-rays or Ultrasounds? x-rays once for a stress fracture in my foot.

Y - Your Favorite Foods - lasagna

Z - Zodiac - cancer. I'm moody!

6 weird things

Hixx tagged me a while ago on this meme that's going around, so I supposed I should get to it.

6 Weird Things About Me

1. Squishy, juicy food makes me sick. Seriously, I never eat oranges, tomatoes, strawberries, and other foods that squish and burst in your mouth. Describing the sensation right now is making me a little queasy. I love the smell and flavor of most fruits, but the actually texture completely grosses me out.

2. I absolutely love music, but have no musical ability. I'm not quite tone deaf, but I'm close. It makes me crazy, because I'd love to be able to sing or play an instrument, but, well, my genes just didn't go that way.

3. On a similar note, I love the physical sciences, but my math-and-science abilities fall short. When it comes to physical sciences like geology, astronomy, marine biology, where I can be involved with my hands or observe, I'm fascinated, but when you start mixing in math, like physics, I just don't get it. I probably would have studied science if it wasn't for the math.

4. Most of the music I listen to is about 20+ years old. I'm convinced that I should have been born in about 1950. I should have been a teenager in the 1960s. I'm so drawn to that era of American history.

5. Babies and little kids love me. For real. I'm like the Pied Piper. Little kids I've never met come up to me in parks and ask me to play with them. Bawling babies come into my arms and then stop crying. I think kids can recognize adults who are honest and who don't look down on them (no short jokes!). I treat kids like short adults, not like a nuisance or a dog.

6. I prefer email to using the telephone. I hate talking on the phone if I can avoid it. Email is much more convienent, and easier to keep track of. A big part is also that I don't really remember things when I hear them. I'm a visual person, and so I remember things that I see or read much more than I remember things I hear.

a book meme

Picked up from Sparks' blog, since I love books. I added a few of my own to the end, since, as Sparks complained, there are some good ones missing.

Look at the list of books below.
* (Bold) the ones you've read
* Italicize the ones you want to read
* Leave unchanged the ones that you aren't interested in.
* If you are reading this, tag, you're it!

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austin)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling) (known as Sorcerer's Stone in the US)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)* I'm fairly certain I own this book.
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
101. The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien)
102. Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo)
103. Slaughter-House Five (Vonnegut)
104. Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein)
105. Hamlet (Shakespeare)
106. Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder)

ask me, part 2

These took me a few days, as Steev sent me some hard questions!

1) Where do you want to be 10 years from now? Let's see. Wow, ten years from now I'll be pushing 40. Hopefully a teacher, married with kids, and living somewhere that is mostly warm and near the ocean. That's an ideal, anyhow. Whatever it is, hopefully I'm happy, and I'm not face-down in a gutter or dead.

2) What television show / movie / play do you wish you had created? 24 - the concept is so brilliant. I'm not sure I would have made it into, as Don Hall recently said, "a neocon porno," but the concept is completely amazing.

3) Would you condone or abhor a stage show that was basically mentally retarded people performing karaoke? Well, this one is all about context. If the point of the show was for people who think that the mentally challenged are funny to come and laugh, then abhor. If the point of the show was for these folks to get a chance to perform something they enjoy in a supportive environment, then condone.

4) Fill in the blanks, and then explain: I can't believe I put that many __________ in my ___________ ! I can't believe I put that many BOOKS in my SHOULDER BAG. I've screwed up my neck lately, shoving way too much shit into my bag.

5) If John Lennon hadn't been killed, what would the 10 song titles be on his most recent album? I'm guessing that Lennon wouldn't have lost his political streak, and that his most recent album would have been primarily a protest album, featuring songs like: "Lollipop Guild on the March," "Rain of Darkness" (with Sean Lennon), "Whiz-bang, Baby," a cover of the Animals "We Gotta Get Outta This Place," and of course, a slightly creepy love song to Yoko.

Ask Me, Uh-Ho-Ho, Ask Me!

First, the meme: Here is how it goes... I'm going to answer the five questions my friend asked me. I don't tag you. You tag yourself. If you want to participate, leave "Ask me!" in the comments section of this post and I'll then send you five questions that I am dying to ask of you. You post the questions and your answers to the questions on your blog. (You might want to include this explanation for clarity.) When others comment on your blog asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions that you are dying to ask of them. Got it? Good. This meme originated with the talented Amy Guth.

My first set, from Miss Sparks:
1. Stephanie, if you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Hm. I'm a girl who likes variety. I usually order more food than I can eat, so that I can have different things. But if I had to eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be Leona's five-cheese lasagna. That stuff is a-mazing.

2. Stephanie, what is your favorite episode of South Park? Believe it or not, the very first one - Cartman Gets an Anal Probe. Classic hilarity. "Whatever, you guys!"

3. Stephanie, what is one thing you've wanted to accomplish in your life that hasn't happened (yet)? I'd say becoming a teacher, but that's something that I'm actively working towards that I KNOW will happen. So, I'll say being a mother. I really want to have kids. I'm sure it's something I'll be able to do eventually, but it's not something I can see for myself in the near future, considering where my life is now.

4. Stephanie, when it's late at night and you can't fall asleep, what do you do? I count my breaths. It relaxes me enough to fall asleep.

5. Stephanie, if you had the power to zap one person off the earth for all of eternity, who would it be? Wow, you know. this is interesting. because I kind of believe in destiny, and that every person, no matter how horrible, has some part to play. my decision could have world-wide reprecussions, chain of events and all that. I'm trying to think of one person who just shouldn't exist. The best I can come up with is Bill O'Reilly. Now that he's inspired Colbert, he can go.

A meme

A meme, because Diane tagged me, and also because DEAR GOD I do not want to deal with a long weekend's worth of email, right before a huge conference, just yet. And this is a great way to procrastinate (like I need any help with that).

1. Elaborate on your default icon. It's Death from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. I like the concept of Death as he paints her. This endless, compassionate entity that shows up to guide us from one stage to another. She's what I'd want my god to be like.
2. What's your current relationship status? Single, and lightly looking.
3. Ever have a near-death experience? Does slamming my finger in a car door count?
4. Name an obvious quality you have. Organizing other people, but not myself.
5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now? The Speed Racer theme song.
6. Name a celebrity you would marry. I have a huge crush on Bradley Whitford, but he and his wife are so cute together, I couldn't break that up.
7. Who will cut and paste this first? I think Diane is my only bloggy friend who does memes. Maybe Hixx?
8. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity? Nope. I think I'm too "unique."
9. Do you wear a watch? I used to, but now I just use my cell phone.
10. Do you have anything pierced? My ears. i used to have three holes in one ear, and four in the other, but I'm down to just wearing one in each. I'm not sure the other holes haven't closed completely.
11. Do you have any tattoos? Three. Two Japanese characters on my back, and an infinity symbol on my wrist. I have to admit that some of the critics were right, and I'm starting to regret the Japanese characters a little. Not getting them, or the meaning of them, but now that I'm a little older, I recognize the stupidity of getting them when I don't speak, or have any real interest in, Japanese. Maybe I'll get something over them someday.
12. Do you like pain? No. I'm a wimp.
13. Do you like to shop? Not really. I have a terrible time fitting into clothes, so clothes shopping is just depressing. I do like book shopping, though.
14. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?My bagel this morning.
15. What was the last thing you paid for with your credit card? This quarter's books, last night.
16. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Diane, last night, giggling about our dateanddash results.
17. What is on your desktop background? A picture of space of the earth at night, where you can see the lights across Europe.
18. What is the background on your cell phone? A picture I just took this morning of my cat looking out the window.
19. What was the last movie you watched?Little Miss Sunshine, with Diane. So good!
20. What was the last book you read? I'm still working on Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope."

a *shudder* reverse meme

I had some sort of annoying information come at me today at work, and so I'm feeling a little down and a little weird. Inspired by Ms. Sparks, who was in turn stealing it from someone else, here are some questions for you... Comment if you feel like it.

Thirteen Quizzical Questions for You, The Reader

1. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it. (aside from the obvious)
2. Am I loveable?
3. How long have you known me?
4. When and how did you first find my blog?
5. What was your first impression?
6. Do you still think that way about me now?
7. What makes me happy?
8. What makes me sad?
9. What song (if any) reminds you of me?
10. If you could give me anything what would it be?
12. Do you consider me a friend?
13. How often do you visit my blog?
14. Describe me in one word.