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Post by embonpoint on Jul 14, 2011 17:41:18 GMT -5
"Food, glorious food! We're anxious to try it. Three banquets a day -- Our favourite diet!" I was once in an AmDram production of Oliver and my dance group dressed up as chefs and tap-danced whilst singing this song. We also had to hold rolling pins, and on opening night, one girl forgot hers. It was very funny. /irrelevant anecdote.
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Post by embonpoint on Jul 13, 2011 12:21:46 GMT -5
I love sleep and sleep loves me. I get my best ideas and motivation for essays in the state between wakefulness and dreams. I daydream like it's my job and if I had to chose between either eating or sleeping, I'd chose sleeping. (okay, maybe if the food was tacos...) I stay up rather late at night till 1 or 2 AM, during college it was sometimes later. But I also love sleeping in, but only until 11. Otherwise I feel like the whole day is wasted. Pretty much this. Although I'm not sure about the eating vs. sleeping thing; that'd take some serious thought. I think I'd just like to stay in bed and eat all day, all night, forever. I hate going to bed early; I hate it. Even when I have to get up at 5.30/6am for a really strenuous day at work, I resent having to go to bed at like, 10. This is partly because it takes me a while to fall asleep; once I'm asleep, I'm dead, but it can take a frustratingly long time to get there. But it's mostly because I like to stay up late.
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Post by embonpoint on Jul 12, 2011 16:12:42 GMT -5
I got SO close to the end, and then, all of a sudden, everyone died, but I'm not sure why because they were all in good health. So, yeah, not sure what happened there. It's such a great game, though. LOVE IT.
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Post by embonpoint on Jul 6, 2011 13:57:43 GMT -5
Matthew MacFadyen? YES PLEASE. (for lack of other appropriate face)
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Post by embonpoint on Jul 6, 2011 7:54:48 GMT -5
I don't really think I ever had a moment like that. I've always, always loved English and so it was always there at, or near, the top of the list. I did take a bit of a detour when I thought I wanted to be a surgeon, but then I realised I didn't and went straight back to English. It's just always been my 'thing'.
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Post by embonpoint on Jul 5, 2011 13:50:37 GMT -5
Haha, I agree; I love the film!
Andy, it might just be that I can't relate to whatever-her-name is in On Chesil Beach and so I don't really care for anything in the novel. I had a similar problem with An Education, the film, which I thought was terrible but my mum (who grew up in the same kind of social environment as in the film) thought it was quite good and could actually appreciate it. Also, I certainly don't expect, or want, books to have happy endings; I love bittersweet endings, actually. I just didn't like that one.
Lobster, that discussion would definitely be worth starting!
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Post by embonpoint on Jul 3, 2011 15:24:09 GMT -5
The Oxford comma will never be gone as long as those who remain are loyal to it.
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Post by embonpoint on Jul 1, 2011 18:02:57 GMT -5
Author of Atonement, On Chesil Beach, The Cement Garden etc.
I wanted to start a discussion on him because... Well, because my mother hates him. HATES him, as does my sister. This is because of The Cement Garden; my mum thinks he's a sick man and would've quite liked to have read Atonement (after watching the film) until she found out it was by him, and thinking about his use of the C-word and the library scene. My sister feels much the same; she had to study The Cement Garden at A Level.
Now, I've read TCG, and On Chesil Beach and to be quite honest, I'm closer to agreeing with my family than I am to praising him. Why does sex need to be such an important point in each of his novels, and in such a weird way? I mean, yeah, ok, I am kind of a prude in some respects, but even so. One book, fine; two books, alriiight; but a lot of his books seem to involve some kind of weird or sinister (or illegal) sexual theme (or murder/horrible death or violence) and come on, is that really necessary?! And well, On Chesil Beach I just thought was pointless. *SPOILERS* (do people need spoilers for this?) I mean, they get married, he comes early and she freaks out... Then they just separate and divorced/annul the marriage and that's it. Like, what was the point of that? I thought it was a stupid book; why spend almost all of it writing about their relationship and their love, only to have it end so abruptly and permanently? That book was a waste of my time.
The worst thing about him, for me, though, is that the writing itself isn't bad; it's just the stories he uses that writing for/the subjects he writes about that bother me. I will read Atonement at some point, and I hope it's better than the other two I've read, but I'm not sure it will be. Has anyone read it? Any thoughts?
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 30, 2011 15:01:13 GMT -5
Possession by A S Byatt. Weaveworld by Clive Barker.
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 28, 2011 16:39:29 GMT -5
Flying/wings, like Angel from X-Men. Flying/wings, like Angel from X-Men. Like male!Angel or female!Angel? (Just fucking spelled angel 'angle' -head/desk-) I always loved the idea of flying, too. So... wings. See, I love the idea of having wings - huge, beautiful wings - but I really don't care about flying. It always seems to be such a common answer to the super powers question and I'm just like 'really?'. What's the fascination?
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 27, 2011 17:21:57 GMT -5
No, no, I meant 'sticked', I believe the OED when they say that it's been a word since the 1330s. Since, you know, they have many documented uses to show as proof. Yeah, lots of words existed back then that don't now. I just checked the OED for 'sticked' and it came up with 'stuck' (unless you're talking about slaughtering pigs, apparently).
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 27, 2011 9:13:23 GMT -5
It drives me nuts to see people vote based off what they see on television and debates. Even visiting the candidate's website is helpful. The candidates show their stances on everything there. You might think you're voting for a candidate that's going to lower taxes or whatever, but they might also be planning to cut the education budget in half or something and they don't mention it on tv spots or during debates. Yes, always check sources. Look through the opposing candidate's material, follow political blogs, check newspapers...but always make sure that they're credible sources. The best places to look that will give you a moderate perspective are the centrist media. I don't really recommend watching TV because often it's biased and leans one way or the other on the political spectrum. Whilst I, by no means, think that you should just vote on a whim or whatever, it's really fucking hard to know who to vote for because they all liiiieee! It almost doesn't matter what they state their policies to be, because at least half of it won't happen anyway. You can vote for someone who ends up doing the complete opposite of what you wanted/they said they'd do. /still sore from results of last election.
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 26, 2011 13:34:03 GMT -5
I really have to throw in a petty complaint about how much I hate that the US decided to call the first book The Golden Compass. It makes me so (irrationally) angry; WHY? WHY WAS THAT NECESSARY?! Do Americans not understand 'Northern Lights'? I'M PRETTY SURE THEY DO. WHY WHY WHY?! D:
Having got that out... I do love the series. I've been meaning to re-read them, actually.
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 26, 2011 7:04:35 GMT -5
I say it 'allmund'. :/ Maybe I pronounce it one of the ways you have above, but it's really more of an 'all' sound and a 'mund' sound and not an 'al' or 'mond'. Or 'mund' like when you start to say 'Monday' I think I'm confusing myself now. I should stop. That's probably the last way. I wasn't sure how to describe it, because when I've heard people say it like that, it's not quite like 'all' (the word); it has more of an o-shape in your mouth when you say it, but equally, it's not really an o-sound. None of the ways I put are 'mond', though. I've never heard that.
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Post by embonpoint on Jun 25, 2011 8:26:52 GMT -5
I know three ways of saying 'almond': 'armund' 'almund' (like Al the name, mund), 'allmond' (more of an 'ol'/'ool' weird kind of sound I can't type!).
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