Last week I got my usual Kinokuniya monthly newsletter and noticed that they were having a contest to win free movie tickets. I wrote back immediately but didn’t get a reply, so I figured I wasn’t quick enough. Lo and behold, two days later they arrived in the mail! I won two free tickets to see a sneak preview of Pan’s Labyrinth. Other than Kevin’s review, I really didn’t know much about it other than it was some sort of fantasy. I was expecting sort of a dark, “Alice in Wonderland” type adventure. Yowza. Instead it’s more like 2/3 war story, 1/3 fantasy. And the war bits are really, really gruesome. I found myself hiding behind my hands more than once, and the “lip stitching” part had the whole audience audibly wincing. That said, both parts of the story were compelling and I wasn’t bored at all. The actors are all fantastic, and the effects are convincingly creepy. I did find the ending a little depressing though.

So she friggin’ DIED? Does that mean that the underworld is real, or was it just all in her head? I figure it had to have been real, because she obviously got out of her locked room somehow. But I really hate stories where the characters have really crappy lives and then die, and we’re supposed to somehow think it’s a happy ending. (See: CS Lewis’s “The Last Battle”; that “Sliding Doors” movie with Gwyneth Paltrow.) Snookums thinks I’m too much of an atheist to like these stories. I guess I must be. I just find them really depressing.

Running from Camera. Ha! One of the more amusing photoblogs I’ve seen in a long time.

Leanne dragged me back to yoga last night for the first time in, like, a year. I’m sooooo sore. Bring on the coffee!

Helms Deep recreated in candy. Sweeet. Except now my inner monologue is going to sound like Fez all day… (Link courtesy of John.)

BOOK IT! Oh man, I was waaaay into the Book It! program. (For non-Americans, it was a scheme to get kids reading by awarding them free Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas whenever they’d finished a certain number of books.) All of mine would’ve been redeemed at the Kendallville Pizza Hut. I can remember the big purple button I had, and the gold foil star stickers the waiter would add each time you came in. I might have to get one of those old-school T-shirts… (Link courtesy of miftik.)

ASTRONAUT KRIS.
Earlier tonight I was checking out Orlando tourist attractions to figure out how far they are from my Grandma’s house. (Couch surfing rules.) Idly I clicked on the Kennedy Space Center website, when I noticed their Astronaut Training Experience (ATX). OH. MY. GOD. It’s SpaceCamp for GROWNUPS. I managed to convince Snookums that this will be the 30th Birthday Present of All-Time. Then I stayed up til 1am so I could call Florida and book in our tickets. WE’RE LOCKED IN BABY! April 12th, yours truly is gonna get strapped into the multi-axis trainer to do her best Lea Thompson while Snookums puts on his best Tate Donovan. “Jinx and Max, friends forever!”

One-Way Car Rental
The Snook and I are finalizing plans for our trip to the States in a few months, and one of the last hurdles is arranging ground transportation. We were hoping to do a bit of a road trip to Florida and then fly on to London from there, but the price of one-way car rentals is RIDICULOUS. As a last resort, I’ve found several great deals (not one-way) in Indiana with unlimited mileage. That would require us driving all the way back though. Have any of you done anything similar? Anybody have any suggestions?

(What I’m hoping to hear: “Hey, Kris, my cousin’s been looking for somebody to drive his car from Indiana to Florida!” What I’m expecting to hear: “You’re screwed.”)

China is introducing sweet-and-sour pork flavoured postage stamps. That is awesome.

Wow. The BBC is reporting that 100% of Irish Euro notes carry traces of cocaine on them. 100%! You’ve gotta imagine that other Western countries would have similar rates. (Except for Australia. We got plastic money. You can just wipe this stuff clean!)

Not for the faint-hearted: Ugly Cat. Yeesh. Didn’t Rachel have one of those on Friends? (Link courtesy of Snookums.)