The Final Semester Begins.

Today was my last first day of college. Ever.

I think I'm the opposite of most college seniors. It seems the overwhelming majority of students in my position can't wait to be finished, to never take an exam again and to move on to "real" life. I, on the other hand, am shaking in my boots. Once I walk the stage, I'm not sure what will become of me. I'd like to think I have a pretty good resume. I did my time at the NT Daily. I've interned in several different areas. Editorially at The Dallas Observer and at Gateway Church. I also tried my hand at public relations with Big Ink PR last semester. But is it enough?

I know of many journalism grads who haven't found a career-oriented job yet. And, most of them had great internships and are great at what they do. Okay, it's not completely bleak. I know of several grads who found jobs in the field and are having the times of their lives. I just really hope that I'm one of them. 

That means this semester I will be applying my butt off for various writing jobs. I will be religiously be keeping up with Twitter chats like #EntryChat and will continue following PR and journalism pros. In spite of this job-scarce market, I won't let myself stop dreaming about where my career can take me.

Review: Take Me Home Tonight

Over the weekend, I went to see a movie at Cinemark Plano and a man approached me and gave me a free pass to see a preview screening of "Take Me Home Tonight." Last night I went.

"Take Me Home Tonight" is a Relativity Media film starring Topher Grace and Anna Farris. The film takes place over the course of one night. Think "Night at the Roxburry" or "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist." The high school class of 1984 has just graduated from college. Grace's character, Matt Franklin, graduated from MIT and is working at Suncoast Video in a mall. Matt, his twin sister Wendy (Farris) and his best friend Barry Nathan (Dan Folger) are all going to a wild Labor Day party hosted by Wendy's high school sweetheart. Matt spends the entire night trying to get his high school crush Tori Fredericking (Teresa Palmer) to like him. 

Thinking about the plot of this movie, it seems that it should be starring Seth Rogen, Michael Cera and Zach Galifianakis. I was refreshed to see a different cast in this stupid-humor comedy. Topher Grace seemed to have dropped out of the public eye for a while, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him back on the big screen. It was also nice to see Anna Farris stepping out from her ditzy blonde role. (Literally. She is brunette for the film.)

Before the movie, a Relativity Media rep came up to talk about the film. Besides trying to get us to tell everyone about the movie and to follow them on Twitter, his big point was that this movie was a nod to the John Hughes era. I'm thinking, "Okay. This is set in the 80s. How can they try to compare themselves to such classics?"

Topher Grace also made a 60 second appearance to introduce the film. 1) Do you like John Hughes moives? 80s music? 2) Most importantly, do you like to party your f****** a***** off?! The crowd cheered as Grace disappeared into a seat in the audience to watch the film with us.

Let me just say this: I WANT THIS SOUNDTRACK. The best of the 80s, truly.

Grace's character reminded me of Patrick Dempsy's ultra nerd of "Can't Buy Me Love," even down to the suit outfit he wears to the Labor Day party. He just can't seem to get anything right. He walks up to Tori "freaking" Fredericking, as he calls her to his friends, and starts talking about his mad athleticism in windsurfing. That's what Tori listed in the high school yearbook as a hobby. Turns out she isn't really interested in it and Matt is just digging himself into a hole. 

Just-fired-from-my-job-so-I-want-to-be-wild Barry Nathan (Folger) was a great counterpart to Matt, who is afraid of everything in life from asking a girl out to finding a good career. Barry's motto of the night, which he also impresses on Matt, t is "Don't think. Just do." You can only imagine what shenanigans this might lead to.

Honestly, it was a 2000s version of a John Hughes. Just sprinkle in some cocaine, nudity and newer 2000s humor. I didn't expect a deep plot or twists and turns. I expected a good laugh, and that's what I got. I was highly entertained, and I certainly enjoyed the 80s ponytails, the shoulder pads and neon suits. I didn't leave the theater in deep thought, left to ponder life's biggest questions. I left wanting to go out and have some fun of my own. It's the kind of movie I'll want to own and watch at night when I can't sleep.

"Take Me Home Tonight" hits theaters March 4. If you've had enough of teenage comedies that are all bathroom humor and dirty jokes, go see "Take Me Home Tonight" for a different kind of laugh that'll take you back to the golden years of teen comedy.

 

 

Note to the advertisers: I really, really hope you don't put all the best parts of this movie into the trailer. I was lucky that I hadn't heard or seen much about this movie prior to viewing. Don't give it all away.

Posterous

My brother Paul was watching me update my blog via Blogger and was literally lurching at my laptop he was so frustrated with how confusing Blogger can be. "Please just use Posterous!" he said. "It's so much easier."

So here I am. On Posterous.

He made it for me a while ago, but now I'm going to start using it. Never fear, 7 followers, my blog at sheatellefsen.blogspot.com will still be active. When I post via Posterous, it will update Blogger too.

Here goes.

Biking Adventure: White Rock Lake

First off, I've been attempting to write this blog all week long. AND I have a super awesome excuse as to why it's just being posted today. Two actually. (1) I kept trying to sign into my Blogger account from the wrong email. I'm clearly a very smart, almost college grad. (2) My laptop literally had 0 KB and clearly had no room for uploading photos. So there's that.

I had serious cabin fever last Thursday. Like will do anything to leave this house, will literally end someone's life if I watch another episode of daytime television kind of cabin fever. My dad took the whole week off work, and my dad is the kind of guy who will pull you off your butt and throw you on the racquetball court or the elliptical machine. He works out three times a week, and has his whole life. No fail. Today the grand idea was...a bike ride. (Okay, so this may sound a little sarcastic toward my dad. But once he gets you motivated to get up and do something active, it's ALWAYS a blast.) So after careful consideration, we decided to take on the 10 mile White Rock Lake Trail.

We were truly geared up. Camelback full of water. Helmets. Gloves. Sunglasses. I was really excited. "I can do this, right!?"

One mile into the trail I. AM. DYING. I felt so incredibly pitiful. I hadn't biked since the summer, and my work out schedule this past semester was less than satisfactory. But there's Dad a few (okay, several) paces in front of me saying with a little grin, "Come on, Shea! You can do it!"

A mile or two-ish later, I worked past that oh-my-gosh-I-can't-do-this pain and was really starting to enjoy the ride as we arrived at the lake. Every hill, I would think I wasn't going to make it but then I'd get to the top. And I'd get to coast to the bottom. Did I mention the wind wasn't at our backs? Makes hills alllll the more frustrating. Yes, it's possible that I yelled at the wind while I was on a hill by myself. Don't judge. The wind didn't. It just pushed at me harder.

We saw lots of interesting people on the trail, too. Some couples riding tandem. A unicyclist, and, no, I'm not kidding. He was seriously biking the trail, too. Two 15 year olds on a roller blading date. Try this motivation on for size: packs of seemingly semi-professional cyclists. The matching uniforms and everything. When I felt like giving up, I wouldn't. I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of people who were probably on their way to biking 20 miles that day.

Probably halfway through the trail, dad's pedal started getting loose. He had literally packed every tool in the Camelback...except the pedal tightener. On our way back, we came across a bike shop where they so kindly tightened the pedal for us.

At the end of the trail there are lots of little bridges. My dad's favorite thing to do was speed across them. At the last bridge he says, "Push it! Go as fast as you can!" I pushed my legs as fast as they would go, which wasn't full full full speed ahead. But you know what? I made it. I biked 10 miles on a windey, hilly trail with my super athletic dad.

I plan on doing these biking adventures more frequently. I could really get into this.

Skype: Video Calling in Wifi and 3G

Around 1 a.m. last night my brother, Paul, texts me from across the house: "Can I come over for a sec?" I wondered if something was wrong. Seconds later he is bursting in my room pleading with me to sign in to Skype on my iPhone. Video calling had arrived.

Let's do a little background here so my enthusiasm for this new feature can be fully understood. Lately T-Mobile has been thinking they are so clever with the pink-striped dress woman. "Weeeee have video calling in 3G and the iPhone doesn'tttttt," the commercials taunted. They also have some dorky guy piggy-backed onto to iPhone guy, saying it's AT&T weighing him down. (You can view the commercial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7gaPWeZMdw)

Did I mention that Apple first started these commercials? You can't beat Apple at it's own game. In my brother's educated (via his Apple obsession and reading Macrumors) opinion, FaceTime hasn't been offered in 3G yet because it hasn't been perfected. They don't want to release some halfway done feature. No, I haven't used T-Mobile's video calling so I can't say it isn't top notch. But I'm going to go ahead and guess it isn't exactly FaceTime. However, I can vouch for FaceTime. And it's simply wonderful.

With that said, Skype's release of video calling for the iPhone was pretty much a TAKE THAT T-MOBILE. Well, it was to me anyway.

Back to 1 a.m. last night. Yes, we did sit on my bed and video call each other to test it out. First we tried it on Wifi. Perfection. My brother's physical voice was in sync with the audio coming out of my phone. The picture was also very clear. Then we turned off our Wifi and tried calling on 3G. Still very clear. But, yes, the audio was a little delayed. But who could tell unless the two callers happen to be in the same room?

Today we also tried calling over 3G with about 20 miles between us. It still worked very well. I am very pleased. I stinkin' called my brother over video from the passenger seat of my car!

Christian Bale.

Does he even need more of an introduction?

When he popped up on the scene a few years ago, I thought Bale was sort of a "man of the hour" type of actor. I thought he was going to be good at one thing and that he'd be overused in that role and we'd all get tired of him. (Eh-hem. I'm talking about you, Cameron Diaz) Because really, he was in several things in a row in the mid-2000s. The Machinist, Batman Begins, Prestige.

That changed last week when I saw The Fighter.

A few weeks before I saw the film, I watched the trailer. Mark Wahlberg punching around, Amy Adams 10 pounds heavier with an accent and some skinny drug type. What's that? The credits say Christian Bale is in the movie? THAT SKINNY SLIMEY-ACTING DUDE IS HIM? I encountered the same feeling while watching the film. I couldn't get over it. Every single scene. The accent. The mannerisms. The overall character. During the film, I kept trying to picture the way he was in another movie. I honestly couldn't. Prestige? No. Batman Begins? No. I could only see him as Dicky Eklund. Every inch of his body was Dicky. And every syllable the left his mouth was Dicky.

This is the definition of an excellent actor if you ask me. Christian Bale was unrecognizable. He left his own personality and mannerisms at home and brought a totally different person to the screen. I haven't been able to stop singing his praises since.

Last night, we decided to watch The Dark Knight because my dad got a new BlueRay player for Christmas. First, it was utterly strange to see Bale so beefed up. He almost looked overweight to me compared to his appearance in The Fighter. (Clearly NOT overweight, but this is the vast difference in his physically appearance) It was strange to see him as Bruce Wayne: suave millionaire. I've clearly not been appreciating Bale's talents because I was highly impressed last night by his portrayal in The Dark Knight. Minus, the strangely low Batman voice of course.

Looking back on his career thus far, it's safe to say that I underestimated and underappreciated his talent. He has played wildly different roles over the course of his career. It just took his role as Dicky Eklund for the bells to finally go off in my brain.

To recap, Christian Bale is sort of my favorite actor at the moment. It's actually a tie with James Franco quite frankly. (127 Hours anyone?) And if Bale doesn't win a Golden Globe or an Oscar I'm going to be, well, pretty upset.

NOTE. If you are, or think you are, a professional movie reviewer: please refrain from ripping me apart. I don't claim to know it all. Everything in this blog is just my humble opinion and view :)

Back.

So remember when I was like a blogging fiend this summer? It's about to happen again. Christmas break, for me, begins at 6:20 p.m. tomorrow. Brilliant.

Blogging was obviously shoved onto the back burner this semester. I had to devote my creative energies to clearly more amazing things like: police beat stories, city council stories, reading novels out of british lit and postcolonial lit, research essays. That's no excuse for abandoning this blog, I know.

My brother, Paul, became a master blogger over this semester because he had to for class. He got absolutely amazing feedback. Our church even posted one of his posts on Facebook. I'm way proud of how he's evolved as a technology blogger. So, there was that making me feel guilty for leaving my blog in the dust. (For real check out his blog: technopaul)

Then there was Hyperbole and a Half. I'd actually read some posts from this blog before, but I completely forgot about it until my friend, Kelly, suggested I check it out. This girl writes wacky blogs about whatever is going on in her life. Totally different from my blogging style. But hilarious. And SHE DOES IT FOR A LIVING, PEOPLE. So she obviously has more time to devote than I do. But it made me feel a teensy bit inspired.

And now that I will have free time, and surely plenty of experiences at new cupcake places, shopping for Christmas and enjoying a school break, I will be back in action.

Next week, my wisdom teeth are coming out. That's bound to be blog worthy.