Movie Morsels 65: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Yes! It's actually an entertainment-related post! Weehoo!!! Here we go...

The 'red band' trailer for TGWtDT was released late last week and since I am a fan of both the books and the Swedish films, I thought I'd pass it along.

UPDATE: Okay, so I've had to embed this video twice in as many days for it being removed from YouTube so here's the 'green band' trailer instead. Exactly the same but with a shot of people at a dinner table in lieu of side boob. Done.



According to EW.com:

Though the teaser plays out with rapid-fire imagery set to Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, we get our first major glimpses of star Rooney Mara... as the gothic, damaged super-sleuth. There seems to be less of Daniel Craig, and his sullied journalist Mikael Blomkvist appears to be far more vulnerable — or at least far more easily wounded — than Salander, which is as it should be. He’s kind of the damsel in distress in this tale, no?
The footage in the teaser surprisingly plays out in near chronological order, practically the entire story with each scene reduced to a single fraction-of-a-second shot. It could almost be a black-and-white film, with such stark contrast between the snow and so much use of shadow and silhouette (including a little side-nudity that probably earns this clip its “red band” NSFW status.)

I didn't really get the whole 'the entire story was revealed' thing from the trailer but I've only watched it once so maybe I was too sleepy and need to see it again. Regardless, it looks like it's going to be a good movie and I'm glad it's retained the gritty feeling of the book. I'm still curious to see how big a role Erica will play in the film, since she wasn't really in the Swedish version but she's being played by a big name (Robin Wright). I also just reeeeeally hope they don't have distractingly bad accents...

It's Linguini McCauley!

Yes, I have returned. I think it goes without saying that this quarter is kicking my ass and that is why there have been no posts but just in case you didn't quite pick up on that, THIS QUARTER IS KICKING MY ASS. Ugh. I have a big ol' stream of consciousness-type post in the pipeline but as a small step back into the blogosphere, here is a post on the newest member of the family: Linguini McCauley. And he's a cat. Yes, you read that correctly - a cat. I know, I know, I have never been a big cat person but I couldn't help it! He was abandoned and needed a home. I have a home. What could I do?

Here's the poop: My friend, Amy, interns at a clinic where, on April 1st, a box of 9 newborn kittens was dumped on the doorstep. Amy wound up fostering 2 of them and she brought them to class with her for a couple weeks to feed them on schedule. Here I am with Linguini when he's about 5 weeks old:

I told Robert all about the baby kitties, of course, and showed him some photos of them with Amy's dog, Rocko. Well, for some reason the photo of the kittehs with Rocko sent Robert into LaLaLand and the dude wanted to snatch himself a kitty! So, I jokingly told Amy that Robert wanted one, she was all excited about it at her birthday party (a later post) and voila! We became proud owners of a domestic shorthaired kitten of unknown origin*.

Rocko and Linguini

Robert is absolutely goo goo for Linguini, it's ridiculous. I know I have said this many times over the past couple of years but I had NO idea back in high school that Robert would turn out to be such a... well, pushover smoosh. I love Robert dearly and while it is of course nice to have a man who is unafraid to show his tender side, it's sometimes off-putting to see your husband refuse to wipe goop off a kitty's nose because "he's so small - I just don't want to hurt him!" And forget about discipline. If this cat is going to learn what is and is not okay, it's going to be from me and me alone!

But enough about that. Here are some fabulous photos of the little guy for you to "ooh" and "aah" over. Oh, and his name is Linguini because I love all things Ratatouille and, as you know, Robert and I have a thing for long pet names. ;o) We call him Gweenz for short.

Hangin' with Amy

Napping with his brother (now named Simon)

It took Robert 0.2 nanoseconds to decide he wanted the kitten during his trial home visit. (We had to make sure Funk wasn't going to eat him...)

On his way from his foster to his forever home

My parents are most definitely NOT cat people but Linguini was able to work his magic and charm them both. Niiiiiiice.

Pretty comfy on his first night as Casa de McCauley

Kisses

Watching some TV

Nibbling on Funk's ear

Little lap kitteh! :o)

Sleepytime friends

He has taken to sleeping in Funk's bed, something Funk does not appreciate. We're working on getting him to sleep on his own bed.

* A wonderful selling point to this whole affair - not that we really needed one - is that Amy's clinic is going to provide all of Linguini's kitty vaccines as well as neuter him for free! Woohoo!

Squirrel!

(You have to read the title like this. )

One of my fellow Firsties, Kim, brought some 5-week-old squirrels she's fostering in to the lab on Monday and Wednesday and I got to hold one of'em!!!! Can I just say I was freakishly excited about this, people? In fact, Kim wasn't going to bring the babies in on Wednesday because they'd opened their eyes (and I guess once that happens, you limit human contact with them to almost nil) but I was sick on Monday and missed them so she promised to bring them in for me. And she did. :o) THEY WERE ADORABLE! So soft, so tiny, so sweet. I couldn't get enough. There were three girls and a boy and one of them was black. I'd never seen a black squirrel! Oh, I just lurv little behbeh aminals - I could hardly stand it! You're jealous, right? I know you're jealous.

I got nuzzled. Hee Hee!

I look completely evil in this picture but I wanted to post proof that it is indeed ME in the photos.

And on a similar note, here are a couple photos of one of our male albino rats. I received a request to get off my duff and snap a picture of our original rodents so here you go. Isn't he big?! But cute. Very cute.

New Babies

I will be taking Lab Animal Technology this quarter and, apparently, the 5 rats and oodles of mice we already have were not sufficient. Therefore, we welcomed a bunch of new mice (I honestly didn't count but it's something like 8 or 10) from SJSU and 4 four-month-old black-hooded rats from Simonsen Labs into our menagerie. In all honesty, I don't really mind more rodents; yes, there's more to clean but I like the little meeces and the boy rats are nice so I'm find handling them. (The lady rats are very nippy! They suck.) I just wish we could get rid of the rabbits! They are horrible, horrible creatures. Yes, I understand that they were lab rabbits and so have no reason whatsoever to like humans but man do they not like humans! They are extremely unpleasant and I do not enjoy looking after them at ALL. Ahem. Moving on...

Since I had never seen a baby rat in person, I spent a little extra time after Animal Care last Wednesday helping Alisa get the little guys a bit more socialized. Which seemed like a perfect opportunity to snap some photos of our rodent room! And here it is:

I took one good picture and then promptly forgot to actually take any photos of the mice or our original rats. Whoops! Well, we were focusing on the newbies so I focused on the newbies. Here's one of them now:

And here's another little guy in my pocket. He was so sweet! But he promptly peed on my top before running into my pocket so that's why it looks wet.

The rats are definitely people-shy; they wouldn't even nibble oatmeal or applesauce from our fingers. But people seem taken with the little ones so hopefully people with play with them more and they'll get more comfortable with us. I just feel bad for the albino bunch - people think they're so creepy looking that they won't love on them. :o(  I love on the boys - they're so cute when they get their Cheerios - but the girls not so much. I just hate for anyone to feel left out. Mew.

Hello? Anyone Home?

Finals ended last week and I am officially on Spring Break. However, I start my internship tomorrow and so took time out of my busy lying-on-the-couch-in-the-fetal-position-wailing-into-pillows schedule to pop in and let you all know that I PROMISE I will update the blog with more substantial info tout de suite. Until then, just wanted you to know that I am alive. Barely.

Baby Gerbe!

Woohoo! Gianna Marie was born on Sunday, February 27th, at a healthy 6 pounds, 3 ounces. Christina was kind enough to post some photos of the little gal on Facebook so I'm taking that as an okay for me to post'em on the blog... ! I'm so glad Christina took a moment to share a few pictures because I was dying to see the newest Gerbe! I don't know when she'll make her inaugural visit to CA but I assume it won't be for quite a while. I'm so jealous of all their East Coast friends who get to visit so soon...

Congrats, Christina and Rob!!! She's a cutie and you guys look so happy. :o) Can't wait to see you all!

I can't believe how much hair she has!

'11 Oscar Wrap-Up. In a Word: Meh.

I know, I know, I know - this post is ridiculously late, so much so that it has lost the little appeal it may have had had it been posted in a timely manner. I'm sorry. I have no excuse except the youzhe - school is sucking up all my time, I swear! (More on that later.) Plus, I must admit the Oscars were just not as shiny and alluring as they usually are this year. I don't know if it was because I hadn't seen most of the nominated films (Best Picture-wise we'd only seen Inception and Toy Story 3) or because I wasn't as up to date on my entertainment reading as I'd have liked but I just wasn't feeling it this year. Call me James Franco (hi-oh!). Even my two boyfriends winning didn't light my fire much (though I will say that they both gave excellent speeches in my opinion. Nice work, fellas! I just wish Christian had been clean-shaven...). If you read the comments from the last post, you know we didn't win the RHI poll this year and I gotta say, my spirit is pretty much broken on that front. Hopes? Dashed. Even with my more relaxed approach to filling it out, I choked. I really should have taken my own advice from last year and just thrown darts at random. Clearly, I am doomed to be an Oscar pool loser for the foreseeable future. Is my life just not the saddest thing ever or what? I don't even know how I get out of bed in the morning.

If you're interested, here are the best recaps I could wrangle. I miss Defamer. *sigh* (If you only pick one, I'd go with the Television Without Pity link.)

EW.com's 20 Memorable Moments

TWoP's Best & Worst

msn.com's Best & Worst

Oscar Ballot Predictions: 2011 Edition

We're goin' off the reservation this year, people!!! We haven't won an RHI pool for the past couple years so this year I tried my best not to get bogged down in awards won and whatnot and just tried to go with my gut. Although, as always, in those categories for which I have two top contenders Robert places the deciding vote. If I'm completely honest, I have to say I don't think we have a winning ballot this year but at least it was less stressful filling it out. ;o) Wish us luck!

Program Puppers!!!

There has been a flurry of activity surrounding the puppers at school so I finally have some photos of them all! You know me - I have to share. :o)

This is Ludo; he's the eldest of the dogs we have, around 5 or 6 years old. He's always been the mellowest dog and is just a sweetheart. Recently, a family friend of one of the seniors expressed interest in him and brought him home for a couple of weekends. Apparently, the home visits went well and I think Ludo is thisclose to finding his forever home. YAY!!!

This is Foxy. She's our only girl and only little dog. She's definitely going to be adopted by one of my fellow firsties and we're all so excited for them both! Foxy (soon to be Ruby) is so shy and docile compared to all the big guys and she is definitely happiest in someone's lap. Here she is trying to help Lydia study for Micro:

And this is Popcorn. He's the youngest of the poops - he's not quite a year old yet - and he's a skinny little booger. He has SO MUCH ENERGY it's a bit overwhelming at times but he's already learned some basic commands and you can just see how eager he is to please everyone. I have had the pleasure of restraining him in lab once or twice because I'm experienced with the energetic black dog type... ;o) Unfortunately, he hasn't quite found anyone to be his family yet so if you know anyone who's looking for an energetic lovebug, let me know! (Doesn't this face just beg for some pets? Ugh, breaks my heart!)

Last but not least we have Radar. He was labeled by the shelter as 'dog aggressive' but the vet tech DVMs have spent a lot of time testing Radar out in all types of scenarios and it's been discovered that he was mis-labeled. Whew! He's a lean, muscular pittie mix and he's adorable. You know me - I love ALL the dogs to bits but Radar does have a special little place in my heart. Like Popcorn, he's starting to show signs of kennel stress - habitually licking the bars and scratching the walls - so we all try and exercise him as much as possible. I was on campus for Animal Care yesterday and stuck around for a few hours afterward to study with Kristine. (I've had no classes this week because all the instructors are at the Western Vet Conference.) We brought Radar out to hang in the lab with us and he was happy to be free of his run for a while.

Look at him! He's gorgeous!

I took a little study break for a round of tug o' war.

Radar was very affectionate that afternoon and gave us both lots and lots of kisses. :o)

Again, just like Popcorn, Radar hasn't found his family yet. But believe me - I'm working on Robert (and my parents!) every chance I get.

TV Tidbits 95: Current TV Survival Scorecard

Okily dokily, guys, I know the "oodles of useless entertainment info" has be a bit scant here of late but I believe I do have a little something for you now. EW.com just released an updated scorecard on the 18th and it looks a little somethin' like this:


SURE THINGS FOR NEXT SEASON
America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC)
American Dad (Fox)
American Idol (Fox)
Bones (Fox)
Blue Bloods (CBS)
Cleveland (Fox, renewed through 2012)
Castle (ABC; renewed through May 2012)
Cougar Town (ABC; renewed through May 2012)
Criminal Minds (CBS)
CSI (CBS)
CSI: Miami (CBS)
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC)
Family Guy (Fox; renewed through 2012)
Glee (Fox; renewed through 2012)
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC; renewed through 2012)
Hawaii Five-0 (CBS)
Hell’s Kitchen (Fox)
House (Fox)
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Law & Order: SVU (NBC)
Mike & Molly (CBS)
Modern Family (ABC; renewed through 2012)
NCIS (CBS, renewed through 2012)
NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS)
Private Practice (ABC; renewed through 2012)
Rules of Engagement (CBS)
Survivor (CBS)
Raising Hope (Fox; renewed through 2012)
The Amazing Race (CBS)
The Big Bang Theory (CBS; renewed through 2014)
The Good Wife (CBS)
The Mentalist (CBS)
Two and A Half Men (CBS, renewed through 2012)
30 Rock (NBC; renewed through 2012)
The Biggest Loser (NBC)
The Office (NBC)
The Cleveland Show (Fox)
The Simpsons (Fox; renewed through 2012)
The Bachelor (ABC)
The Middle (ABC; renewed through 2012)
The Vampire Diaries (The CW)
Wipeout (ABC)

STRONG ODDS
America’s Next Top Model (The CW)
Better With You (ABC)
Community (NBC)
Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (CBS)
Celebrity Apprentice (NBC)
CSI: NY (CBS)
Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Gossip Girl (The CW)
Harry’s Law (NBC)
Hellcats (The CW)
Kitchen Nightmares (Fox)
Minute to Win It (NBC)
Mr. Sunshine (ABC)
Nikita (The CW)
90210 (The CW)
Parenthood (NBC)
Parks and Recreation (NBC)
$#*! My Dad Says (CBS)
The Sing-Off (NBC)
Undercover Boss (CBS)
Wife Swap (ABC)

COULD GO EITHER WAY 
Bob’s Burgers (Fox)
Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Chicago Code (Fox)
Chuck (NBC)
The Defenders (CBS)
Fringe (Fox)
Law & Order: L.A. (NBC)
Mad Love (CBS)
Supernatural (The CW)

DANGER ZONE
Detroit 1-8-7 (ABC)
Human Target (Fox)
Lie to Me (Fox)
Live to Dance (CBS)
Million Dollar Money Drop (Fox)
No Ordinary Family (ABC)
Off the Map (ABC)
One Tree Hill (The CW)
Outsourced (NBC)
Perfect Couples (NBC)
The Event (NBC)
Traffic Light (Fox)
V (ABC)


DEAD AND BURIED
The Cape (NBC)
Chase (NBC)
Life Unexpected (The CW)
Lone Star (Fox)
The Good Guys (Fox)
Medium (CBS)
My Generation (ABC)
Running Wilde (Fox)
Smallville (The CW)
The Whole Truth (ABC)

STILL TO COME
Body of Proof (ABC; March 29)
Breaking In (Fox; April 6)
Chaos (CBS; April 1)
Happy Endings (ABC; April 13)
Shedding for the Wedding (The CW; Feb. 23)
Secret Millionaire (ABC; March 6)

Color me depressed because I really like Outsourced. After reading the message boards on IMDb I realize that I am the only person in this country who does but I'm telling you it's funny! It really is! Robert likes it. Even Biji likes it so you know it has the Indian seal of approval!! :o) I am an intelligent woman so I'm preparing myself for the worst, knowing that its odds for survival are less-than-good. But if you are not opposed, put in a good thought for Outsourced, would you? Manmeet and Rajiv need your help!