Month: August 2019

23 favorite movies for 23 years.

~ afledglingadult ~ 1 Comment

So on this day of my birth I wanted to write something about myself . A get to know me a little better post. I think I came up with a great way to do it 23 of my favorite movies over my lifetime. Whether it’s because they are astonishing pieces of film, hilarious, became an obsession, or came into my life at just the right time.

Anyway if you have seen these 23 movies you will understand me as a person on this my 23rd birthday.

1. A Bug’s Life (1998)

2. Annie (1982)

3. The Sound of Music (1965)

4. Madeline (1998)

5. Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

6. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

7. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

8. Kim Possible: A Stitch in Time (2003)

9. Meet the Robinsons (2007)

10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

11. Aquamarine (2006)

12. Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

13. Noises Off (1992)

14. How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

15. Life is Beautiful (1997)

16.  Super 8 (2011)

17. Big Hero 6 (2014)

18. Unforgiven (1992)

19. Tomorrowland (2015)

20. Stardust (2007)

21. Rogue One (2016)

22. The Red Shoes (1948)

23.  The Court Jester (1956)

Hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little better and/or my favorite movies!

Happy birthday to me!

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On embarrassing yourself at work

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

Soooo… I’ve had my current job for approximately 5 months you know a reasonable amount of time. However because of the 4 offices and the necessity of working remotely I don’t spend a significant amount of personal time with my coworkers or department. So when I do I really still want to make a good impression as they don’t really know me personally they just know my work. So I was really excited for our team building day. A section of our department/who was available was going up to one of our camps for team building exercises on the boats and high ropes course.

The boating went fine. It was pretty easy and fun on a hot day. We only could talk a little but everyone was really nice. I did splash out of my boat but that was expected and in fact told them that it was a 100% chance of flipping over. If nothing else I deliver.

Lunch went fine and then we went to do high ropes. I was excited and truly not that worried. It was a course built for campers. I did get nervous as I got into my harness. The guides made sure it was super super tight “just in case”. The first couple activities were pretty easy, a rock wall, the broken bridge, etc. Then I got to the Caterpillar. It was 5 floating beams. One long one actually had to be held from below on both sides to keep it steady. There were upward ropes on each beam to connect it towards the top and move a long with the rope and carabiner for the section.

Now to set the scene we are 30 feet in the air and I hadn’t done physical exercise in many moons. Right when I was almost at the end reaching for the last beam. I missed the rope, I couldn’t grab it and my foot slipped. I was one foot dangling and really couldn’t seem to move forward. I fell. In front of 5 coworkers, my boss, and my boss’s boss. They all went from cheering me on to being incredibly concerned. Now I don’t know if you have ever had a panic attack 30 feet off of the ground in an incredibly tight harness around people you work with that didn’t know you at all. It is not great.

It got so bad that at one point I felt that I couldn’t move. and my one friend who was the facilitator of that leg asked if we had a puke bag up there. It was not a great look. It took very literally all the strength I had (was sore for 4 days) and about 30 minutes to finish and zip line down. Then I had to recover…  I was so anxious that I did feel like vomiting. I was so hot and tired I felt faint and then I had to go move and talk with my boss and boss’s boss and coworkers.

It was not something I knew how to say: you don’t know me but that was a moment of weakness and panic and fear and please still trust me with this job, the money, and reputation of our company a lot of which relies on me remaining calm and sensible under pressure.

They were all very nice but I feel like I am still in such a vulnerable place with them. I am the youngest person at my work and I don’t want for anyone to feel that they have to take care of and it kinda feels like now they do.

I have now recovered physically from the embarrassment and struggle. I am still working on recovering socially. Wish me luck.

Watership Down by Richard Adams (spoilers)

~ afledglingadult ~ Leave a comment

So July’s book for our family book club was Watership Down by Richard Adams. Now I’ll be honest I have wanted to read this book for a long time, which is how it ended up on our booklist for the year. However, if it hadn’t been for the book club I probably wouldn’t have ended up finishing the book. It was not by any means a bad book. I just have read a lot of political theory and war books. So initially I gave it a pretty average rating of 3 stars.

Now this was by now means a bad book. It was in fact a really excellently constructed traditional adventure story. It’s got a band of heroes hoping and searching for a new and idealistic future. In traditional fantasy sense the band of adventures are all extraordinary, except for our main hero. Like many who come before him Hazel’s main skill seems to be identifying the talented ones who have gone unnoticed or underutilized.  He is constantly kind and caring and but not Fiver and Bigwig are the actual saviors of the warren.

It was also a traditional fantasy in that it uses a fantstical veil (of rabbits) to discuss political. In this both the feminist struggle of the time and 4 different systems of government (bureaucracy, puppet (colonialism), military dictatorship, and a commune). Because it is through the guise of rabbits and rabbit lore it is all easily digestible. I do get that is a great introduction to political theory without having to talk about the actual theories. Now I think the overall quality of rabbitness does help in this messaging. They are cute, timid, quick decision makers and have real palpable concerns that they communicate well. There is also no romantic or sexual attractions, like 99% of all animals rabbits only have sexual relations for procreation not pleasure. There for Hyzenthlay and Lapine’s struggle was given real consideration for it’s merits and their intelligence and not just in becoming a love interest.

Now typically in books I really like epitaphs at the beginnings of chapers, sections, books. I think they add to the story and give more insight to the what is coming next or set the mood or give general insight to the world. In Watership Down however, it was one of the reasons I thought about DNFing. The quotes are all from notable thinkers about life, community, fairness, etc. and they were all almost exactly what the chapter was about or what Hazel and co. would learn. I felt that I could read the epitaphs and not the book. I understand that is was trying to apply and make these lessons understandable, but it felt more like hey this comes from a really smart places and not… this is life and how all living things can come together and be better.

I like the book. I think it is remarkably well written. But I think if you have read a lot in genre it may be harder to get through.

P.S. my favorite rabbit was Blackberry. He was soooo cute! and quite a scene stealer. Who was your favorite.