Movie Theatre Pet Peeves

Going to see Hairspray this afternoon with Jodi; I'm looking forward to it, and hope we get a good audience. Don't know about the rest of you, but I've found audience behaviour getting worse over the years. Or maybe I'm just turning all crotchety as I get older.

My pet peeves in theatres these days:

- Sticky floors. Sticky with pop, I assume; I try to avoid considering other possibilities.

- People who kick my seat repeatedly.

- Ringing cellphones.

- Overpriced concession items. If I think I'm going to be hungry, I smuggle in food (unwrapped ahead of time to avoid becoming someone else's pet peeve).

- Kids who snicker and laugh through the kissing scenes.



- Fashion divas who insist on keeping their hats on during the movie, no matter how much it may obscure the view of the person behind them. NO ONE CAN SEE YOUR HAT IN THE DARK, YOU SILLY GIRL.

- Crackling candy wrappers.

But my number one pet peeve in theatres focuses on:

PEOPLE WHO TALK THROUGH THE MOVIE. In particular, those who talk in a normal conversational tone of voice as if they're in their own living rooms instead of a public venue where OTHER PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO FOCUS ON THE MOVIE. Whisperers are also bad, though, usually because they assume that just because they're whispering, no one can hear them.

Sometimes I say something but often I don't because I find it often makes things worse, especially when a group of kids take it on as a challenge to defend their image of coolness and rebellious independence. Jeff and I have changed seats in the theatre in some situations.

What about the rest of you? What are your movie theatre pet peeves?




Inkygirl has been updated with a new comic: Blackberry thumbs.

I posted about Mikado Japanese Restaurant in blogTO yesterday, for those interested. The photo above was taken at Mikado. I'll be posting something soon (either in Blatherings or blogTO) about Hashimoto soon; Jeff and I went there with his sister and her husband earlier this week. It was our Christmas present to them but between everyone's schedules, our gift had to be delayed.

In any case, the wait was well worth it. More in a future post.



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The Last Original Plot For A Novel

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated, and I've added a new comic called Satanic Frustration to Inkygirl.

I've started the outline for my next novel, using Scrivener. I'm also using Scrivener to organize my Year End Review article for Writer's Digest magazine. LOVE this program!

Very excited about my next novel. Some writers find the process of talking about their plots helpful; for me, however, the less I discuss it ahead of time, the easier the writing process. The joy (for me) is in mostly in the telling, so the more I talk about it before I start, the less motivation I have for writing it down.

Link O' The Day:

Funny Student Exam Answers: found this in Coe Booth's LJ via Lisa Yee's blog. Definitely worth checking, especially if you've done any teaching. :-)



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Monsters, NaNoWrimo, Sims and massages

Above: Rob Rummel-Hudson liked my Little Nightmare series, and commissioned me to create one for his new book site. See this entry by Rob in his blog. I'm a fan of Rob's blog and am looking forward to his new book: Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with his Wordless Daughter. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how the illustration came out.




I'm delighted to announce that I'm going to be doing cartoons for NaNoWriMo again this year. "NaNoWriMo," for those of you who don't know, stands for "National Novel Writing Month," which is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

This year, I'll also be doing some cartoons specifically for young writers as well. Like last year, some cartoons will be revamped from Inkygirl while others will be created specifically for the event.

The novel that I recently sent out began as a NaNoWriMo novel. I've promised Chris Baty that I'd let him know when it gets published. :-)



Thanks for all the feedback re: my selfish-time survey; it's clear that people "recharge" in a wide variety of ways. Some prefer being with people; others (like me) need time alone.

I was amused by Tony's comment:

"Who are you kidding? You of all people can't possibly have time for yourself. Unless you possess some kind of temporal technology, as I have always suspected..."

I do find that I have to purposely schedule "recharge/selfish" time or it just doesn't happen....too many other things tend to take priority otherwise, things I feel I should be doing: tasks (big and small) and obligations to people. As a freelancer, I sometimes struggle with being able to take time off without feeling guilty, but I've learned how essential that time is to my productivity and mental health.

To show you how nerdy I am, this reminds me of the old SimPeople game, which attempts to emulate real life; I only played the first version years ago so I'm not sure how much it's changed since then. Anyway...if you didn't give your Sims enough "fun time," then they started getting cranky and ill. I can so sympathise.

Yesterday afternoon, I indulged in a massage at Sutherland-Chan. I am a HUGE fan of professional massages and Sutherland-Chan is my favourite. It's a decadent luxury for me; I hadn't had one in over two years, and promised myself a massage once I sent off my book.

My next massage? When I sell my book, or when I send off another. Hopefully the first will happen sooner than later! Fingers crossed...



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"Selfish-time" and a survey

Our friend Alison had a birthday on the weekend. She and Jeff (a couple with whom we've canoed and camped with in the past) invited us over. Her friend Camille made the scrumptious-looking chocolate cake pictured above; the plate garnish is a wreath of fresh-picked chocolate mint leaves. Mmm.

We dined by candlelight on their back deck; the company and food were marvelous. I've always admired Alison, who actively pursues the things that are important to her rather than passively let circumstances and other people dictate her life.



Speaking of friends who embrace life fully instead of letting it just happen to them, my friend Parki is back from his cross-Canada motorcycle trip, yay! We enjoyed hanging out with Parki and Ray yesterday. Sounds as if Parki had some amazing adventures, and I look forward to seeing his pics.



Finished an illustration for a client on the weekend, and I have an article for Writer's Digest due next week. Apart from Market Watch and starting to plan my next novel, however, I am purposely not taking on new assignments during the next couple of weeks so I can take a bit of selfish-time. Even at the cottage, I had to take my laptop and do some work; it turned out to be more problematic than I expected because the phone lines went down, and I stressed about how to get Market Watch uploaded then discovered tech problems as a result of their site upgrade (now fixed), which occurred while I was on a canoe trip.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to day or two of COMPLETELY SELFISH lazing about and just reading and napping. There are also a ton of movies I'd like to see, so want to catch up. Looking forward to seeing Hairspray with Jodi this Thursday afternoon, for example, before Urban Tapestry practice. Other movies on my list: No Reservations, Stardust, Bourne Ultimatum, Superbad, Live Free And Die Hard and Ratatouille (again).



I'm curious about the rest of you. Do you find you need "selfish-time"? Are you able to get it? How often and for how long? I know this is much more difficult for parents of younger children. And what does "selfishtime" mean to you? Does it tend to be solitary or with other people?

Mine is mostly solitary, or with a close friend or two. My solitary selfish-time almost always involves books.

Today's Blatherpics were all taken on my Canon Rebel XTi with a Sigma 30/1.4 lens, except the photo of the cardinal, which was taken with our Canon 70-300 lens.



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Astronomy pics with a DSLR

Today's Blatherpics were taken by Jeff; he used the Sigma 30/1.4 lens on our new camera on a tripod. He said the photos are blurry but they look pretty good to me, considering they were taken with a DSLR not attached to a telescope. Jeff did try our other lenses, but they weren't nearly as good at light-gathering.

I like the fact that you can glimpse the tops of trees in the lower right corner of the photo above.

Other updates:

I've posted about Scrivener in Inkygirl. It's a really wonderful outlining and organizing tool for writers, and I'm using it to plan my next novel.

I've posted about Sweet Gallery in blogTO.

Link o' the Day

Editor Cheryl Klein has posted her theory about why the Harry Potter books have succeeded so well in her blog entry, Seven Reasons Why People Love Harry Potter (WARNING: plot spoilers!)




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