Oscarocity

On Saturday ncd and I went to see the animated and live action shorts in preparation for the Academy Awards. I've included a scan of our results. The column on the right is the order we saw them in. For the animated shorts we wrote rankings to the right, but all of them were good. The system ran off the rails for the animated shorts that were not nominated, but were "honorable mentions".
The note next to "Varmints" The says, "Good, but too (spelled wrong in the orig., though) hopeless & too escapist. But who doesn't like varmints? (a period in the orig. Note the importance of revision before publishing)". There were, after all, animated varmints in it and they were voiced by FIVE different animals including an ocelot--I mean, how much more promising does it get? Alas, it did not deliver. It got lost along the way somewhere between the savior jellyfish growing from seeds of a branch of a tree that the good varmint saved from the old paradise...and the introduction of a varmint love interest in the midst of varmint-created hell on earth.

The note on "Penguin and Polar Bear" says, "We know stuff about arctic and antarctic animals...also we can see that one is big and one is little." The plot of P&PB was that Polar Bear was apologizing to Penguin for the insensitive things he said on a date the previous night. Things about penguins only being able to catch tiny fish and the like. Penguin eventually forgives him. We, the audience, laugh and the note explains how weird it is to explore why a group of people are laughing at something so simple and absurd together in a dark theater. I think it is particularly weird to me because I am part of a select group of people who might make this situation between Penguin and Polar Bear up and inadvisedly share it at a party and people would most likely look at me and stop talking. Most likely they would not laugh. But then, I can't draw a polar bear eating ginger cookies so maybe that's the problem.

If you watched the Academy Awards, you know that Nate's pick for best live action short film, "Newboy" (which because my pick as well) did not win. All of these films were so good that we gave up ranking them before we began. However, both of us agreed that "Toyland" should not win. I thought not because it could have been called "Mini Schindler's List" and ncd was annoyed because the plot involved a German mother telling her son that his best friend (who was headed for the concentration camp) was going on a journey to toyland. The son is excited, repeatedly says he's going too, and even packs a bag at one point. Ncd cannot forgive mom's at telling and then persisting in this story that so clearly makes her son want to run away and puts him at great risk. "Toyland" won.

On Sunday ncd set about organizing a gathering to watch the Oscars at our house (of course, I use the term "house" loosely). He really is the host with the most. Him: making pork chili and inventing some sort of seasoned sour cream to put on top, cutting cheeses, organizing chili toppings cleverly in dishes...

Me: sharpening pencils made out of recycled newspapers for people to mark their ballots with. Don't we have any pens, you wonder. Yes, plenty, but I like to change my mind on categories I know nothing about so I decided it was absolutely necessary to sharpen pencils. Plus, look how cool the shavings were!

Don't worry, I am taking the self-descriptor "focused" off of my resume.

Here's what I really wish was on the ballot: a list of people and two, no maybe three columns marked "wowee", "mer?", and "blech". THEN dress coverage should be mandatory (and tux/shirt/tie coverage if the wearer merits it--clearly O'Rourke's fashion should be votable). I don't really care about hearing from people, but I feel like I don't get to see people's get-ups. There should be some sort of montage...

Anyway, that's all for now. Ncd's been at a meeting of social workers or something like and I'm responsible for putting some chicken on the George Foreman and steaming some veggies. Big, bigtime responsibilities.