a movie from the year i was born

I'm on a roll with my 101 list lately!

✔ 63. Watch a movie from the year I was born (1984)
 
I know I've mentioned this before, but my latest Friday ritual is to peruse the movies at the library.  I'll point you to all the other posts about me "not being a movie person" to see why I go the free route instead of wasting my money on movies.  But that is also why I added so many movie tasks to my 101 list.  I have some serious catching up to do here.

Case in point: finding a movie from the year I was born.  I'd already seen Ghostbusters, The Karate Kid, Amadeus, and whichever John Hughes teen flick was released that year.  In hindsight, I should've picked Footloose, since I'm pretty sure I've never seen it.  But Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was there at my fingertips and it had the correct copyright date on the DVD case.  Maybe it was fate, maybe it was just convenience, but at age 26 years, 5 months, and 20 days, I decided to watch my very first Indiana Jones movie.

I know, I know.  Isn't that the worst one?  How could I start my Indiana Jones-ing in the middle?  And how could I have gone my whole life without seeing Harrison Ford ride in a mine cart when I even have extended family that named their dog Indy after this character?  (Sorry, family!)  Well, rest assured that I have indeed seen the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Disney World.  That's an acceptable consolation, right?

And after handing over two hours of my life watching this movie, I'd much rather have the 30-minute stunt show.  This movie obviously didn't win any awards for cultural sensitivities or women's empowerment.  Or plot.  But according to the description on the box, it "brings non-stop thrills and excitement."  I will give it that.  Maybe I haven't watched enough action movies, or maybe they've changed over my lifetime, but this was seriously the most constant action I've seen in a movie.  Also, watching a movie from 26 years ago shows just how far technology has come.  There were shots that I couldn't help but laughing at because it was just so obviously green-screened.

Overall, the movie was decent, which is sort of a compliment coming from me.  I wouldn't mind following up with Raiders of the Lost Ark (it could help fulfill #74), as long as it doesn't have all the nasty creepy crawly critters that took up a good half of this movie.  Yuck.

my first air show!

Check another one off the list:

✔ 79. Go to an Air Show

I'll admit, I had a few opportunities to go to air shows in Virginia, but I never did.  I hated hearing the jets there near Oceana.  They were SO LOUD.  And they would pass over at all hours of the day and night, luckily only in the eastern half of Virginia Beach--interrupting my beach time but luckily not my sleep.  I didn't grow up in a military household or anywhere near a base, and I also didn't marry a pilot.  All that being said, I didn't know the difference between a F-16 and a B-52 (still don't, by the way).  Nor did I really care (also still kinda don't).

We now have the good fortune to be living in "the cradle of Naval Aviation" and "the home of the Blue Angels."  Which means that I see these special planes (jets?) flying over a few times a week and occasionally see a loop-de-loop over my head while driving to the gym.  The locals here love "the Blues," as they call them.  On any given week during air show season, you can go to the museum on base and watch a practice and get some autographs from the pilots afterward.  Really, that's all these pilots do, since the full name of the command is the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron.  It's a "multi-million dollar recruiting tool," according to B.

Every year, the Blue Angels end their air show season with a grand finale Homecoming Air Show here in Pensacola before they pack it up to train their newbies in California during the winter.  This is THE EVENT around here.  Jax has GA/FL weekend, Norfolk has HarborFest, Pensacola has the Homecoming Show.  Three days worth of it, too!  Even the base gym was closed for it, so I'm guessing it was a big deal.

I decided that the Saturday show would be best for us to attend, but we did get to watch the Blues all three days anyway.  The first day of the show was Thursday, when we trucked over to Fort Pickens (free admission for Veterans Day!) on Pensacola Beach.  It was neat watching them from afar while exploring the old fort.

The second day of the show, it was so loud over our apartment that we just had to go outside and watch it.  Here's a video B took near the mailboxes while I comment on the mail we received.




And then on Saturday, we went to the main event!  There were so many acts, and most of them weren't loud at all!  That very much surprised me, considering they were selling earplugs.  I took a gabillion pictures, and B had his handy flip-cam out for videos of most of them. 

For brevity's sake, I give you my 3 favorite pictures and my favorite video.

Paratrooper with American flag being circled by a plane

Otto the Helicopter!  I definitely think all helos should have faces.

The Blue Angels!!  In the diamond formation with 2 of them upside down

And now for a video:




To see more videos, check out all the ones on B's youtube site.

Also, I just want to mention that the Commanding Officer of the Blue Angels from this year (guy in the #1 plane at the front of the diamond, a Captain in the Navy) is now working at B's command (Deputy Director/B's boss's boss[?]).  While watching him fly, all I could think is how BORED he's gonna be now at a paper-pushing office after doing this crazy air show stuff all the time!

the thankful list

I have a confession to make. I've actual been "blogging" [in a way] since 10 years ago. Yes, you heard that right: TEN YEARS. It all started my junior year of high school, when I took Driver's Ed at a neighboring school and met a guy named Jay. He had a weekly email called "The Jay Newsletter" that he sent out to all his friends (and me).  It was witty and weird and I loved to get them in my email box.  So of course I started my own for my own friends.   I called it "The Litterbox" Because my name is Cat, and that's just downright cool when you're in high school.

So anyway, in its heyday, my 'Lbox' had over 50 subscribers (including my AP Econ teacher), its own Geocities website (R.I.P.), and articles written by some of the greatest 17-year-old minds in suburban northeast Atlanta.

I was thinking of doing a "what I'm thankful for" post to celebrate the upcoming holiday, but then I remembered that I had already done that!  I still remember going around and asking my high school friends what they were thankful for and then compiling a list for The Litterbox.   And thanks to floppy disks, hard drives, and flash drives, with no thanks to defunct geocities, I am bringing you this article today, in its original form.

So here it is, the Thankful List, originally published in issue #21 in November of 2001 (my senior year of high school).  The only edit is that I've added a few links into the mix to help you out if needed.

The Litterbox
(A place to deposit crap)

Topic 1)  The Thankful List:

Compiled By Me

      In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I asked around for a few days, and here are the many wonderful, Litterbox-worthy things that people have said they are thankful for, in random order:

      Bowel regularity . . . a cappella music . . . duct tape . . . cheese . . . genitalia . . . Comic Sans . . . Poptarts . . . breathmints . . . email . . . Pez . . . disposable diapers . . . dumb people who make others look smart . . . "my clavicle" . . . the Shakespeare Tavern . . . cheesy pickup lines . . . monkeys . . . Fibercon . . . the BBC . . . German exchange students . . . clear skin . . . Homecoming dances . . . Jell-o pudding . . . toes . . . 2-ball blue . . . optimism . . . homeostasis . . . Burger King . . . sexual innuendo . . . the way girls' hair smells after they wash it . . . the Dollar Tree . . . deodorant . . . Pop Rocks . . . boxer shorts . . . 3-ring binders . . . indoor plumbing . . . "that I'm not Afghan" . . . rainbows . . . Velcro . . . sidewalk chalk . . . long underwear . . . Harry Potter . . . Grant's t-shirt collection . . . mojos . . . cargo pockets . . . parallelism . . . "myself" . . . curly hair . . . peristalsis . . . green M&M's . . . mix tapes . . . SparkNotes . . . the Naked Chef . . . dirty jokes . . . processed meat . . . Rodney Mullen . . . March 15th . . . "my musical nose" . . . Dr. Seuss . . . my mind . . . Frau . . . ambiguity . . . bliss . . . unslurred speech patterns . . . LIFE

What are you thankful for?  And what were you thankful for 9 years ago?

As for my old Litterbox newsletter, I'll definitely pulling some more articles from there to re-post here!