Day 8: Movie "Night"

left to right: special popcorn, all of my money in a bag

I have been excited for a movie day at the office for a long time. All of the cool people here watch movies all day long, and I wanted to do it myself. Luckily, that was Day 8 on the list! So yeah, lots of fun. I was instructed not to forget the popcorn, but I did, so I had to go to the store in the morning and buy all of the ingredients, which amounted to $20.00. Roughly one week's salary for me. It was rough, but I decided to quit Starbucks and eating in general, so eventually I'll make up that money.

I have a secret formula I myself invented for popcorn, and to you, my loving fans, I will unveil the secret:

You will need: 3-4 bags of popcorn and a distraction.

Directions: Put the first bag of popcorn in the microwave and attend to your distraction (for me; video games). Go check on the popcorn to find it burnt and wholely inedible. Put the second bag in, return to your distraction. Again, this bag needs to be put in for too long and burnt. Repeat this process until you have exhausted all 4 bags of popcorn, then try to salvage any unburnt pieces because you will by this time be starving and grumpy. Return at last to your distraction completely frustrated and not in the mood for popcorn, as you chew on the burnt and unpopped kernels at the bottom of the bag. This is also coincidentally how I make Pizza and most other microwavable foods.

So, I was going to try my time-tested recipe this time as well, but I thought for the purpose of this blog I would try a different one. I ended up having the Bombay popcorn (which you can find linked on the original 150-Things-To-Do list http://listsgalore.blogspot.com/2009/08/150-things-to-do-when-youre-bored.html ). It was delish. You can see the results in the above picture. I got a hint from my coworker, who ended up getting to reap the benefits of the popcorn as well (and enjoyed it), I'm no Little-Red-Hen. She suggested mixing it in an ancient vessel known in certain South American tribes as El-Ziploc-Baggo. It worked great until the popcorn melted it.

As for the actual movie, well, I didn't have a ton of time, because I spent half my lunch break just making the popcorn, so I decided to watch an anime episode from my old favorite site http://otakucenter.com/ . I decided to close my eyes, like the guide suggested, and choose a movie at random. The first time I chose the "Safety" link at the top of my web page. Attempt two, I chose a pop-up. On my third and what you might call "successful" attempt, I chose an anime show called "Boogiepop Phantom," (which I think is a derivation from The Faerie Queene by Spenser). Big, big mistake. The show started out with a two-minute intro video, and then episode one cut through all that plot crap and went straight to what I would describe as a cartoon version of Lost in Translation: pure, unadulterated, cliche.

Here's an (estimated by me) time-lapse of the first minute of the show:

0:01 - Blood-curtling female screams, accompanied by a shouting male voice (I almost thought this would be NSFW and I would have to turn it off, but nothing happened).

0:05 - Massive, earth-shaking explosion.

0:06-0:15 - More footage of the explosion.

0:16 - Random splatter of blood.

0:17-20 - Random flickering cityscape, with ominous music.

0:21 - Scene 2: Set in a High School girls' bathroom (I know, right?)

0:22-45 - Random shots of the legs of these girls, and the bottom four inches of their schoolgirl skirts. Random Japanese dialogue, brief flashes of the actual faces of the girls while they talk, then the leg-camera resumes.

0:46-1:00 - Confusing Japanese High School drama.

1:01-2:00 - Karaoke (You think I'm kidding here, right?) Observe:

yeah, it really happened

At that point I turned the movie off. I have a low tolerance for low-quality anime, sorry.

But all in all Movie Day was a huge success! And I still have the taste of curry in my mouth.