Hello everyone,

 It’s so nice to imagine your happy and chipper faces this morning smiling upon me :)  Today, we are not going to talk about movies or books or writing (although, for those of you waiting for my movie reviews, I still have to post one for the Social Network and Life as We Know It- which I will: promise.  Sophie and I are also going to see For Colored Girls this week, so be on the lookout for that) No, we are going to talk about health.

I’m am not the healthiest person alive.  I’m not sure how one would judge that contest, but I would lose.  I love love love LOVE starchy foods, salt, sugar, pretty much anything that could potentially stop my heart.  And it’s not just the foods that I eat, oh-no- it’s also the times that I eat.  I am simply an eater.  I like to eat at meal times, when I’m hungry, when I’m around friends who are eating, when there is something appetizing in front of me, when I’m bored, when I’m sad, when I’m happy, and when I’m stressed.  Eating is quite simply my solution for everything. 

Well, no longer, I say!

 I am no longer going to park in this lot of despair (no to be confused with the pit of despair.)  This past week, I have been eating, in moderation, healthy foods, and exercising on a regular basis. 

Now, let’s discuss some of my particular challenges:

challenge #1: I am a college student whose primary source of food is a cafeteria.  Our cafeteria works hard, they really do, to provide us students with an exciting array of nurishing choices.  But they still make the best fries around, and they still have a sundae bar that consists of candy-strawberry topping.  Why do they do this to me?  I can’t go to a salad bar everyday!  Especially when the salad bar is in full view of the chocolate cake!  So here’s the plan: I’m going to visit the vegetarian section as much as possible.  Here they have choices for those who have shunned meat for life.  I’m also going to drink water at my meals instead of milk or soda.  The cafeteria provides fruit-water, and I’ve been reading that citrus in the water helps.  And finally, I’m going to eat a fruit at every meal.  Yes, even if I have to choke down a disgusting apple that is as wretched as me standing next to the pizza.

 Challenge #2: I am a college student who is taking eighteen credit hours.  Now, before you call me crazy, I would like to point out that if I’m paying the tuition to take up to eighteen credit hours- why would I not get my money’s worth?  Classes are going fine, but it does leave little empty space to hit the gym.  So this is my plan: On days when I have the time in the evenings, I’m going to go to the gym for 30-45 minutes, heavy on the weekends.  Then I’m doing strength training in my dorm room because the thought of lunging and squatting on the mats of the gym in front of the crew team makes me want to curl up into a ball and die.  On days when I don’t have to time to do cardio in the gym, I’m going to jump rope in my dorm room, which has ceilings that are blessedly high enough to do so.

Here we are, on the edge of a cliff about to take a leap, and hopefully there is a mirrored walkway to catch me.

If you would like to submit exercise or eating tips/recipes, I would be happy to post them for all to see but so far, vast audience, what I’ve gotten mostly is a good deal of spam- doesn’t stop me from loving you all though!

 Jasmine out. 

Hey there everyone!  I’m very sorry that I haven’t written in a while, I know it’s hard when you don’t hear from me, and I definitley missed you.

The week before last, Sophie and I went to see Get Low.  When I first heard the name of this movie, I thought that maybe it was a long overdue name change to the dance flick Step Up, but no, it turned out to be quite a serious take on a hermit’s last moments in life.

The main character, Felix, has spent the last forty years in a cabin in the woods.  It’s just him and his mule.  But after he goes to visit the gravesite of an old friend, Felix starts to think about his own impending demise.  So he goes into town to buy a funeral.  At the funeral home, he waves a wad of cash around and says that he wants a funeral party, and that he wants to attend…. still alive.

However unconventional his request, the funeral director can’t pass up the promis of a ball fo money, and what follows is a heartbreaking journey, as the reason for this party finally comes out.  Felix has been punishing himself for forty years for a past crime, refusing to ask forgiveness from God or the people that he’s wronged.  It isn’t until the end that we really find out what happened, although it’s sufficiently hinted at.  Felix’s pain is evident, his stubborness is relatable.  At one point, when discussing asking God for forgiveness, he says “I aint done nothing to him.”

What a wonderful commentary on what forgiveness is.  Felix assumes that he’s doing something for God by asking for forgiveness, but, as he discovers, asking for forgiveness is about relief for him.  Forgiveness between man and God is about man’s wellbeing.  God doesn’t need anything from us.

Just a couple of faces that were especially familiar to me: Bill Murray- who I recognize from What About Bob, Groundhog Day and Osmosis Jones- I’m taking you back aren’t I? and Lucas Black who you might recognize from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which, in my opinion, suffered sans Vin Diesel.  These are the two that were the most familiar to me, but the entire cast was brilliant.

Bravo Get Low

Jasmine Out

This image is not my property, but the property of the production studio found at http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blog.80millionmoviesfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/get-low.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blog.80millionmoviesfree.com/in-theaters/get-low-movie-2010-memorable-funeral&usg=__7wHPyT2y6S-3-h5Ou_OEgIzvh8U=&h=830&w=597&sz=218&hl=en&start=0&sig2=kf_p_inU086zjqVHIUb39A&zoom=1&tbnid=4tTvcO0FXjm_mM:&tbnh=143&tbnw=115&ei=oKG2TJv_HcGB8gaxysiNCQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dget%2Blow%2Bmovie%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D576%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1047&vpy=218&dur=35&hovh=265&hovw=190&tx=146&ty=267&oei=oKG2TJv_HcGB8gaxysiNCQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:20,s:0

             Last week I went to see the new movie Easy A.  Yes, everyone, I know that it will not win an Oscar- it’s pretty much a certainty- even though it has the fabulous Stanley Tucci in it.  The main character, Olive, tells her best friend that she lost her virginity to an imaginary blind date over the weekend.  Little does she know that the school’s resident extreme moralist is also in the bathroom (played by, of all people, Amanda Bynes.)

Overnight, Olive has earned the reputation of a floosy.  But instead of working very hard to correct the misunderstanding, Olive embraces the new image.  She starts dressing in more immodest ways and strutting around the school where she feels she can now be seen.  The story takes an interesting turn when she starts to give boys fake ‘action’ because she feels sorry for them and they give her gift cards and coupons for the exchange.  Here’s where the A comes in.  In their English class, they are reading the scarlet letter.  So eventually Olive’s best friend turns on her and Olive goes off the deep end.  now her wardrobe is all corsets and skinny jeans with, you guessed it, the letter A sewn to the front.  The moral of the story- and the slightly anticlimactic one- is that our ‘personal’ lives should be personal.

Now, this movie was funny.  Very funny.  Olive’s family is as quirky, quick and witty as she is.  But it’s poignant as well.  The pain she goes through is very real.  As she realizes she has become a stereotype and not a person anymore, I wanted to cry.  But then again, don’t I cry at everything, overly empathetic thing that I am.

However, there are a few things that I have a problem with.

First of all, the christians in this school are horrible.  Every last one of them is hateful, prejudiced and mean.  For the entire story, I kept waiting for Olive to meet a person of faith who, not only showed her kindness, but empathized with her.  She never does.

Second of all, the scarlet letter isn’t an appropriate comparison here.  For those of you who haven’t read the wonderful Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, here are the Jazz notes:

Hester Prynne has a baby while her husband is away for a length of time, meaning that she has had an affair- duh.  The town decides that her punishment is to wear a red letter A on her clothing: A for adultery.  Hester, who slept with the puritan’s town minister, is genuinley remorseful for her act, and she lives a quiet life, raising her daughter- who is suspected of being possessed, but this is neither here nor there.  Hester is the heroine of the story, demonstrating true redemption and humility.  The town minister, who struggles with confessing his sins until the very end, is really more of the villain- in my opinion anyway as he refuses to accept and acount for his sins and lets Hester carry the punishment of them both.

Olive did not commit adultery, so the letter A is completley pointless- why not an S?  That would make more sense.  And further more, Olive’s in your face attitude is as far from Hester’s demure quiet as could possibly be.  However, as my movie buddy Sophie pointed out, the point of referencing the book might be pointing more to Olive being ostrasized than anything else.  I can see that, I just think that the Scarlet Letter could have been handled with more care.  It’s like using Romeo and Juliet as an example of a happily ever after (hello Taylor Swift.)

But it was a funny movie.  Very Humorous.  It’s just sad that that’s the basic foundation of my positive reaction to the movie.  It had the potential to be so much more.

Jasmine out.

This picture is not mine- it is the property of Screen Gems Studio and found on http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=56045

Alright everyone.

For those of you who are hanging on my every word- desperate for my review of The American, here it is: watch it on DVD.

This is not because it was poorly made (it wasn’t) or because it was a stupid plotline (it was thought-provoking) or because the characters were underdeveloped (they were masterfully created.)  It’s because while the character is spending his time in Italy the movie takes a fairly distasteful turn.  The main character, Jack or Edward, is a master rifle-maker or an assassin, or both we’re not sure which.  He goes to Italy and makes an exceptional gun for a fellow assassin.  While there, he visits the red light district and falls in love with a prostitute named Clara, making him realize that maybe life isn’t all about be chased.  Good story.  Great character.  I don’t even mind the fact that the girl is a prostitute (because of the whole redemptive tone of the entire movie) however, I did not need to see them have sex for five minutes.  I’m sorry, did I say see?  I was closing my eyes and pressing my fingers against my ears.  I had to leave the theater at one point, it was just too darn distasteful.

So under the circumstances of a DVD situation, I would have felt free to skip that scene (alhthough there’s little I could have done about Clara’s outdoor topless dialogue) and enjoy the movie whose themes center around redemption, love, and things worth living for.

Hello vast audience!  It’s been a while, but I have now, officially started my second year of college- hip hip hooray!

It’s time to take on a new project.  my roommate and I- wave hello Sophie- are going to see every Oscar nominated movie BEFORE the Oscars this year.  But Jasmine, you might exclaim, the Oscar nominees aren’t out! That’s why Sophie and I are going to attempt to guess which movies are most likely to be nominated.

Last week, we went to see The Other Guys.  No, I do not think that The Other Guys will win an Oscar, sorry Mark Wahlberg, but we wanted to start off our once-a-week movie plan with something light-hearted.

The other Guys was hilarious.  normally, I don’t care for crude humor (I almost died from embarrassment at Dinner for Schmucks) but this was just perfect.  Maybe it was because, unlike Schmucks, the producers didn’t attempt any moral takeaway.  The Other Guys was what it was, a movie about two guys that have the worst possible things happen to them.  From accidentally becoming a pimp, to break-ups, to a car that really needed to be sanitized then burned, Mark and Will endured every possible humiliation.  But they’re peacocks!  You’ve got to let them fly.  Mark’s anger management routine was the funnier one I’ve ever seen because you could see it exhausted even him, and Will’s scenes with a wooden gun make you wish you had one for the bad guys to take away too.

Now, a word of caution.  When I got home and was telling my family about it, I turned to my brothers and said they needed a few more years before watching this movie (it’s quite heavy on the expletives) turned to my mother and told her she would hate it (she didn’t believe me, then went to see it on a date night with Dad and said it was the stupidest movie in the world) and told my dad that he’d probably love it.  It’s a movie with curse words in every scene and some sexual descriptions although no onscreen ludeness.  As far as the cursing goes, you have to remember what they’re trying to make fun of, and that’s guys that take themselves to seriously.

Tomorrow, Sophie and I are going to see the American.

If you have suggestions for movies you think will be nominated, my lovely, intelligent, talented and numerous audience, then please send them in!

until next time!

         There’s a part in Julie and Julia, where Julie is writing on her blog, and wondering if anyone reads it.  Is anyone reading this?  Am I just talking to myself?  And then she promptly recieves a comment from her mother that says she’s the only one who reads this blog.  Hardy har har.  Mother, if you’re reading this, your comments are always appreciated, but as I’m getting more serious about this, I have to ask myself the same question.  Is anyone out there?

         It’s not like I’ll stop writing if I don’t recieve a comment, I just can’t help but wonder.  I talk to myself all the time, what’s different about this?  Sometimes I’ll find myself whispering or thinking aloud without realizing that I’m making sound.  I’ve heard some say it’s a sign of genius.  But I’ve also heard that it’s a sign of insanity.  I’ve also been diagnosed as a verbal learner, finding it easier to absorb information if I tell someone about it.  So, for whatever reason, talking to myself is as easy breathing, sometimes easier, so don’t feel obligated, but if you have something to say, whoever you are, I’m all ears. 

           I am currently a phlegm factory.  It was misery drag myself to the alarm clock, hitting the snooze button three times, only to drop myself into a strangling pile of sheets and blankets.  I haven’t been sleeping well lately, and I know this, not because I’m a light sleeper (I’m a sleepwalker), but because I’ve been waking up with half my bedding on the floor and wrapped awkwardly around me.  You know that part in the newest Parent Trap where the girls prank the cabin with tons of booby traps?  That’s what I feel like in the morning nowaday, slimy, crusty and tangled. 

          Well better luck tomorrow- maybe I can work on my morning entrances

         For those of you who thought that Robert Pattinson was just a pretty, pale face are in for a nasty shock, presuming they turn off their Edward radar long enough to actually take in his newest undertaking: Remember Me.  I’m not going to lie.  I went to Remember me because he was in it.  I had lost quite a bit of respect for Robert ever since he fumbled the character of Edward Cullen.  In the books, which are not extremely well written but do have a good showing when it comes to character development and dialogue, Edward is quick-witted, humorous, eloquent, and gentlemenly.  In the movies, Edward is brooding, slow, gloomy, and doesn’t display any real creativity with words or any particular display of manners.  I was profoundly dissapointed- but it’s a risk we take when trying to convert written word to the screen.

So I went to see Remember Me because a) I was intrigued.  I love a good romance as much as the next girl and b) I am of the strong belief that I cannot have an opinion about something without being informed.  Because of his poor performance in Twilight, I felt that couldn’t judge Robert as an actor until I did so outside of the Twilight franchise.

And I was impressed.

My awe at the movie is mostly because of how the director treated the ending.  spoiler alert: this movie has a 9/11 finale.  I remember the day the towers were hit.  Anyone over the age of five probably does.  My parents took my brothers and me out of school so that they could explain the situation to us themselves.  I watched footage the entire day.  Everything changed that day, and while I remember feeling scared of war and shocked at the tragedy of the whole thing, I never truly understood the impact.  my fifth grade mind wasn’t that far along in empathy to be able comprehend the entire tragedy.  But this movie made me understand.  This movie forced me to realize that on that day, people who had their whole lives ahead of them, were cut off.

The entire movie is not about 9/11.  It was about a broken family.  A young man, whose brother had committed suicide, whose sister was struggling to fit in, whose father was emotionally and verbally abusive, and whose sense of morality is being tested to it’s limit, meets a girl, who shares his own angst.  This girl adopts his family, his struggles and his pain.  By the end of the movie, everyone is starting to have faith in each other again.  And then the main character dies in the two towers, waiting for his dad who has begun to repent of his awful behavior.

I was shocked.  They didn’t prepare you for this ending at all.  There were no hints.  They didn’t allude to the date until the very end of the movie.  They spent the entire movie making you invest in this family, in these broken people, and then it shatters it.  I felt like I had lost something in the towers.  I cried.  The story was about to have, if not a happy, then a hopeful ending, and it was gone.

The directors handled this with great taste.  They didn’t use any real footage.  I would have probably shut down if they had.  They didn’t show the towers after the planes.  They didn’t even say the what was happening outloud.  The audience just saw the family’s reaction, and saw the family at the protagonist’s grave.  It was meant to speak to those who had been there; those who remember; those who, like me, maybe couldn’t quite express what happened that day.  This is for those people who lost something that day, that they couldn’t quite identify at the time.  I’ve never felt so moved by September 11th.  I have rarely felt so connected and invested in a movie.

A note- while I thought the film was extremely poignant, there is a handful of innapropriate moments: sexual content and a few f-bombs, but the film is rated pg-13- so they reign it in.  These are purposely broken characters, imperfect for a reason.

So Robert- good for you- maybe there’s hope for you after all

It’s come to my attention that I might need an explanation for this poem.  This poem is supposed to allude to the anxieties that comes with being a parent of small children, of how you watch them sleep, and how little noises startle you.  Hence- no rest for the blessed. 

Are they breathing?

Quietly opening the door

Just to hear them inhale.

Are they up?

Pausing the movie several times

To check the doors are locked.

To count the toes and fingers,

To watch them,

And whisper your affections.

If they only knew the fuss you made,

As they wander

Through scattered, heavy-eyed visions.

     “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” ~ William Shakespeare Sometimes I’m a little frustrated with my name.  No matter where I look it only seems to refer to a beautiful, exotic, fragrant, night-blooming flower.  My name is Jasmine.  I am not exotic.  I’m a mid-day bloomer.  And I certainly hope I don’t have such a heady odor as my flora counterpart.  My middle name, Nichole, is French for “victory of the people.”  So far, I’m a victorious flower of the people.  My mother named me Jasmine Nichole because she wanted the option to call me something a little cutesy- i.e. Jessy (which she does call me) or Nicky (which we call my dog whose name is Nicholas.)  I always like to hear about how she picked out my name.  She really did think a lot about it, but my mother is also someone who knows what she wants, no matter how much shopping she does.  She wanted something like Jessalyn.  Jasmine can be found in a variety of forms: Persian, Arabic, African, and French.  After some digging, I did find the Arabic meaning of my name: gift from God.  However, most name books and websites will merely insist that I am a flower, and won’t elaborate further.  Because I am a petite Caucasian girl with a tropical name, I have been called every wild version of Jasmine that my friends and acquaintances can think to call me: Yasmin, Yasmeen, Yas-mine, Jas-mine, Yas-mine-ah and Boardgame.  I of course know that Boardgame has nothing to do with the phonetics of my name, but it’s what my choir teacher named me sophomore year because I’ve memorized the monopoly board.    Of all of these, the one I prefer the most is Jasmine.  If said by the right person, I think that my name can be elegant or fun.  My family and close friends call me Jazz or Jazzy.  However, to the general public I prefer Jasmine.  but despite the frustrations that my name meanings present, and lack of exciting racial origins to match my colorful title, I like my name.  It reminds me that it’s not the name that defines the person, but the person who brings meaning to the name.But when it comes to literature, names can often define a character.  I love names.  I look up names for my characters all the time.  I love that a name can sound sinister, innocent, seductive, spunky, or dashing.  Names are the first non-visual impression that people get, and it can say a lot.  For instance, J.K. Rowling does a magnificent job using names to give an immediate impression of characters.  Albus Dumbledore means white bumblebee.  Hearing this name, how could anyone think anything sinister at all about this character?  Dumbledore makes him sound bumbling and cheerful, but Albus sounds intelligent.  However, there is nothing happy or trusting about the name Lord Voldemort, or Lucius Malfoy.  Someday, as a writer, I hope to have the skills with names that Rowling does.  For now, I research names and enjoy their sounds, and experiment with my own characters, while learning from the masters.           

      Who watched the Oscars last night?  I did!  And I was shocked that the Hurt Locker took so many general categories.  I’m sure it is an excellent movie, but it didn’t have any acting awards for the night, which makes me wonder if it’s just a political, special effects movie.

I am happy that the fabulous Sandra Bullock got Best Actress.

My last comment on the event is that I was surprised and pleased at Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin’s performance- very funny men :)  That’s all today- I’m going to take a bit of a me day.