Life Imitating Art and Other Adventures in Self-Care

Oh hi!

I'm now a bit over a month into my internship.  It has kept me incredibly busy, and has quickly become a 50-hours-per-week commitment.

Yep.

That being said, I am incredibly relieved to report that so far, it seems awesome.  My colleagues are great, both settings I'm working in are really interesting, and I have some exciting trainings to look forward to.  While the schedule is pretty unforgiving and I'm woefully underpaid, those things are true of any internship.  I therefore feel incredibly grateful and fortunate that the algorithm seems to have acted very much in my favor.

While I have a lot of things to be thankful for and, in an earnest attempt to stay true to my goals for this year, I have been actively reminding myself of all of those things, this schedule is grueling.  Grad school really does have a knack for upping the ante each successive year by pushing the limits of how much work a student can handle, and this year is far from an exception.  As a countermeasure, I have endeavored to engage in active exploits of self-care to avoid Catastrophic Intern Burnout (aka CIB).

Fig 1: CIB in action.  Not pretty.

I thought I might share some of these exploits with you.

Exploit 1: Beach Please

Through a series of unexpected events that worked out in our favor, Fiancé and I were able to steal a little family-and-beach time at the beginning of the month.

I've always felt a strong draw to the ocean and had felt very low on ocean time this summer, so I was so glad to snatch a few more seaside days out of the summer before it ended.

Exploit 2: ALL THE APPLES

To celebrate my birthday earlier this month, Fiancé and I went apple-picking.

After a gorgeous drive north of our fair city, we arrived at a sweet farm teaming with families eager for early Autumn rollicking. 

There were also free wagon rides!!

We picked (most of) a half bushel of yummy, beautifully-colored apples.  We only picked (most of) a half bushel because a half bushel is a lot of apples and there are only two of us and a half bushel is SO MANY.

Full disclosure: Not our apples.

Exploit 3: ALL THE ANIMALS

Finally, as a birthday present, Fiancé procured tickets to a showcase of domestic breeds of dogs and cats.  Very predictably, it was AMAZING.

It was basically like "Best in Show" (2000).

But REAL.

I mean this with 100% love and without even a hint of mockery: this might have been some of the best people-watching I have ever experienced.  

Please note: the bull terrier dog show victory commemorative tattoo.
(Not commemorating the bull terrier pictured.)

There is something extremely delightful about the sub-population of humans who devote so much of their lives not just to animals, but to one very very very particular subtype of a subset of animals.

I am so fascinated by the fact that there are people who will dedicate so much of their lives to that dog.

Or, as the case may be, that cat.

But really, who could resist those little alien faces?

It was the most fun ever.

With the other tasks I have ahead of me this year and many long work weeks to come, I know it might be a challenge to keep up with regular, semi-ambitious activities of self-care.  But sometimes sleeping in isn't enough to fill your energy coffers, and an adventure is truly the needed remedy.

I'm glad to share these experiences with you, and hoping I'll have more to share soon!

{Heart}

Snap Judgment: "Kedi": The Cat-Intensive Antidote to Toxic Masculinity We All Need Right Now

Greetings!

For the first Snap Judgment of the year, I would like to talk to you about a movie that instantly gained a deeply-entrenched place in my heart: "Kedi" (2017).

For those of us needing a little refresher, in Snap Judgments I distill my reaction to movies down to five bullet points, hoping to capture the most impactful elements of a film before giving my usual 1-5 score.

Let's dive in, shall we?

• Incredible cat footage

True to its title (Turkish for "cat"), this film is first and foremost a love letter to the street cats of Istanbul.  

"Kedi" takes a case study approach, stitching together a series of vignettes of different cats living in the streets of the city.  

The film's adoration for its subject is expressed through stunningly beautiful and intimate footage of each featured cat as it goes about its daily life, climbing to rooftops, strolling along streets, lounging on front stoops, slipping through tiny openings in fences to find the little secret den where their litter of tiny kittens awaits.  

The quality and closeness of the documentation in this film is awe-inspiring, especially given the independence and privacy of the creatures at its center.  Through this close study, the personality nuances of each cat are revealed.  Each is treasured for it individuality such that it cannot be dismissed as just another street cat.  Each is unique, and each matters.

• An introduction to Istanbul

One of the cats' most prominent co-stars in "Kedi" is the city of Istanbul itself.  

The cat vignettes are interspersed with breathtaking shots of the port city's skylines and beautiful architecture, giving you an introduction not only to the feline inhabitants of the city but to the city as a whole.

• Gorgeous music

"Kedi"'s soundtrack is a mix of charming, upbeat Turkish pop and wonderful original compositions by Kira Fontana, who has beautifully adopted the acoustic qualities of her mentor Steve Reich (who wrote one of my all-time favorite pieces of music) and created an evocative, atmospheric soundscape to match and enhance the arresting visual content of the film.

• Poetic testimony of cat-love

Each cat vignette is paired with interviews from the people who love and care for them.  These interviews, in which citizens of Istanbul describe how they met the cats and what makes them care for cats so deeply, are one of the more unexpected pleasant surprises of the movie.  

While hearing people wax on about cats might sound like a great recipe for eye-roll-inducing cliches, each person in "Kedi" has their own fresh perspective on the admirable and inspiring attributes of the animals they love.  It's extremely pleasurable hearing the myriad ways in which people have come to adore creatures who may otherwise have been overlooked, and to hear the virtues, dignity, resilience, and strength of cats uplifted.

• A much-needed antidote to Toxic Masculinity

Finally, the most welcome surprise of "Kedi": the men of Istanbul who love cats.

Several of the featured cats have male caretakers.  Because of dumb gender stereotypes dictating that dogs are for dudes and cats are for ladies, this in itself was incredibly refreshing.  But particularly in an era in which toxic masculinity is constantly ruining the party (and winning elections after bragging about sexual assault), it was a much-needed and deeply moving experience to watch men care for, love, and admire cats.

Gorgeous feminist needle point care of this artist.
Apt feminist slogan care of these artists.

The men featured in "Kedi," describe their affection for the cats they care for in the same breath with which they express their respect for the cats' independence, pride, and self-sufficiency.  They describe how caring for cats has saved their lives and given them purpose--how, in one man's case, a cat's intervention in his life gave him proof of the divine's influence in his life.

Then men in "Kedi" mobilize time, money, and energy to care for the animals they love, illustrating what is happily a globally spreading trend.  Maybe it seems silly, but listening to and watching thoughtful, generous, caring men dedicate themselves to caring for animals who are symbols of femininity was exactly the antidote to our current era I'd been needing.

All hail cat-loving men!

In closing, and in agreement with a much-deserved certified fresh rating, I gave "Kedi" a 5.

Enjoy!

{Heart}

Snap Judgment: "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"

Oh hello,

So Husband and I saw "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (2018) this weekend.  To continue the tradition established with "Jurassic World" (2015), I feel I have no choice but to write a follow-up Snap Judgment.

SO MANY DINOSAURS it's GOT to be great, right??
.......Right???????

Spoiler alert: my alternate title for this post was, simply, "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" is Terrible.  Feel free to continue reading to learn five bullet-pointed reasons this sentiment is unassailably true!

• Seemingly impossibly, an even less-inspired script than the last one.

In my review of "Jurassic World," I noted that the script was kind of excruciatingly bad.  Every line felt stilted and inauthentic, and every attempt at a zing-y one-liner rang pitifully hollow.  This is, I would argue, an impassable barrier to success for an entry in a movie franchise that was established by "Jurassic Park" (1993), whose whip-smart and infinitely quotable script is peppered throughout with jokes that offer a skillful, wry counterpoint to an otherwise bracing and thrilling adventure.

Well, somehow, "Fallen Kingdom" pulled off what is possibly an even worse script than "Jurassic World," because it didn't even seem to try.  There was a moment or two that threatened to produce a tiny smile, but these were generally sight gags.  None of the dialogue had any life to it whatsoever.

• Rampant necrophilic throw-backing.

There are too many allusions to the original "Jurassic Park" to count, and every single one made me want to angrily shout, "STOP DESECRATING A MOVIE I LOVE."  A selected list:

• Not one, but two T-Rex spin-and-roars.

You know the move.  It's the dinosaur equivalent of Blue Steel.

• Tapping raptor toe-claws.
• Not one, but two moments of child-escaping-being-eaten-by-dinosaur-by-slamming-door-shut-on-tiny-enclosed-space-just-in-time.  (Although of course I have a hard time believing that an old wooden dumbwaiter door would withstand "Fallen Kingdom's" version of the wOrlD's MosT tErRifyInG diNoSaUr, but whatever.)
• Raptors figuring out how to open doors.
• Someone possibly being squished under a car.
• Emotive moment in which a dinosaur fan/expert sees a Brachiosaurus for the first time.  (This might top the list of the most HOW DARE YOU-IEST moments of this stupid, stupid movie.)

What "Fallen Kingdom" seems to fundamentally misunderstand is that imitation of a great movie does not inherently confer that greatness to this film.  To the profound contrary, in this case it simply mercilessly drives home how lackluster "Fallen Kingdom" is, because it reminds you of how great its predecessor was.

• Clothes really do make the woman, evidently.

One of the many irritating aspects of "Jurassic World" was its bizarrely non-existent character development for Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire--except through her costuming.  Well, the profoundly irritating trend continues, to a point that is honestly so confusing I was left wondering, "But seriously, who is this person??"

Before: Spotless Ice Queen!

After: Totally Not That!

See, NOW Claire is wearing military green.  She is letting us know, solely through color choice and with absolutely no explanation, that she isn't a prissy soulless corporate lady anymore; NOW she's an animal rights-loving doe-eyed bleeding heart environmentalist.  Now she's SO committed you guys to saving endangered animals (and by "endangered animals" I mean "ravenous deadly resurrected crimes against nature").

So how committed is she?

She is SO committed that, unlike LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE who has ever survived a dinosaur-driven debacle in the Jurassic universe, she is totally down to go back to the island that houses the creatures that ate her assistant (TWICE) while also killing and maiming countless others.  Everyone else who was invited back was like, "Hey that was actually a bit traumatic so no thanks," but she was like, "I have a ponytail now, so I can do anything!!"

Scriptwriters Please Note: This is NOT how you write a convincing female character.  Next time, please try giving her thoughts that she sometimes says out loud and that actually make sense in the context of her life experience.

• Utterly stupid plot twists.

I'm not wanting to get too excessively spoiler-y, so I'll just give some examples:

• Dinosaurs with racing stripes.  You can tell this one is EXTRA scary, because its stripe is yellow!
• Clarifying question: Is cyanide gas even a thing?  If so, why have it just out and about in catastrophically large quantities?
• IS she your granddaughter?  Well IS SHE??
• STOP RUINING BD WONG.

• Literally no substantive resemblance to the original.

See, I'm upset about "Jurassic World" and "Fallen Kingdom" because "Jurassic Park" is truly a special movie.  I assert that not simply because I fought my parents to see it when I was a scant few years shy of its PG-13 rating, not because my perspective is skewed by seeing it for the first time with the eyes of a child.  As you know, I watched the move again relatively recently, and it still holds a formidable amount of power.  My beef with Steven Spielberg is solidly on hold when it comes to "Jurassic Park," because it is just a damn fine movie.  

What "Jurassic World" and "Fallen Kingdom" are lacking is not just a snappy script.  It's not just missing John Williams' beautiful, compelling score, although good God it sure hurts not to have it.  It's also that there is no spirit of scientific study and discovery, lived through scientists who have studied these creatures across millennia and toiled to answer unanswerable questions.  

It's also the lack of pacing, not having any idea when to hold back on the reveal of a terrifying row of teeth or literally gut-wrenching claw or a volcanic eruption and when to hit the gas pedal in the Jeep.  

Fundamentally, these movies are missing the ability to elicit the full range of emotions that "Jurassic Park" created: the visceral dread, throat-tightening fear, and most importantly, the wonder and awe.  Given the opportunity, who wouldn't take the chance to glimpse a real dinosaur?

This brings us to the problem with any sequels to "Jurassic Park," I suspect: Dinosaurs can't become boring.  If you're trying to improve upon the scary-factor of a freaking Tyrannosaurus Rex, you have simply missed the boat on this premise.  If you're not letting us access the era-that-never-was joy and thrill of seeing a towering herbivore for the first time or caring for a sick Triceratops, you don't get the point.  

If that original spirit was somehow retained in the movies that have followed, I would not be able to complain about them nearly as stridently.  Because those movies would at least be trying to honor the film-making excellence of "Jurassic Park."  But instead, they just want to cash in on the fact that dinosaur-loving suckers like me will buy a movie ticket just on the off-chance they can genuinely relive seeing that first Brachiosaur.

Shocking no one, I gave "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" a 1.

{Heart} 

TYSG: Resolution Compliance Edition

Hey darlings,

It's been almost exactly 5 years since I last wrote a Terrible Year Survival Guide post.  While in my personal world I wouldn't count this year as a Terrible Year, it certainly and unarguably is catastrophically terrible on a national and international governance level.  Yet so far, to a greater extent than I would have guessed, I've been doing okay--and oftentimes, better than okay.  And I think that's in large part to my high degree of compliance with my resolutions for 2025.

So in case it's somehow helpful to either borrow some ideas directly from me or for jump-starting your own process of identifying what would help you bolster yourself during this horrendous time, please allow me to share the things I've been doing, including some small but impactful changes I've made, to do sustainable, consistent, values-congruent things with my free time and thereby keep myself feeling whole, well, and happy.

Photography stuff: I've finally been working to translate my years-old backlog of vacation photos into printed photo books.  Making any degree of forward motion in this area is so satisfying.  That progress has been made easy by both past-me sorting through the hundreds/thousands of photos I took on each trip to winnow them down to like 300-400 that I can cram them all into a photo book, and also by the pretty-streamlined-once-you-get-the-hang-of-it photo book builder I use on Snapfish. Not only is it gratifying to at long last have a physical photo album of the trip Husband and I took Iceland almost 10 years ago, but it's also a joy to revisit those memories.

Making local friends + Reading: A bunch of parents in my neighborhood and I started a book club last summer, and it's been meeting about monthly ever since.  We alternate between parenting books and fiction, and spend the vast majority of our meet-ups chatting before we eventually talk at least a tiny bit about the book.  I felt particularly edified by my suggestion to read Casey McQuiston's Red, White, and Royal Blue, because it led to a great conversation about our communal ambivalence yet enjoyment of light fiction written primarily for women.  Book club also introduced me to Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!, which is one of the best books I've read in the past few years.  It's been so pleasant to look forward to our meetings, to have an additional nudge to read, and to finally be making friends who live nearby and are at a similar stage of life.

Taking care of plants and animals: I planted flower bulbs and potatoes in the past month or so and am so excited to see them growing.  I've also been so grateful for my now years-long daily habit of filling my backyard bird feeder and putting out food scraps for backyard birds and foxes.  It's such an extra little jolt of joy to see so much wildlife in our back yard.  I've also finally figured out how not to kill succulents (the metaphor of my history of killing them via overwatering does not escape me), and my growing succulent collection is on a shelf in my kitchen so I can enjoy it all the time.  They're so cute!  And then I of course also love caring for the abundance of inside animals in my house. <3

Staying connected to long-distance friends: Husband and I have gotten into a weekly routine of getting carry-out from the only decent Mexican food place I've identified in our area, and the drive is just long enough that it creates a perfect opportunity for catching up with friends and family.  Plus I get a burrito out of it.  And speaking of Mexican food, a month ago my best friend and I took a long weekend trip in Mexico together to celebrate both of us having milestone birthdays, which is the first time we've traveled just the two of us since 2009.  While that delay between trips is completely atrocious, the trip itself was amazing!  We swam with sea turtles!!!

Recovery: I've recently made some major breakthroughs in my recovery work, and I feel ever more aware of the cumulative benefits of sustained recovery work in my life.  If there's any one thing I can give credit for my overall sense of well-being, it's this.  Plus the pandemic (not entirely) ending really helps.

Activism: I've been consistently engaged in activism with two major causes that matter to me as well as regular direct mutual aid.  It is so meaningful, powerful, and grounding to be involved in collaborative efforts in support of causes that deeply matter to me.  The only way that's been possible is because of the willingness of the groups I'm involved in to meet by Zoom or in a hybrid format and to schedule most of their recurring meetings in the evenings (and also the availability of shifts to do mutual aid that fit into my work schedule).  The fact that I can join meetings while finishing up kid bedtime if needed is such a game-changer that allows me to still participate and feel engaged.  I'm so grateful this work has been accessible and feasible for me, because I genuinely think I would be losing my mind if it wasn't.

Shame Games: This is my lovingly pejorative moniker for the completely silly and low-skill games I've been playing on my phone instead of doing ANYTHING on social media.  I cringe a little bit extra playing them because, while the first game was an excellent suggestion from a friend for how to cope with the terror of the new administration, all subsequent games are a direct consequence of me succumbing to the ads embedded in that first game.  But here's the thing: we all need some amount of tune-out time to self-regulate, and spending mine playing my adorable little cat game or my Tetris knock-off game or my pretend tidying-up game is actually pleasurable and gives me a little bit of an albeit misplaced sense of efficacy, which Facebook and Instagram absolutely literally never did.  My life is genuinely better with social media fully out of it and my dumb little shame games in it.

Enjoying my home: I've had little breaks between sessions recently when I've just like... sat in my living room, or on my house's deck, or in our sunroom, and it is so calming and fulfilling.  I am so grateful for our house--we chose the perfect home for us, and it's so nice to be able to really soak that in.

Watching movies: In no small part because of the weekend childcare we've had for the past several months, I'm not only very much on track for my 30 movies a year goal, but I've also seen several in actual real live movie theaters.  What a dream!  It truly feels like the height of luxury to see a movie alone on a weekend afternoon, let alone to eat nachos while I do it.  

A notch even above that--and this is where the profound psychological gift of weekend childcare really kicks in--is the indulgence of seeing a movie that might not be perfectly suited to my taste--something that might be great but not for me, or simply fine.  After all, you know we love a fine movie here, and we honor that they very much have their place.

Don't get me wrong--a lot of the movies I've seen in theaters have been so good!  But seriously, to be able let go of the perfectionistic, scarcity-mindset-based enjoyment maximalizing pressure that is a consequence of inconsistent or nonexistent not-only-covering-working-hours childcare is that I can just see a movie because seeing movies is fun, knowing that if this one sucks I can just see a different one next week and the week after that if I choose to.  It's such a gift.

And with that: I hope you're well and happy and whole.  If you're not, I hope these ideas are helpful to you, or that they help you to find your own ways of restoring yourself to greater wellbeing.  You deserve it, and you need it, especially during such a dark time.  After all, as we know:

Thanks for reading, friends.

{Heart}

Closing 2025: Resolutions Edition

Hi darlings,

Welcome to 2026!

It's time to continue reflecting on the past year to set some intentions for the next.  First, let's recap the goals I set for 2025 and assess my success in accomplishing them:

1. Do sustainable, consistent, values-congruent things with my free time.

I think I did a pretty good job of accomplishing this goal, although that required making some adjustments and compromises I'm still having feelings about.  I continued to build local community, read (including one of the most gorgeous books I've read in a while), write, take photos and (FINALLY) print books of my photos, bake and cook, and care for plants and animals (inside and outside my home), each of which have brought me a lot of joy and satisfaction.  I would really like to get back into a routine of taking walks in my beautiful neighborhood, which would necessitate using the occasional free mornings I have for that purpose.  I also *still* miss my sweet little VR minigolf game and have not figured out how to fit that back into my life.

I got more involved with an additional recovery program and joined a small working group within that program, and I started a group chat for parents of young children who are in my original program.  I've kept doing readings, listening to recovery-focused podcasts, and going to meetings.  I also completed a healing-focused somatic and breathwork seminar that was really intense and helpful.  I'm still tentative about building more 1-on-1 relationships within those programs, but I'm also trying to respect my own process and not rush myself.

I participated in activism and mutual aid-related work throughout most of 2025, but by the last few months of the year I found that activism specifically was simply not compatible with the realities of my life as a parent with young children.  It became more and more impossible to attend regular meetings, even by Zoom, as they perfectly overlap with bedtime for my kids--a transition that is very much all-hands-on-deck and can't sustainably be done without both parents.  It's frustrating and demoralizing finding yet another aspect of life in America in which there is fundamentally not space made for parents.  It is especially anxiety-inducing that this is yet another place where it feels like I have no choice but to sit on the sidelines and hope that there's still work I can contribute in a few years when parenting isn't so full on.  

I feel extremely conflicted about my decision to scale back my participation in activist work, while also acknowledging that even characterizing it as a decision isn't totally accurate or fair to me.  Ideally these spaces would be accessible for everyone who wants to contribute, and they simply aren't for parents.  I'm hoping there are still ways for me to keep my hand in the game, so to speak, and it does look like that's possible if I can accept taking a much smaller role than I want to.  I'm hoping I can come to some degree of peace with that and also not have to totally forfeit this facet of myself for now.

2. Watch at least 30 movies, and write at least 15 posts.

I succeeded, just barely, in exceeding my 2025 movie-watching goal before the end of the year, thanks in no small part to some delightfully terrible Christmas movies I squeezed in as I was packing for my family for the holidays.  As you can see, I fell quite short of my writing goal, going so far as to skip writing in September entirely.  While I'm frustrated about that, the reality of my struggle to meet even these scaled-down goals has also helped soften my perfectionism about writing and accept that, while the totality of my life is really demanding right now, I'm doing the best I can.

Now, to propose goals for this year.  

Minor note: I don't mean to over-utilize the word "consistently" in the following resolutions, but it's important to me to prioritize endeavors I can pursue in a sustainable way rather than goals that have a specific accomplishment or outcome at the end.

1. Consistently engage in creativity.

I'm going to define "creativity" broadly while also using this resolution to hone in on some of the most rewarding leisure time I've had in the past year.  For the purposes of this resolution, creativity can mean things like writing, working on photography, decorating or redesigning a space, and coming up with fun activities to do with my family, but it can also mean the more generative aspect of creativity that is manifested in things like baking and caring for plants and animals.

2. Consistently care for myself physically and emotionally.

I'm proud of my continued engagement in a variety of emotional healing and recovery processes, and I see the cumulative benefit of those commitments year after year.  I'm also proud of breaking through whatever barrier(s) inhibited my ability to more actively care for myself physically, and that as a result I've been taking more personal responsibility not just for scheduling and transporting myself to medical, dental, and massage appointments, but also to doing physical therapy and exercising in my own time.  In 2026, I want to continue caring for myself in this holistic manner.

3. Consistently participate in anti-hunger and community-focused work and activism.

Of all of the horrific political incidents in the past year, one that was so repugnant that I struggle to comprehensively articulate how disturbed, upset, disgusted, and enraged I was as a result was the government's cutting of funding for SNAP benefits.  I want to consistently work to ensure people in my community aren't hungry.  Thankfully, I've found that there are several avenues for engaging in this kind of work that are more feasible for the stage of life I'm in.

4. Watch at least 30 movies and write at least one post per month.

I'm happy to say that I've already watched 9 movies this year, which under other circumstances might lead me to consider increasing this year's movie-watching goal.  But recent years have made it very clear that the mental, emotional, and practical space I have to watch movies tends to fluctuate a LOT over the course of the year, and I'd much rather keep my expectations of myself on this front gentle, realistic, and reasonable than set a goal I may not meet because I briefly felt cocky and overly ambitious.

All that aside, I'm excited for the movies of the future year, and I'm also excited for the time I'll spend writing about them.

I hope this new year is beautiful and so much better than any of us might be expecting.  Whatever happens, thankfully we're walking through it together.

{Heart}

My Mom Hated "The Lobster" and I Made Her Tell Me All About It

Greetings fellow humans!

I have a special treat in store!

I recently watched "The Lobster" (2015).  The decision to watch that film ran strongly counter to the counsel of my mom, who will henceforth be referred to as PsychoCineMom, and who hated, HATED "The Lobster."

After seeing the movie and formulating my own strong opinions, I decided to check in with PsychoCineMom to discuss.

LUCKY FOR YOU DEAR READERS, I recorded that discussion.  Below, please find, for your immense reading pleasure:

"The Lobster": A Discussion with My Mom, 

Who Hated It

Needless to say: this post contains spoilers.  Spoilers galore.  Spoilers contained herein largely concern "The Lobster," obviously, but also another of director Yorgos Lanthimos's films, "Dogtooth" (2009).  And kind of but not really "In Bruges" (2008).  As a result, this post also includes another PsychoCinematic first: a jump! (See the fancy html coding IN ACTION below!)

I know I just said that henceforth mom will be referred to as PsychoCineMom, but for shortness-of-title-in-the-interview-transcription's sake, she will henceforth be referred to as PCMom.

Because the interview was thorough, you will note that I have also included subheadings for anyone who's interested in hearing PCMom's perspectives on various "Lobster"-related topics.  Those headings include:

• PCMom Summarizes "The Lobster"
• PCMom Rates "The Lobster"
• PCMom Identifies the Only Parts of "The Lobster" She Liked
• PCMom Discusses the Aesthetics of "The Lobster"
• PCMom Discusses Her Absolute Least Favorite Part of "The Lobster"
• An Assessment the Main Character's Motivation
• I Reveal My Feelings About "The Lobster"
• I Put My Feelings About "The Lobster" In Context Given that "Dogtooth" was Worse
• I Acknowledge My Capacity to Revel in Sadistic Humor
• An Assessment of the Main Character's Character
• I Reveal My Rating of "The Lobster"
• PCMom Should Maybe Not Be Allowed to Interview Yorgos Lanthimos
• An Assessment of the Use of Animal Cruelty in Cinema
• PCMom Reassesses Her Rating

Without further ado:

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! 2022 Edition

Hi team,

I hope you all had a nice holiday last week with enjoyable food and company!

It's time to reflect on the things for which I'm particularly thankful this year.

They are:

• My healthy, loving, sweet animals.
• The abundance and generosity of plants, flowers, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, deer, and all the living things I can see and enjoy from the windows of my home.
• My home, where I feel peaceful, grounded, content, and safe.
• Finally some degree of relaxation of our pandemic precautions due to multiple vaccines and boosters as well as the relief granted by the passage of time, which has made it possible to:
• See more of our friends and family.
• Travel to celebrate loved ones' weddings.
• Revisit some of our favorite places in our beloved City, with admittedly still a lot to reconnect with, someday.
• Finally enroll our Child in a sweet, cosy, welcoming, positive daycare where he can play with "the other babies."
• Podcasts that deepen my connection to my political identity, simultaneously helping me feel more informed, interested in the outside world, and connected to a community of like-minded people, especially because of the people in my life who also enjoy these podcasts.
• Finally some more time to read for leisure.
• Finally getting to go apple picking again, including taking my Child for the first (and second) time.
• Multiple outlets for support, growth, and recovery.
• Learning more and more what my boundaries are and actually learning how to set and maintain them.
• My clients and the reciprocal, life-enhancing benefits of my work.
• Opportunities to revisit one of our favorite beaches and our community pool, as well as to discover a new delightful beach where we can peddle around on Flintstone-like multi-seater bikes and watch dolphins swim, as well as already having concrete plans to return to our favorite beach next spring.

• Not to mention: Plans, multiple times postponed, to travel abroad this summer that may just actually happen this summer.
• Not to mention: Feeling hope and excitement for the next year instead of despair and dread.
• My Husband and his patience, thoughtfulness, support, creativity, hard work, and love.
• Sharing ever more of the world with my Child, including more music, stories, people, and places.
• My Child's hungry brain, sweet, joyful, and loving temperament, inventive spirit, and wonderful sense of humor, as well as absolutely every single aspect of my Child's existence and being.
• As my Child grows and becomes more of a kid than a baby, getting to introduce and deepen our practices around holidays and family traditions.
• The births of several beloved and eagerly anticipated babies, as well as a few beloved and eagerly anticipated babies to come in the new year.

And, as always:

• Anyone who reads this blog.

I hope you have this many and more things that have made you feel happy and whole this year, and even more ahead.

{Heart}

"Jurassic Park": Like Grad School, Plus Raptors

A Merry Valentine's Day to you all!

Today is a holiday associated with many well-founded misgivings.  While I'm not unduly obsessed with Valentine's Day, I subscribe to the school of thought that teaches that it never hurts to have yet another excuse to be nice to people you love, to do something special with your partner, and to maybe give them a present.  As far as presents in the PsychoCinematic household go, the rule of thumb is that you can tell how much someone loves you by how big a piece of meat they... buy you.

In my case, I am clearly a well-loved human.  To celebrate Valentine's Day making-a-nice-dinner-at-home style, Boyfriend procured the following impressive slab:

Jeal?

Since Mondays are lame and school/work-filled, we cooked that moo cow up and celebrated yesterday.  It was glorious.  Food comas ensued.  And unexpected tertiary perk: I have time to write a little post today!  So I present to you: my Valentine's Day gift to my beloved blog-reading friends.

True to the spirit of the day, I will be discussing "Jurassic Park" (1993).

Oh yes.  We had the great pleasure of re-watching this epic classic while some friends were visiting over the weekend.  It was quite the ancient reptilian treat.

I'll admit it: I still got antsy during the terrifying opening scene (this being the first time I actually watched it, without averting my eyes), and I still got goosebumps during the first Brachiosaurus reveal.  Somewhere deep within there still lives the complete dinosaur nerd I was as a child.  For being almost 20 years old (which, in turn, makes me feel old), the special effects in "Jurassic Park" hold up remarkably well.  The sick triceratops still seems bracingly real, and the climactic T-Rex v. Raptors fight is still incredibly dramatic and exhilarating.  Not to mention John William's score is still pitch perfect.

Raptors: pwned.

Brief aside: This movie, I'm sure, has definitely contributed to the warding-off-attack-by-scary-things dreams I have semi-regularly, even as an adult.  I'm typically barricading my home against zombies or vampires, but dinosaurs are definitely among the cast of characters in my head.  Clearly, if xkcd is any indication, I'm not alone in this.

Credit: The delightful xkcd.com

Beyond the surprising timelessness of the movie's special effects, I was struck by how strong the scriptwriting was.  There are SO MANY great one-liners in "Jurassic Park"!  It remains quite entertaining based on its many witticisms alone.

A selective sample:

On excrement: "That is one big pile of shit."

 On lawyer mockery: "Are those heavy?  Then they're expensive.  Put them back."

For the raptor lovers in the audience: "Clever girl!"

And, my personal favorite, BD Wong's fabulous lifting-pencil-from-clipboard flourish with the line: "You're implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will... [pencil lift] breed?"

Another brief aside: I have to say that I am desperately in love with BD Wong for many reasons, not the least of which being that a) he plays an FBI profiler on Law & Order: SVU (psychology swoon), and b) he made this, which makes me cry every time I watch it.  I love him love him love him.

Now, if I may daintily alight on my feminist soapbox for just a moment...

I think I've made it clear that I really do like this movie.  I really do.  It's an excellent piece of entertainment.  And I know it was made almost two decades ago.  It is therefore not wholly fair to hold it to the standards to which I would hold a movie made today.

...That being said, it is still irritating as hell that when Sattler marches off to find Arnold with Muldoon and Hammond attempts to go in her place, wordlessly reasoning with her that he should be the one to go, she snipes at him, "We can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back!"  And then she DOESN'T TAKE A GUN INTO DINOSAUR TERRITORY, in spite of the fact that we just took a look at a rack full of them.  Instead, she takes a stupid giant flashlight with the universe's longest cable, which she will subsequently drag behind her all gimpily as she flees a raptor, blubbering like a big baby.

Gahhhhh.

I find this annoying for the following reasons:

1. I interpreted Hammond's protestations as age-based, not sex-based.  I may be misreading his intentions, but it does seem appropriate that a much older person--not to mention the dude who's essentially responsible for the mess everyone's in, unlike Sattler--should put themselves at risk, rather than someone with presumably decades of life still ahead of her.

2. Guns are typically interpreted as "male" manifestations of "power" in film, so GOD FORBID a woman should wield a gun.

3. It's just irritating to get all snotty with a dude who's trying to do the right thing, posturing as a self-sufficient feminist, and then fail to appropriately protect yourself (with non-gender-conforming weapons or no).  Sattler is contradicting herself without even realizing it.  It pisses me off.

That aside, seriously, this movie is definitely worth a re-watch.

With that... happy love day, everyone!

<3 <3 <3