"The key to success is often the ability to adapt."

Brace yourselves. This is the last post you'll see on this blog. I'm going corporate. Well sort of. Within the next day or so, I'll be pimping out a brand new website version of Ramblings of a Long Island Girl. Yay!

Much, much, much, much, much, much thanks to the fabulous Alice (aka Aliceness on Twitter) for helping me set it all up and not killing me when I had 29 million questions about what the hell she was talking about (I'm not stupid, but I swear I can't grasp the concept of hosting still...)

But anyways, stay tuned within the next few days while stuff gets figured out. And then stay tuned within the next few weeks because I've got some other new stuff I'm working on too. Lots of change: new state to live in, new personal website, have to find a new job, who knows what else is in store? haha, the possibilities are endless but hopefully all good things.

Oh P.S. Jay & I watched The X-Files: I Want to Believe last night. I've heard lots of people just trash talk it or give generally negative reviews on it & I have to weigh in. I agree with Jana's opinion: it would have been way better as a TV movie rather than a motion picture. The supernatural element was weak & the plot wasn't strong enough to carry a movie. I loved having all the characters back (Yaaaaaay Skinner!), but it reminded me of a stronger episode of Fringe & a weaker (not weakest) episode of The X-Files. Also, isn't pedophile priests soooo 2006?

I'm off to do errands & see Michael Ian Black with my Pookie in NYC tonight. I'll leave you with Strider to say peace out to this blog:

“Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.” -Swami Sivananda

Christmas in October

It's time for a happier post about my weekend, one that doesn't involve airplanes. So this weekend, I had a completely work-free weekend for once. We went to 5 Guys with Clif (as per usual), then we were going to go see "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" but the time was listed wrong online, so instead, we went back to Jay's house and watched "Casino Royale," since I've never seen it. I love action movies like that, so I really liked it a lot. Jay & I actually each bought the book of short stories that makes up "Quantum of Solace" to read on Sunday.

After breakfast on Sunday (Jay's dad cooks brunch every Sunday morning & it's so good), we did some errands and what not. Then, we went to dinner and to again attempt to see the movie. As we were finishing dinner, I got a text message from Chris in Boston, telling me that MetroBuzz got nominated for a Podcast Award for Best Comedy!!!! I'm actually really, really excited about it. Last year, when I went to California with Jay to watch him accept the award for Best Entertainment podcast, I never ever thought that we'd get nominated. I was incredibly giddy after finding this out, so naturally, a celebration was called for. Since we had already paid the bill, we decided to just go up to the bar in the restaurant and do straight vodka shots. 10 minutes later, two semi-drunk award-nominated podcasters walked into a movie theatre. We then proceeded to giggle our way through the entire first half. We had gotten popcorn and I placed it on the arm of the chair next to me. Jay for some reason decided to lift up the arm and popcorn flew everywhere, which prompted more obnoxious giggling from us, but there were like 5 other people in the theatre and we were in the back row. So whatev. (Btw, the movie was pretty good - having spent a year as an outsider in the indie music world, it was actually quite believable to me and made me really miss living in NYC even more than I already do.)

We went to the mall on Saturday, October 18. Tell me what's wrong with this picture:

Alright, gotta peace out - Time to go back to Job#2 work before I head to Job#1. I didn't say it before, but thank you so much to anyone who is reading this who helped nominate us for a Podcast Award. I'm really so excited. I'm going to be bugging everyone to vote for us, starting Thursday, October 23, 2008. You can vote once every 24 hours and I'd really appreciate it if you could do it. Just go to podcastawards.com and vote MetroBuzz in the Best Comedy category and vote for Jay's podcast, The Lost Podcast with Jay & Jack in the Best Entertainment category.

Finally, I'll leave you with another cheesy kitten video. I took this at literally 5:15am, so if I look exhausted, it's because I was. But I've already gots a boy and he was there while I filmed it, so again, whatev son! Okay, I really need to do work now :P

"Here's some money. Go see a Star War."

I saw Smokin' Aces with Tricia on Fri. It was a bit of a mess. Considering every actor age 28-45 in Hollywood was in it (Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Alicia Keys, Matthew Fox), it should've been a lot better. What can I compare the movie to? Be Cool comes to mind, since that was also a bit of a tease - awesome cast but complete mess of a movie that wasn't good but didn't totally suck either. There was just waaaay too many people & it got a bit confusing, despite being a relatively easy movie to understand. Andy Garcia's accent changed in just about every scene he was in & Jeremy Piven was basically playing Ari-Gold-meets-Jeremy-Piven-meets-Lindsay-Lohan.

I wanted to see Dreamgirls or Babel or Catch and Release, but after I made Tricia sit through The Fountain (good concept, but a bit boring bc it took itself way to seriously) it was agreed that she could pick the next movie. The Fountain was too slow, Smokin' Aces was too fast...the next movie we see will be juuuuusssst right...

OH! Apparently Katie O'Hagan, Meagan Donoghue & I are the graduation picture in the Marist calendar for May '07. Excellent. Thanks, Bob Lynch!

P.S. Katie's headshots are up on IMDB now. I wrote her bio/trivia last year when we were bored one night; I completely forgot what I wrote until I just reread it haha. One day when she's rich & famous, I'm totally gonna sell her out to appear on her E! True Hollywood Story. What are old roommates for?

maybe a bright sandy beach is gonna bring you back

Being that I had almost the exact same "conversation" today with two different people, I feel the need to include the away message of Brian Sabella, the second person to bring the 'not-going-back-to-Marist' topic to my attention today (not that it wasn't already on my mind/brought up by almost everyone i've ever met in the past few weeks).

StamosIsLife: Finishing up packing for Marist...

Oh wait, Im old.

You little bastards better enjoy it.

Muffin is right. Katelyn actually said to me the other night, "You know, it's really scary that you graduated. I don't like it. It makes me realize that it doesn't last forever." Damn right it doesn't. I'm not going to get into it now cause it's late, but sometimes you really don't know what you've got til it's gone. But I was lucky. After a somewhat rough year (that had good moments, I'm not complaining), I had a very, very, very, very awesome last month of school. Starting with Festival then Banquet then Riverfest then Yuck then Senior week then Senior Formal then graduation; I feel incredibly lucky & blessed that I ended my time at Marist on such a high note.

I guess that's why this has been such a frustrating summer for me. Some things that I wanted to last...didn't and some things that I wanted to happen...haven't. But that's neither here nor there & this is not the time/place to analyze my summer. Maybe another time. Life is funny. I'm a very intense person but I'm an understanding person & not unforgiving. People never give me enough credit: I'm good at brushing things off my shoulders simply bc I don't want the weight of being angry or hurt or hating someone/having them dislike me. It's not worth it. Ok, shut up, Colleen. Just shut up.

Anyway, I did a first for me today: went to the beach by myself. Now, I absolutely love going to the beach but it's been the one thing that I've never really considered doing before. I've seen movies by myself (working at a movie theater desensitizes you to that), eaten by myself (granted, not at a restaurant, but I've gone into places like Panera or Dunkin Donuts or Quiznos, etc al & eaten alone), i've sat at concerts by myself (even if I had friends who were there, just sitting in a different section - DMB @ SPAC 2003 for example) and i've gone to see plays alone. Bottomline: I don't have a problem with a little 'me' time. Anyway, I've never considered going to the beach alone & especially this summer with certain 'circumstances' - so to speak - have caused me to always feel it necessary to have a beach buddy. Cassidy & Claudio have gone to the beach by themselves before & it's quite relaxing & peaceful & gorgeous there, so it shouldn't be a big deal at all. Soooo after an absolutely AMAZING day yesterday at the beach with Julia, Brian, Chris Golio, Ian face & Joe Matero, I decided I wanted to go again today. I woke up and it was gorgeous out so I thought to myself, "Self, just go do it."

So I did. And I relaxed with a book then walked around for over an hour. Said a hello that wasn't as awkward as I thought (I guess? from my POV but what do I know about anything?). Oh yeah - I also saw an old naked guy pissing into the ocean.

Basically, at Smith's Point, if you go all the way down to the right, there's a nude section. I remember walking down there in like 11th grade or something with either Claudio or Tricia or someone bc when you're like 16, the idea of naked people at the beach is still funny. Anyway, I remembered it being alot further than it actually is. At first I was like, "Ok, that dude's naked. Don't stare, just walk a little bit further, it's not crowded." I'm an idiot but I didn't feel like turning around and going back yet. So then I walk about 3 more minutes & see more saggy ballsacs. This time, I'm kinda getting the feeling (especially when I see some naked fat old lady) that it's time to go back. The clincher was when I look up from finding a song on my newly created playlist & see some guy standing by the sea. "Ok, Colleen, don't stare," I say to myself. Then I notice that he's NOT JUST STANDING THERE. NOPE. OLD GUY. NAKED. PISSING INTO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN.

Yup. That was great. I did not go swimming after I got back from my walk.

Ok, this post is long & I have to go find stories for StarkedNY.com for tomorrow since I have work at AT 3-close & I have to go back to the mall so shit's gotta be done early. Thanks to everyone who's been going there & reading it. I really, really appreciate it.

P.S. Snakes on a Plane was awesome. Just awesome. Audience participation. I got to say, "Oohh, what's a trouser snake?" when the guy got bit in the crotch & Matero yelled out, "It's a trouser snake!" My favorite part (other than *the* line) was some guy from the audience yelling, "Why isn't William Shatner in this movie?!"
P.P.S. I'm going to put up videos from the Counting Crows concert as soon as I figure out how to load shit onto YouTube. Adam Duritz is fantastic.

*I finally unloaded like a month's worth of pictures from my camera; this is one from Aug 2, when Danny & I went with Brian to his gig in Hartford. We met up with Bri's friend, Tim, watched Brian play, then stayed up all night playing in Tim's pool, drinking & then having an insane game of "Never Have I Ever." But to kick off the night - aka Happy Hour - Brian bought us all pints. Look how tiny I am next to Danny & the pint haha.

M. Night to Direct Harry P?!

I love it when I find out news a month too late, especially when it’s news that’s just begging for a comment. Apparently M. Night Shyamalan (HA, I only had to look up the spelling of his name THREE times, suckers!), the man behind the awesome Sixth Sense and not-so-awesome Lady in the Water, has been telling everyone who’ll listen that he’s considering directing one of the last two Harry Potter movies. The director claims that he is “haunted” that he passed up the chance to director The Sorcerer’s Stone and if given the chance, he would be the “greatest protector of [the] author’s stuff.”

Now, M. Night doesn’t strike me as the type of director who adheres to necessary little things such as what another author intended the storyline to be. I can see it now: Dumbledore suddenly starts walking around, interacting with Harry, completely unaware that he’s dead. Then in an attempt to keep Death Eaters out of Hogwarts, new Headmaster McGonagall boards up all the windows/doors with some strong ass plywood and gathers all the students in the Great Hall, where everyone gets to conjure up their favorite last meals! And in a “completely unforeseen twist,” we learn that Hogwarts is actually located somewhere in the Dagobah System. Yoda appears and finishes where Dumbledore left off, teaching Harry how to defeat Voldemort using the force (who needs Legilimency & Occlumency nowadays, anyway?). To reward himself for being such a genius, M. Night creates a whole new member of the Order of the Phoenix for himself to play, completely forgoing all of J.K. Rowling’s well-crafted mythology in favor of his own, updated storyline, which he will then try to pass off as “something that happened a long time ago…really…”

This rant has been brought to you by Colleen. Anyone have anything to add? Any M. Night fans in the house who want to tell me I’m overacting slightly?