Whew . . .

Gotta do Russian studying. Now. And I have a headache.

Anyway, I was all set to enjoy the long-awaited Desmond-centric episode tonight when it got cut off at a crucial moment by a flash flood advisory. So. Annoying. It marred the whole episode, which is a huge shame. Anyway, I ended up liking the episode, but also being very, very confused. I need to watch it again. On Hulu, where no flood advisories will get in the way.

And there's no worries about flooding where I am, so that's why I sound so nonchalant about the whole advisory thing. It just broke the mood of the episode for me at a crucial point, which made the episode less engrossing than it should have been!!!

Although . . . Daniel and Desmond and Charlie all in one episode together? That already gets a happy dance by default. Emotional-scene-that-was-ruined-by-flood-advisory would have been epic, I know. SO, I will empty my mind, rewatch the episode, and not only like it, but love it like I should have the first time. Hopefully. I was loving it until the beeping and recorded voice cut across everything! >:(

I bought tickets to watch the Hawaii premiere of "The Secret of Kells" on Friday night, which I'm super excited about. I've been wanting to watch this film for a long time, thank goodness it's finally here on the island!

And I'm going to fail my Russian midterm tomorrow. But I can retake it. So I will retake it and do better.

I also have not managed to find my mysterious vanishing library card, so I guess I'll just shell out the fifteen dollars or whatever needed to buy a new one. What a pain.

Any last notes? Um . . . I watched Laurel and Hardy's "The Music Box" at an Honors English Program meeting today. That was fun. And I'm almost done with S is for Space. It's an interesting group of stories.

Also, after a vote in class today my Western lit classmates voted to read excerpts from Plato's Republic for next classtime instead of my choice, excerpts from Herodotus' The Histories. I've read both books before multiple times, so I don't really care I suppose, considering that after the real thing I'm always disappointed in excerpts anyway, but I'm not going to bother reading Plato. I know that blasted Analogy of the Cave by heart and back-to-front by now, thank you very much--I've only had to study it every single year of my life since I was thirteen!!! And role-play about it in class last semester, no less!! Sigh.

I like Plato's writings, they are interesting, and the Analogy is very compelling. It would just . . . have been nice to have been able to reread about Xerxes attempting to punish a river by throwing hot branding irons and chains into it for a change. I don't want to have to sit through yet another explanation of the Cave while most of my fellow students are introduced to it for the first time. Thursday will be a slooooooow day.

Reason #2 Why . . .

. . . I'm learning Russian. Watch the two vids in order. If you don't know the general plotline of 'War and Peace', then you might not understand this . . . but I believe you will . . . Both feature Andrei and Natasha. And both actor and actress are absolutely stunning in this film.

These clips are taken from the Soviet film 'Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace', which was many many hours long and the most expensive film ever made. I finally watched the film after reading the book this summer, and . . . wow. Amazing. And these two scenes--separated by hours of film, and then both sharing that incredible music--made me cry. No kidding!

Video 1: Andrei and Natasha meet at a ball. . .


Video 2: And they meet again years later . . .

Enjoy! And that's all the videoblogging I'm doing today . . .

'Mortal Fight'

'M afraid I must use a link here, because the video in question is on a Russian website. BUT for those of you who like Sherlock Holmes, this is a must-see. You can skip through most of it if you like, I suppose, but Holmes' showdown with Moriarty is absolutely amazing. It makes the Granada version look like kid's play. So I'd say you could jump ahead to 41:30 if you want to.

http://webteleradio.com/media14/sherlok-shvatka2.htm

And for those of you who haven't read the book *gasp* this episode is an adaptation of 'The Final Problem'. So read it first!

The Reason Why . . .

. . . I decided to study Russian. Well, a big part of the reason anyways.

I don't know how to upload video and am too tired to try and learn right now. So you'll have to make do with a link for the time-being.

*EDIT* Thanks to Andromache's brilliance and kind-heartedness and/or lack of other posting topics, I have now uploaded the video here. So now you don't have to navigate away from my beautiful blog to watch videos I recommend. Because I know you REALLY hated leaving . . .

Who says the best Sherlock Holmes in the world has to be British?