movies. and typing tests.

it should come as no surprise for most of you that bryan and i are actively engaging in oscar season, even from afar. as usual, we eagerly scanned the internet on nomination day to see how our best picture guesses compared to the actual list and have been dutifully (oh, what a chore!) keeping up our tuesday movie date, trying to see as many highly-nominated movies as possible before the event. we do, of course, have a color-coded listing of all the nominees, ranked by number and quality of nominations and containing detailed notes on the theatrical and DVD release dates for new zealand wherever possible. we've been waiting for some recent releases to become available on fatso (a netflix equivalent), but when bryan excitedly threw open the bedroom door this morning to tell me that we'd soon be getting "up" and "inglourious basterds", i just heard him yelling the titles and thought he was telling me to get out of bed already with the unexpected use of a rather rude expletive.

this year we've been pleased to find most of the animated shorts available on youtube, and recommend both french roast and the lady and the reaper for your viewing pleasure. among the feature-length films there are a couple of movies that seem to appeal especially strongly to an american audience and so aren't available here, notably "the hurt locker" (tied with avatar for most nominations), "the blind side" (surprise best picture nominee), and "a serious man" (another coen effort with a minnesota connection); i suppose this just gives us more to look forward to on our return. saw "precious" this week, which we both enjoyed despite a number of scenes that are physically uncomfortable to watch.

in other news, i've discovered that i have a typing speed of around 105 wpm, as measured by typingtest.com for my application with a temp agency. i tested myself on two different websites, five times each, so i think i can be fairly confident with the results, which allow me to check the highest box in the "typing speed" category on my application - and we know i can use all the help i can get. from the "no, thanks" emails littering my inbox, it looks like i won't be a salad maker or a fish shop assistant or a receptionist for an autoglass company. i'm starting to appreciate the way that these rejection emails are worded...my favorite so far is the one from apex car rentals, which regrets to advise me that my application was not successful, as "a large number of applications were received and the overall standard was very high". what i appreciate is the subtle insinuation that my low quality might get me a job at some other time, but my wily trickery won't work now that the company is hearing from so many other applicants. i also like the one that informs me that they have shortlisted others with "more appropriate experience than yourself", as if i got caught trying to sneak in my inappropriate experience. thanks for that.

-rachel