It's happy hour somewhere.

So I went down to the bank to give them the handful of change it would take to even out my checking account balance, and now the ATM tells me it's exactly what the hotline said it was.

You guys, my ATM card is fucking with me.

*

Apparently Joanna Krupa is going to be on Dancing With The Stars next season. I'm just tossing that out there.

(I had absolutely no feeling about her whatsoever way back when people actually talked about her in fandom, and then I found out she was the blond woman who was being mean to Terrell Owens in the Superstars commercials earlier in the summer and I actually started to feel something toward her -- irrational dislike. I don't even like TO, for fuck's sake. And being on DWTS doesn't help with that, since I hate that show. "This season, we'll have a bunch of people who have absolutely nothing to do with dancing, a handful of athletes who need to know grace and correct movements to do their jobs, and some singers/dancers who do this professionally! Let's guess who'll win!" Also, with the exception of The Amazing Race, I like my competitive reality shows to feature contestants who've actually trained and studied to do the field they're competing in. Hell, even the majority of contestants on America's Got Talent have dance or voice lessons or train for years to get to the point they are when they audition. At least the contestants on SYTYCD have been studying forever to get that good.

... ahem. Hi. :))

Also, you know how many days there are until new Top Chef? TWO. And you know how many there are until new Project Runway? THREE. *flails*

*

I am currently aggravated with two things:

1. The rate at which my hair is growing. (FASTER, DAMN IT.)
2. That I can come up with a bajillion new story ideas and yet when I sit down to write them I draw a complete blank. (I can't even manage drabbles. I tried the other day and literally sat there for an hour trying to come up with something. URGH.)

My lack of a job and money isn't bothering me quite as much as it should, I imagine, but it's not a pressing concern. I'm covered on unemployment until the end of December thanks to the crappy economy, so I think I'm not going to let myself freak out until October. Maybe later. (I've officially been out of work for the longest stretch of my life since I started working when I was sixteen. Oh, joy.)

Look, this is why I hate the world.

You have probably seen the trailer on TV for All About Steve. In fact, you have probably only seen the ONE trailer, since I'm a pathetic loser with no job or social life who can't afford to go anywhere and hours of television-watching every day had led me to believe that there was only one trailer, so I can't imagine they're really showing a variety.

The TV spot features Sandra Bullock with a scary blond dye job basically spending sixty seconds worth of commercial time flailing after Bradley Cooper screaming "STEEEEEVE!" and trailing after him like the sort of stock shrill-needy-harpy cliche Hollywood churns out on a regular basis in buddy comedies, as the TV spot seems to make it out to be. It's the sort of trailer that usually spawns a Friday Feminist Fuck You. (Have the ladies at Feministing done one yet for it? Because I feel as if they should.)

So basically I come out of watching that trailer every single time with three thoughts:

1. It's a buddy comedy meant for a male audience.
2. I'm going to hate the Sandra Bullock character for being an embarrassing sexist cliche.
3. Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper can both do WAY better.

Except ... well, here's the trailer I just spotted on YouTube:

That's ... actually kinda cute. Compared to the one showing on TV, it's WAY better. Not perfect, of course, and okay, Sandra Bullock's character has problems, but she's not, as the TV spot appears to imply, clearly INSANE. And the trailer and the summary on the official website implies that at least in part she's going after his character because of the self-serving encouragement of Thomas Haden Church's character, as opposed to coming up with it on her own.

The problem is, it's obviously less about selling it as what it is than it is about selling it to the same people who rushed out to see The Hangover. Bradley Cooper's character in the TV trailer is running away from her at all times, and his friends are telling him to run away from this nutjob, and he's wearing a funny porn wig and HA HA NO. THIS trailer implies that he gets over the awful first impression and her overenthusiasm and starts to soften towards if not also fall for her. So, if it really is a romantic comedy, why not sell it as such?

The second trailer taken on its own is questionable. It appears to be a romantic comedy in which Sandra Bullock's character behaves weirdly out of being sheltered or introverted, and while chasing after Bradley Cooper's character is clearly forward, she doesn't appear to have the social understanding to pull herself back. But put against the TV version -- one featuring clips in which the movie is a Hangover II where Bradley Cooper's character gets new friends and a famous stalker -- and it's worlds apart and an improvement.

On the other hand, since they can apparently edit it to look like a shitty offensive sexist comedy for douchebags AND and a mildly-uncomfortable-at-times romance, I feel we're owed the version where they edit it into a cheap horror movie. Come on, Hollywood, I have faith in you!

*headdesk*

I ... don't know what to do with that.

My dad asked me yesterday, "What's that thing you do to all the time?"

I blinked for a second. "Uh, what thing?"

"You know, that thing in Atlanta?"

It dawned on me. "Oh, you mean Dragoncon. I haven't been to that in a few years, actually. Too broke."

"Ah."

A long pause, before I added, "Uh, why do you ask?"

My dad shrugged. "No reason. Your cousin just wanted to know."

He wouldn't tell me why, and now I'm curious. Because my cousin and her husband are pretty much the last people I could imagine at Dragoncon. My mom, too. Now my dad and my brother would have a field day at Dragoncon, but my cousin, not so much. It's just a weird thing for her to want to know.