Top 5 Reasons Rupert Grint Should Be the 12th Doctor

Confession time. For years people have told me that I should watch Doctor Who, and I'm not sure why, but I've never tried it...until a few weeks ago, and let me just tell you, it is my new obsession. I feel like I've lost so much time! Hah! I liked it so much, I restarted my Netflix account to watch them. I'm starting with the new series, but maybe eventually I'll go back and watch the old ones too.

David Tennant is by far my favorite Doctor. Ten is just impossible to top, but I did have a thought today. If you're out there listening, Doctor Who producers, you should hire Rupert Grint as the 12th Doctor when Matt Smith gets ready to give up his fez, bow tie, and sonic screwdriver, and here are 5 reasons why.

5. He knows how to wear a suit and wear it well.

Quite dashing whether it be classic,

(from contactmusic.com)

purple (!), 

(from fanpop.com)

or retro ;)

(from harrypotter.wikia.com)

4. He knows how to accessorize. 

Exhibit A: sexy scarf

(from collider.com)

3. He has connections who could be gold mines as potential companions. There's Emma Watson (the brainy, fashionable companion), Evanna Lynch (the cute, quirky companion), or even Jessie Cave (the pretty, bubbly, and a little bit crazy companion). That would be Hermione, Luna, and Lavender to Harry Potter novices. ;)

2. He's already got a catchphrase! "Bloody hell!"

1. He's rude AND ginger! Finally! The Tenth Doctor would be so excited. 

A Lesson in Courage: My Review of The Help

I loved Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help. Loved it. However, I was nervous when I found out they were making it into a movie. Hollywood has this way of screwing things up sometimes especially when it comes to movies set in the Civil Rights era in the South, but when I found out Kathryn Stockett's childhood friend and fellow Mississippi native Tate Taylor was going to be directing it, I eased up slightly. Now that I've seen the movie, I've realized only a Mississippi native could have written that book or directed that movie. See, as someone who was born and raised in Mississippi, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with my home state.

Now, before you go berating me for insulting my birthplace, let me explain. I love Mississippi. I love summer nights and the tune of crickets singing and fried chicken and the electricity of football season in the air and strong but delicate magnolia trees and a million other things about Mississippi, but my home state has a dark history that's no fault of its own. The guilt lies solely with its people and the way in which they've treated each other with injustice and allowed hatred over petty differences to engulf our state's history like a disease. Not that any other place doesn't have just as much guilt, but when I think about the horrors inflicted on African Americans and the hatred and fear felt by both races in my beloved Mississippi over the years, it just makes me sick. And it has always left me asking myself a haunting question. Would I have been brave enough? All through school when learning about the Civil Rights movement or even the Civil War, I always had that question in the back of my mind. Would I have been brave enough to do something about it...to stand up for what is right? I hope that I would have been. I hope that I would have been one of those good people who knew that love and respect are neither black nor white who treated all people equally and spoke up when others didn't. I hope I would. Movies and books like this always find me hoping I'd have been one of those people, and I like to think there were more of those people than history lets on. People who fought in quiet ways that wouldn't get them in the textbooks but changed their world in smaller yet still significant ways.

I see a lot of myself in Skeeter Phelan - curly hair, single, writer, sassy, college-educated, career-minded Mississippi girl - and I hope that I'd have been as brave as she. It's a beautiful and moving book and an equally beautiful and moving movie. Read it. See it. Go out and live it...because injustice didn't end with the Civil Rights Act, and there are new injustices to fight everyday. The Lord has called us to stand up against them and to be set apart. Find your cause and fight for it, and He will be there beside you to give you strength and clear your path.

I got lost in Lost...big time

Hello again, fair reader. If it seems like a while since I've written, that's because I've been a bit preoccupied with a new obsession in the form of Lost. Oh man, is it addicting. I had been holding out to watch it after I graduated, so I started a week or so ago and managed to watch all five seasons in rapid succession (thank you, Netflix!). This show should come with a Surgeon General's warning because it's like crack. One night, I seriously stayed up til 7am. No lie.

And it's just so smart. I love a good show that makes my brain hurt. I think my jaw may be sore from dropping so much. The allusions to the Bible and literature weave little mysteries in and out of the plot line and occasionally make for a great punch line (like the time Sawyer calls Charlie "Oliver Twist" HAHA!). Bottom line: I. Love. It.

I'm waiting anxiously for the premiere on February 2, and to bide the time, I decided to make a list of all the questions I have to see how many they end up answering in the final season. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just skip the rest of this post. ;) Here goes nothin'...*insert obligatory spoiler alert here*

1. Who is Jacob's mysterious nemesis? Esau maybe? And is he good or bad?
2. What the frick is the smoke monster?!
3. What makes Walt so "special?"
4. Why can only Claire raise Aaron, and where is that girl anyway?
5. Will Charlie come back somehow? (Oh, I do hope so! He's my fave.)
6. Will Desmond have to return to the island? Will that lead Penny to look for him again (using that snowy listening station)?
7. What happened after the nuke went off?
8. What happened to the real Locke? Is he really dead?
9. Who are the Adam and Eve skeletons in the caves?
10. What happened to Ben's childhood friend Annie?
11. What's in Hurley's guitar case, and why did Jacob give it to him?
12. Why didn't Sun go back to 1977?
13. Why can Hurley and Miles see/talk to dead people?
14. Is Widmore really good or bad?
15. Will someone finally kill Ben already?!!!
16. Who was the man in the hot air balloon?
17. Will Aaron ever get Charlie's DS ring?
18. How did Desmond, Charlie, Eko, and Locke survive the Swan implosion?
19. Will Sayid somehow get Nadia back?
20. Will we get to see the Dharma headquarters in Ann Arbor?
21. Are there more Dharma stations?
22. Why does the Island/Jacob speak through Christian?
23. What is "the Island's" real agenda?
24. Where did Richard Alpert come from, and why does he never age?
25. What happened to the Arrow station, and why was there a Bible there?
26. What are the whispers in the jungle really?
27. I know the numbers will still have an important significance, but what?!
28. How did the statue get destroyed?
29. What exactly is this "sickness" that the French crew got, and why has none of the survivors of 815 gotten ill?
30. What happened after 1977 that prevented babies from being born on the Island?
31. Did the Island have any natives living on it originally?
32. Why did they draw the map on the back of the blast doors in the Swan station?
33. Why did Stuart kill himself? Or did he?
34. Will Jack and Kate FINALLY end up together?
35. And...will the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 EVER get OFF the Island?!!!

It's not too much to ask to get all that answered, now is it? :) I know those genius writers can do it...

Livin' the Louisiana Life

There are a few things in life you can only really experience in good ol' south Louisiana: king cake, crawfish, Mardi Gras, and baseball at the Box! Lucky me...I fit all of them into one weekend! I love this state. :)

Opening night at the new Alex Box stadium was magical, unforgettable, historic...in summary, it was AMAZING (right down to the cheesy ball o' Tiger spirit...don't ask)! I was a bit skeptical about the new snazzy stadium's ability to rekindle the tradition of the old Box, but I was wrong. To borrow a phrase from that terrible PR stunt by those "other" Tigers, it was like a family reunion! ;) There was an electric charge in the air and fireworks in the sky, and it was totally worth waiting in line for two hours with 800 other students.

LSU Pentecost: the transferal of Tiger baseball spirit from the old Box to the new

After the game, we went to see Slumdog Millionaire. I really don't know what else to say about this movie except that it has catapulted itself into my top 20 favorite movies, and I'm thrilled it won Best Picture (more on the Oscars later). I'm such a sucker for rags to riches coming of age semi-musicals. Loved it. You must see it.

Saturday, I went downtown for the Spanish Town parade. Clear skies, cultural history, community togetherness, creative political satire, and lots and lots of beads...what's not to love?!


And what better way to top off a lovely Louisiana weekend than the first crawfish dinner of the season! Gotta love those little mudbugs.

And as for the Oscars, which I've loved as long as I can remember, I was pleasantly surprised this year. For once, the glimmer and elegance of Oscars ceremonies past made its glorious return. Hugh Jackman, please come back and grace us with your gentlemanly presence next year! And Kate, that shampoo bottle quote will go down in Oscar history. Congrats on finally winning one! It's about time!

Sigh. Great great great weekend. Oops...gotta go. My dirty rice is done! (Told you I was livin' the Louisiana life!)