Pharest Of Them All

The 80s

2010-04-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

So I’ve been watching a lot of 80s television lately. Mostly The first 2 seasons of The A-Team and 21 Jump Street (Thanks Netflix :) . I was pretty young during the 80s so I’ve learned a lot about the time I grew up in this way. I thought I would share what I’ve learned with everyone.

1) In the 80s anything with 4 wheels could be turned into a tank. Anything.

2) Cops often left their squad cars not only unlocked but with the keys in the ignition. Cause I mean who’s going to steal a cop car? Answer: Everyone

3) Every bad guy has to have a helicopter. I mean what kind of bad guy runs a Moonshine operation and doesn’t have a helicopter?

4) All teenagers were involved in either drugs, robbery, loan sharking, arson or gangs.

5) Don’t ever own a small business because someone will eventually come and charge you for “insurance” but really it’s so they don’t destroy everything you own. (this was a genuine fear I had as a child)

6) My perfect man is a Murdock with a little Face thrown in. Which in the end is still Rick from The Facts of Life.

7) Drugs aren’t about what kind of parents you have, they’re about who’s cool.

8) It’s ok to act inappropriately with teenagers when you are an adult as long as you look like a teenager.

9) Undercover cops can’t wait to tell you they are undercover cops.

10) Johnny Depp has not aged at all despite the fact that he smokes like a chimney. My Dare officer lied to me.

11) The best place to lock up someone you want to kill is in a barn or garage with lots of tools and mechanical things and sometimes dynamite.

12) You can only have 1 girl on a team. Any more than that and it gets complicated.

13) People can be really important to you one week and then completely disappear the next week and you won’t even care.

14) You could be a convicted felon, on the run from the Military police and still be able to work with children at center.

15) If you put the same outfit and a wig on Person A that is remotely near the same hair color as person B, no matter what their size or shape, Person A will look exactly like person B

That's it so far. Really the 80s seem like they were pretty rough. I'll keep you updated on anything else I learn.

My student are funny... or something else

2010-02-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Since I teach a CTE (Career Technical Education) class we have to go over job skills like résumés and interviewing. On our final exam they had to answer this question:

Describe how you would answer this question in an interview: Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses. Include three skills and abilities.

As I was grading their answers I came across several that were pretty funny so I thought I’d share them with you. These are all the real answers from high school students.

Strengths-

-Workful
-Intertainful
-I know my history and can answer many historical questions
-I have skills and abilities at everything
-Find out what to do on a phone
-Play soccer
-If things get quiet or uncomfortable I can tell a joke or two
-x-ray vision
-super speed (I can out run a jet)
-See into the future (like if the world was going to end I could warn everyone)
-Text 25 words per minute
-Riding motorcycles
-I can run fast and lift heavy things
-Paintballing
-I would answer this question by making it into a question
-I do what I am exposed to do
-Tommy + Suzy
-Making Drawings on the concrete
-I am awesome

Weaknesses -

-Lazy
-Praging others (If someone could figure out what this means I would be very grateful)
-Cutting the lawn
-Maybe my cursing is a weakness too
-Get mad easily (listed patient as strength)
-Moody
-I listen to orders too much
-Bossy
-Not the best dressed
-Batting (I am not very good at eating the ball)
-Coming to school
-If being a team leader is a weakness than I am as weak as a noodle
-Alphabetizing
-Shallow
-I can’t think while people are talking to me
-I slack off
-Singing, jokes and acting
-Women, T.V. and food
-When I am on my period I work slower
-I like to stay home on the weekends
-Bears

A night in the head of Darlene

2010-02-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in another post that I want to write more. Specifically I want to write every day. Here is some insight into that process for me.

Last Night:

6:45pm I found myself dying of boredom (one of the disadvantages of going to a morning church). I had just finished watching “Kathy Griffin: She’ll Cut a Bitch” on my Netflix (which was amazing) and I was staring down at an empty Sunday night and wondering if 6:45pm was too early to go to bed. It was then that I realized I could spend some time working on a screenplay I’ve been writing. I’m always saying I don’t have enough time and here I was with time. This was especially great because I’ve been feeling a wall with the story and I recently had a plot breakthrough.

One of my major struggles with writing is I keep everything in my head and never get it out so this was great. I have a hard time working at home so I started doing research on places nearby with free wifi. Coffee houses or restaurants. I didn’t really want to go to a coffee house because then if you need a refill you have to take your laptop and everything with you. The problem with restaurants is that you can’t plug your laptop in and mine has the battery life of about an hour right now so that was no good either.

7:00pm I realize I probably don’t want a place with free wifi because it will just distract me and I wouldn’t get anything done. So this opened up my options.

7:10pm As I think about it more I realize I don’t even need my laptop I can actually just write it down in a notebook analog style. The problem with this is that I don’t have any of the pens I like to write with so I decide to go to target. I also decide I need an idea book I can carry around with me. I have about 5 or 6 unused journals right now but I need a new one to start this new creativity wave. I decide to go to target and then start writing.

7:25pm I arrive at target and head straight to the stationary section. Well, straight through the women’s clothes section to the stationary section. I look around at their journals and I don’t see anything the right size or anything cute so I decide to go to Barnes & Noble and check there. I grab my pens and head toward the register.

7:35pm As I walk to the register I realize in order for an idea book to work I need to carry it around all the time which means using my purse more. My starting to look old and tore up purse. I obviously need a new purse so that I can carry around my idea book and begin writing more. So I head to the purse department and look around.

7:40pm As I peruse the purses I see the $1 sock section. I love $1 socks. And who doesn’t always need socks? So I grab 5 pairs and head back over to the purses where I see a purse for $30. That is more than I want to spend but its cute and it’s the only one I like. It’s really big though and it would have plenty of space for my idea book. Come to think of it I could probably fit my laptop in there too and I’ve been needing a new bag for that. So this will be a good investment. I buy the bag.

8:00pm I head over to Barnes & Noble and head straight to the journals. Well straight to the journals after I look around for a bit trying to find any calendars they have left. I really miss Paper calendars and I’ve wanted to buy one to put up at home. Then I can check things off and have a visual reminder of otherthings. It turns out they have no calendars left.

8:10pm God I love the journal section at Barnes & Noble. I love buying journals. I never fill them up but I do like owning them and looking at them. I start searching through the shelves trying to decide which journal represents my creativity and me. I’m drawn to a journal with owls on it and the pages are really cool and each one has this graphic-y drawing on it but it will be kind of hard to just write on and it won’t serve my purposes.

8:20pm I start to decide what exactly I want this journal to say about me.

Do I want a “green” recycled journal? They’re a little too big for me.

How about another cool graphic-y one? It’s too hard to write on the pages.

Do I want an ironic journal? (There are some great cheesy journals like the “I hope you Dance” Journal and one that says, “Eternity is forever and right now”) I really don’t want someone to think I really like the inspirational journal or the gaudy/ ugly “devotional journal” that is made out of rejected 70s wallpaper.

There are leather journals and journals with weird wood sticks and plain journals with nothing on them. There are too many options here and my journal must represent me completely.

8:45pm I decide to go with the first journal I found with the owls and hey it’s only $10.

8:50pm I decide I’m hungry so I need to get some food. I want Chinese food and the only place I like is Panda express so I head there. I hate going to mom and pop Chinese food places because whenever you go to bite into a piece of chicken you either bite into a huge chunk of fat or like a talon. I know major chains are more processed but that’s exactly what I like about them, the process of cutting off the fat and talons.

8:55pm I show up at Panda Express and get my food.

9:05pm Head home

9:20pm I show up at home and eat my dinner.

9:40pm Now that dinner is done I need to take all the contents from my old purse and transfer them to my new purse. I have a ton of crap and receipts in the old bag so I need to sort through what I need and what I don’t

9:50pm Now that that is done I realize I only have 10 minutes left before I need to be in bed so I head to the bathroom to get ready.

10:00pm 0 pages written

My Purse

My Pens

My Idea Book

WTB??!!

2010-01-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

Can someone please explain to me what this add is supposed to mean?

Is that Jesus wanting mom's to go back to school?

Is that what your kids will look like if you don't go back to school?

Or is that a Mom who needs to go back to school?

I am so confused.

A first of many random musings

2010-01-12T13:42:00.000-08:00

So I turned 30. Most of you already know this but I feel like I just figured it out. I realize I am 5 months late but I guess “better late than never”, right?

The weirdest thing for me about turning 30 is how un-30 I feel.

Maybe it’s because I’m not married or that I don’t have kids? Maybe it’s because I don’t have a mortgage and up until a month ago I had no real bills besides rent (I’ve added a car payment to that)? For a 30 year old I have a shocking lack of responsibility.

Or maybe it’s because I still get carded when I buy Dayquil, spray paint and R-rated movies?

Whatever the reason, I don’t feel like I thought I would. 30 always seemed so old and mature. Like really old. Really, really old.

I realize now that my 18-year-old eyes were limited and 30 really is the new 20. (Right? That’s what I keep hearing so it must be true)

What really got me thinking about this was a recent realization that my sister, Deanne – the married for 10+ years, has 4 children, sister; is only 3 years older than me.

Again, many of you already knew this. And I technically did know this too. But when you’re little, your older siblings seem so much older than you. Like decades older than you. It made sense for her to be married with 4 kids, have a mortgage and such because she was so much older than me.

But then I thought about it and was surprised to find out that 3 years is like nothing. 3 years is the difference between a Freshman and a Senior. It’s the difference between me and my best friend. It’s nothing. So as it turns out Deanne isn’t that much older than me.

This was a big realization.

I’m old.

I am not a young adult.

I am a regular adult.

This isn’t a post about how sad I am to not be married or how lonely I am, because I’m not.

It’s the realization that if someone 3 years older than me is old enough to be a real adult that I might be too.

I wish I could say I have no regrets from the last 30 years, but I do. A lot of them.

I can say proudly though, that given the chance I wouldn’t change them. They made me who I am and right now I’m pretty fond of that person.

I recently read a book by Donald Miller called “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”. After reading it I’m still not entirely sure what the title means, but I really liked the book. It talks about story, and story structure and how we can use it to make our own lives into better stories. I really recommend it for everyone.

It made me realize I wasn’t living a very good story because there was no real conflict or risk involved in my life. (See beginning about lack of responsibility) A lot of this was because of fear.

Fear of Failure.

Fear of Rejection.

Fear of Vulnerability.

Fear of Being Loved.

So I decided to make a change and make my life more meaningful.

I stopped complaining about not meeting new people and started going to a new church in Hollywood and met new people.

I (temporarily) moved back in with my parents so I could start saving money.

I started counseling to find out why my life was so ruled by fear.

It has only been about 2 months but I can feel the complacency floating back in. Miller recommends writing down a list of goals. Goals that will make you live a better story. I haven’t done this. I’m not a fan of lists as inspirational tools but I am also not a fan of completing things so maybe its time for a change.

Here is my official list of life altering goals. I thought I’d share them with other people and maybe it would encourage you to do the same.

--- My next 30 years ---

1) I want to be healthy inside and out

2) I want to care more about other people

3) I want to write every day, whether it’s a blog, a script or whatever.

4) I want to create without fear

5) I want to make the short I should have made 4 years ago

6) I want to turn that short into a feature

7) I want to date a lot more

8) I want to get Married

9) I want to adopt abused kids and give them a real home

And finally I feel like this is my real calling in life, my ultimate goal.

10) I want to make successful movies so that I can use that money and influence to rescue children and adults from slavery.

Mostly I just want my life to have mattered.

It's time that I be the adult that I am.

Weird things 3

2008-11-22T16:58:00.001-08:00

More random stuff I take pictures of

2008-11-21T12:56:00.001-08:00

Close up

Weird things I see and want to take pictures of

2008-11-21T11:50:00.001-08:00

So I was in a wendys bathroom and saw the most disgusting thing, a candy necklace in a pupple of water on the sink. The candy was starting to disolve and the colors were running.... It was gross. So I took a picture of it. I like of better as a picture than in real life.

दिर्टी Diana

2008-07-23T23:59:00.000-07:00

So I tried to title this Dirty Diana but blogger changed dirty to all ?. That's really funny. I guess its some sort of parental control or something (In case it does it again the title is a Michael Jackson song and something that happens to you when you roll around in DIRT) I never figured blogger for a prude.

Anyways I've been experimenting with my Diana+ camera. For those of you who don;t know what a Diana+ is it's a reissue of an old camera from the 70s ish that was a really cheap plastic camera that took amazing, upredictable pictures on 120 film. The reissue is not so cheap but still plastic and amazing. I was thinking of buying a Holga (I missed my old one) but stumbled across the Diana which is by the same people who make the Holga. It has a few more features and can be a pinhole camera. Here it is in all it's glory:

Anyway I've loved it with the 120 film (yes can you believe people still use film) but I've seen these really cool pictures taken with a Holga and 35mm film where the picture actually goes beyond the sprocket holes. I decided to try and modify my camera to take 35mm and it's been really fun. Anyway here are some results:

Anyways I'm pleased with them so far. I think they're interesting. I got a fisheye lens for it and I'm excited to see how that goes. I'll post more pictures when I get them.

Update

2008-07-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm moving to Fontana on Sunday. I guess you could say things just weren't working out in San Bernardino. The drive to work was much better but the drive to Flipside and my friends was killing me. So I am moving in with some other girls or I guess I'm old enough to start calling people women. I'm very nervous about it because one of the seems pretty anal but she's trying to pretend she's not. We'll see. The main reason I am moving is so I can live somewhere where it's actually my place and I am not just a guest there and so my dog can have a back yard. I've never lived with people I didn't know at all. We'll have to see if I spend all my time in my room. It's right next to the 15 though and my drive to work should be nothing. Yay for 5 minutes more of sleep.

I know this makes me a bad person....

2008-04-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

but I gotta know am I the only one who thinks David Archuleta sounds like Kermit the frog?

I know he's only 17 and singing so much makes you loose your voice but it seems to be his natural voice.

Maybe I'm the only one but I had to say it.

Something to Boggle on a Blogger

2008-04-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

So I've been looking into transfering LPs to MP3s, not for me but because people keep asking me if I can do it. So I am thinking of adding it to my services (3 years of film school and what I end up doing most transfering stuff ha ha) but I cannot for the life of me understand why people want it.

Now I can understand not wanting to re-buy all you albums and wanting them on your ipod. But from the pricing I've been doing it is about $10 at least per album which is the itunes price usually.

I know they used to have recordable records that people would make personal and family recordings on, so I get that, but are there that many albums out of print or do people really just refuse to buy all digital versions?

So if anyone out there could enlighten me on why on earth someone would want to transfer their entire record collection please let me know.

Website

2008-04-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hey I finally have a website up again check it out and tell me what you think

www.darlenephares.com

Just incase you haven't met yet

2008-04-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

Meet Dignan Stewart "drama queen" Phares

A sigh of relief

2008-04-05T01:09:00.000-07:00

OK So people always talked about how hard the first year of teaching is and as it turns out they were completely right. Add on top of it I spent almost an entire semester without equipment and I was really beginning to feel like I would have just as much success talking to a wall as my students.

Well we are almost halfway through second semester and half the students were working on an editing assignment and the other half a group music video. The music video students turned in their project this last week and I have to say I am quite proud of them. I posted the best of them below. None of them have taken a video class before and I feel a little conceit in my pride for them. Especially for the first video.

The Girl mostly behind it talked to me today about maybe going to college and getting a degree Film which is a big deal for her as college is neither expected or encouraged in the area. This is also a girl who begged me to let her do something different than the editing assignment they had for their final last semester because she was so frustrated with it. But she worked really hard and pushed past it and I really think it paid off. I finally feel as if I'm actually teaching them something. Anyways take a look.

Yo-Sem-Ite

2008-04-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

I know its been forever but these needed to be shared

Put your mouse over the picture for the caption

Carved Wood Bears are amazing

Free Blog Counter Rackham

For Deanne

2007-08-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

The rules
1. I have to list the rules first.
2. They need to be 8 random facts
3. I need to tag 8 people at the end.
4. Each person I tag needs to blog 8 facts about themselves.
5. Don't forget to let the tagged people know they have been tagged.

8 random facts about me:

Fact 1- I'm terrified of half man - half machines. You can thank a little Disney made for tv movie for that called Earthstar Voyager. I literally spent the majority of my adolescent nights terrified the space scavenger (see picture below) from that movie was going to come into my room at night. I was also terrified of the lady from Superman 2 (the one with richard pryer) who got covered in computer parts and also became half robot. 100% robots are fine, don't ask me why cause I have no idea.

Fact 2- The smell of most costumes make me want to throw up. Pretty much anything having to do with wigs, rubber masks, heavy costume make-up and especially fake blood. Whenever Halloween comes around I can't walk through any costumes store cause I freak out and going to the mall is a nightmare cause they are everywhere. And don't ever expect me to wear someones else's wig. The only way I can wear a wig is if its brand new and even then its a struggle for me. Just thinking about the smell and texture of fake blood right now is making me gag.

Fact 3- I go to almost all the midnight showings for movies I love the crazies who come out to see the movie and the energy is always amazing when we're watching the movie. I've only been one of the crazies twice. I dressed up as a star wars character when Episode 2 was released and went to the midnight showing. It was fun and me and my friends were the only girls dressed up and we were a big hit. I also wear Harry Potter memorabilia (hats, jackets, etc) every time one of those movies come out too.

Fact 4- All my close friends are either 25 or 28 and there are about 8 or nine of us evenly split between 25 and 28. The only exception is Brad. He's the baby at 21.

Fact 5- My biggest pet peeve is when someone finds out that there are 4 girls in my family they often respond with," your poor father." Why cause he has me as a daughter? That's what you're saying so maybe think before you say that.

Fact 6- I love to peel things. This goes especially for the plastic that comes on new electronics but extends to paint, nail polish, wrappers on bottles, tape, stickers, skin (not just my own), pretty much anything. I'm a little OCD about it. Once I start I can't stop until there are no more flaps. I one time peeled a very large section of paint off a wall in a bathroom of somewhere that I won't mention. I just couldn't stop

Fact 7 - I narrate/sing my life to myself. examples: "I have to go the store.... toBuySomeMilk" and Cambria's favorite " I like to set myself up-- for disapointment". If I get comfortable enough around you I will start doing it in front of you.

Fact 8- I have over 4000 songs on my iPod and over 300 CDs but I don't really like music that much. I only really listen to it in the car. I think I just like having things.

I'm going to tag:
Cambria - you know you wanna
Curtis - you know you don't have anything better to do
Matt - I can't leave you out
Biedy -I don't think you have ever blogged time to start
Brad - see curtis
Kim - cause I wanna know
Terry - why not?
You

Dontcha Wish your Friends were Hot Like Mine?

2006-10-31T07:02:00.000-08:00

Even though I couldn't find a skirt and had to make one out of felt and I had to dye my turtle neck 3 times and it was the most strssful costume I've ever had this picture was worth it. We were awesome and it was my absolute favorite costume I've ever done. I'm not gonna lie I spent the last few weeks thinking of picture posses and being really excited.

Here's a group pic and yes that is a whoopee cushion.

Peer Pressure aka Everyone else is doing it

2006-10-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

I got one of these things cause everyone else seems to have one. Including half my family, so we'll see if I use it for anything else besides leaving comments for the fam.

Although they block myspace at work but they don't block this. Hmmm maybe I will be using it ha ha.