Postsecret review 3

I think I missed last week's; whoops. Anyways, here is this week's. 

"I hope I don't have to lie to my family about my reasons for going back to Iraq." See, now this one is interesting. It leaves a bit to the imagination and is about a somewhat unique subject matter. The postcard that this secret is on has a stamp that reads "Marine Corps Post Office May 30" so that's interesting.. I do wonder about this (presumably a guy) person's reasons for going back to Iraq. My first thought was that perhaps they have a death wish and hope that by going back to Iraq, they'll get killed in the war. Just typing that out, I now realize how morbid that sounds. But hey, maybe that's the reason. Who knows! Since they are worried that they might have to lie to their family about it. Or, perhaps they seek redemption somehow and they think that by going back to Iraq, they'll be able to get it. That's a movie-worthy idea right there. So yeah, this one was an interesting secret. 

"When I see cyclists in the middle of the road on my way to CHURCH... I'm tempted to KNOCK them down! <GET OUT THE WAY>" Well, that's not a very spiritual thing to think about, desiring to run into cyclists on the road... Doesn't the Bible say "Thou shalt not kill"?? I wonder if this person realized the irony in their secret. 

"One of the reasons I've never had kids is I'm afraid I might be like my mom and leave them." The reason I don't want to have kids is because I think they're annoying and a hassle. Cats are much more my speed since they mostly can entertain/take care of themselves, you just have to feed them and stuff. 

"My student wrote me a letter of thanks because I helped him believe in himself. I felt like a failure because his letter had grammar and punctuation mistakes." I like this one too. It's unique and I can understand that this teacher would feel disappointed about the grammar and punctuation mistakes. But I guess it's a good thing that the student now believes in himself? Maybe he'll learn proper grammar and punctuation somewhere along the way later in life. 

"I think most adults are kind of boring... but they don't have to be." I don't really get what this is possibly implying. To me, I think what it could imply is the way that adults can cease to be boring is by having (inappropriate) relationships with teenagers. Probably because of the premises of some things that I either am watching or plan to watch being on my mind. Personally, I don't think I'd say that most adults are kind of boring. You can't truly know if someone is boring or not without getting to know them a little bit. Just by looking at someone, you can't know if they're boring or not. Which for some reason is now making me think about online dating. I guess some of the average looking/below average looking people could potentially be interesting, but I'm looking for someone to date (and who therefore should be good looking), not just someone who's interesting but not good looking.. 

That's it for my review of this week's secrets. Sorry I missed last week's. 

Book recommendations

Eyelashes guy (remember him??) made a video in which he gave some summer book recommendations, which I thought was interesting. Some of the books he recommended were about Ronald Reagan, which I'm not interested in reading about, but some of the others seemed like they might be good. Anyways, it made me think about which books I would recommend for summer reading. In the video, eyelashes guy mentioned that he tried to stay away from books that were too heavy/depressing. Personally, I have no such qualms about reading a book like that at any time of year, I think. 

I haven't exactly read a ton of books lately, and it wouldn't be bad if I read more, so I'm sort of at a loss for a large quantity of books to recommend. Not Heart of Darkness, at least. That book was awful, and I don't understand why anyone would enjoy it. I think a book by David Sedaris could be interesting, even though I've never read a full book of his, only a couple of essays from them (A Plague of Tics and Me Talk Pretty One Day, respectively). 

Also something I have not read, but possibly things that Noam Chomsky has written could be interesting. He's written about linguistics and sociological topics. Sometimes I think about theoretically becoming the next Noam Chomsky. 

Something I am in the process of reading (as it's very long): The Andy Warhol Diaries. Andy Warhol had an interesting style of writing and I think the book gives a good insight into his life and how things were like at that time for him. It's too bad he died. I'm not sure how old he'd be if he were still alive - he might be an improbable age so if that's the case I understand him being dead. 

I wish Anderson would write a new book about his journalism career, covering the last decade or so since the last one.If he writes such a book I'd be sure to recommend it. He did write a new-ish book within the last couple of years, but it mostly focuses on him and his mother and their relationship. 

Also, as for books that were all the rage ~10 years ago, the Millennium trilogy is a great series. Seeing as they were very popular a number of years ago, I'm not sure that there are a lot of people who haven't read those books, or at least the first one. Regardless, if you haven't, I would highly recommend them. I personally thought they were brilliant, but I guess they might not be for everyone. If you like mysteries and intrigue and Scandinavian settings, you would probably enjoy this series. I have yet to find anything comparable to it. 

As I said, I haven't been reading that much lately, so I don't have too many books to recommend. One of the other things I'm currently reading is what I guess you'd call a report. It's the report on Stanley Milgram's obedience study, which I decided to read after seeing the movie in which Peter Sarsgaard (of course) played Milgram. It was a nice little movie. I'm glad I took a chance and watched it. 

Life advices

Some thoughts on the premises/scenarios of some of the things that Peter Sarsgaard has been in.

Firstly, there's this one movie that I haven't yet watched, but would like to watch, where he plays a 30 something man who begins a relationship of sorts with a 16 year old girl. It made me think about the idea of 30 something men dating 16 year old girls. Personally, I don't condone such a thing because I think it's kind of (or a lot) weird and I also would not get myself into such a situation. I'm somewhat older than 16, but I still wouldn't date a 30 year old. No way. I think that there are so many ways that something like that can go wrong/badly. So in general it's probably a bad idea.  (although I'm not saying that it necessarily goes badly in this particular movie, just that such a situation very well could) I'm glad that when I was 16 I did not get involved with a 30 year old and I'm glad that I'm not getting involved with one now, either. At present, I would only date someone who is a couple of years older than me, at most. Older than that I think would be weird. Obviously, other people may have other standards for this kind of thing, but that's my personal rule. I do kind of wonder what it would be like to get involved with someone a great deal older than me, but not enough to actually try it. (and, while we're on this topic, so many people on the online dating website are so ugly) 

The second one is a tv drama (possibly leaning more towards soap opera in terms of the amount of drama - granted, I don't watch this genre of show that much and the only reason I'm watching this one is because of Peter Sarsgaard) where Peter plays a father who is married, and just had his 40th birthday party, during which something happens that will disrupt the lives of all the people involved (his friends and family, and also himself, it seems). The events that I watched happen in just the first episode reminded me of the things I read about in advice columns, like the one Slate.com has and the two that are in the Washington Post, to give you an idea of the kinds of interpersonal conflicts occurring in the show. Getting to the point, the guy that Peter plays (his name is Hector, which to me sounds Hispanic, but this Hector is of Greek descent) is having an affair with the babysitter. He vows to stop the affair in the first episode and the babysitter agrees, but I have a feeling that promise falls through, and my prediction is that his marriage will fall apart as the show progresses. I wonder if I'm right about that.. 

The general idea of this post can be boiled down to two rules to live life by, probably*: Don't get involved with men twice your age (at least while you're still a teenager) and, if you're a 40 something married man with a family, don't get involved with the babysitter. Tsk tsk.

*I don't speak from experience, just from what I would consider to be common sense.  

Edit: as I continue to watch the show (assuming I don't get bored of it), I think it could be interesting to write fictional advice column inquiries from the perspectives of the characters. For example: (I'm sure I've read something along the lines of this before in an advice column, actually) "I love my wife, we have two children together, but I am having an affair wit the babysitter. I know I shouldn't, but my wife doesn't know [yet] and it's such a breath of fresh air to be with someone else every so often." 
Imagine that! 

To watch or not

(or, Even More About Peter Sarsgaard [can you believe it?])

Since naturally I would like to watch more things that Peter Sarsgaard has been in, the only thing left to decide is which particular things I want to watch. Which got me to thinking about my criteria for selecting such things (this goes for other actors as well)

• Main role? If yes, I'm more likely to watch.
• Facial hair/otherwise unappealing appearance? If yes, I'm probably going to be a little more hesitant
• Interesting character? If yes, that's good
• Genre/subject matter: I'm not into superhero stuff or western movies and I prefer dramas that are unique and/or thought provoking. Crime related stuff can be interesting as well. War movies... I like and dislike them at the same time... 

That's pretty much it, I think. These criteria have guided my choices for what I've already watched with him in it and is also why I'm not going to watch that western movie that I was previously unaware that Leonardo DiCaprio had been in, or Vincent's role in a Netflix tv series based on a comic book superhero. I am so sick of the superhero stuff that's been popular these last few years, for the record.  

On another related subject matter, I've read that Peter Sarsgaard is apparently similar to this other actor, John Malkovich, who I'm not really familiar with. In fact, Peter has been described as being a young(er) version of John Malkovich. So I took a look (and a listen) for myself. I do think they kind of have similar voices, and I guess they look similar enough to more or less convincingly play a father and son (which I think maybe they have? I'd have to check*). Apparently, John Malkovich is known for playing creepy/etc characters and Peter has also played his fair share of murderous/etc characters. So I suppose that influenced people to think they're similar. Apparently some people consider them both to have creepy voices. Which I guess I can kind of see why people might think that, but I don't consider Peter's voice to be creepy - I quite like it in fact. It's interesting and soft in the way that Vincent's (regular) voice is like that. I wish I had a better way of conveying what I mean than describing their voices as "soft" because I don't mean soft as in quiet. I mean it as in... not rough, I guess. Maybe smooth is a better word? But for some reason soft feels like it fits better. The way that he talks is just lovely. It's soft and Peter has a nice way of enunciation (or something. I think that's what I mean); it has a certain crispness to it. Like good (not squishy) grapes. I made the grapes comparison because the grapes at the grocery store today were a little too squishy for my tastes. 

I came across this quote from an interview he did: "It doesn't sound like a normal person's voice, whatever that is. I wouldn't be chosen to sell cereal on TV." I guess I would agree that his voice isn't like a normal person's, in that I don't often find people's voices as ear-catching as I did his when I happened to watch a movie he was in. However, I would certainly not mind if he did actually sell cereal on tv. I don't even like cereal. It's so bland, and the ones with flavor have too much sugar and I was only ever allowed to eat them on vacation, and the habit has stuck and I don't feel like I'm supposed to eat, say, Froot Loops, on any old random day. In any case, if Peter were to sell cereal on tv, I think some kind of more upper end/elite feeling cereal would be fitting. So not Cheerios, they're too mundane/plain (to me at least; maybe that's only because it's the cereal of choice in the house). Maybe something like Kashi brand cereal, which my mother used to eat in the past. If it were up to me, I'd have him sell cereal on tv. Which is now making me think about cereal ads.... and lactose intolerance. I'm glad I'm not lactose intolerant because (whole, or at least 2%) milk is tasty. I would drink half and half in place of milk, willingly. Skim milk just tastes so watery. 
Here is a link to the entire interview, which I thought was quite interesting and he comes across well in it - thoughtful and what not. Another quote he says is "I feel like I'm an attractive man." It's good to know that he has decent self esteem. 

* They have! And it was in some movie that I watched a long-ish time ago, but don't really remember what happened in. Just that Leonardo DiCaprio was in it, which is why I watched it at that time. Naturally I decided to go back and rewatch it with an eye for some other actors, the ones mentioned here. The movie is The Man in the Iron Mask, and Peter's character only lasts the first half hour (out of slightly over 2 hours total movie time). The movie is about "The former musketeer Athos (John Malkovich) swears vengeance after despotic King Louis XIV (Leonardo DiCaprio) causes the death of his son. Summoning his old comrades Porthos (Gérard Depardieu) and Aramis (Jeremy Irons), he hatches a plan to liberate a shackled prisoner rumored to be the king's twin brother, and then install him on the throne." (from google since I'm too lazy to summarize it in my own words)

Leonardo plays the king, and Peter has a minor-ish role as the son of one of the musketeers. He has silly looking long floppy hair (as do all of the other male characters, since it takes place in 18th century France. Leo for one has long wavy dirty blonde hair, which I'm sort of envious of actually) but it's still kind of cute in a silly way. Coupled with the ornate men's clothing that was in fashion at the time. I can really hear the similarities between his and John Malkovich's voices in this movie as their characters are father and son. Anyways I only watched the first half hour for now but I'd still be kind of interested in seeing what happens in the rest of the movie to refresh my memory. The hairstyle that Peter had in this movie reminded me of a few of James D'Arcy's roles where he had long hair. In fact, Peter in this movie looked fairly similar to James here, although is hair was slightly longer, but not as long as Leo's. Here also, which I think is a bit closer in length. And I finally found a picture of Peter in the movie so you can see (or at least compare and attempt to see) the similarities to the pictures of James. Peter's hair is a little bit lighter than James' though. I think I do have a type, eh?? 

I found this interesting blog post with a little commentary about the fashions/costume design in the movie.

Also, I know I used "apparently" a lot in that one section. This blog isn't exactly meant to be the epitome of my writing talents, just a mostly coherent (b)log of the things that come to my mind.

And anyways, while we're at it (and I probably will be 'at it', meaning fawning over Peter Sarsgaard, for the foreseeable immediate future), I'd like to comment on some various tweets regarding Peter. The sources shall remain anonymous but you're free to go and search and try to find them on your own. 

• "has no other movie cast John Malkovich and Peter Sarsgaard as father and son? Their weird voices make perfect harmony." Interesting, but I don't really think their voices are weird.
• "I once had to see a therapist because I was OBSESSED with a guy who looked like Peter Sarsgaard. he worked in a video store :/" I don't blame her. Hopefully I don't get to that point.
• "Peter Sarsgaard has such a sinister looking face but then if he smiles it's like nothing bad could happen" Again I wouldn't consider him to be naturally sinister looking. I guess the only things these people have watched of him are the roles in which he played a sinister character. On that note, I wonder if people consider a psychologist who does somewhat (but not terrible, in my opinion) unethical social experiments to be sinister? I don't, but perhaps other people might see it that way.

Also, as a closing thought, I think I put a lot of care (and effort, and my thoughts) into my blog posts, and I hope it shows. I also kind of hope it doesn't make me come across as a crazy person, but if it does, so be it. 

Also also, I think a more accurate and in-the-moment title for my blog currently would be "Fawning over Peter Sarsgaard, for the most part" but I'm going to resist the urge to change it to that. 

*sigh*

I was having dinner tonight and I was trying not to look too weird because of my recent infatuation (which is really the only fitting way describe it) with Peter Sarsgaard. What I mean by "trying not to look too weird" is that he's a large part of what I've been thinking about (I don't want to say "all I can think about", because I am thinking of some other things as well, believe it or not) these past few days or so. What comes with this is some funky facial expressions on my part (they're supposed to express happiness/satisfaction about having found someone whose appearance I would like to look at, and also whose voice I would like to hear say things), and contented sighing. Cheesy, I know. So hence, "trying not to look too weird" about it all since I was around my family members and I don't need them asking about this. I'd rather keep it to myself. I think/hope maybe in a few days I'll be able to cool it a little bit regarding this. It's enjoyable and all, but I also feel like I'm just absolutely going crazy over him (in a mostly good, harmless way, but still). I'm pretty sure I was more or less like this back when I was getting into Law and Order and Vincent's performance as Detective Goren. Also eyelashes guy on CNN. So this is far from unprecedented.  

So then the thought came to me that at least he's a decent person and he's not super weird looking like, say, Marilyn Manson, and he's also not a despicable person like Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Bill O'Reilly, Mike Pence, Adolf Hitler, etc. In that light, it seems quite acceptable/reasonable to be like this about him. Better him than one of those other people I just listed. I'm just waiting till I have a strange dream starring him. I wonder what that'll be like. I certainly have been thinking about him enough that I could see it happening for him to show up in a dream. (Edit: as of June 12, I have not dreamed about him yet that I remember, but I did dream last night about Jared Leto...)

Which then led me to wonder if there are people out there that find the men I've listed under despicable persons to be attractive. I feel like it's definitely possible but it's also a freaky idea to think about. Let's say there are two different subsets: finding them physically attractive but not liking them as people, and finding them physically attractive while liking them as people as well. Both subsets are still a strange idea to fathom, but I can somewhat understand the first one slightly. The second one... yikes. 

Anyways, I would like to see what people have to say about this, so I googled "Donald Trump is attractive"... my comments on what I've found coming up! Firstly though I would like to hypothesize that it's more likely that Trump supporters would find Donald Trump to be physically attractive. Also as you can see this post fits in nicely with my recent shallowness related posts. 

Exhibit 1: here is a Slate article from February of last year (unintentional reference) so it's sort of outdated, but I still think there could be some interesting information contained within. One of the quotes so far: "whatever Trump's appeal, it's not of a sexual variety"
And: Melania "has declared him the 'sexiest man in the world,'" which is frightening to think about. 
So far, this article seems to be about what I was looking for. It quotes an evolutionary psychologist who says that the notable physical characteristics of Donald Trump are not objectively/scientifically attractive, and that it's more likely that women are attracted to his status and prestige. So basically because he's rich, they're attracted to him. But money can't buy good looks (at least past a certain extent/amount of plastic surgery). 
In 1976 an article about Donald Trump described him as "tall, lean and blond." You can be tall, lean and blonde but still be ugly. Although he probably did look ever so slightly less bad back then. But not good looking by any means in my opinion. 

Exhibit 2: Now an article from Vice, published in March 2016, so still not super current either. It has some interviews with a number of people who find Donald Trump to be attractive. It opens with saying that "Donald Trump is an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in cash" which is a fair enough description. 

One of the women interviewed for this article said: "I like tall men with broad shoulders." Okay, fine, but there are a ton of tall men with broad shoulders who aren't Donald Trump. "I want to feel protected with a man. Donald comes off as physically imposing, but approachable in his interviews." More like appalling... 
"I also really love his teeth, even if they are veneers." ... Interesting that she mentioned teeth, but it's Donald Trump we're talking about, and his teeth are fake, and he's Donald Trump. I like someone who has nice real teeth (guess who!) and is also a decent person, as opposed to Donald Trump.
She says that his "success and ability to project confidence" is more important than his fame and money... uh, okay. I guess what I see as being completely oblivious, this lady takes as projecting confidence... 
Then she concludes that Donald Trump suffers from rosacea and that's why he has the fake tan. I'm really curious as to how she came to that conclusion about the rosacea. And about his hair: "I don't really have any problem with the hair. I actually kind of like it." No comment.
She says that she "understands" that Donald Trump is nicer when he's not on camera. I find that somewhat hard to believe. She says that even if he weren't rich, she would think that he's hot. Again, I have no words. 

Another woman who was interviewed: "He's really cute, with his little boy face." This is just... a strange comment all around. This lady also says "I think he looks great. He's 6'3", with his wide shoulders, beautiful skin, those blue eyes. It's all there. And he walks like a man walks!" WTF is all that I can say here. Especially about the "beautiful skin" part. "He knows what he wants and how to get it, and that's alluring." Okay, I sort of understand that, I guess. Although if we look at how he's been doing as president, I don't think he's quite as good at getting what he wants as one might think. 

In this article, there was a link to another article where someone photoshopped Donald Trump to try and make him look better. The result is... freaky. I would say it looks like Liev Schreiber a little bit, but that's probably doing a disservice to Liev Schreiber. 

Anyways, speaking of Donald Trump appearance related things, I saw a police officer today whose hair reminded me of Donald Jr and/or Eric Trump. I wonder if the police officer got a hairstyle like that on purpose to resemble the Trump sons. If so, yikes. Although it's possible that maybe he didn't and it's just an unfortunate coincidence. This guy also had a sleeve tattoo, which I wasn't aware was allowed for the local police officers. But apparently it is. In terms of police officers I've seen, he wasn't exactly appealing due to the haircut and the sleeve tattoo. Sorry, random police officer guy. 

I thought that looking this up was... sort of enlightening/insightful, but in an unpleasant way. The fact that some people find him attractive... eek! And I'm totally just going crazy over Peter Sarsgaard at the moment. I really, really am. 

Edit: Today I watched MSNBC for a change and there was a little segment on how Melania is finally moving to the White House. Which got me wondering how on earth she can be (or at least, was in the past, since currently their relationship seems like it might be kind of frosty) attracted to him. Yikes! (again) 

Actors, again

(or, "A shallowfest")
So apparently I am on a shallowness kick and therefore I wanted to know about what other people (women) think about various actors; namely, who their favorites are and all that. I thought of a good place where I might be able to find such information (after considering asking random women at the grocery store, I came upon a simpler method) for my reading pleasure - Reddit. r/askwomen specifically. 

What follows will be my commentary (based on looking at the first results in google images for the ones whose appearances I'm not familiar with) about the actors that I see mentioned in the things that came up. Fun, eh? ** For the best experience reading this post, I recommend that you have a google images tab at the ready so you too can look up the names of the actors whose appearances you're not familiar with. **

• Tom Hardy: Meh. Very facially hairy it seems - not my type. Kind of looks similar to David Beckham, I think. Maybe a bit like Channing Tatum as well.
• Michael Fassbender: Better than Tom Hardy. Decent. Probably on a George Clooney level for me in terms of looks minus my aversion to George Clooney for reasons I've mentioned before. He looks a little like the actor who plays Owen Hunt on Grey's Anatomy (I want to know what happens!! I can't wait until fall.. !!) 
• Sebastian Stan: I'm kind of familiar with him in that I know what he looks like. I think he looks kind of like Misha Collins. Also decent looking, I'd say, but not on the level of my personal favorite actors. Maybe if I watched some things with these various actors in them I might begin to like their appearances more. Who knows! 
• Jamie Dornan: He's the guy from 50 Shades of Grey. I sort of know what he looks like. I guess he didn't particularly stun me or I'd have a stronger (positive) opinion on him. Also decent, I guess. 
• Chris Evans: Looks kind of like Tom Hardy. So what I said about him applies here too.
• Henry Cavill: Looks like Matt Bomer and/or Ian Somerhalder. Dark hair and light eyes is a nice combination, usually. I'd say he's on the higher end of decent.
• Someone mentioned Colin Farrell, who I coincidentally covered in a previous post. Meh.
• Alexander Skarsgaard: he's Swedish, so that's fun. Not super familiar with his appearance though. On a search, he ever so somewhat slightly reminds me of Jesse Spencer, an Australian actor who had a role in House MD.
• Andy Whitfield: some how I've heard of him. Looked him up. Meh. His face is too square, or something, for me. (Apparently he's dead and has been for 6 years, fyi)
• Aidan Turner: He's Irish. He kind of reminds me of a mix between Russell Brand and Ezra Miller, but the result is somewhat more visually appealing than I find either of those actors. Decent. He has similar coloring to Cillian Murphy or Colin Morgan, I think.
• Tom Hiddleston: I kind of forgot about him, but I think he's good looking.
• Ewan McGregor: Hmm.. not bad, but not stunning either. Decent, I guess. He somewhat looks like a lighter haired version of Tom Cruise, a little bit.
• Oscar Isaac: He looks very Mediterranean/Hispanic. Decent, I guess, but not really my type. Not delicate enough for me, I guess.
• The guy from that show I was watching (who played the detective with a southern accent): He played an interesting character, but I'm not exactly sure I'd say he was highly attractive looking. Maybe if he shaved off the facial hair. 
• Ezra Miller: like I've mentioned in the past, I think his eyes are too far up on his head/his cheeks are too long. Though someone commented "He's just so pretty" which is what I'm currently thinking not about Ezra Miller, but about Peter Sarsgaard. 
• Chris Hemsworth: points for being Australian, I'd say, but not really my type. He's not ugly, though.
• (surprised I haven't seen George Clooney yet! My mother thinks George Clooney is good looking) 
• James (not D'Arcy) McAvoy: he kind of looks like a weirder version of Peter Sarsgaard, if anyone else sees that... He's decent looking. Nothing to write home blog posts about though. (well, I might write a blog post about him but only in relation to how I think he looks like a weirder version of Peter Sarsgaard)
• Kit Harington: Lotta hair on that guy. Not my type (although it's not necessarily because of the hair).
• I've also not yet seen Leo mentioned, which surprises me a little bit. 
• Jared Leto: I've written about him before. He looked decent in Requiem for a Dream but I don't think I'm really a fan of him outside of that.
• Mads Mikkelsen: Kind of surprised to see him mentioned, for some reason. He's quite interesting looking and has a cool European/Danish accent. 
• Ryan Reynolds: looks kind of like Adam Levine, a little. I think his eyes are a little too close together though and his face is kind of long.
• Ryan Gosling: see above, although he looks less like Adam Levine, probably because he has lighter hair.
• Bradley Cooper: I kind of forgot what he looked like but he's actually kind of interesting looking. Nice blue irises. Sort of Patrick Dempsey-esque. He's good-looking but I don't have a particular affinity for him.
• Also wondering if I'll see anyone mention Patrick Dempsey. My mother likes his appearance too. He is from Maine.
• Adrien Brody: ... he's kind of freaky looking.
• Ronan Farrow (he's actually a journalist - he's really young: 29!): not bad, decent but a little generic looking for my tastes, I think.
• Brad Pitt: interesting to see him show up. I think he's a perfectly decent actor, but I don't have a particular affinity for his appearance. According to something I read in a celebrity gossip magazine last night at the grocery store, he's an alcoholic which is what contributed to the demise of his marriage.
• Josh Duhamel: Like a mix of... Matt Damon and Tom Cruise, I think. Something thereabouts. 
• Finally someone mentioned Leo(nardo DiCaprio)! I think he's good looking (in some cases, at least) and he's a good actor as well. 
• David Tennant: Doctor Who! I can understand that. He has an interesting Scottish accent (although he didn't use it when he played the Doctor).
• Charlie Hunnam: he looks like he would be a hockey player. Speaking of which, I looked up Alex Ovechkin who is an actual hockey player and the only one I know by name. He plays for the local hockey team and he's Russian.
• Ian Somerhalder: I've never watched the show that he was (is still?) on but from what I've seen of him he's decently good looking. Kind of like Patrick Dempsey, but younger.
• Jesse Spencer: "as Dr. Chase in House. That accent. I think that's one of the main reasons I watched that show, and why I stopped after he was no longer a regular."
• Norman Reedus: I know that he's on a zombie show but I don't think he's good looking. He's weird looking. 
• Robert Sean Leonard: he's nice looking and his character was a pleasure to see on House MD. "He's insanely hot in Dead Poets Society and the boyish charm thing in House just gets me bonkers."
• Grant Gustin: ... aka, The Flesh Flash (ugh). Not bad looking, but very generic looking. Very much so.
• Chris Meloni: (Elliot from SVU - do I need to say more?) 
• Jason Bateman: I can only see him as Michael from Arrested Development. He's a good kind of average looking.
• Hugh Dancy: Decent. And if I put myself to it I could probably watch the entirety of NBC's Hannibal, which he was in along with Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal.
• Jake Gyllenhaal: Meh. Not really my type.
• Jason Momoa: Eek. Definitely not my type.
• WOw!! Someone mentioned James D'Arcy! That surprised me because I don't think he's particularly well known. But he is very good looking. 
• Colin Morgan: he reminds me of Ben Whishaw in terms of physique.
• Andrew Garfield: is to Ben Whishaw as Mark Ruffalo is to Vincent D'Onofrio, in terms of looking similar-ish and my preference between them.
• Matt Damon: for some reason I see his as being similar to Tom Hanks. Probably something about how they have very 'American' looks/essences to them, if that makes sense.
• Jason Statham: If Matt Damon didn't play Jason Bourne, this guy looks like he'd fit that role well. I found this weird article while searching him...
• Hugo Weaving: he's... interesting looking. And looks like a mix of some people I can't quite figure out.
• James Franco: looks like a mix of Joseph Gordon Levitt and someone with fluffy hair. Pick your someone.
• Joe Manganiello: too muscly and stuff for me. Definitely not my type.
• Michael Cera: .... 

Still no mention of Patrick Dempsey, which surprised me a bit. A number of mentions of Alexander Skarsgaard but none of Peter Sarsgaard (no relation) which doesn't surprise me really because he's not that well known.  

Now, on to actors from a post that asks which ones women just don't get everyone's obsession with. I assume there might be some overlap with the ones I've already commented on.

• Ryan Gosling: Fair enough.
• Ryan Gosling again, plus Ryan Reynolds (see previous comment)
• Channing Tatum: Fair enough. He's "too muscly" and according to one person, "looks like a girly version of my brother," which is... interesting/amusing.
• Matthew McConaughey: there's someone new. He looks kind of like.. a pointier version of Patrick Dempsey.. not really my type, but not horrible looking. Meh.
• Christian Bale: Looks kind of like the previous guy. Eh.
• George Clooney: Interesting. I think he's good looking so I do get why people would also think that. I don't need to mention what I also think about him as a person.
• Brad Pitt: He is actually a decent actor, I'd say, even if I'm not fawning over his face/voice/other aspects.
• Jude Law: he definitely looks odd in some pictures.
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt: eyes are too close together and he looks like he's smirking in a lot of pictures which may or may not be intentional but regardless isn't a particularly good look. 

That's the end of that thread! Onto a new one. I think there was one about unconventional looking actors so I'll try to see what people have to say there.

• Hugh Grant: he is kinda old and looks like a mix of Seth Meyers, Bill Clinton and Ben Stiller.
• Liev Schrieber: he looks like Jude Law, a little bit??
• Vladimir Putin: !!!! (comment was from a year ago, though, so the context was maybe a little bit different)
• Cillian Murphy: definitely unconventional looking, but in a good way.
• Julian Assange: well, that's different...
• Jerry Orbach: Law and Order *dun dun* 
• Vincent (first name basis!): (also Law and Order [CI], for that matter)"Vincent D'Onofrio was a big one for me for many years until he creeped me out in an interview he did. I think it's that he's tall and kinda evil looking, I guess?" I definitely don't see Vincent as being evil looking. He's a dear. 
• Colin Firth: I don't think he's that unconventional looking?? He's nice looking either way.
• David Bowie: ... definitely weird looking and the only time he looks decent (even good looking, actually) is in some movie he was in, The Man Who Fell to Earth. I have no idea why he looks good there but everything else he looks weird in.
• Mark Ruffalo: not too unconventional, but I guess maybe it's because he's not as well known as some actors.
• Anderson Cooper: Anderson! I've liked him for years (although he's a journalist and not an actor). If I end up becoming a journalist myself, it's because of him, definitely. 
• Mads Mikkelsen: "Stupid sexy cannibal. I've sat through dozens of Danish, German, and Icelandic films to see his weird yet oddly attractive face." 
• Johnny Depp: "I just don't find him attractive until he's a drunken pirate." 
• Robert Downey Jr.: I don't really like the way he looks. He looks kind of like a rodent of some sort. 
• Tom Cruise (in Interview with the Vampire): !!!! Remember I did a post about this??? 

And with that, I feel like I've pretty much covered it all... whoa. What a ride. What fun! This post is so, so long. I can entertain myself pretty well, which is basically what this post is a form of. And I was kinda trying to distract myself from a certain topic. 

Also, here is a smattering of other interesting posts that I came across while perusing r/askwomen: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskWomen/comments/4wxeei/how_often_do_you_see_people_who_are_reasonably/ 

One that asked "Do you think a world where every man fit your ideal of 'attractive' would be a better place?" a) I would become a polygamist. A very poly polygamist. b) they could still be awful as people, but at least they'd be easy on the eyes. I'd probably not get anything done, ever. I'd just want to look at them.

Movie review: Shattered Glass

I am on a roll! Next on the list of Peter Sarsgaard movies, since it seemed the most appealing/interesting, was Shattered Glass. It has to do with journalism, which seemed more interesting than say, mobsters. And I think he had a bigger role in this movie than in the mobster movie. 

It took place at a magazine in Washington DC, and in the beginning of the movie there were some exterior establishing shots of DC which I thought were interesting because it's interesting to see places you've been in movies. I'm not sure if the magazine still exists. I had never known before about the events that this movie was based off of, so it was kind of enlightening on that front. I just did some googling and apparently it does still exist. I guess it's not as well known as Time or Newsweek, etc. I wonder if I can find it in the magazine section at the grocery store. 

I enjoyed (unsurprisingly) Peter's performance in this movie. It was a good performance and the subject matter (journalism) was also one of particular interest to me. He was measured but intense in this movie. It was nice. No strange accents or facial hair either. He played the editor of the magazine the movie takes place at. The movie had an interesting tension to it, I thought. The lesson to take from it/the events depicted in it is that you shouldn't make things up if you're a journalist. Hmm. That reminds me of how Brian Williams, who used to do the Nightly News on NBC but has now been replaced, made some things up about when he covered the war in the middle east. That happened a couple of years ago and he got replaced by Lester Holt. Although recently it seems like he's managed to claw his way back from that scandal, since he now is on MSNBC and I've seen his picture in magazine advertisements for MSNBC. I was kind of surprised that NBC didn't just write him off completely and not let him have any kind of new job like he does now. I wonder if he misses doing the nightly news. It's kind of a shame that those things had to happen to him. But I guess it's his own fault. 

5 things down, many more to go. Although I'm going to try to focus it on things that he has a more significant role in, rather than things that he's only in one scene. 

Also, I just had a new idea. If I become a movie director and I want to make a journalism related movie, I'll set it in what is now the current day. I think that could be interesting and should be far enough in the past by the time that I theoretically become a movie director.