dude, what time is it?

I'm supposed to be writing a story. I have a deadline.

I actually am writing the story, but I can't work in succession. I have to do a couple paragraphs and stop. It's a process that goes on for hours, and it's annoying, but it works for me, and I'm too nervous to change the system up. The breaks can be short--like a couple of minutes--or they can last for a couple of hours, but the good thing is, no matter how long the break, I return to my work with the same amount of momentum.

I'm on a break now.

The last break lasted about two hours and during which I watched a pretty damn good film called Maria Full of Grace. It's about a 17-year-old girl, Maria, who lives in a town outsided of Bogata, Colombia, and works in a plantation where she pulls thorns off of roses. A lot of her money goes to help her family. But Maria hates working at the plantation and quits her job, and soon later, she finds out that she's pregnant. Trying to make a better life for herself, she hitches a ride to Bogata and ends up being offered a job as a mule, transporting cocaine, which she has to swallow in latex pellets, to the US. The movie's really stark at times, but it can be very uplifting. A nice thing about the film is that many of the actors were first-timers, and the most impressive by far was the Catalina Sandino Moreno, the 23-year-old Colombian-born actress who played Maria.



Clearly, she's stunning, and she did a really good job playing very dramatic scenes in a natural, subtle fashion. I wasn't totally sold on the importance on one of the main characters, and some of the film wraps up a bit too tidy, though after listening to the commentary (I was really procrastinating), I understand why the director chose to do so. In any case, it's a wonderful film if for no other reason, it introduces an actress who's bound to be a big star in the States and abroad.

Break's over.