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It amazes me how many movies will have a small note somewhere in the credits, “based on the novel by…” It seems that a very good percentage of the best movies started out as books. I can think of a few off the top of my head: Lord of the Rings, the Notebook, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Pride and Prejudice, and that epic series about that boy wizard (we all know who I mean).

It also amazes me how many people whine and complain when the movie differs from the book in any way, shape, or form. Yeah, the book is going to be better. It’s the original… worded exactly how it was supposed to be. Or maybe you imagined this character or that to look completely different. I guess that’s sometimes the case, especially with classics and best-sellers.

There’s been a lot of movies, though, that are based off of books I’d never heard about, and caused me to later look for the book and read it… and it seems like those lesser-known books are made into movies that people don’t tend to complain as much about.

Do you think the book is usually better? Is there any book-turned-movie in which the movie was way better than the book? Worse?

“Peer pressure” was one of those big buzzwords (buzz-phrases?) when I was growing up, and I remember thinking that it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard of. I couldn’t comprehend a situation where I had to go along with my friends or they wouldn’t be my friends anymore. I thought that real people didn’t have to deal with peer pressure, that it was just another of those weird adults-trying-to-understand-kids things.

I still don’t buy it, even being older. Maybe it’s just because I have good friends, or maybe it’s because individuality is “cool” now.

However…

Have you ever had a lot of people tell you the very same thing, so many people that you start believing they’re true, or at least wondering if you’d had it all wrong. I mean, if your brother came up to you and told you that the sky really isn’t blue, it’s green, you’d laugh at him. If, later that day, you talked to a cashier at the grocery store, and she told you the same thing, you’d think it was a funny coincidence. If you kept hearing it over and over from seemingly unrelated sources, you’d start to look at the sky funny and doubt what you were seeing, wouldn’t you?

I guess that’s what peer pressure really is… it’s just the power of people. Hearing that you’re ugly your entire life until you believe it wholeheartedly. Having people tell you that aliens live on Mars until you start peering at the sky at night. Advertisements telling you BUY THIS, BUY THAT, until you start wondering how it was you survived on this earth without some kind of mp3 player. Myriads of people accusing you of having a crush on someone you’re just friends with until you start looking at him sideways and thinking, why not?

Does this happen to you guys, or am I just a pushover?

This may be just completely me.

I’ve found a lot in my life that it’s hard to connect to people, more than just a “hi, how are you,” unless you share something that makes you vulnerable. Especially girls. I remember back in middle school that the one point when I felt I really connected with someone, to the point of becoming actual friends with them, was when one of us told the other “who we liked.” Call it a middle-school-girl thing, but I think it still holds true as we get older.

I remember in seventh grade, I plopped myself across from this one girl I thought I could be friends with and started up a conversation about this guy I couldn’t get to notice me. Turns out, she had gone to school with him, and the longer we talked… the more connection we had. We ended up being best friends.

One of my managers isn’t really that much older than me, and though I’ve been there a year, there’s still no connection. At all. Last night I ended up talking to her (well, more like letting her talk while I listened) about this guy she’s been having problems with. And maybe it’s just middle-school era coming out again… but now I feel like the two of us have some kind of basis to build upon.

Does that make any sense? Or do I just need more sleep?