Coraline

So Coraline came in the mail today from Netflix. I got three strikes from my husband on the past three movies in my queue so he got to watch "Death Race" with Jason Statham on Monday by himself (Jason is cute, but NOT an actor).

My three strikes were:
1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 2 words: TOO LONG.
2. Sunshine Cleaning - I was bored and the ending rocked and then sucked.
3. Duplicity - completely underwhelmed and I hate to say it, but too many twists.

So Ben went to PA to meet my dad at Cabelas this evening which gave me the perfect opportunity to watch "Coraline" by myself. I was completely blown away by this movie. It was beautiful, engaging, and it had a black cat that talked, and I loved it! I'll be honest, Ben would not. However, this movie was delightful for me to watch. I loved the soundtrack, it was French, fun, and fabulous. Coraline's character was so well developed, the animation was literally amazing. Pure genius, creepy, but creepy with a message and I think it will be my new seasonal Halloween film (along with a classic Hitchcock of course). In a nutshell, I adored it!

Thank you, Lance Armstrong

So a lot has happened since I last blogged. First of all I am set to be ALL DONE with school on September 26th, 2009. My final class is "Portfolio" and requires me to complete a traditional and online portfolio web site. This is exciting and daunting, so much so that I dreamed about a website re-design last night that has me completely rethinking my current re-design. In short, I have a busy weekend planned with my MacBook Pro. About three weeks ago, Ben and I became iPhone addicts, and the addiction was almost instantaneous. I've been sick with what Ben refers to as a "normal" chest cold (whatever that is) for the past 2 weeks which has been terrible. I'm currently listening to a lot of Jeremy Camp and Jars of Clay. Work is the same.

On Sunday, September 26th I will be running my second 10K in Alexandria, VA referred to as the "Dash for Dad". I'm excited to do this race again this year and hope to maybe even raise some money for Prostate Cancer research, screenings, and ultimately a cure. Visit my donation page if you're interested. I'm sure all contributions are tax deductible, and I know that even though the world lost Patrick Swayze to pancreatic cancer I think he would support me if he were still here... and knew me.

Kanye West "dissed" Taylor Swift at the VMA's, I didn't watch the show, but my iPhone has You Tube so I caught a repeat of the action. This action, combined with Serena Williams recent meltdown and the infamous "You Liar" hurled at our President are causing a lot of people to speculate how rude our society has become. My thoughts: Duh? People are dissing each other on a daily basis through electronic means, are you all really surprised this has crossed over to verbal dissing? The guy from South Carolina should resign, Serena should apologize, and Kayne should just shut up. My September Resolutions are as follows: 1) Be nice to people, even if I don't like them and 2) become a home owner before Obama's 8K disappears.

Now, to Lance Armstrong. After about 9 months of being without a Nike+ sensor for my iPod nano, I was recently reconnected to help keep me motivated as I train for my 10K. Today, I got up at 6:30 (ish) and headed to the gym to run 4 miles. After completing this successfully and ending my workout on my iPod, Lance's voice jumped me so that I almost fell off the still running treadmill stating "This is Lance Armstrong. Congratulations. That was your longest run yet." Now, even though it was only my second run clocked by this sensor, it still made me feel good and so I say "Thank you, Lance Armstrong".

Dinner tonight to celebrate my father in-laws birthday!

Doubt Left me Dubious

I'm in this class right now that is so demanding I haven't had time to watch any television at all!  I have had Doubt sitting on my kitchen counter for at least  7 days, and this is a film that I have really wanted to watch.  Well, I'll be honest... I was underwhelmed.  The dialogue is great and the acting was good, the issue was the plot.  There was none, at least not a strong plot line, there was no action, no "punch" so to speak.  Just babbling, perhaps intelligent babbling, but not enough to hold my interest like I thought it would.  Characters were introduced and conflict was given, but it never erupted the way I thought it was going to.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't what I expected.  Meryl, Amy, and Phillip were all splendid in their black religious attire, but they weren't unleashed in their roles like I had hoped they would be.  The ending left me confused and lacking information, it was almost bizarre.  I'm a little amazed that this film received so much attention from the academy (simply because the plot line was so weak).  Alright, enough of my own babbling, time to return to Dreamweaver and CSS.  Good night!

Inspiration is everywhere, just look. No really, look.

So, lately I've been Twittering (still don't know exactly what I'm doing but I have 70 followers after one week so I assume I must be doing something right).  Twitter I've found is a great way to connect with a lot of different content quickly.  I mean really quickly.  In the past week I've looked at more sites then I have all year!  Why?  Not because I am more motivated to do so now, but because I am able to access so much of what interests me through the people I follow from a single web page.  Click here to see a recent example of inspiration (some cool CD covers) I was able to locate through Twitter.  Go Caps, Love Lost, and Good Night. 

Ready to Kick Verizon to the Curb

I was always happy to be a Verizon Wireless customer (faithful since 2005) until I got the crap Chocolate phone that is falling apart with over a year left on my contract.  I have long admired the iPhone but have heard that AT&T has crappy service so I should just forget about it.  Oh yeah?  Well I was disconnected from my mom on Mother's Day while opening my fridge in my one bedroom apartment.  Um, how is that good service Verizon?  Not to mention the two power line dead spots on my commute to work (which takes about 40 minutes and gives me some time to speak to my parents who live much too far away from me, or I from them.  Whatever.).  Then came the advent of iPhone applications and commercials.  The last one I saw was about being able to print labels, ship, and track orders on your iPhone.  That doesn't interest me, however if I had this "Tripper App", I would be entertained for hours - literally.  Check it out.  It is my inspiration for the day.  This July 4th I'm going to celebrate my independence as an American by purchasing an iPhone.  Shallow?  Probably.  Click below and decide for yourself.  Happy Birthday Dad, I love you!  You don't look a day over 38. 

So much content, so little time

So, I am graduating in September (god willing earlier since my last class is called "Advanced Communications" and I have a BS in Communications already - think I got that covered thanks) with an AS in Graphic Design.  I am basically paying AIO for a piece of paper that states I have completed their course of study.  In terms of software training and my portfolio, I'm pretty much on my own.  Don't get me wrong, AIO has resources but I work full time and can't work around their limited schedules and beginner's content.  So, I've started subscribing to a number of design blogs through Twitter and other mediums and stumbled upon this one tonight during the Celts/Red Sox games.  I'm wearing my green "Red Sox" sweatshirt hoping it will help.  I really like how this turned out and I hope I can remember all of the steps to create more similar to this! 

Here is the link to the tutorial if you have Photoshop!

http://www.planetphotoshop.com/design-effects-2.html

Not Your Typical Saturday

I got up around 9 a.m. which is quite typical.  Walked straight for the coffee pot which is not so much typical as a necessity for survival, even on a Saturday.  I poured a cup 'o joe, talked to my mom and dad (and my 10 month old nephew whom I affectionately call "the screech owl"), while watching Sportscenter.  One of the drawbacks of living in the DC Metro area is that I have trouble following all of my sport teams (Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics) so ESPN is how I like to get my "news".  I did some laundry, loaded and ran the dishwasher, folded some clothes, and checked on my 300+ friends on Facebook.  All quite typical.  The intention was actually to get up and go right to the gym, but Ben and I stayed up late last night playing a new game he got for me on the Nintendo DS (Professor Layman and the Curious Village), so I let him sleep in... until noon.

Around 12:45 p.m. I left our little one bedroom apartment and headed to a Mother's Day tea to hang out with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law.  The food, tea, and conversation were all great, I've always had a problem with "commercial" holidays (a.k.a. Valentine's Day) but this is not the case with Mother and Father's Day.  Maybe because I have been blessed with superb parents, grandparents, and yes even in-laws.  I understand the sacrifice it takes to raise a child to be a responsible and overall good person.  My parents were brilliant and I still credit them for who I am today and the who I will be tomorrow.  But since today is Mother's Day, I'll pay tribute to mom by blogging "Thank you Mom, for my creativity and most of all for introducing me to my Lord and Savior, an introduction that has seen me through to today, through failures and successes, and given me the best reason to get out of bed in the morning.  I love you dearly and hope to celebrate with you soon."  

After the tea, I came home and took a 90 minute nap.  Then I got up and went to the gym for 30 minutes for what I would classify as a mediocre attempt at physical exertion, but it still counts.  I made some pasta, watched the Washington Capitals lose in overtime to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and did a vector tutorial in Illustrator (which is the cute little octopus I open this posting with).  The thing that impresses me the most about this beyond productive day was that I woke up with three objectives to complete and I did it!  1) Clean the tortoise tank, 2) Clean the bathroom and vanity, 3) Blog about something!  So with a grand sense of accomplishment that I seldom ever feel I am going to fall asleep to SNL.  They are making fun of Manny Ramirez which is the perfect ending to an awesome Saturday.  Happy Mother's Day!