Archive for March, 2010

Saturday 9: Just One Look

1. How vain are you about how you look?
Not that much. I let myself get big – that’s not vain.

2. When you were little what was your favorite TV show?
Rainbow Brite and Care Bears. My Little Pony, Sesame Street and She-Ra (remember her?)

3. If someone was going to make a movie or TV show about your life, who would play you and why?
Charlize Theron or any tall actress. Because I am tall.

4. Who is your favorite Major League Baseball team? How about your favorite player?
I don’t really care much for that sport.

5. What is your favorite baseball-related movie?
Major League!

6. What is one lesson you have learned in the past year?
Save and do not count all your eggs until they hatch.

7. Tell us about one of your childhood memories.
I used to cut my Barbies’ hair and draw “dresses” on their bodies. My mom always had a fit.

8. How do you handle sticky situations? Do you have a method? If so, what is it?
I try to ignore it mostly, thinking it would go fix itself on its own. However, if it’s a situation I am at fault with, like getting into too much credit card debt, I would make sure I get help through credit repair services

9. Do you think people talk about you behind your back?
People do this all the time. The question is, are you supposed to care?

I think I need this for my work desk. I love coffee and I make a living writing articles for web sites or blogs. I can write effectively about everything from blackhead treatments to vacations to saving money to splurging money (aka shopping!).

I cannot say I love my blog as it is something I do to keep me at home while the kids are young. But whoever said it was an easy job must be blind or out of his mind, because I have never worked as hard as before – when I working as a boos for five years.

I am not one eager beaver to watch this movie, I have to admit. I was never a fan of Tim Burton films, they are just dark and gothic for me. But my eldest wanted to (he actually has a lit of movies he needs to see in the big screen this year) so we just had to oblige.

Surprisingly, it was OK – not something I’d rave about, as I would be content to just wait for the DVD to be out so I can watch it at home, but it is something worth seeing. As with all Burton films, visual appeal holds more interest than dialogue and costume and cinematic details were outstanding.

You can clearly see how each character has been well thought-of and carried to perfection but the story line was pretty simple and carried straightforward. I actually do not get Mad Hatter’s dancing like he has no joints (joint supplements) but all for the good of the movie I suppose!

Alice in Wonderland is a fun ride that you wouldn’t mind getting on once, but you’d hold off until the DVD to get on again. The performances are great, the music is fantastic, the visuals are polished, but the story is essentially the same. It’s the same Alice she’s just in a new outfit. But even though it’s not the greatest movie it’s still worth a viewing and the youngsters will definitely enjoy it.

In nineteen minutes, you can order a pizza and get it delivered. You can read a story to a child or have your oil changed. You can walk a mile. You can sew a hem. In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge. -From Nineteen Minutes, page 1-

This is the first book I’ve read by Jodi Picoult and it certainly would not be the last. This drove straight home, as it would to everybody I believe, because it deals with our children, or our friends, who have been bullied one time or another.

What really causes bullying? Can it be so bad that it would drive someone to do something so unimaginable? Would it stem from the family as well? Bullies are troubled as much as the bullied children, and when teenage adolescence and puberty comes in (eczema, pimples, abnormal growth spurts, hormone overload, etc.) it is best to just ignore it to passing changes.

It also explores how much teenagers sacrifice themselves to be part of something they dont even know if they really want to be part of. It just made things easier for them if they were part of something cool.

If you spent you life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask…with nothing beneath it? -From Nineteen Minutes, page 83-

Book Summary

In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five….In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.

Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens — until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town’s residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state’s best witness, but she can’t remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

Nineteen Minutes is New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult’s most raw, honest, and important novel yet. Told with the straightforward style for which she has become known, it asks simple questions that have no easy answers: Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back? And who — if anyone — has the right to judge someone else?

But, the theme which resonates the strongest in Nineteen Minutes is that of expectations – those for ourselves as well as those entertained by parents for children and children for parents – and how those expectations shape our lives. Is it fair to judge someone? Should we expect the world to accept us as we are, and if not, is it ever okay to strike back?

Picoult has written a book which is chilling, yet tender…it is a book hard to put down and yet difficult to read.

Sophie Kinsella strikes again!

Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they?

When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie–a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance–mysteriously appears, she has one last request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, and Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara, on the other hand, has a number of ongoing distractions. Her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, her start-up company is floundering, and she’s just been dumped by the “perfect” man.

Sadie, however, could care less.

Lara and Sadie make a hilarious sparring duo, and at first it seems as though they have nothing in common. But as the mission to find Sadie’s necklace leads to intrigue and a new romance for Lara, these very different “twenties” girls learn some surprising truths from each other along the way. Written with all the irrepressible charm and humor that have made Sophie Kinsella’s books beloved by millions, Twenties Girl is also a deeply moving testament to the transcendent bonds of friendship and family.

I remember one feedback from this book when I read it. It said, "Laugh Out Loud." And indeed I did! I laughed so hard in one of the scenes from the book – and chuckled to myself how Sadie gets Lara to agree to everything she wants. This girl is one feisty woman, not needing any wrinkle treatment for sure! If you need a light read, this one is on top of my list. I actually want to see this made into a movie!