Week 89

So, I just found out that I have four people that read my blog. My parents, my hubby and Amanda, who just started her own list. High five and an elbow to Amanda. Of course, when I found out that hubby was reading my blog, I asked him what he thought. His feedback was that all I write about is movies and music. With that in mind, I decided to focus on some of the other tasks to give him better reading material. After all, I don't want to lose my meager audience. This one is for you babe!!

#27 Completed all outstanding Pogo badges. So if you are not aware, Pogo is a gaming site that I have been a member of for many years. They have a plethora of games that very easily suck up a Saturday afternoon. One of there marketing techniques is to give you graphic badges for certain things in certain games in a specific time period. Over the years, I have amassed many badges that I have not completed, but as of last week those are all done and I am caught up. What does this mean in the big world? Absolutely nothing, but sometimes it is good just to waste time.

#8 Read Maiden Voyage by Tania Aebi. This is the story of an 18-year-old New York City girl and her exciting solo circumnavigation of the globe on a 26-foot sloop with only a cat for company. Aebi had little previous experience, so most of what she learned was "on the job" and from people she met en route. One of the most appealing aspects of this particular single-handed sailing account is Aebi's naivete and the caring response that she encountered all over the world. Her 27,000-mile, three-year trek is usually attempted only by practiced sailors, and her survival was achieved by pluck, inventiveness, helping hands, and a good deal of luck. She made it around, but due to a 80-mile stretch with a friend, she did not achieve the world record of the youngest to compete the circumnavigation solo. Stupid technicality.

#28 Framed Dad's Commission and Retirement papers for his military service. I have had these papers for the last two years with the intention of framing them in one large frame along with his Certificate of Retirement and Presidential Thank You for your Service. When I realized the cost of that was extremely prohibitive, even with my 60% coupon, I went for individual frames. I had to do some trimming of some of the mats myself to fit the freaky government paper measurements, but in the end, they all came out great. I even framed Mom's Certificate of Appreciation for being a military spouse. The down side is that apparently I am not very good at wrapping glass objects for shipping. One piece of glass did not make the trip. Fedex told me I suck at packing glass. My hubby told me I suck at packing glass. My parents told me I suck at packing glass. It must be true and I relinquish my duties as a glass-packer. I will stick to paper Statmats.

#29 Had wine with C at the local wine bar. Wine with cheese, crackers and fruit is the best!

#31 We went to the Strawberry Festival in Plant City. I am not a big strawberry fan. That being said, Plant City strawberries in season are great. We went on the last day of the festival. I was a little disappointed that there were not more things involving strawberries. There were a lot typical carnie/fair food booths. Not a lot of strawberry foods. There were a lot of craft vendors. Not a lot of strawberry-inspired things. It was not until we found the main pavilion that we found the strawberry locale. They had many displays of all things Strawberry. Past strawberry queens, shoebox floats with strawberry themes, photo contest with strawberries and large booths that depicted various local organizations' interpretation of the festival and benefits of strawberries and other local produce. You could also take a picture in the large strawberry throne. It looked a little sticky from the adjoining create-your-own-strawberry-shortcake booth. I passed on the picture. We did partake in the CYO shortcake booth. For $3.50 each, we got a mountainous bowl of strawberry goodness. Yummy! My strawberry tooth was satisfied. We also watched a lumberjack show and some pig races and a magic show. We had a good time and have a half-flat of Plant City strawberries in our freezer.

#35 Painted the rest of my canvases. I painted 7 5x5 squares with a blended background in various colors and did Chinese calligraphy characters that represent things that I want to achieve: Ambition, Clarity, Courage, Energy,Grace, Harmony, Profundity. I put them on top of their respective crane chain above the window. While I was feeling like a real painter, I also painted a 30-canvas peacock and covered an entire wall. Picasso, I am not but I think it came out pretty good considering this was only the fourth thing I have every painted.

#36 M got two foot rubs. One after his disc golf tournament in which he took 4th. Good job, babe and one after the previous weekend of walking around the Strawberry Festival, two disc golf rounds and drumming at one massive rock show. The foot rubs never end. It is like paying interest on a credit card. I feel like I should be done with this task, but it is still so far away.

#60 Girls weekend is planned, payed for and happening in May. Charlotte is our destination. Plane tickets have been bought. The house is payed for and the activities have been planned. So now the only thing is to show up and enjoy it!

#71 So this one is a little late in coming. We helped restore a Muslim Community Center that had been fire-bombed in 2010. We did this in conjunction with Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day program which gave free tickets in exchange for approved community service. We cleaned out the charred wood and debris from the inside of the house. We knocked down walls and damaged windows. I painted the outside of the house and helped do some of the landscaping. Even though I was glad to help, it hurts my heart that people rely on prejudice, media interference and ignorance to make their decisions. It hurts my heart even more that violence is sometimes considered an appropriate measure of reaction in some peoples' minds to things they don't agree with, don't understand or are scared of.

#78 Sent in a contest answer to Games Magazine. I hope I win this one. It was slightly tricky, but solvable if you have knowledge of movie titles and actors/actresses names that contain colors. Go to www.gamesmagazine-online.com and click on the current contest to see if you can solve it.

#90 I folded 50 origami cranes in different colors, patterns and sizes. They are hung in the production room as a curtain over one of the windows. Origami cranes are supposed to bring luck and who couldn't use a little bit of luck now and then?

See Mark, I did other stuff. I did watch movies and listen to music--

#74 CD's I listened to this session:

Joan Osborne--Relish
Jimmy Page--Outrider
Coverdale and Page
Page + Plant--No Quarter
Page + Plant--Walking into Clarksdale
Pearl Jam--Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam--Vitalogy
Pearl Jam--Riot Act
Robert Plant--Pictures @ Eleven
Robert Plant--The Principle of Moments
Pearl Jam--No Code

#40 Lots of movies--

Do the Right Thing--Everybody hates everybody. The Blacks hate the Italians. The Italians hate the Koreans. The Koreans hate the Jews. The Jews hate the Blacks. The Caucasians hate the Puerto Ricans. And Mister Senor Love Daddy is just trying to get everyone to love each other. It's the hottest day of the year in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, and tensions are growing there, with the only local businesses being a Korean grocery and Sal's Pizzeria. Mookie, Sal's delivery boy, manages to always be at the center of the action. A confrontation over the lack of African Americans on a wall in the pizzeria and the decibel level of music coming out of a boom box ignites the powder keg that has been festering all day. Angry words turn into physical violence and a man dies at a cop's hand. A riot breaks out after Mookie decides a trash can through Sal's front glass would be a good way to vent his frustration at Radio's death. The pizzeria is destroyed. I thought this movie was going to be about racism and why it is bad. For me, what it was really about is an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind, how violence only breeds violence. Spike Lee does an amazing job at bringing to light the struggles that all ethnic groups face in a slur-spewing diatribe mid-movie, showing that all groups hold prejudice. This movie really makes you stop and think about how you react to your surroundings. It also becomes very obvious that your reaction will cause a reaction in those around you--good or bad. Bravo, Spike Lee, bravo!

Yankee Doodle Dandy --This is loosely, very loosely, based on the life of George M. Cohan who penned "Over There" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy". I say very loosely because the real George M. Cohan commented following the premier "It was a good movie. Who was it about?" This was also the first movie to be shot in black and white and then converted to color. Big scandal back in the day in the inner movie circle. Eventually, everybody warmed up to the idea after the public backed the decision saying the movie would not have had the same impact in black and white. George M. Cohan hand-picked James Cagney to play him. Good thing because this movie was Cagney's only Oscar nomination and win.

Taxi Driver--"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK. "

Annie Hall--"There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly. The... the other important joke, for me, is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx; but, I think it appears originally in Freud's "Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious," and it goes like this - I'm paraphrasing - um, "I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member." That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women. "

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--"They was giving me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I'm hot to trot! The next woman takes me on's gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars! "

Ben-Hur--Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Together with the new governor, his old friend Messala arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions. At first they are happy to meet after a long time but their different politic views separate them. During the welcome parade a roof tile falls down from Judah's house and injures the governor. Although Messala knows they are not guilty, he sends Judah to the galleys and throws his mother and sister into prison. But Judah swears to come back and take revenge. Ben-Hur starts out with a huge heart, which hardens during his years of false imprisonment. His heart is black and full of rage as he is released and allowed to travel back to his home. His hatred increases as he finds out that is mother and sister have also been imprisoned, exposed to leprosy and exiled to a leper colony. This story is told in conjunction with the story of Christ. Ben-Hur eventually interacts with Jesus as he carries his cross. Ben-Hur gives Jesus water as he falls for the third time. As Ben-Hur watches the crucifixion, he releases his anger, rage and desire for revenge. A miracle cures his family and they go on with their lives. You must watch this movie if only for the chariot race, which is one of the most epic scenes I have watched so far.

The Deer Hunter--Is there a film that Robert DeNiro sucks in? I don't think so and this flick was no exception. The Deer Hunter is an examination of the way that the Vietnam war affects the lives of people in a small industrial town in the USA after the war. Civilians don't realize the mental anguish that our veterans live with. Surrounded by death, pain, and human unkindness, our three heroes deal with their war experience very differently. One comes home with no legs and one arm, indifference to his new wife and child and fear of not fitting into the civilian world. He holes up in a veteran hospital content with his surroundings and no need for the outside world. One develops a lust for danger in the same form that he was tortured during his capture in Vietnam--Russian roulette. A very dangerous fascination that brings him tons of money but no solace. One makes it home and adapts to his new life as a war hero only to sit in his room at night and cry to deal with the visions in his head of the war. He deals with his pain by reaching out to his other friends in an attempt to bring them home. His hand is accepted by one and slapped by the other. In the end, the tour was over for them, but the war still raged around them.

2001: A Space Odyssey-- Um, OK? Definitely a Stanley Kubrick film. Very trippy and strange. Not sure what was going on for the last 20 minutes of the film and what was the deal with the big fetus at the end? Stanley, you have succeeded in confusion. Please take your award and exit stage left for pictures and glad-handing.

Done and done--until next time.

Week 87

What have I been doing?

#3 Wrote thank you notes to the family for their hospitality during my latest stay and to K/P for the amazing bounty they brought back from their India excursion. Thank you Easter Bunny!

#35 Wrote some amazingly clever notes to my guy.
I sent him some Battleship prose during our Sunday morning match.
I sent him a riddle--What has two thumbs and luvs ya? Very reminiscent of the Do you like me? check box in grade school, but it got the point across.
I found the I love you card that I thought got thrown away during my annual desk purge. It found its way to the vintage chip bowl along a side of corn salsa.
I made him a 3-D paper dinosaur. Nothing says I love you than a paper craft project on a Sunday afternoon that says RAWR. (Dinosaur for I love you).

#36 M got TWO foot rubs this session. One of them was with sweaty, stink feet. I think it should count twice, but M disagrees. He would as he is on the receiving end of the foot rub. The other was an impromptu as he was using my tv tray as a foot rest. I don't know what is ickier? The fact that I rubbed the toes or the fact that he was using my eating surface as a foot rest.

#72 Gave $5.00 to the Moose Lodge for their children's charity. Also gave $5.00 to the gentleman at the gas station who coasted in on fumes and did not have enough money to gas up to his final destination.

#40 Watched two of the three silent pictures on the list.
Sunrise--Gripping drama about a city girl who seduces a country farmer away from his homely wife. They conspire to kill his wife so they can move to the city and be together. City girl (nobody has names in silent movies) tells Farmer to drown Homely Wife by tipping the boat over and saying it was an accident. He starts the deed, but cannot finish because he is troubled that his wife is so fearful of him. Homely wife escapes and travels to the city followed closely by Farmer. He begs and pleads and she finally forgives him. They spend a full day frolicking in the city. On their way home by dinghy boat, a storm sweeps in and almost takes the life of the Homely Wife. City Girl, thinking that Farmer did the deed, runs to meet him not knowing that he has gone back to his wife. Homely Wife is found and resumes consciousness. City Girls flees town. Farmer has renewed reverence for his girl. All worked out in the end. Sunrise was the only picture to receive the Oscar for Most Unique Film. This Oscar was only given out at the first award ceremony. It was later revamped and included in the Best Film category.

Intolerance--Epic silent picture that was the first movie to use the technique of telling multiple story lines within one film by showing snippets of each story inter-woven with each other. This three and a half hour (yes, I said 3.5 hours) movie depicts 4 stories of how intolerance has been the root of evil though out history. Stories show the Massacre of St. Bartholomew Day in France, the Crucifixion of Christ, the Fall of Babylon and the present day story of a wrongly accused man of murder who can't catch a break. All the hatred and violence leads back to the root cause of the inability to accept differences in other lands, religions, customs and traditions. Still apropos today, I think. When, as human beings, are we going to understand that this is a big world and we all have a place?

#86 I did it. I subscribed to the local paper. Considering that I hate watching the news and the internet is severely inaccurate at times, I have to get my daily goings-on from somewhere. Plus, I like doing the Jumble puzzle.

#8 Read three books--
The Great Gatsby. We had the option of reading this book in high school. I picked the other one, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was. I enjoyed it. It was a fast read, but it did keep my attention. Gatsby is a cool cat that lives life to the fullest, at least to the observer. What we learn is that Gatsby still pines for an old love. This pining sets in motion a series of events that will cost Gatsby everything, including his life.

The Essential Koran. So I wanted to know what all the hoopla was about. Does the Koran really tell followers to hate? Not even one line. In fact, it reads very similar to the Bible. Now, I did not read the entire script. I read a very condensed version that serves as an introduction to the actual manuscript. I don't understand why this manuscript makes all the Christians so crazy. I mean no where that I read did the Koran endorse violence or hatred. It is just a different way of looking at a faith. Do I see a theme this session? Maybe it was not a coincidence that I read the Koran and watched Intolerance.

The Cold Cash War. This book is about the money side of a war and how corporations want to keep fighting to fill their wallets. Sound familiar?

CD time:

Maroon 5--Songs about a Girl
Meat Puppets--To High to Die
John Mellancamp--human Wheels
Pat Metheny--Offramp
Moody Blues--Legend of a Band
Moody Blues--Voices in the Sky
Monkees--Greatest Hits
Alanis Morrisette--Jagged Little Pill
Gary Moore--After Hour ( great CD-best surprise this session)
My Friend Steve--Hope & Wait
Stevie Nicks--Trouble in Shangri-La
Nirvana--Nevermind
Nirvana--From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah
Nirvana--Insecticide
Nirvana--Unplugged in NY