Just an interesting guy. Saw forgetting Sarah Marshall and thought he was pretty funny and he definetly stood out, but didn’t really bother to look into anything else he has done. Until I happened to catch a video of him while looking for another video and I was hooked on finding every video I could find of his to watch on youtube one day. That lasted about 2 hours. He used to have shows on the BBC, and on mtv. I thought he was pretty great on his 1 Leicester Square show on MTV in London.

 There are 2 sides to him it seems. The introspective, trying to understand it all person, and then the flamboyant comedian who is never at a loss for words. His style of comedy is a bit of a ’stream of consciousness’.

I’ve found a few videos that show these sides of him.

 This I think is one of the best interviews I’ve seen in a while. Dawn French really knows how to conduct an interview I think. Her questions are simple, but really draw out of someone the how and the why and the what that make a person who they are.

Also in this video player below, there is a playlist of a BBC documentary Russell did with his friend where he drove acrosse america on the same road as Jack Kerouac did for his famous book ‘On The Road’. Very introspective and funny. Just entertaining I thought.

Here is the standup comedian Russell Brand. I think one of the funniest American interviews he has done where he just seemed to be the most comfortable, cause it was obvious that Jay Leno, and David Letterman just didn’t ‘get him’ was on the late show with Craig Ferguson.

I’ll add more to each playlist in these video players as I find them.

Just BRILLIANT!

Enjoy!

This video is of Brian ‘Head’ Welch a former band member of Korn and his testimonial on why he quit Korn and how he got off of drugs.

Today’s Lesson
Pray…there is immeasurable power in it.
~Anonymous

I know I didn’t make good on my one post a day goal but sometimes a person is just having to much fun living instead of being in front of the computer. As much as I love my computer, it’s always a good idea to step away from it for a bit.  Anyway, my post today consists of promoting an amazing site that I forgot all about until I came across it again today.   It’s a wonderful resource of examples of different web designs AND they are categorized. They also have free elements that a designer can use in their designs if they need them. Cannot be explained, just have to visit it and see for yourself.

 Design Meltdown
http://www.designmeltdown.com/

Today’s Lesson

Carpe Diem

Right now I’m blogging at my computer and my 2 year old came over and sat on my lap. He is resting his head on my shoulder watching a movie on the tv behind me. Whatever tantrum he may have threw a couple hours ago (which by the way he did  :), it all goes away in moments like this. Children are a parents timepieces. The older you see them get, you forget that you are as well. Appreciate the moment. If you don’t have children, apply this mindset to your loved ones.

Today’s Lesson

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift, that is why it’s called the present.

 Photo: I went to snap this pic quick just now and he turned around.

Was researching some flash code for updating my own site with and came across a forum posting from 2004. There was a guy on it that who after numerous pages of helping people with flash questions, it was obvious he had some expertise.  This particular thread went on for 50 pages or so. Pretty amazing in the world of forums, and each page taught more and more and this individual was right there with it all the way through for probably a few months or so as this thread kept going.  Just happened to go to another thread where the conversation continued, and came to one post which was from his account only it was his wife informing everyone that this person had passed away many months back in 2008.   It made me realize that whatever we post on the internet, is going to be forever. This persons words will be there. It takes something like this to really remind yourself to not treat that knowledge lightly.

In the same vein but on a lighter note, it reminds me of a song that SweetAfton23 (a youtuber I subscribe too) wrote a song, in particular about myspace pages, and you never take it down, lose interest, then years later your kids find your page!  Pretty funny stuff but interesting to keep in mind:

Today’s lesson:
Do not post things on the internet that you are not proud of.

Lyrics to the song:
The years are going by so fast it really is bewilderin’
And we’ll be so-called “grown ups” and have mortgages and children
I hope we all gain worldliness, and wisdom, maturity
But I hope most of all that MySpace falls into obscurity

I hope our profiles all go dead, entombed in distant servers
A monument of your youth, although lacking its observers
Your page will be an empty shell, when no one is behind it
I hope your MySpace stays forever - and I hope that your kids find it

How I hope that you forget your MySpace
I hope it slips completely from your mind
And I hope it stays up long enough for the next generation to find
And I hope that it embarrasses your children
I hope their bratty friends all forward it around
And I hope that you forget your password
So you cannot take it down

If your kids think you vaguely square, it will be so much clearer
When they laugh at the pictures you took in your bathroom mirror
And all the bands you listen to, your kids will be exposin’
“Who is this Soulja Boy you reference, who’s ‘Uh Oh Explosion’?”

They’ll marvel at how old you are, they’ll “rofl” at your outfits
Your tastes may pass as “vintage” in the future - but I doubt it

I hope your cynical kids say, “Holy crap, this is great
these comments date all the way back to 2008.”
I hope they dig through your pictures, and find some we might call compromising
I hope that seeing young Mom in a swimsuit or smoking a hookah isn’t too traumatizing
But it will be past their comprehension
They’ll ask “Did Grandpa not give you enough attention?”

[insert rocking out here]

They might poke at your top 8 friends, read your comments at the most
I only wish that they could see the inane bulletins you post

April fools!   I said I was going to post everyday but yesterday I well, didn’t. I know that’s lame. I’m already breaking my agenda to post everyday but sometimes habits are hard to make.  Procrastination is my enemy…i will not let it defeat me…..aaaaarrrrrrgggghhhh! (insert best braveheart battle cry here 

 Watched result show of american idol on Monday. Adam Lambert is safe another week. I can’t stop watching that Zodiac Show video. Watched it a few more times today.

Today’s Lesson

Every persons path in life is unique. It makes them who they are. Some people have stories that others just don’t. The good and the bad.  Either live vicariously through their adventures, their tales, or come to a point in your life when you can decide to have your own.

I think it is possible to think too much.  Getting so wrapped up in ‘analyzing’ everything, instead of just ‘living’.  Eventually you realize that you lose alot of life, while living in your head.

True happiness is not possible.  Striving for daily contentment is much easier.

Here is another Sayings in 30 seconds youtube video I made on the subject of  ‘contentment’ that has some quotes I gathered. Enjoy!

I haven’t been watching American Idol this season because I thought the most interesting people were eliminated. Then I was recently shown Adam’s performance on AI of ‘Ring of Fire’ and since I have been hooked trying to find his performances.

Here is his performance of Ring of Fire:

…

Here is his performance of ‘Crawl through fire’ in a musical theatre production in Hollywood called ‘The Zodiac Show’. He co wrote the song as well.

…

Today’s Lesson
I’m still analyzing the subject of confidence. Today no matter how many ‘wins’ we have, for some reason we dwell on what more it is we still have to learn which in turn can effect a persons self esteem. Maybe complete confidence is unattainable. It’s probably just enough and important to resolve being confident in yourself and the rest will follow. Be confident in the knowledge that your abilities will be there when you need them.

I have a blog…but i don’t.  Well that is going to change. I like writing but never take the time to do it.  I have quite a few mid-year resolutions i’ve made and one of them is to stop putting off til tomorrow what I can do today.  I may not have ‘grand, epic, poignant (vocab word !)  things to say everyday but that’s not really 100% the purpose of my site.  I truly believe “you learn something new everyday” and for the next month, I will post just that.  Whether it’s realizations or things I’ve forgotten and relearned, they all qualify.  

To record all that I’ve been doing in the past month since I last posted, here is a summary:

1. Today, I survived a hail storm and tornado warnings
2. Starting a regimen of sit ups every day. The first day I did them, I made it to 15. Right now, I can do 35. hey…it’s a start.
3. I didn’t think I would, but I decided that day to go to the DVD release party of the Twilight DVD at 9pm on 3/21 and stayed until midnight to buy the Borders exclusive version.  Since then, I’ve watched it 3 times and also watched the audio commentary all the way through the movie. I have to really love a movie to listen to the audio commentary. The last movie I listened to the audio commentary for was Hedwig and the Angry Inch which is another one of my all time favorite movies
4. My kid is talking so much now. I’m so proud he knows his colors, shapes, recognize the alphabet, recognize numbers from 1 - 10.

Today’s Lesson:

I think everyone from time to time needs to take inventory of their lives. Focus on the things they can do and be grateful for and do their best to ignore the negative.  This is necessary because I believe that no one escapes self-doubt. Everyone throughout their life I’m certain have small bouts of low confidence from time to time.   Moments like that are when all reasoning goes out the window.  It’s your job to remind yourself of your strengths on a daily basis. A person has more control over their mind than they think.   I have a video series on my youtube channel called ‘Sayings in 30 seconds’ and yesterday, I made and posted a video of the best quotes I could find on the subject of confidence.  Enjoy!

In the most mundane news I could muster at this moment… I just felt like posting this anyway..  This is my supper tonight…

You know…i’m carnivorous like dat…

Article today on MSN about an actor who stars in CSI (Gerald McCullouch) got attacked on a Subway at 2am recently. The mugger who had a knife grabbed his laptop and was going to make away with it until Gerald, who is a boxer, started to fight back. It was later asked of the actor why he chose to fight back instead of just letting the mugger have his computer?  Gerald replied that he had been working long and hard at editing a video for Youtube and just couldn’t bear to lose all that work.  …   Come on! What is Youtube worth to you??  :D  That video deserves a 5 star for effort! I wish I knew his channel name.

Link to Article:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28848679/?GT1=43001

Link to Gerald’s IMDB Page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0567162/

Here is an email I received a few years back that I just came across again that I loved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Hehe..okay, I’ll admit I was curious when someone posted the whole Twilight movie on youtube over the weekend so I thought I’d take a peek.

 I have to say…now i’m hooked. I can see why people are obsessed with this movie.

Here are a few cafepress items that I really like:

Lion/Lamb Dark Women’s Dark T-Shirt
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by My Hero, My Heart

Obsessed Mousepad
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by Contra Mundum

In Love with a Vampire TWILIGHT Journal
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by Scarebaby Design

Women’s Cap Sleeve T-Shirt
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by Earth Begotten

White Horse Tote Bag
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by :: Shabell’s ::

I Like My Men… 3.5″ Button
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by My Hero, My Heart

Stupid Lamb Jr. Spaghetti Tank
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by My Hero, My Heart

Only a Vampire Heart Mousepad
Buy this product at CafePress
Designed by Just Me Designs

I currently have a Dell. I’ve had it since 2003. Through 2 RAM upgrades, adding an extra internal hard drive, and 2 video card upgrades later, it just isn’t functioning the way I need it too.

In my research on now ‘what compute to buy?’ I first started with DELL and tried to get around my budge of below 1200 dollars (and this is JUST for the tower). So I got assistance from their ‘live chat’. The reason is because it didn’t seem like I was able to ‘truly’ customize the machine like I really needed too. They only gave me certain choices, when I specifically wanted, for instance, the 1 GB NVidia GeForce 9800GT video card. I contacted them for assistance and they managed to give me a computer in my price range that only had 1 dvd-rom/burner, 3 GB Ram, 500GB hard drive, and that video card. The power supply 375 wattage seemed awfully low since it didn’t meet the video cards ‘minimum’ requirement of 400 and the live chat woman pointed out that “they are underclocked by dell” !!! My husband and I just gasped! That is cheating their customers! I quickly thanked her and decided to go to HP’s website.

My 3rd computer was an HP (1st-IBM OS2, 2nd-Gateway) and I never had any problems with it. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that they have many special offers running right now on their site right now.

• Free Shipping was a major plus
• 250 dollar instant rebate
• Free upgrade to 750GB harddrive

on top of those things, I managed to get Quad Processor, 4GB Ram, 1DVD/CD burner WITH lightscribe, and a 2nd DVD rom that I really wanted where the Dell one didn’t have that.

All around price had to be my deciding factor. I feel like I’m getting more for my money with the HP. The only downsides that I thought of for HPs were that there are extremely difficult to upgrade (or at least they USED to be) because in the older model i had, all of the internal components were so squished together and made specifically for ‘just enough’ room to fit the components they had, that anything else just wasn’t possible or hard to make fit. I decided to not let this deterr me from making the decision to buy HP.

I don’t plan on upgrading because my primary purpose of my computer right now is going to be video editing and I’m positive that the specs will be more than enough to assist.

Hopefully it comes in one piece! I had a heck of a time with a company called ‘Cyberpower’ earlier this year. The computer was delivered (FedEx) broken and they were ‘about’ to charge me all kinds of fees to get it sent back to them. Well, many pretty heated emails and phone calls later and threatening to file a claim with my credit card company to get my money back, it was finally resolved.

I always get nervous before I ‘choose’ which to buy because it IS such a commitment. I usually on average have mine for about 5 or 6 years. It isn’t a ‘long’ time really, but the goal is to get ‘enough’ that you won’t HAVE to upgrade. 

 I can’t wait! It should come sometime next week!      

The Youtube Mogul site I signed up for a while back is starting a ‘badge’ system where if you get a certain amount of views or hit milestones with your videos, it will give you piece of code to include on your site to show how well your videos are doing.

 This morning I got one that shows how many total videos, cumulative, from all my videos.

The only problem with this number, is that it only is calculating from when I signed up with TubeMogul.

On Youtube my total cumulative number of video views right now, is 57,656.  What I learn from TubeMogul is that my videos get on average 100 views per day. Not each, split between them.

That still is a good feeling. Something is making them click on that thumbnail image to see my video.

Yes I’ll say it again…I love youtube!  Fun times!

I need to just promise myself right now that I’ll blog alot more often. Once a month just isn’t cutting it. 

 Other plans for my blog is that I want to completely overhaul my artwork gallery section.

I have some recent designs and artwork that I haven’t updated to that section yet. I’d like to develop another type of gallery more ideal than the flash element I’m using right now.

 My computer has had speed issues recently I just finally fixed those so now at least I can start on some more videos for my youtube channel.

This is just a busy time of the year for me as well with holidays, plus my halloween party every year for my family really takes up time. I’ve already pulled off the footage from the party, I just have to edit it together for a video.

In parting ways for now, I’ll leave you with a band that I’m extremely into right now. One of my FAVORITE singers who passed away this year is the keyboard player in this band.

Enjoy!
Queens of the Stoneage - ‘I think I lost my headache”

I can’t MAKE this stuff up.

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26892950/wid/11915773?GT1=31037

 Could it be the end of an organization when they can’t find a more ‘harmful, unethical’ treatment of animals then ‘cow milking’ to rally against???

My recent netflix choice is ‘Doomsday’. I wasn’t sure about this movie at first because I HATE apolcalypse movies, but I thought it was pretty entertaining. It wasn’t too gory (i guess compared to some like he new Aliens vs. predetor movie which i thought was horrible), or too predictable which movies like this sometimes are a bit.

It has some pretty funny parts. Very Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome which is another one of my favorite movies.

I give it a rating of ‘worth watching’. But beyond that, I don’t think I’ll really sit down to watch it again.

 Star Scale: * * *
* - Poor
* * - Nothing Special
* * * - Worth Watching
* * * * - Pretty Good
* * * * * - Excellent

On MSN today, there was a link for ‘find your life path number’. It’s interesting that mine is ‘eleven’!!!

 Here is the description of an 11:

If your Life-Path number is ELEVEN, yours is a Master Vibration number associated with spiritual awareness. Master Vibration people tend to possess an understanding and knowledge beyond others. As an ELEVEN, you are thought of as being on a higher spiritual plane.

ELEVENS tend to be very interesting people with much to offer those around them. They are intuitive, avant-garde, idealistic and cultured – extremely so. They are the visionaries. It’s common to find an ELEVEN looking for understanding in life’s mysteries. Their interests will be many. Socially, connections with others are highly developed. ELEVENS bring much to the topic of conversation and are excellent listeners.

An ELEVEN will expect much from themselves and from others. At times this can make them difficult to deal with. It’s common for this Life-Path to have a lot of nervous tension. There can be mood swings and challenges with focus on ambition. At times actions can be impractical, as an ELEVEN is more of a dreamer than a doer. Key words/qualities associated with an ELEVEN Life-Path are higher spiritual plane, intuitive, illumination, idealistic and a dreamer.

The life purpose for an ELEVEN is to utilize innate skills of counseling and guidance. While you may not be a leader, much talent can show through in this area. Finding ways to release nervous energy such as sports and exercise can bring much relief during difficult times.

Hmm…sounds like me?

08-08-08

I felt I needed to commemorate this date in a blog!

I’m surprised I haven’t heard of any youtube gatherings. Normally, there is one going on, on a date such as today’s. Last years, was 07-07-07 in New York.

Interesting things that happened today and my plans for the weekend:

• I’m finally getting a site done that was low on the priority list for a month that I’m pretty happy about!
• I plan on making my ‘No Ground’ cover song this saturday with my nephew Chris from Ninetail playing drums. I’ll then take the footage, record additional, and edit it together for a Youtube Video.
• I wanted to work on another video for my ‘Remember Natasha’ youtube channel where I harmonize with the Eleven Song ‘You Will Know’. It’s great for harmonizing. Although I’m not sure what the video will be just yet. I don’t want it to just be me singing infront of the camera. Maybe a slide show… not sure
• Working on a song I wrote called ‘Out of Place’. If I get it done tonight, maybe Chris will be able to help me put drums to it.
• I have a video idea for the song ‘Set Me Free’. My own ‘human video’. I’ve never acted, but I thought I would try it out on my own terms. If it sucks, I have the control to NOT post it. I take comfort in that. And even recording over it if it’s that bad. hehe!
• If the acting thing goes well, I have another idea for a short film. I can’t be a real actress, so why not write my own stuff that I can perform in. It’s going to be hard for an introvert like myself to attempt this so we’ll see how it goes

So many Youtube video ideas…so little time.

I also have other collaborations that I’ve asked other youtubers to be a part of, and they accepted. But that was months ago. I need to do what I’ve committed to do before I take on any more. I still have backgrounds I need to make (sorry HappyFallen and Mikel204z) . Life is rather busy for me and I only have a good 4 hours a day to really commit to doing fun things. Most of the time, I’m working on my DVD project that is going to be a christmas present for my family. Now though I’ve run into a snag as far as the ‘quality’ of the footage I’m pulling off of the VHS tapes. I’d like clearer footage. I’ll probably need to get a dvd/vcr player that copys. I need to research this. add this to my list above. *sigh*

EVERY female needs to watch this video at least once in their life. For the simple reason to gain perspective.  Perspective to remind yourself to NOT be defined by who you are with.  Remember who you were as a person BEFORE you fell in love and suddenly committed to becoming a ‘we’ instead of still remaining a ‘me’.   Remind yourself of your ‘me’.  Whether you realize or not, that part of you is still there, you’ve just stifled it for becoming this person you think you have to be.

Enjoy this video! I adored it when it first came out, and I adore it now and use it as a reminder.

Ever since I came across this video yesterday, I just cannot stop watching it.

For quite a few years now churchs and youth groups have been performing christian music this way. I had no idea I don’t go to church, or anything.  I have to say though, christian music has changed alot!  

Enjoy!

I still have an email out for permission to use Strands of Rain in a youtube video memorial to Natasha but in the meantime, I’ve made the video and created a new youtube channel called ‘RememberNatasha’ where I’ve posted it:

 I felt it was a tragedy that it took until a day ago for me to even have learned of her passing on July 2 and the fact that there are few to no memorial videos out there on Youtube for her. I felt there was a need, so I just had to make one.

The ‘Remember Natasha’ logo you see in the video is one I created to sell merchandise so that I could pass 100% of the proceeds I make on them to her memorial fund for her medical bills. But, I need permission from Alain so I have an email out to them at the moment to create this merchandise. I’m not sure if they will get back to me but I offered my help since I feel just so strongly that I have to do something to help out.

I hope you enjoy my video memorial to an amazing singer, musician and songwriter.

 Natasha Shneider was born May22, 1956 in Moscow, Russia. She has acted in small parts in a few movies, but I know her from playing keyboards and singing and writing songs in one of my all time favorite bands called Eleven. I have all the albums they ever released. I adored her voice. I think the band has always been underrated and under appreciated by large.  I was lucky enough, being on the east coast to even know about this band. I never got to see them in concert, but I would have loved too.  I don’t think I would do their music justice to try and describe it to you. I would recommened visiting  www.elevenworld.com  or www.youtube.com  to search for what music and videos you can find of theirs.

There is a memorial fund setup at www.NatashaShneider.org for people to go to and donate money towards all of the medical bills that accrued during her fight with cancer. She was 52 years old.

My favorite songs of hers:

Strands of rain,  Hieronymous,  You Will Know, It’s Okay,  No Ground

Rest In Peace - May 22, 1956   to  July 2, 2008  at  11:11am

Here is a link to her wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Shneider

Well, It’s wednesday! Half way through my vacation already *sigh*…

I haven’t gone anywhere special, but not having a schedule is wonderful!  I’m spring cleaning my whole house. This is something I don’t have time to do when I’m working. I’m using my vacation time constructively so I have something to show for it…a clean, organized house before I go back to work! 

 I can be a pack rat about alot of things, so I’m trying to organize all of my ’stuff’ and get rid of things I don’t need anymore. I have about a hundred hobbys for example, jewelry making, musical equipment, scrapbooking, sewing, PC games, movie collection to name a few. Alot of those, for example, sewing, I have my quilting supplies upstairs, and downstairs, and in closets. I want one central location for all of those things so that when I’m in the mood to work on it, I can go to that one place to get everything I need.

I WANTED to make youtube videos but so far I’ve only made one in June which is really a long time for me to not have made any but as much as I feel the pull to try and make something, I know if I’m not focused on making a video, it might come out like crap, and I would have wasted my time. I think if I get done my organizing early, I’ll be able to relax more and work on the one of hundred ideas I have for videos with the vacation time I have left.  I know I also promised some Youtubers backgrounds. After all, I did make a video notifying people that I would be happy to do that BUT I also have a DVD project I’m working on for a Christmas Present this year for everyone that I just HAVE to finish.  I’m making a box set of home videos for my family so that they have copies of all of those memories. I felt bad hordeing all of those videos in a box somewhere, and no one gets to see them. They probably don’t even remember or have never even seen alot of them so I thought I would compile by subject, on DVDs clips that I will be editing as well of all the home videos I have. I’m just excited to get it done. I’m also designing a booklet for the box that will go into detail regarding what is on each disc.  I’m thinking about buying a printer that prints pictures on DVDs as labels. I think this would really make the discs look professional :D  I have alot of great plans, I just need to DO them!

Well, I have to go finish cleaning my kitchen.�

I’ll leave you with a food recommendation:  Chicken Helper - ‘Chicken Fried Rice’.   You know hamburger helper? Well, the company that makes that makes chicken helper.�

Okay, I’ve finally gotten around to designing my blog and I really like it right now. I might stick with it for a while.  I love the soft colors, and I’ve been wanting to use my tulip brush in photoshop for a while now!

As you can see on the right, I’m also currently putting the final touches on my ONLINE SHOPPE!   I love spelling shop that way :D   Anyway, I thought that I would put my photography, along with some artwork, and whatever ‘intangible’ items I create such as ‘icons’ for designers to use, or even animations at some point for people to be able to purchase. I love designing so this would give me an outlet and a place to put it.  I’m going to, of course, include all of my artwork that I created for my IISwanSongArtII youtube channel. In the shop, I’m going to see if it allows me to post my videos in the description field so you can see how I made it. I’m just entering the products right now so it will be a few more weeks.

I’m ‘trying’ to get to posting more Youtube videos to all of my channels, but I have been busy with my website, work related things, and a home video DVD project I currently have been working on that I need to finish before Christmas this year. It’s been hectic these past few weeks.

Oh boy, it’s about 1am I think it’s time for me to go to bed.

TTYL, iiSwanSongii

Okay, I’m not a ‘myspace’ head, but I will say this…I was intrigued when I got in my email a notification from Myspace that they had a new Karaoke feature on their site. I AM a frequent youtuber, and I wish that Youtube could consider getting something like this as well. It’s a great idea…SO, I tried it out.

 Don’t laugh, I love this song and I don’t necessarily HATE my rendition :)    So Enjoy!

I adored this movie. That’s it in a nutshell. Kind of creepy at times. Pretty funny at times. Interesting moment in the film when Nicole Kidman’s character was at a dinner party when she was caught in a deep discussion involving civilization and the war it creates against each other. I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s put it this way, at the end your left with the notion that it’s a trade off…we have to be ‘this way’ in order for society to have no war or destruction in it. Is it worth it? I’m left with the notion, is that the ONLY way we can have utopia… SPOILER! …is to have an alien virus inhabit our bodys (body snatcher-esque) in order to truly treat each other equally. As one. I’m taking it too literal. Writing this now, I realize that this is very similar to Equilibrium (a movie I’ve reviewed here already). In closing, I’m giving this movie 5 stars. I thought it was pretty great throughout and I realized how much I really enjoy watching Nicole Kidman. She seems underrated to me.

Star Scale: * * * * *
* - Poor
* * - Nothing Special
* * * - Worth Watching
* * * * - Pretty Good
* * * * * - Excellent

Found a pretty amazing Fortune Teller created in Flash on the NewGrounds.com website.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/387170

It’s the only one I’ve ever come across that felt like it answered my questions the way they were supposed to be answered.

Definetly wanted to share this!  Enjoy !

I have to say, I don’t remember watching or never watched the other Die Hard movies, so sitting down watching this one I wasn’t sure about. I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed this movie.  The action scenes were so intense, I found myself exclaiming outloud my ‘ooh’s’ and ‘whoa’s’ and ‘ouch!-es’  all throughout the film.  There were moments when some lines were not delivered very convincingly by Bruce Willis, but I blame it on the lines not being written very well. I enjoy Bruce Willis as an actor. As for the ‘mac guy’ who plays the hacker who saves the world, I thought he carried his part of the movie very well. He’s good looking, but not too good looking that it’s distracting.  I do think he should be more successful than he seems to be. I think more people should be giving him more parts in movies….then maybe I’d actually remember his name than unfortunately just calling him the ‘mac commercial guy’ who’s marrying Drew Barrymore.

Overall the plot itself is an interesting testimate to how much we rely on computers and it is a scary thought. I’ll not say anymore in fear I might give too much away. This is the first 5 stars I’ve given to any movie so far. I highly recommend this movie. Prepare to be entertained for a change.

 Star Scale: * * * * *
* - Poor
* * - Nothing Special
* * * - Worth Watching
* * * * - Pretty Good
* * * * * - Excellent

I’m listening to the song ‘Midlife Crisis’ by the band Faith No More. ‘Rent an Opinion’ is a phrase that stays with me from that song that I think is a good entry into the ‘phrase worthy of a tee shirt’ category.    :D      I have my own meaning. Take what you will from it.

Okay, the next music video I have to post in this category is a live performance of ‘River Deep Mountain High’.

I was reminded of this song this morning watching someone on a show cover it, so I search for Tina Turners version and it’s my FAVORITE SONG right now!!!  I’d like to do a cover of it for youtube…we’ll see. I have a lot of songs I say that about but never end up having the time to do! :D   Enjoy 

Pretty decent movie. It doesn’t credit Ray Bradbury but it definetely derives from one of his storys called Fahrenheit 451. The story is about a society that has gotten rid of war but at a price. The price is that human emotion is slowly being eradicated from the earth with a drug that people must take every day. That also means no art, no music, no books.  Christian Bale plays the lead character who is one of the top agents at seeing that all of the ‘rebels’ who illegally collect paintings, records, posters, etc. because they can’t stand the thought of ‘not feeling’ are caught and eventually executed. Preston (Bale) meets a woman who has been confiscating these things only to find he actually does have ‘feelings’ for her which are not allowed.

Predictable but there is nothing wrong with a feel good ending every once an a while.

Star Scale: * * * *
* - Poor
* * - Nothing Special
* * * - Worth Watching
* * * * - Pretty Good
* * * * * - Excellent

I felt like going back to the people I FIRST subscribed too on Youtube back in 2006 and look at some of their earlier videos. It was really great to go back and refresh my memory with alot of these great videos so I thought I’d compile them all into one playlist. Enjoy!

Here is a playlist link that will send you to Youtube and play the playlist:
I’ll keep adding to the playlist which will automatically update in this player so feel free to check back from time to time.

My recent netflix rental was a documentary of an art gallery exhibition by painter Alex Grey called ‘Church of Sacred Mirrors’.  I loved the detail and intricacies of the paintings so I was curious in seeing the documentary.  This movie probably wouldn’t interest everyone. The thought that he explains behind every painting is extremely deep and concepts that either some people kind of just ‘know’ but don’t know how to express, or dont even think about in their daily lives.  I found that while I was listening to him, I myself had some observations regarding ‘living with deeper thoughts’ of my own.

Here is a trailer for the Alex Grey Documentary:

Here are some of ‘my’ observations about myself living in deeper thought to chew on!

“With deeper understanding you, in a way, are putting yourself on a different level of living. By doing this there is a possibility that you will be more alone and more far away from others who surround you that either have no desire to be in the ‘know’ or who’s minds dont’ work that way. Instead of succumbing to the anger of being misunderstood, take from it and learn to exude a silent sense of pride that you have been graced with the ability of deeper understanding in this world vs. living in the visceral plain. I’ve learned to live in both worlds. I am greatful for that ability as well. Being able to do so, I feel that I have achieved a well rounded sense of self as it relates to living with myself and with others. ” I wrote this as I was watching COSM on 5-8-08 10:54pm

2nd Song and video I just cannot get enough of is Typical by MuteMath.

Good looking front man, great highs and lows in the song, the video is all in reverse so it was on them to learn how to play their song convincingly backwards! Enjoy!

I do consider myself pretty superstitious. Here are a few I believe, and follow:

Eyelids twitch: Chinese superstition believes that if it is the right eyelid twtches, something good will happen to you, if it were the left, something not so good will happen.

Ears ringing: When your left ear “rings”, somebody talks well about you, but when your right ear “rings”, somebody is bad talking you. You quickly go through the list of names that come into your head and the name you last think of before the ringing stops, is the person who is either giving you a bad name or speaks well of you

Hands itching: Right hand-you end up spending money. Left hand- come into money

Nose Itches: You will come into money.

Bread and Butter: If you are walking beside someone down the street for example, and either a person or object comes in between you, you need to say ‘bread and butter’ right after that for good luck. If you don’t say it, it’s bad luck.

Stepping on Cracks: If I can avoid it, I do.

Knock on Wood: I do this almost EVERY day if either I or someone I’m talking too says something bad that hasn’t happened. You need to knock on wood to ward off if actually happening (knock on wood).  For example, If I say “Boy, I can’t remember the last time I had a fever?” I knock on wood afterwards.

Spilling Salt: If you fall victim to this dilemma, simply take a pinch of salt and toss it over your left shoulder, “right into the Devil’s face.”   The Origin of this superstition: Salt was once a rare and costly commodity. As such, it was economic waste to spill any. Also, salt is a purifier, a preservative, and it symbolizes the good and lasting qualities of life. It was mixed into the foods used in the religious ceremonies of both the Greeks and Romans. One source of this superstition is Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper–the betrayer Judas has accidentally spilled salt onto the table.
 

That is all I can think of right now. I’ll update if I think of more.

I’ve gathered and taken screenshots of all the ‘crushes’ I ever had on famous people.

Do you know who they all are?

April has been a pretty un-bloggable month. Way to much has been going on, so haven’t had a chance to sit and say much. 

Planning a video project with my nieces and nephews at the moment. Growing up we made up skits, and acted them out using a home video camera. Once you start growing up and going your separate ways in life, you find yourself missing those times even though at the time, you take it for granted.  I used to play guitar with my nephew on drums and my neices singing almost every weekend, but now I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve done that.  Why does ‘getting older’ mean you have to abandon all the past times you enjoyed when you were younger?

 I am subscribed to 30+ year old youtubers right now, who are professional people, and a few of them have made videos where they have traveled to other states for their vacations to meet up with other youtubers to make collaboration videos. MaryAnn712 who is a school teacher met up with Winger1212 and they made a cute video ( I especially like the bloopers at the end). They took time out of their lives, to do something fun and creative! 

Here is the Winger1212 and Maryann712 video if you’d like to watch it. Enjoy!

This is encouraging…the notion that life doesn’t end when you have kids (as some people seem to keep telling me). I think things like this will only encourage and enrich MY kids life knowing that they have a mom that does spontaneous, fun, (even though to some childish, but I don’t think so) things with their spare time. 

I do think there is a performer in all of us…I think right now I’m rekindling the one in me that I was too introverted to share 10 years ago. I’m realizing only now, that maybe I really don’t suck as bad as I used to think I did XD

That being said, I used to write songs when I first learned guitar. I’m listening to ALL of those 100s of old tapes I recorded of myself, and I’m realizing that I like them. I don’t think there as bad as I thought they were back then. I’d like to post one or two on my youtube account and see what happens now.  Good or bad comments and ratings ahead…at least I’m actually doing something with those ideas.

I used to be so overly critical of my art (music, drawing, etc.) that I never showed ANY one or very few. I still can be at times, but right now, I think I’m more comfortable than ever in sharing my art with others to see what they think.

Go me! (i guess)

New Category of posts here and I’m going to call it ‘Phrases Worthy of a Tee Shirt’. Much of today’s wisdom or words to live by are written on tee shirts so here are ones that I think are poigniant enough and to the point to be considered.

 ‘Embrace Your Idiosyncrasies’ takes me back to the pin everyone wore when I was in high school “Why Be Normal?” Written upside down.  I guess this is just a more poetic way of saying it 

Felt like writing an entry for today. Went to work. Worked on a few animations today for some websites I’m working on that I’m pretty excited about. One of them is for our companies website (will post link once I finish).  It’s in a MAJOR need for a facelift, and FINALLY the owner of the company basically said to me ‘have at it!’ So I’m excited to see what he thinks of my new ‘colorful’ direction for the companies ‘online’ face

 Working on a list of Youtube ideas but just haven’ t had the time to working on them very much. I want to make more singing and guitar videos, more sims 2 music videos, and art videos!  I try to stay up late on Friday and Saturday nights because (bless his heart) my kid has been going to bed later, which gives me less time during the week to work on anything creative because of having to get up for work the next day, I can’t stay up too late.

Okay…done boring whomever read this whole blog today!  It’s 11 you should be in bed! ;)   I’m going now.

I had to post one of the best responses from a client I’ve ever received about my YOG logo. It’s just a great written explaination of the symbolism in the logo that even I didn’t really put into words…it was more just a vision I had.

Paraphrased from client feedback email

It’s an important thing to have. Some people don’t realize that they have very little.

For example, it takes good character, and integrity to admit when you cannot do something wheras some people think that admitting it is a weakness.  The latter group of people are just wrong.

What they don’t realize, is that it takes alot of ego and energy to think or give off the impression that you are great at everything. They must have never learned that they are human, and no one is perfect which was a trait that at least when I was growing up was repeated over and over again at school, in tv shows, etc. That leads me into thinking is it a generation gap? The influences I grew up with were different than someone else? That probably does have alot to do with it.

Where I come from, if you don’t have good character, you don’t have anything.

Character is written in the dictionary as: ‘Moral or Ethical Quality: a man of fine, honorable character.’ , ‘Qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity’, ‘Reputation’, ‘The aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.’

 I like to think that people can ‘work on’ this trait.

On a side note, being selfish (which I’ll admit i’ve been in my life) is actually okay to be every once in a while in your life. It’s a defense mechanism against ‘over working’ and tells you when you need some time to yourself and do something fun for YOU. It’s bad when it clouds your eyes to someone else that is suffering and something needs to change….so admitting that change, well, that is where character comes in.

Need to start a new category on my blog of music videos I think are just amazing and need to spread the word about them.

This is a band called ‘The Imagined Villiage’ and they are comprised of 2 bands and a few solo artists getting together. It has the ’sitar’ sound that I love, along with irish storytelling in the lyrics. I find myself craving to just watch this video every now and again so I knew it would be a first good start in this category. Enjoy!

Okay, I’m on a Britney Spears Cover song kick. I found a youtuber named ‘sweetafton23‘ who plays ukulele who did a cover of her song ‘Toxic’.

I loved it so just had to post it here :D     Enjoy!

This is Marie Digby. I just subscribed to her tonight. She is a singer songwriter on Youtube, but this particular video is a cover she did that I really liked of Britney Spears song ‘Gimme More’.

More and more i’m encouraged to try and make videos of myself playing guitar and singing. I’ve only gotten part way with alot of my ideas, but i’ve never finished any. I’m planning to finish a few videos on Saturday night, if all goes as planned. Should be pretty great!

No jewelry tonight. I felt like working on my site and I think I found another design that I really like. I’ve also added some new widgets to the right.  Right now, putting designing my site to the side for a moment, I’m enjoying exploring all of the things that wordpress can do.  Finding widgets, new and clever themes, I’m definetly a new student to this whole thing even though I know it’s been around a while.  I’m understanding the appeal now. 

I found some new widgets i’ve added to the right.  One is a list of sites I visit. The other, I’ve added randomly loaded favorite videos of mine. If you hit F5 to refresh the page, you will see another video. I believe I put about 15 videos in the list.

Feel free to browse around and let me know what ya think.

I just had to quickly upload and post this logo I just designed for a company. I’m so proud of it I’m excited to start working on their website

Phoenetically speaking… Today’s Jewelery piece I made really wasn’t even worth finishing. It’s about 11 right now so I don’t have time to restart. I tried to make a rattail choker, but when I finished the pendant, out of wire, I didn’t like the way it looked and realized better ways I could have done it. Like use black wire (i don’t have any now) and a jump ring for the pendant to attach to the necklace (i for some reason thought to put beads on a loop. Of course, I might like it better tomorrow…I took a quick picture of it with my webcam so you can see. I’ll probably make 2 tomorrow since tonights didn’t really work out to well!   

Tonight’s piece I decided to use my gold wire, jump rings, and clasps.  Then I thought that I was kind of tired of using blue beads, so in going through all my beads, I love cube beads right now, so I thought I’d use these clear glass cube beads that have swirls of red in them. They remind you of marbles with the color swirls in them.  I noticed, that some of my patterns were similar in my last 3 bracelets, so I thought this time I would vary the sizes of the beads I used to see if it would give it a little more depth and I think it kinda does a bit.

 I hope to sell my bracelets and jewelry, but I’m not quite sure how much to charge. I’m not sure how much people would pay for them. $5 seems reasonable but the price where I would be getting back a little profit, I don’t think people would spend $8. I’m working on an idea for ‘displaying’ my pieces as well. I came up with a name  and logo.   The name is “Junk Drawer Jewelry” ©  I kind of like the sound of it. It reminds me of the saying “One persons Junk, is another persons treasure.”  I think that way about jewelry…not everyone is going to like it.  I designed a card that has a drawer on it, with little odds and ends at the bottom of it and I thought I would put the holes that hold the jewelry inside the box, so that it looked like the jewelry was jumping out of the drawer.

I do feel myself taking more care to make my wire wraps a little daintier and neater. This time also, the size came out just right at 71/2 inches which is an average sized bracelet.  I feel myself getting a little better.