No More Excuses

I was having a hard time decided what I wanted to give up for the season of Lent this year.  After much debating over fast food, sodas and facebook, I finally settled on giving up excuses.  They make it so easy to skim by in life - never committing to anything solidly and never reaching the goals that are set.  I'm sick of excuses.

A New Year - Always with the hope of improvements!

So there are many changes afoot in 2010 for me.  Like most people I always start out the year with great ideas and determination only to have it fall by the wayside a month or so later.  Well, I'm determined that this year be different.  I am so sick of the lack of health and organization in my current lifestyle that I can do nothing BUT change. 
What are the goals for the year?
The overarching statement is to live a healthier lifestyle.
For me, that is broken down into many categories that I'll be working on throughout the year.
1.  Better self-care. 
2.  Regular exercise.
3.  Healthy food choices.
4.  Clearing out the clutter.
5.  Use more creative outlets.
6.  Better money management.
These are the high points that I'll break down more as we go through the year.  I've been cautioned not to try to do too much at once and hear the caution, but I also realize that everything is connected and changing one thing can't help but change another. Here's to a great year ahead!

Movie Night: Slumdog Millionaire

It isn't hard to imagine what my opinion of this movie was. I'm with the 94% on Rotten Tomatoes that thought it was excellent. I was captivated by the way the story shows all sides of India and that so much of the background is true. I'm sure that many of the people who live in India were upset at this film. It shows the gritty underbelly and if they wanted a pristine image of the country to be presented to the world, this was not the movie for India. However, it shows how resilient and resourceful their people are and I think that speaks volumes more than a series of pretty pictures. I have a feeling that more people will be intrigued by the idea of India as a place to visit than will be discouraged from it after seeing this film.

What was most striking to me was the way in which this movie conveys the information that you would find in a heartbreaking documentary about a child's life in the slums of Mumbai, but at the same time it is uplifting, funny and heartwarming. Amazing. The careful balance of pain and pleasure that makes this movie not only one that that you should see but one that you will want to see again and again.

Kindle vs. the competition

So, I'm wanting to get a digital reader. I can't really explain why. It isn't like I'm carrying War & Peace around town and trying to read it at every waking moment or even every pause at a stop light, but for some reason I think this type of device will "make" me read more by being more readily accessible. To be fair, I do listen to more podcasts because of my iPod, so perhaps this seemingly irrational belief is actually founded in some sense. I dunno.

On a whim, I ordered a Kindle on December 18, 2008 even though I knew the backorder was a six to eight week wait. I have seen pictures and read countless articles about the Kindle and know that it is a clunky (and expensive) first version of the reader. I've been researching it off and on since this past Summer but keep feeling like I need one. I don't know why. My life will not suddenly become some amazing dreamland because of this fancy streamlined 1950's-esque appliance that can do everything from make the coffee and toast to getting little Jimmy off to school. Nope. It's just a piece of plastic that holds books. It doesn't even hold magazines (and that is my biggest clutter problem!). It's pictures are all grey-scale and not so nice for that particular avenue of media consumption.
Why then did I buy this, you ask?! Well, I'm a little freaked out about the rumor that the second generation doesn't have any storage aside from what it comes with. I'm a casebook definition packrat and I love to be one in the digital world, too. I have more podcasts than I could listen to in an entire year stored on my computer and yet it isn't visual clutter. I LOVE the idea of being able to come back to something to finish it later and to be able to store an entire library in the palm of my hand. I'd be happy to have these books on disk (CD/DVD/multimedia) and have a slimmer physical library along with the digital library but that isn't how the readers work. They are download only and years of working with computers have taught me to have at least one backup copy. I want to be able to put these downloaded books onto an SD drive for a backup copy just in case my Kindle goes down. The current version allows just that. You can store things on an SD that inserts behind the battery pack. Version 2 (what's been leaked anyway) doesn't show any sort of capability for saving or extra storage. (Photo credit: www.BoyGeniusReport.com)

Maybe I'm paranoid and I should just wait it out. However, I've just learned about this other digital reader that is due out third quarter of 2009 http://reader.txtr.com/specifications.html and am loving the special feature listed at the bottom of that page. Click the other pages to compare. I waited for the video capabilities for ipod and actually would have been fine with an original version, since I don't watch any video podcasts actually on the device. It is nice to have my pictures on there, however. What I really want out of the Kindle is the capability to switch seamlessly from the text format to the audiobook format. Why? Well, I love to listen to audiobooks on the way to work and if I'm really into it, I don't want to stop and wait until the next day to keep going. I think it would be wonderful to be able to switch back and forth - perhaps a parallel bookmarking feature will be good. I know this first version doesn't do that, so we'll see what the next one has in store for us.

What I really want is for someone to do a compare and contrast article on the different models. The ubiquitous pro/con list, if you will. However, I want none of it to be in speculation. I want FACTS. That is what is making me crazy about this whole thing! Comments are most welcome on this subject and I will be updating if my Kindle ever gets here...

Movie Night: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

2 sec. review: LOVE it. No past tense here since I just watched parts of it again this afternoon.

This movie is wonderful. If you didn't find it during the writer's strike (way back when), don't worry, you can still find it on the web at www.drhorrible.com or on itunes or on amazon.com. So, go forth and view!

This is a creation of Joss Whedon and (what I assume are) his brothers. Joss is a known entity in the worlds of Buffy, Firefly and Serenity. Not being a great fan of any of those (haven't watched them yet - they are on my netflix [calm down]) I wasn't sure what to think about Dr. Horrible but I watched it anyway. Now I will certainly be a fan of those other shows! That is how much I LOVE Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

If you don't like musicals, don't watch it. If you don't like campy sci-fi, don't watch it. Otherwise, enjoy!! Even ye ol' Doogie Houser is quite wonderful in this movie - makes me want to watch "How I Met Your Mother" and I can honestly tell you that feeling has never occurred before!

So, "that's the plan. Rule the world. You and me, anyday."

Movie Night: Happy-Go-Lucky

2 sec. review: Loved it.

I met up with the gals for an evening of Mexican food and a movie-night at The Dragonfly Theater and Pub in Boone. What a bargain when compared to regular movie prices! Though I must admit I wished for some sort of "stadium seating" when my neck was hurting from craning it up toward the screen for two hours. Maybe some sofas will grow at the back of the room, too, instead of just tables. Oh, I hope so!

This movie was slow to start, but I never mind films like that. You can't help but fall in love with the quirky main character within just a few minutes and you worry about what awful thing will happen to her in the course of the film. No character that is presented as so simply-minded ever survives life unscathed. Reality will have it's way with her! Or, so I thought. Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins, is like that fancy pill that Alice takes in Wonderland to make her life become technicolor and full of joy. You have to smile. You really HAVE to - you can't help it! (Even when some guy is slurping on his drink and hacking up a lung directly behind your head.)
During our viewing, I felt at times that this was England's answer to Amelie or Breakfast at Tiffany's with the same sort of fabulous woman whose whimsy is catching and who manages to create a great life in the process of purposefully making each day a jewel in most ordinary lives. She was brilliantly cast and acted and you genuinely worry for her (as I've found - similarly - myself doing on many episodes of Pushing Daisies) but with mostly no need. The story is a good one, the characters are fantastic and you wish that you had such friends that are so true to themselves. So glad I went to see this with my very own happy-go-lucky friends!

My Long Lost Twin BROTHER!!!

Hey, so we had the Christmas party for Henry's office, Coldwell Banker Blair and Associates, on December 10th at Vidalia's and had a wonderful time. Next year I will be sure to sit far, far away from the gift table so that I am not in a hundred photos (unless, of course, I'm rocking some fab new body or even just good posture!). So, whatever the results, I had a great time at the party, ate great food, had good wine and we ended up with fun presents. However, I was a bit stunned to get some photos the following day and see what my slouchy self looked like to others. When I dressed that evening, I'd really thought my sweater was cute...


Alas, I discovered only hours after receiving this photo that Philip Seymour Hoffman and I shop at the same stores. ugh. Here's the photo and the link to his video on The Daily Show. Start at around 14 minutes in to see my twin brother and how well we matched - only one day apart! If we lived in the same town we could just share clothes! So funny!! :D
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=213366