My comments to Celeste's "Christmas activities of late"

The holiday season tends to be a busy one for pretty much everyone (“Those that are home for the holidays, … :( … ). There are parties to go to, decorations to put up, gifts to buy & wrap, etc (Again, when you are home, you are making me sad already … :’( … ). You want to be sure to "slow down" as much as you can to really actually enjoy everything, rather than just fly through it all (Whereas I want my time to go by as fast as possible so I can get home!).

We took the girls to pick out a tree. That was a fun trip. Olivia chose the perfect tree (which totally grew on the way home, I promise) (Haven’t done this is in forever, since we’ve had an artificial tree for past few Christmases, funny about the tree growing! I chuckled…). We all decorated it together (Why are you torturing me???). For a long while, Adelle wouldn't touch it at all; she would literally hug the wall to go past the tree (like she knew it didn't belong inside). That was cute. (That is funny! LOL!)

She did get into the decorating spirit though... She had seen us putting things on the tree, so she added her own things... a nutragrain bar... one of her snow boots... a toy... LOL. (Did you take a picture of this?? Because seriously that would’ve been funny!)
Olivia & I put up the kiddos' pink tree. It has white lights & pink ornaments. Of course, the tree itself is also pink.  ;) (Did Eric throw up after seeing this much pink in one place or has he gotten used to all the girly stuff? Poor guy, I feel for him… )

Hmmmm.... sounds like a Christmas party to me. Ha! (Just like America to do one thing and say another right?? We want peace, but by golly we’ll go to War in a heartbeat for it!)

I had volunteered to help the FRG with preparations & with the "white elephant" game (Wha..??). The pain-to-hottness ratio was almost too close though. I thought. My feet. Would fall. Off! (Don’t type like this, makes you sound … I don’t. Know. An autistic. Chipmunk? Well. Just. Kidding. A lil....)

Anyway, the food was good (my homemade cheesecake got devoured) (Seriously Celeste? Why??? I’m calling cruel and unusual punishment on the blog post!), Olivia & Adelle had a great time, I got to see Kerri & Terri (neither of which I see often enough) & I made a few new friends. Oh, and the gift we ended up with is pretty cool. (Sounds like y’all had a fantastic time, and I’d wish nothing but for you guys!! Awesome! <--Not saracasm this time… We need a /sarcasm font.)
We watched Eclipse (I threw up a lil in my mouth…), again, had a few drinks & yummy appetizer-type foods and talked for a long time. I dare say we both needed a relaxing-kid free-girl's night (I didn't get nearly enough of those when I was home last time... but oh well).. Thanks, lady!

It was a themed party (which I totally love, btw) to which the men could come dressed as a reindeer or an elf & the women could come dressed as their interpretation on Mrs. Claus or an elf. (<--AWESOME!!!)
If I had to give the party a title... it would be "Ho! Ho! Ho!". And, really what I mean is: the ho-ho-hoier, the better! Lol. Some of us ladies were dressed a tad on the sexy side. (<--EVEN MORE AWESOME!!)

The food was great- I took double chocolate chip brownies (Celeste you just blew the Awesome Level into somewhere with the stratosphere, please stop… now, I’m having trouble breathing…). The battle over whether to play holiday music or regular chart topping stuff was ongoing & quite amusing (Interesting..). The drinks were nice- I think Eric likes American Honey (whiskey) (Mmmm… sounds good!). We took tons of pics that I'll try to get & post later (some of them anyway) (Can’t wait to see ‘em ;) …).

1) We want to take the girls to "Zoo Lights". Point Defiance Zoo strings millions of Christmas lights throughout the entire park for families to walk through.  (Sounds like a good time, kind of like the Lewis lights down here… Except probably even better!)
2) I'm sure we'll go to a Christmas service at church. The girls will look beautiful in they're matching dresses. (Good… I was beginning to wonder about you and church.)
3) On Christmas day, after we've opened gifts & had family time, we plan to go to the Apelar household. They invited us for lunch/play time. Amy says that we have to come in our PJs, because that's a lazy day. We can totally do that.  :) (Yes! I love going to my mom’s that way, but we may have to change it up this year… ? Maybe going to my dad's, but probably not in PJs.)

As much as I want a white Christmas, I don't see that happening. I'm going to try super hard to stay optimistic though. You know... crossin' my fingers & what have you. (As you know, it’s rare to get those here, and as appropriate as it may be, it’s not something you miss down here…)

I hope everyone is enjoying the season. You should. (I’m trying.. kind of hard at the moment, and sucks, because as soon as I get home, it’ll practically be over, as I arrive home on 22^nd, … )
Make sure to enjoy each other. (You bet! ;) ... )

Why I Like the Anime & Manga: Naruto

When I first saw Naruto I thought of Dragonball... Mostly because it was the same Animation studio that was creating them. But after that the similarities pretty much ended and having caught a marathon of the first 100 episodes playing on a Saturday on Cartoon Network, I was pretty well up to speed on the going-ons with Naruto.

Naruto is about a 12 year old boy who has a terribly dark secret power. On the day he was born, a giant Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attacked the village where he was living, and his dad, being a super-awesome powerful ninja protected the village and all the people with his life. He used a powerful ninjutsu technique to seal the Demon Fox away... into his son, Naruto. Unfortunately, Naruto's dad, Minato, died in this process. His mom, Kushina, had previously been the Jinchuruki, the one who the Tailed-beast would be sealed inside of, so Naruto bascially inherited his mom's job, and she was also killed in the process.

However, you don't learn about all that to much later the series, but I figured I keep it chronological order. Anywho, most of the Ninja that had been fighting to protect the village from this Demon Fox died, and the kids who remained, didn't get the whole story, and thought that Naruto literally was the Demon Fox, when really it and it's massive power was just sealed inside of him.

Needless to say, Naruto, an orphan, had a pretty rough time growing up, since the older Ninja kept the fact that the Demon Fox was inside Naruto a secret. So Naruto didn't have a clue why most everyone rejected him, he just figured nobody liked him. Well lo and behold he gets involved in some some shady business with one of the village's own Ninja trying to steal a super-secret and powerful scroll which had several powerful Ninjutsu techniques, well this guy, Mizuki, tricks Naruto into stealing it and Naruto uses one of his own specialized techniques to get past the guards, and takes the scroll and learns one of the more powerful techniques.

So despite how serious all that sounds, there's also plenty of comedy and good-heartedness to lighten the mood. Especially when Naruto spouts about his "Ninja Way", which is to Never Give Up! That's right, he's stubborn as all get out and this stubborness gets him through some tight spots and even causes others to submit and eventually be his friend, while at the same time, Naruto geninunely wants to be friends with people, mostly because he didn't have anyone growing up. Naruto is put on a team with two other "ninja-in-training" or Genin, one of the Ninja is his "eternal" rival, a guy named Sasuke (sauce-kay) and a girl, whom Naruto has crush on, Sakura, and Sakura has a crush on Sasuke, who could care less about either of them.

Their instructor is named Kakashi, and he is one of the few who actually appears like a ninja, with a mask covering his mouth and nose, and his headband leans down covering his left eye. Kakashi talks very casually and appears lazy and not really paying attention to what is happening, which is far from the truth. Anyway, so this team of three with a instructor is sort of a regular way of operating the village, since there are several other teams with captains created.

So hopefully that's been enough of an explanation that I can go into WHY I like it so much, first off, all the characters who interact with Naruto seem very fleshed out and tons of backstory for themselves, and they develop through most of the series. Along with that, there's plenty of action and comedy and suspense, Naruto appears to be something of joke when it comes to performing some of the basic techniques, but fixes that and ends up being quite a badass, and since he's always competing against Sasuke in that department, it feels good to see him triumph; a good underdog finally trumping the natural genius story is always satisfying in my book! :)

However, at the point the story is at now, Naruto has been acknowledged by the village as being a hero and is currently trying to put the Demon Fox's power under complete control and use it to stop a guy who was actually controlling the Fox and attacked the village with it. Naruto's dad knew about this, and that's most likely the reason why he sealed the Fox's power into his son, so that he would grow up, train and eveutally have the power to destroy this guy, named Madara, who is unbelievably powerful. So it's turned into a kind of War story now, it's had its low points, but its like crack I keep coming back week after week waiting for the latest manga to come out... :b

Changing Your Profile Pic May Change the World.

I've been noticing a bit of backlash to the "change your profile pic for child abuse AWARENESS" ... That key word seems to be the one most people are missing, sure changing your profile pic isn't actually going to go do anything toward STOPPING child abuse, but it is a step in the right direction in making people aware of the problem, from there people can then take the necessary steps in helping PREVENT child abuse... I'm just sayin'...

My note from Facebook:
Okay, so I, having compiled a great deal of common sense in my 28 years on Earth, so I feel I have some say-so in the current trend making its way across the Facebook landscape.

I realize that changing your profile pic doesn't actually do anything! However, if by doing it and posting the little chain that comes with it, we can make people more AWARE of a problem, and then whatever steps people wish to take after that, donating time/money to an organization that helps prevent said problem, I'm all for it! But the first step in all this is ... AWARENESS, which is what this current campaign is all about, its not about some magical "change your profile pic, and PREVENT child abuse" ... Its making people aware that there is this problem in the world, and you can do something about, which should be the next step.

In fact I hadn't really thought about this being problem because it never occured in my household, and still hasn't and never will. But it is a widespread problem in the world and you can do something about it. Raise money through fundraisers, donate a portion of your hard-earned pay, volunteer at a shelter/foster home, whatever, but don't think for a second that by changing your profile pic, you have stopped a child from being abused or changed the world in that instant, because then you're just being delustional.

However, I do believe that by spreading the word and making people AWARE, you are jumpstarting a larger movement, which could possibly (I use the term loosely) change the world ... It's possible, so do it, its harmless, you didn't hurt anyone or anything by changing your pic, but by doing you may have made someone aware of problem that they may have been ignoring or weren't aware of in the first place!

Anyway, that's me on my soapbox.. I may be back next week with another .. who knows?

Part II

Most of my blogs are going to cover some form of entertainment from movies to music and every once in awhile the two intersect in such different way and I can't help but smile. For example take the following song by Brad Paisley entitled "Part II":
Hollywood never fails to make a sequel
For each and every movie that does well
Why can't love be more like that
Where the best ones get a second chance
And that way though you're gone
It wouldn't be that long ('til)

I'd see you in part two
And we'd pick up where we left off
When I lost you
And we'd fall in love again
And change the way the story ends
Yeah, we'd bring back me and you
In part two

Lookin' back we had so much to look forward to
The kind of love that deserves to be continued
And if this were only Tinseltown
By now they would have figured out
A way for you and I
To give it one more try (and)

I'd see you in part two
And we'd pick up where we left off
When I lost you
And we'd fall in love again
And change the way the story ends
Yeah, we'd bring back me and you
In part two

Yeah, we'd fall in love again
And change the way the story ends
Yeah, we'd bring back me and you
In part two


...


... Oh ... excuse me... oh it .. it always gets me right there at the end .... let me wipe this .. okay...

Alright, I'm all better and just so you don't think I'm being too mushy or serious this how A LOT of sequels turn out:

 Seriously, only a very exceptional few movies have really been good enough to exceed the original, much less be as good as... (And, I"m not talking about "remakes" either, that's a whole other blog for another time...)

Thank you for your time!

The Karate Kid (2010) Review

First and foremost I believe they should have changed title to "The Kung-fu Kid". In the movie there is a quote, "It's not Karate, mom, it's Kung Fu!"

?

What was the name of this movie again? "The Karate Kid"

I thought so, so what martial art is the kid learning and using in this movie? "Kung Fu"

Confused? Well don't be, because the next line after from mom is, "Karate, Kung Fu, whatever..."

Thank you Hollywood for making Americans look even dumber and more disrespectful to the martial arts than we are already perceived to be.

Okay so that's really my only rant as far this not being a really good movie.

To me, the original "Karate Kid" was a movie that will always hold a special place inside my heart. So in order to do a proper review of 2010's version, I will be making several comparsions. The first major notable difference is that this movie is taking place in China, the auto factory mom was working at, has moved there, if you're not paying attention, you miss that, as they don't really hit on that aspect of the movie very much, which I was kind of glad of because that meant we were getting down to business. One major difference is age between Dre (2010) and Daniel-san (1984)Also another high point that was hit upon was the fact that Jackie Chan, huge multi-billion dollar box office mega-star was going to be taking on the "Mr. Miyagi" role as "Mr. Han"... a handy man of the apartment building the kid and mom are staying at.

Right off the bat, the kid, Dre, starts hitting it off with locals, both figuratively with the "love" intrest, Mei Ying and the local bullies lead specifically by Cheng. The bulllies don't leave him alone, and you really get the sense of how kids that are bullied in school, for real, feel, as Dre tries his best to avoid them, and yet they are around every corner. In the last bully session, Mr. Han shows up to defend our weak lead star and kicks a bunch 12 year old's butts... funny, yet a bit striking at the same time, now you can tell Mr. Han is holding back from actually knocking them around, as he could have easily broke bones and pulverized these kids, but once this fight is over, you can tell Mr. Han was a bit winded so it could've got both ways, right?

Anyway, as I said earlier, the "Karate Kid" formula is there: A handyman/martial arts master agrees to teach a bullied boy karate (kung fu, whatever) and shows him that there is more to the martial art than fighting. With Mr. Han reluctantly willing to train our young hero, and again its in a slightly different style than the normal classroom setting, involving Dre putting his jacket on, taking it off, putting it on the ground, picking it up and hanging it on a peg. Much like Mr. Miyagi had Daniel-san waxing his car and painting his fence. Mr. Han shows Dre the China countryside, which almost feels like a tourist guide trying to show off and get more tourism in China, but if you're filming in China you might as well make the most of it and they did. So finally we get to the tournament, which is really Hollywood-ized, meaning there tons of lights, sound, music, big screens showing who's moving up in the tournament. Which is fine, movies are escapism and I'd rather they not touch on reality that much, which speaking of that, Jackie Chan does some fine acting in this movie, normally his zany, goofy, energy filled self doesn't ever really have time to act, and most of the time his characters are all pretty much the same, not so much the case in this movie. I was impressed.

Anywho, it still gave me the same butterfly, excited feeling to see our hero Dre take on the main bully, Cheng, that antognized him through a good portion of the first half of the movie. Dre is even hurt much the same way as Daniel-san, causing him to hobble and limp around, and Mr. Han even has a similar ancient Chinese healing technique to get him back into the fight.

So my finally score would be a 7.5 stars our of 10. There were some other things that kept it from reaching that 9/10 stars mark, but again I was not disappointed, I got out of it what I expected and some things I didn't expect. Not horrible, not mind-blowingly good either...

The Book of Eli review

It's been a while since a movie hit me like this one did. From the trailers I'd seen, it was just another typical post-apocalyptic, survivor-type movie. Boy, was I wrong!

Also it's been a long time since a movie stuck with me, and I kept rolling it from the beginning to end in my mind like this one. I'm going to try and keep from putting out major spoilers of the movies and keep to what anyone could have seen in the trailers.

Basically the movie starts with our main character, Eli, killing a hairless cat for food, from that point you realize this world that these people are living in is harsh, to say the least. As Eli travels across the landscape you truly get a sense of a world that has been left to rot after a major War. Not like a war we've seen in the past, but a truly nasty one that left very few things left alive. Obviously food and water are scarce, and as Eli finally comes into contact with people, well, its every man and woman for him and herself.

You don't realize what exactly is driving Eli to travel across this barren landscape, all by his lonesome, until about thirty-forty minutes into it. But by then you also realize how he has been able to do it, without dying. As death comes quickly and in many forms in this war-ravaged world, whether from starvation, dehydration, or from a fellow human. However, since Eli's mission has been blessed, to say the least, he's meant to survive until his purpose is fulfilled.

Now, I'm not going to ruin any of the pleasant surprises the film has in store for its viewer, but needless to say after of all of the movies I've seen these past few years, the surprise moments in this film were like breathes of fresh air. Never have I felt so many emotions in a movie from beginning to very end, and felt them even after the credits rolled.

Whether you're a full-fledged Bible-toting, scripture rattling Christian, or only been to church for the holidays this year, this movie will stay with you. I gurantee it.

So I'm kind of new to all this

This will be my first actual blog using a site designated strictly for blogging and posting stuff, rather than using a social site and trying to blog on it. So yeah, I guess you could say I p*pped my blog ch*rry. That's a really gross way of putting it, but its kind of the truth. I'm entering this world of blogging for this first time. I enjoy writing and this will be a good vent for me, so we'll see what comes of it.