Twilight Movie Trailer Spoof

Wes Anderson Commercial

Being a great Wes Anderson fan, I was pleased to come across a new (to me) AmEx commercial starring him (and Jason Schwartzman, can you say bonus!) on the blog of a local artist.

This Is Why You Do Spring Cleaning

If you ever have thought about shirking your deep cleaning, let me give you a reason to reconsider. That's an awkward situation. :)

Children's Dreams Come True

Unfortunately I can't say I remember which blog tipped me off on this website but I've been meaning to share it for sometime. Yeondoo Jung is an artist that takes the drawings of children and makes them into these fantastical photos of what the child has drawn. It's just such a fun idea. I love it!

I would love to have seen my drawings as a child like this. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Everything Hits At Once

Due to the crazy nature of this week, I probably won't be blogging.

My mom's coming into town, I'm moving back into Provo, and traveling to Idaho for my uncle's wedding. Just moving this week would have been enough for me, but it's one of those weeks where everything hits at once. (Great Spoon song by the way, now it's just stuck in my head.)

If nothing else, expect to hear from me early next week.

P.S. I chopped my hair off a couple weeks ago, finally. I've been dying to do it. It seems I should have done it before the Bland reunion since that was in vogue. :) This seems to be the only picture I have...?

Arkansas

Tyler's graduation brought me home to an Arkansas summer for the first time in about 2 years. I loved every minute of it. We spent late nights outside, I made a million paper airlines with Jonathan, hung out with my cat, got family pictures taken, and held a jumping contest on the trampoline. I still think I wasn't given a fair chance when Jonathan said I lost before I even started. :) Even though it was just a short weekend it was great to see Erica before she disappeared to Mexico for the summer and spend more time with Tyler before he leaves on his mission in August. Enjoy some pics!

Another BHS Graduate

Tyler is now the 3rd in our family to graduate from Bentonville High School. I must admit it was a bit nostalgic going to his graduation exactly 5 years after my own. One of my favorite pictures:

 

The best brothers and sisters ever:
It was great to have the opportunity to go home and celebrate with Tyler and the family. The only thing that would have made it better was if I was invited to Paul's party. (inside joke)

Audio Books?

I found these amazing cd albums and I've been thinking about them ever since.

Even though most of my massive music collection is digital, I still have hundreds of cds that are currently stuffed into two cd books (hidden) and stacked on a rack (also hidden, they're ugly). Unfortunately, these beautiful books aren't worth it at all. They're $22 and only hold 12 cds. 

I have been trying to brainstorm about how to store my music. There were some suggestions on the comments section of the site I pulled this from. I've thought about going the digital route and buying an external hard drive to put all my music on cds and mp3s, but I'm still undecided. I also have some ideas on trying to create something like this. I just can't feel comfortable completely getting rid of my cds even if they're all imported. How do you store your music? Have you gone cd-less?

I Heart Rilo Kiley

Back in May I drove across country with Mickelle to go to Tyler's graduation (more on that to come). I mentioned it would be awesome if Rilo Kiley's tour and our trip crossed paths somewhere along the way. Mickelle did a little research and the next thing you know we're seeing Rilo in Omaha.

The show was at an awesome venue called The Slowdown.
Not that I'm planning on many more concerts in Omaha, but if I heard it was there I'd be excited. Here are some pictures from the show.
If you've never been to one of their shows or listened to their music - check them out. Please.

Mirror Images Can Be Confusing

One day as I'm sitting at an intersection, I feel my car hit from behind. Pull over to talk to the woman and look at the damage and here's where the hilarity starts. I look at my bumper and this is what it looks like...

Now the conversation that followed:

Offender: "Well, doesn't look like there's any damage."

Me: "Well, your license plate is on my bumper."

Off: "I don't think that was from me."

Me: "Yes.... you can read it... it's just reversed..."

Off: "Oh."

Yeah, I guess that can be really confusing, right? More like, how many times do you think I get rear-ended, wait until I get rear-ended again and try to post the blame on that person? Better yet, I can read the plate number; how are you going to deny that? What's great though was how rude this woman was to me, when she's the one who hit me.

The best part? When the police officier called her to help me file an accident report and he says, "What's your license plate number? Oh wait, I can read it here." And proceeds to read her plate number off my bumper. Good times, good times. And believe me, I was making much more sardonic comments in my head. Anyone else have great accident stories?

From Game Piece To Wall Art

I was reading AT the other day (ok, now it's been several weeks) when I came across this post. I thought it was an interesting idea. It would be kind of fun to have the utilities card for Water Works in the laundry room or something. I also discovered you can buy just the cards from Hasbro's website. Makes me feel a little less anxious about losing pieces to my games.

I've been thinking of other game inspirations for decorating and thought how creepy using the game Guess Who? would be. It was always a favorite though. :) Vote in the new poll about what classic games you love.

Return of the Blogger

Yes, I was thinking "Return of the Jedi" when I wrote the title. Shoot me.

I am back! Yay! Celebrate my return with fiestas, monuments, and kitschy souvenirs. No? Ok, but at least comment, fair?

After such a long, unplanned blogging hiatus I have many things bumping around in my head and internet bookmarks that I would like to share. Hopefully that means that I will be posting for some time to come.

Thanks to all of you who have stopped by and/or commented on my blog thus far. I enjoy all of you who have shared your blogs with me. Have a happy Friday everyone and enjoy your summer!

Rilo Kiley - Silver Lining

I've been loving this song this week. And even though this isn't really the message of the song I thought I would list a couple of silver linings in my life. It's been a very long week so I think I should take a moment to think of the good things.
-Sunny days
-Good music
-Tax refunds
-Long showers
-Wearing black
In other news, I have already fixed the fax machine at work, started Guns, Germs & Steel and Mickelle's buying the Eisley tickets tonight. That's somewhat of a good start.

May Day! May Day!

Happy May!

Things I'm going to do this month...
-Plow through the thick Guns, Germs, & Steel
-Go to the Eisley concert with Mickelle
-Figure out where I'm going to live
-Fix the fax machine at work, hopefully

That's about all that I know right now. heh Dream big!

Tagged!

I've been tagged so time to share some interesting tidbits. Let's see what I've got.

How This Game Of Tag Works:

~Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
~Share seven facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird, whatever you are brave enough to share.
~Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
~Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. When I was born one of my tear ducts was closed so the doctor had to open it up. They had my dad hold me and they stuck a long thin piece of metal down my duct. Kind of gross.

2. When I was younger I was obsessed with pioneers and living off the land. I was a tomboy and spent all day outside. I read Laura Ingalls Wilder constantly, visited her home & grave in Mansfield, MO, and made my friends play pioneers with me. I was convinced I was born in the wrong century.

3. In high school I decided to not watch tv or movies for a month. It ended up turning into 9 months that I wouldn't be in a room with a tv on.

4. I've been out in Provo for almost 5 years now and I still haven't hiked the Y once. Add to that the fact that I've been out to Provo almost every year of my life... I'm not avoiding it or anything.

5. I haven't bought any of the pajama pants I own. I've either swiped them from other people or people have given them to me. This has its pros and cons.

6. I've been to more than 40 states in the US (I've forgotten the actual number), but I have yet to get off the North American continent. I'm shooting for that soon though!

7. It has taken me over 7 attempts of opening this post to complete this. I guess I learned I have a really hard time coming up with random facts about myself. This is always a disadvantage in games such as 2 truths and a lie and such. Well at least this was a learning experience. :)

I tag...
Mickelle
Jenn
Jon
Jules
Jan
Cyndi
Jason

Japan Festival

This Saturday, I went the 4th Annual Nihon Matsuri Japan Festival in Salt Lake. They had demonstrations, booths, food, tea ceremonies, and tours of the Salt Lake City Buddhist Temple. Despite the weather being a little breezy, it was nice to be out in the sun. It's was also a good change of pace to spend the day up in the city. We went to the festival, browsed around The Gateway, and went to this awesome Middle Eastern restaurant Mazza. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures and none of them had us in them but it will give you an idea of what it was like.
Kendo Demonstration

Shot from the end of the street

Salt Lake City Buddhist Temple Entrance

I'm on summer break and it's snowing...

Classes are officially over and my summer holiday started with snow. It's a bleak outlook that's for sure. Despite the poor start I am determined to make it a good one. My summer plans are still undecided but I think I really deserve to have a memorable, wonderful summer. I will still be working but as for school... who knows. Classes start next Wednesday though so I'll have to be deciding soon.
Besides those two aspects of my life I have many things I'm looking forward to this summer: concerts, catching up on my reading list, going on trips, slurpees, seeing my brother graduate and leave for a mission, camping, hiking, more trips to Salt Lake, shopping, eating countless otter pops, finding a new place to live (that's kind of a love/hate), laying out and getting tan again, Karla's wedding, art shows, spending time with my family at the Oregon coast, the 4th of July, watermelon, and many more adventures I hope. I need a vacation and I'm going to give myself one.

Bees Game

This Friday, Mickelle was able to get 4 tickets the Bees game up in Salt Lake - so we went! It was great to go to my first baseball game of the year. It brought me back to my days going to St. Louis Cardinals games and playing softball growing up. We were also lucky to have great weather that night and it was a great break before finals. On a sidenote, I couldn't get enough of the Bees mascot. He was awesome. I wondered if I asked for his autograph if he'd write "Buzzz."

Here are some pics.

me & my sister Mickelle

Life of Pi

This weekend I got together with the new book club I'm in for our first meeting. My friends from Barnes & Noble have started it and it's so nice to be back in a group. This month we read Life of Pi by Yann Martel and I loved it. For those of you who have summer reading lists you should add it, you won't be disappointed. I would try to explain what it's about but as you can tell from the following Gchat exerpt I don't know if I really get the point across.

Mickelle: oh yeah, haha
i've seen that book before
whats it about?
Me: hmm that's kind of hard to explain. It's about this kid from India and he's a Christian, a Hindu, and a Muslim and his dad's a zookeeper and they're moving to Canada and their ship sinks and he ends up stranded on the ocean with a tiger.......

Really though it's a touching story about a boy's survival. From the first page of the Prologue I fell in love with the way Martel writes. He has a great voice. So if you're interested check it out and let me know your reaction.

Happy Earth Day

In honor of it being Earth Day I thought I would post about a little Earth-friendly (in more than one way) website I love. It's called BookMooch. The site allows people to post books they have they are willing to give away and match you up with those people who have books you're looking for. Then on your end you post the books you have and other people can find ones they want. I find it much more satisfying than donating my books to DI. Plus you earn points for every swap. You can get full details on their website if you are interested. It's like Amazon except you only pay shipping. Just another little website I love. Enjoy and Happy Earth Day!

We All Need Some Apartment Therapy

After living in rentals for 5 years I finally discovered a blog that can help solve my problems - Apartment Therapy. With countless blog entries you can find answers to your questions both on function and design. Of course, usually it also just makes me feel that I need to once again find an apartment that I can live with for more than a couple months before moving again. Otherwise I have no motivation to make it look pretty. They have lots of great ideas, links to cheap decor, Q&A's, and tips for fitting more into small spaces. I love it.

They Keep Saying Welcome To The Real World

After 6 months, I once again have a phone. Yes, it's true. Some may wonder how I survived for so long, but I think in some ways I'll actually miss the freedom of just not having a cell phone. So far things have been enjoyable. I hope I can continue to be disconnected from my phone though. When I had a phone previously I probably spent 1/2 of my day with it in my hands. I'll admit I had a problem. Now I just have to keep the texting in check and we're good. :) And I just need to find my old phone with all my numbers in it... now where did that go?

Holi - Festival of Colors

This weekend was the Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna temple in Spanish Fork. It's the Hindu celebration of the end of Winter and beginning of Spring. The holiday was actually last weekend, the 22nd but I guess we're not getting technical here. It is celebrated by tossing colored powdered chalk and burning the effigy of a witch. Here are some pictures just click on them to view them larger.

The cloud of chalk was visible quite a ways off.

A view from the temple veranda of the crowd and fire.

We definitely didn't get as messy as most people but it was still a lot of fun. If only it didn't snow the day after our spring celebration I would be a lot happier.

More Favorite Words

To continue my list...
freckle
onomatopoeia
bamboozled
peruse
genre

I Confess...

I originally started playing World of Warcraft on a 10-day trial to see what I thought of it. I had definitely had previous exposure to the game as some of my friends play. When I first met them I didn't know how far the friendship would go based on this fact alone. (Guys I jest, I jest... kind of.) As I started playing I had a lot of mixed feelings, slowly though I was won over. Maybe it was finding my first online WoW friend, or maybe it was when my character reached a high enough level to get its cat form. Whatever the special moment, I'm now Elishiwaki a level 31 Tauren Druid. What has happened to me?

P.S. For your benefit there are safe levels of playing that should be followed. This last week I reached gaming overload. Symptoms included dreams of questing, staying up til 5 am playing, and getting excited over a guild promotion. I promptly took care of it though and am at safe level once again. :p

A Hello Kitty Easter

I have been unaware of the Easter market following the Valentines Day trend of themes like Spiderman, but I quickly learned when I decided to pick up an egg dye kit from Target on Saturday. Given my choices I ended up choosing Hello Kitty. I enjoyed the poster as much as the stickers. By the way, if you can't tell, I'm trying to impersonate Hello Kitty.

Here are the 6 little eggs that we struggled to dye. Next time I'll remember to get big cups. It's really not easy dyeing eggs in small square tea cups. I gave up and dyed 2 of mine green and yellow and then decided the last one was going to be Humpty Dumpty. Somehow Humpty ended up with an "internet face" as I like to call it. That wasn't preplanned. Although what is planned is a fight between Jason's Rock Baby and my Humpty Dumpty. Next time I'm getting a better kit for better results. :)

Have Prizm, Will Travel

Mickelle's traveling home to Arkansas this weekend, but can she match this kind of fun? This pic is from my last trip home for Christmas.

I drove the '92 Prizm out for her in June and now it's making the trek back across the country a mere 9 months later. Everyone underestimates that car. Have fun in Arkansas Mickelle!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. It was good to see my mom's family at Gary's house on Saturday.

Wes Anderson

The beginning of this week I finally got to see The Darjeeling Limited, the newest film by Wes Anderson. It was incredible. Of course, I was expecting to love it from the moment I heard about it. All of his films (minus 1) are on my favorite movies list. I say minus 1 because despite a lot of trying I have yet to find a copy of Bottle Rocket so I can see it. I don't understand why this is such a hard thing. If anyone has it please, I need to borrow it. The Royal Tenenbaums is the most-watched movie of my adult life and probably close to tying with The Little Mermaid for overall most-watched. Love, love, love. The ironic thing? I barely bought The Little Mermaid last year and I have yet to purchase any of Wes Anderson's films. I do have a burned, Clean Flicks version of The Royal Tenenbaums though. Although, it's not mine. Sorry Chris... I've tried to give it back several times.

I highly suggest watching any of his films. And if you do, I'd love to hear what you think.
1. Bottle Rocket
2. Rushmore
3. The Royal Tenenbaums
4. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
5. The Darjeeling Limited (including Hotel Chevalier)

Internet Time Waster

If you're one who likes to take quizzes about anything and everything in your life check out Tickle. My roommates and I used to sit around and give each other these quizzes. They're fun little things if you have a couple of minutes to kill on the internet. My profile says I've taken 95 tests so far, dang.

Chop Chop

I chopped off my hair this weekend. Here's a picture.

Yes, I know... this was an accidental shot but it makes me laugh so much it became the keeper. Here's a "better" one though for those who take life so seriously. I'm still laughing at my ridiculous picture so I'm overly happy.

As a side note, my friend Chelsea cuts my hair. She's one of the best, especially for color. I just thought I'd brag about her a little. You should check her out if you live in the area. She works at Platinum Studios. Don't let my simple cut fool you, she's a master. :)

Enchanted I'm Sure

Guess what is out on dvd today? If I actually had money to buy this I would do that tonight. I really liked this movie. Perfect for my sense of humor and Disney side. I went with my cousins over Thanksgiving not expecting much out of a "kid's movie" but loved it instantly. I'm sure most of you have seen it, but if not, go to Redbox and rent it!

Quote
Robert: How do you all know this song? I've never heard this song before!

"these stories don't mean anything"

This isn't really a new love of mine but I've been listening to this album again over the weekend. I first found out about Brandi Carlile while working at B&N and hearing it over and over and over for the entire 5 months I worked there. I think it was after I left that I truly was able to enjoy hearing a track besides the title track "The Story." It was just too associated with work. Anyways, now it's one of my most listened to albums. Brandi Carlile has a great style and voice and I admire the fact she's a songwriter too.

Favorite Songs
1. The Story
2. Wasted
3. Turpentine
4. Shadow on the Wall

Sticks & Stones

I bought this calendar back in September. Possibly the earliest I've ever bought a calendar for the next year. I love it though, it has some sweet art in it. This month's piece is one of my favorites. It's Ball Made From Sticks by Strijdom van der Merwe. Back in 1995 he collected sticks from a forest fire and wove them together.


The photographs of his work becomes the only lasting record of its existence. After taking a photo, he just leaves his work behind. He feels his art is "a reminder of the capacity, however feeble, of an individual to alter the universe by embracing the ceaseless changing of nature, by actively contributing to it." Just thought this calendar and the art in it was cool and wanted to share.

Thank You Internet

Today I had the pleasant surprise of reconnecting with one of my best friends from the summer. Over the summer I worked at Barnes & Noble and from the very first day I worked there I met Abbey. Abbey and I were hired at the same time and were friends ever since. We worked early mornings and late nights. We saw cycles of hires come and go. We became familiar with the "regulars." Well... you get the idea. Since I quit working at Barnes & Noble in September we've lost contact. I don't have a cell phone and Abbey didn't have the internet. It was a challenge. Now Abbey has Facebook though, yay! Contact restored.

In my life where I rarely connect so well with another girl, I shouldn't let such good friends slip away. It's something I've thought about a lot over the months and I'm glad to start reconnecting.

Some Favorite Memories With Abbey In No Particular Order
1. July 5th (and the 4th)
2. Fun chats over dinner.
3. Zone Maintenance :)
4. Talking about music & movies.
5. Cleaning the trash can outside of B&N one Sunday morning.

Mr. Jones! Mr. Jones!

A next generation Indiana Jones is hidden in the humdrum classrooms of Utah Valley. A geology teacher by profession, an explorer at heart - Michael Bunds. Now I'm not quite sure if Bunds shares Mr. Jones' affinity for fedoras and whips but they definitely both don't mind a little adventure.

Bragging To Your Boyfriend

Last night as I finished telling my boyfriend that I used to get praised for how well I held a pencil I realized I like to brag to him about the weirdest things. First of all, why do I feel the need to inform him that I was once skilled above my peers in holding a thin wooden stick? Well, in all honesty, there are probably psychological deductions that can easily be made, but I'm ignoring those in favor of the theory that by reminding him of my select skills set I will continue to be allowed to continue my many shenanigans. Photographic documentation to come.

10 Episodes Or Less?

Last night was a stressful one and I decided that before tackling studying for my biology test I needed a little comedy in my life. I have seen commercials for the show 10 Items Or Less on TBS when I tune in to watch my other much-needed situational comedies, but I hadn't watched an episdoe. Fortunately, it happen to be on right when I needed it last night. I found it quite enjoyable. I was even more impressed today when I found out that the show is only partially scripted. Actors are given a script outlining the episode but are required to improvise much of their lines. Which makes my memories of last night's episode even funnier. Although I've only seen one episode I think I can tentively say I'm a fan of this small sitcom. I guess time will tell. It's only in its 2nd season and TBS only gave them 8 episodes, the last of which airs this next Tuesday. If you haven't checked it out yet it's worth the 22 minutes.

Lunar Letdown

As many are aware, there was a total lunar eclipse on Wednesday. I looked forward to the night for weeks. Why? Maybe I'm a nerd like that. As Wednesday approached the weather was great and I did further research about analyzing the stages of the eclipse and measuring the light every 10 mins (yes, I said before, I'm a nerd). Finally the big day arrived. I wait for 8:25 and run outside in the freezing cold to go see the big show. Of course it's completely overcast and close to snowing. After wandering around in the cold, I trudged back inside. I quickly got online to see if anyone in the area could see it. I got to read hundreds of people (mostly from Canada, oddly enough) gushing about how amazing it was. That's just my luck that the day of it would get completely overcast. Don't worry though yesterday the weather was beautiful. Argh. I guess I'll just have to try again in about 3 years.

I'll Have To Look At My List

Anyone who knows me knows I love to make lists. I make lists of books to read and books I've already read. I make lists for the day, the week, the month, the quarter. I make lists of bands to check out, websites to look at, etc. etc. etc. Sometimes the lists that other people don't get are lists of things I've already done. So of course when I ran across the To-Do List Blog awhile back I was intrigued. She posts people's lists and it's an interesting view into their lives. By the way, her blog was made into a book awhile back too and is just as cool.

In the same spirit here's my list from today, not including my list for work stuff. I'm sure most of this doesn't make sense.

pet zucchini
sia
$5.94 ($6s)
Eclipse Mid-Eclipse - 8:26pm
t's stress essay
excel charts & comments
mickelle tomorrow 7:30
status check mom?

Get Me To Warmer Weather!

In an attempt to remember warmth, I spent last weekend at Disneyland. Here are a couple pics.

Some Favorite Words

hiwasse
rambunctious
lugubrious
quasi
giblet
fiasco
dubious
zucchini
can "pa rum pum pum pum" count as a word?

I just recently started this list so more to come.