Movie Review: Act of Valor

This weekend I went to see the movie Act of Valor.  Basically, it is a movie based off of real life Navy SEAL operations that has been fictionalized.  The actors in the movie are mainly active duty Navy SEALs.  It probably doesn't need to be said, but, the expectation of the level of acting should be lower than with most movies.  These guys are not professional actors. 

They do kick ass and take names for a living so your expectations of some really great action scenes should remain high.  There are no computer generated imaging in the movie.  It is all based on the skill of the men.  These guys are amazing.  They have skills I did not even know existed.  And, the equipment they use is cutting age and made my heart flutter.  I was one of the few women in the movie.  It is one of the only movies out there which is more geared for men than women.  If you get a chance go see the movie, it is eye opening for the sacrifices our men and women in the military make for this country.  It is the opposite of chick flick, a "manly movie."

On a side note, I know why they call them SEALs.  They are wet about 98% of the time on their operations.

I Love Leather Cuffs!!

My new favorite thing, EVER, are guys or girls wearing thick leather cuffs or a bunch of 1/4 inch thick bracelets. I have no idea why but I seriously love that look. This is Josh Hutcherson in Journey 2 the mysterious Island with the smaller bracelets.

What I really love about this is that it is super awesome cool, in my opinion, for both guys and girls.

I have been wearing such bracelets for a long time but now I feel like I should just add more and make them bigger and well just more!!

And the winner is...

So, the Oscars were tonight.  And of the five categories, which I previously predicted, I was wrong on only one...80% isn't bad, I guess.  I thought Viola Davis would win for Best Actress in a Leading Role.  The actual winner was Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady. 

I thought it was a good show.  Billy is always a good choice. How great was Octavia Spencer's speech?  She so deserved to win.  And the Cirque show was quite amazing.  But, let's get to the good stuff...the fashion.

Here are my top picks for fashion, in no particular order:

-Rooney Mara, in Givenchy, the details on the back made the dress.
-Livia Giuggioli (Colin Firth's wife), in custom Valentino.
-Octavia Spencer, in Tadashi Shoji.
-Gwyneth Paltrow, in Tom Ford, love the cape.
-Michelle Williams, in Louis Vuitton (though I did not like the back so much).
-Jessica Chastain, in Alexander McQueen.

*My best dressed goes to Christopher Plummer wearing a navy, velvet Tuxedo.  He looked so dapper! Love.

Aerial Show

I am very excited about an up coming performance for Aerial Fabric Acrobatics in Denver. I am in two of the pieces and the whole show is very awesome.

The other thing I am excited about is it being over. Once it is done everyone can calm down and get back into the groove of learning knew tricks and being more relaxed.

Here is a video of me and a partner rehearsing.

Live Sporting Events

I love going and watching live sports, hockey and soccer are my favorites, but any will do.  I actually prefer non professional sports to the pros, except in hockey. Hockey is the only sport that I really enjoy watching the pros, more specifically the AVALANCHE!!! but really don't like watching at a level below, it is so much slower at lower levels.

I adore going to watch my young cousins play soccer, and basketball.  I am usually the only one there that is not a parent or a sibling but honestly I would and do go to high school sporting events where I don't even know the anyone that is playing.

I love sports!!

Am I the only one.... Who listens to music and sees a performance

I first started taking aerial fabric in Los Angeles and my favorite part of class, which was also normally the hardest part was when my teacher would teach us different drops and different series then at the end of class they would turn on a song and we would put it all together.

So now when I hear certain songs and think oh oh that would be the perfect part for this drop or this series.  And tonight at class I had my sister put on a song and all I did was climb and do one trick.  I couldn't finish the song cause I was too tired, but for me it just fit perfectly and thus I am vindicated!!!

My Oscar Game

My favorite part of the Oscars is the fashion...the dresses, jewelry, shoes, hair, makeup, and so on.  So, this year I decided to play an Oscar game with myself.  I picked out a dress, shoes, jewelry, makeup, hairstyle, and some wheels for the event, if I was going.

Here are my choices.

 Dress: Pamella Roland

 Shoes: Jimmy Choos

 Earrings: Amazon.com

 Bracelet: Amazon.com

 Hair

 Clutch: Kara Ross

Makeup

And the car would be a 1950 Ferrari, 166 Barchetta, Superleggera.

http://www.car-stock-photos.com/stk_ferrari-166-barchetta-1950.html

The game was fun, you should try it out.

The Biggest Loser..... And Deception in General

Today I was watching the biggest loser and the black team all decided that they would not lose any weight so they could vote off one of there players.  Okay I understand playing the game, but to play the game and then lie about playing the game pisses me off !  That is their defense too , "Oh, I'm just playing the game."  If you are playing to win don't lie about it. The girl they targeted honestly is guilty of doing the same thing and she is shocked and surprised when people do it to her.

This whole not losing weight to lose a player was all orchestrated by one devious, whinny, and under-motivated person.  Most people on the biggest loser are there to lose weight and to live but one this season comes off as a backstabbing girl who doesn't want to work.  If I were going to do something to win a game I would tell people up front about it, and I certainly wouldn't lie about it.  Deception on a TV show is never good cause eventually everyone will find out about it.

Breastfeeding In Public

Due to a Facebook post made by a friend this week I learned that discrimination against a woman breastfeeding in public is illegal in over 40 states. Personally, I don't understand why breastfeeding in public would even need to be protected by the government. Shouldn't a baby be able to eat whenever and wherever they need to?

So, someone might see a nipple for a few seconds while the baby is trying to find it, or a little areola. If this is offensive to someone, that someone should just turn away and not look. Once a baby latches on there isn't much to see. Some shirts or dresses show more breast than when a woman is breast feeding. I say get over it and stop pushing your prude squeamishness on mothers providing the best nutrition to their children. Here are some websites to use as references...

http://www.007b.com/breastfeeding_public.php

http://www.firstright.org/

http://www.naba-breastfeeding.org/advocacy6.htm

Strange Sex

The other night I found a very interesting, yet disturbing, television show called "Strange Sex" on TLC. It must have been a marathon night for the show because the channel played episode after peculiar episode. Here were some of the oddities explored on the show:

A woman with two vaginas, a man who developed a device to restore the foreskin which had been circumsized as an infant, a woman who had no vagina, a looner (a person who gets sexual gratification from popping balloons), a transgender in the middle of reassignment surgeries, a man who can't feel his orgasms, a man who has the largest penis recorded, a woman who has sexsomia (having sex while asleep), and a woman "suffering" from Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD).

The show is so completely strange and shocking. If you are looking for an eye opening show with little known information this is the show for you.

Driving Hat

Some people have driving shoes, driving gloves, or driving music.  I have a driving hat. Sure, it is peculiar with it's ears and white fluffy material. I find at 3 o'clock in the morning, when I get into my cold car in the frigid, dark night, my fluffy white hat makes me feel a little better about driving my bleak one hour drive home. I cozy my hat on my head, which gently hugs the curves of my head, not putting any pressure on my head, and I smile to myself. So, I have a silly driving hat, laugh if you must.

The Efing Unicorn Love Party

Last weekend my mom, Brittany, and I all went to an aerial fundraising party, yes it was called the efing unicorn party. We know the people hosting the party through aerial fabric class, these people are not your normal people.  This in no way is a bad thing, so the party started at 8 and we got there at 8:30.  At the door there was a small line that looked and seemed a lot longer cause there were two people carrying big huge stilts (yep and that is the beginning).  Upon entering I was offered a free unicorn horn which I accepted, duh.

From here on out the most interesting part was people watching, there were tons of people in skimpy home made outfits, the most memorable being the guy in a full baby pink corset with a tutu and a full unicorn head, and my personal favorite was a guy with a full black helmet on and he stuck a dildo, literally, on top of this helmet.

There were some interesting aerial performances while I was there, and some acts that fell a little short.  My favorite acts were the strong man fabric, our teacher Jill and our 3 other student friends.

All in all a very interesting night!!!

Hardy

I am dog sitting a dog named Hardy. Hardy is a big blood hound. Think "Lady and the Tramp" (the Disney movie) because he looks a lot like the bloodhound, the one who says, "Miss Ladyyyyy!" Essentially, I am Hardy's aunt because whenever his mom leaves on vacation he stays with me. 

Everytime I see Hardy he wails with excitement and I love it. He has one of those faces which conveys dumbness but he is a pretty smart dog. He can open doors by turning the door handle...smart!

We go for walks, play, and love when he visits. Really, my boyfriend is the one who takes the best care of Hardy. He is a saint because he makes sure that Hardy behaves, because he is still a puppy, he plays with him, goes outside with him, and chasing Hardy down when he escapes.

When the week is over I am happy to give Hardy back. Not because I don't love the big fella' but because I worry about him when I am gone, even when I sleep. I am gone about fifty hours a week for work and sleep a lot so I can't give him the time and attention I think he deserves. For this reason I feel better being a cat owner because cats are so much more independent and self sufficient.

Smelly Cat!

So, I got Morris back from his other mom yesterday.  When she dropped him off she warned me he was "gassy."  This is not an uncommon occurrence.  When Morris is afflicted with flatulence it is a humorous situation for many reasons.

I am pretty sure Morris is the only cat who has audible farts.  I personally think his farts make noise because he has a sizeable posterior and this creates enough fiction for noise to occur.

Because of a previous injury the nerves around his tail are damaged so he can't tell when he farts (sometimes he'll drop a little turd unbeknownst to him).  Yesterday his farts were quite noxious and caused stinging noses and watery eyes. 

The funny part was Morris was upset by the smell of his own farts and would move away from sitting by the dog, thinking the dog was the source of the smell.  Then he sat by my boyfriend, farted again, and thought the smell was from my boyfriend so he moved again. 

Eventually Morris realized he was the cause of the smell through the process of elimination.  He could not feel himself fart because of the nerve damage and did not want to believe he could stink so bad.  I guess he didn't know his bum was making the fart noises either.  He is such a quirky little guy.  How can you not love this face?

All this made me think of was Phoebe singing "Smelly Cat" on Friends.

T-mobile

So the other day, I had some trouble with T-mobile. There was a problem switching my service from one family plan to another. It turns out no one in the store can fix the problem and no one at customer care can fix the problem. It turns out the only people with any ability to do anything are the people at customer loyalty.

When dealing with T-mobile go straight to customer loyalty if you can.

Am I the only one...

Am I the only one who wonders why my arms or feet get cold when they slip out from under my blankets as I sleep but my head and face don’t?  I think my head and face, which are always out from under the covers should get cold too and they don’t.  This is one of the unexplained mysteries that I ponder.  Am I the only one?

New Hair = New Me

After a visit to the salon, making a drastic change to my hair, I feel like a new person.  I run my fingers through my hair, over and over, trying to familiarize myself with the new feeling.  When I look in the mirror it seems like I see a stranger, taking weeks to get used to the new me.  I will play with my hair, trying out different hairdo’s to see which ones I like.  I also test out makeup, seeing which colors make for the best looks.

Getting a new hair style or hair color is a little like getting a new fresh look at myself and who I want to be.  The new hair gives me a new feeling about myself and brings out a part of me that had been hidden under my old hair.  This is why I understand the saying, “Blondes have more fun.”

My hair now.

Brown hair without bangs. 

Brown Hair with bangs.

 Blond hair with a feather.

 Medium length hair.

Blond hair...in Ireland.

 Short hair.

 Blond hair with bangs.

 Brown hair with blond and red highlights.

 Red hair.

 Black hair.

 Brown hair with blond highlights.

Me with Morris...

I feel like I look a little like a new person with all of these different hair colors, styles, and cuts.  Maybe it is just me.

Olympics

What is it about the Olympics that takes sports which barely blip on the radar to some of the most watched events on television?  Yes, they only happen every four years, but it still doesn’t make too much sense. 

Most sports have yearly world championships and they get only a smidgeon of the attentions given to the Olympics.  The Olympics take sports like swimming, rowing, track and field, and gymnastics (my personal favorite) and turn them into a Super Bowl.

Maybe it's because all the different sports are at the same place and time and because the athletes are representing their countries.  Maybe the media creates enough of a circus to draw most eyes to the spectacle.  Whatever it is I am hooked and will watch the 2012 Olympics closely, rooting for my favorites, because the Olympics are AWESOME!

Am I the only one... So tired

Am I the only one that every once in awhile you go to the gym or go to work out and then you step on that elliptical take three and wish you were dead/feel like you are dead.   

I find these times very confusing cause seriously the day before I can hop on a machine and go 2 miles no problem but today i can't even go 3 feet without wanting to curl into a little ball and watch tv.  I seriously don't understand how this is even possible. 

Weird !

Girl Crush

Being a hasbian (former lesbian) I have had many girl crushes. Some have been famous, others were women I knew. My current girl crush is a fictional character, Lisbeth Salander.

The heroine from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo book series by Stieg Larson. She is quite possibly the coolest chick in literature.

She is a badass, which is clearly evident by the way she handles what life throws at her. She is raped by her caseworker. She doesn’t report the rape, instead she gets even with a revenge rape. She exacts lasting revenge by permanently scarring the offender with a tattoo saying “I am a sadist rapist pig.” I could continue with remarks on her badassery but the list is long.

She has a strong moral compass within herself, shown by her conduct. Yes, she raped a man, but he was a rapist. Yes, she stole tons of money from a man, but he was a thief. Yes, she axed a man, but he was trying to kill her. Yes, she bashes a man in the head with a golf club, but he was a serial killer and trying to kill her friend.

She lives by her own rules of right and wrong. She is not guided by the rules placed on her by society and it is admirable. If the world was filled with Lisbeth Salanders crime would be reduced to almost nothing.

But my favorite things about Lisbeth are her imperfections. She is flawed. Though she is flawed she survives through injustice after injustice and comes out on top. I admire her resilience and strength. Sure it helps that she is an uber genius, brilliantly working her way through her trouble ridden life. She even puts herself out there, after all her hardships, and loves the champions in her life.

I am frequently saddened by the loss of Lisbeth’s creator, Larson. I wish he could have continued his work or created new characters to fall in love with. Maybe someone will be able to follow in his footsteps making another complex, flawed, character to be intrigued by and love.

Kristen Bell and Sloths

I am a big Kristen Bell fan.  She is one of my favorites ever since Veronica Mars.  I just found this clip of her on the Ellen Show and thought it was worth sharing.  Made me laugh so hard I cried.

Pinterest...Continued

After three days of waiting on pins and needles to see if I would be accepted I recieved my email confirming my acceptance into Pinterest.  They have advised me of my responsibilities while on the site; 

I must be nice.
Be creative. 
Give credit.

I am ok with this.  I like that they advised me to be nice and to give credit.  Those are two things I can do.  I will do my best to be creative.  I wonder if they ever look at someone's Pinterests and say they just aren't creative enough, we have to expel them from our site...

Larger Cell Phones

I think cell phones need to be bigger. It's no longer the cool thing to have the smallest cell phone. A small cell phone equals a small screen which in turn leads to small videos and hard to see photos. Squinting to watch the videos makes wrinkles and is not cute! It would be far better to have a cell phone with a large screen. 

With a bigger screen watching YouTube videos, or movies on Netflix, or browsing on the internet, or looking through photos on Facebook, would be far more enjoyable.  I am suggesting somewhere between the size of an iPhone and the size of an iPad would be a good answer.  So the phone would just barely fit in the palm of your hand.  

The Samsung Galaxy Note is the largest smartphone I can find, with a 5.3" display screen.

The Power of Water

While I was writing my last post it got me thinking about how most people do not understand the awesome power of water!  Water is a beautiful powerful dangerous thing and people do not understand it's special and dangerous properties.

For example in movies people can fall from great heights and if they land in water they are totally fine. This pisses me off because I know, since I was a diver, that water hurts and can kill at certain heights just from impact.  The highest high diver ever was 133 ft by Dana Kunze I believe someone else, a profession, attempted to go a few feet higher but when they hit the water they broke a femur, their pelvis, and their back, thus disqualifying their jump.  So it obviously gets on my nerves when people fall from hundreds of feet into water in the movies and are not injured at all.

Also water temperature is a very tricky.  When you hear water is at 60 degrees you think hey 60 is a pretty nice temperature but when you get into water that is 60 dang it is cold and if you stay in it long enough you can get hypothermia.  So anything colder is obviously terrible and super dangerous.

World's highest High Dive!! reverse split triple

Be Nice

I have noticed I have trouble forgiving people that have been mean to my family and friends. If a person said something about me, I have very little trouble most of the time forgiving but when someone is mean or rude to my mom, I carry a grudge.

This same thing applies to my sisters and my close friends. Really what's the point of this rant. Don't mess with my family or I will dislike you forever.

Movie Review The Grey

I saw the movie Grey today with Liam Neeson, it was interesting.  I liked the idea and it was fairly realistic, until the end.

There is a plane full of people leaving from an oil drilling facility in the middle of no where Alaska heading back to Anchorage, when the plane crashes.  From there it is all the survivors of the crash trying to survive in the wilderness of Alaska, and to make it worse there is a pack of wolves out hunting them.

So all was going fairly well for me until one of the survivors falls into a river and another guy jumps in to save him.  Then when they aren't in the water anymore they act like nothing is wrong. I am sorry if someone falls into a river in below zero temperatures in the middle of no where with no way to get dry they are dead.

This movie was interesting, at times exciting, but was also a little too long and slow.

I rate 3 stars

Crazy Cat

Morris, as you have probably already noticed, is a very peculiar cat.  He meows without making any noise, he will sit in my lap for hours, he eats vegetables, he likes fake hands, he comes when called, he thumps on his toy mice.  Now, he has become paranoid.  That is right, he is terrified that his brain will be fried by the lasers sent to earth by the aliens. 

This is what he has done to protect himself:

Ok, this is what happens when I am at work and my boyfriend has too much freetime on his hands...

Car zipper

I am sure all of you out there have been in the two lanes of traffic must merge into one situation. When traffic is moving at a crawl, the zipper tactic is the appropriate one if you ask me. One person from lane A then a person from lane B and back to a person from lane A again. Why is it when one person doesn't follow this pattern seven people behind them continue the trend letting eight people from lane A go before another person from lane B gets to.

It is very rude to think that other people's time is less important and they should wait longer. I think we should sent those people back to Kindergarten, where they can learn about sharing again because obviously the first set of lessons didn't sink in.

Ring Back Rant

So we all know what a ring back is right?  It's when you call someone and a woman's voice goes "please enjoy the music while your party is reached" and then launches into said music.  This annoys the crap out of me!  It is always that one song that one classical song, you know the one. It is called Vivaldi Spring.  Which is a lovely song, I personally don't like it now because of ring backs.  Hearing any classical song through a phone is never pleasant and it gets worse the more you hear it.

Whenever I hear that dreaded "please..." I know 98% of the time it is Vivaldi's spring, I hate it, it angers me.  I don't know what these people think this does but it only pisses me off and makes me think how unoriginal these people are! It is not classy it is not enjoyable and it is always too loud.  Don't do ring back tones!

Vivaldi Spring   This version is 100% better then anything I have heard on a ringback

Oscars 2012

Oscars 2012: There are only five categories for Oscar nominations I care about.  Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role, Actress in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, and Actress in a Supporting Role. 

Here are the nominees for the categories:

Best Picture: Hugo, Midnight In Paris, The Artist, Moneyball, The Descendants, Tree of Life, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Warhorse, The Help (since when could there be NINE nominees for best picture)

Actor in a Leading Role:  Brad Pitt (Moneyball), George Clooney (The Descendants), Demian Bichir (A Better Life), Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

Actress in a Leading Role: Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Viola Davis (The Help), Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn)

Actor in a Supporting Role: Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn), Jonah Hill (Moneyball), Nick Nolte (Warrior), Christopher Plummer (The Beginners), Max Von Sydow (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

Actress in a Supporting Role: Berenice Bojo (The Artist), Jessica Chastain (The Help), Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs), Octavia Spencer (The Help)

My predictions:

Best Picture: Of the nominees I have seen Moneyball, The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and The Help.  My personal favorite of those movies is The Help with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close coming in a close second.  My prediction for the Oscar winner is The Artist, because it is different, having no dialogue, and there is a lot of talk about how great the movie is.

Actor in a Leading Role: I have only seen two of the nominees performances, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and I was not impressed with either performance, though I thought George Clooney was better than Brad Pitt.  My prediction for the winner of the Oscar is Jean Dujardin, again because of all the talk.

Actress in a Leading Role: Again I have only seen two of the performances, Viola Davis and Rooney Mara.  I enjoyed both movies greatly and my enjoyment of these movies hinged on the leading actress' performances and both were superb.  Thought I am a super fan of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo I think Viola Davis' acting in The Help was so moving, therefore she is my pick for the winner of the Oscar.

Actor in a Supporting Role: For this category I have seen four of the five performances.  I have not seen Kenneth Branagh in My Week With Marilyn.  I was most impressed with Nick Nolte in Warrior and Christopher Plummer in The Beginners.  Though my personal pick is Nick Nolte in Warrior, a fantastic movie I might add, I predict the winner of the Oscar will be Christopher Plummer.

Actress in a Supporting Role:  I have seen Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer in The Help and Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids.  I am slightly confused with Melissa McCarthy's nomination.  I was not a big fan of the movie Bridesmaids or of her performance.  Though I have not seen Berenice Boho or Janet McTeer I choose Octavia Spencer from The Help as the winner of the Oscar.  I thought she played her character, Minnie, perfectly!

There is a really cool game at the Oscars, www.oscar.com called My Picks.  You should check it out and see how good you do on the night of the Oscars, www.oscar.go.com/mypicks

Pinterest

So, I have been hearing a lot about this thing called "Pinterest."  There are tons of people blogging about Pinterest and how incredibly amazing it is so I decided to check it out.  I go to their website, www.pinterest.com  The page whet my appetite but it turns out I have to be a member to explore.  From what I gather it is a place where you can mark things I am interested in, all in one place, which seems pretty great. 

Only problem is to become a member I have to ask for an invite.  I have to prostrate myself and request for the people of "Pinterest" to evaluate me and see if I am worthy to be a member of their website.  Reminds me of lining up against the wall in gym class and waiting to be picked for a team...beyond demeaning!  If I am found worthy I will give it a try because now I want the invite but at least I voiced my opinion of the whole invite thing.

Damn You Autocorrect

I hate autocorrect.  This is an example of why.  I typed in a word, the same one, over and over and this is what I got “Gym ft ft get by gym get by ft gym Ty Vv.”  What word was I typing?  Get.  Over and over and my phone must have something against stringing the letters g, e, and t, together because it got the right word less than 20% of the time.  I hate autocorrect.

Performance

We had a run through of our aerial performance today. It was a lot of fun but it was also a little intimidating. We are performing at the Oriental Theater in Denver and the ceiling is very high and the ground is very hard. It is also really open and dark. It is a little unsettling to perform in a new space but I am also very excited for the show.

Wish us all luck!