FIXED!

My website is back! :) YAYY!!

Problem with my website

Yesterday, at one point, my new blog replacement website, Life After WoW, got a corrupted file and now will not load. We are trying to figure it out and have a ticket out to the tech at our hosting site and I hope very much to get it back online asap. Very disturbed and unhappy atm.

My New Blog Home!

Well, it's not completely finished but there are a few new posts and it's ready to look at!

I hope that you will all come and visit my new blog site!

Life After Wow

Where Did I Go?!

Sorry about my absence...it's been a number of things:

1. I got very depressed about everything weighing down on us and that makes it hard to have any enthusiasm to post anything.
2. I'm building a new template in Joomla for my blog and although it's nearly complete, I've been running into some problems. At this point, I haven't figured out how to properly link my dropdown menus through Blogger, so I may just temporarily just link to my new blog site and figure it out later.
3. I haven't been posting because if I post here I'll just have to bring the posts over to my new site.

I'll provide a link to my new site sometime today! I hope you like it!

Rainy Day Blues

With the nonstop rain, the full moon, and feeling worried about our future, Steve and I have the blues. It really helps to listen to our Glenn Harrold hypno-therapy, but no matter how much positive therapy we get, we've been feeling pretty depressed for the past couple of days. We need to stay positive so we can learn this new technology and create portfolio pieces but it can be hard.

Things to be happy about!

We're not in Japan!
I saw our elusive chickadee at the feeder today for about one second!
I finished my Joomla training and helped Steve build a website!
We're healthy and doing fine.

Full Moon!

Last night Steve took the camera out onto the back deck and took a lot of pictures of the moon while it peeked in and out behind the clouds. Of all the pictures, I couldn't decide which of these two I liked better. The moon isn't technically full until tonight so maybe we'll get something even nicer!

I really like the moody quality of this image with the clouds swirling by.

This image shows the moon more clearly and it's nice too!

Laughing Outloud at Poor, Poor Alexandra Wallace

Ok, there was a student at UCLA who decided it would be a really bright idea to post a video blog about Asians in the Library. Apparently, she was just about as offensive as you could get, even going so far as to parody-mimic the Chinese language. I read that she'd pulled the video off a day later when reports of her video exploded across the nation and world. I assumed there would be no trace of the video, but I should have realized that people would repost it for everyone to watch. You'll find a link above if you'd like to see for yourself.

Now that I've seen this video for myself, I'm blown away and yet, it makes me laugh at just how stupid she is. What a moron. The news report I read quoted some of the things she'd said and I made a mental image of a blond bimbo...lol...I guess I was right. (Truthfully, I am actually showing myself to be prejudiced too by automatically assuming that a stupid person at UCLA who would do such a thing would be blond with a large rack...but give me a break--UCLA is overflowing with Barbie clones! I couldn't BELIEVE it when I walked about campus once.)

Today I read that Alexandra Wallace has left UCLA because of death threats and because she had been "ostracized from an entire community." She has apologized for offending Asians and said the video a mistake, but my question is, WHY would anyone make such a horribly offensive, racist video commentary in the first place?

If you look on YouTube, you'll find lots of responses to her video. I especially liked these two:
Asians in the Library Response Video
Ching Chong! Asians in the Library Song

Although she had absolutely no idea what she was doing, I'm really not surprised that she has been forced into hiding. I hope that all of the morons in the world watch that video and find out what happened to her afterwards. I hope she doesn't get killed, but sadly, I'd say she is in danger.

Our Raptor Came By For a Visit!

Steve ran up to tell me there was a surprise outside to see, so we ran down and creeped into the kitchen to look out. Sitting on a power box was our Sharp-Shinned Hawk, hanging out in all of its majesty! Behold!

Isn't this a gorgeous bird?! It's very relaxed here, fluffy and with one foot tucked up under its feathers! Aren't we lucky to see this beauty again!

Japan's Nuclear Plant Turning into a Disaster

I've been watching the news and it's just getting worse. (By the way, I know that those of you who are reading this are probably saying, "DUDE! I can read this stuff for myself!" But this is also a journal for myself, and I want to put my feelings down about what's going on.)

Early reports suggested that problems with the power plant wouldn't approach that of Three Mile Island, and most certainly not Chernobyl. Well, as the days go by and the issues have mounted, they are now saying it's on par with Three Mile Island. Experts in the field said days ago that this crisis could never approach the disaster of Chernobyl. I wonder if they are right.

In SF Gate today they reported, "Nuke crisis raised: Level 5. Japan's nuclear safety agency ratcheted up its rating for the Fukushima crisis, reclassifying the nuclear accident from Level 4 to Level 5 on a seven-level international scale. The International Nuclear Event Scale defines a Level 4 incident as having local consequences and a Level 5 as having wider consequences. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was rated as 7."

I am simultaneously not surprised and horrified to find out that Japan has been understating the problems they've been having. Furthermore, reacted slowly and kept everyone in the dark, purposely. Then we come to find that their facilities were not prepared for a disaster like this. They've been negligent for YEARS with all kinds of serious problems that have not been addressed or fixed. They knew it and didn't say anything. They are finally being forced to admit that they've had many grievous problems and that they weren't prepared for this disaster. That's great.

Now that they've finally admitted that they have a serious problem, Japan is allowing outside nations to help. Things will hopefully begin getting better in the coming days; I hope they will soon be able to reduce the amount of radioactive particles being released into the environment.

Looky Who We Have Here!

I saw a Nuthatch on the feeder and grabbed the camera. In the time it took for me to raise it up, the Hut-Hut Bird left and a SCRUB JAY landed! YAYYYYY!!!!

Isn't this a magnificent bird?! They are much larger than Juncos and finches and much noisier too. I have a tough time getting pictures of these birds too because like Nuthatches, they fly in, nab a seed, and zoom off again. I was lucky to get such a nice, clear image!

How could I resist taking this picture? And it may be the clearest close-up yet!

Movie: WALL-E

Gotta love Pixar for slick animation. We hadn't seen WALL-E until now and it was a very nice surprise, full of laughs and wonderful moments. To be honest, I don't think it was quite as awesome as some of their other movies but it was really good. My only real issue was that I am used the usual Pixar film where you meet and get to know many characters extremely well. This movie focused on just two characters with a number of sub-characters to fill in here and there; WALL-E, of course, was the spotlight most of the time.

That being said, WALL-E was an AMAZING character. From my point of view, it appears that they took all the effort used in other films for fleshing out a host of equally-weighted co-stars and they poured it all into WALL-E's personality. He basically couldn't talk, so everything needed to be conveyed by gesture, sound, and expression. The cool thing about this is that it occurred to me that little kids would be able to understand this movie easily because there is so much less language than other films. I loved WALL-E and I thought they did an incredible job with him!

I was pleased to see that WALL-E got the Academy Award for Best Animated Film (though it really didn't have much competition with only two other entries). It was a fine film, but I would have to say that if it were compared to other Pixar films, I expect it wouldn't be at the top of the list--only because the other films had more characters you got to know better. I just wanted MORE!

At the end of the movie, we noticed that the film was dedicated to Justin Wright, and we wondered who it was. I looked him up on Wikipedia and found a very touching story about a man who died doing something he loved. I feel sad that this talented man died at such a young age, but how lucky he is to be immortal because his work will be loved forever.

I'm having fun being a geek! :)

I'm almost finished with my Joomla training, and then I'll build a website using one of their templates. It should be easy and lots of fun! :) I'll post my practice website when I'm done with it and you guys can check it out!

It's pretty exciting to me that I will be able to build a website by myself. Joomla allows you to create websites without being a programmer, which is very cool. I mean, I know how to build a basic website with html code, but nothing like what Joomla can do. It's pretty awesome.

Steve is busy working on PHP and SQL...those are database and back-end website programming stuff that lets you put shopping carts and custom forms in a website. He's having a great time too!

It's funny...when we decided to stop playing WoW, we felt a little lost and our confidence was shot. But since we decided to get back into design, we are having so much fun and feeling so much more confident about the future!

Power Plant Workers are Abandoning the Site?!!!

Associated Press has released this information: Japan suspended operations to keep its stricken nuclear plant from melting down Wednesday after surging radiation made it too dangerous to stay.

On SF Gate, a U.S. nuclear expert, David Lochbaum, said he feared the worst, commenting, It's more of a surrender. It's not like you wait 10 days and the radiation goes away. In that 10 days things are going to get worse. It's basically a sign that there's nothing left to do but throw in the towel.

140,000 people in the area have been ordered to stay indoors. Tokyo, which is 150 miles away, is beginning to detect radiation. People there are beginning to buy food and water in a premature panic.

This feels is very ominous and extremely scary to me. Some of the rods are suspected to have partially melted, there has been another fire, and they have not been successful at lowering the water temperature to stop the progress of damage.

What exactly does this mean???? Apparently there are a lot of people from many countries working very hard to come up with a solution, but in the meantime, the fears are that there's been a breach and a lot more radiation is leaking out.

I'm worried for Japan and I'm worried for the environment.

Woo Hoo! Our Web Design Site is LIVE!

Would you like to see?! :)

Keep in mind that this is a work in progress and the websites shown are mock-ups, meant to show prospective clients some ideas of what we can do for them. We will be adding more content as it's created, and soon the websites we build for clients will replace our mock-ups!

True Vision Design

More Progress!!

Steve and I new have a bunch of website mockups for our portfolio, and he spent most of yesterday putting together a Flash presentation of our work. It looks GREAT! Once it's ready to publish I'll put a link here and you guys can take a look! :)

I've been spending hours and hours working in Photoshop doing website design and having a BLAST! It's so much fun to fool around with images and text and making everything look just right!

I'm also learning Joomla!! Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. It's so much fun and easy to work with! I can't wait to start building websites with this powerful tool!

Spring Chickens!

Ok, ok, they aren't chickens and I don't care! I love to call birds "chickens"! In fact, one of my parrot's nicknames is Chicken!

I took some more pictures of the cutie pies at the feeders!

Look, look! It's a Hut-Hut Bird! I finally got a picture! Nuthatches are really hard to photograph because they zoom in, dance down the side of the feeder, grab a seed and zoom off again, and they are usually in a place where I can't get a picture! "HUT-HUT-HUT-HUT!"

I thought this might have been the first sighting of an American Goldfinch that hadn't quite molted to its bright coloring. However, upon closer inspection, I can see it's a Lesser Goldfinch, shown here with a Junco. There's nothing "less" about this bird, they are just beautiful!

This is a female (left) and male Lesser Goldfinch

Would you just take a look at this handsome boy?! Very soon now, the Juncos will migrate to their summer homes, so I want to enjoy them while they're here!

Here is a House Finch, gobbling seeds!

This is a Lark Sparrow. I'll try to take a better one soon; these birds are rather plain looking, and against the feeder they are not very easy to see.

Movie Bomb Squad: A.I. and Uptown Girls

OMG, QUICK! Toss these pieces of crap out of the nearest window!

We watched about half of A.I. before stopping in disgust when it became increasingly and unnecessarily mean-spirited with no end in sight. Nods to Haley Joel Osment's (Sixth Sense) excellent performance, rotten tomatoes at Spielberg for making a movie that thrives on the misery of its main character. I found out how the movie ended and I'm only sorry we watched as long as we did. I really don't know how people can stand watching movies that are based on gratuitous suffering.

Uptown Girls was a mindless, moronic film overflowing with horrible acting and a totally stupid story line. Completely unbelievable, idiotic, illogical and annoying, we also hated all of the characters. Although we really admire Dakota Fanning's acting, her script was just awful and sorry but we wanted to throw her out of the nearest window along with everyone else.

Movie: The Bucket List

Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman together in one movie and directed by Rob Reiner? PURE WIN! What a GREAT MOVIE! What a tear jerker! What a wonderful story.

Morgan's and Jack's characters meet up in a hospital in the cancer ward and become friends. When both are given the dreaded 6-12 months sentencing after their treatments, they make a list of things they want to do before they die, and we get to go along for the ride. With the wrong people, this movie could have been a saccharin sweet, emotion button-pushing piece of schlock, but it wasn't. It was super in every way. Check it out!

Japan Disaster and my reaction

Smoke seen from another explosion from the power plant in northern Japan.

Another explosion and now radiation is leaking out and becoming a hazard...

The Chief Cabinet Secretary has made this ominous warning: Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight. Don't turn on ventilators. Please hang on your laundry indoors.

People have no food or water or power. Elderly sick have been left to die in hospitals. Thousands of bodies washed up on shore up and down the coastlines. Now, they face radiation poisoning.

This disaster has affected me a lot more than I would have expected. I think about it all day. Looking through images, I found this image showing before and after at Sendai. It's just so horrible.

Steve and I were talking about why this is affecting us so much more than other tragedies in the recent past, like the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean which claimed more than 230,000 lives. (click on the link for an article from National Geographic) Or the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. (click on the links for Before/After galleries)

We think part of it has to do with the fact that we don't play WoW anymore. We have more attention for things like reading the news and seeing what's going on in the world.

Also, almost every new camera out there can now shoot video, and cameras shoot much higher resolution images. The internet is better than ever at allowing people to communicate quickly, so there is a lot more information. More than any other non-local tragedy, this one really seems to be right in my face. It's impossible to ignore.

One last thing: tsk, tsk to people like Gilbert Gottfried and 50 Cent who were so totally out of line to make jokes about Japan's disaster. I'm very happy to know that Gottfried lost a job over his insensitive Tweets. Once he realized he might have made a very poor judgement call, he pulled the commentsm but not before Buzzfeed got them first. 50 Cent later apologized for his insensitive remarks but why would ANYONE say something so awful in the first place? It really boggles the mind.

Can you even understand this? Those are all cargo containers, which stand about 7 feet tall by about 20 feet long. Do the math. I can barely wrap my mind around this reality.

A Note to WoW Detox Visitors!

I just wanted to say hi and thank you for visiting my blog! You'll notice that I have moved on very successfully from playing WoW, so there aren't many posts about the game these days. I am now concentrating on brushing up on my design skills as my husband and I head back to our print and web design careers and are planning to leave our failing company and begin a new web and print design company.

Please feel free to leave comments or questions about your gaming addiction--I'd love to help if I can!

This blog is now more of a public journal of my daily adventures, so you'll find posts and pictures about my daily routine and about movies I've watched and things I'm thinking about. Hopefully it's interesting! If you leave any comments I'll see them and will reply to them as well.

For those of you who have been able to stop playing, CONGRATULATIONS!! It's not easy to do and you should feel really proud of yourself. For those of you who are trying to stop but are having trouble, please leave me a comment if you want, maybe I can give you some advice.

I would like to think that I'm making a good example of a success story. I don't have any desire to play anymore and believe me, I was seriously addicted to WoW. I can safely say I'll never play WoW again. All I really needed to do was to STOP and STAY AWAY for a while and it was enough.

There really are so many great things to do with your time. Personally, I don't even play computer games anymore except for Spider Solitaire. It's just so much more fun to do ANYTHING else! :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my blog! And good luck to each of you!

More Trouble in Japan and Damage in Crescent City

Yesterday's explosion at one of the nuclear power plants in northern Japan caused this fire.

Today's headline in San Francisco Gate screams loudly, "Race to avert multiple nuclear meltdowns in Japan: More than 180,000 people have evacuated in the northeastern coast, where fears spread over possible radioactive contamination..."

I really wish this was being blown out of proportion. Even if it was, the truth is absolutely horrible. Japan has declared states of emergency at six reactors, although three of them are reported to be under control. The estimated death toll exceeds 10,000, and even though you can ask yourself how they could come up with any accurate number, I can totally believe that number judging by what I have seen in images and videos. How do you come to terms with that?

My original comments about relatively minor damage at Crescent City's harbor have turned out to be understated in regards to boats being sunk. Not a couple but 17, ouch. Several boats have been grounded as well. San Francisco Gate had a news story about the damage in Crescent City and has a series of pictures to look at. You'll notice that many of them are the same scene as I showed the other day, only from different angles.

Junco Fest!

After the raptor flew away, disappointed that all the little birdies didn't just fly directly into his beakie, the bird feeders were a ghost town for about 20 minutes. Then, as if someone signaled, "ALL CLEAR!!!", the little birdies came back to continue wolfing down seed and arguing over the best spot to eat.

It occurred to me that I haven't posted much in the way of Juncos, and that's a tragedy! These cutie pies are so adorable that I just gotta share some images! Behold!

Here are a couple of males on a feeder. I like the way the one on top is peering down to see what the one below is doing! "I'm eating seeds and there aren't any for you!"

This is a female; notice her subdued but still beautiful coloring.

I got an image of two Juncos in flight!

I would like to take some images of birds in flight where the wings are crisp, but sometimes the soft blur of wings is really cool and artistic.

Look Who Came To Visit!!!!!!!!!

While I was finishing my post about the earthquake in Japan, Steve ran into the room and yelled, "COME QUICK!! LOOK OUT THE BATHROOM WINDOW!!!"

Sitting on one of the wrought iron poles we use to attach the bird feeders was a raptor!! It looked like one we'd seen a couple of years ago but we weren't sure.

Steve and I creeped downstairs quietly and he grabbed the camera. Happily, it stayed long enough to be photographed!

This is an adult Sharp-Shinned Hawk. "Come to eat your seeds little tasty birdies! I would like you to be my LUNCH!"

This is the bird Steve photographed a couple of years ago. This is also an adult Sharp-Shinned Hawk. I would like to thank Louise Shimmel from the Cascades Raptor Center and Lynn Tompkins from Blue Mountain Wildlife for their help in identifying these birds! I emailed them to ask if they knew what type of raptor these birds are and each wrote back with excellent descriptions. THANKS SO MUCH!

Japan's Earthquake & Tsunami and Oversensationalizm

This is not a child's toy box. There are so many images like this one, that defy understanding. My heart goes out to Japan.

What a horrible tragedy. I was looking at footage yesterday when I found out about what happened and it made me cry as it sunk in how much life was lost and how much devastation was caused. This video did a very good job at showing footage and describing the disaster's scope. (This link also brings you to an enormous collection of images and videos if you are interested.)

I have a friend (HI LAURA!!) who is currently traveling in Thailand and just arrived at Laos. When I found out about the earthquake and tsunami, I immediately searched the news and was relieved to find that those areas were not affected. As horrific as the damage is in Japan, it's good to know that the tsunami had a minimal effect on the rest of the world.

It is truly disgusting how far the media will go to oversensationalize a disaster for its own benefit. If you believed every report you read, you would think that the entire coastline from Mexico up to Washington was destroyed. Literally, I was reading report after report of "MASSIVE DAMAGE" up and down the coast, but when I took a closer look and found nothing to back up the stories, I became suspicious. Why weren't there millions of pictures of this destruction on our coastline? Why wasn't I reading stories from countless people recounting what happened?

For the most part, the US was unaffected. We got 1-2 feet swells. There was some damage to boats bumping into each other, and a few boats pulled free of their moorings and caused some damage. There was some harbor damage and a few boats sank.

I was very alarmed to read stories about people being swept out to sea, but that was more about people being stupid than the minor swells that were caused by the tsunami. Without reading what actually happened, your mind would picture huge waves ripping the people off a high cliff and dragging them away to their doom. They stood too close to waves and got pulled in. The event of the tsunami brought them to the edge of the ocean but that's the only connection.

Now there's a threat of a nuclear meltdown at a reactor in Northern Japan. While the threat is real and there has been an explosion, I refuse to be drawn into stories screaming in so many words, "JAPAN'S CHERNOBYL IS HAPPENING NOW!!!" Media in all countries is blowing everything out of proportion, so I'll watch the news with a jaundiced, critical eye.

The media has been oversensationalizing news and events from the dawn of time, but it seems like it's worse than ever now. The internet turns news into a version of "the telephone game": you start with a story and call someone to tell them about it. That person calls another person and tells them. And so on...until, for example, the fifth person calls YOU to let you know about the story, but by that time it's turned into a story that isn't even remotely similar to what you originally said.

Keep this in mind when you are reading about this terrible disaster. It has affected so many people, so many lives. But read reports with the understanding that if it sounds incredible, you may want to read more accounts to get the true facts. Information is more accurate regarding stories at the epicenter of the earthquake and tsunami and begins to skew as one gets further away. Every news agency wants to be in the limelight and they will do anything to get attention, which means it's up to you to read between the lines.

The worst hit harbor in the United States was in Crescent City. This is terrible but as you can see, it's not a total disaster. If you look up images in Google, you'll find this spot photographed in different ways and called a total disaster. It is misquoted many times as being in Southern Oregon. There is one prominent picture of a sunk boat, and a few other submerged vessels shown at a distance.

Yay, Getting Things Done!

I'm not posting so much now because I've been spending almost all of my time working on design mockups! I have two website mockups with secondary pages finished now and working on a new one today. I think it's a little too ambitious to try to do one pair of page designs every day but I can get them done in two days including any tweaking. As I relearn my skills in Photoshop my speed will increase and I should be able to do a lot more in less time.

Two great things about this is that I'm getting a lot of practice in Photoshop, which I really, really need; I'm also helping to build our portfolio, which we must work on as much as possible so we can start advertising for jobs.

Well, I'm working on another mockup so I have to cut this short!

Springtime is on its way!

This morning when I got up, I looked out the kitchen window to see what the party scene was like at the bird feeders. Juncos all over the place! Those birds are so feisty, you should see them arguing! :)

Scrub Jay, image found on Deric Bownd's Blog

We're getting new birds every day now! A few days ago I heard and then saw a Scrub Jay! Two days ago I saw one of our favorite birds, a Nut Hatch! We like to call them "Hut-Hut Birds" because they land anywhere on the feeder and run all over it, including straight down the sides of the feeder. They look left, right, run this way, grab a seed, and zoom off again. They remind us of the SWAT team in The Blues Brothers!

This is a Hut-Hut Bird...er...a Nuthatch! I got this image off the web because I can't find a good one from our collection.

Today as I was grinning at the Juncos, I saw a Lark Sparrow and then a House Finch! House finches are such beautiful birds with their fiery breasts! Below are a couple of pictures we took a couple of years ago.

Isn't this a beautiful bird?! Although I believe it's a House Finch, it could also be a Cassin's or Purple Finch. They are so similar I can't tell them apart.

I couldn't resist putting up this image too! "This is my seed!"

This is a Lark Sparrow, an image I found online. The one on our feeder was shoveling food into its beak as fast as it could!

Reality Check!

I just love this line from one of my all-time favorite movies, Mister Roberts: James Cagney has absolutely lost it over something Henry Fonda does and yells at the top of his lungs to the miserable crew of the USS Reluctant, "SOUND THE GENERAL ALARM!" (click on the link to hear Cagney in all of his glory, but better yet, RENT THE MOVIE, it's quite possibly my favorite movie!)

I woke up today and realized that a month and a day has passed since I stopped playing WoW, and you know what? I have very little to show for it. Yes, I learned how to use InDesign and I'm going through a Photoshop tutorial...I built a website mockup, I designed a pamphlet, and I did many hours of copywriting for the website we're doing for our veterinarian too.

But let's face it. If my ass was kicked to the curb...could I get a job as a graphic or web designer? NFW*. I have no current portfolio. My skills are still weak from not using them for 5 years. I lack the confidence to march in like I usually do and just TAKE any job I want. That makes me feel really uncomfortable and worried.

I think this hit me over the past couple of days as I was working on my "About Me" page for our upcoming website. I cobbled together my resume and I think what happened was that it finally hit me that we need to get our asses into gear, NOW. Our original plan was to do our veterinarian's website and then immediately get another one going, and then fairly soon after that, we'd be advertising on Craig's List and getting our foot in the door. But our vet is very flakey and we've just been schlepping along, me much moreso than Steve. He's actually been learning TONS of stuff and getting more confident and skilled every day. But me?

I'm a Blogging Junkie! *cringe* It may be a little better than WoW, but come on. I've been wasting valuable time.

So today Steve and I talked and we came up with a very good plan to build our website portfolio in the next couple of weeks.

I guess it's a good plan because I have a new website all mocked up and so does Steve! YAYYYY!!! I feel a LOT better. I'm going to try to get a new website mock up done every day or at most, two days, so that we'll have a bunch of them to add to our portfolio and within a couple of weeks, we'll have something to show people and we can advertise on Craig's List! If we want to get out of our failing business, we need to get our butts into gear!! We're so excited that we're finally moving forward again!

*No Fucking Way

Movie: 12 Angry Men

When Steve and I found out that Sidney Lumet, director of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, started his movie directing career with 12 Angry Men, we simply had to watch it. I'd seen it a few months ago when Steve was away on a trip but he'd remembered how much I enjoyed it, and I was very happy to watch it again.

Some of my favorite movies (Stalag 17, The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, etc.) take place in only a few rooms, and are adapted from plays (12 Angry Men takes place in only one room for 95% of the movie). What you get is extremely strong character development and interesting performances because the actors can't do much else to sell the movie in such confined space. Now dial back the years and make the film black and white where you have to depend on lighting, angles and close-ups to make the movie more interesting along with the actor's performances. If this is done well, you end up with a movie like 12 Angry Men.

This movie is about 12 jurors who have to agree one way or another, whether or not to find the defendant guilty of a murder. That may not seem like an movie worth watching, but it's really good! Since I'd seen it before, I got to see how Steve reacted to each scene which was fun for me, and I got to study performances differently now that I knew how everything would turn out. 12 Angry Men is one of the very best classic movies out there and if you haven't seen it, check it out!

Movie: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Wow. What a movie!! There is a reason why Roger Ebert placed this at #3 for his favorite 2007 movies! Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was filmed like Pulp Fiction, in that the time line is out of order. This must be a very difficult way to tell a story without hopelessly confusing viewers, but this one worked perfectly. The actors were awesome, the directing couldn't be topped, and the plot was great. It's a story about a robbery that goes wrong and gets worse with each passing hour. Tense, exciting, scary, and disturbing, we were riveted to the screen from beginning to end. We were amazed to find out that the director, Sidney Lumet, was 82 years old when he worked on this movie, and it's no surprise as to why it turned out so well. He's the man behind such fantastic films as 12 Angry Men (his directorial debut!! OMG!!), Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, and many others.

After the movie, we watched the Making Of featurette and all I can say is that Sidney Lumet is AMAZING! Steve and I were blown away by this talented, humble, extremely gifted man and really enjoyed hearing him talk about how he made the film. Really interesting and well-worth watching if you get this movie on dvd!

Between Storms

Today when I saw that it wasn't raining and the sun was shining through the clouds, I decided to go for a walk around the property. I wanted to bring only Zoe this time because she's so easy to dry off and doesn't get muddy. I grabbed the camera and got a few pictures to share! Enjoy! By the way, about 30 minutes after we got back, it started pouring again!

It's been raining so much that the stream that runs down to our seasonal pond is more like a creek than a stream right now!

Goofball Zoe is checking out the edge of our overflowing pond.

This is our bloated pond, full of froggies just waiting until nightfall so they can have another rave party!

I did it! I did it! I took an extreme close-up with our new camera! This droplet measured about one eighth of an inch in diameter! (Click on "extreme close-up" for a zoomed in view)

I thought the moss and fungus on this fallen tree was very cool looking!

There are many granite outcroppings on our property and moss loves to grow on it. The vibrant green colors are so beautiful this time of year!

Another view of the moss on the granite with a manzanita tree and Zoe in the background

Water flowing down from the hillside shining on a mossy granite outcropping.

Oh Those Fornicatin' Froggies!

Tonight I walked down to our gate to put a Netflix movie in the mail for pickup tomorrow and as I walked down the road with my little flashlight, I thought how peaceful it was. The cool breeze on my face, and what was that sound? Off to the right, a deer ran off into the trees from where I surprised it. Then, I found it difficult to even think because I was approaching our seasonal pond and omg...the cacophany of froggies calling out for a date was deafening! It makes me laugh, they're so LOUD! About a month ago, Steve and I walked down to the pond at night and sat by the edge of the water to just listen to the frogs and toads advertising for love. Steve recorded their calls on his iPhone and was able to transfer it over to the pc so I could share it here! I just love frogs. They're so cute and when they croak, their vocal pouches get so HUGE! Frogs RULE!

Here's a picture of one of the Pacific Tree Frogs that is partying down at the pond. This cutie pie was on the side of our house one evening a couple of years ago. We find them in our shop, our garage, and once we even found one in the kitchen!

Canadian Geese are so Cool

Today I got to spend the afternoon clearing brush and several times while I was working, I heard the sounds of Canadian Geese calling as they were flying by on their way to or from the Rogue River, where they spend time in mid-migration.

This beautiful image of two Canadian geese was taken by Gert Paasen

I always stop to see if I can spot them and they invariably bring a smile to my face. I love to hear them calling, and it's wonderful to see them forming a V as they fly along. Today I saw two pairs and a single bird. To me, hearing them as they fly over our property is very special and tranquil and I always feel so lucky to experience this. They are a symbol of this wild place in which we live.

Movie: Gentlemen Prefer Blonds

To honor the death of Jane Russell, I we got this movie to watch and it was so much fun! There were so many bombshell vehicles back in the 50's, and this was a huge favorite. Why not? You have Jane Russell AND Marilyn Monroe on the screen at the same time...WOWZERS! I'd forgotten how lovely, intelligent and talented Jane was, and next to Marilyn, she was like an Amazon! Oddly enough, Jane was 5'7 and Marilyn was 5'5, but there seemed to be a much bigger difference on screen. This movie was all about Marilyn being daffy and Jane trying to keep her out of trouble. Lots of eye candy and lots of fun! I could watch them all day long! By the way, this is the movie where Marilyn sings, "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" and if you'd like to see it, there's a link to a YouTube video.

Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe showing off their yummiliciousness in Gentlemen Prefer Blonds. I think their dresses are the cat's meow! If you enjoy wonderful costume design, you'll love this film!

I think it's very interesting how much our society has turned away from the curvy, voluptuous figures so popular back when Jane and Marilyn were all the rage. I wonder if hourglass beauties will ever be popular in films again?

Movie: Avatar

*bounces around happily* I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!! We saw it in 3-D in the theater, and I've seen it twice already at home. This is my third viewing and it just never gets old. Why it didn't get a JILLION awards at the Oscars is a prime reason the Academy Awards SUCK. I mean give me a BREAK. Every time I think about that it pisses me off.

While I'm flaring at the nostrils, let me say a few more things. Some people like to poo-poo this movie because they say "it's just like Pocohontas with Na'vi taking the place of the Indians." You know what? Pardon my language but I don't give a flaming rat's ass if the stories are "the same". A good story is a good story and you know what else? There are no more original stories. I think that people that poo-poo Avatar just have a bug up their butts and can't appreciate perfection because they're so wound up over their pursuit of criticism.

That's right. I think Avatar is a perfect movie. I cannot find a fault in it, and I would invite anyone to challenge that. Before you do though, ask yourself these questions: when you watched this movie, did you sit there LOOKING for problems all the way through or did you just sit back and enjoy this amazing story unfolding before you? Did you spend most of the movie analyzing scenes and thus missing large chunks of the film because you were trying to find holes? Did you go into this movie a skeptic with arms crossed over your chest, unwilling to suspend your disbelief? And finally, after the movie was over, did you spend lots of time picking apart things that bothered you and looking for problems?

A movie is not meant to be analyzed. It is meant to entertain. Of course every film can be criticized on some level because there is no such thing as absolute perfection. However, if you arrived at the end of a movie and you enjoyed it, the film did what it was supposed to. It entertained you. If you spent time afterwards picking every scene apart to find problems and then say the film sucked, you are being unfair as a reviewer.

That being said...I still say that Avatar is PERFECT! *bounces around happily* Before Avatar, the Lord of the Rings trilogy was at the top of my list for mind-blowing fantasy entertainment. Avatar is so totally amazing to me, I just wish that it would never end. I identify with so many aspects of this film! It makes me squeal with joy, gasp in amazement, laugh out loud with delight, scream in anger, and cry my heart out in sorrow. It's so beautiful and fascinating, and it seems so completely realistic that it's hard to believe that Pandora and the Na'vi only exist in a computer.

I loved this movie from the very first moment when Jake wakes up in his pod and two water droplets bump into each other in front of his eyes and become one. I was mesmerized when I saw his Na'vi avatar and wished I had one too. Then we meet Sigorney Weaver and omg she is just SO KICKASS! HUGE FAN of Sigorney here, love her to death! (Among a zillion of her killer quotable lines, how many times have you said this? "GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BITCH!") Then Jake wakes up in his avatar and for the first time since he was injured, HE CAN RUN!! But you know when I fell in love with this film?

Jake reaches out to touch a sensitive plant on Pandora.

The part when Sigorney in her avatar, Jake and the others, land on Pandora and Jake finds himself wandering away from the group in boredom. He finds some enormous, weird plants that, upon being touched, disappear into the ground. He tries it again with another one and away it goes, and then the whole group of them disappear in a torrent with Jake looking on in amazed delight.

The reason I loved this so much is that I HAVE DONE THIS VERY THING!!! James Cameron filled Avatar with countless underwater references, and the enormous plants that Jake touched are real things underwater. They are very tiny, at most about an inch tall, and they are called Christmas Tree Worms. Take a look!

These beautiful worms come in nearly every color of the rainbow and can be found in many oceans in the world.

Christmas Tree Worms really ARE worms, and what you see is how they filter food out of the water. They react EXACTLY the same too! If you wiggle a finger close to one, it instantly disappears into its calcium-lined tube! Steve and I love to find these beautiful creatures when we dive, and though we don't disturb all of them, it's really hard to resist cruising quietly over to them and creeping a finger closer and closer until....ZOOOP!!! Away it goes, and I squeal with glee through my regulator!

Anyway, I could go on and on about all the things I love so much about Avatar, but I think you get the point. It's a very cool flick and so fun to enjoy each and every time I get the chance!

OMG I Used My Orbital Trainer!

Last night when I was realizing there would be no hike today, I was really disappointed because I was totally looking forward to it. We want to meet the other hikers and make some new friends! Also, I wanted the exercise, darn it! We're not doing enough biking to satisfy me, but it's not really our fault--we're not going to ride in the rain or if it's below 45 degrees, so what can I do? *glares into the mirror*

I have an awesome orbital trainer that I love to use if only I can get started with a routine and stick with it. It's great exercise AND I get to watch a movie while I'm working out! How cool is that?!

Last night as I was falling asleep, I told myself over and over again that I will use my orbital trainer today. To my amazement, it hit me at one point that it's time to stop what I was doing and go use the orbital trainer. Like, I didn't have a choice and it's just what I'd be doing now. Well, ok then! I marched down to the garage, popped in a movie and went to town! I ended up working out for 50 minutes and 300 calories, which was a lot more than I expected I would do. I'm so happy!!!! YAYYYY!!!

No Hike Today :(

It started raining last night at about 10pm and it's still raining. :( Yesterday people who were signed up for the Lower Table Rocks hike began crossing themselves off the list because of the impending storm. Looking at the forcast, we figured it would rain but we remained hopeful until this morning. Oh well, there will be lots of nice days for hikes coming up! We signed up for next month's Lower Table Rock hike but we're hoping to get up there before that on our own.

Juncos, Make Some Room!

I was really happy to see that our bird feeders are starting to get busy! I counted at least a dozen Juncos on the feeders one time I looked out, what a party! Then, lighting on top of one of the wrought iron poles was my first sighting of a Lesser Gold Finch this season! I didn't get a picture but I do have pictures we've taken from previous seasons!

Lesser Gold Finches are smaller than Juncos but just as feisty. They have no problem plowing into a bunch of Juncos and yelling at them to, "MOVE OVER BUD, I'M NOT WAITING!"

We got some really neat images of birds in flight, including this Lesser Gold Finch!

This House is Clean!

It's the 5th of March and that means my WoW account is no longer active. Steve and I still had our games on our machines just in case we were asked to log on for something, but happily, that wasn't necessary. I haven't played for an entire month except for an hour about three weeks ago when I logged in to distribute items and to say goodbye.

This morning I got up, hopped on my computer and uninstalled WoW! It asked if that's what I really want to do and I was like, "YES! QUIT STALLING!" An instant later the deed was done. I don't know...it just seems like it should have taken a long time to get rid of that life-sucker. I'm glad it's finally off my machine. I wasn't worried about getting pulled in again, I just wanted WoW out of my life completely because I've moved on and it serves no purpose.

Found this image to put up, though I don't entirely agree with what it says. People who play WoW aren't necessarily losers. Some are, some aren't. And people who play WoW DO have lives, some just choose WoW for the place they like to spend time. In my case, I learned that life in WoW is completely superficial and in the end, I didn't mean much to anyone at all. I also realized that nothing mattered to me either. When I turned the game off, it was like raising the blinds and seeing the real world for the first time in a very long while. Life without WoW is infinitely better and I'll never go back because there's nothing for me in that game anymore.

Movie: Inherit the Wind

Another classic black and white film, this time starring the talented Spencer Tracy. Spencer got several award nominations for his awesome performance, but unfortunately he didn't win. This movie is a fictionalized dramatization of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, where the defendant was accused of breaking the law when he taught evolution in a Tennessee school. Talk about an explosive topic! Remember how I was saying in my review of Simon Birch that I don't mind religion if it's not shoved down my throat? This movie is full of people who are determined to do this, and it got pretty annoying after a while. And by the way, if I never hear "Give Me Some Old Time Religion" for the rest of my life it will be too soon! They played that tune about fifty thousand times throughout the film and I'm still cross-eyed from the monotony! In any event, this movie was very well acted and thought-provoking, but it's a little scary to know that teaching evolution is still frowned upon in many public schools of the United States.

Tiny Flowers

I am a huge fan of macro photography because I appreciate the tiny things that most people don't stop to notice.

It's turning into spring around here which means SPRINGTIME WILDFLOWERS! There many beautiful flowers that grow here on our property so I thought I'd see if I could take a macro picture or two. My quarry: tiny white flowers that grow among the moss down by a huge granite outcropping near the house.

Well, I took a lot of pictures and it's painfully obvious that I will need to read the manual on our camera in order to get the images I'm after. This is the only one that I'll show you and I'm not at all happy with it. I was hoping to fill the screen with one blossom. These tiny flowers are all but an eighth of an inch in diameter, but they just lovely. I want to share, darn it! *tantrum* Stay tuned for a better image in the next few days.

Thousands of these pretty little flowers pop up at the beginning of spring and look like baby's breath to me!