Imrov Class #Two

The 2nd week at Improv Class was a lot better than the first, but I'm still getting used to meeting so many new people. The girl who's name escapes me didn't show up this time, but a few extra boys came to take her place. They're part of the class too, but I think it's strange that they didn't make it for the first class. 

Anyway, one boy was named Charlie; when I saw him I accidentally mistook him for Eric (Eek! How embarrassing! I hate when I get people's names wrong, but at least I know that's how other people must feel when they mistake me for my twin sister Bettina). Eric came in later, so I was able to really spot the differences between them two; Eric has braces and Charlie has shorter hair. 

The second new boy was around my brother Adam's age, and his name was Jonah. I got to know more of the girls by name rather than just by face, like Rebbecca, Sophie, Melissa, and Courtney. I suppose these names don't mean a thing to you, but this is my blog, after all, so I'll fill it with all my memories and experiences I care to share.

Robin, the teacher, had a bunch of all new Improv exercises for us to try. The first one was "Invisible Volleyball/Name Game". The group splits up into two teams and plays invisible volleyball, and as you pass the ball, you have to say another person's name. At least it got Charlie and Jonah all caught up with who's who.

Another game we played was called "Hitch-hiker". Someone is pretending to drive a car, and another person gets to be the hitch-hiker, and the person has to have a strong personality which the driver has to imitate. 

For example, say the hitch-hiker is a hyper Jonas Brothers fan.

"Ohmygod, Ohmygod, let's sing S.O.S.!!!"

Then the driver would immediately say something like, "You're just in luck! I have an extra ticket to their next concert, come with me!"

My favorite game involved pantomime, and I call it "Where are you now?". You have to come up with a setting, any place, any location you can possibly think of, and you need to mime out where you are. Then when other people figure out where you are, they can get up and add to the scene by pantomiming something else that has to do with the setting. Example: the first person decides that he is in the desert. That person would probably crawl on the ground clutching his/her throat and panting dryly. Then when somebody figures out that the place is the desert, he/she can get up and pretend to be a camel. That's exactly what I did in fact. I proudly walked on all fours and chewed invisble cud, while indicating the hump on my back. A lot of people laughed. That's what I was going for.

One more game I want to tell about is one called "3 Line Scene". Two people get up and have to establish a scene speaking no more or less than 3 lines. 

Personal example:

Me: "Remember, after 3 seconds, pull the string!"

Noah: "I'm scared, I've never done this kind of thing before."

Me: "Don't worry, everyone has trouble their first time jumping out of a plane!"

This is all off the top of my head you understand, no plan whatsoever of what I'm going to say. I love Improv class because I get to show off my stuff, and I can be anything I want to be, or do anything I want to do. Robin taught us about not being the "wimp", which means when someone says something, anything you say must add to the scene in some way. 

For instance, 

Him: "I'm going to the beach today!"

Her: "Okay." (wimpy response)

Her: "Be careful of the mutant sharks, they're really mean on Tuesdays." (funny response.)

At the end of the 9 Improv classes we're taking, of which tonight was the 2nd, Robin says that the group will be putting on a show all about Improv and we all need to practice on our spontaneity. I wonder if the show will be anything like "Whose Line Is It Anyway?". I sure hope so.

Post #30 = Beach Day + Oscar's Night = Get Ready for a Long Post!

Okay, this is my 30th blog post! I want to make it special. It'll have a lot of pictures, and it will get kindof lengthy. Are you prepared to sit still for about 10 minutes? Well, if you are, then Welcome to my World.

I had such a great beach day! My family woke up early at 8:30 to get ready to go. We got to the beach at about 10:30. Usually we arrive at the beach later than that, like after noon, but the earlier it is the better for sure! The sun is lower in the sky and the air is so...so... beachy. (I know, funny word to read aloud. What else could I say? salty? cool? fresh? None of them are descriptive enough for me.)

Anyway, I swam in the Atlantic Ocean twice today. It was cold at first, but I braced myself and ran in! I just love the ocean! Swimming pools cannot compare to the beatutiful briny sea (unless the pool in question has a diving board, then I'm a bit interested). I spotted a fish that looked like a butterfly! It may have been a baby flying-fish or something, but it was very cool.

Here is a picture that looks somewhat similar to what I saw. It looked like this, only perhaps a bit more colorful.

I finally finished the book by Tom Hopkins entitled "How to Master the Art of Selling". It was a very good book, and if any of you readers are in sales and you want to make more money, invest in this knowledge! I finished the book in the middle of the day, so after I put it down, I saw that there was a lot of daylight left. Usually when I come to the beach, I read and read all day. Forget "Summer Reading", I get into "Autumn", "Winter", and "Spring Reading"! But this time I hadn't come with a back-up book, so I found myself with some extra time. I got into the game of "horseshoes". I've played "horseshoes" a few times in my life, but today I picked up the itch to play. I played about 3 games and I won 1. I got a lot of skin color from all that time in the sun. So much fun! I hope next week I can get better.

I was almost sorry to leave the beach, but my family wanted to get back home in time to see the Oscar's! We saw the Barbara Walters special with interviews with the Jonas Brothers and Anne Hatheway. Didn't feel like seeing Mickey Rourke or Hugh Jackman. Anyway, after Barbara, I was very impatient for the stars to get into their seats and stop flaunting their designer outfits. The Red Carpet Walk is my least favortie part of the show, but I had to endure it if I didn't want to miss a moment of the main attraction.

Hugh Jackman was a great host in my opinion. He must have practiced all those show-stopping numbers very hard. Very creative. I didn't get sleepy or drowsy at any part of the show, which is cool, because in past years I could hardly wait for the Best Movie Award to be given so I could hit the sack already! But this year I was able to stay awake through the whole thing and root entusiastically for my favorite movies to win. The montages were all awesome (especially the animated one. I love Wall-Eeee!), the introductions were given by a lot of celebrities that I could recognize, and the acceptance speeches were not too long (except of course the ones for Best Actor/Actress, Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Director, and Best Movie. Congrats to Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger, Penelope Cruz, Danny Boyle, and "Slumdog Millionaire" respectively).

Here I will allow myself to go crazy for a bit about Wall-E and how many Oscars "Slumdog Millionaire" stole from it.

Why??!! 10 nominations for "S.M." and 8 wins? But 6 nominations for "Wall-E" and only 1 win? I mean sure it was for Best Animated feature, but I don't think it was very fair! Sure I haven't seen "S.M." yet, but could it really have better Sound Mixing or Editing than "Wall-E" has? How about Best Song? I was almost sure that "Down to Earth" from "Wall-E" would win against those 2 songs from "S.M."! But no-o-o! Ditto with Best Original Score! I say that "Slumdog Millionaire" stole those Oscars away from "Wall-E"! It wasn't fair at all that "S.M." had to be all greedy and hoard all those awards! Darn you Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences! Darn you all to Heck!

Okay, I'm better now. What a day yesterday. Well I feel you have suffered long enough. This post is now over. Thank you for reading, and please comment. Bye-eee!

Improv Class #One

Okay, here's how it went starting from approximately 6:30 P.M.:

I'm at my house, and Adam, Bettina and I are really excited. We make sure we have everything we need. A water bottle, a few bananas in case we got hungry, house keys, and smiles on our faces. We all rode our bikes to the B'nai Aviv Hebrew school and we arrived about 5 minutes early. How's that for a good first impression? 

Anyway the class was in this big room which was full of stuff, like clothes hangars and pillows and books and old electronic stuff. It was later revealed that there was going to be a garage sale, and for the time being they were storing all the stuff in this room. Well it got cleared up later, so that wasn't a problem anymore.

People started coming in. The teacher was a woman named Robin Braun. She was very nice. There were about 11 other kids besides my brother, sister and me. Me and my sister were without a doubt the oldest ones there, besides the teacher of course, and Adam was the youngest. There were only 3 boys, including Adam, in the whole group! And they seemed to be about 13 to 15 years old. Oh well, too young for me, but also taller than I'd expect! I have trouble guessing boy's ages. The tall ones seem younger than the short ones at times, it gets me so confused!

I was able to remember a lot of people's names afterwards, because the first Improv exercise that we did was called "The Name Game." To play, you think of an adjective that starts with the same letter as your name, then do a funny body movement that matches the adjective.

Starting with Robin, she said, "Hi! My name is Robot Robin!" and then she did a robotic gesture. Then there was "Energetic Eric!" who walked in place (but through the rest of the class he mostly just sat in his chair). After him was "Radical Rebecca", me ("Amazing Annette"), "Brilliant Bettina", "Addictive Adam", etc. We went all around the circle, and each time someone introduced themselves, we would say, "Hi..." whoever, and then repeat all the people who introduced themselves beforehand. It was a great memory game.

The rest of the Improv exercises were so much fun, and we covered a lot in only 2 hours. We had a game called The Blind Run, where a person in the middle of the circle closes their eyes and tries to run around, and any time he/she goes too close to the edge, the other people gently push the blind person around and make him/her run the other way. Everyone got a chance to be the Blind one. It was a little scary to run eyes closed, but it was also kinda fun!

We also did an exercise called Mirror Acting. We choose partners and either partner gets to lead the other to do anything that a reflection would do. It seems like a pretty common exercise among actors, but this is the first chance I've been able to do it. My partner was a girl named Gabby. She looked about 13 or 14, somewhere in the lower age range. We both ran out of ideas for what to do with our hands fairly quickly, and the rule was that we had to keep eye contact the whole time.

It was our first day. I'm pretty sure it will get easier and easier to do these exercises with more time to get to know my fellow Improv actors. Because this first experience was so enjoyable, I hope the rest of the classes will be just as good.

When it turned to 9:00, Robin said that it was time to go home, and she told us to give high fives to everyone and say "Great Job!" That was so much fun! The bike ride back home was very dark; the street lamps in our neighborhood mustn't have been working so well. Note to self: get some flash light attachments for our bikes for the weeks ahead. I am definitely going to be looking forward to these Improv classes now that I know what to expect.

Improv Class Tomorrow!

Hi. I'm just so excited! I haven't written about this up to now because I try not to get my hopes up, but now I'm just so excited! Tomorrow I'm going to be going to my first Improv class! The class is for kids from 12 to 18, and me, my sister, and my brother are all going to be there too. We all signed up for this 9 week class about 3 weeks ago (what a long time that's been!) and now the waiting is almost over! Hopefully I'll be able to make a few new friends with people who want to learn how to think on their feet and be funny at the same time. I feel kindof silly building my expectations up like this; like a house of cards it could collapse all around me. Now I feel silly for being dramatic. Oh I'm just so excited! I want to make people laugh. Hopefully this will be a step in the right direction for me. No matter what happens, expect me to blog all about it tomorrow night. Adios Amigos!

My Doodle Collection #4: Characters

Here are my best doodles of well-known characters and/or cultural icons. I would like to say that I did all of them on my own without any picture reference in front of me, but then I would be lying. I created all of them while checking them against a picture on the internet or a picture in my house. I hope you like them.

---> July 26, 2006. The Little Prince. I loved reading this book. There are also a couple of movie adaptations, but neither of them are as good as the original story by Antoine de Saint Exupery.

<--- August 9, 2007. 

John, Paul, George, and Ringo on the cover of the album Beatles for Sale. I forget about how much effort must have gone into this work, but I'm still impressed with myself. The faces all look unique and distinct from one another, don't they? Their jackets were also an interesting challenge I remember.

---> Somewhere in December 2007. The Road Runner. I copied this off of a DVD cover. He is such a cute character, isn't he? I love the fact that he's a bird. In fact, he's my favorite Looney Tune bird ever! He's not greedy like Daffy, or loud like Foghorn Leghorn, or too cute like Tweety. He's just right. Plus he can't talk, so he crosses the language barrier easy.

 <--- October 9, 2008. Jack Skellington. When I was little, I remember being scared of the beginning of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", but now I love the whole movie. I love how Jack gets so excited to the point of distraction when he learns about this new Christmas thing. I love the music and the animation of the movie, plus I like Henry Selick's work. He was the director, just so you know.

---> One day after drawing Jack Skellington. My very own rendering of Alfred E. Neuman. MAD magazine is the best! My brother Adam bought a 2-year subscription (I think) for me and my sister's birthday. Isn't that so nice? It's the gift that keeps on giving. Right now I am waiting for the next issue of MAD. If I don't get my MAD very soon, you're gonna see me get MAD! How confusing. Even this logic is driving me MAD. I want my MAD! >:( Just kidding. I don't even know how to get that mad. () :)

No More Distractions, Please!

Okay, now that Valentine's Day is over and Leslie & Kyle have a new episode out of the way, I'd like to start having some normal days for a change. You know, those kind of days where all I want to do is get up in the morning, and take a walk, and do a doodle, and just read on the back porch, maybe get a little S.A.T. studying done each day (yeah, I'm taking the test on March 14, and that's only like 4 weeks away).

I like normal days for some reason. You know why I like normal days? Because after the normal days, you get fun days, or productive days, or maybe even life-changing days. See, whenever you are actually in one of those days, fun, productive, or life-changing, there's nowhere to go but "back to normal". Going back to normal is a bummer sometimes. But then I remember, what goes around, comes around. Soon I'll get a break, have some fun, I just have to get through this day for the good times to start.

I'm actually pretending that I like normal days for the purpose of putting things in perspective. I'm impatient for the next big thing to happen. For instance, coming up is the Academy Awards. I love watching the Oscars! I love seeing great movies get recognised for their greatness, and sometimes I get exposed to some great new stuff. The only thing I don't like is when the "Thank You"s go on for too long, or when it has to go to commercial break. I sure hope "Wall-E" is recognised for either best animated feature, or at least best sound editing.

Anyway, I've gotta go to bed now. I haven't been keeping up with my Feb resolution of going to sleep before 11 at all! I'm so ashamed. Although if I didn't stay up late last night I wouldn't have seen my brother lose his tooth! Fine moment, that was. Well, byeee!

Sweet Valentines Day!

1) This morning I presented my family with personal hand-made Valentine cards that I made myself. So much fun! I love making greeting cards for any holiday, because then it's an opportunity to exercise my creative and artistic muscles. I get better and better every year too at thinking up new design ideas.

2) Uploaded the 8th Leslie & Kyle show, "The Valentine's Day Special", to YouTube, where you can see it at your convenience, if you click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ybzjCzLaYo

Enjoy watching it!

3) Spent all day at the beach. Getting sun. Hanging out. Reading my Tom Hopkins book. Ahhh.

4) For dinner my family went to an Italian restaurant for spaghetti and garlic bread. Nothing too fancy, just enough to make the night memorable. In the future we'll say, 

"Hey, remember when we had Italian food on Valentines Day?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh, no reason, I'm just saying remember when."

"Oh. We didn't have anything fancy, did we?"

"No, but we sure had a good time."

End of imaginary dialogue.

5) Tonight me and my sibs watched the movie "Meet Dave" (which was actually pretty, well, good, and not quite as pointless as I expected), and after that we stayed up to watch Saturday Night Live! I'm so glad we did! After a few unsatisfactory weeks, SNL has come up with some hilarious sketches! Alec Baldwin was awesome, the Jonas Brothers were such a highlight, and the great Dan Akroyd was in the introductary skit! My favorite part of this episode was when the Jonas Brothers were kicking Alec Baldwin out of the band! Alec suggested they be called the Donut Brothers. Didn't go over too well. Well, anyway, good night everyone, I need to get my forty winks now. Byeeee!

Honest Scrap

For the first time ever since I joined Blogger, I was tagged. In blogging terms, this means that someone else received a type of writing exercise or game of sorts, and then that person sent the game to a number of friends so that those friends can send it to a number of their friends, and so on until someone eventually says, "Hey I was already tagged, that game is old news now!"

Anyway, this game is called Honest Scrap, and the blogger who tagged me is "Just Tabitha". Here's her "Honest Scrap" posting right here in case you want to see. Here is how the game goes:

#1: Choose at least 5 blogs that you follow or check frequently, and pass this game on to them.

#2: Post the "tagged" ones on your blog in linked form

#3: List 10 honest things about yourself (and no vagueness about it! Just the truth, the whole thing and nothing but.)

My 10:

1) I think of myself as a reliable person. I'm very patient, mature, and I have a reputation for perfect attendance (or at least I think I have a reputation). When I was a part of a production for "High School Musical" at my local Town Center Club, I showed up right on time for almost every rehearsel. (I played the drama teacher Ms. Darbis.) However I believe in the concept of "Divine Timing": No matter if I'm late or early for something, I am on "divine time". If it rains on a walk or I lose my library card, I believe it was meant to be. (I always get my library card back of course. I wouldn't be able to check out anymore books or movies otherwise.) I am also very spontaneous. I love to learn new things. However there are some times when I take myself too seriously, when I expect to get something right the first time I try it. I get frustrated and upset when I don't. I have learned many times that failure is not permanent, but something I can learn from.

2) I am a professional tree-climber. I have been since I was very young, like 3 or 4 years old. I know how to swing from a branch, climb to the top, hide in the leaves, and avoid rotten limbs (I learned about falling out of trees the hard way). I am also a great swimmer, and diver, having learned from a young age as well as tree-climbing. I'm not a fan of participating in team sports such as basketball or soccer. I don't play competitively. I am a good runner though; once I ran 6 laps around a football field without stopping. Of course I was gasping for breath afterwards, but it's the best I've done so far.

3) I love the musical "Hello Dolly". There, I've said it. I love the movie with Barbara Streissand and Walter Matthau and Michael Crawford. I love the songs, "It Only Takes a Moment" and "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" and all the rest. I love the story, the adventure, and the romantic comedy. The dances are great. I would never have known about this movie if I didn't see the movie "Wall-E", which I also love, so for that I'm thankful. I wish I could be in a play of "Hello Dolly", even if I didn't get to be a lead character.

4) You know when you were a child, and you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up? I knew that I was going to be an astronaut. As children grow older they start to see the pros and cons of their career choice and maybe settle for the next best thing. I later wanted to be an airplane pilot. And then most kids forget about their silly dreams and go about things more practically. Me, I hope that there's a flying car in my future that I can use to commute to work, whatever it may be.

5) I know that I know nothing. Nothing compared to how much knowledge is in the Universe that is. It humbles me how far the human race has advanced, and yet how much more is left in the future. I've read that the Earth will exist for another couple billion years, so compared to what people will learn in the future, I know absolutely nothing. But I still want to make a difference, so I'm not lazing about going all philosophical all day, I'm writing and reading and walking and doodling and climbing trees, and trying new foods, new experiences, learning all I can before my time is up.

6) So far this year I have had no dreams whatsoever. Not one! When I go to sleep, I see blackness (obviously, my eyes are closed), and then I wake up. I used to have dreams about flying, and falling, and finding money on the street. Now I hardly remember any dreams I've had in 2009. Maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe I forgot to write down my dreams somewhere and before I can tell anyone, I forget them. Oh well. The next time I have a dream, I promise I'll blog about it.

7) I'm concerned that I've been spending so much time on the computer these past several weeks blogging. I'm not spending enough time outdoors. I should get off my butt a lot more and do more tree-climbing. I may be a professional, but I don't do it so often as I used to because I've been to the tops of all the trees in my backyard already. They're all too easy. Anyway, I'm not sure that my concerns are that strong. I like blogging, and it feels good to write to people I don't know, and see what they think.

8) I love ice-cream, any kind, any place, any flavor. Except maybe if it were mud flavor. In my local Town Center, there's an ice-cream place that has a flavor called "Weston Mud". I think that's just a name though, I have yet to try it. Not that I'll try it that soon, because my mom every so often makes her own homemade, dairy-free, sugarless banana ice-cream that is the very best! Any occasion, birthdays, holidays, we have our homemade ice-cream. It's very cost-effective in this current economy anyway.

9) When I was little, and my sister and I would have races or competitions of some sort or other, whenever I was ahead of her, I would let her catch up to me so that we would tie. I wonder if that says anything about me. We are twins in case you didn't know, and I am the oldest one by only 4 minutes. Now that's not very much to go by, but sometimes I act like the eldest child in my family, rather than say, co-eldest. 

10) My last honest tidbit is that I am generally a very honest and truthful person. Of course I don't blab secrets or reveal anything that I would rather not share with the world, but I have a very strong "no-lying" policy. If I have nothing nice to say, I don't say it, but if someone deserves a compliment, I let 'em have it, most of the time. Plus in the way I write and speak, I'm usually very careful to think about what I'm about to say, so that I don't hurt anyone's feelings or say anything untrue. I avoid words like "always" and "never" whenever I can, except when I say things like "I'm always breathing." or "I'll never be able to turn my bicycle into porridge."

There. I am finally done writing this post! This is a huge one that took me about 5 days to complete. I had to choose very carefully about what to reveal here, and it wasn't very easy. You know, people can be very multi-faceted, and I am no exeption.

Okay, the Tagged Ones are:

Magenta

LouMac

BookwormBrian

A.E. Hedges

A Thief's Secret Hideout

Take your time with this, Tagged Ones, this is a very big challenge for anyone to undertake. The thing is to not be overly vague, include plenty of personal anecdotes. If you have any "skeletons in the closet" that you'd rather not let out, then don't, but the important thing is to just be honest.

"Yes Man" Movie Review

***Warning! Movie Spoilers Below! Don't read on if you haven't seen Yes Man!***

I so loved watching this movie! Did the film-makers know that when they were making this movie they were making it with me specially in mind? "Yes Man" had all the qualities of being one of "Annette's Top Favorite Movies of 2009":1. Jim Carrey (obviously)

2. A thought-provoking "What If" type plot (more on that later)

3. Great music that I recognize and/or get introduced to (original music done by The Eels)

4. Romance (I've only recently gotten into romantic movies, and now that I'm older I appreciate all the spontaneous kissing scenes, and not go, "Cooties!" Makes me wish my life was a movie.)

5. Out-of-the-ballpark-crazyness (the kind that Jim Carrey does best)

First off, time to gush about my favorite Canadian rubber-faced actor, Jim Carrey. He is the best at what he does! In this movie he tapes his face into a ridiculously funny position, drives a motorcycle while wearing only a hospital gown, and plays guitar to save a suicidal building-jumper. He is a master of drama, as well as a king of comedy. The character he plays is easy to relate to and very likable (eventually lovable).

 Jim Carrey is one of the most versatile comedians that I know, (voice-acting, stand-up, TV, drama, slapstick, singing, and I'm not sure which category the Grinch or the Mask fall under, but he sure looks good in green) and for that, he is one of my heroes. Thank you Jim Carrey for being you!

Next point is the plot. What a concept! One that I have put to use for much of my young life: saying the word "Yes" more often than "No" when an opportunity presents itself. "Yes Man" takes this idea to the next level: the main character has to say Yes  to every offer. Granted, Carrey finds himself into pretty funny situations that can be called "unbelievable" and "Never gonna happen in real world!" He stays up one night drinking Red Bull (come one, I know you've seen the

 previews, you must have seen the previews!), he gives all his money to a homeless guy, and he does something that surprisingly gets through in a PG-13 movie (I'm not specifying what it is though), all because of the word Yes. The less extreme cases where he says Yes to life is refreshing. More people should break out of their routine and do things they never thought of doing before.

3rd point, I have to say that the music was very good. A few Beatles references here and there (but not everywhere, if you get my drift. You know, "Here, There, and Everywhere"? Sorry I had to go and explain the punchline. That song isn't in the movie, just so you know). The original music written for the movie had pretty good lyrics, so that was nice to see too. Jim Carrey has a very good singing voice, did you know that?

Now about the romantic parts. Don't worry, it's not the "Oh, George, Oh Marsha," type film. Just a little courtship between Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel, a little spontaneous kissing, no big deal. It's basically a well-put-together love story that happens to make you laugh. It's because of the word Yes that the main character finds love again, after shutting himself away following a divorce. If he never went to the Yes motivational seminar, he would not have met her. It's fun watching characters fall in love. For me anyway. I'm still not sure about the rest of you.

Well anyway, here's the last point I'd like to write about. "Yes Man" is so crazy! Jim Carrey gets to do a bunch of things I fantasize about, but may not actually get to do in the future, like attend an HP costume party/marathon, go bungee-jumping, and taking the next airplane out of town. The gags are fresh and funny, and I was smiling through the whole thing. Except for the sad parts of course, like when Zooey Deschanel's character finds out about the whole "Saying Yes to Everything No Matter What" commitment and starts to doubt Carreys true affections. But don't worry, alls well that ends well.

Thanks for reading (or not reading as the case may be) my review, and so sorry for making this a long one where you have to scroll and scroll and think "Ohh, when is this going to end already?" I hope that if you haven't seen this movie yet, the movie stills I have provided will get you to see "Yes Man" and enjoy it as much as I did. Happy viewing!

P.S. Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your opinions. In fact I'm demanding it. Comment people! Please prove I'm not the only one who thinks Jim Carrey is a hero and Yes is the best word in the known universe!

My Doodle Collection #3

Hi-dee Ho! (Just something I came up with just now.) Welcome to my 3rd Doodle Collection! (Just look, don't touch. We wouldn't want your computer screen to be smudged up, now would we?)
---> This, if I do say so myself, is a very cute cartoon version of me that I made about a week ago. I know, I know, dots for eyes. I don't know how to draw eyes that look like mine, so I just made them dots. A good excuse as to why they are so tiny is that I'm a little nearsighted, so I need eyeglasses for when I'm driving or if I want to see something far away. Just a little tidbit I thought you might like to know.

<--- This big lug over here is an original of mine, drawn only a few days before "Sketcher Girl". At the time I was studying a book called "Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain", and it was all about what the career of a cartoonist is like and how to make pretty good cartoons. Not that I want to be a cartoonist when I grow up, ("Hey Annette, keep those drawings coming, you've got a deadline, let's go, let's go!") but it was very fascinating to read about them. 

---> Over here is a doodle I made last summer. Why does it look so good? Because I copied it from a book, and I used blending tortillions on the background to give it soft look. The book that I copied this from was about how crazy the English language really is. It's called "Crazy English" by Richard Lederer. Check it out if you want a few laughs.

<--- I have no idea what to call this actually. I doodled this fish-like creature a looong time ago, in 2007. Oh my goodness! 2007?! How long it's been! *ahem* Moving on.

---> Finally, this last one was drawn in late August of '06. *shakes head in disbelief* It's a short strip about 2 clowns, one of them is a traffic officer, and as the lights change, so does the color of her nose. Yes, yes, the perspective is all wrong, the driver has a very environmentally-unfriendly vehicle, and the officer's nose is so small you can barely notice the effect, but hey, I was only 15 at the time. (Now that I think about it though, I was only about to turn 15, my birthday's in September after all.) Not that that's a good excuse, but still. I'm so glad I've gotten much better at drawing since then.

Well, I hoped you liked viewing some of my original works of doodling. In my next doodle-post, viewers will be able to look forward to some of my depictions of well-known cartoon characters. You'll just have to wait. Too bad.

All about February 3rd. A very good day.

I had such a fun day today. Want to read about it? Well you're here aren't you? Okay then.

This afternoon, me, my sister Bettina, and my dad made 2 pizzas from scratch. We made awesome pies with all kinds of vegetables on it; olives, mushrooms,  yellow tomatoes, peppers, and spinach. Yum (seriously). Just as we were putting the pizzas in the oven, my brother Adam and my mom came back from the farmers market. Talk about perfect timing! We put in fresh-pressed garlic and home-grown oregano in the tomato sauce. *kisses fingers like a french chef* So good! My mouth is watering just thinking about it. (Hey, wipe off the drool there buddy!)

My family used to make pizzas once a week every Tuesday for a long time, but now we've slowed it down to the first Tuesday of the month. Good enough for me, then the pizza becomes that much more special.

Later on, Adam, Bettina and I started filming our 8th "Leslie + Kyle" episode. We only filmed the beginning, but we're off to a good start. (See how I'm being all vague with you guys? I don't want anyone to know what the episode's about. You'll just have to wait for the new show. In the meantime, you can check out the 7 episodes already created. They're all in my blog here, just go back several posts.)

After our camera ran out of battery, we had to stop filming. I took Adam to the pool for a bit, got a little reading done, and then came back. It got really windy this evening, so after having been in the pool, poor Adam was shivering all the way back home. Water + Wind = Brrrrr!!

My mom took out an old travel journal of hers from when she was only 20, and she showed us her entries and pictures of her trips to California and Russia. It was so much fun to hear her tell stories of her adventures and antics. Isn't it interesting to think about how different one's parents must have been when they weren't our parents? It was really sort of enlightening, and exciting, to think of my mom as a young women, writing down all her experiences and taping stuff like postcards and napkins in this precious book, and living in a different time period from me, Bettina and Adam. I'm glad that I have so many journals of my own, so that if I ever have kids I can read about when I was a little girl to them.

Tonight, we went to the .99 cent movie theater (the one I mentioned back in January when I saw "Twilight"), and my mom and Adam went to see "Bolt", while dad, sis, and I saw "The Day the Earth Stood Still". I thought it wouldn't be such a good movie. You know, "Aliens are invading Earth! It's the end of the world!" I actually really really liked the story. It's a remake from the 1951 sci-fi flick (now I want to watch the original), about an alien race whose aim is not to destroy the planet, but to save it from the human race, by way of annihilation of mankind and sparing of all other species. Keanu Reeves of "Matrix" fame (loved that series as well), Jaden Smith, and John Cleese all played awesome characters in this movie. It wasn't very violent, although there was a lot of military action, and Jaden's character is very rebellious. Don't worry, the movie has a happy ending. (Oops! I hope I didn't spoil the movie for anyone! Sorry just in case. :-? )

I hope everyone had a good day today. Hey, it's the beginning of Obama's 3rd week of being President! I love my life. I feel so lucky to be here in this moment in time.

All Things in Moderation, Except Love and Laughter

First let me say that Superbowl XLIII was my favorite ever! History was made last night!

A 100-yard play! 

3-D commercials! 

Bruce Springstein's awesome halftime concert! (Sorry, I only found the first half of the halftime show. Not that this was really history making, but it was definitely a highlight of the evening.)

This Superbowl was special because this year I stayed up and watched the whole thing(!), as opposed to falling asleep somewhere in the 3rd quarter and then waking up to see who won. -.- My family went to a friends house to watch, and he had a nice big flat-screen and lots of goodies like pizza and chips, grapes and carrot sticks, and even a keylime pie. Too much! 

Lots of people, awesome game, fun fun fun! Plus, this friend kept a few cats, so I had fun getting to know them and pet them and play with them. One was named Mouse, and another one who was a tail less named Spaz. Also a kitten that I got to hold in my lap whose name escapes me...Mo?...Meow?...Something like that. ^.^

Anyway, here I am on the 2nd day of February. *gasp! the month is now 1/14 over!*

I have been doing a ton of reading today (I hate exaggerating, but it sure feels like a ton).

On top of my "How to Master the Art of Selling" book by Tom Hopkins, I have started the 8th Pendragon book, "Pilgrims of Rayne". Is it just me, or is it much easier to breeze through pages full of fiction than to read a nonfiction book?

Anyway, a lot of reading. I should take it easy. Everything in moderation and all that.

I should also moderate my blogging activities. This morning I've been editing my profile a little here, browsing through blogger profiles there, plotting this post's draft. I should focus my time and energy on my art work, or helping other people. I should also moderate my movie watching activities. Tonight I was watching the 3rd Star Wars movie. (Such an epic.) I should go outside and exercise, take a walk or do jumping jacks. Jumping is good fun. Anyway, (jeez, I said anyway 3 times now!) I don't have anything else to say, so I'm going to end this post right here, with my signature "Byyyyeeeeee!"