Welcome to my World

It's been awhile, but I'm here!

2011-09-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. It's been awhile since I've been to this blog, huh?
I've gone through quite a lot since I've last posted anything here, and I'm sorry I've been a stranger to those who still follow this "Welcome to my World" blog (whoever you are. o.O).

One of the reasons I haven't been posting more personal stuff is I consider myself a fairly private person, and I find it's challenging to post updates on my own life that would seem the least bit interesting to other people besides myself. Plus I've gotten back into the habit of writing long-hand, journal-ing most every day, so I haven't been that motivated to keep up my online presence that much.

Another reason I've been away from this blog so much is that I have 2 other blogs that are easy to maintain because they deal with specific facets of what I'm interested in. My art blog showcases many masterpieces of my own creation, and my movie-review blog deals with my opinions on what films I'm watching these days. For a very general blog like "Welcome to my World", it's a challenge at best to figure out just what to post about.

For those who are still here with me, let me ask you a question, and be honest:

Would it be so terrible if I didn't update this blog anymore, but kept on maintaining my other 2 blogs?

It's been a nice long run, almost 3 years in fact (started in December '08), but I believe it's about time I retired this specific web-log, "Welcome to my World". It's gathering dust on the metaphoric shelf, and it serves no identifiable purpose.

If anyone reading this post feels differently, please leave me a comment.
Unless I get at least one response, this just might be the last post you read on "Welcome to my World", so here's to going out with a tired over-used Animaniacs catch-phrase:

Good-Night Everybody!

My Brand New Blog!

2011-08-17T18:34:00.001-04:00

Today, I have decided to create an entirely new blog specially made to store and create all my movie reviews.

It includes all the critiques for films I have seen in the past and written about in this blog, and it will be the place to go to read my opinions on the different "flicks" I watch.

Here is the link to my spanking-new site: Annette's Movie Reviews. Go ahead, click on it!

Now in this blog I can focus on the things in my life that don't involve movie reviewing.

Until next time, my dear readers! ^_^

Edit: Just so this blog wouldn't be so redundant, I deleted the movie-review posts on "Welcome to My World" so that you have to go to my new blog in order to read them.
Now this blog will only be for matters special to me besides art and film. See ya later!

Superbowl XLV + Jekyll and Hyde

2011-02-07T10:45:00.005-05:00

What a night last night!

My whole family spent from about 6:30 to 10:15 watching the Superbowl from beginning to end (National Anthem to Post-Game show), PLUS all the commercials! There were snacks and munchies, most were crunchy. Potato chips, vegetables and dips. (Hey, I made a mini-poem ^_^ )

As to which team I was rooting for (Pitsburgh Steelers VS. Green Bay Packers), I'll have to say that I was rooting for both at the same time. I cheered whenever one team made a touchdown, and I groaned whenever somebody missed a catch. I'm happy that the Packers won, but I'm also a little sympathetic for the Steelers. Still, the best team really did win, Packers-Steelers, 31-25.

The commercials during the Superbowl were fun to watch. Some were clever, some were waaay over-the-top, some were cute, and some were just plain weird. My favorite ads were the ones with cars, because they're the coolest in my opinion. Remember the talking cars chatting about the review site Cars.com? Recall the Volkswagen spot with an actual beetle racing past CGI insects? Does Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" commercial ring a bell?

Anyway, I think that's quite enough about football and commercials for one post.

The other thing I wanted to write about in this post is the fact that earlier today I finished a really great book!

It is the timeless classic, "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. One day a week or so ago I saw it on the fiction-shelf of our local library and I thought to myself, "Wow, I know this story, but I've never actually read it before." Much like Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" is simply one of those widely known stories that most people can summarize for you without having read the book itself. There have been quite a few movie adaptations of this story (one of the more famous versions being "The Nutty Professor"), and just the names Jekyll and Hyde evoke familiar mental images of mad science and split-personality disorders.

Reading the actual book was an interesting experience for me. At first the story starts off from the point of view of Dr. Jekyll's lawyer and good friend, Mr. Utterson. In this way the reader observes whatever Mr. Utterson is observing, and starts out just as curious as he is about the strange and frequent disappearances of Henry Jekyll, and the sudden appearance of the unsavory character Edward Hyde. As the story progresses, Mr. Utterson gathers information from Dr. Jekyll's colleagues and servants, and also receives strange letters from Jekyll himself. In the end, he catches Mr. Hyde in Dr. Jekyll's laboratory just as Hyde commits suicide, and he reads a full confession from Jekyll about what he's been up to. The confession is then written from Jekyll's point of view, and in my opinion it's the best part of the whole story.

Robert Louis Stevenson's writing style is so unique in that he knows how to paint compelling images in the reader's mind of the setting (foggy 19th century London), the characters, and what happens to them. He seems to use just the right words for just the right situations, and the beginning and middle build up the suspense pretty well. The language is a bit old-fashioned and formal for some folk, but if you're patient for the first couple chapters, I think you're in for a good literary treat. "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde": a classic novel that I recommend for those who know the story but never read the book.

Progress Report: New Years' Resolutions

2011-02-01T16:13:00.010-05:00

One month of 2011 down, eleven more to go. 1/12 of the year is finito, over, kaput, spent, yesterday's news. But you all knew that already, didn't you?

I'm not one who likes to be a sheep; I don't follow the crowd automatically, do what everybody else is doing while they're doing it. If my friends decide to blog about their New Year's Resolutions, I think, "Hey, just because they want to let the world know about their goals for 2011 doesn't mean I have to." No sir. I'm more likely to be the one who says, "Wait for me, fellow sheep! I'm coming, just wait up!" I, more often than not, follow the crowd on my own terms.

With that said, here are the resolutions that I have made for myself this year:...

No sweets for the month of January.
- This means no cakes, pies, candy, cookies, or ice-cream (except for the home-made non-sugary kind).
Draw in my Donald Duck notebook and write something everyday.

Doodles, poetry, short-story ideas, movie reviews, sketches, just anything creative that involves a pen/pencil.

Finish Toastmaster Speeches 8, 9, and 10

In my basic "Competent Communicator" manual

...and here is how well I've been keeping to them:

No sweets for the month of January.
- I almost kept this resolution for the whole month, until the Toastmaster's Officer Training event in Boca Raton on Jan. 25th. Those darn Danish pastries! Ah well. This was just an exercise to test my will-power, and now that January is over I think I passed my self-inflicted test of endurance quite well.
Draw in my Donald Duck notebook and write something everyday.

Alas, this resolution I haven't kept as well as I wanted to. There have been days where I did not draw a single smiley-face or write a single sentence, but I can say with confidence that the days that I did do something creative outweigh those days that I didn't. Check out the drawings I did this month on my Art Blog here

Finish Toastmaster Speeches 8, 9, and 10.

I didn't deliver any speeches this month, but that's okay, because this resolution is for 6 months, until June 31st. I'm going for 3 speeches in 6 months, 5 months now, so I've still got plenty of time. In other news, our club is having a couple of contests in the coming weeks, which I'm helping to organize.

Now that January's over, I think it would be a good idea to renew my resolutions with some all-new goals that I'll be more likely to keep this year:

Deliver my 8th speech this month and blog about it afterwards.
Write reviews for movies I watch in February and put them up as blog-posts
Put at least 10 new drawings up on my Art Blog
Read 3 new books and review those on my blog
Blog, blog, blog!!!

This month, my goals are all about blogging. I think that if I can write online more often about the things I'm interested in and what I'm doing during this period in time, the better I'll be for it. At the very least I want to break my blogging record for last year (in Feb. 2010, only 1 post did I write).

See you later!

Blogging Again!

2011-01-27T17:09:00.002-05:00

I'm back everybody! How've you been?

Since the beginning of 2011 I've been procrastinating and putting off the day when I finally could return to being an internet presence and share with you peeks into my world, but I just couldn't hold on a day longer. I'm back and I'm glad I am. It feels a lot better to actually do something instead of saying you'll do it tomorrow.

Yesterday I went and did a blog makeover for both this blog and my Art Blog, plus I posted some new drawings that I made this year, so after finishing this post you can go check the other blog out.

I plan on putting up another Art Post later today, so bonus points for you.

Lately my family's been feeling a little under the weather, health-wise, taking blows from things like fevers, stuffy noses, sore throats, and achy lower-backs, but now we're all feeling much better, except for Bettina, who still seems to have just a hint of higher-than normal body temperature (it just keeps hovering around 99.2-99.6 Fahrenheit or something).

Today for lunch my family had homemade veggie-burgers! Shira hasn't made them for the longest time, and they're really the best! We also played Monopoly together as a family, and after a game that lasted about 2 hours or so, Benny won with over $5000! He got it from his houses on St. James Place, Tennessee Ave., and New York Ave. Whoop-de-doo for him. >_<

I plan on writing again real soon, but for now I have nothing else to say. Bye now!

Merry Christmas! + Thank you Charles Dickens!

2010-12-25T21:18:00.008-05:00

First thing's first. In case you didn't know before, I come from a Jewish family. So, when it comes to Christmas, I normally don't make a very big deal out of this major holiday. But this year, all the days leading up to the 25th of December have been so full of happiness and cheer, as well as some very mercurial weather mood-swings. (One week it's 36 degrees, another week it's in the 80s. What is the deal?!)

Anyway, the month has been great. Channukah...Hanuka...khannnuckah...ooooohh...Candle Day, was fine and dandy. Next came Adam's 13th birthday bash, and, following that, his super-duper Bar-Mitzvah extraordinaire! What a turnout it was, and what a party! Too bad I haven't been a very diligent blogger this month, otherwise there might have been some pretty awesome posts about the things that have happened. As it is, the only thing I can write about right now is today, Christmas Day.

It was a beautiful, sunny, 72 degree Fahrenheit Saturday. I woke up relaxed and in a good mood. The past few Saturdays, my sibs and I have been attending rehearsals for Ms. Judy's latest stage production of "Mamma Mia" (of which Adam plays the part of one of the 3 possible father characters), but since it was Christmas, all the cast members were given the next 2 weeks off. No rehearsals until January 8th! Hurray! It is no surprise then that this has contributed to my generally jolly mood.

Anywaaaaayy, since it was such a good-weather day, my family decided to go to our favorite beach. On the way there, the roads were surprisingly clear (seeing as many people celebrate Christmas at home with their friends and family), so we got there in record time. The beach itself was pretty sparse; not many people choose to celebrate Christmas on the edge of the Atlantic. However many of our good friends were there, so we set up our blanket and umbrellas nearby.

Eventually the topic of conversation turned to the Charles Dickens classic "Christmas Carol" story. It turns out that I actually checked out the book from our library recently for a bit of light reading, and watched a few different movie versions on YouTube to compare how faithful they were to the novel. This year I have gotten mighty familiar with the characters Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Don't ask me why, I just suddenly found myself inexplicably fascinated with "A Christmas Carol".

So I sat up straighter in my chair and joined in the conversation. Somehow, it turned out that some of the people present did not know the actual story of "A Christmas Carol", despite the uncountable screen versions available. Before I knew it, I found myself in the position of storyteller, relating the amazing tale in it's entirety and in great detail at that. It took me about 20 minutes or so, but by the time I ended with the words "God Bless Us Everyone", my friends were cheering and applauding! At that moment I just felt so good and happy inside that I couldn't stop smiling.

The rest of the day was very fine indeed. I literally ran into the ocean and had a good, bracing, cold swim, I got a little skin-color from having a good lie-down in the sun, and I even did a couple drawings today. Here they are right here.
<--- The guy in the picture is pretty much an "everyman", not really a representation of anyone I know. We stayed at the beach until about 5:00ish, and then we had to go. We wished everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and a "see ya next weekend". Then my family decided to go for some pizza on the boardwalk, so we sat down and sprung for a large pie topped with peppers and mushrooms. Tonight, my bro, sis and I have been enjoying various holiday movies on television, including the live-action "Grinch Who Stole Christmas" with Jim Carrey, the "Phineas and Ferb Christmas Special" (love those little guys ^_^), and even "Scrooged", a modern-day retelling of the Christmas Carol starring Bill Murray. That's pretty much it. For me, these little pleasures all add up to making this day the very best Christmas ever. It was merry, it was spent with family and good friends, and it was sunny almost all day! That's my idea of a holiday well-spent.

And now, a word from my good friend, Ebenezer Scrooge.

Happy Bar-Mitzvah Adam!

2010-12-13T14:52:00.007-05:00

The day of Adam's Bar-Mitzvah started bright and early. Our clothes were set up the night before, and our parts for the service were rehearsed and well-refined. We knew exactly what we were going to do and when. All was ready, and we were prepared to create some happy memories. Don't you just love that feeling of control? It lasts a short time, but it feels good nonetheless.

Before we went inside the library multi-purpose room to wait for our guests, Aunt Lisa helped us do a photo-shoot in a park a stone's throw away from there. Here's a good shot of all 5 of us that very morning, pre-service (click to see the image full-size).

After about 5-10 minutes of quick picture-taking, using a digital camera and an iPhone, we helped make some last-minute preparations for the Bar-Mitzvah, such as putting an arrow-sign at the door to let people know where the party is, tying balloons up around the room, and finding a good place for our Flip camcorder to stand and record video footage of the entire hour-long service.

As our guests began to arrive, Bettina and I helped our brother greet everyone personally and show them to their seats. That was a really fun part, because since we were the hosts of the party we knew every single person that came in.

Eventually the room was full of people, and it was time for the service to start. Our friend Kellie led the whole thing, because she was the rabbi. After a bunch of prayer songs and blessings spoken in the Hebrew language, Bettina and I got up to present Adam with his Tallit (a special prayer shawl that one wears when reading from the Torah), just like we've rehearsed these past few weeks.

After that we didn't come up again until just before it was time for our brother to read his portion. Bettina and I had practiced a Bruno Mars number in honor of the occasion, and one of Kellie's sons played guitar as we sang.

The song was "You Can Count On Me", a simple little tune with a deep, meaningful message. Our performance was so good and got such an excellent response, and Adam even teared up after it was over.

Next came the actual reason for the whole Bar-Mitzvah: the reading from the Torah! There was a whole ritual where Benny carried the impressive scroll around the whole room so people could touch it and kiss it while happy-sounding Jewish music played, and then the Torah was removed from it's beautiful felt covering and presented to the congregation.

First, the Bar-Mitzvah boy's family had to go up to make Aliyah (hebrew for "ascent") before him, and first Aunt Lisa, then Bettina, then me, Shira, and Benny read a portion from the Torah. Then Adam read his part. He did great! Better than great. Fantastic. He did the chants right, he read loud and clearly, and he didn't make a single mistake.

He then read his Haf-Torah portion and gave a short speech to our friends and guests about what his two readings meant. After that, the formal service was pretty much over.

Of course next came the party! Oh what a party! There was food galore! We catered the whole affair ourselves; didn't hire anybody to cook or serve for us. We had a whole buffet of pasta salads, bagels and vegetables with spreads and dips, and 3 different cakes: one vanilla, one chocolate, and one carrot. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely. At some point there was a moment where I helped my dad and a few of his man-friends lift Adam up for the traditional Bar-Mitzvah chair-raising, and Adam liked that a lot. Then someone, I forget who, said that they missed a photo-op, could we please lift Adam again? So we did, they took a picture, and Adam got to go up in the air a second time.

Eventually, all good things come to an end. It was time for us to call the party over. We only booked the library's multi-purpose room for 4 hours, including set-up and tear-down time. Before they left, most of our friends and guests actually helped us put away the chairs, clean up the food, and generally make the room a little tidier. By the time we were all through, you could never tell an entire Bar-Mitzvah had just taken place there.

Until next time, that is all I have to say, except for this: Happy Bar-Mitzvah you mensch of a brother you! Mazel Tov Adam!

Happy Birthday Adam!

2010-12-13T11:01:00.011-05:00

To celebrate, we had a big traditional "Levy family" birthday-breakfast: watermelon, homemade ice-cream, a box of croissants, and a giant stack of pancakes.

After eating, Adam was presented with 3 very special hand-crafted birthday cards: 1 from me, 1 from Bettina, and 1 from both Shira and Benny, our mom and dad. Personally, I worked really hard on my card; I stayed up until almost 2:00 in the morning putting on the finishing touches. Here are pictures of the different sides of my card for Adam.

Later, after Adam finished reading all his cards, our Aunt Lisa arrived for a visit. This always means a swell time. After catching up with each-other and chatting for awhile, Lisa took Adam, Bettina and me to the theater to see "The Tourist", which was released on the very day we saw it. The movie, as a whole, was pretty awesome. The lead actors (Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie) were great, the locations that were filmed (Paris, France and Venice, Italy) were beautiful, and the story (female secret-agent pretends to be married to a tourist she just met to throw the bad guys off the scent of her criminal husband) was suspenseful and fast-paced.

After the entertaining cinema experience, we met up with Benny and Shira at the Weston Library multi-purpose room, where Adam's Bar-Mitzvah service and party would take place the next day. We all helped prep the room, arranged tables, chairs, and instruments, tested the sound equipment and projector (which we would use for a photo slideshow we created), and transported an abundant amount of party food to the kitchen area for storing.

It was so fun and exciting to be a part of making this long-anticipated event finally happen. The last time I've written anything about my brother's Bar-Mitzvah was October 10th, but since then my family and I have learned and accomplished so much in honor of this special occasion. In a matter of hours we would finally show our invited friends and family what we have been working on all this time. I remember thinking, "I can hardly believe it, tomorrow it'll all happen and then it'll be over".

We came back home after we did all we can do, and said "see ya tomorrow" to Lisa as she went off to her temporary accommodations. Then we all washed up, blow-dried our hair for the next day, relaxed with some televised entertainment, and went to bed at a decent hour.

The Thief and the Cobbler: A History

2010-11-24T21:04:00.005-05:00

Do the names "Tack", "Zigzag", and "Yum-Yum" ring any bells for you? If not, then you haven't seen Richard Williams' magnum opus, "The Thief and the Cobbler". This animated film has a very interesting history behind it, which I was not aware of before watching the review that the Nostalgia Critic went and did.

At first I thought he'd verbally beat this movie to a pulp like he does in his other videos, but Doug Walker has actually taught me something about my old childhood favorite (the term "favorite" is used very loosely here, btw).

The movie was conceived in 1964 by Canadian animator Richard Williams, who would later go on to be the Director of Animation for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" among other things.

Due to its independent funding and complex animation, "The Thief and the Cobbler" was in and out of production for over two decades. In 1990 Richard Williams went and secured a deal to have Warner Bros. finance and distribute the film.

Warner Bros. backed out in 1992, however, after the project went past deadline and Disney's "Aladdin" gave them all a run for their money. Still the movie had to be finished, so producer Fred Calvert took over the whole operation. Whole scenes were removed and replaced. Unnecessary musical numbers and voice-overs were inserted. To make a long story short, Richard Williams creation was changed beyond recognition.

2 different versions of the movie was released: one issued in Australia and South Africa in 1993 as "The Princess and the Cobbler" and the other in the U.S.A. in 1995 as "Arabian Knight" (which was later re-released on home-video with the original title, "The Thief and the Cobbler"). Talk about confusing!

Neither version received much financial success or positive reception, but the film has earned cult-status among animation-circles for it's rich history and creator's original intent.

Personally, I remember watching it with my sister when we were both little. It mustn't have made much sense to us at the time, but it was a piece of both our childhoods. "The Thief and the Cobbler" was just one of those movies that stay with you long after you outgrow it. I am glad that Nostalgia Critic decided to do this review.

Now I have more animated-movie trivia than I know what to do with. What now?

I know! *publish post*

There, now the rest of you know what I know. Thanks for reading!

*~Information courtesy of the "Thief and the Cobbler" and "Richard Williams" Wikipedia articles.~*

Do you LOVE Animation?

2010-11-16T21:46:00.002-05:00

I have recently discovered Cartoon Brew.com, an incredibly awesome news website dedicated to animation. It is absolutely and totally amazing! I stumbled onto it on my Google-Reader account, and after exploring around for a bit I am hooked! All the articles and videos on this site are excellent and informative, and a few videos and articles really made me grin like a Cheshire Cat.

For example, here is a review for the new Disney movie Tangled (which I haven't seen yet by the way) that does not reveal any spoilers, but still gives me a balanced opinion of what I can expect from this movie. Personally, just from watching the trailers, I don't hold out much hope for a story of Rapunzel retold in "dazzling, modern" CGI animation, but I'll at least give the film a chance after reading the review.

If you are like me, you appreciate fine animation, the kind that makes you see things in a new, different way, pulls you into the world of the story that it's telling without making you feel self-conscious, and gives you something memorable to take away from it. Here is a short video that illustrates what I'm talking about. It's called "Howdy Doody and His Magic Hat", and despite the title or the time period it came from (1953), it's a short that'll have you giddy and smiling from beginning to end.

I've also seen a couple "silent-squeal-inducing" teaser-trailers for some upcoming animated movies (namely "Cars 2" and a brand new "Winnie the Pooh" movie).

(Wait, Pooh's getting a new movie?)

(Yeah, I was pretty surprised too.)

I am not going to give you the links to these sneak-peeks; you're just going to have to find them for yourself at Cartoon Brew.com: All animation, All the time!

Now it's November

2010-11-05T08:50:00.001-04:00

October is over, November is here,
We're in the penultimate month of the year.
So far it's been great, I've had some good fun,
I've done a lot and learned a ton.
I've discovered Doug Walker and deviantArt,
Joined onto Twitter, for the most part.
Toastmasters has helped me to grow leaps and bounds,
My self-confidence today simply astounds.
Also Thanksgiving will soon be here,
My uncountable blessings fill me with good cheer
As my poem ends, I'd just like to say,
Have a good month and a very nice day.

Everything I write in this poem is true.

Line 1: Obviously a fact if you're reading it this time of year.

Line 2: "penultimate" means second-to-last.

Line 3-4: this applies to the year in general.

Line 5: Nostalgia Critic and Chester A. Bum are my favorite reviewers on the internet. Please check out some of their wacky videos on YouTube or their website ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. Be warned, he drops some f-bombs and other colorful curses sometimes, so if you'd rather not expose yourself to such things, then don't. My dA account is CartoonConnoisseur. I don't have a lot of art up yet, but I will soon.

Line 6: My Twitter account is here. I finally joined because my dad found a lost wallet at the library yesterday and because he had no email-address, home address, or phone number in his wallet, but he did have an ID card, we thought of Googling his name, and we found his Twitter account. It was private, so I decided to join Twitter and try to open up the lines of communication. This morning though Benny had a better idea: go to the bank and use the guy's credit cards to learn his information. Benny called him up today and the guy came to our house and got his wallet back. Hurray! And I'm on Twitter now. Hurray!

Line 7-8: On Tuesday the 2nd I was a speech evaluator for someone giving their Icebreaker. It was the first meeting of the month, so we had a whole potluck party that day. On a sidenote, have you ever had the experience of walking straight into a sliding door because the glass was so clean you couldn't see it? Well that actually happened to me 2 days ago, and I'm pretty sure a couple AIU students saw me. Now I've got a bruise on my nose and an eye on those clear glass doors.

Line 9-10: I love Thanksgiving. Right after my birthday and Halloween, it's my favorite holiday ever.

Line 11-12: I mean what I say. =)

Hello, I must be going!

2010-10-29T11:34:00.004-04:00

I cannot stay, I came to say "I must be going".

I'm glad I came but just the same I must be going...

...I'll do anything you say, in fact I'll even stay!

But I must beeeee goiiiiiiiiiinnnngg

~Julius "Groucho" Marx

Today I will be visiting a friends house dressed up as Groucho Marx, for an early Halloween get-together. I took some pictures of myself on Tuesday when I dressed up for a Halloween-themed Toastmasters meeting (I led the meeting that day).

Go ahead. Laugh it up. I'm a 19-year-old girl dressing up as a guy from the first half of the 20th century. Well I'm going to win a few prizes with this outfit in the weekend to come. Just watch me.

Make Your Days Count...Plus 8 Honest Answers for Rainy

2010-10-10T10:12:00.012-04:00

Ian Fleming - I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

This quote is a very appropriate one, because it's almost exactly what I've been trying to do with my days. I've been putting things off, hoping that my days would last, and procrastinating like heck. So after seeing that my online friends were continuing to post stuff and I wasn't, I decided to bring the balance back.

First of all, I apologize for disappearing without warning. Next time I have to spend a period away from my blog, I'll leave a short post explaining my temporary leave of absence.

Secondly, I'd like to tell you what I've been up to in these past 10 days:

Celebrated my mom's birthday on the 3rd by spending a day at our favorite beach and showering her with love and presents (a puppy calendar, a Michaels gift-card, a pass for 6 Yoga sessions at our local country club, and "The Power", which is a sequel to the best-selling "The Secret".)
My brother Adam has been practicing Torah-chants for his Bar-Mitzvah in 2 months, and he sounds really good. He sings in Hebrew as if he was singing in English. I'm very proud of how hard he works at what he does, and how well he's grown up. He's turning 13 and it's making me feel old. Next subject.
I gave my 6th Toastmaster speech on Oct. 5th, and you can watch the video of it right here. The topic I chose was "Games and What They Teach Us", and my objective was to practice using vocal variety.

It was a challenge because at one point I forgot what I was going to say next, and my whole train of thought got derailed right in mid-sentence, but then I saved myself by "phumphing" through and closing strong. My evaluation was really kind, and it gave me renewed confidence and positive energy to work with.
Because of all the research I did for my speech, I've discovered all sorts of awesome videos on the internet, like the "Extra Credits" series on EscapistMagazine.com and the "Nostalgia Critic" videos on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. These guys are really good at what they do and talk about. Trust Me.
Finally, I've discovered the online version of the game Cashflow (referred to in my speech, please watch), and I've gotten hooked playing it, a contributing factor to my absence from the blog-o-sphere. I'm learning to be financially successful and I'm able to play with people from all over the world. Recently I played with someone in Canada, New Mexico, Washington DC, and Qatar. How cool is that? The game is free to play, and all one has to do is create an account using their email address and a password. The website is www.richdad.com. Check it out!

Now that I'm more-or-less caught up, I can turn my attention to answering some questions my good online friend "Rainy" Rani asked me. Her queries are in blue, my replies are in purple.

I can hear random people having a very weird, very loud conversation outside my open window right now. So tell me, what was your weirdest conversation about?
My weirdest conversation has to be one I had with my brother recently, which mostly consisted of us spouting lines from a kids' variety-show of the '90s called "The Amanda Show". The lines were from a recurring skit with Mr. Oldman. Look it up on YouTube. Does that count as a conversation though?

If I suddenly became a transfiguration master, what animal or thing would you like me to turn you into? (I don’t know, like a silly band, for example.)
If you had the power, I would ask you to turn me into a parrot, because they are funny, intelligent, colorful, and they live in the rain-forest.

What are you going to be wearing for Halloween? If you’re not going to wear a costume, or if it’s a surprise, tell me about your favorite past Halloween costume(s).
I'm actually not sure what I'm going to dress as this year. But I have lots of happy memories of the characters I've dressed up as from past Halloweens: the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 (with Bettina as Thing 2), a little mermaid (not Ariel though), a hula girl, a Siamese twin (with Bettina by my side), and even a Blues Brother (another team costume with Bettina).

But my favorite Halloween costume by far has to be the time I dressed as a mime. I would sneak up behind people and imitate them behind their back, and when they turned around I was off following someone else. I gave myself permission to act on my impulses. To do anything I could imagine. To pull on an invisible rope. To shake a strangers' hand without fear. To dance wildly to music only I heard. What a year that was. I like to come up with a new costume idea each year, but as a last resort, maybe I could be a mime again this Halloween. That would be fun.

For pictures, check out my mom's blog-post here: Costumes From Halloweens Past. You'll have to scroll down a bit for pictures of me and my sister though.

Can you roll your tongue?
Yes. I can flip it upside-down too.

What would you get a tattoo of? Even if you’re against tattoos or never plan on getting one pick something anyways. Something that you like or something that describes you.
If I were to get a tattoo (which in real life I wouldn't, just because it's permanent), I would get a Yin/Yang symbol on my chest, a small one that would look like as if it were a necklace (until closer inspection), or an inspirational quote like "Carpe diem" or something wrapping around my arm like a bracelet. Nothing really obvious, something that might look like jewelry to the untrained eye.

What was the last song you listened to (or last song you can remember you listening to)?
That's a tough one, because I listen to music all day. Different genres, different artists, different albums, I love it all.
I would like to make note of the fact that John Lennon, had he not been assassinated, would have been 70 years old today. There are many tribute videos on YouTube that one can see about it. My favorite John Lennon songs would have to be "Imagine" and "Give Peace A Chance". I've always admired how much John inspired people to "Make Love, Not War". He's my dad's hero.

What’s your favorite number?
Mine is seven, because it's the day I was born. The seventh day of the 9th month.

What was something insane you did/said/believed in when you were a wee little you?
Oh I remember lots of stories, and my parents know a lot more. One time, my family was at the theater, and we were watching the movie "Air-Bud" (You know, the one that started it all? With the golden retriever who played basketball? Before all these silly Disney talking-puppy movies came about?). It was the last part in the movie, where the cops take the mean clown (who was Buddy's abusive previous owner) away somewhere, and out loud in front of the whole theater my 6-year-old self says, "They're taking that clown to the dungeon!" Don't kids say the darndest things?

I also used to think that time worked the same way it does in the movies. I believed that at any moment I would find myself all grown-up, just like in the movie Bambi. First you see a little fawn mourning for his mom, then in the next scene you see him with these huge antlers! What's up with that?

If you've read this far, then you certainly are a friend in my book.

As a treat, here is a cute picture I found on the internet.

I Should Have...

2010-09-30T20:00:00.001-04:00

Sidney J. Harris - Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

What do I have to regret? I'm young, I'm healthy, I have a family who loves me, friends too many to count on my fingers and toes, I'm free to be myself, and I don't have any enemies. What do I have to regret?

I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention:

I never got to play Sharpay in my local theater production of "High School Musical" 3 years ago, but then at least I got the role of Ms. Darbus and sang "There's No Business Like Show Business". I had fun "confiscating cellphones" and "sending the whole class to detention".

I haven't done any watercolor-painting for such a long time, but at least I've picked up photography. That doesn't mean I don't still have time to get back to watercolors; I even took out the DVDs that got me excited about painting to begin with. Maybe I'll take it up again. You never know.

It's been about a year since we last put up a "Leslie and Kyle" video. Still, eleven episodes on YouTube is quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself. Plus Bettina and Adam still help me sometimes with ideas for our next "big come-back".

Lingering on regrets for too long is unhealthy. That's my philosophy. Any time you waste thinking about stuff you should have done or could have done is time you can spend actually living your dreams, and replacing those regrets with fulfillments. Like Sidney J. Harris says, regret for things you've done will pass with time, regret for things you haven't done is harder to get over.

So take chances! Get messy! Make mistakes! These are the words Ms. Frizzle lives by.

(Points if you remember where you've heard that name before.)

What are You Reading?

2010-09-29T20:33:00.001-04:00

Bertrand Russell - There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

How insightful! I love to read and tell everyone what I'm reading!

Right now I'm reading Robert Kiyosaki's latest book, "Rich Dad's Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money". Robert Kiyosaki is most famous for his "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" line of books, the first of which tells the story of how, as a nine-year-old boy growing up in Hawaii, he found a mentor in his best friends father, who taught him how to become rich and financially literate. Robert's real father was state superintendent for education, but he was the "poor dad" because he wasn't financially literate. Financial literacy is what you know about money, how to earn it, how to spend it, how to invest it, how to make it work for you rather than against you.

I've read many of Robert Kiyosaki's books, such as the original "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens", "Increase Your Financial I.Q.", and "Rich Woman" by his wife, Kim Kiyosaki. In this economy, learning more about money and how it works is the least you can do to become more financially literate. In his books, Robert says "Money is not the root of all evil; it is the ignorance of money that is the root of all evil"

And so, in this blog post, I have fulfilled both points in Bertrand Russel's quote. I'm enjoying Robert Kiyosaki's book, and I'm boasting about reading it. Ha!

Music is a Language Everyone Loves

2010-09-27T21:51:00.001-04:00

John Erskine - "Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing."

This quote is so true. Absolutely everybody in the world loves music. There are probably as many different kinds and styles and flavors of music as there are people on this earth. As human beings, we seem hard-wired to listen to and appreciate music. Even people who can't carry a tune with a handle on it can enjoy the many virtues of music, and the educational, social, and psychological benefits that come with it.

Recently from the library I checked out a cool book called "Learn to Speak Music", which I heartily recommend to all my friends by virtue of it's awesome illustrations, and the spot-on advice on choosing and playing an instrument, putting and keeping a band together, how to write music and lyrics, getting and performing live gigs, and recording your very own songs.

Even more recently, I have my dad Benny to thank for investing in our newest 88 key instrument: a Yamaha Portable Grand DGX-520 piano! We found it on Craigslist and traveled all the way to Hollywood (Florida) to get it. When we got to the guy's house, he let me and Adam play with all the styles and beats stored in it before Benny paid for it. It is so cool! These past couple days I've been practicing "Fur Elise" (or "For Elise", whichever works best) with both hands, because the piano has this cool feature that I've always wanted, that plays the song and pauses until you play the notes that it shows on the little screen. Bettina and Adam have been practicing as well, and all three of us are getting better and better at it.

In conclusion, music is universal, it crosses language barriers, and everybody loves it because there is not a mean bone in it's body (not that music has a body; it's more of an abstract, intangible type thing, but still). In a world that is, at times, an unfriendly and somewhat scary place, isn't it nice that we can always hum our favorite tune and feel that little bit better all in the same minute?

New Blog Post Format

2010-09-26T21:54:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone out there in blogworld! I've decided to change my blog format, the content that I feature on my little corner of the web. Instead of day-to-day blah-blah, I'm going to write posts based on my quote-of-the-day feed, which will expand on my opinions and views on the quotes (or quotees) in question.

This exercise is so I can get used to writing regularly in a blog again. I've realized how much it means to document and create material for posterity, so that I may look back on myself 5, 10, 20 years from now and see how weird and smart and funny I was "back then". Plus anyone who's on this ride with me (by reading this and other blog posts of mine) will get some entertainment and enjoyment out of my thoughts and insights and silly pictures I found on the internet.

(Points if you know who this guy is. He's one of my all-time favorite British actors.)

Happy Birthday to me! (and my twin)

2010-09-07T22:48:00.002-04:00

Today has indeed been a very happy day. I got to spend it with my family: the best brother, sister, mom and dad a teenage girl could ever ever ask for. We all had so much fun together.

First thing in the morning my grandparents called Bettina and me up to wish us a happy birthday. That started the day off right. Then we were presented with 3 beautiful handmade cards each; 1 from each-other, 1 from Adam, and 1 from Benny/Shira (combination deal), and I sang Bettina an original song Benny helped me record that I wrote the words and music for, after Bettina showed me a poem she wrote for me on her poetry blog. Also my twin and I exchanged gifts: I got her a new hardcover notebook with flowers on it, and she got me a crossword book with over 350 puzzles! *Score!*

After all that we had time to relax a while and watch a little YouTube. Recently we found this channel that has clips from the 4th Animaniacs volume set, which Warner Brothers, as of 2010, are not planning to release to the public! We have never seen these episodes before! And they (the episodes) are absolutely hilarious! (The funniest ones are "The Sound of Warners" and anything with Skippy and Slappy Squirrel in it. Check the link to the channel here)

What made this day even more brilliant was the fact that it fell on the same day as Toastmasters, and even Benny and Shira joined us for today's meeting! Since we were all away in Boston for 'bout 3 weeks I missed our friends at our home Toastmasters club. Sure Adam, Bettina and I visited 6 other chapters up in Beantown, but it just wasn't the same. Unfortunately only about 4 members showed up to today's meeting, so it wasn't as festive as I would've hoped, but we still had a lot of fun. One of the members gave an awesome Icebreaker (a TM's first speech after joining), and it was so nice to catch-up with everybody after so long. I'm absolutely amazed that me and my sister have been members for almost a year now! My parents are certainly impressed with how confident we've grown with the help of this organization.

Anyway...enough plugging Toastmasters, (awesome though it may be) I've still got some birthday left to share.

For a late lunch, my family and I all went out to our favorite restaurant "Sweet Tomatoes", and towards the end of our meal, Shira got some of the workers there to sing "Happy Birthday" to us and present us with 2 chocolate brownies and some frozen yogurt. I was too full at that point for any brownies, but hey, it's really the thought that counts.

Afterwards Benny treated us to see a movie. At first we had a little trouble choosing what to see, but then we just decided on watching "Grown-Ups" with the all-star cast Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade, and Rob Schnieder. Believe you me, if you've seen any bad reviews for this movie, don't believe one word! I haven't laughed during a movie so much since seeing "Toy Story 3"! Not that it's the same type of humor, but no matter. In my opinion, "Grown-Ups" is a hilarious movie for the whole family. At least my family and I had a great time.

To perfectly end a day like today would be a challenge, but I take pleasure in the fact that my sister got a birthday phone-call from a long-distance friend she really cares about. I told her she must've been on "cloud 19". Also there was a "Phineas and Ferb" marathon on TV while I wrote this post, so that's pretty sweet.

Thanks to everybody who took time out of their day to send birthday messages and well wishes to me and/or my sister today. It really means a lot. Goodnight Everybody!

Boston August/2010

2010-09-07T08:49:00.003-04:00

This picture is a link to my Picassa album where I stored all my favorite pictures I took during our 3 week trip in Boston, Mass.

In that time I've gotten to love photography even more than I did before. I hope it shows in the pictures. Enjoy viewing them. ^_^

YouTube's "Life in a Day" film project

2010-07-22T10:50:00.006-04:00

Has anybody else visited YouTube recently and noticed that there's going to be a historical day of film-making coming soon? Come July 24 2010, Kevin MacDonald (director) and Ridley Scott (producer) want as many people as possible to film themselves and their day, and then submit their footage to be considered for being in the first ever user-generated documentary, "Life in a Day".

The film will show what happened around the world during that particular day of July 24 2010, and will be a sort of "time-capsule" that shows what real people experience, what they think about, what they do for fun, special moments, mundane moments, moments that in the distant future might be considered golden. This project is a creative and cinematic milestone, and my family and I will attempt, on July 24 2010, to be a part of history.

If you want to contribute to this film as well, all you have to do is take footage during the day July 24 2010 (the footage can contain anything from watching a sunrise to commuting to work, from special moments to regular everyday chores, in a serious or playful manner, doesn't matter what you take, only that you take it), and then submit that footage anytime between July 25-31 to lifeinaday's YouTube Channel. Read the rules and guidelines provided on their channel and decide for yourself whether you want to be part of history too.

Speech Number 5: Peace in the Desert.

2010-07-12T19:35:00.011-04:00

Today I gave my 5th ever Toastmaster Speech! The basic manual has 10 speech projects in it altogether, so this means I am halfway there to attaining the rank of "Competent Communicator".
Objective: To use body language, gestures and facial expression to enhance the delivery of my speech.
Topic: A story of my first-hand experience camping out in the Negev Desert during the 10-day tour of Israel Bettina and I took in late May 2010. The underlying message of my story is that it's important to find quiet in our lives, and appreciate it when we have it.
Time Range: 5-7 minutes.

Video Record of my speech:

Video Record of my evaluation:

Compared to my previous 4 speeches, I'd say this presentation was my best. Still I have some improvements to make; I notice myself pacing back and forth unnecessarily when I could just be still, and towards the end I was getting a bit out-of-breath, losing steam so to speak. Plus, as my evaluator Salena said, I focused on one side of the room more than the other, so I need work on improving better eye-contact. These are all rungs on the ladder that will get me to being a better and more confident public-speaker!

Some extra news: Since the beginning of July, I became the Vice-President of Membership at my club. Yeah, for real; members voted, and they made me an officer. I'm now in charge of finding new members and also making sure our current members keep coming to meetings, which turns out to be a bit of a challenge during the summer. Still, it's a fun job.

Launching of Serve-A-Verse: A Triumph

2010-07-01T13:41:00.010-04:00

This past week, Benny, Bettina and I have been working extra hard on a project we've been working on for months and months: revamping our Serve-A-Verse website's design layout and building a system that keeps a database of all registered users.

In the process, we've added many more useful features, become multi-lingual in a handful of computer languages such as HTML, CSS, Perl, and PHP, gained competence in using programs in the Adobe CS4 software collection, and discovered what it really takes to be a web-master. Anybody can slap together text, graphics, and links and call it a web page, but it takes some real brains and creativity (not as mutually exclusive as you might think) to put up an actual useful web application.

What is Serve-A-Verse? It is an interactive website that allows a registered user to select a single or range of verses from the Old Testament Bible and see the verses displayed in English and in Hebrew, the original biblical language. Our updated web-service also allows users to play an audio clip next to each individual verse of "the voice of God" reading the verse in Hebrew.

To see for yourself how totally awesome this website is, follow this link (Serve-A-Verse) to the home page.

To read more about the launching of Serve-A-Verse, see the post my sister Bettina wrote on her blog about it: We have a launch!/Ready to Serve!

To make my day, leave a comment and/or tell your friends to register to our site.

For other options, press 2. (Just kidding.)

Welcome to my Revamped Blog!

2010-06-23T18:00:00.007-04:00

I'm back world, and I'm better than ever! There's no stopping me! I've returned to Blogger!

Really? It's you? It's actually you?

Yes my wonderful blog! And I've given you a nice new layout and design scheme as well!

Well that's all fine and dandy Ms. disappear-for-6-weeks. What the heck have you been up to since you've been gone? Huh?

Alright everybody, hold your horses. I've just been taking a temporary break from blogging because I had so many other things going on.

First off there was the road-trip my family took to get from Florida to New York, and then from there Bettina and I had a wild and wonderful 10-day tour of the land of Israel (where we made about 40 new friends and took about 350 pictures and videos with our digital camera), plus the road trip from New York back to Florida. In all, a 2-week chunk, from May 14-28.

Then there were the shows that me and my siblings were a part of: Adam in Ms. Judy's production of "Gypsy" (May 28 and 31), Bettina and me in Yasmine's original production called "Once Upon A Broadway Dream" (May 30). After both plays, I swore that it would be a very long time before I go back into show business for someone else other than me. If I'm going to be on stage or rehearsing for a show, I'd rather be the one calling the shots.

Then June came, with brutal South Florida heat and huge rainstorms competing for attention. This month marked my parents' 21st Wedding Anniversary (June 11), and the 5th Anniversary of when my Toastmaster Club, Beacon Point, first got chartered (June 23). Recently, my sister Bettina gave her 5th speech, thereby completing half of her basic 10-speech manual! Congrats sis!

A few other highlights include going to the theater to see "How to Train Your Dragon" (June 15) and "Toy Story 3" (June 19), 2 absolutely über-awesome films and my 2 favorite animated movies of 2010 (if not of all time)! 3 days ago of course was Father's Day, so Benny received special handmade cards from each of his loving children and we spent the day at the beach.

Which finally brings us to the present day. Or the past, which is more likely anyway.

Today I have decided to give blogging another chance. I've changed my layout and my background with the amazing 1-stop Template-Design tool from Blogger, so now it's like a clean slate, a fresh start, only with all of my previous blog posts intact. Wait'll I have some fresh material to work with!

Mother's Day Post

2010-05-10T09:33:00.006-04:00

This year, just like most years, everyone in our family had handmade cards to present. Adam's card had big red heart on the front with "I Love Shira" written in the same style as "I Love Lucy". Bettina wrote an acrostic poem for her (which was put up on Bettina's blog). Father Benny wrote a love note to the mother of his children. I wrote a poem to go inside of this:

Mothers are amazing, of that there is no doubt.
They are the type of people that one cannot live without.
They give us life, they give us love, they care, they cook, they clean.
With all the things that mothers do they should be treated like queens.
They help us when we need them, with poise as well as grace.
No matter what you look like, they'll always love your face.
Shira, you're a hero, believe me, it is true.
You're one of a kind, I'm glad you're mine, I'll always cheer for you.
You're more than just a mother, you're a teacher, friend, and wife.
The years I've spent within your care are the best years of my life.
You're the most special woman that I know, I'd never choose another.
You mean the very world to me, my dear beloved mother

This came straight from my heart, and I think even if you were to replace my mom's name with somebody else's, it would still mean the same thing. Do you think I have a future in Hallmark or something?

Next on the make-mom-happy agenda was to prepare a picnic for the beach, just like we did last year (only this year we remembered to bring the blanket and towels. ^_^)
It was such a glorious day! The sun was perfect, the water was perfect, and along with the salad and chummus that we made ourselves, we enjoyed three bags of pita bread from an Israeli market called "Sarah's Tent". Let me tell you there's a huge difference between pita you might find in a supermarket (which is thin, frail, and usually frozen and defrosted before being bought), and real fresh-baked Israeli-style pita (which is soft, substantial, and actually has a bit of flavor). Now I'm even more excited to visit Israel just so I can get another taste of authentic pita sandwiches, with falafel and salad and all the trimmings. Pita with falafel in Israel is like hamburgers and french-fries here in America.

Anyway, more about mom. Everything she does for my family is so special, and she's such an important part of my life. Shira is always around to talk with about absolutely anything; feelings, futures, failures, and favorite films. There's no academy or school or anything where a woman goes to learn to be a mother, but if there was I'm sure she'd get high marks in all subjects. Happy Mother's Day Mom!

P.S. Do you know that MOM is WOW turned upside-down?

Hebrew Heaven

2010-05-06T22:41:00.008-04:00

I've been keeping secrets from my readers. It's been in the works for months now—Bettina and I are going to be in Israel in 6 days!

Let me explain: in February, my sis and I both registered for a 10-day trip, courtesy of an organization called Birthright Israel, which provides educational trips to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18 to 26, during the summer and winter seasons. Since our 18th birthday half a year ago, Bettina and I have been fantasizing about traveling on our own to the Holy Land, and now we're so excited to actually be going very soon! The last time we were in Israel was with our family, in Summer 2007, and we spent 10 weeks living in the amazing city of Tel-Aviv. I have so many fond memories of Israel; the beaches, the hummus and falafel, the history and culture, the thrill of hearing people all around me speak a different language...

And so, in preparation for our upcoming journey, I've decided to re-immerse myself in the Hebrew language. Guess which website I'm using to help me on my noble quest? Let me give you a couple of clues:

It's the 3rd most visited website according to Alexa.com
It's slogan is "Broadcast Yourself"
Google bought it for $1.65 billion 4 years ago

That's right! YouTube to the rescue! This month I've discovered a treasure trove of movies that I know and love translated to Hebrew, so I can pick up a bit of the language while understanding exactly what's being said! It all started when I searched for videos of the cartoon show "Animaniacs" in Hebrew. The search didn't yield much, but at least I got to see the "Monkey Song" in a different language.

The next jackpot I found was Disney films in Hebrew! There's this one YouTube channel that has about a dozen animated treasures all dubbed with stellar voice actors. Adam, Bettina, and I watched "The Lion King" altogether, and it was such an amazing experience listening to the character's voices in a different language. The translated songs are my favorite parts, especially "Hakuna Matata" and "I Just Can't Wait to be King".

Some other movies translated in Hebrew we saw were "Alice in Wonderland", "Beauty and the Beast", "The Jungle Book", and "Aladdin", my new favorite translated movie so far (the guy who plays Genie is so funny, comparable to Robin Williams even)

The YouTube Channel: 1guyofer

List of Movies Included (besides the ones I've already mentioned):

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Dumbo
Peter Pan
Pinocchio
Hercules
Pocahontas
The Sword in the Stone
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Monsters Inc
The Incredibles
Enchanted
The Prince of Egypt

(Edit: 1guyofer is no longer an active YouTube account. Sorry.)

"Early History of Animation", Speech #4

2010-04-27T10:50:00.003-04:00

Last week I did my 4th speech for Toastmasters. The objective of the presentation was to focus on the words I use to get my point across, by using good grammar, rhetorical devices, and simple language (technical terms and jargon are discouraged). The subject I chose was the history of animation during the early 20th century. Can you imagine that for over a century people have been fascinated by pictures that move and drawings that come to life? Watch my speech to learn more!

Next here is the evaluation I got from fellow Toastmaster, Jorge. He tells me that he learned a lot from my speech and that I did a good job delivering it, but I still need to improve on my posture and vocal variety.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a couple early animated shorts that I discuss in my speech, created by the "Father of American Animation", James Stuart Blackton. Though they are brief, they are charming and quaint, and they make you appreciate how far the art form of animation has come since then.

Toastmaster Speech #3: Wikipedia

2010-04-05T10:04:00.009-04:00

To anyone who follows my blog and enjoys reading about me and my life, I'm sorry for being so quiet. It's a procrastination issue. Something always comes up and I tell myself, "Okay, I'll definitely blog about this," but then before I know it, the moment's gone and I'm off to do something else. Anyway, while I'm here I'll make the most of this post, so without further ado, here is a long overdue video of me delivering my third Toastmaster speech, on Tuesday, March 30. It's all about Wikipedia and the different parts that make up an article.

I wrote out this speech word-for-word in a matter of days and memorized it the day before and the morning of the Toastmasters meeting, but for some strange reason, in the middle of my speech, I freeze! I just completely lost my train of thought and forgot what I was supposed to say next! Thinking fast (although not quite that fast), I went right on to the next part of my speech and the rest of my speech went on without another hitch. I went a little over the standard 5-7 minute time-limit, but it was only by about 15 seconds or so.

Here's a video of the evaluation I got afterwards:

The evaluator's name is Tony Vivaldi. He's a very accomplished and distinguished Toastmaster member, and he doesn't always show up at meetings, so it was a treat having him evaluate me and give me such great speaking advice. He talks with a heavy accent, but I can still understand him enough to know what his main points are. After the meeting was adjourned he gave me a few other important tips, and he remarked on how much my sister and I have improved in our public speaking skills.

I hope that I can somehow continue posting on my blog without leaving gaping 2-3 week gaps between posts. Same goes for my Art Blog. I want to remember to post things up for posterity so I don't forget that certain things happened.

Freakazoid Fan.

2010-03-12T11:39:00.007-05:00

Who is this wacky blue guy in a red suit? His name is Freakazoid, and he had a show that lasted from Sept. 1995 to Jun. 1997, produced by the great Steven Spielberg (who also has under his belt "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain", two other cartoon shows that rock my world).

Freakazoid is in the superhero genre of cartoons, but it's mixed with heavy levels of meta-humor and slapstick-comedy. I love it!

The cast of Freakazoid includes many voice actors from "Animaniacs" such as Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, and Frank Welker (don't worry about knowing who these people are, if you want to learn more go to Wikipedia or something), Joe Leahy as the very vocal narrator, and Paul Rugg as the titular main character, plus great acting legends Edward Asner and Ricardo Montalban.

Sadly, the whole show consists of only 24 episodes, all of which I found on YouTube this year. Just like "Animaniacs", "Freakazoid" was cancelled because it couldn't find the right audience. Blame the WB Kids Network people.

To honor the show, I posted a drawing of Freakazoid in a few poses on my Art Blog, so check it out!

Freak Out!

Toastmaster Stories

2010-03-02T17:21:00.010-05:00

I haven't given any more speeches yet, but I'd still like to blog about the happenings in my Toastmasters club for the sake of posterity. It's fun to go online and go through my own archives to read about my own stories, and the less I write about my days, the less I remember, so here I am, and here you are, so let's get down to it.

As of Friday, February 19, I have been given the responsibility of managing our club's website. I have taken this job and ran with it! My first assignment was to design a new logo, and my sister Bettina helped a bunch by being my brainstorming partner. Together we used the graphics program Adobe Illustrator CS4 to create 14 different designs, and then we picked the winning logo by seeing which got the greatest response. Here it is:

I also greatly improved the club's website by filling up the F.A.Q. page, taking it from 0 questions to 12 questions, and I added a few links that relate to public speaking in the main menu, after researching many different Toastmaster club websites to see how they do things. I am learning so much by being my club's Webmaster, and I can see how this position can be made to shine bright on my resume someday. ^_^ To check out the site, click this link: http://beaconpoint.freetoasthost.biz.

On Saturday, February 27, Bettina and I went to a big Toastmaster's event in our town, and listened to the best Toastmaster speakers in our Area. A member from our club, Mike Borrone, was there representing our club, and we came to support him and listen to him speak along with all the other Master Communicators. It was a swell to-do, and we rubbed shoulders with some fine people. My sister and I were the youngest Toastmasters members in the place, but that didn't matter in the least because we were treated just like any other respected adult. It was such a cool experience.

Today, Bettina and I brought a couple of guests to the meeting: my mom's friend Ruth and her 8-year-old son Eiza (in Toastmasters you can be any age and be a guest, but you have to be at least 18 to join a club). It's for a contest we're holding all month to see which member can bring in the most guests, and the winner will get a $20 gift card. Bettina and I are sharing the credit for our guests, so if we win we'll share the prize-money too ^_^.

Anyway, today we had other guests at our meeting besides Ruth and Eiza. One of them was a Toastmaster's member who belonged to a different club, and she came to practice a speech at our club. Her name was Annette Watkins, and I liked her almost immediately. (Primarily because of our shared first name, secondarily because of what I learned from her. Read on!)

Annette was the first speaker on our agenda, and her speech's purpose was to inspire the audience. She started out speaking strong, but in the middle of her presentation, Annette lost her train of thought and got so nervous and flustered that she apologized to everyone in the room and made an appeal to end her speech right there.

Everyone protested. I said, "Come on, let's show our support!" and I led the whole group in a supportive round of applause. Annette was still feeling nervous, but with renewed effort, she continued and finished her speech without her notes. After she finished, the applause was like magic.

Next we spent about 15 minutes doing Table Topics, and then I went up to the podium to deliver an evaluation for Annette's speech. The purpose of evaluations is to communicate to the speaker what he/she did right, and what he/she can improve on, as well as any opinions on the speech. I let Annette know that she was very brave to finish her speech after a stumble like that, and that she still needs improvement exactly like everyone else in our club. I also said that I was definitely inspired, after hearing her speak, to keep on attending Toastmaster meetings and learning public speaking so I don't have to end up like her (I got a couple laughs in agreement, and no offense was taken). I'm very proud of the evaluation I gave today because not only is it my second ever evaluation speech, but I feel like I changed somebody's life for the better. And that someone has the same first name as I do.

As you can see I am a very staunch supporter of Toastmasters. If there's a chapter in your area, I strongly recommend you visit the club and see what the fuss is all about. You might meet some very interesting people. To aid you in your search, here's a link to the Find-A-Club page on Toastmasters International's website. Good luck, good day, and goodnight everybody!

Link to Art posts

2010-02-14T22:36:00.003-05:00

Fantastic news: I've started painting again!

Please check out my most recent art blog posts either by clicking the photo in the top left corner or click these links to my 2 watercolor painting posts:

Happy Valentines Day!

Beach Landscapes

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a long long time, I think I've lost enthusiasm for blogging about my life in general. But that doesn't mean you can't read more about me in my Art Blog! I'm probably going to be posting there a lot more often, so see you on the other side!

2nd Toastmaster speech

2010-01-26T08:38:00.006-05:00

Before I officially begin this post, I just want to say that since last post everything's all right "musical-play"-wise. Bettina and I had a great time at our first rehearsal and we met about a dozen new people. We sang, we danced, and we did fun warm-ups for about 2 hours and that was it. Until next Saturday.

Anyway...Today I gave my second ever Toastmaster speech! I'm happy to say that I came more prepared and that I was a lot more confident on the morning of, as opposed to last time when I was FREAKING OUT MON! This time I had it all figured out and I had memories of how easy giving a speech really was in front of my group. Bettina and I came half an hour early to spend some time with our Toastmasters mentor, Angela. She gave us some excellent tips to improve our body language and eye contact with the audience. Sometimes when I speak, I shift my weight from one foot to the other when I'm standing up. You can tell I feel nervous just by that action. In the video below, I still do a bit of weight-shifting, but not as much as I would've otherwise. Check it out.

I appreciate all those who helped me with my speech this week and all those who are helping me become a better public speaking person, from my family to everyone in my club. This is a shout out to them. THANKS EVERYONE!

Once Upon a Broadway Dream

2010-01-20T14:44:00.004-05:00

Up to now I've been keeping quiet about something I'm being part of, but I can keep quiet no longer. Back in December, my mom found an ad on Craigslist for an audition for an original musical play, and I contacted the poster saying I would be interested in auditioning. Long story short, yada yada yada, I found out the poster's name was Yasemin, and we emailed and we talked on the phone, and we set a date for an audition on January the 11th.

That day my mom drove me, my sister Bettina, and my brother Adam (who was just tagging along) to our audition and we met Yasemin for the first time. Bettina and I auditioned separately, and we each sung a song and performed a monologue very well (details upon request). After that we stayed around to talk with Yasemin and we discussed when starting rehearsals were. She said it would start sometime in February and that she'd contact us during the week by email with the particulars. Yasemin was a very nice women, and she wrote the original play herself. She seemed to have everything under control, so on the drive back home, we agreed that we didn't have to worry until we got an email from Yasemin.

Fast-forward to this morning; 9 days have passed, and I haven't heard a peep from Yasemin (funny sort of expression, no? Who'd actually say peep when talking to someone =) ). This morning I get a phone-call from Yasemin asking me where was I Saturday the 16th? Huminah-huminah-huminah...wha? Bettina and I were supposed to come on the 16th?!? I said I thought February and I was sorry for the misunderstanding. I also said that my sister and I would see her this Saturday, and did I mention how sorry I was?

Have you ever had one of those days where you question your own sanity? Never have one of those days! Shira was out food-shopping, so I couldn't talk to her for a few hours and I was stewing in my own juices, feeling like an idiot for hearing February instead of Jan. 16th. I pride myself on my reputation for perfect attendance, and I go and miss the first rehearsal!

Finally Shira came back and I told her all about it, and she reacted the same way I did, only she called up Yasemin to iron out the wrinkles in our stories. It turned out that somehow Yasemin thought she called me on the 14th saying that rehearsal was on the 16th, but I swear that I didn't! Twilight Zone anyone?.......

Anyway, Yasemin takes responsibility, and we made sure that the very next rehearsal for the musical play, which incidentally is called "Once Upon A Broadway Dream", is set for this Saturday, the 23rd, from 1:00-3:00 PM at the same place that I auditioned. Hopefully something good will come out of this and I can enjoy the rest of my day. Peace!

~ Annette out.

P.S. Check out my Art Blog for my latest cartoon obsession.

Dean and Me (A Love Story)

2010-01-12T15:36:00.002-05:00

If the names Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are foreign to you, let me suggest familiarizing yourself with some of their material before checking this book out from the library or reading this blog-post: DVDs of the Colgate Comedy Hour from your local library, My Friend Irma and My Friend Irma Goes West, 2 of their first films together, an album of Dean Martin singing the standards or any of Jerry Lewis's movie masterpieces. Take your pick. If you have heard of this dynamic duo of comedy, than thank goodness! I finally have someone to talk to!

Dean & Me is a book about the partnership, the team, the friendship, the illustrious career of Martin and Lewis. It was a wonderful history lesson for me, reading about how show business used to be in the '40s and '50s and how Jerry and Dean put together their act and traveled all over the country playing nightclubs from coast-to-coast, how they acted in movies, and met all sorts of famous celebrities. What I liked most about this book however was how wonderfully Jerry expressed himself about all the fun he and Dean had working together and all the good times they had on and off the stage/screen. Jerry was the wild one, the off-the-wall goof with a rubber face, loud, high voice, and a huge personalty. Dean was the handsome, charming crooner, who had a razor-sharp wit to match Jerry's crazy antics and a cool attitude that kept him through any adversity.

As I got further and further into the book, it turned into an emotional roller-coaster. After 10 wonderful, golden years, Jerry and Dean's working and personal relationship dissolved. They both struck out on their own, performing solo and living their separate lives. It made me sad to read about what Jerry went through; he and Dean didn't see each other again until 18 years later! Then I felt happy when I read about how, professionally, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin made good in their individual careers. The last part of the book was bittersweet, and it also made me tear up a bit when I read about Dean and Jerry's final reconciliation, and then Dean Martin's funeral after Christmas only 15 years ago.

What I love about reading biographies, and autobiographies especially, is that they are stories of real life, people who actually lived, and what they gave to this world to get a book written about them in the first place. My respect and appreciation for Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin as human beings, and not just famous faces, has grown exponentially just by reading this book. Would my brother Adam be the same person if not for Jerry Lewis? I don't think so.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

2010-01-10T16:12:00.012-05:00

I live in South Florida, home of one of the mildest winter climates in the country. This year I've experienced 34 degree nights and 37 degree days, for the first time ever without taking a trip north anywhere! It's so cold today, I'm wearing 2 pairs of pants! One on top of the other! Honestly! And I'm getting cabin-fever from sitting inside all day!

Well, actually, it's kinda nice spending Sunday at home, watching "Phineas and Ferb", reading "Dean and Me" (a wonderful autobiography from the great Jerry Lewis himself), and eating nice hot oatmeal. I feel so cozy and relaxed. *sigh satisfyingly*

Oh, another thing, Adam found this Billiards game online that's totally addicting, and everyone except my mom is going through this phase. O.o

Click this link at your own risk.

Another one of those New Year posts

2010-01-04T11:43:00.000-05:00

I've got so many wonderful stories to share I hardly know where to start! It would take too long for me to figure out how to tell everything without getting into too much detail, because every detail is important, but I can list the incredible highlights from New Year's Eve to the end of New Year's Day:

Spent the afternoon of Dec. 31 at the beach with my 2 favorite guys in the world: my brother Adam and my dad Benny. We swam, chatted, played Paddle-ball, and ordered a pizza that never came!
Baby-sat for a friend of a friend on New Year's Eve. All three of us, Bettina, Adam, and I, were hired to take care of 4 kids: a boy/girl twin set (3 & 1/2 years old), and 2 older sisters (one 7, the other 10). We filled up juice-cups, changed diapers, watched our very own "Leslie and Kyle" webshow on their computer (the kids loved it), and saw the ball drop on TV. The older sisters were a great help with translating for their younger siblings, and we had an easy time with everyone because they were so well-behaved. We slept-over and the next day we made breakfast for everyone, and watched a movie until mom came back at 1:00 PM the next day. What a way to start 2010! ^_^
After we got paid (for babysitting 18 hours), I drove myself and my crew all the way back home so we could get ready for a New Year's Day party at a friends' house. They're Japanese-American, so there's always some great Asian party foods to sample. My family brought vegan sushi to the table. There was a lot of kids at the party, and we all had a great time playing "Rock-Band" and "Wii Sports" in the game-room.

That's all I can give you. Enough reminiscing for me. Time to start getting back to work!

Plans for the New Year

2009-12-31T10:03:00.009-05:00

'Twas the night before New Years, and all through the town,

All the people were counting. That is, counting down.

The clocks were synchronized and ticking in time,

to pass the last moments of 2009...

That was the beginning of a poem I wrote last week, a parody of the "Night Before Christmas" verse. It's pretty appropriate right around now, don't you think?

Last year to this day, I wrote a blog post about my plans for 2009. I made few resolutions, and I kept them all. Here's what I said:

I hoped that Leslie and Kyle would become a big hit someday. Back then we only had about 7 episodes. Now we have 11 episodes, and me and my team is looking into making a 12th one. I already wrote a first draft for the next show! Sometime in January it's gonna turn into YouTube material!
I hoped that my artistic skills and talents would improve, and they did! I said nothing about improving my ability to post up my work though. In the New Year, I strive to remember to post more stuff on my Art Blog, so you all can see how good I'm getting!
I hoped to have more adventures and new experiences, and I certainly did! Check it out! I took an Improv class, did the SATs, started watercolor painting, got my driver's license, went up to Boston twice (first with just Bettina, then with the whole family), and joined Toastmasters, all in one year! Let's hope I have more stories to tell in 2010!
There were two other "resolutions" that don't count, one where I vowed not to fall asleep in the middle of the day January 1st 2009, and the other one where I promised to be a better person. Both of them were too easy.

My plans for the new year of the new decade are big, because I love to dream big, and someday I'm going to make it big! However, the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with 1 step, which means I should focus on setting manageable goals for myself so I don't get overwhelmed.

One of my plans is to change this blog. I'd like to learn how to put a picture in the background. I've been keeping the same layout for the whole year! This blog needs sprucing up! Also I plan on writing more than just 97 posts like I did this year, not counting the Art Blog posts. Perhaps I can get close to 150 in 2010! Plus Art Blog posts!
Another one is to keep working on my many talents and skills: drawing, painting, creating puppet web-shows, singing, acting, and public speaking. The more I practice, the better I get.
I'm also going to look for more job opportunities. It really is time. I'm 18 and I'm still living with my parents. The least I can do is help out where I can.
Travel! Oh, how I want to travel! Cross-country! Israel! Europe! Is it in the cards? Oh please please please please please!
Would it be too much to ask for a little romantic interest on the side? I suppose I have to wait and meet loads of people first. I resolve to be more sociable and outgoing this year.
One last thing, I'm looking to become a more independent self-supporting adult-type person. This resolution sort of overlaps the last 3 in a way (job, travel, and romance), but it's mainly about making my own decisions, learning how to do laundry, and spending less time goofing off doing nothing (a loophole in this clause is if I'm goofing off with someone else, because that's called "bonding").

That's it. Just 6 resolutions this year. I am so thankful for the power to change what I think needs changing, and I'm going to use that power for good! Happy New Year Everybody!

Happy "Long Time No Blog"!

2009-12-28T11:48:00.002-05:00

Letmesee letmesee letmesee, I'm trying to figure out a way to explain what's been happening for me this month, but it's so hard when I keep putting off writing to do other things. Darn you, procrastination! You are my weakness, and you are not my friend! I'm kicking you out and replacing you with my old buddy responsibility. He never lets me down!

That is one of my resolutions for the new year in 2010: To cease the activity of saying I'll do something later when it's actually fully in my power to do it right that moment. To take action rather than do nothing. I'm betting I'm in good company with this resolution, eh? ^_- So to all those other procrastinators out there, remember that there will always be a "later", but there will never be another moment quite like "now".

Anyway, here is a random, but true and eclectic list of what I've been up to recently:

Helped my mom re-tile and redecorate both of the bathrooms in my house along with my sister Bettina. I had a great time working, and it's a lot easier than it sounds to spread adhesive, lay on tiles, wait for a day or so, and then grout the whole thing and let that dry before giving it a final wash.
Celebrated Chanukah (Hannukah? Hanuka? Hanover? Chanukaka? So strange trying to spell this holiday), which started on the night of Friday the 11th, and ended on Friday the 18th. On the last night, Bettina and I made the traditional potato latkes (pancakes) and our mom finally got a break after all these years of frying them herself. They tasted delicious,especially with homemade applesauce! ^_^
Taught my friend Martina a few chords on the guitar and then she taught me and my sister a few excellent massage techniques, which we practiced on my mom. An excellent trade-off, no? We had a fun time having Martina and her boyfriend Scott over. They're both really cool people, and I remember they brought this rich and yummy chocolate pudding dish in honor of Adam's birthday. It was delicious, but I felt so drowsy after eating just a slice of the heavy dessert.
Skipped Tuesday the 22nd's Toastmaster's meeting, seeing as it was cancelled due to the Holiday season. Darn it all, and that was when Bettina was scheduled to present herIcebreaker speech. Now she gets a whole 2 weeks of extra practice before the next gathering on Jan. 5th 2010! My sister gets a last-minute postponement and I didn't? No fair! Not that I'm complaining though, I gave my speech everything I got, and it was a good one, as evidenced in the video in last post.
Created a homemade version of the board game Othello after playing it at a Christmas party at our friend Ramona's house (where there was food and friends and the kiddies watched "Night at the Museum 2"), and haven't stopped playing it since! I've played everyone in my family, and taught it to many other people. It's a really fun game where you have to use your brain, kinda like chess, but without all the confusing pieces with different moves for each.
Attended a Christmas vegan potluck very similar to the Thanksgiving potluck I described a couple posts ago, only it was at someones house instead of at a park. Totally had an awesome time eating and partying, and met a few friends that I recognized from last year. I brought my homemade Othello board and pieces, and it was a hit at the party! I beat a couple of people, but I think everyone had a good time.
Fed the hungry on Christmas Day-night. That is, the night of Dec. 25th. We volunteered with a group and got to meet new people and fill some stomachs. My mom made our special homemade no-dairy banana ice-cream and served it in these tiny sample cones, and everyone liked it a lot! Felt good doing a good deed and helping other people in need.
Recovered from a winter "bug" that gave me first a stuffy nose, then a runny nose, then a cough, then a froggy voice. It lasted about 3 and 1/2 days, but I'm all better now! Got me a couple fine cups of orange-grapefruit juice and a weekend of relaxation too. Accompanied by icky phlegm stuff of course, but still.

And that is all folks! I can't believe I've been a blogger for a whole year now! Ever since December 24th of '08, can you believe it? If you feel like reminiscing along with me, check out a few of those early posts of mine and maybe give me some comments.

A Crash Course on my Life

It's Christmastime... tomorrow that is.

Vegetarian Feast

My doodle collection #1

Leslie and Kyle: Sock Puppets on YouTube

Oh What a Night...(Jan 1, 2009)

Hope everyone had wonderful holidays, and I wish everyone a Happy 2010! Peace out!

My Icebreaker Speech/Adam's Birthday

2009-12-16T22:05:00.011-05:00

Sorry for my prolonged absence from Blogger. Since Thanksgiving, I've been up to so much I hardly know how to catch up on everything. At least I don't have to document everything online for my own sake, I keep up writing in my physical notebooks often enough. But how am I going to keep the outside world informed of my goings-on if I don't make the time to type up a blog-post once in a while and get it over with? Oh well. Quite a lot has happened in the last couple weeks...

Before I get too far, I have to write about how my first ever speech for Toastmasters went! For every member of Toastmaster, there comes a time when he/she has to write his/her Icebreaker, a special speech that tells a little about the new speaker in a 4-6 minute time-frame (hence the term Icebreaker, it breaks the ice for the audience, made up of mostly experienced Toastmaster members who remember very well doing their first speeches and can really relate). By now me and my sister have been coming to Toastmasters for about a month, so we've gotten to know all of the members pretty well. All the same, I had a very hard time preparing for the whole "standing-in-front-of-a-small-crowd-yapping-about-myself-for-5-minutes" experience. Actually, from Sunday the 12th to Tuesday the 15th (the day I gave my speech) I was in total panic-mode, Annette Levy style.

Annette Levy style panic-mode is not fun at all, it involves a lot of crying, floor-pacing, conflicting emotions, doubt-filled thoughts, and bashing of the ego, and it also made me feel more hungry and tired than ever, not that I could take a break for one minute from preparing for my all-important speech, no way. I could hardly believe how scared I was of speaking about myself for a small audience (not more than 10 people including my sister), when in the past I've done all manner of things that require a lot of courage, such as traveling to Boston for 16 days with only my sis Bettina for company, and performing Improv (see older blog posts).

My family was super-supportive, especially during the weekend before my Icebreaker. They all kept reminding me what a special person I was, and gave me all sorts of great material to use in my speech. For me, it's challenging to talk about myself, because if I catch myself talking about all my wonderful talents and achievements, it makes me think that I'm being boastful, and who wants to listen to a braggart? My mom and my dad told me over and over again that it was perfectly okay to be proud of myself and toot my own horn, as long as I'm always honest and don't hurt anyone with my words. Easy enough.

Boy oh boy, when Tuesday morning rolled around, I was acting like I was going to get a tooth removed or something. I wrote some helpful notes about myself to give me memory boosts, just in case I should happen to get hit by instantaneous amnesia. @.@ (hypnotized face) Bettina drove the both of us to the meeting so I could do some uninterrupted deep-breathing. As we took the elevator up to the second floor of the A.I.U. building, all the fear I had inside me dissipated until only excitement was left, and I felt very calm and full of energy at the same time, but I wasn't quite as scared anymore. When I entered the room and saw all the friendly faces in the room, my nervousness all but disappeared.

If you like, you can watch my Icebreaker speech right here on this post.

Just like that, it was all over, and I went back to my seat the proudest I'd ever been of myself. I could've done a much better speech, but I couldn't have put a bigger effort into what I made myself do. I could've very well delayed my Icebreaker indefinitely, but instead I faced my fear head-on and came out alive! After the meeting was over, Bettina and I drove to Publix and treated ourselves to some chocolate. I had an Almond Joy, and Bettina had these caramel-turtle thingies. Then we went right back home where congratulations were showered on me by my brother and my parents. ^.^ I was so happy. We ended the day right by going out to the movies to see "Pirate Radio", a nice comedy stuffed with rock-and-roll music and history plus poke-in-the-ribs fun at the expense of the pompous stuffed-shirt British government of the '60s.

In other news, my brother Adam had his 12th birthday on December 10th (^.^ I made him a lovely handmade birthday card). That was a Thursday, and we also celebrated his birthday on Sunday at our favorite weekly beach hangout with our friends and bought a couple bags of Hershey's Hugs and Kisses to share.

The Hugs are white chocolate with little chocolate swirls around them. On the 4th he ordered this Harry Potter wand from eBay and he's been checking the mail every day since, but nothing's come in yet! He's very anxious to get it. It has a light-up tip I think. On the 9th we got him the DVD of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" the day it came out, so that was good. The special features are awesome!

I think that's enough out of me for now. See ya real soon, and I mean it this time. Goodnight everybody!

Thanksgiving Day Leftovers

2009-11-27T10:20:00.007-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't taken the time to blog in a long long time. I've been taking a bit of a break from writing posts in order to focus on some other things in my life, namely my "Web Application Development" studies, Toastmasters meetings (I've gone to 2 meetings since I joined on Nov. 10th), and searching for various life-opportunities. Anyway, I'd like to take the time right now to share what I did this year for Thanksgiving.

For the third year in a row, my family went to the Annual Thanksgiving Vegetarian Potluck Feast. It's a wonderful delicious party where everyone brings a dish that has no meat or cheese in it, and it's held in a big beautiful park with lots of trees and several picnic benches. My family brought to the potluck a delicious sweet salad (lettuce, apples, carrots, coconut, and raisins with orange juice poured all over), rice with curry (an excellent combination), and a special sweet-potato mash. There were about 50 other people that showed up, and dozens of vegetarian dishes to sample from. It was a smorgasbord! It was just like going to an all-you-can-eat-buffet, with the only expense being the fee for entering the park. There was plenty of food for everyone, and I was very thankful for the abundance that was all around me. And absolutely no turkeys were harmed!

After a couple plates of food, me and my sister noticed a couple young guys throwing a Frisbee around. They looked about in their early 20s, and pretty good-looking (as guys tend to be). My sister was brave enough to casually walk over and initiate a game of catch with them. I followed her even though my stomach was almost full up. Is it healthy to exercise right after eating? Well if it's wrong, I don't want to be right. We had a good time playing Frisbee, and it was just a casual game, throwing it to each other in no set order. My brother Adam joined in for a few tosses, then left when he got tired. When we all got tired of playing, we gave the guys their Frisbee back and that was that. No name exchanges or anything, just a fun, memorable moment that we created out of thin air.

Another fun moment was when a guy named George brought a Mastermind set and I played a few rounds with him, guessing his color codes in about 5 tries. George kept saying things like, "How did you get that?" and "You're so smart," and "I would never have been able to guess that," which made me feel so good and intelligent inside. I also played with a gal named Lisa, and another man named Matthew. I had such a blast!

My family had such a great time that we didn't leave that park until almost sunset! I didn't want that day to end, but as days tend to do, it ended anyway.
Fast forward to evening, back home where my whole family is watching "Analyze That" (the sequel to Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro's great comedy "Analyze This") and laughing out loud all together. Best. Thanksgiving. Ever!

I am so thankful to have so many things to be thankful for: family, friends, health, wealth, home, happiness, knowledge, abundance, free time, technology, nature, growth, plants, animals, oceans, mountains, stars, galaxies...Okay, I think I may be going a bit overboard. Maybe I should just end this post with a Seasons Greetings and a Happy Harvest Holiday!

"Toastmasters" Visits!

2009-11-12T19:19:00.002-05:00

Has anyone ever heard of the public-speaking club called "Toastmasters"? Well if you haven't, find the nearest club in your area, and go visit it! It will be one of the most fascinating experiences you've ever had! At least I hope it will be as fascinating as my two visits were. I knew about Toastmasters long ago, because my dad went to one of their meetings once, but that was many years ago! I had to discover for myself just what "Toastmasters" was.

This last Monday at 7:30 p.m., I got my whole family to drive to this church near us where the club met (we don't go because we're Jewish), and we were welcomed as guests and sat in on the meeting. There seemed to be about 20 or so other people, all of whom wanted to further their public-speaking/effective communication skills. Each time someone spoke, everyone else would applaud. The atmosphere was very friendly and supportive, and of course supportive applause is contagious. I saw wonderful speakers that night, and it was amazing for me to realize that these people lived in the same city as me!

The next day, Tuesday at 12:30, there was another meeting at a completely different Toastmasters club, and I wanted to make an intelligent decision to see if the two Toastmasters clubs were different in any way and which would I rather choose to join. My dad dropped my sister Bettina and I off at our local A.I.U. (American Inter-Continental University) and we went alone this time to the meeting. It was a bit of a smaller group than the other club, but it was no less friendly, supportive, and exciting.

After weighing the benefits of joining either club, Bettina and I both decided to join the one at A.I.U. because of it's convenient time, even though it's also slightly further away than the church club. I'm very excited about this opportunity, because it's very inexpensive to get started, it's educational, and it's a great way to meet new people. If you'd like to learn more about Toastmasters, here's their website, www.toastmasters.org.

Happy Thursday!

Hallowe'en (looks cooler with a comma)

2009-10-31T23:12:00.028-04:00

Before I talk about my day today, I just wanted to treat you to some cool pics of all my costumes from Halloweens past. (Click on the icons to get a better look of me and my sister Bettina.)

(This is only a semi-complete series of costumes; when I was six I dressed as a Dalmatian puppy. Oh that was so many years ago...Where is that picture?)

You don't know how long it took me to put this entire thing together! So many links....

Anyway, tonight my family went to two parties, and Bettina and I dressed up as hippies, as you can see below.

The first party was in the late afternoon, and the second one was in the evening. Both parties had costume contests, and Adam entered as Edward Scissorhands both times. At the second party, Adam won the grand prize of a $25 Wal-mart gift card! Now he can go shop till he drops!

I'm happy to say I'm not as drowsy as I was yesterday after eating a bunch of candy, but I'll have to admit I've completely satisfied my chocolate cravings enough to last me the whole year, until next October.

Yakko: "And the moral of today's story is: Brush your teeth after every meal. This moral brought to you by the American Dental Association"

I just had to borrow this quote from one of those "Wheel of Morality" skits from "Animaniacs". It's just so appropriate.

Pre-Halloween Highs (and then after candy, big low)

2009-10-30T21:37:00.004-04:00

Whoa, I am so tired! My mom and my sibs went to this huge party at the park, and we all got dressed up!

I dressed up as a makeshift Indiana Jones,

Bettina went as Michael Jackson (come back from the dead),

and my brother Adam (I saved the best for last,) went as Edward Scissorhands!

His costume was so great! People everywhere, especially grown-ups, would point and say, "Look! It's Edward Scissorhands! Hi Edward!" and my brother would wave and be all smiley, and show off his cardboard blades with pride.

It was a HUGE party; thousands of people showed up, most all the kids were in costume, and some parents/grown-ups were too. I love mingling with characters of all sorts during Halloween to-dos. I saw many princesses and pirates, Buzz Lightyears and Transformers, pumpkins and cats, clowns, even a couple more Kings of Pop, (although I do think my sister had on a better Michael Jackson than the others had. I'm biased.) The most creative looking costumes I saw besides my own family was a girl dressed in huge polka-dots and with a Twister spinning board on her head (I call her "Twister Girl") and a successful punky looking girl with a cool Mohawk!

There was candy gathering, loud music, and tons people. What more could I ask for? Adam kept getting asked to pose for pictures by complete strangers! How cool is that? I am so very proud of him! We spent about 2 hours at that party, dancing and eating candy and having a great time. Then the tiredness sunk in.............

I just can't believe it. I only ate seven pieces of candy. SEVEN! And I feel soooooo daaaaaamn tiiiiiiiiired!!!!!!!! I need a lie-down! It was hot in my Indiana Jones jacket.

Another thing; every Friday since about early September, Adam, Bettina and I have been learning new songs and performing them so as to build up our own individual repertoires. Tonight, I was supposed to do the Michael Jackson song "Thriller", in honor of the scariest holiday of the year, but I just don't have the energy to do the song and dance. What a shame. Doesn't really matter though, we post-poned the whole thing until the night of November 1. Tonight my parents are at a Halloween party of their own, adults-only. Benny is going as Captain Hook, and Shira's dressed as Tinker Bell. They made a great looking dressed-up couple.

That's all I have to say for now. I'll report back tomorrow with some more candy/costume-related news. Goodnight, your moment is in.

"Whisper of the Heart" Review

2009-10-28T20:09:00.003-04:00

This anime film was produced by Studio Ghibli, as all my latest favorite anime films are, and written by the great Japanese storyteller Hayao Miyazaki. It's a wonderful romantic story, about a girl who at first reads fairy-tale stories all the time when she should be focusing on her junior-high school studies, but then becomes a writer after falling in love with a nice guy, even when he had to go to Italy to follow his dream a violin-maker. The story is a lot more involved than that, but that's all the details I'm going to share. You'll have to find out the rest by watching the brilliantly made movie. It's got breath-taking animation, and takes place in a Japanese city, which was pretty great for me since I've never been there. I sure would love to go to Japan someday, I really respect their cultural values, like bowing all the time in respect to elders, and being generally friendly. It's just not the same in America, I find. I love the characters and sets and the graceful movement that comes with slice-of-life anime films like this one. It makes it seem sooooo real!

"Fame" Review

2009-10-28T00:11:00.002-04:00

I'm here to talk about the movie I watched in the theater tonight, the 2009 remake of the 1980 film "Fame", a story of various students of the New York High School of Performing Arts. The film follows them and their studies from auditions to graduation. First off, before I really get started reviewing this movie, let me just say that I've seen the original "Fame", so I have with what to compare this movie too. In my humble opinion, this millennium's version was much better by virtue of it's filming, music, choreography, acting, and pacing. The 1980 film was grittier and more intense, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy watching it. I just liked watching the remake better.

One of the things I really admired was the voice of Naturi Naughton, who played a girl named Denise in the film. At first she only plays classical piano (thanks apparently to an oppressive dad who doesn't want her doing anything else, and an oppressed mom who won't say otherwise), but then her friends (and the audience, and even her parents) discover what fine vocals she has. I loved it!

I enjoyed being a witness to such a spectacle, and it was a welcome relief after the previews of such films as "Couple's Retreat", "All About Steve", and "September Issue". If I'm going to be a satisfied pop-culture consumer, I only want the quality stuff, or content of sentimental/historical value.

Goodnight everybody! (Remember, Yakko backwards is Okkay! Dangit, I'll do anything to stick an Animaniac in my blogpost, won't I?)

"Julie & Julia" Review

2009-10-20T21:49:00.009-04:00

Oh. My. Gahd! Have you seen this movie? You have got to see this movie!

Meryl Streep as Julia Child was absolutely sensational! I mean, I had no idea who Julia Child actually was, but she's such a wonderful character!

Amy Adams as the author of the book of the same name, Julie Powell, was adorable. The main idea is that Julie cooks every single recipe in Julia Child's famous cookbook, all 524 of them, in only one year! And she blogs about it all!

Masterfully woven into this story is the life of Julia Child and how she started cooking as a hobby and began working on her cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". Both women get wonderful love and support from their husbands, which is truly an admirable thing to show in a movie.

Now, I'll only give this complaint: I'm a vegetarian, so anytime somebody cooks, eats, or talks about how delicious meat is, I'm not cringing or giving loud sighs, but I am thinking to myself, "Alright, enough already, next part please." There's a part in the movie where Julie cooks 3 lobsters, and she's all nervous about killing them and all. It was so interesting and funny to see how other people actually go about preparing home-cooked lobster, because I know I would never go about doing it myself.

Well, besides all the food involved, the movie was above and beyond fantastic! (I so love using extremely positive adjectives.) I felt so very good after walking out of the theater with my family and talking about our favorite parts on the car-ride home. On an unrelated note, I had fun with my brother Adam, making him laugh by pretending my arms were his arms and doing goofy things with them. You ever played that sort of game? Done right, it's hilarious!

Goodnight, god bless. Check out my Art Blog for kicks.

Notes from my Notebook

2009-10-13T08:01:00.007-04:00

Hey, I got some great news! You know how I leave off writing my blog for a few days and I forget all the things that happened to me and my good times go to memory-limbo? Well not anymore! While he was here, my uncle Danny (who left on the 10th) gave me and Bettina new notebooks as gifts, and I've been writing in mine every single day since the 7th. Now I can write down all my cool updates!

Okay, books read since I last wrote:

"The Magicians Elephant" by Kate DiCamillo (Another instant classic from the author of "The Tale of Despereaux")
"The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment" by A.J. Jacobs (I highly recommend this one, it's a short read about a guy who does all these real and life-changing experiments such as being honest all the time, outsourcing his day-to-day life to India, spending several hours disguised as a semi-famous movie star at the Oscars and having fame thrust upon him, etc. etc...)
"The Secret of the Secret" by Karen Kelly (I'm currently reading this book now.)

Movies, T.V. shows, and everything else watchable:

"Wild Wild West", a big-budget blockbuster starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline, but such a terrible flop that I spent the whole movie wishing that it was never made at all! I absolutely hated this movie; the characters were shallow and predictable (not to mention the villain was quite a freaky character), it's portrayal of women is downright shameful (not to mention the men dressing up as women), and gun fights and stupid puns abound! There are no redeeming values in this movie, except for the fact that if it weren't for stink-bombs such as these, I wouldn't be able to tell what the good films are. And I know! Luckily I'm still a big fan of Will Smith, but I wouldn't recommend you watching "Wild Wild West" if you value your time.

On YouTube, discovered a really great "Simpsons" episode with Michael Jackson as a guest voice! It's called "Stark Raving Dad", and it's funny!
"SNL" with host Drew Barrymore. I don't know about the shows new season for the past few weeks, but the Oct. 10th episode was an absolute winner for me!
"Sense and Sensibility", starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, and Alan Rickman. A wonderful flick from 1995, and based on a Jane Austen novel of the same name. It's such a good story, I'll have to check out the book for a fair comparison.
A series of videos on YouTube of Michael Jackson showing old home-movies of his. So good! Here's the link to the first clip out of eleven: If you watch this from part 1 to 11, it's about 80 minutes in total, so it's as if you're watching a whole TV special without all the commercials! Watch it and see a whole different side of the King of Pop!
"Fame", the original movie from 1980, not the remake of 2009. It's a pretty good film; my mom recommended it, and we saw the movie with her. I liked it, there were some pretty intense parts, but I loved the drama, the music, and the dancing! I hope that the remake can compare in some way to the original, otherwise what's the point?
"30 Rock" Season 1. Love it as much as I did watching the 2nd season in Boston this summer.

Well, that's all for now! Catch you later!

Short Post Again

2009-10-09T22:56:00.002-04:00

Today I did very little; I finished a book called "The Magician's Elephant" by Kate DiCamillo, started "The Guinea Pig Diaries" by A.J. Jacobs, rehearsed Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire" all afternoon, then performed it after Shabbat dinner for parents and uncle Danny. Still, it was a very fun day, and it makes me feel happy and very lucky to have such a charmed life. I have my health, and I have free time to spend reading books and singing for fun.

Still, there's a bit of bittersweet news to spoil the mood, because my uncle Danny's leaving for Israel tomorrow. (All together now... AAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW!) I had such fun with him, especially watercolor painting and watching the instructional DVDs. I very much appreciated the short time he spent with my family, and I'll remember it always.

Art post

2009-10-08T10:41:00.009-04:00

Even if I somehow manage to write a little something in my blog everyday like I did last night, I think I should still enter NaNoWriMo. I think it would be great fun for me to do with Bettina, writing stories super quick. Alright, now for my report on yesterday:

In the morning we went shopping at Best Buy to get me a brand new Wacom graphic tablet!

Ever since I've been watching behind-the-scenes featurettes on animated movies, I've wanted a graphic tablet just like the pros! I was very excited to try it out when we returned home, but after I installed the necessary driver and plugged the hardware in, I couldn't get the tablet to draw at first! I was disheartened, and quick to complain. My dad however, in his infinite patience, reminded me that this is my first time using a graphic tablet and I shouldn't expect to know everything about it right away. So after walking away for a breather, I came back and tried the tablet out again. Instead of just sweeping over the tablet with my fingers (it's a touch-tablet, no pen required), I tapped it twice, and after the second tap, I could draw a line! Even though I had success, I was humbled. Why do I always have to be a pro first time I try something? Is it because I'm insecure? Do I need to be the best and be ahead of everyone else? Because last time I checked, I was still only human. Perfectionism. It's my blessing, and my curse.

Later on in the afternoon I had a really good time with uncle Danny, because we went outside to paint watercolors, just the two of us! We tried painting the landscape of my neighbor's backyard, but it was too ambitious of a project for me, what with the water and clouds and trees. I just painted something from my imagination rather than what was right in front of me. To see my painting, here's a link to my art blog. Danny did a pretty good landscape himself. We both complimented each other's paintings, and both of us thought our own paintings were bad. It's nice to know a fellow painter who understands. Of course my uncle is a practicing child psychiatrist, so it only helps to boost his empathy levels.

Fast forward to evening when we all attended a special Weston Art showcase at the Hyatt hotel near our neighborhood. There were some wonderful paintings, collages, and booths advertising for art classes around the city. I noticed the watercolor paintings the most, but every piece of art was fabulous! There was also live music with Tony Orlando (who sang "Dance with Me", "Dancing in the Moonlight", and "Still the One"). After we got back home, Danny and I watched a DVD I took out from the library about watercolor painting. It was really good, and it was hosted by an artist named Frank Clarke.

That's it. Later on I'll write about today. Toodle-oo!

Super-short Post!

2009-10-07T23:44:00.000-04:00

Hi. Please forgive this short, short post; I promise I'll write a lot more tomorrow. Gee, I don't think I'm cut out for this, writing a full day post each and every day I'm trying to spend with uncle Danny. That's why I'm leaving Oct. 7 for tomorrow. Don't worry, he got me a new notebook that I'm writing in, so I've got all the private details for myself, and I'll pass on the gist of it to you come tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for your infinite (or wearing thin) patience.

Awesome Day!

2009-10-06T10:39:00.011-04:00

I haven't told you, but since about Sept. 24, Bettina and I have been keeping very busy learning about the computer languages known as PHP and MySQL. You may not have known it, but these 2 scripting languages just about run in all interactive websites. PHP is short for PHP Hypertext Processor. (Haha, the first word in the acronym is the acronym, just stay with me, 'kay?) MySQL is a language that's used for creating databases, and stuffing items into them, and taking them out again to be used later. We're learning it all from this book, titled "Visual QuickPro Guide: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites" by Larry Ullman. Let me tell you, if someone decides to write a book about complex computer languages, be sure to have a sense of humor! That's what Larry Ullman has. So far we've finished 3 whole chapters of PHP basics. I am so proud of me and my sister, although really it's actually not our first time learning computer scripting; when learning Macromedia Flash 5 we got introduced to Actionscript and used it to create several interactive games. That was about 5 or 4 years ago, and we haven't made use of any computer language since, but now we're back on the horse, and PHP is quite similar in some ways to Flash Actionscript, as well as C++ and Javascript (don't know those two languages though). It's really a challenging, but satisfying endeavor to learn any new language, whether it's French, Chinese, or PHP. It expands your mind! Moving on...

This afternoon, after watching this video clip of Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire" set to associating photos, Bettina and I decided to start trying to memorize the whole song piece by piece, just like we learned "Yakko's World", "Wakko's States and Capitols", and the "Presidents" song. We succeeded in learning the first 4 verses in the song, from Harry Truman to Santayana goodbye (if you don't know what I'm talking about, just Google the lyrics, you'll see).

Later in the evening, we went to the theater in Tamarac While Benny, Shira, and Danny saw "The Hangover", Adam, Bettina and I saw the movie "Ponyo".

"Ponyo" is a very sweet anime film that makes me think that it's the japanese version of the Little Mermaid story. It's about a 5-year-old boy named Sosuke (pronounced Sos-KAY) who finds a magical fish who he names Ponyo. During the course of the movie, Ponyo gradually turns into a human girl, and for Ponyo to stay a human forever, Sosuke needs to prove that he can love her no matter what form she's in. As usual in an anime film (especially one directed by Hayao Miyazaki), the animation is absolutely gorgeous! Smooth, realistic, colorful, capturing the mundane and turning it into beauty and grace, simple, yet incredibly intricate. These are just some of the many adjectives that may be used to describe the animation of Ponyo. It is an excellent example of a family film, and I'll bet, without a doubt, that if Pixar's "UP" doesn't win the Oscar for Best Animated Film, then "Ponyo" will.

"Tin Men"/"Citizen Kane" reviews + Day with Danny

2009-10-05T16:53:00.003-04:00

I have done it! It was a close one, I almost didn't write a blog post today, but here it is, read it and don't weep (hey, it's not a bad blog)! I give to you two fine reviews of movies I have seen today, rather than 2 weeks ago, and a brief description of the days other highlights so I can go to bed with the knowledge that I'll never forget when I watched them and that I passed on my recommendations to you, my readers (are you still out there? Or am I talking to myself? ECHO! echo...echo...echo).

"Tin Men" is an enjoyable comedy that pins Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito against each other as rival aluminum-siding salesmen in the early '60s. That's right, nothing to do with the Land of OZ whatsoever, so sorry to all the Frank L. Baum fans out there, just a couple con-men practicing slick salesmanship. Sprinkled throughout with some catchy hit songs of the era, this flick was fun to watch, and I laughed a lot at Danny and Richards' antics, getting back at each other for some silly fender-bender accident.

This afternoon I have finally seen "Citizen Kane", and let me tell you, this movie isn't for the closed-minded. It's long, it's confusing at times, and it was made in 1941, an era that seems worlds apart from the modern-day flicks we see today. Still, I got a real kick out of finally seeing Orson Welles (who was the hero and inspiration for Maurice LaMarche, the voice of the Animaniacs lab mouse Brain), and I can safely say that I can now spot a "Citizen Kane" reference and understand which part it's from. My favorite part of the movie was this scene where Orson's character, Charles Foster Kane, completely destroys a room, until he comes upon the snow globe which he later drops in the beginning of the movie. (confused? o.O)

Now you might be thinking, what am I doing indulging myself in fictional people, places and events while my favorite uncle Danny is around and available to spend some time with? Well actually he and my parents were out most of the day scouting out some Florida real estate that he's looking to invest in, so he wasn't actually around, per se. However later this evening, after doing some night shopping at Target (got some hot sunny-glasses and sweet new tops using our birthday gift-cards), we did get to hang out with Danny while watching "This is Spinal Tap" and enjoying some homemade pumpkin-flavored ice-cream. ('Tis the season of autumn, god bless pumpkins!) That was some fun.

Goodnight everybody! (Nope, I never get tired of using that catchphrase. Never, never, never! Especially when it applies, it's past midnight now!)

"Honey, I'm home! Oh wait... I'm not married."

2009-10-03T23:20:00.012-04:00

This post's title came directly from a quote from Michelle Pfieffer in the movie "Batman Returns" which I just finished watching with my bro and sis. I've been feeling very guilty about not getting around to blogging in around a fortnight, but "Batman Returns" was just so cool I am finally moved to action. However the focus of this post is not entirely Batman related, just be patient and let me get this out of my system, and then I'll let you in on some major developments on the home-front.

"Batman Returns" is a sequel to Tim Burton's successful "Batman" flick (which features Michael Keaton in the title role and Jack Nicholson as the Joker), and it's all about the character development of such Batman villains as The Penguin (Danny DeVito), and Catwoman (Michelle Pfieffer =^.^= Meow!!). There's also this corrupt businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walkin), who has plans to open a new power-plant in Gotham that will render the city powerless, and to get approval for building it, he needs permission from the mayor, so then in a Tim Burton twist, he attempts to help the Penguin run for mayor!

In any Tim Burton movie, I've come to expect the weird and wonderful as well as the creepy and crazy, and I wasn't disappointed with "Batman Returns". My only comments on the less-than-excellent aspects of the film is that Michael Keaton didn't get nearly enough screen-time for it to fully qualify as a Batman movie; his enemies got plenty of lines and backstory and almost all the Bat had to do was swoop in to save the day whenever the Circus gang attacked. Also, even though it's what I loved most about it, "Batman Returns" is full of nightmare-fuel (a wraparound term meaning creepy parts from the Penguin biting some guy's nose to a guy who actually has the guts and lacks the remorse for pushing someone out of a window to their death), and innuendos that made it past the radar, which might make it unsuitable to watch for children who are squeamish at the sight of blood and still haven't heard about the "birds and the bees".

Overall, I loved watching this movie and it only solidifies my respect for Tim Burton as a filmmaker. The acting was great, the story was great (although the ending could've gone better), the costumes and special effects were top-notch, and the score by Danny Elfman is, as always, incomparable. Check this out at your local library if you have a card, or watch it online, or just buy it on DVD, sheesh, only trying to save you some money!

ANYWAY......(a familiar phrase back from my old sock-puppet show days)

I've had so much cool stuff happen to me and I've been too lazy to write it all down that most of my memories I fear have gone to some sort of "happy-memory-limbo", so I'll just type up what's been going on recently. For one thing me and my family had a happy and mostly uneventful Yom Kippur (seeing as it's a Jewish holiday for atoning for the past year's moral backsliding and not for having a good time doing it), my mom Shira had a birthday yesterday, and my family had pancakes for breakfast, and me and Bettina made cards for her, and we got her an awesome earring making craft book from Borders (she was so totally surprised that we got her anything at all!). Also, my dad's brother, my uncle Danny from Israel came over to our house for a week-long visit, so we're playing hotel here and having a good time. I haven't seen Uncle Danny in 2 years, so it was really wonderful to see him again.

Finally, I would hate to forget to write about these other awesome films that I've happened upon and so I'll just give away the titles and when I watched them, as well as a 10-word review on each one:

"Casablanca" Sept. 22 2009 ~ "Here's looking at you kid" is the best quote ever!

"Transformers" Sept. 25 (or something) 2009 ~ Giant robots fighting, pseudo-science, very awkward teenage-parent relations.

"Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" Oct. 1 2009 ~ Pee-Wee's bike gets stolen, road trip with a Tim Burton flair.

Wow, that was a neat exercise there, reviewing a movie in only 10 words! Of course I could go on and on about what an American treasure "Casablanca" is, how interesting it was to finally see "Transformers" after hearing what a bad rap the sequel got, and getting introduced to the wit and child-like wonder of "Pee-Wee Herman", but I don't think I would do a good job going all out about movies no matter how much of a film-geek I am. I'll end this post by saying I intend to write at least one post every day that Uncle Danny stays at our house, and if I don't deliver, why then I'll...I'll...

I'll enter NaNoWriMo along with my sister and try to write a 50,000 word novel from the beginning to the end of the month of November. If I do write one post a day for seven days, then I am excused from this unusual method of making up for lost time. I swear, Girl-Scout Honor! (I was a girl scout for only a few months as a 10-year-old, and I never sold a box of cookies, just to dispel any assumptions.) Bye now!

Into the Woods

2009-09-18T09:45:00.003-04:00

This post is about the Stephen Sondheim musical play called "Into The Woods" which me and my brother and sister watched last night. At first, Adam didn't feel like seeing it, but when me and Bettina started laaaaughing, we had to talk him into sitting down with us to watch. "Into The Woods" is a modern fairy-tale blend with a comedic twist, merging together such childhood classics as Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and by a lesser degree, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, plus introducing brand new characters: a baker and his wife who desperately wish for a child (notice that when someone thinks of "baker" in the fairy-tale sense, it's always a man, isn't it? Food for thought, huh? And not the baked kind).

It is a play in 2 acts. Act 1 is there to get you reacquainted with the characters you knew as a little boy or girl, and find out what actually happened in the stories, all the while listening to Stephen Sondheim's fast-paced lyrics set to wonderful music. The witch in the story (who comes from the Rapunzel part of the show) is played by Bernadette Peters, who has such a marvelous vocal range, I had no idea! When she does a witches cackle, she can reach those high, high notes like no one I've ever seen! Plus the character she got to play is so funny; who would think that a witch could have some real depth of character? (Unless of course you read books or watch musicals like "Wicked", to those of you who have, I say never mind.)

By the beginning of Act 2, Jack has killed the giant, Little Red Riding Hood survives being eaten by the wolf, the baker and his wife have a baby boy, both Cinderella and Rapunzel get their princes (there are 2 Prince Charmings in this story, and they're brothers! Who knew?), and the witch has changed from an ugly old crone to a young and youthful beauty, but her witchy powers are lost in the bargain. Everybody thinks that it's happily ever after for them, but to be continued... Actually the 2nd Act is a lot better as a surprise. I don't want to spoil it for you. Just know that it's got a lot more drama than in Act 1.

"Into The Woods" is a wonderful story with some lessons to learn from, and even if it's based on fairy tales, adults can appreciate the wry humor and intelligent lyrics of Stephen Sondheim. Check it out at your nearest library if it's got it, and you'll be happy you did, I promise.

Entertainment Blogging!

2009-09-15T10:11:00.006-04:00

This Sunday and last night I had such an incredible dose of high entertainment that I must do a rave to get it out of my system.

MTV Video Music Awards: What an incredible spectacle! My favorite part of this event was the Michael Jackson tribute; Madonna gave a wonderful speech about her times with him. The dancers executed his signature moves perfect to a T! And Janet Jackson? So talented!

Moving on, I couldn't believe Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift's thank you speech! Before this eyebrow-raiser I honestly couldn't care less about these music artists, but now I think because of this both of them will be getting more publicity. I don't know any of their music, but now I'm interested in learning more. Beyonce and Lady Gaga were also stunning. I love to watch these incredibly lucky people give such wonderful performances, with choreography that makes me tired just from imagining how tired they must be doing the dances, and costumes that are weird and wonderful, as well as innocently suggestive.

Strangely enough the extended preview for "New Moon" did not excite me. Of course I have taken a personal vow not to get entangled in this strange vampire-werewolf love triangle, because my sister had a spell cast over her during the time she was reading the 4 book series by Stephanie Meyer, and it was near impossible to get her to do anything else! Therefore I've decided to swear off epic fiction novel series unless/until I have children of my own. The movie looks good enough, but for me, it isn't a must-see.

"This Is It", however, is a definite must-see! An exclusive documentary of behind the scenes footage leading up to the Michael Jackson tour that will never be? Bring it on!

Last Night: On a trip to the library, I browsed through the non-fiction DVD section and found some great viewing material: a Stephen Sondheim musical "In The Woods", "The Nutcracker" ballet (I've seen it before but I'm recommending it for my younger brother Adam), and a collection of Michael Jackson music videos from the album "Dangerous". Little did I know just how much awesomeness the "Dangerous" DVD actually contained! The entire uncut version of the "Black and White" music video, the 1993 Superbowl half-time show concert version of "Heal The World" (my new favorite M.J. song ever!!!!! excuse my gratuitous exclamation point usage), clips from the 1993 Grammys and M.J. receiving the Music Legend Award, clips from his "Dangerous" world tour (can you begin to comprehend the scale of such concerts?), and behind the scenes with Michael Jackson, Macaulay Culkin, Eddie Murphy, and Michael Jordan! Never before have I seen Michael Jackson like he was on the DVD, and I have an all-new wealth of respect for him as a person, not just a personality. Me and my sibs were transfixed with him and his music videos from beginning to end. I'm so, so sorry that he had to leave this planet in it's state. It's been almost 12 weeks since his untimely death, and only now am I realizing what kind of a treasure has been taken away. This is my time to say I love you Michael Jackson, I miss you, and I'll never, ever forget you or your legacy. I hope and pray (though I'm not the praying type) that his kids can find some way to get some closure and live a semi-normal life again.

During the DVD, Jay Leno's new show on NBC was going on, and right after the Michael Jackson movie was over, we turned it off to see Jay Leno's first guest, Jerry Seinfeld! I enjoyed watching this show a lot! After Seinfeld came Oprah Winfrey (Seinfeld did most of the questions while Jay could only sit and look funny trying to get a word in), Kanye West (who very publicly and soberly apologised for the whole MTV interrupting Taylor Swift ordeal), and President Obama (although the interview wasn't actually genuine; it was edited to be humorous rather than live). The final segment was the "Headlines" shtick. I love when Jay Leno does those!

After Jay Leno, me and my sibs just had to see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert after their 3-week vacation hiatus. Hilarious. The great thing about these guys is even though they make fun of politicians and people in the public eye, they always do it respectively. The exception is Fox News, they actually do make fun of it, unapologetically (Jon Stewart's item on the 912 Project was funny). After the Colbert Report, I was sorry to shut up the magic box, but I still felt very satisfied after my generous helping of pop culture and current events.

I absolutely love me some good entertainment, whether it be books, music, theater, television, or movies, as long as there's a story to be told, and an awesome storyteller to tell it. That's why I started thinking: maybe I should change this blog into a critique for pop culture, instead of using it solely for documentation of my daily doings for posterity. I love everything about the entertainment industry, and I have opinions that must be heard and/or read! So from now on, "Welcome to My World" will be a place where I can share awesome discoveries concerning anything from animation to zines. And perhaps I should have a more regular, less erratic blogging schedule; I definitely should write on Monday, since it's usually right after a weekend of great entertainment, and perhaps on Wednesdays and Saturdays I can blog as well. I'll work it out somehow. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to also take a gander at my Art Blog on the side link every so often too. Good night everybody! (Sorry, it should actually be "Good afternoon", but I can't help it. I just love Yakko Warner's catchphrase!)

The best birthday gift of all!

2009-09-08T09:21:00.001-04:00

This post is dedicated to my dad, Benny, who is the best guy ever!

Today he was browsing on Craigslist, and he found this awesome 15" screen Sony VAIO laptop that runs Windows Vista! How much was it? A negotiable $280! The ad came right from our neighborhood, so my dad called up the guy who advertised and asked to come over and see the computer. Me and my sibs decided to join our dad on the walk to the guys' house, to watch and learn how he "works his magic".

We spent about an hour at the guys' house, verifying that all the features on the machine worked. You know, standard: Does it go on the internet? Does it play DVDs? Does it shut off and restart without any problem? One can't just buy a computer from some stranger without first making sure that everything works.

Finally, when we were satisfied that everthing was in good order, Benny offered $250 for the Sony VAIO. The guy accepted! He pretty much had to accept, given how much time we spent waiting for him to download the right codecs and plugins and getting an internet connection going so he could prove it goes online.

Now, we've got a brand-new computer, just what me and Bettina wanted for our birthday!

Because the new computer runs Vista, I'll be able to use a graphic tablet on it for my Photoshop artwork! I saw some WACOM models in Best Buy for $100 to $200. Instead of having Benny buy it for me, I'd like to get it using money that I earn. Now how I'll earn it is another story altogether. I'm still working that part out. I'm thinking of being a computer tutor for senior citizens. I can show grandparent how to send emails to their grandkids and how to adjust settings so it's easier for them to see and hear their computers. There's a good market for it, and I'm patient, tutoring pays well. Now if I can just get myself started...

I'm Back! (From Hiatus)

2009-09-06T13:20:00.007-04:00

Where have I been these past coupla weeks while you've been thinking in that stashed away corner of your mind that I live in, "Where in the world is Annette and why isn't she posting any new artwork or witty samplings of her fascinating life?" I've been in Boston again.

I didn't want to share online that me and my family had been away from home for 2 weeks; you never can tell what kind of creep or innocent person in a strange predicament can find out from you if you upload every single secret goings-on of yours.

Anyway, here I am, back at a computer, where I can finally let the cat out of the proverbial bag and present a venerable fountain of mildly interesting anecdotes from me and my family's travels in the great capital of Massachusetts. Hopefully you've read about me and my sister's adventures in the apartment in July, and if not, don't worry about knowing what I'm talking about. This is mostly for my own benefit you know. It's so unlike me, but I haven't been journaling in any way, shape, or form for this whole fortnight, online or in some blank pages of a notebook, and I fear my memories are stirring restlessly and if I don't set them up straight and neat they might leave me! So, here is a mess of memories as organized as I could make it, no day-to-day details, but flavors of fond moments with my whole family or just me and my dear sibs.

Road trip fun in the yellow bug, pizza places, Ben and Jerry's ice-cream, Reservoir walks, 2nd season of "30 Rock", Faneuil Hall, feeding squirrels and pigeons in the Public Gardens, 1st DVD volume of 22 "Pinky and the Brain" episodes, the Arnold Arboretum (again, only it was sunny this time around), September 1st and all the free curb-side treasures you can find (mattresses galore and other cool stuff), visit to the fenced in hospital in Walden where me and my sister were born 18 years ago,"Eat, Pray, Love" on the trip back, stopping at my dad's friend Efi's house and hanging with Efi's daughter, Olivia (who's a cool girl, btw), Adam performing a spontaneous Elvis number in "Timpanos" backed by a live band, and finally, listening to Paul McCartneys best "Wings" hits to keep us awake during night-driving!

Confusing as this may look, simply reading through the preceding paragraph will, for me, bring me right back to this wonderful 14-day period of my life and flood me with wonderful memories.

In other news, tomorrow is my birthday. Yippee! I went on a walk with my family tonight and I mostly talked with my dad about my future as an adult. I feel I must find some kind of purpose to dedicate myself to, a cause, a service I can provide for other people that only I can give. I'll write some more tomorrow to tell you how my big day went.

I Love Me Some Good Entertainment!

2009-08-18T10:24:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of watching, with my mom and sibs, one of the most wonderful romances of our time, "The Notebook". Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, this story has it all; phenomanal acting (Rachel McAdams plays as the fantastic female lead, Allie), a nicely paced plot, a riveting story, and true-to-life characters. I love well-done romance stories, because they make me believe that anything is possible. Even if you love someone who is in a different social class, and you don't see them again for years and years, you can still pick up where you left off if the love is strong enough. The guy, Noah, as an older man, had to live with his wife suffering from dementia, she couldn't remember who he was, but he still loved her, and she him. This movie had such beautiful moments too; in one part Noah and Allie are just dancing at night in the middle of a street, and in another part, the couple is rowing on a lake covered with white geese, and the birds don't fly away. This movie was also a very sad story, because Allie's parents, especially her mother, did not approve of the relationship, and she kept the 365 letters that Noah wrote away from her daughter. How mean! There were other parts that made my mom cry. Strangely, I didn't cry, because I usually do if the story's really good and it makes me feel for the characters. In any case, if you like epic romances, then you should see "The Notebook", unless of course you've seen it already, in which case you know what I'm talking about.

Also, I wanted to rant about an excellent book that I read entitled "In His Own Write", by John Lennon. It is a collection of simply strange and wonderful poems, short stories, and doodles by the former Beatle! I loved reading this book, first of all, because it was small. It's a volume one could easily finish in about an hour, probably less given motivation. Secondly, the illustrations, the doodles John Lennon includes can only be described by me as dream-like. There's one with a woman flying over a desert or something, and another one with a man surrounded by strange, different-sized birds perching on him. Last of all, I enjoyed "In His Own Write" because of John's unique language and vocabulary that metaphorically throws the dictionary out the window. One of his stories start out like this:

"One fat morning Eric Hearble wake up with an abnorman fat growth a bombly on his head. 'Oh crumb,' said Eric Hearble, who was a very very, surprised."

No, you're reading that correctly. John Lennon mispells, rearranges, and sticks in words whenever and wherever he darn well pleases. It's his book, isn't it? His writing style is reminiscent of that of Lewis Carrol, or even Dr. Seuss. I believe that "In His Own Write" should be required reading in elementary schools everywhere, so the children can laugh and laugh at the nonsensical writings of the great imaginer himself, John Lennon.

Oh, and as an afterthought, I stayed up late to see the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report, two comedy news-shows that I absolutely love. How is it that the writers are so clever that they make the current health-care debacle, the wild town-hall meetings, and the still ever-growing concern of the environment's well-being, laughable matters?

Oh yes, I do love me some good entertainment!

Status Report

2009-08-14T17:43:00.000-04:00

Here's a list of things that have been happening with me lately.

1. One of my computers got attacked by a nasty virus, so now it doesn't connect to the Internet. Luckily the hard drive is still intact, so all the files and stuff are safe. To blog I have to use this other slower laptop that has Internet, but is a bit of a pain to use. Well I should be thankful for what I have rather than moping about what I don't have I guess.

2. I've taught my siblings how to sing the "Animaniacs President Song", so now I am a master of world geography, American geography, and American history! Thanks Warners! (Speaking of which, it would seem as if I have passed over my "Animaniacs" phase. But no matter what, I still think that show is the best thing since "Seinfeld".

Which I've seen in it's entirety. 9 seasons! Saw it all on DVDs in 2007. It's just a little thing I do.

3. Ever hear of the magic duo by the names of Penn and Teller? One's a big guy who does all the talking and the other's a short guy who doesn't say much. Together they have a magic act that is as comedic as it is baffling! In 1992 they did this PBS show called "Behind The Scenes", and it was a ten-part series that taught kids about different forms of art (painting, music, dancing, theater, sculpture, even photography) in a light, entertaining, Sesame Street-esque way and introduced some professionals in the field. Guest stars include Matt Groening, Bobby McFerrin, the Blue Man group, and one of William Wegman's weimariner dogs. Look the show up on Google or something. It's pretty cool!

4. Lately I took out a DVD from the library that was a beginner's voice lesson, and me, my sibs, and my dad all watched it together. It was pretty good at first, because it had some pretty good excersises, like yawning, and making crazy sound while stretching, and practicing full vocal range by doing a siren-like noise from the lowest note you can do to the highest. After that, it taught how to distinguish each of the notes on the major scale (instead of naming the notes "Do Re Mi", they're just 1 to 8) and then we learned how to recognise the different intervals. Then the host started singing these unfamiliar songs that made me feel so sad, like "Ah Poor Bird", and "Deep Blue Sea". They make no sense! (Here are both sets of lyrics in small print so they won't be too much of a bother.)

Ah poor bird, take your flight,
far above the shadows of this sad night

Deep blue sea, darling, Deep blue sea
Deep blue sea, darling, Deep blue sea
Deep blue sea, darling, Deep blue sea
It was Willy what got drown'ded,
in the deep blue sea.

You see? Absolutely pointless! My dad said he felt the same way about songs like "It's Raining, It's Pouring", because as a kid, he felt sorry for the old man who bumped his head and couldn't get up in the morning.

5. Today me and my siblings saw for the first time "The Simpsons Movie". How did I like it? Well let me put it this way: It was well done, considering the following:

It's based on an animated TV show which anyone can see for free.
The humor is adult-oriented, meaning if I had seen it at any other time in the past I might not have appreciated it.
The plot a bit far-fetched, but aren't most movies like that anyway?

In other words, I respect the many people who put together the Simpsons Movie and made it possible, and I must admit that I laughed and enjoyed watching it. The animation was good, and the hype that it got 2 years ago when it was released was definitely called for. I remember at the time I thought it was a stupid idea for a stupid show. I still think that the Simpsons are stupid, but I can at least acknoledge the cleverness of its stupidity. Feel free to scratch your head and go "huh?"

Book Review: The Magic Behind the Voices

2009-08-04T15:05:00.005-04:00

This treasure trove is an inside look at 40 voice-over artists from Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, and Paul Frees, to Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulson, and Tom Kenny. I love reading this book (I haven't quite finished it yet) because for someone like me who is absolutely fascinated by animation and voice-acting in general, it's very eye-opening to read about what these people had to go through and how they all got recognition and success for their efforts. Adrianna Casselotti, the operatic voice of Disney's Snow White, couldn't get another acting job afterwards because her voice was too recognizable! Frank Welker is the man behind an uncountable array of speaking and non-speaking animal characters (from Abu the monkey, Flit the hummingbird, and that doggy-footstool from Beauty and the Beast, to Mr. Plotz, Ralph the Guard, and Runt from "Animaniacs", to the voice in the Mattel "Farmer See 'n Say" toy that says "The cow says Moo-ooooooo"!) Casper the Ghost, Rocky J. Squirrel, and Bart Simpson were all played by women (Norma MacMillan, June Foray, and Nancy Cartwright respectively)! It's a cartoon triviast's dream! If you're like me, check out this book!

Anyway, because of this book, I decided to give the show "The Simpsons" a try. As far back as I can remember, I used to think that the uncannily popular animated TV show was just a bunch of bad-mouthed badly animated garbage starring a mediocre family with questionable values. But since reading about people like Dan Castellenata and Nancy Cartwright, and how they had (and continue to have) such a good time doing the voices of Homer and Bart Simpson, that I decided if they like it, then maybe I could give it a chance. Of course I am aware that for them it means a nice, steady income as well as a barrel of laughs, but still. Me and Bettina started out by watching the very first episode from late 1989, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Funny enough that the series starts off with a Christmas episode. Anyway, Homer doesn't recieve his Christmas bonus at the nuclear plant and has to dress as a department-store Santa to make ends meet, Bart gets a tattoo but then has it surgically removed, and in the end, they rescue a racing Greyhound named Santa's Little Helper. I never thought that I would say that "'The Simpsons' are okay", but now I find myself typing out those words on my computer. And they're true. Sure their family is dysfunctional to an extreme, but underneath it all, I can see the love that the Simpsons have for each other.

Along with "The Simpsons", I now have a newfound respect for Maurice LaMarche (The Brain of "Pinky and the Brain" fame). He is such a talented guy! Have you seen the "Pinky and the Brain Christmas Special"? In this episode, Brain concocts a plan to take over the world by mass-producing these hypnotizing dolls and distributing them around the world by way of Santa's sleigh, and Pinky writes a letter to Santa, which he forgets to mail! Please, click on this link to see the Climax! I mean holy cow! Was that not one of the saddest, most touching moments in animated television or what? Somehow I remember seeing this show when I was who-knows-how-young, and I didn't think much of it. Now I can't stop thinking about it! I should have known. These people were probably the same ones who came up with the dramatic climax in "Wakko's Wish" (not to be confused with the last part of the movie, where all the strings are tied up and everyone lives happily ever after and all that jazz).

Okay, my review is over. You can go home now.

I made an Art Blog!

2009-08-03T15:26:00.005-04:00

And you can visit it at this link:http://artofannette.blogspot.com/

I made this new blog because I need my artwork to be seperate from my day-to-day life. I imported all my "Doodle Collections", paintings, and even my homemade greeting cards onto my new blog, so if you want to see all my glorious creativity all in one place, you're in luck! Thank you to those readers who have been so supportive and helpful to me, in my quest to hone my skills and impress people! Comments are highly appreciated and I read them all, so if you have something to say to me, then say it! Just don't say it behind my back!

Animaniacs Art

2009-07-25T22:12:00.010-04:00

Hey guys! I am so excited to show you my latest art masterpieces featuring the Warners! First off, let me turn your attention to the chalk drawings that I first did of Dot and Yakko.

I know, Dot's head is wrong and Yakko's mouth is weird. Don't remind me. I did these about a week ago anyway. They were done from memory though, so it must count for something. "Where did the chalk-board come from?", you might not be wondering. Well I'll tell you. While me and Bettina were adventuring in Boston, Shira took the time to paint a section of our kitchen wall with this special black paint that turns any wall into a chalkboard! Since then it's been much easier to jot down phone messages and do cute doodles and then erase them whenever we please. This is a good solution for creative little ones who love to do stuff like draw on the walls. It's so much fun!

<--- And now, for my big achievement, a doodle of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot hugging Steven Spielberg! This is what I did with a pencil...

And this is what I turned it into using Photoshop! I love eeeet! I swear, this has got to be my best work ever! However, that will not stop me from making even more sketches of these guys, they are so much fun to do! It's as if they leap off the page with their manic energy as soon as you draw the final line! That's the joy I believe in being a cartoonist. The thrill you feel as you make friends with a new character. I wish I were Steven Spielberg in this picture.

Please share your opinions; the comment link is right under the title, you can't miss it.

How's the week been?

2009-07-18T09:49:00.014-04:00

Finally, I'm glad I got my whole story of the Boston trip off my back! I tell you, it was one of the best adventures ever! Since then I've been taking it real easy, maybe a bit too easy. Here's a quick overview of how my past week has gone:

Bettina and I have been driving to the library by ourselves (it's fun to have licenses!)
Whole family attended a birthday party for 1-year-old Osher July 11 (He's got these big adorable ears and this bright baby-face, and we saw him take his first steps!)
Watched movies almost every night ("Wakko's Wish", "Bolt", "Hotel for Dogs", and "Bedtime Stories" are the most recent ones)
I've been learning some new Adobe Photoshop tricks, like turning any photo into a painted masterpiece, check it out!

Currently reading this Deepak Chopra book called "The Way of The Wizard", 20 lessons about living like Merlin (it's better than it sounds) plus this book about this voice actor, Harlan Hogan and how he got into the business. Never heard of him, but he's a funny bio writer. I'd sure like to be a voice actor someday.
All my meals are home-prepared! It's been awesome, because that's where the good stuff comes from; salads, pasta, sandwiches, no need to go out for food when you've got a huge refridgerator with no stranger's stuff in it!
Watched "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" on the very day it started showing in theaters July 15 (I had a good time watching it, it's funny at times, but I only got really scared once in the whole movie. Harry's costars have gotten more screentime in this movie than any other HP film, so that's nice for them.)
Bettina and I are happily reunited with our adorable cockatiel birds Sasha and Sammy. While me and Bettina were off having good times in Boston, Adam, Shira, and Benny had to care for them all by themselves, and eventually after two weeks of not seeing their "mommies", our boys have gotten a bit hostile. Now that we're back they're easier to handle, but they still hiss at us or make as if to bite us. Do they forgive us for "abandoning" them for so long? Who'll know for sure?
I am still zany for Animaniacs and I keep searching on YouTube for any clip I haven't seen before. I'm also learning how to play their theme song on the piano, so I've got the song almost stuck in my head.
Last but not least, last Monday us three kids (Bettina, Adam, and me) played a long-awaited game of Monopoly, and I won yet again! We didn't play a full game, but I still won!

Boston ~ Day 16, The End of Boston Trip '09

2009-07-15T20:12:00.001-04:00

July 8~The last day! Finally the moment me and my sis had been waiting for! We both woke up very early, at 6:30 in the morning. We packed away our remaining belongings such as toiletries and notebooks and other stuff, but that only took about an hour, no big whoop. Then we walked to a nearby coin-operated laundromat to wash the bedsheets for the next person who would live there. (Our mom got a new tenant signed up!) It was our first time doing a laundry all by ourselves! Not much to brag about though I suppose, I mean how exciting can you get when the best part is watching the sheets go round and round and tumbling in the dryer? Not much higher. Still, it's a grown-up thing, right? We had to put in the soap, set the dial to the right temperature and press a button. Hard work huh? (Not.)

When we were done with that, we had to give our keys to our renter upstairs, Bob, who would then give the keys to the next person who'd take our room. Then Bettina and I decided to take our last walk around the reservoir. We took the long way around this time. Along the way we spotted a couple chipmunks, and more than a few robins. It's a shame we didn't bring our camera, though. It was half-sunny, half-cloudy on our last day, lovely weather. It felt like a bittersweet moment knowing how soon we would leave. After that, it got more cloudy than rainy, so we stayed inside for the rest of the afternoon and watched Animaniacs cartoons not featuring the Warners (segments like "Chicken Boo" and "Katie Ka-Boom", funny enough on their own, but not as wacky as Yakko, Wakko and Dot), and Michael Jackson music videos.

Then we decided to Skype our family for the last time since in a few hours we'd be going back to Florida. We only got our dad, Benny, because Shira and Adam were out, but it was great talking to him, knowing we'd see him and our family shortly. We told him how we did what we were supposed to do and that we were all packed and rarin' to go. Then we had a small lunch and went back to YouTube. I don't remember how, but we came upon this new cartoon, another Steven Spielberg owned character, "Freakazoid!" He is very very funny! Does anyone growing up in the nineties know what I'm talking about? He's a crazy blue-skinned superhero dude who drives his arch-enemies insane with his zany-ness! He's goofy, he's loud, and he works alone (except for the occasional temporary sidekick). You have to watch him! Search "Freakazoid cartoon" on YouTube and tell me what you think.

Anyway, we watched episodes until 3:00, which turned out to be exactly when we had to pull up stake! We already had all our things packed except for the computer, so we put that away and picked up the four big bags of our stuff and said goodbye as we locked up our room. We stopped at the kitchen to gather our snacks, apples, cereal, bread, and peanut-butter (we hoped to make some sandwiches at the airport, but later the guard confiscated our jar. How about that?) and left the apartment with all our belongings intact. We had to lug the bags to the "T" stop, and we might've missed it, but because of divine time, right after we got on, it started on it's way. We relaxed and wiggled in our seats with excitement until we had to change to the Blue line, and then it was only 4 stops to the airport station. We took a free shuttle to get to the actual airport, and by then we were crazy excited! We had to wait in line to get our boarding passes printed, but this nice lady helped us by using a "do it yourself" machine to print them out, so that was nice and quick.

After that we made it past security (minus peanut butter) and waited for 2 1/2 hours at the gate watching CNN and eating apples, Joe's Os, and plain bread sandwiches (it's all good, we weren't too hungry). The flight was delayed 15 minutes, so the wait was a smooch longer. While we waited we were entertained by overhearing the antics of a young boy whose name didn't come up. He found a penny and hid it in his hat so his older brothers wouldn't get at it, try as they did. Later he went up to the gate where we would soon be boarding and he told the lady at the gate that he wanted to be first in line when he and his family went on the plane. Such a cute little guy. (Turns out he didn't get on first, because first they boarded people who were in wheelchairs and also parents carrying babies under 2 years. Oh well.)

It was very exciting when we got on the plane. This time we got window seats, and so takeoff was awesome to watch. Also we were able to witness the most glorious sunset ever in the history of glorious sunsets! Above the stratosphere, the sky was clear as can be, and down below we could see what looked like mountains and hills of puffy white clouds. It was like seeing what Antarctica looked like, only it was sunny. Anyway, the activity of watching the sky occupied us for quite a while, but after the sun completely set and we couldn't see any more light in the sky (although we could make out many tiny lights down on land), I took a nice nap. I couldn't sleep as well as I would've liked because it was hard to make my body forget that it was flying in a plane, but I had an okay rest.

At around 10:45 the flight finally ended (the landing was smooth and I was up by this time). We were quick to get out of the plane because our seats were near the front of the plane. As soon as we got out I found a payphone to call our parents to pick us up. We sat outside on a bench to wait for them, and I found it strange and familiar to feel again the humid warmth of a night in South Florida. It took a while for them to get there, but when they did we recognized our car right away and excitedly went up to meet them. As soon as Adam got out of our car, he saluted us with a "HELLOOOO Sisters!" So sweet, because the Warner Brothers always say "HELLOOOO Nurse!". Anyway it was wonderful to ride home, and talk to Shira, Benny and Adam face to face again. Mostly we told about how our last day had been, and we also chatted with Adam about Animaniacs snippets. When we got back home, Shira had a homecooked dinner ready and waiting for us to enjoy. Stirfried vegetables and couscous! Even though it was a bit late at night to be eating, we were quite hungry and so we had the delicious meal.

When it was time for us to get ready for bed, it felt good to use my good old electric toothbrush instead of the manual one I've been using for 2 weeks. I remember just before I fell asleep I felt as though I were still in a dream, that the next day I would wake up in Boston again. But here I sit, a full week later, finally finishing the epic saga that was our adventures in Boston. In the words of the great Yakko Warner,

"Goodnight Everybody!"

Boston ~ Days 13, 14, and 15: Last days!

2009-07-14T10:29:00.014-04:00

July 5~Today we had a very relaxing day after all the excitement and fireworks from the previous day. We went to Coolidge Corner by train to buy bagels from Kupel's just like last week, only this week we didn't hang out at the three-parks for very long. Instead we decided to spend an afternoon at Revere Beach, which took an hour or two to get to. We had to change from the Green Line Train to the Blue Line. Anyway, we brought our bagel picnic and our bathing suits, and we braved the freezing Atlantic Ocean. (We went in up to our necks, so yay for bragging rights. Hah!)

(Also, Bettina found a bumble bee that was drowning and she saved it. She stood very still and waited very patiently for it to dry off and fly away. It's nice to think that perhaps the bee might tell all her friends never to bother Bettina seeing as she saved her life. I'm using the pronoun she here because bees are mostly female anyway.)

After being in the cold water it was nice to just lie in the sun and get a little tanned. We enjoyed bagel sandwiches as well, and we hung out there for a good couple hours. In that time I taught Bettina the last 2 verses of the Yakko's World song, and by the time we decided to pack it up she could recite the whole thing perfectly. Then we sprung for some ice-cream cones. I bought a scoop of banana-strawberry and Bettina got Reese's Cups flavor. I know, unimportant detail, but it's my blog here so I'll write what I want to write. It's my memories right? Right. So I'll keep writing.

July 6~Ah, the day we visited Berklee College of Music, the best tour ever! We went there because it was our dad's alma mater, and we were curious to just check it out, not necessarily to pursue a musical career or anything. (Although frankly, who knows after the great tour we got!) We got there right when we needed to, at 12:00 noon. We had 2 tour guides, both guys, Thomas and Alex. Thomas was a little quiet and shy, but he spoke clearly and he knew his stuff. Alex, on the other hand, was funny and friendly, and he really got the group involved by encouraging questions and asking a few questions himself. After showing us a few places like the SAC (Student Activity Center for most colleges), Berklees' very own radio studio (BIRN), and a few important offices (career couseling, financial aid, etc...), they split the group up in two, and Bettina and I got Alex. Sweet!

He took us to the main classroom/residence hall building, where we saw the library (where a Michael Jackson shrine was put up recently), rooms full of Mac computers equipped with ProTools 8 (industry standard music editing software), and the guitar, strings, bass, and vocal departments. Alex also introduced a couple tourees to some people who shared their major, for example this girl who played bass got connected with someone in that department and had a nice friendly chat. Alex was a great talker himself, explaning every part of the school from the "hallway of hell" (a non-sound proof hall of one-on-one classrooms where on busy days, you can hear many students practicing at the same time and therefore create a loud discordant din), to the bulletin boards where a performer can find gigs to earn extra money. We also stopped at an actual recording studio where we met Courtney, a good friend of Alex's (perhaps even crush?) who told us all about the hands-on-learning that takes place there. She said that she knew next to nothing about music when she came to Berklee, but she's learned a lot since then (which is encouraging for potential students). She had a lovely smooth voice, and reminded me of Jada Pinkett Smith. Last of all we stopped at the Berklee Performance Center, which seats 1,212 people (comfortably) and has an impressive sound system.

After that we parted ways with Alex and the rest of the group and found a pizza place called Little Steve's, where we bought a slice each. The owner was a big Italian-sounding fellow, who creeped me out a tiny bit because he reminded me of a Mafia guy or something. In any case we took the slices to go. We ate them and some leftover bagel sandwiches from yesterday in the Public Gardens, where we chatted about what a good tour we just had. Also Bettina kept singing Yakko's World song over and over (having learned the whole thing only the previous day), and she finally was able to sing it as well and as fast as me and Yakko. Yeah! We are masters of "the Nations of the World"!

We didn't do much at night except follow our brother Adam's recommendation and watch a couple episodes of the Disney Channel show "JONAS" on YouTube. I am a big fan of their music, but I don't really care very much for their TV show. I remember when it first aired a couple months ago I was pretty excited, but now I can honestly say I much prefer their music to their show. That's my opinion anyway. Bettina and Adam seem to like it.

July 7~It pretty much rained all day July 7th, which was a bummer because we were planning on doing an Arboretum trip "take 2", but no such luck. Instead we did the usual. (Watched Animaniacs clips on YouTube.) Unfortunately we couldn't find any more new skits of theirs, in English that is. We had to settle for episodes in Spanish. Still, the voice dubbers did a pretty good job, and the Warners' comedy sure crosses the language barrier in this case. Even though I couldn't tell exactly what the characters were saying I still got the idea of what was going on.

When the rain started to let up a little, we decided to take the chance to walk around the reservoir for one of the last times. During that time me and Bettina tried singing "Yakko's World" faster than the other one, and we also made up in our minds a slower, jazzier version of the song. That was good fun. I consider the song to be the anthem of our trip to Boston. After we made it all the way around, the rainy weather picked up again, and we had to go back inside. There wasn't much to do except clean up around the apartment, so I did just that. I swept the halls and washed the dishes, and later Bettina and I packed up a few of our clothes just so we wouldn't have to later. It was a very slow day, but it was nice to not be off to somewhere different for one day.

For dinner we treated ourselves to spaghetti at "Presto's Pizza". They came with nice big pieces of garlic bread, and the servings were huge and hot! The pasta and sauce had too much oil for my taste, but other than that it was fine spaghetti! I just love the way Italians do it, and this was only a take-out place. After dinner, we mosied on down to the special tree near the reservoir where me and Bettina carved our initials last year and we climbed up (it was mostly dry luckily) and had a good talk. We were going home very soon. The future was closer than we thought. We had just survived and thrived 2 weeks without our parents. Every day was a new adventure. Soon we'd be going back to regular old suburbia in South Florida. Only if we continued to do things the way we've done in the past. We promised to keep learning everyday and someday we were going to be successful. We also had meaningful pauses of silence. For fond friends, silence is anything but awkward, in fact, it is a joy to know someone who you don't have to say anything to to get your point across.

We stayed up there until it was almost sunset, and then we climbed down and went back to the apartment. We talked to our family using Skype, and then we watched some Michael Jackson music videos on YouTube, like "Black and White", "Scream", and "Bad". These are music videos I never got to see while Michael Jackson was still alive. It's a shame. He was a really really good performer. I love the way he dances! Long live the spirit of MJ!

Hey there, you only have one more day of this Boston trip to read about!

Boston ~ Days 11 and 12 ~ July 3rd & 4th

2009-07-14T09:06:00.003-04:00

July 3~The weather was simply glorious on this day, so we knew that we were in for a good time. This morning I drew a picture of Yakko's face (shown here, cute, isn't he?), and memorized the first verse of the song called Yakko's World (watch the movie, it's amazing). It's not really that hard once you watch the clip over and over to memorize the first verse, but the other countries later in the song are sung faster and faster and they're harder to pronounce. (Animaniacs. It's an obsession.) Anyway, around noon we went off to the Science Museum to see a space show at the planetarium at 2:30, but we got late because of train trouble. How annoying, having to be delayed because of technical difficulties, plus it was very crowded too. When we finally got there we decided to get tickets to another show playing at 5:30, a Laser Beatles Show.

Had a few hours to kill, so we decided to hang around the gift shop. They had some pretty interesting doodads, like fancy-colored cut rocks, wind-up insect toys, the usual plastic dinosaurs and action figures, t-shirts, keychains, overpriced candy, you know, typical. Later we went outside and ate some mayonaisse sandwiches that were all smushed up from our journey (can you relate?), and then since we had so much time left, we took a walk and found this neat little playground to hang out at. Me and Bettina had lots of fun going over the first verse of Yakko's World again and again for maximum retention, and we also found these awesome things that spin! I don't know what they were called, but whatever they are, you get on, you hold on, and you spin like crazy! *.*

Well anyway, we made it for the Beatles Laser Show, which was absolutely fantastic! It was held in the planetarium and we laid down and just gazed at speedy laser displays consume our attention and the Beatles' timeless tunes fill our ears. They had some of the best ones too, from "She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah)" and "Paperback Writer" to "I Am The Walrus" and "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds". I only wish my dad could've been there to see it. He's a major Beatles fan. After the incredible show, we decided to get to the Hatch-Shell by foot, because it wasn't that far away. When we got there, it was very crowded. The real festivities didn't start until 8:30, but we got there at 7:00 and it was still pretty packed. Many hours earlier, me and my sister prepared a plastic container filled with spaghetti and sauce and we had brought forks and a blanket so we could have a lovely picnic (when are we not having picnics?), but when we got in line and the safety officials checked our bags for suspicious stuff, they found our silverware and confiscated them! What the?! Did we look like the type of people who would think of using forks against someone? Well, we managed anyway, by eating the spaghetti straight from the tupperware with our fingers! Sticky, but satisfying. Lucky thing we brought napkins!

The concert was absolutely awesome! When you're in an audience of thousands of people, it feels like you're a part of something bigger than yourself. Neil Diamond was there and he performed a few of his best songs, like "Cracklin Rosie", "Coming to America", and "Sweet Caroline". "Sweet Caroline" was especially a hit, because it's sortof the theme song for the Boston Red Socks. The whole concert was a couple hours long. At one point we got hungry again, so Bettina volunteered to go out and buy a pretzel from the concession stands. She didn't return until about 20 minutes later! I was starting to get pretty worried, and I would've gotten up to look for her if she didn't come back when she did. She said she got lost and couldn't get to the entrance for all the hordes of people blocking it up, and for a last resort she had to cross the fence! Well, aside from that, the whole event was a lot of fun! Besides the concert, there was the whole Boston Pops orchestra performing the 1812 Overture, complete with cannonballs! Plus a patriotic sing-along that got me singing at the top of my lungs to hear myself over the rest of the audience. We didn't get back home until 11:00, and when we did, we went straight to bed and slept like logs!

July 4~We started Independence Day by planning out exactly what we would do that day and preparing snacks for the big night. I also wrote down on a piece of paper the last three verses of Yakko's World so that throughout the day I would be able to learn them and memorize them. I would not rest until I had the song down pat! We took a train to Faneuil Hall and spent just about the whole afternoon there. We had wanted to go to the Haymarket to get some fresh fruit and the Famous One pizzeria to buy a pie for later, but both were closed for July 4th. How irking can you get?

Well we had a nice enough time. We just had fun walking around Quincy Market and observing all the vendors and entertainers (street performers known as buskers). We had a caricature artist do a picture of both of us, and here is a photo of the final product! In my opinion he made me look more like Tina Fey than myself, but other than that he did a good job. It only took him 7-8 minutes to draw, so I'm pretty impressed. We chatted a little as we posed and he drew, and it was really fascinating. I am intrigued by artists of this sort, because through the years they must meet a lot of people and gain a lot of experience in honing their talent.

Later we sat down by a wharf, and admired our caricature for a while. Then we decided since we couldn't get pizza we'd get "Boloco Bowls" instead. We still had coupons, you see. We also bought some big chocolate chip cookies, just because. Then we walked and walked to the Hatch Shell, and we showed up at about 4:15. Already after a 1/4 of an hour there were hundreds of people already on the lawn, with umbrellas and barbecued picnics to wait out the long afternoon. Unlike last night, me and my sister got a good spot much closer to the Hatch Shell, and we didn't get our forks confiscated (probably cuz they were made of plastic). To occupy ourselves, we spent the 4 hours singing Yakko's World over and over, and eventually I actually managed to memorize the entire song! I was so good at it that I taught the 2nd verse of it to Bettina, who had a bit of a frog in her throat at the time, so she couldn't sing it as well as me, but she still did good.

At one point, while everyone was waiting for the show to begin, someone began throwing around a bunch of balloons and beachballs, and it became a great big game of catch! So much fun! The balls came in all sizes and colors. Sometimes a ball would hit someone in the head, but it was all in fun because they're only beachballs. It felt really special to be part of it, and I could see that a lot of other people had bright happy faces too. Finally the program started. The whole show was almost exactly the same as last night, only this time it was televised live, and loads of people would scream and wave their hands for the chance they might be caught on camera. Me and Bettina had our own camera to take movies with. Neil Diamond played the same songs and the Orchestra played the same pieces, but I had the time of my life! The weather continued to be awesome, which was amazing because it had been quite a gloomy week before.

Before the concert was fully over, Bettina and I decided to get up and find a good spot to watch the fireworks later. It seems a crowd of other people had the same idea. Everyone was super-smushed together, and there was a sort of traffic-jam of people; some people were going one way, others wanted to go the other way. The show lasted a very long time, but at around 10:30, they finally announced that the fireworks would start! It was amazing, the best fireworks show I'd ever seen! We didn't get the best spot ever, but it was good enough for me and Bettina. We took a bunch of cool movies of the display, until our camera ran out of memory! Here's one of the videos we took, of the grand finale.

Awesome, no? This was taken just around 11:00! After the fireworks were over everyone made a beeline for the exits, and me and my sister were swept with the tide. Luckily we stayed together the whole time. It was nice walking at night, along with all those people, because there was no road traffic, and for a time people were allowed to walk the streets. It was like some sort of march that we were part of. We didn't get back home until half past midnight, because we had to wait and wait for our train to come. You can bet that we slept fiiiiine that night. (And you would win, but what you would win I'm not telling you. ^_^)

Boston ~ Days 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10

2009-06-30T09:03:00.025-04:00

This is just getting rididculous! I'm having way too many new experiences in Boston for me to just take a few hours to sit down at the computer to reflect on the days' events because either me and my sister are planning what we should do next, or we're out doing it, or we're taking time off to relax and recuperate from excess of fun! I apoligize for taking the internet equivalent of forever (e.g. a week ^_^) to write a new "Boston" post, and I've decided instead of doing individual days I'm just going to give you all the highlights of our trip so far. Is that alright with you? Fine. Here goes...

June 28~Today was a Sunday, wonderful chance to take a break before the new week starts, so we went and bought bagels at our favorite bagel place, Kupel's. We also wanted to go to our favorite bookstore, Barnes and Noble, but sadly it closed down. Don't you hate it when a favorite business closes down and a new one takes it's place as if the original never existed? Well we still wanted to go somewhere where we could sit in a building and read for an hour or so, so we had a trip trying to find the Brookline Public Library, only to find that it was closed on Sundays! And both me and Bettina had to go to the bathroom! ^~^ Well we decided to go home and unwind for a while by watching several Marx Brothers clips on YouTube. Harpo's hilarious when he tries to pantomime something to Chico. An hour or so before 5:30 we went to catch a show at the Science Museum, and we saw this totally awesome IMAX movie about skydiving and base-jumping and risk-taking in general. If you've never been to an IMAX theater before (like me) then I suggest you go as soon as possible, because it's an experience you mustn't miss!

June 29~Started the day later than usual (around 9:00), and on my own I took a walk to get a couple copies of the Metro newspaper, because on long train rides it's fun to have some good reading materials. After breakfast (strawberries and bananas), me and my sister took a walk around the reservoir in opposite directions. It was nice, because we met each other in the middle. ^,^ Then we took the "T" to AIB (Art Institute of Boston) at 12:00, we almost got lost but we just made it for the tour. Since it was summer the campus seemed very small and empty and not very art-filled. Still there were huge old-fashioned printing machines to marvel at and rooms full of Mac computers and graphic tablets, which I approve of. You have the old art forms alongside the new art forms, printing presses and graphic tablets.

After 1:00 we found a nearby Barnes and Nobles and happily spent a couple hours just hanging out and reading. I read a graphic novel called "The Rabbi's Cat 2" and a new kids book "The Dunderheads". Then we checked out the Boston Public Library, and for dinner we went out to the Cheesecake Factory restaurant and we had a wonderful meal! I had a big Hawaiian tasting salad, and Bettina had a nice pasta bowl with mixed vegetables, and we both shared a slice of carrot-cake cheesecake. It was the first time we went to a fancy restaurant and picked up "the tab" all by ourselves. Full and happy, we took the train home, and when we got back, we decided to watch YouTube. And tonight was the night I got hooked on Animaniacs!

For hours we watched Yakko, Wakko, and Dot sing and dance and drive people crazy and they are so funny and smart too! I can't believe it, I'm a child of the nineties and I have never been interested in the show before now! Actually the Animaniacs entered my consciousness a couple months ago when I read a post by Rainy.Rani (now known as Rainy.Roni) about the "Yakko's World" cartoon. I was intrigued, but I forgot about it. But now I am completely obsessed with this animated series because it so good! The animation is pristine, and the characters are incorrigible, and the musical element is fantastic! I am gaga for the Warner brothers (and sister).

Ahem. Okay, I had my fun. Now, more highlights.

June 30~Today's college visit was to MassArt. This time instead of being late we made it in time for the info session. Boring. Heard a lot about the application process, I asked a few questions, but still. Then the tour began. We got a tour guide who had a nervous sounding voice and didn't act very enthused about being a student at the college, but the rooms that she showed us were more impressive than at AIB. At least there were some great pieces of art hanging around so Bettina could take pictures of them. After the tour we went back to Barnes and Nobles and read a lot. I love the art section! After reading many art books it makes me look at everything with a respect to design and originality and energy. Kind of the feeling I get after I see a well-done animated movie. We had to go home around 2:15, because our week-long Charlie passes had just run out! We got a slice of pizza at a place called Pino's and got new train passes at 7-11. Then we hung around our apartment and watched some more Animaniacs. This was when I was really hooked and I couldn't stop thinking about them. Have you ever had an obsession with a movie or a song or a TV show and you thought it was the best ever and you couldn't stop thinking about it? Well that's how it was with me.

Then we took a walk around the reservoir to get some fresh air, and we went in a new ice-cream place called Chill (cool-sounding name, pun intended) and bought a mango scoop for me and a carrot-cake ice-cream for my twin. She really likes carrot cake, don't ask me why (I know why, but don't ask). Then what did we do when we got back? You guessed it, enjoyed watching more Animaniacs on YouTube! We even saw the movie "Wakko's Wish", sans part 1 (all the rest of the movie was intact though) and I just have to say that it was the best movie I've ever seen based on a cartoon! We stayed up till about 11:00 talking all about the movie. I know, I know. I'll go to an Animaniacs Anonymous if you'll get off my back about it, sheesh.

July 1~Woke up really early this morning, around 6:30. Bettina wasn't up, and I was still very psyched after watching the wonderful "Wakko's Wish" Animaniacs movie, so I found on Google Images a webpage of how to draw Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, and I proceeded to draw them in my trusty sketchbook, which I brought with me on this trip but frankly hadn't used up till now. Here's the picture, I hope I did a good job in my reader's opinion (as an artist I need other people's criticism):--->The weather was cloudy and gloomy outside. We had made plans of going to the Chestnut Hill Theater again just like last Wednesday, but the only movies that were showing was Ice Age 3, which I wasn't holding my breath for, UP, which we've already seen, Transformers 2, which I would like to see if only I'd seen the first one, and The Proposal and The Hangover, 2 adult movies. We Skyped with our folks for about 27 minutes, our longest session yet, and took the free time to get some dishes done (though it wasn't our dishes we were doing). I had a lot of trouble scrubbing this disgusting grease-blackened pan, but I used a lot of Mr. Clean on it and I think it made it a bit easier, though I do wish I had an SOS soap pad with me. Enough of this banal kitchen stuff though, these are not highlights here!

Even though we knew it was all rainy and cold outside, we decided to go to the Arboretum. Last year we enjoyed walking through the picturesque paths and breathing the oxygen rich air of trees, trees, and more trees, but this trip all we got was mud, mud, and more mud, plus one tiny umbrella! Luckily we found a nice dry gazebo to rest at, and we had sandwiches and cereal there and scratched our initials out on the bench with a key. After that we decided we wouldn't wait until the rain lightened up, so we went back the way we came and made it back to the train station wetter than comfortable, but more or less fine.

Then we went to a Barnes and Nobles, because it's so nice and cozy to be lost in a good book while the world outside is rainy and cloudy. We stayed inside until the storm let up, and then we went out. We were hungry, so we found a Boloco's and got a very special deal. You know the Metro newspaper? Well it had coupons for Boloco's and instead of burritos you get the filling in a bowl and you eat it like a salad. It costs less and has fewer calories in it. We brought them back to the apartment and watched some more Animaniacs on YouTube. There was this funny episode called "The 'Please, please, please Get a Life' Foundation", about Animaniacs fans who stress over trivial facts or tidbits and really need help. How do the Warners cure these poor unfortunate souls without a life? They hit them over the head with a mallet!

Yakko: "Is this you? Are you happily engrossed in inconsequential cartoon trivia to the point where your socks can probably stand up by themselves? if you are, there's hope. There's help. There's the 'Please Please Please Get a Life Foundation'!"

Too bad it's not a real foundation. Do you think I need it? We watched until 11:00 and after that we made plans to visit MIT at 3:00 the next day. Then we went to sleep. (The next day is the last one on this blog post, just hang in there, 'kay?)

June 2~This morning I did another Animaniacs drawing, and here is the picture to the right. ---> I could've done Yakko better, but I'm proud of my Dot. Anyway we had to go to MIT, or for those unaware of the acronym's meaning, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The train ride was slow, it just stopped for about half an hour and everyone got really pissed off. Still, when we arrived it was easy to find the administrations building, but we were a few minutes late and we missed the beginning of the tour. We wandered around the MIT campus aimlessly trying to plot our next move until we caught a bunch of people following this guy around and we figured that that must be the tour we missed, so we just blended in and pretended we were there the whole time. Of course it would've been better if we heard the beginning, but the guide was really interesting and he showed the whole group a bunch of interesting stuff like huge libraries and statues and he related a few personal anecdotes about his time as a student at MIT.

We had a really great time, all because the guide was friendly and enthusiastic. Even though I'm interested in art schools, I had not a lot of fun touring the MassArt and AIB campuses because the tour guides weren't professional. So to any college admissions officers reading this post, it pays to invest in good student tour guides! Anyway, after the tour we decided to take it easy on the way back home, and we walked down the famous Newbury street, known for it's eclectic mix of shopping venues and expensive (but face it, fabulous) fashion. We decided to get 2 slices at "Upper Crust", a real gourmet-type pizzeria. They had a special on tomato, spinach and garlic pizza slices, so we bought those. We enjoyed them near the Boston Public Library, and just watched people walk by. It was a beautiful day, and Boston is such a wonderful city to be in the middle of.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well thank you very much for reading till the end of this post. The next blog will only have July 3 and July 4 because those were two very special days.
So until next time, *mwah* Goodnight Everybody!

Boston ~ Day 5, Freedom Trail

2009-06-28T21:43:00.005-04:00

June 27~Today was a weekend! YAY! We got up right before 8:00 (no surprise by now), and slept in for about 20 minutes more, but we gave up lazing about for any longer. It was my Grandpa's birthday today, and he lives in Israel, so me and Bettina each sent him a nice e-mail congratulating him. Afterwards I took my first shower since arriving at our apartment (it's shared by all of the renters, but taking turns is easy), and it felt so refreshing to be nice and clean after doing so much walking and exercising lately.

At around 12:30, after packing a sandwich picnic, we walked to the "T" and took a very long train ride to begin our Freedom Trail journey. We started at a visitor's center somewhere in the Boston Commons, and all we had to do was to follow the red brick line on the path. How simple is that? First place we stopped at on the trail was the Granury Burying Ground, where the famous Paul Revere was laid to rest. Neat, huh? It was cool being in the graveyard, not quite so spooky as you'd think. Of course it was broad daylight at the time, so no surprise there. What was really interesting was reading off the names on the headstones, and noting how old or young people were when they died. I believe J.K. Rowling used to go to graveyards to get inspiration for names for her characters.

Anyway, as the path was easy to follow, we just let the trail lead us past a statue of Benjamin Franklin, the Boston Massacre Site, and Faneuil Hall, plus we went past a bit of the Haymarket, which we made a note to visit later (it's a fine place to buy fresh fruits and veggies at a bargain). Then the Freedom Trail led us through an area called North End, also known as Little Italy, and no wonder: there were enough Italian restaurants and shops and people to make one forget that they're still in America!

Then we passed Paul Revere's house, and another burying ground, but we didn't stop there! We followed that Freedom Trail all the way over the Charlestown Bridge to a fork in the path where we could choose 2 different ending points: Bunker Hill Monument, or the USS Constitution ship. We decided on the Monument. When we got there we discovered that people could climb up to the top of the tower for free! So me and my sister climbed all 294 steps to get to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument. We were huffing and puffing before we made it all the way up, but the view of down below was worth it. It was still a work-out going down all of those steps, although it was a lot easier than walking up.

After all that walking, we decided to have our picnic near the Bunker Hill Monument. It was peaceful, but it was also cold! All the time we walked along the Freedom Trail, Bettina and I noticed some low hanging clouds, and that made the day a little less sunny and more chilly than the past couple of days. Once we were done picnicking, we made our way to the nearest "T" stop and rode to the Haymarket Station, in order to visit the Haymarket (naturally).

However, as we found out much later, Haymarket Station was not necessarily situated near the actual Haymarket, it was just a misnomer! We had to wander around unfamiliar roads with names like Merrimac and New Chardon and Friend Street before we remembered that the Haymarket was located near Faneuil Hall. We felt really tired and silly, just like we did when we were in search of the theater where we saw "UP", but we also felt very relieved to be back in someplace familiar.

The Haymarket was jammed with people, and the smell of fresh produce and loud voices calling out bargains filled the air. We found an old favorite pizza place called the Famous One, famous for it's $7.00 pies! We bought a whole pie, and me and Bettina took turns eating slices and going out to get some fruits and vegetables. I got apples and bananas, tomatoes and grapefruits, and she bought cucumbers, strawberries, and mangoes. Plus we bought a big bag of pita. That's a lot of stuff to carry, but carry it we did to Government Center Station to board the "T" back to our apartment.

Somehow we fit all that we bought into the refridgerator, and then we went to our room and had a well-deserved rest. As it got dark, Bettina and I decided to go out again for the last time that day so we could climb the special tree near the Reservoir to see our initials. Because of the dry weather of late, the tree was in perfect condition for climbing. We climbed that special tree almost to the top, and we hung out for a good while. After it started getting really dark, we climbed back down and went back to the apartment and watched YouTube. I forgot what we saw now. Oh well.

Boston ~ Day 4, Emerson Tour

2009-06-27T21:05:00.012-04:00

June 26~Bettina and I started the day early as usual, only this morning we were very tired. Our legs still ached from the very long walk from the UMass campus to the JFK Museum the previous day, so we mutually decided to skip the reservoir walk. We spent the time on our computer, checking our emails and working on our blogs. We also planned on having a special home-cooked meal later in the evening, so we decided to take the "T" to Star to get some spaghetti and sauce! Plus a bag of grapes (for a treat) and some mayonnaise (need a sandwich spread besides hummus). We saw on the newspaper racks that every front page had Michael Jackson's picture on it, so it was officially big-time news that he died! Still so sad. Later I used the payphone to call Tamara to seal our plan to meet up at the "Frog Pond" later that afternoon, but she didn't pick up. Still, Bettina and I had hopes that we would bump into them somehow, and if we didn't see each other, fine.

We set off on our trip to Emerson college at 'bout 1:00, so we'd have plenty of time for the train to get us there. It turns out that Emerson is located right near the Boston Commons, so a half-hour before we had to do the tour, we searched for Tamara, Joe and their kids around the Frog Pond, but we couldn't find them anywhere. It started to drizzle after a while, so chances were good that they didn't even go that day. We had plenty of time to relax before the Emerson college tour, so me and my sister had a lovely sandwich picnic near the Frog Pond, close to this huge statue on a hill. We were fine until the rain became a little harder, then we had to search for shelter.

We went to a Starbucks nearby so Bettina could use the "facilities", but a sign said only paying customers could use the restroom. So we decided to buy ourselves some big cookies. They were called Outrageous Oatmeal, and they had these beautiful multicolored raisins on top. I asked the guy behind the counter for two cookies please, and so he gave me two, but he forgot to charge me for them! How about that?! Free cookies?! However Bettina wouldn't have us taking cookies without paying for them, so I went back to the counter and said "I'd like to pay for two cookies please", but instead of the guy it was a girl, and she gave me two extra cookies and charged me for those! She did not know that I had the original two! Bettina let it slide after that, who can beat a 2-for-1 deal? (It might've been 2 for nothing, but oh well.)

We found Emerson College easily, it was practically next-door to the Public Gardens and the Boston Coomons! Nearby was a Barnes and Nobles, and we love bookstores, so we went in to check it out, but there was no place to sit down to read, and it stopped raining outside, so we left the store. We sat down at an outdoor-cafe table and ate our delicious Oatmeal cookies. A little bird flew near our table, so we shared tiny crumbs with it until it got close enough for Bettina to take a photo. It was cute.

After that we went inside the Emerson admissions office and sat and waited for the tour to begin. While we waited, we watched a slideshow of cool facts about Emerson. A lot of successful people like Jay Leno, the Wachowski brothers (of Matrix fame), Denis Leary, the guy who marketed the Furby dolls, and the producer of Friends (Kevin Bright) all went to Emerson! Eventually three tour guides came in and split up the now large group of campus tourists into groups of ten or so. We followed two guides whose names were Sarah and Emily. Sarah reminded me of Tina Fey, and she said her major is in Production (kinda like Tina Fey in the show 30 Rock). She was nice. Emily was nice too, but she seemed to be a little less experienced as a tour guide. Sarah was great though.

The college was great too! It was very big and beautiful, and we went through theater stages, peeped through the windows of recording studios, sat around a table used for Marketing students, got a glimpse of one of the dorms, and listened to Sarah and Emily talk about the great majors Emerson had to offer. You could be a moviemaker, a journalist, a writer, a musician, a producer, a graphic designer, comedian, political pundit, or even a stage-hand! I was very impressed, as I dream of someday working in the movie business.

The tour ended up at this big and beautiful theater called the Cutler Majestic. It looked like an old fashioned opera house with fancy booths and fantastical ceiling art! As we left, I fancied myself going to a college like Emerson. Might be really fun. Anyway, Bettina and I went out for burritos at a nearby "Boloco's", and we sat in the Public Gardens enjoying the tranquility of nature. We brought along peanuts with us, but we didn't bring them for ourselves. We brought them for the pigeons and squirrels!

Oh what a good time we had! The animals in the Public Gardens are so tamed by tourists that they have no trouble at all walking up to humans and eating out of their hands. We attracted many different squirrels and pigeons, and even Mallard ducks, who were a little greedy. Didn't see any swans though. Huh. The squirrels were the best customers. As they ate out of our hands, we were able to pet them on their heads as they nibbled! And the pigeons went all over our laps to get at the peanuts in our hands! I felt just like one of those Disney heroines like Snow White or Cinderella who all the animals love and trust. Many people walking past would smile at us and maybe stop to try and feed the animals themselves, but we had a grip on the market. Nobody got so many animals as us.

Eventually though we had to tear ourselves away because we'd been at it for a couple hours. I'll never forget those moments though. We took the "T" back to our apartment, and then we called our parents on Skype and told them all about our day. After that, we made our very own spaghetti and sauce dinner. It was delicious, and it was extra good because we had the pride of cooking it ourselves. Unfortunately we couldn't finish it all, so we stored the rest away in the fridge for later. Then, happy and fed, we went to bed. (Hee-hee, a rhyme!)

Boston ~ Day 3, UMass Tour

2009-06-27T19:14:00.015-04:00

June 25~Woke up at around 7:00 in the morning again. Awesome! Bettina and I took another walk around our reservoir, only this time in the opposite direction. The weather was a lot sunnier, and since we set foot in Boston, we saw a bit of blue sky for the first time! Along the way we munched on an apple and a banana each, pacing ourselves so we wouldn't get stomach cramps. Afterwards I tried to call our friend Tamara by payphone to try to make plans to meet up with her at the Public Gardens sometime (remember they had to leave by Saturday?), and I got her husband Joe, and he said they already went and had a great time. Still, he said we could make plans to see them at the "Frog Pond" at the Boston Commons, so that was cool.

For most of the morning afterwards, all my twin and I did was hang around in our room planning out the days ahead and researching how to get to the various colleges we were to visit on this trip. I also used the free time to blog all about our first two days, which was fun to do. We also took a trip to the Star Market to get some sandwich stuff, because we didn't have anything else in the fridge besides fruit.

Anyway, at around 2:00 or so, we took the "T" down to Government Center, where we changed from the Green line to the Red Line and took that train to JFK/UMass station. It was a very long train ride, so it's a good thing we took a "Metro" newspaper so we could do the Sudokus and crossword puzzle.

When we finally got to JFK/UMass station, we had to wait for a free shuttle-bus that would take us to the college, but it didn't come until it was almost 3:00, which was when we had to be on the tour. The University of Massachusetts is a really impressive looking college with many well designed buildings, but we didn't know where to start for the tour, so we asked a couple people where we had to go, and we were pointed in the direction of the admissions office. When we got there, we asked the nice ladies at the desk if we were late, and they said only for the info session, and that we could wait a few more minutes until the actual tour. What a relief!

For about an hour thereafter, me and my sister, and quite a few other people, were led all over the impressive campus, and we checked out the library, the dorms, some of the classrooms, and the cafeteria. Connecting the many buildings was this awesome "catwalk" that has clear glass windows so you can see the view outside, plus it keeps students warm in the cold weather instead of having them go out to change from building to building. There were a whole bunch of cool looking statues all over the grounds, and Bettina took a lot of interesting photos. The college had a whole bunch of diverse majors, such as math, science, art, english, and social studies. The tour guide was very nice, and she was very enthusiastic throughout the visit, which is important on a good campus tour.

After the whole trip, we sat down at one of the benches and had our sandwich picnic. It was nice to have a picnic on the UMass campus, and the sunny weather helped matters too. When we were well-fed, Bettina and I decided to visit the JFK Museum/Library, which we heard was a short walk away. We had a map of the campus to guide us, but it was hard to pinpoint where we were in relation to the museum. We walked a long long time to get to some place familiar, and we eventually found out that the JFK museum was a lot further away than we thought. Still, it was great exercise (as if we don't get enough on this trip already), and there was a walkway next to a harbor, which made for a great, cool ocean breeze. We had a lot of fun walking and talking, and we still thought it amazing that we found ourselves in this great big city far away from home. Finally we made it to the museum! We felt so proud and happy of how far we had trekked, but then we saw that the museum hours were from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and we got there 15 minutes too late! Big bummer :(

We took the free shuttle-bus from there back to the "T" station, tired as can be. An hour or two later we got back home, and Bettina and I just hung out, worked on our blogs, read a bit of Thin Threads, not doing much. Our resident musician, Jake, played some more songs of his, and we thought of calling it a night and hitting the sack. However, around 10:00, our dad Benny called us using Skype, and the ringing from the computer was enough to wake us up. He told us that he saw on the news that Michael Jackson died! It was shocking news, but it didn't really affect me that much when I heard it. I was probably too tired. But now I can say how very sorry I feel that we lost a great and talented American icon, and it's such a shame that he had to go out looking the way he did and being misunderstood by the general public. I really like his music, and now that I know he won't be writing anymore songs it's very very sad.

Boston ~ Days 1 and 2

2009-06-25T15:34:00.000-04:00

I've been having so many adventures here in the capitol of Massachusetts that I hardly know how to remember all that has happened! I'll just give you the highlights of our "vacation" so far. (By the way, me and my twin Bettina pretty much did everything together, so forgive me for using the pronoun "we" and "us" gratuitously.)

June 23~Woke up right with the alarm-clock at 4:00 in the morning, and had fresh orange juice and warm porridge for breakfast. Benny, Shira, and Adam all went to see us off at the airport, and give us good luck and much love.

Security check process was surprisingly quick. We saw our friends Toniann, Kailen, and Adrianna waiting for us. We knew that we would find them, because a few days ago, their mom, Tamara, told my mom that she was going on a trip to Boston on the same day, on the same airline, and on the same plane as us! The difference is, her family is only staying until this Saturday, and we're staying for 2 weeks.

Time passed very slowly on the plane. Lift-off was way cool, but this time I didn't notice my ears go "pop". We were seated near the back of the plane, so we had easy access to the tiny bathroom. We munched on bags of trail mix, listened to our iPod, and read a book called "Thin Threads" to pass the time. I did some meditative breathing exercises as well.

Bettina wanted to take a movie of us getting off the plane after we landed, but there were too many people crowding up the lines. We parted ways with Toniann, Kailen, and Adrianna, and took a free shuttle to the subway. Every train that we took before arriving at our apartment was there right when we needed them to be. We took a lot of movies and pictures of our adventures.

When we got to our apartment, we unlocked the front door and nobody seemed to be at home yet (all of our renters are in college for summer classes this year). We got up to our room, and we found a small dog living in it! He growled at us. Then we went to the kitchen (there were a heap of dirty dishes in the sink and the trash was overflowing!) and called our parents using Skype. It was such a relief to hear everyone's voices thousands of miles away.

A few minutes later, a couple of the tenants, Jake and Brad, came in, and we said hi and stuff. We also met Jake's dog Leroy, who's a Weimaraner (do you remember William Wegmans' dogs on Sesame Street?). The little dog, it turns out, belonged to a friend of Jake's. Anyway, Jake cleared out our room pretty well (there were a few clothes and dog chow and a video game system when we first appeared) and left us alone to unpack. We put all our stuff in a big bureau, and made plans to go out.

We went to a 7-11 to buy some week-long train passes (called Charlie Cards), CVS to get some toilet paper and a new pair of scissors. (Couldn't bring one on the plane now could we?) Then we walked all the way to our local supermarket (Star) and got a bag of apples. After that we took the "T" home (T is for train), put the apples away (in a small corner of the fridge that wasn't being occupied by our 4 boarders), and went out again to the reservoir nearby. We had carved our initials on a special tree a year ago, and we would've climbed up to check it, but it was raining (a very strange, misty sort of rain), and the tree was all wet and dirty, so we said we'd save it for another time. Then we decided to treat ourselves to a small pizza pie at "Presto's". We went slightly over budget after that, but hey, it was a great pizza!

That night we were so happy and satisfied with how our first day went that we just hung out for a few hours. Shira, Adam and Benny called us on Skype and we had a nice 10-minute conversation. Then we brushed our teeth (manually rather than using our electric brushes back home), and went to bed early, about 10:00 or so.

June 24~Woke up around 7:00 in the morning, completely recharged and refreshed. Seems we got just the right amount of sleep for us to wake up. Right away we went out to enjoy our first morning in Boston by taking a nice long walk around the Reservoir. The weather was still very cloudy and the rain was as misty as the day before. We took an umbrella with us, but we still got very cold and wet. Still having the time of our lives though! We also took apples along for our walk, and we ate them on the way.

We got a Skype call from our parents after we came back. We told them of our plans for the day (which I will reveal later) and how much we still missed them. After hanging up, we went to work in the kitchen to clear up the messy dishes and the garbage. I took out the trash and swept the floor while Bettina took care of the washing. It was almost fun working together to clean up the mess, because we thought about how pleasantly surprised the guys would be when they saw a clean sink.

After all that work, we hurried to the "T" stop to catch the train to Chestnut Hill Station. We wanted to go to the AMC movie theater to see "UP", but after we got off, we didn't know how to get from the station to the cinema. We went back home feeling very silly, but I didn't feel defeated. We'd simply catch the 1:30 showing instead of the 11:00 (though the tickets do cost more later in the day). To cheer ourselves up, we bought a couple burritos at "Boloco's". They were nice and warm to eat after being out in the cold, wet weather.

We then went back home to search Google Maps for the precise route on how to get to the AMC theater, and after that, we went back on the "T" to do take 2. Happily, we made it to the theater this time. Instead of buying popcorn to munch on during the film, I went out and got us 2 peanut-butter chocolate-chip cookies at a bakery close by. Huge savings at 2 bucks a cookie.

The movie "UP" was absolutely fantastic! PIXAR's 10th film is a hit! The animation's great, the acting is great, the story was great, and the subtle soundtrack was great. The only thing I wish is that there should have been less talking-dog gags. We didn't see the movie in 3-D, but it was still an excellent theater experience that made me forget where I was and what I had to do later for the duration of 1 and 1/2 hours. I would almost say that this was my favorite PIXAR movie yet, if WALL-E wasn't so darn cute!

I was almost sorry to leave the theater, but Bettina and I still had lots of fun discussing our favorite parts of the movie. We went back on the "T" to go to the Brookline library, but it was a very long trek from the train stop to the library. We almost thought ourselves lost, but we kept thinking happy thoughts and kept in mind that life is about the journey, not the destination. Eventually we made it, and we spent a couple hours happily surrounded by books.

We wanted to take out a few DVDs, but the librarian said that our cards weren't activated. Oh well. We left the DVDs there and decided to go shop at Star Market and get some bananas. I also wrote down many of the bargain prices in my notebook, so we wouldn't spend more than we had to on groceries. Along with bananas, we got a bag of peanuts and a box of cereal. It felt good knowing how well we could take care of ourselves. We stopped over at our old favorite, "Eagle's Deli" for a large plate of french fries. It was very tasty, but I don't plan on making any more similar trips because I know how "not good" fries are for the body.

When we got back home to put away our food, we found one of the guys, Brad, cooking something and burning it. It activated the fire alarm, which was very annoying, but not too serious. Just like the day before, we pretty much lounged about in our room for the rest of the evening, called our family on Skype, and went to bed. This night however was the start of a very nice tradition of Jake, the guy who lives in the room next door, playing music that he wrote and practising and experimenting with new melodies and words. It's fun sleeping next-door to a musician!

There, that's all of Days 1 and 2! The rest of my blog posts are probably going to be as long as this for a while, but I sure hope this isn't a turnoff for my readers here! Later dudes!

Jane Eyre Review

2009-06-22T12:46:00.007-04:00

Hurray! I have finished the wonderful book Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte! This story is one of those classic stories that can appeal to both men and women (although I can't speak for the guys, seeing as I am female), no matter how old they are or what time they live in. This is basically a novel posing as an autobiography (in first-person narrative) of the fictional heroine Jane Eyre (pronounced Air), a woman who may be described as "plain-looking", "intellectual", and "free-willed"; though she is a lady living in the early 19th century, she doesn't conform to the Victorian stereotype of being subordinate to men and not being able to think or express herself freely. This story pretty much has 5 distinct parts to it:

Jane's childhood at Gateshead, the house of her uncle's family where she is neglected and abused by her aunt and cousins.
Her education at Lowood School, a charity institution run by the hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst whose family lives a comfortable and rich lifestyle but whose students suffer from poor living conditions.
Her time as governess of Thornfield Manor, where she teaches a young girl named Adele who is the ward of Edward Rochester, a classic example of the Byronic hero. Eventually she falls in love with him, and he with her, even though there is a twenty year difference between them. Sadly, just when they're about to get married, it is revealed that Edward has a wife from a previous marriage, a violent madwoman whom he keeps locked up in the attic. Jane refuses to be Edward's wife, though she still loves him, on the grounds that he would be a bigamist and it would go against her moral values.
Jane then runs away and finds herself at Moor House, home of St. John Rivers and his sisters, who turn out to be Jane's first cousins. St. John intends to travel to India and devote his life to missionary work and he asks Jane to accompany him as his wife (What the hey? They're cousins for crying out loud!). Jane consents to go to India but adamantly refuses to marry him because they are not in love. John continues to pressure Jane to marry him, and his forceful personality almost forces her to comply, but at the right moment, she hears a voice that sounds just like Edward Rochester's calling her name, and she decides to leave her cousins' home and go back to Thornfield Manor.
In the last part of the story, Jane travels back to Thornfield. But in her year of abscence, the house had been burned down by Rochester's mad wife, who after setting the house on fire committed suicide by jumping off the roof. (Sure was crazy, huh?) Rochester survived the blaze, but he lost a hand and his eyesight in the bargain. Jane finds him living alone except for a few servants in an isolated manor house, and there she reunites with Rochester. At first, he fears that she will refuse to marry a blind cripple, but Jane accepts him without hesitation. Happy ending!

I loved reading this story because it was easy to relate to, and the characters seem to leap off the pages, along with the settings. The author, Charlotte Bronte allegedly based many of the events in the story on her own life (going to a harsh school and becoming a governess for examples), so the narrative seemed almost real. I very much recommend this book, and give it a thumbs-up!

Father's Day post

2009-06-21T19:41:00.011-04:00

I am so happy that today turned out to be so wonderful. I am so lucky to have a father like my Benny, because he is the best dad ever! This morning, as per usual on special occasions, my family had a bountiful breakfast of fruit and pancakes! Then me and my sibs presented our father with homemade cards that he read with pride and love. Want to see 'em? Here they are!

First there is my card, then Bettina's, then Adam's. Anyway, along with cards, us kids got our dad a brand new pen as a gift. Nothing too fancy, just a little something something he can have practical use for (you know, all the bills and checks he has to sign ^,^ lol).

We had decided that since today was a Sunday, we'd go to the beach as usual, even though the weather didn't look very sunny. We've weathered some bad storms on our beach in the past, and besides, this weekend was the last one me and my sister spent on the beach until we come back from our Boston trip, so we wanted to make the most of it. It started out as a pretty good beach day, even though there was gray clouds overhead. You ever get those kind of clouds that look stormy, but it doesn't rain for a couple hours? Those are the kind that we got, and it was nice because with the sun behind all those clouds, there was no chance of getting burned. The Atlantic Ocean was pleasantly warm on Father's Day. Warm like a relaxing bath.

At one point word got around that a kid found a bunch of starfish somewhere, so we swam over and, lo and behold, about 6 or 7 starfish, ranging in size from a tennis ball to a dinner-plate, were floating around the sandbar floor! (This picture is similar to one of the big ones we saw.) We picked them up and examined them, but after handling them for a few minutes, some woman came over and told us not to take the starfish out of the water or handle them so much, otherwise they could die! Well, I don't want a dead starfish on my conscience, so I let them alone, and observed them underwater at a short distance.

Soooooooo, after swimming, and having something to eat, I decided to just lie down, and get a rain-tan (at that point little random drops of moisture were coming down one at a time almost unnoticeably). Then when the drizzle really started, we started to pack it up and quit while we're ahead. Funny enough, earlier when my dad parked the car the beach parking lot was full, so he had to park far away, and now that it was raining he had to go out into the wet and get the car for us. Adam volunteered to go with him, and me, Bettina, and Shira stayed dry in a tunnel that goes under the traffic next to the beach. It was very exciting and scary, because along with lots and lots of rain now (you know how fast storms can pick up, right?) there was also thunder and lightning! I forget how to do the trick where you calculate how far away the lightning is by counting the seconds between it and the thunder it makes, but I think it was safe to assume that the bolts were far away from us. It gave us a heck of a show though. We had to wait quite a while until Benny and Adam came around with the car, and when they finally came, we hailed them as our heroes! What an adventure they must have had while we were safe and dry! (Well, maybe not totally dry, the water level was starting to come up to our ankles, making it seem like some disaster movie in slow motion.)

Funny enough, as we drove, the weather started to turn bright again, as if it hadn't rained at all! (Although anyone could plainly tell by all the puddles in the roads that it had clearly been a down pour.) We decided not to waste the fine weather, so we parked at a new beach that we've never stopped at before. We payed the parking meter $1 for one hour on that beach, and we lay out the blanket, brought out the picnic, and enjoyed the sunshine. Adam went swimming, like he usually does. We watched a couple guys playing catch football together, and one of them was good-looking, so what's a girl to do? I had a lot of fun hanging out at that beach, and it made me realize that our family had been going to the same beach for so long that any other beach was like a novelty! Anyway, long story short, all of a sudden, our beach umbrella turned inside-out from a gust of wind, and we decided to pack it up anyway. We saw that the time we spent on the beach was almost exactly one hour! Talk about divine timing! We didn't even think of going until the umbrella went inside-out!

Fast-Forward to after we got back home:>> I had read more of my book, Jane Eyre (which I'm 30 pages away from finishing), and we tried getting Skype to work on our computer so we'd be able to keep in touch with our family in Boston, but when we call each other the sound doesn't work too well (maybe we need new microphones). Benny decided to watch a movie with us kids, so we saw the 5th volume of the Beatles Anthology set. We learned all about how they played in Shea Stadium, and toured Japan, and met Elvis Presley, and put out their revolutionary new albums, Rubber Soul and Revolver. It was great fun, because whenever the Beatles played a song, we'd sing along with them.

Just think, in about 36 hours I'll be at the airport waiting for my next adventure to arrive!

In Loving Memory of Hazel the Hamster

2009-06-18T13:13:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, after watching Roman Holiday, we were shocked to discover that our beloved hamster Hazel had died. Just that morning I noticed that she was sleeping more than usual, and breathing fine. But it wasn't to last. Adam wanted to take her out to play, but she felt limp and still. I'll spare the gruesome details, but I'll tell you that Adam was very upset. He thought it was his fault because he didn't feed her often enough, but the problem with that theory was her food bowl still had a good amount of food left. Me and my sister assured him that it was nobody's fault, and that it was simply her time to go. Our parents were out for the night, so we had to tell them the bad news this morning. Our mom Shira was very sad. She used to feed Hazel fresh vegetables and fruits and nuts and spouts almost every day. She said that Hazel was her favorite hamster that we ever owned. I agree completely. This morning I wrote a heart-felt poem to read at Hazel's funeral. You can read it below.

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Dear Hazel,

I'm sorry that you had to go.

Where did you go?

Who's to know?

Did you know I loved you so?

With your big bright eyes and perky ears, I thought you had a few more years.

I hope you didn't suffer, just knew it was the end.

You know there's nothing tougher than losing a furry friend.

Thank you for being our pet. You're one I won't forget.

You made us smile. You had such style.

Now you're gone, but I'll move on.

I'm sorry that you had to die.

Who can say why?

Now you will lie

in peace.

Goodbye girl.

Love, Annette.

Hazel: bought Sept. 26, 2007 ~ died June 17, 2009

The Buzz on Boston

2009-06-17T19:39:00.015-04:00

The title may be a little lame, but I had to do better than: "Make way for me!" or "Wicked Awesome Summer Trip". You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you? (Unless of course you read my sister, Bettina's blog, she's a bit more up to date than I am.)

Yesterday, my mom booked a flight for me and my twin to go to Boston, Massachusetts to stay for 2 weeks at the apartment that we spent the first year of our lives in. My parents own the apt. and they rent out the rooms to college students, and one of them has been vacant for a while. So, while Shira tries to find tenants down here in the Sunshine State, me and my sister will be living by ourselves in the home of the Hatchshell, Harvard, and Fanueil Hall.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the several days I have left here in Florida in style. My sister and I have been making good use of our new licenses by driving to the library all by ourselves every so often. God it feels great to be lady-good-driver!

In other news, today I have seen two new movies:

"Being John Malkovich" and "Roman Holiday". Here are my opinions on both: if you are like me, you would not like to see "Being John Malkovich" a second time. I mean don't get me wrong, John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and the "Malk" himself are talented actors, but the story was just too weird for me. Plus it was littered with filthy-talk; F**k, $h!t, go to h&!!, that sort of nastiness that I don't appreciate.

However, I highly recommend "Roman Holiday". In my opinion it's one of the greatest romances of the 20th century, and possibly all time! The '50s. Now that was a time to see good movies. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck roaming the "Eternal City" (get it? Rome, roaming?) and falling in love in one glorious day. What a treat! You have to see "Roman Holiday", or your life will be incomplete!

Drivers Test

2009-06-09T22:51:00.006-04:00

I passed the drivers test today!

I can barely believe it, but me and my sister both got our very own, very new Florida drivers' licenses! See how happy I am in this picture! I'm so excited I could scream (if I could convey it in text form)! Here goes...Aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I don't feel any different after typing that, but I hope I have satisfactorily conveyed a sense of major accomplishment. Gosh, let me tell you about what happened...

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This morning I woke up very early, about 6:00 a.m., and I didn't go back asleep again because, to be honest, I was excited as heck! I went online to review many driving tips for the test that was to come, such as accelerate, steer, and change lanes smoothly, exaggerate the checking of mirrors, and use the blinkers and signals appropriately. I was pretty nervous, but I tried to keep my anxiety at a low level by reading a chapter of "Jane Eyre" (I'm on the part where she meets Edward Rochester for the first time), making porridge, and yeah, pacing a little (not that that did much good).

I felt nervous enough for myself and my sister, for both of our tests were on the same day, and Bettina seemed not to be anxious at all. I mean we've been driving for a whole year, no accidents, no speeding tickets, no nothing, so why shouldn't we pass the drivers test? Still, I thought to myself, "A little nervous energy is good before taking any test, right? Makes you more alert." Then I realized that there was plenty of time before we had to go to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and take our tests, so we relaxed and watched the beginning of "Shiloh", the movie. Adam borrowed the book from the library, but he wanted to see the movie first.

Anyway, at about 11:30, all us kids hopped in the Yellow Beetle. We dropped Adam off at his friends Lexi and Ben's house for the afternoon, and then Shira, Bettina and I drove on to the DMV. When we got there, we were about half an hour early, so we thought we'd have a while to wait, so I brought my book along so I wouldn't get bored. But actually, we didn't have that long to wait at all! Since we came early, the people checked us in and we showed our permits and we were told to wait outside for our driving instructors.

Boy! That was fast! I took the test first. The course was right near the parking lot, and it was very small! All I had to do was make a few turns, stop at all the stop signs, make a three-point turn (sometimes called a K- or Y-turn), back up 50 feet, and then park the car. And that was that! I passed, piece of cake! Shira was so proud of me.

As I waited for Bettina to finish her test, me and Shira sat and talked to this family which had two sisters who I think were getting their permits, I think, and an 11-year-old boy who said he knew how to drive in the parking lot. It was so great to relax and feel at ease, because my piece of plastic was assured me. It only took about 15 to 20 minutes for the test to be over, and we just had to verify all our pertinent information before we got our upgrade from permit to legal license. How happy am I! On the way home, we pondered what we should do to celebrate. We stopped at the supermarket and decided to get some carrot muffins for starters. Then we got back home and told our dad all about it. Shortly afterward, brother Adam came back home and gave me and Bettina each a great big hug for passing the driving test. I am so proud of myself. Why was I ever worried that I would fail?

Awesome Beach Day

2009-06-07T10:12:00.000-04:00

Today was the first time in about 3 weeks that my family decided to go to the beach again for some fun in the sun (and the Atlantic ocean). I woke up real early in the morning, around 6:45, but after 15 minutes of no one else waking up, I went back to bed and stayed there until 8:00. Me and Bettina helped chop up veggies for the picnic, and I decided to start reading "Jane Eyre", a book that my sister recently finished. It starts out with the main character, 10-year-old Jane Eyre, living with her aunt and cousins, because her parents are dead, and her uncle promised to take care of her, only he's dead too, and the aunt and cousins treat her very poorly. Almost reminds me of another fictional young kid who lives with his aunt and uncle and mean old cousin (hint: Dursleys). Anyway, enough of my book. The weather at the beach was absolutely glorious! The sky had just the right amounts of cloudiness and sunniness so that I could get a nice tan without getting burned! The sea was wonderful as well; not too wavy, and not too calm. I wore a new pair of swimming goggles though, ones with a blue tint, because I lost my other pair many weeks ago to rough and choppy waters. Whenever I wanted to take my blue-tinted goggles off for an instant, the whole world took on a pinkish hue! It's something to do with the eyes, I think. When I close my left eye, I see more of the color blue, and when I close my right eye I can see more of the color red, and when I wear 3-D glasses, the red lens is on the "blue eye" and the blue lens is on the "red eye", and so with the brain all properly confused, when you sit in on a 3-D movie, the characters seem to come out at you! Oops, sorry for all the science, I kindof went off on a tangent there. Back to the beach. We stayed there for a lovely 5 hours or so. Not once did it rain. I wonder if this means the rainy spell we've had for almost three weeks has now come to an end? I hope we can go to the beach again next week, I really was beginning to miss it.

Updates (and cool links)

2009-06-05T22:32:00.000-04:00

I just realized today that I haven't done a regular blog post in weeks! By regular I mean one that focuses on my current life events and not just my art-du-jour. The last time I wrote a non-doodle or paint-post was on Mother's Day! Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that I want to remember all the cool stuff that's happened to me for my own reminiscing pleasure. I don't want to look back at this period of time and ask myself, "Gee, what happened? Did I just spend all my time painting or drawing?" No. And so, I present a few short paragraphs about the month of May and the beginning of June:

May 18: This was a real fun-packed day; instead of going to the beach as usual, Bettina and I decided to go to Borders, because Rick Riordan was doing a book-signing that day. Not that we own any of his books, Bettina's read a couple of his works, and she liked them, so it's because of her that we went. As it happens, the store had just been reorganized, different sections in different places, and the art section was placed near the area where Rick Riordan was doing his book-signing, so I loved it! I flipped through books about design, and catalogs of different company logos admiring the aesthetic appeal of each trademark. What a good time. After Bettina got Mr. Riordan's autograph, we went to the in-store cafe and bought ourselves a couple large, warm cookies. Nice memory. Then we walked from Borders to the mall (a few street-crossings away), and bought Pendragon 10 in Books-A-Million. I know, it's funny that we should come from a bookstore to another bookstore to buy a book but Pendragon 10 wasn't in Borders, so there. After that we sat down and had Chinese food at Panda Express, chow mein noodles with vegetables and fried rice, and spring rolls. Then Bettina and I read the first couple chapters of Pendragon 10 as we waited for the bus to take us home, and after that we walked through a golf course where we saw a rainbow and a family of ducklings. It was great to spend a day just me and my twin sister.
May 19: Pretty much ever since this day, it's been raining every day up to now. It's been nonstop wetness here in South Florida, and it's been great! That day me, Adam, and Bettina took a walk, each with an umbrella in hand, and at first it drizzled lightly, like a mist. As we walked further and further, the rain got heavier and heavier, until we had to put up our umbrellas like shields against the wind and downpour! We were completely soaked! It made for a great adventure, and an even better story. Better than the walk home, which was still rainy, but not as torrential. When we got back, we saw another family of ducklings, just like the day before.
May 22: Bettina and I went with Shira and Adam to a home school meeting. Normally the meetings are at the park, but since it was so cloudy and rainy, plan B was to go to Toniann and Kailen's house. Toniann and Kailen have a big, goofy golden retriever puppy named Bella, and she was great fun to play with. Me and my sister led a short presentation about fun math tricks and stories. A lot of fun was had by all. There were lots of snacks, like chips, veggies and dip, cookies. Even though it had rained, all the kids jumped on the trampoline, and so did me and Bettina. I just love trampolines! We kept bouncing long after the other kids left to swim in the pool. We also celebrated a couple of birthdays within the group, and there was card-reading and cake. We stayed for about 4 hours or so, and came back home happy and tired.
May 25: That day, me and my family spent an afternoon watching a community theater workshop production of Guys and Dolls. The whole cast were kids from about 8 to 16 years old. It was directed by the same woman who directed the play me and my brother and sister were in (High School Musical) a year ago, Ms. Judy. If you've seen Guys and Dolls before you'll know what I'm talking about when I say I wondered just how they'd be able to pull it off. I mean this play is about gambling! Still, there was some young talent, and the songs and dances were done well. But, as per usual, the sound booth in the back of the auditorium was dysfunctional; sometimes a song wouldn't start playing as soon as it should, and a few times, singers had to sing a Capella to cover up the discrepancies. Sometimes the actors' microphones weren't working, and they had to speak extra loud, until suddenly the microphone starts working again, and they have to compensate for being too loud! All in all, it might have been the best play in the world, but a bad stage makes for a bad theater experience. I know. High School Musical had a few kinks as well, but at least I got to play Ms. Darbus!
May 31: At the end of the month, after much hard work and planning, the eleventh episode of Leslie and Kyle was uploaded to YouTube, and since then it's gotten over 80 views! It's different from the regular format of the show, but it's still the same funny sock-puppets. Here's the link to the show!
June 3: Played a 2 player game of Boggle with Bettina, and then Adam. I lost to Bettina, but I also won over Adam. I love Boggle because it's fun to learn new words and rearrange letters. It's awesome when you get the 6 letter word that no one else got, or to have one pointed out to you that you didn't write down!
June 4: Yesterday, we played a family game of Scrabble, and Bettina won. Also I took two walks in the evening, one with Bettina to the supermarket, and one with Bettina and Adam around the golf course near our house.
June 5: And now, up to today. So far I've taken two early-morning walks and finished reading The Portable Film School by D.B. Gilles (a real good read for budding screenwriters, directors, movie makers, and moviegoers alike), and learned how to make myself a fresh fruit-n-spinach smoothie! It feels like it's going to be a good day.

Along with great days, I have been exposed to many great books and films since my last "real" blog post. Here, I present a list of movies and books that I've seen or read this past month, and I recommend them all!

I have read:

"Strangers on a Train" by Patricia Highsmith
"Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul 3 "
"Persepolis 1 & 2" by Marjane Satrapi
"I am America and So Can You" by Stephen Colbert

And I have watched:

"The Terminal" (a comedy with Tom Hanks)
"Death Becomes Her" (a dark comedy with Bruce Willis, Goldy Hawn, and Meryl Streep)
Company (a Stephen Sondheim Musical)
The Day After Tomorrow (an action film with Dennis Quaid)
Monsters Vs. Aliens (a Dreamworks Animation Studio comedy with all sorts of famous and funny people. See it, it's really cool and hilarious!)

Paint Post/Doodle Collection

2009-05-28T19:07:00.015-04:00

Hey there! I'd like to show you a few new works.

---> This is Adam's paint-by-numbers project from last post, all finished by Shira. It was just taking too darn long for Adam to do it himself. I know that I didn't have much to do with this, but I thought it was nice enough to write about in my blog.

<--- Now this is something I did. Originally I just had a fancy sun shining on the forest, but it had too much color and it didn't go with the rest of the painting, so I turned my sun into a sunflower. Now the squirrel and the deer have a giant flower to look at! I wonder how big the seeds would come out? (I love eating sunflower seeds, unsalted) I think it may be one of the first watercolor paintings I've done that didn't involve a stick figure me (standing under a rainbow, holding hands with my mom, or in a giant flower garden. You know the way a young kid thinks. Or maybe that's just me).

Below are three instances of bishoujo manga experimentation. Bishoujo is japanese for "beautiful women", in case you didn't know. I love drawing manga, because it's like cartooning, only slightly more artistic looking. However I find it a bit challenging to draw all the hair and the big eyes and stuff. Hopefully if I practice I'll get better. In the future I hope to create more of my own original manga characters for my enjoyment.

---> I copied these out of a manga book by Christopher Hart. He has dozens of "how to draw" books to his name, and his writing style is nice. The undated one was made May 26. I like the way I did both of their hairstyles, even though they are copied. This kind of drawing gives me great practice for getting comfortable and confident in my hair and eye drawing abilities.

<--- Original character, coming through! I am both proud and slightly embarassed to show this to you. On the one hand, I pride myself on the hair, winking expression, and ruffled sleeves. On the other hand the arms are doing nothing, the proportions of the body don't look quite right, and the boobs are obvious. Of course in bishoujo manga, all the women have big boobs, but they only show on revealing costumes. I don't want it to be obvious under a simple frilly top! Oh well. What can you do?

If you like what you see (or not), please feel free to comment (or not).

1st Paint Post

2009-05-24T13:15:00.032-04:00

I am so happy today! I just got my mom, my brother, my dad, and myself engaged in a morning of watercolor painting! Bettina didn't feel like painting, because she was busy reading Pendragon #10: "Soldiers of Halla", which she bought a few days ago when it came out. It's the last Pendragon novel ever, so she's way excited about it. ANYWAY...(ha ha, I'm saying it like Leslie)...Yesterday we bought a bunch of awesome art equipment at A.C. Moores, like tubes of watercolors, a starter brush set, a couple of plastic palettes, and 2 pads of watercolor paper. Me and Shira were really the ones who chose all the tools, while Bettina and Adam just tagged along.

After leaving the store, we were ready to begin our painting careers! This morning was perfect painting weather (e.g. cloudy, rainy, not sunny). Before I knew it, almost my whole family has a paintbrush in their hands and creating art! Benny and Adam are working together on a paint-by-numbers for the time being, but it still counts. Here are the beautiful pictures I took of the final paintings:

---> This is my first watercolor painting, called "Essence of Random". As you can see I did a whole bunch of experimentation, to get used to the new materials I had to work with. I've never worked with tube paints before.

<--- This is my mom, Shira's first watercolor painting. I love her style, all flowery and bright. She said she used a lot of water when painting, maybe that's why it looks different. Hmmm.

---> This is Shira's 2nd painting, a crack at pointillism. Beautiful, in't it?

<--- This is Adam's first watercolor painting. Just so y'all know, Adam is 11 years old, and has no previous painting experience other then paint-by-numbers. (Coming up next.)

---> I know, I know; it's not finished yet, but here's how far Benny and Adam have gotten so far. This painting was started three weeks ago, and Adam hasn't worked on it in about a week, so this morning was a nice boost in the productivity department.

My Doodle Collection #9

2009-05-16T17:39:00.014-04:00

Time for some more awesome doodles/sketches/artwork/masterpieces! (Hey, it's more than just doodling, but the post-title's still nice, so I'm keeping the name.)

<--- I had a lot of fun doing these; I combined a bunch of different facial parts together into 7 distinct personas. Pick eyes from column A, lips from column B, eybrows and noses from C and D, and you've got yourself a brand new character! Once you've got the face, you could very well go on to choosing a head shape and funny ears too! I got all the face parts from a book called the Creative Cartoonist.

---> This little guy shown in two panels is someone I like to call Josky. You can pronounce it "Joe-skee" or "Jah-skee" if you like, but what matters is that I made up an imaginary animal that has an original name. Have you ever heard the name Josky before? I think it fits him. He lives somewhere in a rocky-mountain-desert, and he's searching for bugs or prarie dogs or something.

<--- Here we have a couple of profiles that I copied from the Creative Cartooning book. I relly like the one that has both eyes on one side of his face, because he looks like he was drawn by Picasso, but he was actually drawn by me! It was fun doing the other profiles too, but they're too "beautifully proportioned" to be funny.

---> Yesterday I went to Borders and got inspired by a dragon-art book to create my own fire-breathing beast. I made this totally from my own imagination! What do you think of that? I also named him Icarus, after the Greek myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus who made wings out of wax and feathers so they could fly out of prison. But Icarus flew too close to the sun, his wings melted, and he fell into the sea and drowned. But my Icarus has fully-functional wings that make him keep his balance when he stands on two legs like this.

<--- This was made 2 weeks ago. It was really simple to create; all I did was draw my shadow, then fill in the background. The coloring in took a while, plus I had to make it nice and smooth looking.

Please comment and tell me which pieces you like and why.

Mother's Day Weekend

2009-05-10T10:53:00.008-04:00

Mothers Day was a big hit for my mom. She loved everything we did for her. On the night before Mothers Day, we all went out to Flanigan's for dessert (skipped the whole seafood deal), and we had a slice of candy apple pie topped with 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream, and a warm triple chocolate brownie with more vanilla ice-cream. It was a lot of fun sharing them, because they were so big! (Sorry if I make you salivate) We don't do that sort of thing very often, so it makes it all the more fun when we do. (On a different note, after finishing up our Mothers Day cards, Adam Bettina and I were able to watch this week's "Saturday Night Live" with Justin Timberlake, and it was great!)

I woke up early enough, and Adam and our dad, Benny, had gone to Publix and got a dozen bagels for a Mother's Day brunch. Bettina and I cut up some vegetables and set the table so our mom, Shira, wouldn't have to lift a finger. Everyone enjoyed the "bagel bonanza". After eating, we all had the pleasure of giving Shira our handmade cards, and she had the pleasure of reading them and admiring the artwork. Benny gave her a card too, though of course she's not his mom, but what the heck. Here's a picture of the card I made:

I believe that the Mothers Day card I made this year beats all the Mothers Day cards I've made before. Can you tell I worked hard on it?

After breakfast, we hung around the house, and Benny taught us how to play "Polythene Pam" on the guitar. We didn't leave for the beach until late in the afternoon. It was a real scorcher today, and we made a goof-up...we forgot the beach blanket and a few towels that were left in the dryer! Oh well. The water was of fantastic temperature and temperament (it's rare to have both at the same time), and we all swam together as a family. We had brought along a whole picnic, but I wasn't actually very hungry. I suppose it was those bagels that filled me up.

Most of the afternoon I read this book called "The Power of Body Language". Shira recommended it to me after reading the first few chapters on the way to New College the other day, and the book is really awesome. It's amazing, when you think about it, how long man must have walked this earth before inventing oral language. How did cavemen communicate with each other? Using body language. The subject has quite a lot to do with psychology, which I'm completely fascinated by, and the book teaches how to interpret different signals, like how to tell if a person is lying, or attracted to you, or happy to see you. It's got great pictures to follow along, and there are a few photos of former presidents demonstrating either proper or improper body language.

(There's one that has Bush Jr. winking at the Queen of England after making a joke about her being old. Talk about insult to injury!)

That night, our parents went out, and us kids made spaghetti. We went to slept pretty late, after watching the movie "Role Models" and "America's Funniest Home Videos" on TV. Shira said, before she and Benny left, that this was the best Mothers Day ever, and I have to agree with her. I am so lucky to have a mom like her.

New College Field-Trip

2009-05-07T06:48:00.017-04:00

Just so you guys know from the get-go, I am writing this account a day after me and my family visited New College. If only I wasn't so tired last night, then I would have the experience still fresh in my mind. Oh well. You understand, right? Right. Moving on...

We all had to be at New College by 12:00, and it takes 3 hours to drive there, so my family decided to wake up at 7:15 so we could leave at 8:00 (which leaves us plenty of time to get there unrushed, with an extra hour on our hands). Bettina and I woke up at 6:00 in the morning! We were too darn excited to stay asleep! Oh well, more time for us to get dressed, have breakfast, make sure we got stuff ready, like directions, food, CDs for the trip, etc. I brought along the book I'm reading, "Strangers on a Train". It's pretty different from the movie version I so enjoyed (read my review here) but it's still fun to read. Anyway, I haven't mentioned the coolest part: my sister drove the 3 hours, nonstop, the whole family in the car, to New College, all by herself!

When we finally got to New College, I thought it looked smaller than I imagined. The building that you see here, College Hall, actually used to be the million-dollar home of Charles Ringling (of the Ringling Brothers circus) and his wife. It isn't used for classrooms, it's just a big, beautiful, early 20th century house, lived in by nobody, but still used for administration purposes. We signed in there, and got directions to me and my sister's classes. We had to go to the library building, which wasn't too far away, and a lot busier than College Hall. When I came into the Religion classroom, I was the only one there, except for one other early student, who I introduced myself to. Eventually, the class filled up to about 14 people, and the professor showed up almost 15 mintes late. I was slightly put off by that, and before then, all the other students were chatting all around me, and I felt distinctly like the odd one out, like the one who didn't belong there. It was a strange new experience for me, but I'm glad I had it. The class consisted mostly of a few students reading aloud papers that they wrote about evangelical Christians trying to convert Muslims, about the Paris Riots, and I caught names such as Rick Warren and Billy Graham, who I know next to nothing about (pardon my ignorance). I don't think I learned much of practical use to me at the time, but I got some idea of what a typical class at New College would be like. I should also have known that these students are about to take their finals before ending this spring term, so all their classes are tough.

After that, me and Bettina walked back to College Hall by way of the Promenade, a nice, straight path that cuts across the campus. We talked about how our classes went (she seemed to be in a better mood than I was) and how weird/wonderful it was that we were actually there after waiting for so long. We met up with our parents and brother Adam (if you're reading this bro, thanks for being so patient all day) and went inside to listen to this lady give an information "sit-down", where she spoke about the best parts of New College and how we could apply and what we would have to do before we're able to graduate. They have this special system that doesn't use letter grades or GPAs, instead the professors give detailed feedback on how well you learned the courses and what your strengths and weaknesses are. It's all on thier website. (http://www.ncf.edu/)

Once we were done with all that stuff (boring), we went on this great guided tour with a woman named Alanna, who was actually a student in her 4th year of New College and had a twin sister who also goes to college with her! Is it coincedence that she gave a tour to twin sisters who are looking to attend New College? And they share a dorm! How cool is that? She showed my family all over campus in one of those cool electric cart thingies, and we saw the dorm buildings, the pool and gym, the Thesis Room (where they store every single Senior Thesis ever published since 1965), and the marine biology labs where they showed us this cool octopus. Once the tour was over, she gave us these New College T-shirts and a foam football (it's a joke, because New College doesn't have a football team). I had a really good time, and Alanna was so nice and friendly. I hope we meet her again soon.

Afterwards, me and my family had a lovely picnic next to College Hall, by the bay, which smelled a little fishy if you asked me, but otherwise was fine. We ate sandwiches and talked about how much fun we had. It was really nice, because it reminds me of the time my family picnicked at Harvard University the last time we went to Boston, and how conspicuous we felt because we were the only ones doing it. At New College, it felt like the campus was made for picnicking.

The last thing we did before we left for home was meet up with Maya, a sister of a friend who told us about New College in the first place. She works in the library there, and she's in her second year. We only talked with her for a little while, but it was still a fun conversation. Maya spoke in the kind of quiet voice one uses when they spend a lot of time in the library, which of course she does since she works there, and she was smart and nice.

When we had to go, it was my turn to take the wheel. It felt really empowering to know that I'm able to drive long distances for long stretches of time. I really like driving on the highway, because I get to go fast, and I don't have to worry too much about making sure I'm on the right path. Still, no matter how much fun it is to drive for 3 hours (just me I guess), I was awfully tired and cranky after we got back home. Adam, Bettina and I ended the fun-packed day by cooking spaghetti and watching "The New Twilight Zone: Season 1" on DVD. Did you know that Bruce Willis played in the first episode of the Twilight Zone in 1985? Pretty cool. Finally I'm done writing this post. Can't wait for Mother's Day!

Final Showdown!

2009-05-03T17:59:00.000-04:00

First, because I didn't take the time to write about the ninth Improv class on Thursday, I'm gonna give a bit of a prologue for the Improv Show that me and my sibs did today. Mostly on our last Improv class, we went through what the introduction of the show would be like. Charlie and Eric came up with something similar to what announcers at a basketball game do: "Ladieeeeeeeees aaaaand Gentlemen.....staaaaaaaand up. For the!.....Miamiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Heeeeeeeeeeeat!!!!!!"

Only instead of the Miami Heat, we would be the Improv group, so that was all that changed. Also, we were introduced to a few Improv veterans that decided to make a surprise visit to Robin, who remembered them from way back when she taught them. They looked about me and Bettina's age, and you could easily tell from the way they acted and spoke that they knew what to do when they don't know what to do (Improv 101). There was a boy named Orin, and a girl named Amy. They made the last class a lot of fun, and it made me confident that the show would not be a problem.

May 1, we got an email from Robin reminding us to be relaxed on the day of the show, and to remember to not be talking heads and to let people take their turn in the spotlight, etc, plus a link to a YouTube clip that showed how to play the "Harold" improv game.

Today, May 3rd, was the day we were waiting for, and despite any doubts and stomach-butterflies I may have had previously, this event went mostly without a hitch. Me, my sister, and my brother all had to be at B'nai Aviv at 1:15, so we had most of the morning to take it easy and come to terms with our preshow tension. I felt pretty confident overall that we would do well, but still...

When we got there, we were among the first ones to arrive, along with the usual early-birds, Ariel, Sam, Gabby, and Rebecca. Robin would later come at 3:15, but until then, the whole 12-18 year old 16 kid strong Improv Group had to go through all the games that we would play for the lovely audience that afternoon. We went through games like "Hitchhiker", "Die", "Harold", etc. At times, some of the group got so nervous that they would try and tell each other what to do and yell to make themselves heard, and get distracted by a dodgeball or petty whispering and such, and some of us would try and keep the peace and get focused. It was what I would call a minor catastrophe!

Then Robin came, and I was relieved, becaue she would know how to sort through the mess of nerves we were in. She made us do a warm-up game where we start doing an action that implies a specific location, like balancing on a tightrope in a circus, or lifting something heavy at the gym, or writing at a desk. Then we would speak some lines that reveal more about the scene, and then we would step back and let the other performers have the spotlight. I think it calmed everyone down a lot.

After that, we had to wait what seemed to be a long time before 4:00, which was when the audience started showing up. A while later, the show started. I found that Adam, Bettina, and I were in 4 game each, so it could be said that we got approaching equal stage-time. I had a lot of fun, because Orin and Amy participated in a few of the games and made the show a lot more interesting and funny. I even got to do a few games with them. It was great, and the characters and situations that I improvised weren't too bad either!

After the show, everyone in the audience clapped. It was a very tame kind of stage experience for me, because I wasn't trying to impress anyone. The audience was mainly family of the performers, or people who visit the snygogue regularly. It was still stage experience, and so for that I am happy that I performed today.