I spent the better part of the night trying to get some video off of my phone, a Sony Ericsson W819i. I finally had to resort to tracking down the USB cable that goes with the phone, downloading the software and trying to navigate through a load of folders but I was successful. What I uploaded you ask? A very poor quality video, also from Saturday.
I'll have to see if I can figure out how to increase the quality of the video, if at all possible. We'll see how that goes.
Now, then I tried to set up the built in calendar with Goosync which is a service that syncs your Google calendar with nearly every phone...for free! The result was NOT good. I tried doing a manual set-up which also didn't go well. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to re-attempt a one-click set-up. Hopefully that will run a little more smoothly.
Also on the docket for tomorrow: trying to talk to Rogers about upgrading to an N95. I'll keep you posted on the ongoing drama.
For the first time since I joined this Web 2.0 (though I hear that's not the correct terminology anymore) revolution, news of an event broke on the social media sites before anywhere else. I'm sure it's not the first time it happened but it's the first time I've experienced it.
This morning, while sitting at my desk doing some work, I saw a number of LA based Twitter contacts enter the word "Earthquake". Before the radio managed to enlighten me and even before I could find information on any of the news websites, I was getting a regularly updated (like every 30 seconds) stream of updates from everyone talking about the earthquake. That's pretty impressive.
It was an odd, if busy weekend. Dad decided the time was ripe for installing hardwood int he front room which meant a lot of prep work on Friday night/Saturday morning but he did finish with enough time left for us to re-organize the room before guests started arriving.
Mom and dad decided to have a small BBQ to celebrate 30 years of marriage - talk about low key. So while dad installed hardwood, mom and I cooked like worker bees prepping all the goodies for consumption. Between the cooking, moving everything back into the living room and getting ready for people to arrive, I didn't have much to eat during the day. No problem except that once sis arrived, it turned into a drink fest. No crazy drinking but enough to make me a bit tipsy and overly happy. Here are a few highlights from the evening:
S practices his lift with my little sis.
Sis playing it up. "This is my supermodel pose."
"I've got one too..." [I sense a little Zoolander action here...]
Gosh, little sis is adorable!
I fall into a laughing fit.
Cuz looking suave.
By this point, I was pretty beat and I'm not quite sure who took this video but it's a bit of fun...if only because my hair isn't as crazy as I thought it was. Plus, you see me dance, if you can really call it that...
An explanation on the video. The truncated voices are those of moi and dad. We're listening to Fado and dad thinks its Amalia and I am explaining that it's actually Mariza. And you can't see it but in the background, I'm showing dad my Zune with the album cover as proof.
I thought I'd clear that up 'cause, you know, you might care.
The first time I spotted Hugh Dancy, I was immediately drawn. Seriously, how can one really resist the dreamy eyes? It was in The Sleeping Dictionary, a movie that's not particularly good but in which Dancy makes one of his first major appearances. Since then, he's been keeping busy around Hollywood, mostly as a supporting actor, though I'm willing to be he stole many a heart in last year's underrated The Jane Austen Book Club.
The Jane Austen Book Club Trailer
I'm a fan, have been for a while, but I didn't realize he was dating one of my favourite actresses Claire Danes. The two were recently spotted at 70th Anniversary of the Gucci Via Condotti store and Gucci 2009 Resort Collection and they certainly looked like they were enjoying themselves.
It's nice to see a couple which smiler this unabashedly. They're so darn cute together and those smiles...those look genuine. Lots more photos over at Just Jared.
I pretty much pretended that the recent news about Christian Bale hadn't really happened mostly because he's one of the few "super stars" that is fearsomely private about his personal life. So much so that it came as a surprise when I found out he was actually married (with a kid!) to Sibi Blazic (pictured below).
Now it turns out that the reason for Bale's arrest could have been an argument over money. Apparently, sis wanted to borrow some money and Bale didn't want to comply and considering that we don't know the back-story of these people's lives, I get the feeling that he probably had good reason to say no. Take it with a grain of salt. The news does come from a gossip site.
So you weren't there? That's OK. We bring you the videos!!! You may want to consider turning down the volume on your computer to avoid blowing your ears care of the screaming masses of fans.
Very rarely do I hear an ad on the radio that makes me search out the TV spots but that's exactly what's happened with this most recent Nation Wide Campaign from Burger King.
It's called Whopper Freakout and it's a viral marketing campaign put together by Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Essentially, they removed the Whopper from the menu of a Minneapolis Burger King for one day and taped the entire thing. It sounds much more fun than what it really is, for the most part the reactions are not all that funny but there are a few good ones. In keeping with the viral nature of the videos, all the clips are available to embed and for the sake of it, I'll add the "Documentary" clip below because it has some of the better reactions.
What I've found really funny is the take offs on the clips, particularly this one which had me laughing pretty hysterically. Warning: This clip is probably NSFW. There's a fair bit of swearing involved...right off the top.
Looks like the campaign is successful; they've got people talking about Burger King and riffing on the commercials.
So this clip isn't *really* new, looks like it went up in June, but I hadn't seen it before so it's new to me and considering how many of these things I've seen, probably new to a whole load of others. Enjoy!
Over the last few weeks, our place has been going through a few upgrades. A while back it was the appliances and we recently installed hardwood in the bedroom and on the docket for this weekend is hardwood install in the living room. It's all thanks to mom and dad the landlords who have decided that capet is a headache (Yey!) not to mention that this carpet is old.
With all the new goodies, hubby and I decided the time might be right up upgrade the dinette set. We had purchased one when we moved out but sold it when we moved to our current living space. I didn't like the other set and this cast off from the parents was much nicer.
This set is now going on 15 years old. My parents purchased it new when they built the house and it served them for 10 years until they upgraded it and moved into the basement at which point, when we moved in, we inherited it (along with the couches). It's served us well over the years but the time has come for a change and change we did.
Last week we went shopping, dragging mom and dad along for moral support. I decided to search for my dream set, the one I'd imagined I'd buy when I initially moved out: glass and iron. We started at Ashley Furniture where we spotted a set I loved but that we couldn't buy because hubby bumped his leg on the iron base. There were a few others in the shop that were gorgeous but again, the style caused hubby to hurt his knees. We finally spotted one at the far corner of the shop that looked like it might work. No knee bumping but I wasn't sold on the colour. I talked to a very unhelpful sales rep asking if the set came in another colour. She mentioned that it didn't but then she threw in that if I didn't like the colour, I could always spray paint it. The exchange went like this:
Me: Pardon?
Sales: You can spray paint it. They have metal paint at the Home Depot that will do nicely and it'll only cost you $5.
Me: So you want me to pay $999 for the set and still paint it myself? Why don't you paint it for me?
Sales: We don't do that sort of work.
Me: It's not worth the trouble! Can you drop the price of the set?
Sales: Sorry.
And then she walked away! WTF?
Obviously, I wasn't going to shop there. We walked next door to Sandy's Furniture and I'm glad we did. We weren't accosted by sales people when we walked in but when I needed one, he was right there. Almost immediately I spotted something I liked. Hubby tested it and it was safe on his knees. One glitch - I liked the table from one set but the chairs from another. I tried to talk the sales man into giving me the table and chairs I wanted but the chairs were going to cost me an extra $400 in the purchase and I wasn't willing to pay the difference.
We bought the set and arranged for the delivery. On Tuesday, I got a call from mom. Turns out they delivered the table I wanted and the chairs I wanted - the combination I was supposed to pay extra for. We've been trying to figure out what happened and we have a couple of ieads:
They made a mistake at the warehouse and shipped the wrong chairs.
The sales guy arranged to have the chairs I wanted shipped to me at no extra cost (unlikely but possible).
They have the sets displayed incorrectly in the show room.
Whatever the answer, I'm a *very* happy girl.
And after all of that, here is my new dinette set:
One of these years I'll have to make the trip down to Comic-Con but until then, I'll happily sit idly by and let other folks stand through line-ups and hordes of fanboys. Yes, it would be fun to experience it for myself but I'm not 100% sure I could deal with the crowds.
Although I'm not there, as a movie maven I'm pretty much required by unwritten law to follow the happenings. There's so much movie related information coming out of Comic-Con that I wonder if they shouldn't consider just changing the name of the event to Film-Con. Seriously. There are a few things I'm looking forward to: information on Zack Snyder's Watchmen (trailer), more info on Max Payne (trailer) which is shaping up really nicely, I'm even curious about The Spirit (I really liked the second trailer) but the one movie I'm most curious about is, I'm sure you've probably figured it out, Twilight.
Twitter started to run a mock yesterday with someone saying they would be updating followers on the happenings at the Twilight Panel. Of course, I followed and now I'm being drowned. I'm not kidding. It's 17 messages a second, most from yelping teens. I'll definitely be dropping this once the panel is over. I just can't be bothered.
Panel goes live at 1:15. Not that much longer to wait. Thank god.
On a related note, I'm trying to find some people, preferably over 18, who are interested in sharing the joy of lining up for "Breaking Dawn". I have an idea for a story but I don't want to hang around by myself with a crowd of 13 year olds.
You've read all the books more than once. You think you know everything there is to know about the "Twilight" universe. But do you really know? Here's your chance to find out.
The folks at MTV have put together the Twilight Quiz to test your knowledge. It's not easy but you should manage fairly well if you were paying close attention during your readings.
As with a whole load of other people out there in the world, I still don't know what I want to do "when I grow up". I have an idea but sometimes I'm reminded of things that I've loved over my life so far and I reminisce of what life would be like if I had followed a different path.
In my elementary and early high-school days, I was fascinated with paleontology and archeology. For a long time I though I wanted to study ancient cultures and civilizations and though somewhere along the line I moved beyond wanting to work in the field. I never quite gave up on the dream all together and I still take great joy and pleasure from a few odd classes here and there on the subject and occasionally, by a TV special.
TED has posted a video of Louise Leakey, another of the great clan, speaking to the crowd about human origins. She seems a bit nervous though I'll guess that perhaps she's more excited than nervous, but the talk is interesting and she has some amazing animations and photos I hadn't seen before.
Anyone that knows my taste in movies is probably aware that I have a soft spot for teen flicks and, in particular, ones with a whole lot of dancing.
I popped into Rogers Video yesterday to pick up a couple of new rentals. They didn't have what I was really looking for ("The Last Winter") but I did pick-up "Paranoid Park" and walking down the rows of new releases, I gave into the craving of "Step Up 2: The Streets". If you've seen one of these you'ver pretty much seen them all but as per usual, I had a good time talking to the screen.
Common curses:
"Are you serious?"
"Like I've never seen that before."
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"OMG."
I do give the movie credit for the excellent dance sequences, particularly the closing sequence which tops the ones before it. It's raining. It's dark. The lighting is perfect. Just the kind of thing you'd expect. Thankfully, there was enough good stuff to be satisfying. You can pretty much skip it (though Channing Tatum does make a small appearance and Robert Hoffman looks something this side of smoking hot in a pulled down hat) but you simply must take a look at the final dance sequence which blew my socks off.
I think it's safe to assume that by this point, if you're a NIN fan you've probably already downloaded "The Slip" but if you're a completionist, many of us are, you may be interested in the details of the release. Here's the recent email I received from the mailing list which has all of the juicy details.
A physical release of Nine Inch Nails' The Slip will be available worldwide in the upcoming days as a limited edition CD with bonus DVD through the Null Corporation label. Release dates as follows...
Australia: July 19 Europe: July 21 US: July 22 Canada: July 22 Japan: July 22 UK: July 28
This CD with bonus DVD edition will be a one time only worldwide run of 250,000 individually numbered digipacks. Each digipack features a six-panel layout, 24 page booklet and an exclusive three sticker set. Art direction by Rob Sheridan.
The bonus DVD includes 5 live performances filmed during rehearsals for Nine Inch Nails' upcoming tour, including album tracks Echoplex, 1,000,000 and Letting You.
A gatefold vinyl version of The Slip which contains one 180gm vinyl LP and a 24-page booklet will also be released in the US and Canada on August 12 and in the UK on August 18.
The Slip, written and performed by Trent Reznor, with Josh Freese, Robin Finck and Alessandro Cortini, has been downloaded 1.6 million times worldwide since its online release on May 5, 2008.
NIN's Lights in the Sky Tour opens in Pemberton, Canada on July 25, 2008 with support slots from Crystal Castles, Deerhunter, Does it Offend You, Yeah and A Place To Bury Strangers. Visit http://tour.nin.com/ for the latest tour information.
Alright. I have a bit of begging to do. If you're out there and have a ticket or pass to the screening of "The X-Files" movie on Thursday, I'd love to take it off your hands.
I'm begging on hands and knees. You can't see it but I am. Please? Pretty please? I will be forever indebted....
A while back I brought up a TIME article in which the author noted how Stephenie Meyer's novels are to quote, because I love the quote, "squeaky, geeky clean on the surface, but right below it, they are absolutely, deliciously filthy." At the time, I agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiment but over the last few weeks I've considered the statement and come to the conclusion that it's not completely accurate.
Sucked into a book. Photo care of khaybe on Flickr.
Fact is that the books are pretty squeaky clean. There's talk of kissing to the point of not being able to breathe and the topic of sex does come up, often tied with the subject of marriage. The filthy bit doesn't come from anything Meyer's says but rather from what she leaves out. I'm no longer 14 and innocent (I was sheltered OK?) so I can't imagine what goes through a 14 year old's head when she reads some of the steamier moments but I sure know what goes through my mind. That's the filthy bit - though it's also not all that filthy, Edward is 100+ years old.
Earlier today I was reading an interesting article over at Newsweek which took my second thought a little further. Reporter Susan Elgin talked to a few mothers and rather unsurprisingly found that a few of them saw the books as a doorway to speak to their daughters about sex. In a society where teen sex seems to be rampant, Meyer's books bring up the issue in a way that allows parents a dialog that doesn't include having to disswade their pre-teen and teen daughters from the actions being taken by their literary heroes. Bella and Edward aren't having sex and whenever it does come up, the question of marriage looms in the backdrop. The two are always intertwined. Though as they grow older girls will likely start thinking beyond the tie of sex and marriage, it's nice to see that they have a role model that, for the time being at least, is abstaining.
I haven't had HBO for a while now but I'm thinking I may need to start letting my fingers do the walking to jump on the bandwagon of the network's new show.
Created by "Six Feet Under"'s Alan Ball, the show stars Anna Paquin as a waitress who falls in love with a vampire, creatures that are accepted members of society now. The show is based on a series of books by Charlaine Harris referred to as the Southern Vampire Mysteries.
This sounds like it could be fun. Plus Ball is already in my good books for bringing me one of my favourite show of the last few years and with Paquin on board, I'm definitely more than willing to give it a shot.
No footage from the show yet but the boys at AICN have delivered the poster and it's delicious.
Hopefully we'll get a look at a "trailer" soon. I'll keep you posted.
UPDATE: Looks like "True Blood" will also be a comic. More details at Dread Central.
So my new mp3 player arrived last week. Along with the player itself, the Matchstick folks also sent along an AC adapter (handy!) and the premium headphones. The first thing I did: unbox all the little tidbits and install the software. I still haven't tried the headphones but they'll come up in a later installment I'm sure.
My laptop, which acts as my main PC is pretty handy but it's a bit on the slow side so while installing the software, I decided I needed to do some more work so I brought my Eee in for action.
The install of the software itself had a few speedbumps. For some reason, my last WindowsXP update didn't work quite 100% and after a bit of hair pulling, I decided to reboot. That seemed to fix the problem and the software installed without a glitch. I'm pretty impressed with the install. The Zune software migrated in all of my music, along with the podcast feeds from iTunes so I was set to go from the beginning. I had a minor freakout when the player wouldn't turn on. I figured it would come partially charged as most of these things do but not this one. I had to charge it before I could actually check it out.
It sat on the counter for 2 hours charging at which point I checked started my first sync. First things first, I deleted all of the pre-loaded material and started adding music, podcasts and a few photos. The software is fairly intuitive and I didn't have to read any of the instructions on how to use it.
The player itself is pretty nifty. It's a little longer than my iPod but now that I've been using it for a few days, I admit I like the shape of it. It fits nicely into my hand when I'm walking though it's taken a bit of getting used to not being able to squeeze it into some of my pockets - mostly my fault because I'm using some fairly big headphones with a large headphone jack plug.
The other thing I did almost immediately was set up the software at work. I refused to do this with my iPod because iTunes seems to slow down the computers when I run it and the sync on multiple computers has always been a bit troublesome for me. The Zune was no problem. I've added all of my podcasts and set up my Zune as a guest device which lets me add the downloaded shows without losing any of the data already on the device. Very nice.
I'm really liking the basic usages of the device. It's doing all I was doing with my iPod and more than that, I'm able to listen to the radio too. I still haven't tested any of the more advanced settings like uploading video or photos or trying the wireless sync but for the time being, I'm a pretty happy and impressed camper.
A few weeks ago I was approached by the folks at Matchstick, a marketing company specializing in word of mouth marketing. Surprisingly, I'd heard about them through word of mouth, specifically, via local blogger extraordinarie Miss 604. They asked if I'd be interested in filling out a questionare to see if I qualified for an mp3 offer. I took a few minutes, filled it our and a few days later I was contacted via telephone for a few other questions. To make long matters short, I qualified for the offer and was the new owner of a Microsoft Zune. Sweet.
I came home that night and did a bunch of research comparing my current mp3 player, a third generation iPod Nano 8Gb with the Zune 8Gb player I would be getting in the mail. Checking the specs, the two are not that much different. Here are a few of the important ones, side by side:
Music-Up to 24hrs on full charge; Video-Up to 5hrs on full charge
Music-Up to 24hrs on full charge; Video-Up to 4hrs on full charge
Charge Time
1.5hrs (80%); 3hrs for full charge
2hrs (90%); 3hrs for full charge
Radio
Not included (extra)
Built-in
Wireless
Not included
Built-in (up to 30ft range)
On specs alone, the players are pretty much identical though the Zune is slightly longer than the iPod. The size difference is minimal and when you consider that the Zune also has a wireless sync option and the built in radio while they both cost about the same...the Zune seems to be the better of the two. Where on earth was this player when I was shopping for a replacement last year after the death of my Sansa?
More info to come. For now, let's just say I'm ready to start playing!
It's not surprising that evangelist Billy Graham has converted 2.5 million people - he's a charming guy. I don't agree with many of his beliefs but he has an energy that is hard to dispute and when you're looking and open to suggestion, it's easy to buy into what he's selling.
Reading TED today, I stumbled on this YouTube video of directory and self-proclaimed atheist Woody Allen interviewing Graham in the 60's. It's an interesting and respectful conversation and rather unsurprisingly, good natured and pretty funny. Allen shells out the soft hits and Graham takes them with a smile and responds with charm. This guy is the best of salesmen.
Last week I mentioned a workaround for Netflix subscribers to be able to watch streaming movies on their big screen TVs via their XBox 360's rather than spend $99 on additional hardware.
Hot on the heels of that, I just discovered that Microsoft has made an official announcement of a partnership with Netflix that will allow Netflix subscribers to see the streaming movies without a workaround. The only wrench: you must have an XBox live membership - not a big deal considering most gamers play online and already have this.
Looks like the streaming will require a web browser which means XBox will likely be releasing a new patch which will include Internet Explorer. Sweet.
I'm *very* curious and excited to jump on this bandwagon. The key now is to find out if Netflix will let me sign up for a streaming account only considering they currently don't ship to Canada. I'll keep you posted on how I fare with this one.
A while back I discussed, in short, the rise in use of book trailers and really, how mediocre and/or poor they were.
Today I had a chance to see one that, though still not perfect, is much more appealing and was successful in what it set out to do: I now want to read this book I'd never heard of before seeing the video.
The trailer is still on the long side; like movie trailers, they should be kept to a maximum of 2 minutes but it elicited emotion, a vibe and even visuals for the story which were really appealing and as a result, I've added the book to the buy list.
The novel The Island of Eternal Love is one of Cuba's most acclaimed novels and I look forward to reading it. See if the trailer does anything for you.
I also just realized that, although we've seen this second clip before, this time it's complete with the FX. I hope they clean them up a little because I cringed a little at how rough they look...
So the issue of that EW cover I posted the other day has gone live and the entire cover story can be read over at EW. Go over and exercise your eyes for a minute. Just be sure to come back.
Now that you're back, Stephenie has also shared news about HOW to see the first full scene from "Twilight".
Here is a message from Stephenie:
A quick note about the release of 'Penelope' on DVD this coming Tuesday the 15th:
In case you haven't heard yet, the 'Penelope' DVD features the world premiere of a scene from 'Twilight'. It will also feature some great behind the scenes footage and interviews from 'Twilight'.
And even if it didn't have the 'Twilight' content, Penelope is definitely worth picking up. It's easily the most adorable, feel good movie I've seen this year. (Not to mention oodles of delicious James McAvoy-dian goodness. Mmmm!)
--Steph
I was already planning on renting "Penelope" but I guess now I'll have to run out on Tuesday to pick it up!
Yeah, more goodness. This time the Entertainment Weekly cover for the edition that hits the shelves on Friday, July 11th. I've stopped buying magazines but I may pick this one up.
Boing Boing's Joel Johnson had a chance to do just that and the conversation is *almost* as interesting as the talk Mead shared with the excited Vancouver crowd. ;)
I was going to do a post letting local folks know that the only place screening "Hellboy 2" this weekend is Tinseltown. So I head over to movietickets.ca only to find that they've updated the schedules since Saturday night (when I scheduled the Meetup).
Not only is the film now playing at Metrotown and Coquitlam (either of which would have been so much easier to sell to hubby) but the Tinseltown screening I had posted has disappeared. Out comes the phone and a call to the management office at Tinseltown. They had to change it, I understand that, but you figure they'd let the people that bought tickets to that screening know. Instead, I had to find out about it by chance. If I hadn't caught it, the entire event would likely have ended in disaster.
Thankfully that was averted but it sure caused me a minor anxiety attack!
Yesterday I was reading a post at The Movie Blog about the Roku Box for Netflix which essentially lets you watch Netflix live streaming videos on your TV.
I'd heard about the box before and figured there had to be an easier way to get the streaming on your TV but for $99, having a little black box next to the TV set may be the most convenient thing for most people. Or not.
Doing my daily Life Hacker reading, I stumbled on this post post about getting the most from your XBox 360 which includes a simple solution for streaming Netflix through your XBox and if you already have it set up on your home network, it's a matter of a few tweaks which will probably only take you a few minutes to complete.
So save yourself your $100 (which will pay for 6 months of your Netflix usage), head over the LH and take the cheap way out. Also included in that great article are tips on connecting your XBox with your Windows Media Center PC,
As if the Canadian iPhone Scandal isn't bad enough it doesn't affect all of the Rogers customers, just those in line for a fancy new gadget. Now Telus and Bell, the other two cell phone carriers, are getting ready to skin their customers for huge dollars.
According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, Bell (starting on August 8th) and Telus (starting August 24th), will start charging their customers 15 cents for each incoming text message. You read right: incoming message. Apparently text messaging usage has ballooned to a whopping 45.4 million messages a day and the carriers simply can't "afford" to continue offering the service for free. You can read the article below:
Personally, I just see this as another opportunity for cell phone providers to increase their revenue and shame on them. Actually, forget them for a moment. Shame on the Federal Government for not taking care of the consumer. Canada is ranked near the bottom of developed nations when it comes to cell phone packages and while other countries are moving towards empowering the consumer, allowing them to purchase "unlocked" phones, and lower or no contract signing, Canada is going the other way. Not only do you have to pay a bundle for the phone you want up front, you also have to pay a through-the-nose premium to get out of your contract but, in the case of Telus and Bell, you're also in a position where you're likely stuck with a useless phone at the end of it.
Rogers isn't any better. They, apparently, have no plans on jumping on the text messaging bandwagon, but their plans are a huge joke, and I'm not just talking about the iPhone either. I was keen on getting my hands on one of these fancy new phones but I've decided against it. I refuse to sign another contract. Your options aren't great if you decide to purchase a phone without a contract. Rogers doesn't exactly make it an easy sell if you decide to simply purchase the handset.
Hubby and I are scoping out the Nokia N95 8GB. Rogers offers the phone on a 3 year contract for $399.99 (2 yrs - $549.99, 1 yrs - $619.99) or for no contract at $689.99. We've been scoping out other options and have found the same phone for less than $400. Even Tiger Direct, one of the largest computer retailers, carries the phone for less, their price is $639.99 and as a bonus, the phone is already unlocked.
Our options are not many and frankly, I'm starting to get a little angry about the entire thing. If I could go without a cell phone, I'd certainly try it but with no home phone, it's the way I keep connected and frankly, I've grown accustomed to the convenience but when I read trash like this, I can't help but get angry. What we need now is government intervention and since we're not going to get that, I'm pining for more competition, and I don't mean competition that will fold up or be sucked into one of the big carriers in a few years' time.
For the time being, I'll be picking up a new handset in the next few months, wading through the 2 years left on my current contract and then re-evaluating the situation. Who knows, if competition does make its way up here, it may be worth it for me to jump ship and pay the cancellation fee.
I borrowed this from from my friend Wrybread. Couldn't resist. He comments the apparently the average adult has read 6 of these books. If that's the case, I'm doing pretty well. My count so far: 32!
How it works:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Italicise those you intend to read 3) Underline the books you LOVE. 4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them. 5) Cross off the books you hated.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - (Once was enough) 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (Read #1. No interest int he rest) 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens 24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh (This is definitely on my list now!) 27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis 34 Emma - Jane Austen 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis 37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (reading it right now!) 38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving 45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 52 Dune - Frank Herbert 53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon (Didn't like it) 60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov 63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt (This was brilliant beyond words. One of the best novels I've read in 5 years) 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac 67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding (It was a class assignment. Not that great) 69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 75 Ulysses - James Joyce 76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78 Germinal - Emile Zola 79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession - AS Byatt 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker 84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro 85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 87 Charlotte's Web - EB White 88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (Really disliked this one. Was a hard one to get through though I am happy I've read it once!) 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams 95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole (Tried but couldn't do it.) 96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
If you part-take in the fun, be sure to let me know in the comments. I'm always looking for new stuff to read...not that I need more books for my shelf.
I'm not a huge fan of Harry Potter. I never managed to really get into the books and I've seen the films as they've been released but haven't loved or hated any of them and frankly, if you were to ask me which one was my favourite, I'm not sure I could tell you - they've all started to blend together.
I'm not particularly excited to see the upcoming film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - it opens November 21st, but I saw a few photos from the production that are really spectacular.
From the set which you can find over at /Film, I found this one particularly breathtaking:
I'm not a photography expert, you need only look at my photos to know that I'm a point and shoot sort of girl, but I do know what I like and this photo speaks volumes to me. I love the intimacy of the shot and the emotion it manages to capture on the faces of the actors but above all, I love the composition of it. Perhaps composition isn't the correct term but I admire the way in which the photo was framed, with Harry in the foreground and the clean, muted colours. I have a feeling there may be some computer enhancement going on here, I find it hard to believe anyone's skin is that flawless, but it's a gorgeous photo and one that immediately caught my attention.
This is pretty funny. If you've been visiting for a short amount of time, you may not know that I'm a fan of "America's Next Top Model". I can't help myself. The cat-fights are priceless. But Tyra is being upstaged, this time by the BBC.
I was reading an article at AV in which they're discussing The BBC's new show "Britain's Missing Top Model" about models with physical disabilities - namely missing limbs. It's an odd sounding premise for a show and frankly, the video has me curious, if a little disturbed.
This would go nicely with Nick Stahl's new film Quid Pro Quo in which Stahl portrays a semi-paralyzed radio reporter who is sent out to investigate a story that leads him into an odd subculture. Check out the trailer to see for yourself what that odd subculture is:
I feel like someone beat me yesterday. The biggest street fight in history!
Not really. The truth of it is that we spent the day installing hardwood in the bedroom. I don't recommend taking on such a huge job in one day. It took us a few hours in the morning to empty the room and by the time the carpet was pulled out and the floor clean enough to start the installation, it was 11am before the install started. While that was being done, I was busy re-painting a few furniture pieces that required a touch up. It took a few hours to finish and a few more to move everything back in but by 9PM, we were finished. It's beautiful, clean and very comfy on my tootsies but the job was painful to do.
Saturday, we tackle the living room. Oh dear. Thankfully, not as much furniture to move. I am, however, not looking forward to moving all of my DVDs....
On a much better note, I did get out to see Wall-E on Monday night and it was fantastic. My thoughts are here, along with those of the guys.
As a nice bonus, I have a new companion at the office.
