Song of the Week Saturday: Hey Monday

Hello Readers!
I am super excited about Hey Monday's new music video! I love their lead singer Cassadee Pope. She is so chic and stylish, despite being the only female member of the band. On a side note, her new hair style is gorgeous, and I think that will be the look I try out on my next haircut. If you're looking to find Hey Monday this summer, they are touring with Warped Tour!

Food Friday

The Republic of Tea has just released their new Eat Pray Love tea!

Eat, Pray Love Tea blends flavors from heroine Elizabeth Gilbert’s three destinations of self-discovery – succulent blood oranges from Italy, smooth black tea from India and heart-warming cinnamon from Indonesia. It is packaged in a recyclable, airtight collector’s tin with label art from the film.

Theater Thursday: The Social Network

I'm talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it on the internet.
That's what this movie is about. Facebook. Things written there aren't written in pencil. It's ink. Permanent. Lasting. Forever.
There are several directions I could take this post. I could hit the world upside the head with my Jane Austen action figure and demand we all go back to quill pens and paper. Long love letters, and stories of balls and lace. I could preach my homeschool stance, saying that too much socialism leads to terrible things like holding hands (I suppose I must point out that I'm being humorous here, because some of you might think I'm actually serious).
I am anxious to see where this film goes. Right now, I can't imagine a world without Facebook. There are so many people I would never talk to without it. Yes, this is a horrible reality to be faced with, but none the less, a true one. At the same time, I don't think there is a single person out there who hasn't been injured by the site. It could be that their self esteem went down because of some girl's air brushed photos, or the fact that they don't have as many friends as so-and-so.
The more I think about it, the more I can correlate it to People Magazine. There is a small part in each of us that wonders what it's like to be famous. Facebook gives us that glimpse! Our relationships and breakups are plastered around like entertainment. Our vacation photos viewed with envy. Our status updates gleaming with over dramatized adventure stories of going to the movies. Yet, we adore it. In February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin, did actually launch Facebook from their Harvard dorm room. Since then, the site has reached over 400 million users. 50% of them log on to Facebook on any given day. People spend over 500 billion minutes on Facebook every month.
So what is it about Facebook that draws us in? Let me help you out. These stories were taken from the recently added application Facebook Stories:
"A woman's Facebook status updates from her mobile phone become a lifeline for her and a group of 36 people traveling in Haiti during the earthquake. A recently laid-off man lands a new job by reaching out to his friends on Facebook. After 15 years apart, a father reconnects with his daughter through Facebook" just to name a few.
Despite my post, you must decide for yourself. Is this the culture of death at it's highest? Or just another MySpace? I like to hope the site will take a turn for the better, and that I can use it to express my creative side, as well as my Catholic stance.
Either way, I know the site will live on.

Website Wednesday!

Good evening everyone!

Today I would like to give a shout out to my wonderful friend Adrienne Doring. She was generous enough to take my senior pictures (as you see displayed above) and did a fantastic job! It has been almost 10 months, and I still can't believe how great they are. Every day I discover a new favorite!

Adrienne is so talented, and I am honored to recommend her website. Her business is Magnified Moments, where her pictures will just blow you away. Not only is she an amazing photographer, but she is also an amazing woman. I am so inspired by her love for the Catholic Church and her Pro-life stance! Adrienne's husband, Greg, is the director of FOCUS for our area, and they recently had a baby girl, Monica, who is just as cute as can be with her red hair :)

Mailbox Monday & Truthful Tuesday

Mailbox Monday: If you thought waiting 3 months for Liberty of London bedding to arrive was a long time, you will die when I tell you it took 5 months for my very own copy of Enchanted April to finally make it into my hands!

My mother and I have a standing tradition of watching Enchanted April every year, on a rainy night in April. So of course we we're thrilled when the ladies of our book club agreed to add it to the list. After my mother gave away one copy, and one eBay order fell through, I can now say, it's mine!

Truthful Tuesday: I've recently discover that the much younger Alfred Molina and the lead singer of Mumford and Sons have a striking resemblance! And now every time I listen to The Cave, I have that ridiculous image of Mr. Molina in Enchanted April, standing there in his bath towel, with all his chest hair burned off! This is only something you can completely understand, if you've seen the film, and if you're me.

I will spare you the emotional and physical scarring, but if you do wish to see the image, click here.

Food Friday

This is the best peanut butter cookie recipe I've ever found. And look how happy they will make you!! (In case you were wondering, yes, my job is better than yours)

2 ½ c. flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ lb. (2 sticks) SALTED butter, softened but still firm
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. peanut butter
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chocolate chips

Adjust oven rack to low-center position. Heat oven to 350°. Line large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in medium bowl, set aside.

Either by hand or with electric mixer, beat butter until creamy. Add sugars; beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes with electric mixer, stopping to scrape down bowl as necessary. Beat in peanut butter until fully incorporated, then eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Gently stir dry ingredients into peanut butter mixture. Add ground peanuts, stir gently until just incorporated.

Working with generous 2 tablespoons each time, roll dough into 2 inch balls. Place balls on parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving 2 ½ inches between each ball. Press each dough ball twice with dinner fork dipped in cold water to make crisscross design. Bake until cookies are puffed and slightly brown along the edges (but not on top--they will look slightly underbaked) about 10-12 minutes.

Theater Thursday: Inception

There is a fine line between loving this movie, and hating it. To determine which side you will fall on, you should ask yourself this simple question: Can I love a movie, even if I don't understand all of it? If you answered no, save your money. If you answered yes, then this is by far the best movie made this year. To follow your "yes" answer, you should click here and watch the trailer, and then see it as soon as possible.

3 reasons why this movie is awesome:

1. It was directed by Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Knight (i.e. fantastic chase scenes)

2. Some genius mind followed the tradition of having Leonardo Dicaprio start out in the water.

3. Brilliant cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt (seriously, who doesn't love him after 500 Days of Summer?!), Ellen Page (nice to see her as a more serious character), and Michael Caine (it's a small role, but he brings so much to this film).

Favorite quotes:

"Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange."

"Quick, give me a kiss."

(she does, then looks around)

"Did that do anything?"

"No, but it was worth a shot."

That's it for Theater Thursday, hope you enjoy it :)

Website Wednesday!

Hello readers,
The website for this lovely Wednesday is http://www.aolnews.com/category/weird-news/

Check it out for a few laughs :)

Truthful Tuesday

This week was difficult. I wanted to think of something personal, and creative to put on here. Something intelligent, and insightful.

Well anyway, that didn't happen. So instead, you get to find out something slightly lame, and a little bit quirky.

I.......like science fiction! I know, who would have ever guessed! I am currently reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, by Douglas Adams.

First, a little background information on the book. The introduction goes something like this:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or heard of by any Earthman. Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book. in fact it was probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor — of which no Earthman had ever heard either. Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one — more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway? In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words Don't Panic inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

Now that you have a basis for the book, I would like to continue by stating that I do think this series is a classic. I believe a book can be called a classic if it is timeless. I know this to be true in the present situation because you can simply change the quote a bit, and it goes something like this...

"If human beings don't keep Facebooking, their brains will start working!"

Since you are probably a little confused, let me now insert the actual quote.

"It is worth repeating at this point the theories that Ford had come up with, on his first encounter with human beings, to account for their peculiar habit of continually stating and restating the very, very obvious, as in "It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die".His first theory was that if human beings didn't keep exercising their lips, their mouths probably seized up.After a few months of observation he had come up with a second theory, which was this - "If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working".In fact, this second theory is more literally true of the Belcerebon people of Kakrafoon.The Belcerebon people used to cause great resentment and insecurity amongst neighboring races by being one of the most enlightened, accomplished, and above all quiet civilizations in the Galaxy. As a punishment for this behavior, which was held to be offensively self righteous and provocative, a Galactic Tribunal inflicted on them that most cruel of all social diseases, telepathy. Consequently, in order to prevent themselves broadcasting every slightest thought that crosses their minds to anyone within a five mile radius, they now have to talk very loudly and continuously about the weather, their little aches and pains, the match this afternoon and what a noisy place Kakrafoon has suddenly become."

My true hope is that this post convinces one of you to read the book, because then I will have someone to talk about it with! If this goal is reached, I will truly be able to say this was a successful Truthful Tuesday :)

White Blank Page - Mumford and Sons (Bookshop Session)

Lazy Eye - The Silversun Pickups

Monday Date Nights With Hannah

Since this is the second week in a row, I feel it is HIGH time to blog about this!

Hannah rocks my socks! This all started when she invited me to Zumba. Everything that goes wrong in our week, gets danced out in that hour class! Last week, we decided we needed ice cream! It just so happened that it was a million degrees last week, and we looked rather horrible as we trudged through HyVee to get our ice cream. Of course those are the days when you see everyone you know! As we sat with our dish of ice cream, we talked it all out. Everything from boys to friends, and college to families. After that we looked up all our "stalkers" on Facebook, and laughed until we couldn't breathe.

A week later, I was ready for another date! We "power walked" 2 miles down the parkway, and then went for a quick swim. Next, we carried on the tradition of visiting HyVee for ice cream, once again looking like our beautiful selves!

Hannah is a lovely girl, after God's own heart. Thank goodness for Skype, which we will get a ton of use out of this fall! Follow Hannah at www.FaithAndFinery.blogspot.com :)

Reid is home!!

Reid has been away from us for 10 days. He and his Boy Scout troop went to Canada for some canoeing and fishing. Although the reasons why they did this don't quite make sense to me, I am thrilled to have him home. Even though he doesn't always say much, having him in the passenger seat or the next room over is a comfort that I take for granted. Last night we stayed up late telling stories and watching Dane Cook on YouTube, just like the good old days.

Mailbox Monday

As I was driving home from work today, I was a little depressed with the thought that I had nothing for Mailbox Monday. But lo and behold, there was something in the mail. At long last, my dorm bedding finally arrived!! It is absolutely perfect! I now have a quilt, sheets, and throw pillow.

I also got 2 lovely cards from Anna and Julia for my birthday :)

Elizabeth Gilbert

The fear of fail hovers over us. The society we live in now has only compounded this fear. The concept of doing anything different, or inconsistent with the norm of your peers, with simply get you thrown into the fire. I am blessed with wonderful parents, who have done so much to support and nurture the creative side of myself, and my brothers. Why? Because they rightly think that it is important. I truly believe that my gifts are on loan from God. I, as a human, possess nothing. There is nothing inside of me that makes me able to play the piano with any decency. I know there are moments, glorious moments, where the song is magnificent. Where something from within is pouring out of me with such perfection that it simply can not be me. Before I get carried away, you must understand that these moments come about once every two months. Of course I ask myself if it's worth it. I am putting in ten hours of practice a week, for about 2 minutes of perfection. You better be sure that I doubt myself! There are so many days that I don't show up for "my job." I know I will never be the best. My senior recital was exactly this kind of event. The music flowed from me, like never before. And now I sit at the piano thinking "I will never be able to top that".
As a Catholic, I believe that this genius is the Holy Spirit. That when the spirit is within me, I am able to play and perform in this way. I am almost always able to directly correlate my prayer life with playing the piano, and that is sometimes the most frightening of all.

Tales of a lover...and her computer.

Dear Readers,
I wanted to take this opportunity to inform you, that I now have my own computer!! I purchased the 13in. Mac Book Pro with my graduation/summer job money. If you were wondering, yes, I have an unhealthy love for it. It is the cheese to my macaroni. I adore it.

Ok Go - Here It Goes Again (The Treadmill Video)

I can't post this video, but here is the link for you to check it out. Even if you don't enjoy the song, the video is pretty great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA

Food Friday

I think the picture says enough. Look for these pieces of heaven in most grocery stores.

Thoughts for Thursday

1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Do you have those days that feel like your just spinning out of control? Like it's just one bad thing after another? Usually the low point for me is when my emotions and thoughts start turning against me. I can convince myself into thinking that things are a lot worse than they actually are. Have you ever stopped to realize that your thoughts and emotions are not you? You can be in control of them! Depressing thoughts do not make you a depressing person and sad emotions do not make you a sad person. It's what you do with those moments that make you, you.

Theater Thursday: Never Let Me Go

Website Wednesday

www.CrapAtMyParentsHouse.com

"The goal of Crap At My Parents House is to pay homage to all of the weird crap that everyone's parents have. Please help in this project by submitting anything you deem funny, weird, odd, unique, strange, absurd, ridiculous or just plain terrifying."

However, if this does not suite your fancy, you can stalk them on Facebook or Twitter.

I did have a little trouble navigating around the website, but if you click on the RSS link, that should take you to all the pictures.

Happy laughing :)

New Law Passed in Missouri

This is great news for women and children! Missouri abortion clinics will face new mandates to offer women ultrasound images and heartbeats of their fetuses as a result of legislation allowed to become law Wednesday by Gov. Jay Nixon.
To read the full article click here.

Truthful Tuesday

My favorite colors are tan and light purple.

Trippin' Down the Freeway by Weezer

Mailbox Monday

Lands End is having their end of summer clearance sale! Miss Hannah and I are placing our order tomorrow for our next years swimsuits. It doesn't get much better than 60% off :)

Theater Thursday: The Young Victoria

At long last, I finally got to see my dear friend Becca, after two, very long weeks. She has been touring Missouri, through Girls State, and MU's Mini Medical School. Needless to say, I missed her quite a bit. She is such a joy, and I greatly treasure her company. I am positive that we are the only two girls in St. Joseph who would enter Hastings and head directly to the British Foreign Film Section. And not only that, but rent 4 movies, because we can never decide!

After much debate, we decided on the Young Victoria. I could simply say, that Rupert Friend is the best thing to happen since sliced bread (yesterday was the anniversary of sliced bread...) and that would be enough on the subject. However, it would not make for a very interesting blog post! Emily Blunt is flawless. The screenplay is well written, and all the cast blends superbly well together. Quotes such as "Do you ever feel like a chess piece yourself, in a game being played against your will?" and "First, I am replaceable, and you are not. Second, you're the only wife I've got or ever will have. You are my whole existence, and I will love you until my very last breath." make my heart want to melt! The costumes are divine, and much more accurate than other period films.

But for now, it is best not to exhaust the subject.

Website Wednesday

Once again, Apple comes through with another amazing feature. They make it fast and easy to discover not only what movies are coming out, but clips and interviews as well. I frequently visit to stay on top of the latest releases, and it's always very well organized. To visit the site, click here.

You Picked Me by A Fine Frenzy

Mailbox Monday

After sitting on our kitchen table for two days, my dad finally told me that this box was for me! My Aunt Mary and Uncle Tony sent me this beautiful jewelry box for my graduation, and I love it! It will be perfect for my college dorm room!

Sometimes you have to go all the way to England to have a cup of tea, all the way to Germany to watch Cranford, all the way to France to see Monet's paintings, and all the way to Wichita...to get a haircut.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

The Grammar of Time Travel

One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. There is no problem involved in becoming your own father or mother that a broad-minded and well-adjusted family can’t cope with. There is no problem about changing the course of history - the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.

The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr. Dan Streetmentioner’s “Time Traveler’s Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations”. It will tell you, for instance, how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be described differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations while you are actually traveling from one time to another with the intension of becoming your own mother or father.

Most readers get as far as the Future Semiconditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up; and in fact in later editions of the book all the pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs.

The Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstration, pausing only to note that the term “Future Perfect” has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be.

To resume:

The Restaurant at the end of the Universe is one of the most extraordinary ventures in the entire history of catering. It is built on the fragmented remains of an eventually ruined planet which is (wioll haven be) enclosed in a vast time bubble and projected forward in time to the precise moment of the End of the Universe.

This is, many would say, impossible.

In it, guests take (willan on-take) their places at table and eat (willan on-eat) sumptuous meals while watching (willing watchen) the whole of creation explode around them.

This, many would say, is equally impossible.

You can arrive (mayan arrivan on-when) for any sitting you like without prior (late fore-when) reservation because you can book retrospectively, as it were, when you return to your own time (you can have on-book haventa forewhen presooning returningwenta retrohome).

This is, many would now insist, absolutely impossible.

At the Restaurant you can meet and dine with (mayan meetan con with dinan on when) a fascinating cross-section of the entire population of space and time.

This, it can be explained patiently, is also impossible.

You can visit it as many times as you like (mayan on-visit reonvisiting… and so on - for further tense correction consult Dr. Streetmentioner’s book) and be sure of never meeting yourself, because of the embarrassment this usually causes.

This, even if the rest were true, which it isn’t, is patiently impossible, say the doubters.

All you have to do is deposit one penny in a savings account in your own era, and when you arrive at the End of Time the operation of compound interest means that the fabulous cost of your meal has been paid for.

This, many claim, is not merely impossible but clearly insane, which is why the advertising executives of the star system of Bastablon came up with this slogan: “If you’ve done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?”

- DOUGLAS ADAMS

Theater Thursday: Charlie St. Cloud