blog-iversary

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you; Happy Birthday dear BLOOOOG, Happy Birthday to you!

Guess what happened a year ago today? I think I may have given it away what with the happy birthday song... which I would have to pay to sing had this been a movie / video blog. But that's beside the point.

It's been a year since I began writing this blog so I thought I'd at least recognize that fact in a short post. This close to New Years, I don't want to do too much 'looking back at the past year' but I guess I should maybe do something sort of like that... just a little though.

I had an old blog before Lars and the Real World and after a year I had only written 12 posts, so I think I'm getting better at the whole 'writing posts' thing. I'm still not entirely sure I'm even sold on blogging... I mean, a lot of times I'm not sure why I blog, but maybe sometimes it's good to share opinions and ideas with the world... I'm always more expressive when I write anyway. But I'm trying to change that.

Anyways, I'm gonna stop writing for now because if I'm not careful I'll get into new years resolutions and looking back at where I was a year ago today and I think all that can wait for New Years Eve or Day or something.

Now's a great time to thank any and every one who reads my blog though. Thanks for taking an uncreepy peek into my life - there's no point in blogging if there's no one to read the posts. So thanks for reading my rantings so far! It's been a great year :)

Keep it real!

christmas eve

T'was the night before Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a mouse.

Seriously, my house is practically empty so there`s no one around to do the stirring. And my pet mouse died a year or two ago, but let`s not bring that up right now, shall we?

So, yeah, it's Christmas Eve and I've got nothing to do 'til 6 o'clock hits. And then all Heaven will break loose. Haha, pun intended! I crack myself up... and I'm probably the only one laughing.

Lame.

Anyway, it's Christmas Eve and I'm writing this from the floor of my sister's room. Well, I'm on a memory foam matress which is on the floor of my sister's room. I was kicked out of mine... I mean, I kindly offered to give up my room so that my grandfather would have a place to sleep. It's not actually an inconvenience, I just felt like making it sound like one. But this is a cozy set up and it's a bit like Christmases of the past, back when I used to share a room with my sister on a daily basis. The only time we ever enjoyed that set up was on Christmas Eve and the night of Christmas itself. On Christmas Eve we'd gab for a while about how excited we were for the day to arrive and the following night we'd gab for even longer about "did Mom and Dad even look at our Christmas lists?!" and the like.

That's how it used to be every year. The older I get, the more I realize how selfish a child I used to be. I mean, I cut myself a little slack, 'cuz I was just a kid... but I used to take things pretty overboard once in a while. And I always fought for equality as far as siblings' gifts were concerned. It's really refreshing to enter the Chistmas season without that kind of attitude. Being perfectly content with my life heading into Christmas means that there's a greater chance that I'll still be perfectly content once the season passes. Whether or not I get that one great movie, or a really sweet new pair of shoes shouldn't have any effect on my 'Christmas spirit'.

After all, the 'reason for the season' isn't how many gifts you'll get. You hear that all the time but I'm really only just starting to understand it. The Christmas season is the only time I can watch my bank balance decline with a big, fat grin on my face. And the best part is knowing that Jesus gave up so much more than just a few bucks to show us His love. I can't imagine giving up paradise to come and live on earth. Earth's a great place and all, but it's hard enough when you know there's something better out there... In Jesus' case, he'd experienced the something better. He had a hand (or word) in making the universe only to become utterly dependent on a teen mom.

Suffice to say, Christmas is my favorite holiday for many a reason. I hope you all get a chance to relax and enjoy the season - whether it be the family gathering aspect, the giving, the getting, the carols or best of all, the celebrating of the first breath of the guy who keeps me breathing.

I think there's only one thing left to say:

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!! :)

quick book update

Being the most impatient person on the planet definitely has its pitfalls, especially when one is trying to be a writer. But somehow I'm staying positive. Probably because I handed my book over to God waaaay before I pitched the idea to any agents, so I know the matter is safe in His hands.

That being said, I thought I'd give a short update on how it's going right now.

I think it's been about a month since I sent my query letters out to 10 different publishing agents across Toronto. The day they arrived at the agencies, I got an email from a pretty reputable one saying I'd submitted wrong but they didn't necessarily want to flat out reject my idea and encouraged me to submit the right way which was to send them the first 50 pages of my manuscript. Needless to say, as soon as I got home from school that day, the pages were printed and being mailed off - express delivery. They said it would take up to six weeks to hear back from them. So I'm waiting.

Other than that one ray of sunshine, I've received three rejection letters so far and one 'return to sender,' so it doesn't even count. I'm glad I've got about ten years of learning how to deal with rejection under my belt from being an actor, otherwise I might have let the rejection letters get to me. But I know all it takes is one agency that's willing to represent my book. So even if I get nine (well, eight since that 'return to sender' one was a wash) rejection letters, I'll still be the happiest kid on earth.

That's about it for the update. I'm hoping the rest of the agencies aren't planning on making me wait until after Christmas for their responses. I mean, I can only take so much waiting before it'll start to get to me...

... Keep it real!

the studying process

I got home from church today at about 1:30 and ate lunch. As soon as I was finished eating I decided it was time to hit the books. I have two exams tomorrow, so I knew wasting the afternoon away would be a bad idea in the long run.

I didn't want to waste a minute of study time. I went upstairs to my room and grabbed Jingle All the Way and brought it downstairs. My brother put it in the dvd player and we both sat down on the couch and began enjoying the ridiculous-ness of a 90s movie paired with the force that is Arnold Schwarzenegger. After about 20 minutes I realized I hadn't brought my computer down with me so I went back up to my room, grabbed my computer (and its plug so the battery wouldn't run out on me during my study session) and went back downstairs. I turned on my computer and checked my email. Then I checked facebook. Then I changed my facebook profile picture because it's been almost a week since the last time I changed it and a week's my limit.

Another 20 minutes went by and I realized I didn't have the sheet of paper my teacher printed off for us informing us of what we need to study for tomorrow's exam. So I went back up to my room and got the paper. I came back downstairs and began reading it over but didn't really absorb any information because Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice is just too distracting. So I put the paper down along with my computer and decided I should just get let myself watch the rest of Jingle All the Way so that the urge to watch it can leave my system and thus I'd have one less distraction when it came time to study.

Fifteen minutes later I realized I was incredibly tired. A late night paired with an early wake up call this morning meant I hadn't really had enough sleep. So I thought I'd rest my eyes for a bit, but in the same room as the TV so I wouldn't miss any awesome Arnie moments.

Twenty minutes later my brother poked my shoulder and said I had to listen to the hilarious grunts Arnie was making as people tried to get him into his Turbo Man suit so I opened my eyes, laughed and fell back asleep.

I woke up to see the end and smiled. 90s movies could be so heart-warmingly cheesy. Then we watched the trailer for Jingle All the Way because we love hearing that voice-over guy who dictated every 90s movie trailer. Then I decided I still wasn't well rested enough to be able to concentrate on studying so I went upstairs to my bed and lay down.

I had planned to nap until my mom came home from grocery shopping so that I could use the car to go to the gym before studying because I knew that would be all I was thinking about until I got a chance to work out but only five minutes into my nap (I was only half-asleep), I heard the van turn into the driveway... and I decided it was probably best to fully fall asleep before making myself wake up.

Three hours later I woke up... and I was hungry. So I went downstairs and ate some chicken wings and cheese (totally random dinner, but it was easy to make... ie. it was already made so all I had to do was eat it). Then my little brother asked if he could watch some of 30 Rock Season 1 and I thought I should probably watch an episode or two with him. So we watched the pilot for third or fourth time this year.

I looked at the time and realized it was really time for me to start studying so I came back upstairs to my room and checked my facebook and my email. And then I decided to blog about my day.

I'm so glad I didn't waste my afternoon... I'm going to ace tomorrow's exam...

Keep it real.

tangled

I just have one word to describe this movie: incredible. It had everything a great movie needs - action, adventure, humour and romance. And it's Disney, so there were even a few catchy tunes!

It definitely earned a spot right near the top of my favorite Disney movies - and that's saying something, believe me - I'm a Disney freak.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that my favorite endearing actor plays the role of the hilarious 'prince' in this fairytale. None other than Zachary Levi, of course. And he can sing! Who knew?!

The movie was very well done; relevant for kids these days, but also stuck to a lot of its old school Disney ways, which, I have to say, I appreciated. I loved every minute of it. I'm anxiously awaiting the day when I can bring it home to my movie shelves so I can watch it again and again, just like my other favorite classics.

I'm thinking you should make an effort to see it. Unless you really hate Disney, there's no way this movie can let you down.

PS. If you need someone to go with you - I'll gladly see it again. And again... and again!

Keep it real!

under pressure

They say "a little skipping won't kill you" ... "you can afford to take a day off" ... etc etc - so I'm wondering why I always feel so guilty when I skip out on the gym. Like today, for example. I woke up bright and early (well, 7:30 am is early in my books) in order to hitch a ride to the gym (save myself from a 10 minute walk in the cold) and work out for an hour or two. I got up, ate breakfast, packed my bag ... and then decided I didn't want to go. I had a legitimate reason: laundry. Afterall, Tuesday mornings are my only day off so if I don't do it today, I'll have to wear the same pair of socks for another week. Plus, I have an assignment due in about 6 hours. It's a lot bigger than I made it out to be in my head, so at some point soon I'm going to need to buckle down and do it.

But... it's now 11am and I don't think I've left my bed since re-entering it after breakfast. Besides discovering the world of tumblr, I haven't done a lot. In fact, I've done nothing. I still have to do three, if not four, loads of laundry and write two plays and a short write-up on my experience of it (weird, I know) ... and the worst part of it is, I skipped the gym in order to do those things. I would've been home from the gym over an hour ago and no worse off than I am right now.

I'm getting tired of having to force myself to go to the gym every. single. time. You'd think it would get easier! I mean, once I'm there, I actually do enjoy myself, as hard as that is to believe (for me, especially). I love to run - I never used to, but I do now. And weight lifting... well, it's not the funnest thing on the planet but it feels really good, so that's usually enough to get me through to the end of the routine.

I dunno... maybe it's just the cold weather. It makes me want to cuddle up in a blanket with hot chocolate and a good book and hibernate until spring. Or maybe it's the fact that my house is almost as cold as it is outside! My dad's core temperature has to be 20 degrees above the average person's! I don't think my feet have had a chance to defrost since September... It's getting to be unbearable.

...And now I'm just complaining...

So I'll get back to my original issue. Why do I feel this guilty about missing one day at the gym? Are my stubborn personality and unrealistically high expectations the only thing to blame in this situation? Or is it the fact that everywhere I look I see girls who look the way I want to? And I'm not referring to the Mary-Kate and Ashleys out there. I don't want to look sickly...

See, the thing is - I think, as an aspiring actor (which I still am, despite my one year hiatus), there's more pressure to look a certain way than there is for the average girl. The average girl wants to look 'thin' or whatever because she thinks that's what guys like. But she discovers eventually (I hope) that guys don't want that - most guys can appreciate real beauty in a real girl. An aspiring actor though - well, she knows how hard it is to look a certain way and how many sacrifices it takes to get there (and yes, she understands what airbrushing is); the aspiring actor even knows that her body is perfect just the way it is. But when the aspiring actor is competing with people like Mary-Kate and Ashley, Megan Fox and Natalie Portman, she definitely feels a bit of pressure to level out the playing field as much as possible.

Don't get me wrong - that's not the only reason why I work out, but it's definitely a major player as far as the guilty conscience goes. The main reason for working out is to be healthy. Which I am. I feel amazing these days. Now if only I could find a way to relax a little whenever I have to take a day off. Where do I find the valve that'll ease up on the pressure?

What's really ironic is that a 'campaign' that I worked on about a year ago is about to get into the hands of teenagers all over the States in the form of a magazine called sex, etc. Don't let the name throw you - it's a magazine that discusses all the issues teenagers have to deal with these days. And their focus for Winter 2010: Body Image.

Apparently it's still the fall (even though my frozen feet think otherwise), but when winter rolls around, you can check it out on their website.

I think I'm going to start doing some laundry... and maybe start and finish my assignment so I don't feel like today was a total waste...

Keep it real.

european holidays

Are you of European descent? Well, if you're not, this post may encourage you to claim to be.

I have some European blood flowing through my veins. Mostly German, but I'm told there's a bit of Scottish and British mixed in as well. Regardless, it's the German that holds the most precedence. Especially in this post. (I actually claim my Aussie roots far more often... until December 6th, of course).

My family celebrates Saint Nicholas Day. It's like Christmas but smaller and earlier. But there are gifts involved none the less.

The deal is (for those of you who haven't heard of this awesome day until now), you put a shoe outside of your bedroom door on the night of December the 5th and when you wake up the next morning, your shoe is full of presents! Kinda like this:

It's pretty much the coolest thing ever.

Most of the presents are usually edible, but one year I got the Complete Works of Shakespeare so... it's pretty sweet.

I guess I could have mentioned this earlier... because if any of you want to start up the tradition in your own homes, you'll have to wait a whole year now. I just figured I should tell you about it first before wishing you a happy saint nicholas day... So now that you've been enlightened (or possibly just reminded):

Happy Saint Nicolas Day!

Go buy someone some chocolate... or better - a pair of shoes! :) Oh! And if you want to read up on the why of this holiday... you can look at the wikipedia page about it. I know wikipedia is supposedly a faulty source, but I've learned many an interesting fact by browsing through that website. So there!

Keep it real.

you call yoursuff a movie buff?!

I actually do know how to spell 'yourself' but it just didn't have the same ring to it. But, let's get back to the important issues at hand, shall we?

Movies.

Okay, so maybe I let my definition of important slip a little, but they play a pretty significant role in society these days, so it probably doesn't hurt to pay some attention to them.

On a completely different note (or is it?), I've been watching a lot of this show called 'The Buried Life' recently. You need to watch a quick trailer to find out the basics in a way that doesn't require me to write anything...

Pretty cool, right? They're pretty inspiring - so inspiring, in fact, that I'm feeling a bit inspired.  

Now, I haven't written a bucket list yet, though I've had a few ideas running through my head for years - and, in my defence, I've crossed off a few fun things already; like go skydiving and learn how to be a stunt driver, but there's still lots more I'd love to accomplish or experience before I die. I also love helping other people realize some of their goals and dreams and I'm planning on making that a part of my life too (however that looks)... But as far as good, wholesome fun goes - I've decided to make a Movie bucket list.

Now it's all coming together, right? Me mentioning the movies at the beginning and then randomly changing the topic -- you get the picture.

What brought this on? Well, I'm tired of claiming to be a movie buff and then knowing diddly-squat about all of the important movies of the century.

So I made a list of 50 movies I'd like to see before I die. I typed it up and printed it off - thus the adventure has begun... well, it will begin as soon as I put the first dvd in my dvd player.

I don't know how long this'll take, but starting is the first step, right?

I was thinking I'd write the list down in this blog post, but that would make this a pretty long blog post, wouldn't it? So I've decided to make you a collage. Of movies. It's not all the movies on my list, but it's still cool looking. I can post the list later... if needed.

I never said it would be a work of art - geez! Gimme a break!

...

Well, that's all for now. I borrowed Rain Man and The Royal Tennenbaums from the public library (they're on my list), so hopefully I'll cross two off my list within the week.

Might I recommend giving The Buried Life a watch? Check out season 2 online at mtv.ca... or just click here!! (I finally discovered how to add links to my page in that super cool way that makes you look like you understand technology... yay!)

So - what do you want to do before you die?

Keep it real!