Did You Know That...?

Today in one of my many English classes the phrase came up: "take that with a grain of salt" and being in the curious mood we were in, we started wondering what the origin of the phrase was. We couldn't figure it out from random guesses and quickly lost interest. Being a private school where students pay almost triple what public university students pay for tuition, it should come as no surprise that we didn't have the resources to simply look it up on the internet and move on.

PS. I love the internet. And Wikipedia. Say whatever you want about 'em, but I think they're the greatest. I would know a heck of a lot less information had it not been for them... albeit most of it is useless information, but hey! Knowledge is knowledge, right?

Anywho, here comes the point of my blog today. I said in my first post that I would, on occasion, use this blog to talk about things I've learned (because I'm big into learning) and today I learned something new.

I came home from school having never satisfied my curiosity as to the origin of the phrase we briefly discussed in class. I immediately went on my computer and wrote "origins of phrases" into my trusty Google search bar. Within a few minutes I had found the best site and even better: the origin of the phrase!

So after that long-winded explanation, I give you my findings!

"to take with a grain of salt"
=> The idea comes from the fact that food is more easily swallowed if taken with a small amount of salt. The suggestion is that injurious effects can be moderated by the taking of a grain of salt.
(info from phrases.org.uk)

TA DA!

So next time this phrase comes up and people get a wee bit curious as to its origins, you can tell them what you know!

Also, did you know that the term 'honeymoon' originated a loooooong time ago (I think before Ancient Rome) and here's where the idea sprouted: It was believed that honey is a natural aphrodisiac so for the first month after a couple was married they'd eat honey everyday. Since this lasted for a month by ancient standards it meant from full moon to full moon. Hence: Honeymoon. (info from howstuffworks.com)

Weird, right? PS. Honey has since been proven not to be an aphrodisiac, so don't go getting any ideas.

Aaaanywho, gotta go! :)

Keep it real!

If SHE can do it...

Check this out! Race Car Driver Barbie!

Man, if I was ten years younger, you wouldn't see me for WEEKS! I'd be in my room playing with Race Car Driver Barbie all day!

Barbie's always getting a bad rap. Apparently some people think she's not the greatest role model for their little girls. So she's got a bit of an unrealistic figure... does it matter THAT much? I played with Barbies for a good ten years of my childhood and I think all that did was inspire me to have a wild imagination and love story telling. 'Cause that's what I did: I would tell insane stories and have my Barbies act them out. Barbie was always what I wanted to be when I grew up (which often changed): teacher, mom, movie star, superhero, fashion designer, rock star, jockey, professional figure skater, skier, snowboarder; I could go on and on. I had a blast.

And personally, I think that kind of behaviour is totally healthy. My mentality was always 'If SHE can do it, I can too.'

It's funny that Mattel's come out with Race Car Driver Barbie 'cause recently that's something I've put on my bucket list. It's a nice reminder to keep up the old mentality.

Huh. So you CAN take some of your childhood with you into adulthood. Good to know.

Still, I probably shouldn't go out and buy the doll - as much as I'm actually tempted to...

Keep it real!

Simple Observations

So I don't have any kids, but I used to be one.

<- See?

And I work at a daycamp every summer - I have no shortage of kid experience, let's put it that way.

Notice that bandaid on my arm?
<- Yeah, that one.

What do you think is underneath it? Or was underneath it...?

It seems like a pretty strange place to put a bandaid... I mean, how much could happen to the forearm of a three year old? Yeah, granted - I wasn't exactly a careful three year old - but I'd be willing to wager there's no physical cut underneath the bandage.

Let me tell you where I'm going with this...

Have you ever noticed how many kids sport this look? Not the messy eating look - although most sport that too; the 'random bandaids littering their arms and legs' look. Often their reasoning behind needing a bandaid sounds a little something like this:

"Somebody pinched me" or "I scraped my arm" or "a pine needle poked me" ... and, of course, other times they just like the new Disney Princess Bandaids so they'll wear them as a fashion statement. Regardless, I'm fairly positive (and completely positive as far as my childhood is concerned) that bandaids are rarely applied to 'real' wounds. The bandaid is always the physical solution to the psychological 'problem'.

I just think it's so refreshing to see how kids think. They're profoundly simple. The way they see it, a bandaid heals wounds so as soon as the bandaid is on, their pain is as good as gone. A best friend can be found in a day and stick with you for a lifetime. A bully's a bully; the world's a playground; the sky's the limit; anything's possible with enough imagination!

I sometimes find myself missing all that - the simple outlooks on life.

Adulthood tries to complicate everything. There's no longer black and white, there are 'gray areas' and 'good' reasoning behind 'bad' behaviour. Bandaids aren't little miracles anymore; they no longer have enough power to make everything okay again. Imaginations are benched. Knowledge has a way of trumping wonder.

Ever been on a bus or subway or whatever and a mom comes in with a baby in a stroller? And the baby's just LOOKING at you and doesn't look away for a good, like, eight or nine minutes. The kid's just watching you, infinitely fascinated with you.

If a baby or toddler does that to me, I'm instantly drawn into their world. The rest of the patrons disappear and all I can do is invest in the kid's day. Usually all it takes is a smile or a funny face and they'll grin from ear to ear - clearly in love with you for that brief moment.

You never see two adult strangers interacting this way. If someone over the age of ten were to watch me unwaveringly all I'd be is creeped out. Kids though, they get away with it. I've never really been able to figure out why. Obvious innocence? Simplicity? I still don't know. But whatever it is, adults don't seem to have it. Which kinda sucks.

Yeah, I miss simple. I want to find it again...

Keep it real (and simple - it could be a nice change)!

Just Because...

My family is full of photographers for some reason. I think my older brother is trying to make a career of it - he's got talent, so there's no telling where he'll be going with it. My sister owns a crazy cool camera or two and really likes taking pictures, two of my uncles and my best friend are in the same boat; even my dad is a self-professed photographer. And then there's me. Now, I know I'm no good at people photography... taking pictures of people, that is. I don't even know the name of whatever that is, which has to prove something about my lack of talent. But I love taking pictures of pretty much anything else. And I have a blog so I figure I'm gonna use it to "showcase my talent"... I don't know... I just really want to put up some pictures I've taken over the years that I'm proud of and as a blogger I can do whatever I want... :)

Check these out if you feel like it. I just wanted to feel cool by putting pictures up online like all my photographer relatives. You know...

Oh! I should also mention that I have no idea how to edit these kinds of pictures so these are just straight from camera to computer to blog.


Old Castle window in Germany


Old Cathedral in Germany

(Apparently Europe is ripe for the picturing... just point and click and you've got a crazy photo)


Cool old house in a super small tourist-y village on an island in the middle of the Chiemsee (a river or lake...can't remember which one)


View of Paris from on top of the Champs-Élysées


Disneyland Paris!!


Disneyland Paris!! (at night)


Eiffel Tower (at night)


Switzer-Alps


Florida Sunrise


Bay of Fundy funny rock formation

I'm going to risk the possibility that I'll sound cocky in saying this, but please no one steal my pictures in order to make money. And don't pretend they're yours... But other than that, ... I dunno what else to say. I like posting pictures on posts - it makes me feel like I've accomplished something tangible.

I have to go practice the piano now. Suckdom. Also, I hurt my back snowboarding yesterday and there is no painless sitting or standing position, so double suckdom. But it was my fault for not stretching beforehand I guess. Lesson to all: STRETCH.

Keep it real!

Valentine's Day

How fitting that today is Valentine's Day and that just happens to be the theme of my post. Weird...

I know my last post ended with some kind of promise that I would write about the results for the Globes, but there are some promises I just don't feel like keeping... or maybe it's just that promise. Either way, if you're really that interested, you can check their official website. I doubt anyone is that interested though. So back to Valentine's Day.

I'm not a hater but I'm also not a lover of this particular day. I guess I'm indifferent. I won't reject a box of chocolate or better yet, a bouquet of red roses (I'm soooo original. I can't believe red roses are my favorite flower... I mean, grow a personality Lars! Oh well, what can you do?) but I still don't really understand the point for anyone outside of the chocolate and flower industry. It's like Black Friday for those guys!

BUT I don't want to ruin the day for anyone who loves it, so I figured I'd give my rave review of Garry Marshall's new film, Valentine's Day.


I'll start by saying that I have a bit of a bias - I like most of Garry Marshall's work. I mean, come on, Pretty Woman? Who can argue with that? It's for shizzle a classic. But if I can be so bold to make a crazy statement, I think this movie was his best since Pretty Woman.

With an all star cast telling about ten different story lines, it is an entertaining two hours. I went into the theatre expecting to be barely satisfied but I came out really surprised and I'll even admit to some warm, fuzzy feelings too. It was a genuinely good movie. The connections between all the story lines were actually really clever and the characters were so lovable.

I wish I could say more but I don't want to give anything away. I'll just say that this wasn't just another ordinary rom-com. It's an excellent date movie, or a great way to spend two hours with some girlfriends. I can only speak as a girl, but I'm sure guys would find it enjoyable and not a complete waste of time. All the actors did a great job - some were cast in roles I wouldn't have pegged them in, but they definitely held their ground.

So don't just shrug this one off. And this is coming from someone who doesn't even like Valentine's Day (the day... not the movie). I think I'll make one more bold statement before I sign off. Go see this movie - you won't be disappointed.

Keep it real.

Globes of Gold

Well, I'm going to miss the actual event which is a bit disappointing, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to follow every other aspect of the Golden Globes. I'd have more of an invested interest if Avatar was nominated in more categories. As you can see from my last post, I'm kind of in love with it. But despite my bias, the nominees are:

For best motion picture, drama:

Avatar (woot woot!)
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air

For best motion picture, musical or drama: (I like that they have categories within categories)

(500) Days of Summer (great movie)
The Hangover (I never stopped laughing)
It's Complicated (I have no interest in seeing it, but maybe it's just a generation thing)
Julie & Julia
Nine (my money's on this for the win)

For best director:

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar (he deserves this and more)
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

For best animated feature:

Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox (it kinda made 2009 for me)
Up
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Princess and the Frog

For best actor in a motion picture, drama:

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus (if it's anything like the Oscars, he'll win just 'cause he played a real person)
Tobey Maguire, Brothers

For best actress in a motion picture, drama:

Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe, Precious

For best performance by an actor in a musical or comedy:

Matt Damon, The Informant!
Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr, Sherlock Holmes (he's got my vote!)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer (he's was pretty dern awesome)
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

For Best performance by an actress in a musical or comedy:

Sandra Bullock, The Proposal (well, she was funny...)
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Julia Roberts, Duplicity (that was a comedy? it felt more like a train wreck...)
Meryl Streep, It's Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

For best supporting actor:

Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

For best supporting actress:

Penelope Cruz, Nine (hey, remember when she an Tom Cruise were an item? weird...)
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air (power to the youngin's!)
Mo'Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man

For best foreign film:

Broken Embraces
The White Ribbon
The Maid
A Prophet
Baaria

For best screenplay:

District 9, Neil Blomkap, Terri Tatchell
The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino
It's Complicated, Nancy Meyers
Up in the Air, Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

For best original song:

Crazy Heart
Everybody's Fine
Nine
Brothers
Avatar

And finally, for best original score:

The Informant!, Marvin Hamlisch
Up, Michael Giacchino
Where the Wild Things Are, Carter Burwell, Karen Orzolek
Avatar, James Horner
A Single Man, Abel Korzenioski

My thoughts:
The actors of Avatar didn't get nominated, they deserve a lot more recognition than they're getting; Wes Anderson's name should definitely be appearing under best director for his amazing work on Fantastic Mr. Fox and I'm sure Sherlock Holmes will have more nominations at the Academy Awards since they have more categories (art direction, costume design, etc).

Little known fact to most people, I think: Carter Burwell (nominated for best original score for Where the Wild Things Are) also worked on the music for the movie Twilight. So for those of you who hate the likes of Twilight but loved Where the Wild Things Are: Ha! They have more in common than you think! :P

Anyway, stay tuned for the list of winners or check other websites for it, whatever. Either way, you won't get my opinions anywhere else. And I'm sure with this line up, I'll have quite a few opinions to share after tomorrow night.

Keep it real!

AVATAR

There's something that's been on my mind for about a week now. Well, more than a week actually, but before I could kind of shove it to the back of my mind, and now it's all I think about. So I figure since I can't get it out of my head, I might as well write about it!

There's a little indie film out right now, you may have heard of it. It's called 'Avatar' and it was directed by James Cameron. Ah, now I've got your full attention; this movie definitely has mine. Did you know that it broke a huge box office record in a matter of 17 days? Yeah, it made over one billion dollars within the first three weeks! That just astounds me.



Now me being the movie dork that I am, I went to see the movie in theater and then came home and proceeded to stay up all night just to read everything I could get my hands on about this movie. I read, I listened, I watched, I loved. I've now seen countless cast and crew interviews and have read article after article about this movie. You want to know the coolest thing I've learned from all this research?: I don't have a life... well, yeah, but that's a given. No, the coolest thing I've learned is that no matter what opinions people have about this movie, James Cameron has officially, without a doubt, achieved what he set out to do.

What did he set out to do?: Open people's eyes up to the environment around them? No (though he seemed to achieve that in the process anyway). Promote Pantheism? Nope. All James Cameron really wanted to do was get people back to the cinema! And boy, did he ever! I don't regret spending one penny of the fourteen fifty I paid to watch it. I actually walked away feeling as though I may have been the one who cheated Cameron. I only paid fifteen bucks and I got to experience this mind-blowing thing that's going to change how we do movies forever. Thanks Jim, I owe you one!



What an experience, man! I really don't want to give anything away, all I want to do is inform people that it is the furthest thing from a waste of time or money. Go! Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

My favorite aspect of this movie obviously comes from an acting perspective, I can't help it. Sam Worthington plays both a human and a Na'vi (blue alien) and he gives a stellar performance. What I love most is the way they captured his and Zoe Saldana's performances. Everything you see the blue people do, the actors actually did. The face expressions, the tears, the jumping, the fighting, everything. It wasn't just cartoons or simple animation... I mean, it's just incredible.



A friend of mine went to see it recently and I asked her what she thought of Sam Worthington (he's Australian, I try to root a little extra for people who share my heritage) and she said he was great but wondered if he was really disabled in real life. I couldn't understand why she'd ask this question since I already knew that he also played the avatar who could clearly use both his legs. I realized she was asking because she, like many other people I guess, assumed that he was only lending his voice to the other character. She couldn't be more wrong. Again, this is why the movie is so revolutionary and amazing.






Long story short: great movie. I can't guarantee you'll like every aspect of it, but I can guarantee there are enough aspects for everyone to walk away happy. I'm going to stop talking now so you can get your butt to a theater! You'll be glad you did!



Keep it real!

Love Makes the World Go Round

I found this in my cereal today - thought it was something worth sharing.

It's a good thing to remember: Love is everywhere. Sometimes you just have to look for it.

Keep it real!