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Creative Types: Video Head or Music Head?

So, I am a Music Head. According to Charles Yoakum's well written post, I am a Music Head. As much as I love watching TV and movies, it overinvolves me. Listening to music has something to do with how my brain is wired. I find myself focusing better while listening to music on CD with my speech processor plugged in.

Which type are you?

Attitude and Confidence

Knew it. The other blogger is starting to discover what I've known all along. Attitude makes a difference.

There is a book called "Men Like Women who Like Themselves". Like attracts like. I think the rule applies to both sexes. When a man is comfortable with himself, he is attractive to women. I went to a university where there were more men than women. One of my favorite boyfriends never lacked for a date despite the "shortage" of women because he acted like he was comfortable with himself. He made the best of his looks - haircut, nice clothes, good hygiene. Good social skills also helped.

I believe that it is possible for nice men to finish first. It has a lot to do with how they present themselves. I know nice women who attract good men because they are comfortable with themselves.

When I act comfortable with myself, I attract wonderful men.

No makeup?

Are you kidding me? I cannot believe this blogger is not wearing makeup - must be good genes!

President - Elect's website

Saw this wonderful note on another blog.

Look forward to reading this new website!

Broken English - movie recommendation

Found this movie recommendation on another blog and would like to see it. Hope the movie has subtitles.

Will rent the film on a rainy day. Too nice today to stay inside and watch a movie.

Look forward to enjoying the beautiful weather!

news from Europe

In response to another blogger, there are some news from abroad

wish list - friendship

Top 10 things I am looking for in a friend:

1) kindness/wit/funny/honest/considerate

2) shares my interests

3) enjoys my company

4) good cup of conversation

5) respects my boundaries and shows me by example how to set healthy boundaries

6) respects who I am as a person instead of patronizing me

7) encouraging me to do my best

8) social

9) can laugh at himself/herself

10) knows how to enjoy life

What are your top 10 things you are looking for in a friend?

music

Music has a perpetual place in family life. One of my great-great grandmothers sang opera at Teatro Scala. My affection for classic music comes honestly. Several relatives sang in classical orchestras or played classical piano.

October is turning out to be a great month!

October is turning out to be a great month for many friends - a friend said "I think October is my favorite month!" then the next friend is saying "October is turning out to be a great month!". I am grateful for all the good things happening this month after a difficult summer (several friends going through rough times in different degrees). A friend worked for the past few months to put together a beautiful musical evening raising funds for cancer research. It was a worthwhile cause. It was practically sold out and the music was beautiful. I am delighted for him! He is the epitome of making lemonade out of lemons. He is my barometer - he does not allow bad things to spoil the joys in his life. I am in the process of learning how to separate the bad stuff from the good stuff. It is important to focus on the good stuff. A friend celebrated her birthday party at a new place I've never been to. The birthday celebration was fun. In a few days I am going to a halloween party at a friend's estate in the wine country. I had a whirlwind of wonderful social events including the birthday celebration. Some of us went to a fashion show at the design center. Lots of classics on the runaway and it was for a worthwhile cause. Also, I got to meet gorgeous guys! I am invited to many parties this month. It was my new friend, the fundraiser, who introduced me to a wonderful group of new friends. I am grateful for his friendship and he taught me so much about life. There is something to be said about six degrees of separation. I went to my first Columbus Day parade and saw an old friend. It was wonderful to see her, her husband and kids. Despite the turbulence of the current economy, people are making the best of the situation and life goes on.

auditory training - Part Deux

Also recommended for auditory practice:

"You are the New Day" by Kings' Players

excellent for auditory training - part 1

Some of you know that I got a Cochlear Implant several years ago. It is an ongoing process for me learning how to hear again after too many years of silence. Lost my hearing as a young child, then faced some years of white noise prior to surgery then activation. A good friend also got a cochlear implant. She recommended listening to books on tape for an hour every morning. She listens to a Bible on tape and reads along for one hour before her husband and kids wake up. Another friend also got a cochlear implant after years of wearing hearing aids. I discovered that listening to music on tape with my speech processor helps train the auditory part of my brain to focus on sounds.


For auditory practice, listen to Soave sia il vento - Così fan tutte:

another movie quiz for fun

Your Famous Movie Kiss is from Cruel Intentions

"I'm the only girl you can't have, and it kills you."

What Famous Movie Kiss Are You?

Great kissing scenes:

Donna Reed- James Stewart in Its A Wonderful Life

Grace Kelly-Cary Grant in To Catch A Thief

Robin Wright - Cary Elwes in the Princess Bride

Amy Adams - Patrick Dempsey in Enchanted

more subtitles

30 Rock

Another subtitled episode

A New Hero

Samurai Girl

when bad things happen to good people

Borrowed this title from a book. I was thinking about this theme after talking to a dear friend whose world is falling apart. I knew he was miserable. Some of the stuff happening to him had happened to me. How do I handle it when that happens to me? It is hard to think clearly when your emotions are involved. It is too easy to become angry. It takes a lot of practice to learn how to separate the good stuff from the chaff or the bad stuff. I choose not to let the bad stuff influence potential friendships or affect the happy times in my life. Life is too short for grievances. Yes, it is important to deal with the bad stuff head on but do not let it spoil the good stuff. Focus on the good stuff. Grandmothers often say "Do not dwell on the bad stuff".

There are always choices.

Quote of the Day

Quote courtesy of Leah Garchik:


"At a Domician University of California reception and signing session for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose new book is "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters," Pelosi spent time talking with Madison, pre-teen daughter of the university president. She told Madison there were wonderful things in store for her, especially as she discovered her own power.

But Madison is a twin. "And what about me?" piped up her brother, Joe. His father assured him, I'm told, that there are "plenty of opportunities" for young men."

The Incredible Shrinking Sizes

Last weekend, we were shopping at one of our favorite shops, which is in the process of going out of business. The eight of us vary in sizes. I always thought I was at least a size bigger than everyone else in our group. One of them and I had a conversation about the size 4. I was recounting a blog I read about someone saying that one has to be a size 4 in Hollywood. I mentioned that I wrote a comment to this blogger, saying it was impossible to be a size 4 unless you were 5 feet tall or shorter. The blogger mentioned that when she was thin, she was a size 4. I said I was always a size 10 and I thought that was fine. I thought size 10 was a skinny size. At least two are a size 10, one is a size 8 and I thought I was a size 8, three are a size 4, and one is a size 2.

At the dress shop, I was looking for a pair of pants. Many of them were on sale. The sizes were either 2, 4 or 8. The 8 was too big on me. I asked the sales lady if there were any in size 6 and she said they did not have any in size 6.

Surprise!!!!!!! I tried on a long pair of pants (size 2), three pairs in size 4 and one pair in size 8.

Guess which size fit me? Size 4!!!! I could not believe that I am a size 4, despite drinking a Root Beer Float, eating a chocolate cake and totally pigging out the day before. BTW, it is unusual for me to eat this much! I have to keep in top shape for various reasons.

One wonders if I really am a size 4, or did they put the size 2's and size 4's on bigger pants, or was it just a fluke???????

Now I am laughing because I recall telling the blogger that it was next to impossible to be a size 4 for an adult woman! I recall being a size 5 at the age of 12 in another life when I was a teen model when I was several inches shorter than I am now.

Lucky 8

Good tidings on 8-8-08!

Reconnected with old friends. Friends are celebrating their birthdays tonight - yes, they were born on August 8. Looking forward to celebrating with friends. Two good friends got married today. Things are looking up.

A social experiment

Recent events caused me to reflect on my major mistakes and what I can do about them. Today I decided to try a social experiment. For the next 6 months, prioritize. Do things that I have to do, in order to accomplish my professional goals. Keep a gratitude journal. Try to focus on the positive stuff instead of letting my anger stew and destroy my self-esteem. Empower myself. Remind myself to treat others as I want to be treated.

Literary hangover

Who hasn't heard of a literary hangover? When you think of a hangover, there is alcohol involved.

There is a new term "literary hangover". It means that you were up all night reading a novel.

A friend was tired because he had a literary hangover. He mentioned he was up until the early morning hours finishing a novel a mutual friend gave him. We love to play with words. I love this brilliant friend. I love this term "literary hangover". So much fun hanging out with this friend. I always learn something new from him.

10 Things I Hate about You

This movie was loosely based on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

Sex and the City Movie

Recommended for all who loved the TV show. I saw the movie with friends and loved it! There was laughter and tears.

Interesting to see how four women's lives interact. Their personalities are different. There was a quiz to find out which character you are most alike. I was surprised to discover I am like Carrie because I thought I was more like Charlotte.

Wish I could remember the exact quotes:

My favorite quotes from the movie:

Carrie Bradshaw: I miss the old New York, I want to be the old 917, not the new NY .

Carrie Bradshaw:...look beyond the labels....

Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew is one of my favorite characters - brave, brilliant, perceptive, spunky and witty. Penny Warner wrote the Offical Nancy Drew Handbook.

yummy

No Film Distributor?

D.I.Y.

Ideal world

Ideal world:

cellphones will include the option to turn on subtitles for movies and tv shows sent directly to cells

cellphones will have two way video conferencing like in the new Iron Man movie (one of my fav scenes)

more opportunities for hearing impaired actresses/actors in tv shows, movies, stage and other means of entertainment

more stories about women empowerment without hurting men

all movie theaters will offer rear window captioning and/or subtitles

all DVDs will have subtitles

nice men will fall in love and feel chemistry for nice women instead of mean girls

companies like Sony will work with cochlear implant companies to create speech processors in the same style as the new earphones for active people




Anyone want to share their vision of an ideal world?

Quote Log

courtesy of a funny friend:

Are you a blond?

Review of Dr. Horrible

It was a nice surprise to watch Dr. Horribe at hulu.com with the option to turn on captions! Thank you to whoever took the time to add captions! I am happy to report that I was able to watch all three acts of Dr. Horrible. Now I know why it is getting great reviews. I am not sure why the term "geek" is used. To me, the "geek" looked like a real person to me. Whenever I watch a movie, I observe different characters. Some characters have different looks that one rarely sees someone who looks like that unless one lives in a big city like San Francisco or Manhattan. But in this sing along blog, all of the characters looked like people I've known in real life.

Act One.

The ability to receive the dialogue with the aid of subtitles added to my appreciation of the story.

Dr. Horrible discussion

How wonderful to see captions. For example,if you wanted to see the Simpson show on Hulu, you can turn on the CC box and the words come out. If you do not want captions, then there is no need to turn it on. It is a win-win situation for everyone.

Look forward to seeing Dr. Horrible on video again with the option of being able to turn on the captions.

Regarding Dr. Horrible comments

Caught the Acts 1-3 of Dr. Horrible on youTube, thanks to the heads up from Lis.

The discussion was very interesting and I wanted to share some thoughts.

First, I wanted to say that I appreciated feedback regarding captions/subtitles. A few days after I made some comments about captioning on the Internet, I was pleasantly surprised to see subtitles for Acts 1-3 of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog on the web. All I had to do was click on the CC box. It was the first time I ever saw anything like a movie on my laptop with subtitles. In the past, when I saw a movie on my laptop, it was a DVD rental. This time, I did not have to rent a DVD. I could go to hulu.com and click on the Dr. Horrible video, then watch it!

Movies are not always accessible to certain audiences. These audiences include people who are learning English as a Second Language, people with varying degrees of hearing loss and people who cannot process auditory information. For many years, they had to wait for a movie to come out on Video and then DVD.

Now it is slowly changing for the better. With the advent of movies like Dr. Horrible and the willingness to include subtitles or captions, there is hope that despite the rapid changes in technology, everyone will have access.

Subtitles: When moviegoers see a foreign film, unless it is dubbed in English or has English speaking scenes, there are printed words at the bottom in the English language. I've known people who grew up watching foreign films because of the access issue.

Rear Window Captioning: When you buy a ticket, you go to the guest services and ask for a gadget that looks like the rear window for your car. It has a cup attachment so you can put it in the seat and adjust the window to read the words printed on the rear wall of the theater below the screen projector window. There are more movies with rear window captions in the theaters because some people object to subtitles in movies. They do not want to be bothered by words at the bottom. I really do understand their feelings. However, everyone deserves the opportunity to be able to enjoy movies.

Open Caption: It is similiar to English subtitles for Foreign films. This is for English Speaking films. They had open captions for movies like Pearl Harbor and Patch Adams. It costs a lot of money to rent an open caption print. It changed over the years. In the beginning, the captions came from one group (cannot remember which). Later, it was the studios or distributors who decided whether or not to caption a newly released film in the theaters.

Hope no one was offended by my comments.

My First Post

Received my first post today. Regarding my comment about the Dr. Horrible video on youTube, I got a response from another independent filmmaker.

Appreciate it!

Prague

Wow! A cyberfriend is going to Prague. I am so excited for her going to Prague! I have been reading about Prague and talking to other friends about Prague. Another friend and his fiancee are currently in Prague.

He recommends a walking tour of Prague and a visit to the Prague Castle. I am quoting what my friend said during his visit to Prague.

"Another way of seeing Prague's old town is from the roof terrace of the U Prince anyone can go into the hotel walk towards the back you will see the lift which will take you to the roof terrace there you can enjoy a very nice meal or just enjoy a drink and take in the fantastic views of Prague.

It is directly across from the famous 'astrological clock" tower. A must see. "

He also recommended the Trip Advisor:
"Prague: A short stay in Prague - TripAdvisor


Inside Prague: A short stay in Prague - Before you visit Prague, visit TripAdvisor for the latest info and advice, written for travelers by travelers."

He thought this website offers tips for people going to Prague.

Reading

Have you read any good books lately?

Just finished Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham.  This was my first foray into reading one of Somerset Maugham's novels.  Now I see why several friends mentioned him as their favorite author.  He has a way of writing that attracts me as a reader.  I continue to think about the different characters in the novel.  

Mediabistro

Mediabistro is a group of media people. They offer online classes. They throw great parties for everyone in the media industry. Sometimes it is for writers only. Sometimes the focus is on film industry people. Sometimes it is for everyone in all types of media. They have a job board. These photos were taken at a mediabistro event about a year ago.

New Myers-Briggs test

A brilliant friend said that the MBTI should include the explorer/negotiator personality types. I agree. Just took this new test sans the explorer/negotiator types. So much fun taking this test.

You Are An ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverent, and unimpressed by authority and rules. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're quite the storyteller! In love, you are quite the charmer. And you are definitely willing to risk your heart. You often don't follow through with your flirting or professed feelings. And you do break a lot of hearts. At work, you are driven but not a workaholic. You just always seem to enjoy what you do. You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist. How you see yourself: compassionate, unselfish, and understanding When other people don't get you, they see you as: gushy, emotional, and unfocused

What's Your Personality Type?

Color Me Impressed

My friends and cyberbuddies' websites are impressive. Check them out!

Trying out links

http://www.tvland.com/tvlhome.jhtml

Trying out new links.

Get Smart

Finally got to see Get Smart this weekend. Steve Carrell was so funny! Recommend this film to friends.

About Me

Learning how to navigate the world of blogging.