A couple of months ago, I talked about trying e-cigarettes as a stress reliever. I quit smoking real cigarettes about 12 years ago. My main reason for smoking was for the release of stress. Unfortunately, the e-cigarettes weren't very good. Not only did I not find stress relief, I didn't find any sort of pleasure from the thing. Maybe I need some sort of flavored cartridge or flavored tobacco for a pipe or something. I did think about perdomo cigars...but I'm not a big fan of cigar smoke. Maybe it smells different when you're the one smoking it? Is there anyone out there that has tried a cigar that is willing to share their experience? I want to know!
My obsession
I am so obsessive sometimes. I wrote about that awesome house in the Outer Banks, right? Well, now I've spent a good portion of time reading up on Outer Banks foreclosures. Wouldn't it be cool to actually own a house down there? Then we wouldn't have to worry about finding a rental that we all like and can afford. Though, at this point in time, we can't afford to buy a vacation home anyway. Maybe in the future!
Movie review: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
In case you couldn't tell, I'm a bit of a Greek mythology freak. (For the record, Cassandra is a woman that Apollo fell in love with. He gave her the gift of prophecy. When she did not return his love, he placed a curse on her. No one would believe her predictions.) Needless to say, I was intrigued when I was the commercials for the movie. Unfortunately, I hadn't heard of the books so I wasn't able to read them ahead of time. I went in with an almost-clean slate.
I absolutely loved the movie. The graphics were awesome. My favorite was when Percy and his friends were fighting the hydra. The writers didn't mess with the gods to make them more politically correct or fashionable. For the first time in a long time, I've seen a movie that actually makes me want to read the original source material. Luckily, my local library has copies of the series. I haven't heard anything about the next book - The Sea of Monsters - being made into a movie, but I'll be crossing my fingers!
Vacation!
One week from today, I will be going on vacation with my family. (That would be my mother, my stepfather, my sister, her boyfriend, my husband, my daughter, and me.) About 4 years ago, we went to Disney World. Last year, we went to Ocean City, Maryland. This year we're going to Washington D.C. We'll be gone for a whole week, taking in museums and (hopefully) having tons of fun. Next year, I'd love to go to back to a beach-type area. We were looking at some Outer Banks vacation rentals originally, though I forget why it was taken off the list of places to go. I think it might have been too far to travel this year. We had to take into consideration that my sister's boyfriend might not be able to come for the entire week. So we were looking at places closer to home. Next year? Screw it. I want to go to the beach! And Carolina designs has some awesomely beautiful houses.
For example:
This one isn't too far from the beach plus it has a private in-ground swimming pool and a pool table. There's five bedrooms so everyone would be able to have their own room and there's 4 1/2 bathrooms so everyone can have their own bathroom too. That's much better than the house in Ocean City. While that one was right on the beach, it only had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We ended up sharing our room with our daughter and the bathroom with my sister. Needless to say, there was always a long wait for showers.
I suppose I shouldn't plan next year's vacation when this one hasn't even started yet. Though....I love planning. And these houses are gorgeous. And, really, it's not that far from home - only about 8 hours. That is totally doable. I really want to make this happen!
Question
Has anyone ever priced those door hanger printing advertisements? You know, the kind that look sorta like the "Do Not Disturb" door placards they have in hotels? My husband fixes computers and I was thinking about helping him do a little advertising for extra money. Though, he's been awfully busy with the new job lately. I don't know if he's interested in expanding his little computer fix-it stuff. Ah well, let me know if you've ever looked into something like that. Even if we don't use it now, we might in the future.
The Status of Me
I know I've been really quiet lately. We've had a lot of changes this summer. My husband started a new job about three months ago, which has been going very well, but has brought on a lot of changes. (Maybe I'll be able to start my own home based business so I can stop working in an office as a grunt.) Also, my daughter's schedule has been very hectic. She's taking a dance class this summer, as well as continuing her swimming lessons. And, while she does spend a few weeks at my in-laws' house, I end up missing her terribly during those weeks so I don't get a lot accomplished. Needless to say, summer is heading to a close. We have a vacation coming up (more about that in another post) then a quick weekend trip then school starts again. With any luck, I'll be back on track doing the things that I love - listening to music, watching jdoramas, and writing. This summer has gone by fast!
Movie review: The Fourth Kind
I was skeptical about the validity of the "real life" portions of the movie. Hey, I remember when The Blair Witch Project pulled the wool over my eyes. I wasn't about to let it happen again. Needless to say, the movie is entirely fiction. There is no real life Dr. Abby Taylor and the movie wasn't even shot in Nome. (It was shot in Bulgaria because it's prettier than Nome.) Since the movie pretty much revolves around you believing that this stuff really happened to people (the movie starts off with Jovovich speaking to us out of character about how this is a dramatization of real life events and that real life video and audio recordings will be shown), it's difficult to get invested in the characters. I spent a good portion of the movie waiting for the big death scene. In case you didn't know, the movie is rated PG-13...there isn't a whole lot of really scary things that happen. It's mostly sudden screams and things like that. I think that the movie might have been better if they went for the R rating and added a bit more blood. Not necessarily exploding head type things, but maybe some severe nosebleeds or bleeding from the ears.
If you can suspend your belief for awhile, it's not really a terrible movie. There's some interesting side-by-side video comparing the "real" footage to the "Hollywood' footage. Granted, it would have been better if the grainy footage was actually real footage instead of video that was separately shot by different actors. Overall, I just found it bland and uninteresting.
Argh!
We're at that time of year when I don't really have anything to talk about. I can't seem to get my butt in gear to do much of anything. And in about 2 weeks, I will be going on vacation with my family. (BTW - I think I NEED these mbt shoes. They are those "exercise shoes" that supposedly help out while you walk. Those would help a lot on vacation!) Hopefully in the next two weeks I'll convince myself to do more than waste time watching YouTube clips. I have lost so many nights to YouTube...
Favorite Friday
I know, I've been absent this week. I'm sorry. Here's some new Gackt to make up for it:
My new nails
After work on Friday, I took a trip to the salon to get my nails done. I decided to get some fake gel nails to make my hands look better. Here is the result:
They are a little long but I'm getting used to them. I might go back next week to get them shortened. I haven't made a decision yet.