Cupcakes

Colours
Originally uploaded by ShamsD

Everyone has those co-workers; by those co-workers I mean the ones that you don’t directly work with but they work in some mysterious department at the company and you don’t know where but they stand out to you because you can’t not notice them – and not nessecairily for positive reasons. They could still dress like it’s the disco days, think should pads are in, have the laughter or sneeze that carries through walls, or perhaps they greet everyone with the wrong name. There is one such person in my office and she stands out, but for none of the reasons I’ve listed above. My standout co-worker smells like cupcakes.

By smells like cupcakes I don’t mean to say she bakes a lot and comes in smelling like her projects. She does it voluntarily – it’s her perfume. This smell alone would not be enough to make her stand out in a sea of coworkers, until I tell you that she marinates in it.

This is no faint whiff of cupcakes that you catch if you happen to be near her. No. This is a scent that you can smell across a room, that sticks in a hallway after she walks by and that lingers long after she has left the area.

It is a smell so strong that it wasn’t for months until the people in my department and I realized that someone wasn’t bringing in fresh baked goodies and walking them through the office – it was a person walking through the office. It took us even longer to find the person attached to the scent because you can’t smell it until she’s right upon you and if she’s walking through the area the scent lingers much longer than she does. I am still not sure if I’ve seen the cupcake co-worker from the front.

This is a plea to all women that wear perfume on a regular basis. Please make sure that it smells lovely, but that you make sure to not wear so much that people can sense your scent long after you have left for the day.

Random Quote #51 of Many...

"When what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, what's left to be gotten won't be worth getting, whatever it is you've got left."

Phil Davis
White Christmas

Avatar

James Cameron is added to my list of people I want to be when I grow up.

Christmas at Work

I am trying to bring some Christmas spirit to work.

I found this little tree at Target. He's battery operated and has color changing, fiber optic lights. A co-worker decided he needed decorating so she gave me a candy cane ornament.

December is pretty much one of our slowest months at work. Hence, the blogging. But gosh darn it, I am going to enjoy it! I've worked in so many jobs where December is this franticaly hectic, awful time where you just want the holidays to be over and done so I am enjoying the change!

Ingenuity

I was driving to the freeway and saw this guy. He has the single most interesting sign I have ever seen a homeless person have. It was lots of pieces and other signs all taped together into one elaborate piece. I wish I'd had my real camera and not just my phone.

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Is Christmas Here?

I had a pretty bad week followed by a pretty dang bad Saturday. Suffice it to say my weekend was not a restful one. The highlight of my weekend was visiting the Magic Kingdom. I am a Disneyland passholder & have been for many years & going durring the holidays is one of my favorite things to do.

If you live in so cal and have never seen the park dudded out for Christmas you don't know what you are missing. It is breathtaking and 110% sure to get you in the holiday spirit. Lights, decorations, costumes & carols eminate from every corner of the park & you can't help but get sucked into Christmas.

The only problem is that you may come out of the park confused as to why the rest of the world doesn't look this way...

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When Design Goes too Far

Wandered into a cycling shop while waiting for my relatives to arrive after my grandmother's funeral. I noticed a Hello Kitty beach cruiser - complete with her image on the tire treads... I think this is one of the most unnessecary design elements I've ever seen.

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Random Quote #50 of Many...

Dean: Okay, say it's true. Say there are angels, then what - there's a God?
Bobby: This point, Vegas money's on 'yeah'.

Supernatural
Are You There God? It's Me Dean Winchester

U2!!

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Random Quote #49 of Many...

Sam: She was a stripper?
Dean: Dude, her name was Jasmine.

Supernatural
Sex and Violence

Weight of it all

need a break?!
Originally uploaded by d.annie

I need a break. I am in a phase of life where I feel like I am fighting an uphill battle in some major areas, and this is no gentle uphill slant, it's gotta be sheer and sharp.

I don't need a vacation or a quick fix - I need something major, something great, something longer tern to happen.

God is going to be faithful to me and this is all for His greater plan, but I am exhaused and getting really tired of trying. Everytime I try something I just get rejected all over again.

No bueno.

Random Quote #48 of Many...

"You're not going to bust out the misty goodbye speach okay. If this is my last day on Earth I do not want it to be socially akward."

Dean
Supernatural
No Rest for the Wicked

Random Quote #47 of Many...

Nathan: Because everytime there's a secret I find you with a shovel behind your back.
Angela: You should write Mother's Day cards.

Heroes

Tustin

I've lived in this city for a decent chunk of my life now & I have to say I just don't get all of their events. It was Tiller Days this weekend & I got to enjoy the spectacle of floats at a stoplight while I tried to circumvent the streets that were shut down.

It was strange.

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Hotels!!!

DSC_0510
Originally uploaded by shine_blitz_on

So I already started to try and book my hotel for Comic-Con next year and already nothing is available!

This leads me to believe that Con was able to pre-book more rooms for 2010 so I will have to book through the Comic-Con website again.

I just hope I end up randomly in a cool hotel again like the one this year. I thought I would be really upset that we didn't end up in downtown, but it was kind of nice to be able to take the trolley everywhere. I kinda loved it...

Old Memories

I used to spend hours creating entries for blends challenges online; I finally stopped when I just ran out of time and film school took over. But I loved doing it.

I found some of the files on my computer last night and I was rather impressed at my ameture art skills. So impressed in fact I felt like posting a few here.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed rediscovering them.

Seek Week: Thursday - Trusting God

Control
Originally uploaded by Gabriela Camerotti

I know that the only way I am ever going to become a director is if I trust in God and let Him make it happen, and I know that I can’t do anything to actually force it to happen. It’s all God not me. Yet, even though I can say this I also know that part of me cannot let it go and hand it over to God. I want to micromanage it.

I am guarding my movie like a hawk, planning where to send it, being heart broken over the festivals is doesn’t get into, stressing over my lack of an agent and my lack of options. I know I shouldn’t be. I can’t let go.

I would like to let go, but even as I say this a part of me struggles with it.

I know God is faithful. I need to let Him be.

Seek Week: Wednesday - Lament to God

I know I should be thankful for everything God had given me.

I have a family that would bend over backwards to help me. My parents can drive me nuts, but at the end of the day I have to thank you God for giving me these two loving people that I know just want me to excel at following You and being me. They provide me a place to live that I can afford, help me when I am in over my head and make me laugh more than should be possible. I am blessed with an actual relationship to my parents that consists of more than just blood, but has happy memories, times we’ve bonded over good and bad, and a support that is based on a love of You and each other. They are what you’ve provided to keep me going.

My friends have come through for me in ways I never thought possible. They helped me make my movie. They helped me when I had no job. They love me even when I am annoying. You’re given me a group of friends that shares a love for You and strengthens me because of it. You’ve also given me a group of friends that doesn’t know You; because of them I am constantly reminded of the goodness and love in all things You have created and how even through all they do for me they still need you so badly. You have let them see Your light through me and I hope that one day You will bring them out of darkness.

I feel like I should not be as dissatisfied with my life as I am. I am trying to reorient my thinking because I know You are faithful.

God, I hate my job. I go every day and get more depressed. As great as some of my co-workers there are, it feels like it chips away at me more every day and I am reminded over and over again that this is not my purpose.

I want to direct God. I want it so badly it becomes painful not to do it. But it must not be Your time for it to happen yet and I don’t understand why.

I feel like a failure in so many ways. It’s been five years since I graduated college and I feel like I am in the same place I was then. I still live at home. I can’t afford not to. I’ve been making the same hourly wage in jobs I don’t like for over three years. I’m still single with no remote prospects on the horizon. The boys I don’t like or can’t like are the ones that come after me.

I’m twenty seven and it looks like my future is never going to come. It feels like no matter what I do nothing changes and nothing ever gets better.

God, I know You are faithful. I know You can do anything, make my life anything. But I feel adrift and unable to fight against the current.

Seek Week: Tuesday - God's Voice

I went to film school at California State University Long Beach; it’s a school and program that I now love and am so incredibly thankful for, but I went into it kicking and screaming. You see I was going to go to film school at UCLA, or even USC – Long Beach was my back up school, and no one with great grades and stellar recommendations goes to their backup school.

I applied to the film major at the top film schools in California as a transfer student, after three years at a community college. I was terrified because I felt a huge push from God onto my path of film directing and I had no idea what I was doing; I was still even wary of telling people I wanted to go into film. I thought they would laugh at me and tell me I was kidding myself, which they did but that too became a part of my journey. The pull was strong enough from God that even though I was on wait lists at Chapman & USC I chose to go on to Long Beach, trusting that God put me in the place that He wanted me and I was fully expecting to hate it and spend two years at an inferior film school, taught by professors who were teaching because they couldn’t be doing, and hating that I couldn’t be at my dream school.

I should have known never to question God.

From minute one on campus I was in love. I felt like I was finally where I was supposed to be, I was finally learning what I was supposed to be doing and for the first time in my life I was utterly comfortable in my own skin. God had planted me in a place that caused me to excel. He put me in a program that was better than I had ever anticipated and one that taught me more than I ever thought I could learn. Because God sent me to Long Beach I met people, saw movies and had experiences that I never would have had otherwise and I am a different person, a different artist for it.

I spent two wonderful years at Cal State University Long Beach. During those two years I felt God’s presence in a way that I haven’t felt since; it was so clear and sure that I never had any doubts about what I was doing or where He was taking me. In fact, I felt it so strongly and so uniquely that I have been trying to recapture it ever since I graduated in 2005.

Since leaving Long Beach I’ve felt God speak to me, but in much smaller and more subtle ways than he did for those two years. I still know that I am on the right path, and He is guiding me, but I am learning a new lesson now. Instead of learning how to go where I don’t want to be, I think I am learning about how to wait for His time and not mine. This lesson is a long one and if I am being honest one that I hope will end soon, but my faith is such that I will continue to go, to wait, and to hold everything in as open a hand as possible until I feel God call me in another direction and that has not happened yet.

Eight Years

Photo By: Erin




Photo By: J*Matt


Photo By: Alibubba

Hair Musings

I have naturally curly hair and what most people don't realize is that if you want to wear your hair curly there are not a lot of style examples to pull from. What do I mean? Think of your average fashion magizine and what types of hair do you see on the models when they are not grossly exagerated - Stick straight or artificial curls. Not even a natural wave in the bunch.

My hair also tends to do what I call poodling when it gets shorter. I think that term sounds like what it means. As such I haven't had my hair short since I was in junior high and I cut it all off in a boy cut - scratch taht - I cut it all off once more my freshman year in college and was sooo disturbed by it that I let it grow until my third or fourth year in college. It was half way down my back and insanely curly.

Anyway, I used to straighten my hair a lot or simply pull it back all the time. I've lost the fight against my curly hair. It won and I've decided I have to deal with it. So I am trying to work with the curl and I am learning new things and mainly what works for me. I think I am liking my hair better than I used to.

This all being said, I have been in LOVE with bobs since I was a kid and have never been able to get one. My new favorite - the angled bob. I saw a girl at church on Sunday that had one and her hair was a lot like mine, I now want that hair. I want to see if I can do it. And so I began an internet search. Again I found a lack of inspiration pictures but I found a few....

Amazingly I can't find a picture of anyone with a curly angled bob from the front, but I found lots of sides. If my hair can look like the below I kind of want to see if I can pull it off...I have a few weeks to decide if I am brave enough to do this. But then again, it's been a really long time since I made a genuinely stupid hair mistake...maybe it's time to make one again?

Random Quote #46 of Many...

Cop: I can put you in Queens on the night of the hijacking.
Hockney: Really? I live in Queens. Did you put that together yourself, Einstein? What, do you got a team of monkeys working around the clock on this?"

The Usual Suspects

I'm a Survivor

This rose has survived on my desk for over a week. It was given to me by a coworker a day I was out sick so it spent a good 24 hours chilling on my keyboard sans water until I came in the next day.

I chopped a little off the bottom, plopped it in an old water bottle and it's been perky ever since. It only just started to wilt some yesterday. I however am fascinated and going to see how long I can keep it alive.

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Sick

Grabbin' for a tissue
Originally uploaded by VTChEwbecca

I was sick for the entire time at Comic-Con this July - for the second year in a row - and I stayed sick for a week or two after. My mother seriously thought it was the swine flu.

I was better until a week ago. Now I am sick again!

I am tired of tissues. I am tired of cold meds. I am tired of not being able to concentrate.

I want to be able to work out. I want to be able to go five minutes without a tissue!

More than anything I refuse to be sick for Comic-Con again next year!

Work Strangeness

vintage family photo
Originally uploaded by sherbut_dip

There are three ladies that work for my company. I don't know their names or what department they work in, but I do know what they do for lunch every day. It's their lunch and break habits that make them unique.

In our lovely, industial parking lot these ladies go every day, yank a blanket out of one of their trunks, get a deck of cards and sprawl out on the cement and play games...while people drive past them. When lunch is over they pack everyhting up, throw it all back in the car and head back in to finish their day.

I can't decide if I admire them for their ingenuity or just think they are a bit odd.

Random Quote #45 of Many...

Lt. Aldo Raine: I need to know about Germans hiding in trees. And you need to tell me right now.
Sgt. Rachtman: I respectfully refuse, sir.
Lt. Aldo Raine: Actually, Werner, we're all tickled to hear you say that. Quite frankly, watching Donny beat Nazi's to death is the closest we ever get to going to the movies. Donny!
Sgt. Donowitz: Yeah?
Lt. Aldo Raine: Got us a German here wants to die for country. Oblige him.

Inglourious Basterds

Super

Made by a cool kat.

Random Quote #44 of Many...

Superman
Why Him: He's no less than the superhero archetype, but it wasn't until Christopher Reeve donned his tights that we realized the Man of Steel also had a soul.
Most Heroic Move: When he saves California from falling into the sea. No, it's when he gives his life to stop Doomsday from destroying Metropolis. No, wait, it's being Superman.
Least Heroic Move: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

Entertainment Weekly
Heroes & Villians

Post-Surgery

My beagle just had eye surgery and is cracking me up because of the cone she has to wear.

Random Quote # 43 of Many...

"I shoulda known something was wrong when you walked into my life carrying that big bag of crazy. Because any woman with a purse that big is bound to have something in it that I don't wanna know about."

Jason
True Blood
Plaisir D'amour

RDJ

I feel like its my security blanket as I've been carrying it around since Saturday. Not only because it's Iron Man 2, but because it's the Comic Con preview issue.

Who Dies?!

The whole reason I began reading the Harry Potter books was because of THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE. I really wanted to know who died and noone would tell me - as such I was bullied into reading them. I was hooked once I started. Rowling created one of the most complete, perfect and detailed worlds ever to grace fantasy. I love this world.

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Random Quote #42 of Many...

"It is worth pointing out that zombies produced through magical or simple chemical means are slow moving, and often smell from decay. Although it should be noted that the apparent slow movement is sufficient speed to keep the zombie no more than a few yards away from even a running Olympic caliber athlete."

Pop Culture Maddness

Empty

I only got to work 10 minutes eatly and no one is here. Maybe everyone is home watching the circus that is Michael Jackson's funeral. Wish I could've slept in today.

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July 4

Last fourth of July my dad and I rode to Newport and saw the chaos a holiday will create at a beach city. This year I really wanted to go hang out at the beach again but didn't want to fight the crowds. In an effort to comprimise and get some exercize in my brother and I rode to the Newport Back Bay on the Mountains to the Sea Trail. I think I'd like to live by the water someday. Tonight I think I'll watch Jaws.

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WIne

Opus One ...THE wine & swirl
Originally uploaded by hellbot

“When you find yourself absent-mindedly swirling, sniffing, and slurping your milk glass, coffee cup, or soda can, you have reached the first level of expertise and commitment to appreciating fine wine.”
winepros.org

I have never been a big drinker, and maybe it’s the snob in me, but the only alcohol that really appeals to me on an intellectual level is wine. But I am such a dork that I would really like to know more about the appreciation process of wine before I jump into drinking it on a regular basis. As such I’ve started hunting for resources to learn more.

I found winepros.org which is pretty dang cool, and already feel like I know a little bit more to start appreciating wine. I think part of my desire to appreciate wine also comes from two independent films: Sideways and Bottle Shock. I also now really want to visit Napa.

I knew it!

Okay, I have a low tolerance for stupidity. I know I do. If I have a character flaw that is it.

So when this girl came out and claimed she fell asleep while getting a face tattoo and woke up with a more extreme tattoo that she asked for I called foul. I watched Miami Ink and LA Ink - I know that they draw the tattoo on you, you have to approve it before they ink it. On top of that getting a tattoo is incredibly painful, and a face tattoo is even more painful.

There was no way unless that girl was drugged or high that she could possible sleep through a face tattoo.

When I heard she wanted stars tattooed on her face I immediately realized that she wanted to mimic the tattoos Kat Von D has on her face. But here’s the difference:

Kat: Pretty


Girl: Pretty Stupid

Sure enough, it came out that the girl was lying and didn’t fall asleep…she just lied when her parentals had a bad reaction to her prized tattoo.

Lol

Even Target's gone geek...

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Fallen Angel

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Random Quotes #41 of Many...

Jack:: There's always a puppy trapped in a car in those movies.
Steve: Sorry. The blob from outer space is the pause?
Jack: Yeah.
Steve: What exactly is the puppy?
Patrick: Love.
Steve: What?
Patrick: Well, obviously the puppy represents love. You've got to rescue the puppy of love from the car of...conversation.

Coupling
Size Matters

Iran

Twitter bird logo icon illustration
Originally uploaded by Matt Hamm

Those that said Twittter was another stupid social networking site are probably astounded at the moment. I see a giant upsurge in their membership coming...

Read This

Technology can be cool.

Random Quote #40 of Many...

Bill: What'd he say?
Robert: You really don't want to know.
Bill: I really do want to know.
Robert: He said Han Solo was cooler than Capt. Kirk.
Bill: Kick the little F--kers ass.

Free Enterprise

Get Over it Already

I am sick of Twilight. The movie was horific and I want the fans to be able to look back and admit it. However, I no longer feel alone in my annoyance at the Twilight super-freaks. I was in Hot Topic tonight and had to snap this shot. I sense a fair amount of sarcasm in this hastily scribbled sign...

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Cow

Nostalgia

Lak Hills Community Church. My parents met and got married here. Now the church is dwindling here....

10 pm Friday

Brain dead...

Mmmmm.......

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Random Quote #39 of Many...

You thought our luck was going to start now?

Bobby
Supernatural
Are you there God? It's me, Dean Winchester

Princess Bride Everywhere!!!

Friday

Random Quote #38 of Many...

You always pass failure on the way to success.

Mickey Rooney

Random Quote #37 of Many...

The television season is 9 months. It’s like having a baby, except the baby is hiatus.

Jane Espenson

Give it a rest

Idol's back
Originally uploaded by Litandmore

May I be the first to say that while I like the judging system on American Idol Paula and Simon need to give it a rest.

All those two can do is argue and interupt each other. While they both need to stop I have to say Paula needs more help than Simon. Simon will argue with Paula's critiques, but all Paula will do is take pot-shots at Simon. Was it really nessecary to tell Simon Kanye's "Heartless" is about him? Paula is totally covering her lack of wit with bitchiness. So much fun could be made of her - last year she judged David Cook on a song he hadn't sung yet!

Seriously though guys - give it a rest. It's bad TV.

Sucking the fun out of it

Mr. & Mrs. Cocktail-Partyton III
Originally uploaded by bcanada92

I feel a little bad for saying it, but I just can't not. Some people are just film snobs. The worst part is they don't even know it.

While I will be the first to argue for the phenominal film that no one in the mass audience likes, I also have to champion the big movies that so many film buffs are so ready to dismiss. Just because a movie comes out from January to October does not make it by rule a bad movie, and the critics that like it are not delusional. Some of these movies are genuinely good if not great.

Too many people I went to film school with lost the ability to have fun at the movies. They lost the ability to realize that they could sit back, have a blast and just enjoy where the movie they are watching take them and you can still keep your brain turned on while enjoying it. Behind the flash, special effects and hundreds of millions of dollars some of these movies are well written, thought out and genuinely good.

These are the movies that remind me why I got into the movies to begin with. These are the movies that excite you on a whole different level than an art or intellectual film can. They make you feel like a little kid who has discovered the movies all over again.

Please, when you watch movies this summer remember that yes, there are the Michael Bay's of the world, but there are also the Ron Howard's, JJ Abrams & James Cameron's. Try to let go and have some fun again.

A Whole New Level of Geek

There are just levels of geekdom that get hit and there is no going back. This is one of them.

While this is one thing that is cool (and let me tell you it's frickin' amazing)and a really fun piece of Star Wars merchandise, if you buy this for your child then there is a whole level of commitiment to the geek world that says a lot about your life style.

This dang fun thing can be purchased at ThinkGeek.com.

Random Quote #36 of Many...

I didn’t just hate this film. I hated the Lumiere brothers for inventing the celluloid camera which eventually led to this film.

Movie Reviewer, Deleted Scene
For Your Consideration

Random Quote #35 of Many...

Save the whales and not the universe huh?

Alex
The Last Starfighter

Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock

Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock
Originally uploaded by DRA Studio

There are few television shows that can make me laugh as hard as The Big Bang Theory. Finally, my kind is not only popular but has a TV show based on our quirks. I still can't belive a) that this show exists, b) that it's in its second season.