The Canadian figure skating judging system is in major need of less Paulas and more Simons. For realz.

First, the U.S. mens' final today was very edge of your seat, nail biting worthy and exciting! Though he did not make the Olympic team like I had hoped, Ryan Bradley did a wonderful job on his LP today. I was so proud of him! He really took the mistakes he made in his short and used them to fuel a spectacular performance. Unfortunately, his SP did cost him, but it sure was close between him and Johnny Weir. Only 7 points. Is it terrible that I was sitting there hoping and praying that Ryan would manage to edge Johnny out of third? Had it only been based on the LP, he would've gotten silver. Ryan truly was the second best skater of the day.

The 'best' label, however, goes to Jeremy Abbott hands down. Wow....and...wow. He basically blew everyone out of the water today. A near flawless program. In fact, I didn't notice a single mistake. Of course, I'm not a figure skater, so maybe I'm not knowledgeable enough to have spotted them. If there were any, they were very minimal. Jeremy ended up finishing 25 points ahead of silver medalist, Evan Lysacek. Again, wow. While Ryan is my all-time favorite male skater, I wound up spending most of my time watching Jeremy's routine with my mouth hanging open. Ryan still owns on the entertainment and audience interaction factors though. I would love to see him skate live some day! And Jeremy too!

And our Olympic team is gonna be, as expected, Abbott, Lysacek and Weir. No shake ups :-(

So, I always wind up with some sort of drama or frustration issues after these kind of things. This time around I found myself fairly content, but slightly disappointed about Ryan, knowing that we do have three strong skaters who made it on the podium and will in turn be going on to compete in February. Johnny and Evan have a little work to do on their LPs before Vancouver. Though today may have just been a result of the pre-Olympic jitters and a fluke. It happens.

Anyway, the drama didn't come until after watching the mens' final at the Canadian Nationals. They have a couple of pretty good guys up there. Not quite at the level of our American men, except for Patrick Chan that is. He's "above" the level of our guys. After his LP, he received a higher score than Jeremy's skate. The commentators at the U.S. mens' final today were talking about how Jeremy had edged into the amazing category with his cumulative score of 263. So then, Patrick's score of 268 should indicate that he managed to out-skate Jeremy, right?

Wrong. Okay, let me state that I really do like Patrick Chan and I think that he's a great skater. I enjoy watching him and hope for the best for him at the Olympics. But there is NO way that he skated better than Jeremy today. I'm aware that it was different countries and different judges, so you're gonna end up with different opinions. I am starting to wonder if we need a universal figure skating judging boot camp before the games in February. I can't seem to remember either Jeremy or Patrick's exact scores on their LPs. After a little calculating of what I recall their SP scores being (Patrick - 90, Jeremy - 87), Patrick must've gotten roughly 2 points higher than Jeremy received on his LP. Patrick had no quads in his program, Jeremy had one and landed it nicely. Patrick made a few noticeable mistakes (even I spotted them) and as previously mentioned, I didn't see any in Jeremy's skate. How does that work out?

Yes, I know they weren't judged by the same people. It sure would be curious to see how each of them would have fared had they swapped countries for the day. Man, Jeremy's scores might've been off the charts if he had skated in Canada tonight, while Patrick would've received a rude awakening here in the states. Personally, after watching him skate, I would put him right below Ryan. Not just because I'm biased and madly in love with Ryan, but to be honest I don't think he's on the level (yet!) of the top four we saw today. They showed a clip of Patrick's SP before his LP and even there he made a couple of mistakes. Which tells me that his SP score was considerably inflated along with his LP.

Someone on twitter the other night tweeted about how they were shocked that Patrick scored higher than Jeremy did on Friday without a triple/triple combination in his program. I tried to mentally give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he must have been so amazing that he didn't need the points from that combo. After today, I'm starting to think that the Canadians are just plain over-scoring their athletes. What they don't realize is that this is actually hurting them by giving them false expectations. I really hope that Patrick tries to track down and watch the performances of his Olympic competitors at their National competitions. Because if he just goes off of the comparison of his score to others in order to determine who his biggest competition will be, he's gonna be in big trouble.

I had every intention of just coming on here and making this a quick rant, but as usual when I get going, I have a hard time reeling it back in. On another note, the Australian Open is going on right now. Unfortunately, they're not giving us free live feed of the matches :-( I loved that the US Open did that in September! Now, I have to resign to listening to the Australian Open radio and watching the scores as they change. It's so much more fun watching it live though. Oh well. I'm actually listening to the Nadal/Luczak match this very moment. So far, it is tied 6-6 in the first set. But I'm gonna have to go to bed and won't get to finish listening to it. Hopefully, Rafa comes out on top. On the ladies' end of things, Maria Sharapova has already been knocked out of the running. She lost to Maria Kirilenko. Bummer. Justine Henin and Roger Federer are the ones I'm hoping win this year. So, we shall see.

I really need to go to bed. I'm heading up to Seattle later today to go see the 100 Monkeys concert in Seattle with Stephanie tonight. Yay! And the ladies and ice dancing competitions are happening later this week at nationals! So, good night! Oh, and remember that Pigs Can Fly! (showing some Jeremy love :-)

Too much time on my hands...

I need a job! Though I have been attempting to be somewhat productive by working on my room and getting it ready for whenever I'm financially able to move out to my own place. Do you know how hard it is to organize 26 years worth of stuff? I probably should throw some things out, but I'm too sentimental for that. One of the positives of having a lot of time is that I've had the chance to rediscover things I used to love and discover some new infatuations. Primarily music and movies. I recently found a whole bunch of my old CD's. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed the music of the late 90's. Was that really more than 10 years ago? Eeeek!

Despite the lack of depth in several of their songs, I really love my old Aqua CD. Yes, the group famous for the "Barbie Girl". "Be a Man" and "Turn Back Time" are actually really good songs and the rest of their music is just fun to bop around and be silly too. They did a song called "Doctor Jones" and I'm wondering if it's a reference to Indiana Jones. There's a line in it that is in Temple of Doom (more on that later). Hmm.... I also found some of my BSB and Hanson albums. Plus a whole bunch of singles. Remember those? They may still make them, but I haven't bought a CD in so long, so I don't know. They were great for if you liked a particular song by an artist, but maybe had heard that the rest of the album wasn't all that great. I remember buying them for like a dollar or two back in the day. My friends and I used to collect Hanson and Spice Girls singles, since those were our two favorite groups.

I'm actually listening to one of my uncovered CD's right now, the Aida original Broadway cast soundtrack. I wish they would bring the show to Seattle, I love it! Princess Amneris is my favorite charactor and my fave songs are "My Strongest Suit", "The Gods Love Nubia" and "I Know the Truth". Elton John and Tim Rice did such an amazing job with the music!

So, one of my new discoveries is Ariana Grande. This girl is super talented and she's like 16 years old! I had seen that Amanda Bynes had sent her a comment on Twitter one day and ended up clicking on the link to her youtube channel to see who she was. Before I knew it, I had watched like every video on her channel. From the looks of it, one of her favorite past times when she was younger was putting together amazingly edited videos. She was on Broadway in the short-lived show called 13: The Musical, which is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence performed by the first all-teenage cast ever. It actually looked like a great show. I'm kind of bummed they ended it already. Anyway, here's one of my favorite Ariana videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sEjGp2WmDA Talk about some major multi-tasking and I so want one of those looper thingamajigs! I'm looking forward to seeing Ariana on the upcoming Nickelodeon show, VicTORIous. I really hope they take advantage of her phenomenal voice.

Okay, I'm tired of being careful about correct punctuation. No more quotes and italicizing. Lately, I have been on a kick of watching movie series. The other night was all about X-Men. So, I know I previously blogged about how horrible the third installment, X-Men: The Last Stand, was. But after watching it again for the first time since seeing it in theater, I may have to retract some of the ranting. While it still doesn't hold up to the first two films, it's really not all that bad. I think it's growing on me. Yay for second chances!

Now, this is not the case for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I'm in the middle of an Indy-fest (Indy being short for Indiana) and last night I watched Raiders followed by Temple of Doom. I think I've seen Raiders at least once a year (if not anywhere between 2-5 times) since I was born. I was like 3 or 4 when I fell in love with Indiana Jones. He was my second crush after Luke Skywalker. My family has been big fans of the series for as I can remember. Raiders and The Last Crusade are staples in our family movie times. While I really love The Last Crusade (Sean Connery totally makes the movie!), Raiders just has a little bit of a headstart since it was the first movie to come out.

You would think that Temple of Doom should be in that mix since it was second in the series, right? Prior to last night the first and only time I saw it had been about 18 years ago when I was in 3rd grade. All I remember from the experience was an annoying Asian kid, an even more obnoxious blonde lady, people eating monkey brains, some priest dude ripping out the heart of another guy and just completely hating the film, in general. After watching it last night, my opinion has not changed. I had to resist the urge to turn it off 10 minutes into the film. The reason I love the other two is because of the humor and charactor development. Temple of Doom lacked both. Cheesy dialogue, bad acting, scenes brinking on being horribly offensive/racist and over-the-top disgustingness. The dinner scene was seriously one of the worst things I have ever seen. Now, I don't mind a little racist humor every now and again, as long as it's not outwardly offensive or rude. After watching this movie, you would come to conclusion that people from India are Satan-worshipping, voodoo-doing, eyeball/snake surprise/monkey brain/cockroach eating freaks. I'm aware that they probably do eat some things that we would not consider appetizing by any means here in the States. I have been to the Philippines, so I've had some eye-openers when it comes to food. But this was so ridiculously overboard and gross. And a 7.5/10 rating on IMDB? Really? I'd give it a 2. It completely lost the continuity of the other two movies. I had watch part of The Last Crusade afterward to remind myself why I loved Indiana Jones. "Ah, Venice", "Look what you did, I can't believe what you did!" Love that movie! Oh well, I guess even Lucas and Spielberg are entitled to make mistakes and Temple of Doom was definitely one of them :-( Tonight I plan to finish The Last Crusade then watch The Crystal Skull, which I have not yet seen. I've heard mixed reviews, so I'm feeling a little pessimistic, but we'll see.

I saw Avatar last weekend with my sister. All I can say is WOW! They could have done without the spurts of foul language, but aside from that I was blown away. I don't think I've ever cried over blue people before, lol. I can't wait for the sequels since it's supposed to be a trilogy!

I got a leopard print Snuggie for Christmas....and I'm actually starting to like it. While I still think it's a silly fad and that they really do look like multi-colored Monk robes, they are pretty comfortable. In fact, I'm using mine right now :-) Today is the start of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships! I guess the pairs are just about done with their SP. Sad day for Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker :-( There were some twittered updates that Keauna fell twice. It's okay, they still have the long. I'm pulling for them to make the Olympic team! Tonight is the Men's SPs. Unfortunately Universal Sports is only airing like an hour and a half of live coverage. I hope they're smart and show all of the frontrunners (Evan, Ryan, Brandon, Jeremy, Adam....and even Johnny) during that time. I'm gonna be bummed if I don't get to see Ryan's routine. To celebrate the week of figure skating festivities, I created a lovely backround for my laptop and Twitter page. Check it out:
Yeah, I know it's a little Ryan heavy, but what can I say, I love the guy! I'm currently counting down the hours until 10 when US is supposed to have some live coverage tonight. So excited! Good luck to all of the skaters! I think this may be my longest blog entry ever. I think I'm done now, lol. Au Revoir!

It's Christmastime!

I truly love this time of year. The decorations, the music, the movies, how everyone just seems so much more happy and smilier than normal. I don't even mind the commercials since they're Christmasy.

So, I've been trying for Michael Buble tickets all week long for his Seattle concert in April. Warm 106.9 was giving away tickets in the front 5 rows and today was front row tickets. Did I win? Of course not :-( If I had, I would probably be jumping off the walls and hyperventilating right about now. I love him! Oh well, it obviously wasn't meant to be.

I don't care that it got 4.6 stars out of 10 on IMDB or that there are loads of bad reviews written about it, but I thoroughly enjoyed New Moon. It wasn't phenomenal and the acting definitely wasn't Oscar-worthy. It was what it was, the sequel to what started out as an Indy like film and bloomed into a mega franchise. As far as the books go, New Moon is my least favorite in the series. So, though I was still really excited to see it, I went into the movie with somewhat low expectations. It did help that I was going to see it with several good friends. In fact, everyone that went on our little Twilight stalking trip back in April to Vancouver while they were filming New Moon was there. It was a mini reunion :-) Plus, prior to the movie I had gotten to chill with Vicki at Starbucks and then we had a dinner of happy hour menu items at this awesome restaurant and lounge in the Belltown area of Seattle, called Amber. Great place, totally recommend it!

Anyway, back to New Moon. I really thought that Chris Weitz did a great job with it! When I read the book, I spent most of the time frustrated about Edward leaving and how stupid Bella was being. While this also occurred in the movie, there were so many humorous moments to keep me from dwelling on those facts. I think I spent most of the time laughing and drooling over Taylor Lautner sans shirt. I still can't believe he's only 17. All in all, it was a great movie and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. Afterward we went to this chocolate bar restaurant place. I totally forget the name of the place, but their chocolate mousse was to die for and this restaurant did remind me of Papa Haydn's in Portland. Our hostess was the sweetest girl. It turned out that she was a Twilight fan too and was excited when we told her that we just got out of the movie. S and Mel were gonna buy some of the individual chocolates they had behind the counter, but instead the hostess gave a plate of them to our table for free! According to V, this is not a common occurrance. I really think that there is some unspoken bond amongst us Twihards. I first noticed it in Vancouver. Eclipse comes out in June! From the sounds of it, they're also bringing it to the Imax theaters, yay! Edward, Jacob and Emmett on a huge Imax screen? I could deal.

The ISU Grand Prix events are officially over, leaving Evan Lysacek and Kim Yu-Na as the champions. Evan is just amazing. I think that he's gonna give Plushenko a run for his money at the Olympics. And while I'm really not a big fan of Johnny Weir, he can skate very well. As can Jeremy Abbott.

Despite my allegations that he can't pull it off in my previous entry, I really really really want to see Ryan Bradley compete in Vancouver. He really proved himself in his long program at Skate America. Except for the Adagio movement in his clarinet concerto, I don't think I have ever enjoyed music by Mozart more than when Ryan did his Amadeus routine. What a character! If he can just work in some more confidence and consistency, I think that he could be a strong competitor. He is such a class act, not to mention an all-around nice guy. I've actually had the chance to chat with him a bit via Facebook. It's so sweet that he's taken time to respond to his fans on there. I haven't quite worked up the courage to ask for his hand in marriage yet, but there's still time. Can you imagine how adorable our kids would be? I love the look of dark hair with blue or green eyes, so in my high school biology class I remember doing a lab where we got to figure out the probability of the eye colors of our future kids. Ryan has dark brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. I have brown eyes with a recessive blue via my dad. I remember doing the calculations and if I marry someone with blue or green eyes, there will be a 50/50 chance that our kids will have blue or green eyes!

Kim Yu-Na is, little by little, getting knocked off of her throne. In the Grand Prix event she did prior to the final it was proven that she is in fact human, not just some skating machine that pumps out near flawless performances. Her human side came out again in the SP of the final and for the first time in who knows how long, she was second place going into the LP behind Japan's Miki Ando. While she totally worked it in the LP and ended up winning, it does seem that we might have a more interesting competition on the ladies' side in the Olympics than originally speculated. We shall see. Yay for Ashley Wagner showing her stuff in her LP after a disappointing SP. That girl's got the goods, I really like her!

Unfortunately, our American ladies have a lot of work to do if there's gonna be any chance of medaling in Vancouver. I still have no idea who our two ladies are gonna be. If Sasha Cohen does compete at Nationals and skates at the top of her game, she will be a shoo in and may actually have a shot at the podium in the Olympics. Her biggest set back will be not having done any competitive skating in the last few years. But if anyone can pull it off, it's Sasha! The second slot is really just up for grabs by Alissa, Rachael, Mirai or Ashley. It all comes down to Nationals in January. I can't believe that it's gonna be in Spokane again. That's only 5 hours away from here! But it won't work out financially. I'd have to take the Greyhound to get there, the tickets are nearly $100 per skating event and then there would be the hotel stay. Grr... Someday I WILL get to see some figure skating live in person. I am determined to make it happen.

I just watched the sneak peak trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I am so excited! Do we really have to wait a whole year until part 1 comes out? That's gonna feel like an excrutiating eternity. Well, I think I'm gonna go work on some of the presents I'm knitting and watch a Christmas movie. Did I mention that I LOVE this time of year?

3 months til the Winter Olympics: Part deux/2

I already updated my status on facebook regarding the fact that Sasha Cohen will not be competing this weekend in Lake Placid due to tendinitis. :-( I was so excited at the thought of her comeback in competitive figure skating. Plus she would've posed as a glimmering beam of hope for our Olympic ladies' team. Though she is still planning on competing in January at Nationals. I am just having the hardest time finding any other American female who could medal in February. And it's not that they aren't good, because they are! But the consistency in performances just is not there. What happened to our Kristy Yamaguchis and Tara Lipinskis? It's not even only our country with the problem, it's a universal issue. When the silver and bronze medalists both make like 4 or 5 major mistakes in their programs, but still wind up on the podium, this is not a good sign. Is it just me or has ladies' figure skating gone downhill through the years? Even during the last Olympics, I wasn't impressed with the standings. Arakawa was amazing and truly deserved gold. But neither Cohen or Slutskaya did very well. Sasha fell twice near the beginning of her program and still managed to snag the silver. Granted, she did come back with a vengeance, but don't even get me started on the fact that with this new judging system you can throw in a bunch of extra jumps after the halfway point for bonus points. Extra credit in skating? Blargh... :-P Whatever happened to being judged on your overall performance?

Nevertheless, we will be sending two skaters to Vancouver in February. Even though I don't think that she did well at the last Olympics, Sasha is still one of my favorite skaters and I would love to see her given another chance. Which will depend upon the speed of her recovery, so I'm not gonna get my hops up too much in an effort to keep them from being dashed. Alissa Czisny is a favorite for the team. I honestly don't think she can pull it off. She's had some shining moments in the past and really skates beautifully, but has choked more often than she's succeeded. The 2008 Nationals brought 3 wonderful young skaters: Mirai Nagasu, Rachael Flatt and Ashley Wagner. Since then, their biggest issue has been consistency. For Mirai, her struggle has been her sense of rebellion and the fact that she has grown several inches in the last year. I can't imagine being her, having performed so spectacularly almost two years ago and then having to adjust to a longer body. She will be at Skate Canada and I'm looking forward to seeing if she brings it there. The other potential for the team is Caroline Zhang, though again, same issue as the rest. Alexe Gilles is an up-and-comer who I don't think is in the running for these Olympics, but is someone to look out for in the years to come. I really enjoyed her skating the other night! If Sasha does not end up being one of the two, I would love to see any combination of Mirai, Rachael and Ashley. If I HAD to pick two, it would be Sasha Cohen and Mirai Nagasu.

Now if we're talking who's gonna win the gold, hands down, Kim Yu-Na from South Korea. She is beyond amazing. First female to get more than 200 on the new system and I don't think she's scored any less since then. Kim is in a league of her own right now. When she won gold, she was 36 points ahead of silver medalist, Miki Ando. Normally there is roughly only a 15 point span between the 1st and 5th place, but not when Kim competes. She slams the door shut. So basically, there will be no real competition for the gold. The silver and bronze medal winners will probably have more of a fight. I'm expecting an Asian persuasion invasion and for the standings to potentially just echo Nagano: Kim Yu-Na, Miki Ando and Mao Asada. But that may change. In actuality, Miki and Mao's performances this past weekend were not all that great even though they made it onto the podium. There were several major flubs made by both. This being said, that may leave room for someone else to creep into the running. Elena Leonova from Russia has been doing pretty well and I'm already a fan of Canada's Joannie Rochette. Unfortunately, I do not foresee any of our U.S. ladies medaling. :-( Except for maybe Sasha... *keeping fingers crossed and praying*

3 months until the Winter Olympics, yeah baby!

Alrighty now, it's that time. I am officially in full-blown figure skating obsession mode! Aside from looking for a job, what else is there to do? I've spent these last few days getting caught up on this year's Grand Prix events that have been re-airing on the Universal Sports network as a part of their "Countdown to Vancouver".

So, I decided to devote this blog entry to my picks for the U.S. Olympic team and to share my thoughts on the figure skating universe, in general. First up, the men. I don't know how in the world they are going to narrow it down to just three! In my mind, the top contenders are Evan Lysacek, Johnny Weir, Brandon Mroz, Adam Rippon, Ryan Bradley and Jeremy Abbott. Provided he places at Nationals in January, Evan is a shoo-in and he's who I would want on the team anyway. Johnny, I'm not so sure about. Despite the fact that I just plain don't like him, he is a really good skater. But he's recovering from various illnesses which has hindered his performance. Though he did manage a silver this past weekend at the Grand Prix in Japan. I still think that he's the Novak Djokovic of the skating world. Djokovic the Djoke, as I like to refer to him, is a great tennis player, but he always has some excuse to whine about when he plays poorly. A couple of U.S. Opens ago, Roddick took a dig at this fact when asked how he felt about an upcoming match against him. He, totally jokingly, listed silly things such like saars, anthrax and bird flu as being some of Novak's "ailments". Unfortunately, Novak didn't take it that way and was upset about the comment. And sadly enough, he went on to beat Roddick. :-(

But tennis is not my focus here. It's funny how I can, so easily, switch from dwelling on one obsession to the other. Okay, the 18 year old Brandon Mroz. Love him! He got silver earlier this year at Nationals and when he's on, he's on! Like with most skaters, consistency is his biggest issue. Though I was just watching his long program performance today from the re-airing of the Grand Prix in Moscow and despite falling on a triple axel, he was amazing! That shows a lot if you can finish strongly after a disaster like that. Adam Rippon is another one that has awesome potential. He is a very strong skater and, I think, could be a real attribute to our team. Thinking about Ryan Bradley makes me sad. He really could be amazing, he has all the right stuff. Too bad he reminds me of myself and my past Solo/Ensemble experiences. We just choke when it comes down to the competition aspect. Who knows, he may prove himself this weekend in Lake Placid. *keeping my fingers crossed*

Jeremy Abbott started strong in Nagano, but wasn't able to keep it going for his free skate. I can't truly formulate my opinion of his current status since it was only his first event of the season. He did win Nationals this year though, so he is really good. I think, for me, it just seems that he shows more personality off ice than on. So, onto the Olympic team. The common consensus is that it will be Lysacek, Weir and Abbott. Depending on how the season goes, I would personally prefer to have a team of Lysacek, Mroz and Rippon. I believe that I stated that I would love to marry Ryan Bradley in a previous blog entry, so it really hurts to not include him in my picks :-( As far as medaling goes, I have a feeling that Yevgeney Plushenko of Russia is gonna take gold, France's Brian Joubert may have a shot at silver if he plays his cards right and possibly Lysacek for bronze. Though one of those Czech guys, Brezina or Vernor, might edge in to claim a silver or bronze. I love what the commenter said about Brezina's Nagano free skate, "A Czech in Japan skating to Gershwin's An American in Paris, whaddaya think of that?".

I didn't realize that I would ramble on this much, so I'm gonna break things up a bit. I'll start a new entry for my opinion on the ladies' end of the figure skating spectrum.

Books trump Movies

Okay, so as previously indicated on my Facebook status updates, I am officially a Harry Potter fan. I had seen the first five movies prior to reading the books and then I thought it'd be cool to watch the movies and see how they hold up after reading the books. Bad idea. At least in the case of The Goblet of Fire. What a disappointment! What happened to the house elves (Hermione's campaigning for their liberation, the Winky story line and the fact that is was Dobby NOT Neville who gave Harry the gillyweed). Why did they choose to not even include or mention Ludo Bagman or Bertha Jenkins? I liked the whole thing between the twins and Bagman. Where was Percy? What about Rita Skeeter? She was shown like twice in the movie and there was nothing about her being a beetle so that she could get the inside info Hogwarts. And the love triangle article did not come out until AFTER the Yule Ball. In fact, when the article is written in the movie is before we even know that Hermione is going to the ball w/ Krum. There are only a couple of subtle hints that they even know eachother. And Neville was just made out to be a crybaby, because it's never explained why he's so affected by the use of the Cruciatus curse.

I spent majority of the time yelling at the screen. Even the sight of Edward Cullen a.k.a. Robert Pattinson a.k.a. Cedric Diggory wasn't enough to minimize my frustration. On another note, I finally allowed myself to watch Prisoner of Azkaban, because I really enjoyed reading the book. And I liked it! I still like the first movie the best, but this one is a close second. They had a little bit of the whole leaving stuff out, but not near as extreme as Goblet. Though it did bother me that they never explained who the creators of the mischief map were and why Harry's patronus was a stag. Oh, and another rant regarding Goblet. Why in the world did the movie wrap up so nicely? That was so not the case in the book! They totally should've included Dumbledore's suggestions to Fudge as to what his actions should be now that Voldemort was back. It would've been a great lead in.

Okay, I'm done. I am now hoping that my stupid sinuses will leave me alone so that I can go to Chehalis tonight. So far, things are not looking so good... :-(

And jealousy ensues...

Okay, it's really not that bad. But my friends are up in Vancouver right now because they had gotten tickets for the Sam Bradley show last night. I had been invited, but declined because I teach Sunday School and didn't want to be gone another week. So, I really shouldn't feel too bad about not being there. Sundays are awesome! :-) Anyway, I got a text message yesterday afternoon about them meeting Michael Welch who plays Mike Newton in the Twilight movie. They actually saw him twice. The second time, I guess he was talking to some paralyzed guy on the street who sang for money. Michael sounds like an awesome guy! Then, I got another text message at 2 am this morning that they saw Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson as they were leaving the show. I had been sure that at least Rob would be there, since he and Sam Bradley have been good friends since they were like 12. Grr... I am still sad I missed out on all of it, though :-( This just means that I have to take a trip up there sometime with in the next two weeks before the filming of New Moon moves to Italy!

Starstruck in Vancouver - Twilight Weekend (April 17th-19th, 2009) - Part 2

Steph, Drew, Vicki and Lisa had the Spaghetti and Kobe meatballs, which happens to be Rob Pattinson's favorite thing to order at Glowbal. I had a bite and must agree that it was very good. Though so was what I ordered (the Glowbal Benedict). That night we went to the 100 Monkeys Concert at the Rio Theater. There were a few groups before them (Tripsonic, The Mediators and the Sandman) who were pretty good, but I was too excited to see Jackson Rathbone and his band play again. I read somewhere that Jackson is preparing for his role as Sokka in a movie based on a cartoon series called The Last Airbender. This may explain why he was able to do this with his hair: He doesn't quite look like Jasper in these pics, lol. But he was still hot! Now, my FAVORITE character in the Twilight series is Alice Cullen (Edward's sister who has the power to see the future). By this point, being that we were gonna have to head home right after the concert, I was pretty sure that my chances of meeting the actress, Ashley Greene, who plays Alice were slim to none. But then Steph saw her and Rachelle Lafevre (Victoria) heading to the backstage area!
And then, as if to top off my "Twilight" weekend, Ashley had to make her way through the crowd to head to the ladie's room. As obsessed as I am, I did not follow her into the bathroom. I did get a pic of her as she was coming up the aisle, but my absolute favorite moment was getting to meet and take a picture w/ her when she was heading back to the backstage area! Ashley was so awesome! Right after the concert, Jackson came out to sign autographs and chat w/ the fans. Just like Selena, Rachelle and Ashley, he was also incredible! And here's the C.D. that he and his band had signed on Saturday night. Their music is really cool and there are a bunch of videos up on Youtube. Now, I can't wait until August when the filming for the third book, Eclipse, is supposed to start. I think that some more trips up to Vancouver may be in order... :-)

Starstruck in Vancouver - Twilight Weekend (April 17th-19th, 2009)

The friends I had mentioned in my previous post (Steph and Vicki), a few of their friends (Drew, Felicia and Lisa) and I decided to make a trip up to Vancouver because they were in the process of filming the next installment in the movie version of the Twilight series. Of course, the main purpose of our trip was to see some of the filming locations and try to meet some of the cast. Stephanie actually spearheaded the trip by doing all of the research, planning and driving. She also arranged for a free place for us to stay via this couchsurfing website. Steph, you're the bomb!

Now, when I say that she had done some researching, I mean it. Steph compiled an entire list of places the cast had been seen at and the hotel majority of them were staying at. So, our first night, our couchsurfing host (Dave) helped us find a couple of places on her list. We had dinner at the India Bistro, which is downtown Vancouver on Davie St. Awesome place!
Then we went to this place called Chill Winston where Kristen Stewart (she plays Bella in the movie) had been the previous week for her birthday.

The next morning we went to the Ridge theater that they were using for some of the scenes in New Moon.
Then we went to the hotel where Steph and discovered that several of the cast were staying. Later that day, I found out from some fellow fans that we had gotten there about 15 minutes after Kellan Lutz (Emmett) and Ashley Greene (Alice) left for breakfast and we left the hotel a little bit before Taylor Lautner (Jacob) came by. Anyway, after stopping by the hotel for a bit, we roamed Robson St (a shopping district in downtown Vancouver where several of the cast have been spotted), checking out the stores and keeping our eyes open.

I stupidly wore the wrong shoes for the weekend and ended up w/ monsterous blisters on both feet. So, that afternoon, I split of from the others to keep my feet from screaming at me. Well, then I realized that I didn't want to miss out on anything, so I left a note stating that I was heading back to the hotel where some of the Twilight cast were at, but ended up meeting up w/ Steph and the others there anyways. We were chatting w/ a couple of other stalkers...whoops, "pursuers", when one of them all of a sudden says "Oh, there's Kellan." I was so excited, it was our first siting of the weekend! Unfortunately, he was hurrying to get into a vehicle that was waiting to take him to the airport, so no pics of him (he's already in the jeep and the driver was loading his luggage), but he at least waved. What a cutie! :-)
A litte while after that, Rachelle Lafevre who plays the fiery redhead, Victoria. Despite the fact that she plays one of the evil vampires, she was just as sweet as could be. She was on her way to go do some filming, but was nice enough to stop for a couple of pictures. Love her!

We already had tickets for Jackson (Jasper) Rathbone's group's (100 Monkeys) concert for Sunday night, but we found out that they were doing a mini-concert/autograph signing that evening at Neptoon Records on Main St. They're actually an awesome group and Jackson is so talented!

On Sunday morning, Steph, Drew and I decided to hang out at the hotel again in case any of the cast emerged for breakfast. We didn't see anyone from Twilight... But at one point, Steph quietly brought to our attention that Selena Gomez (Disney channel's Wizards of Waverly Place, Another Cinderella Story) and her mom were walking by. Selena was in Vancouver filming a movie adaptation of a Beverly Cleary book, Ramona and Beezus. I happen to love the show Wizards of Waverly Place and think that Selena Gomez is a good actress and a doll. So, I couldn't help blurting out hi to her and asking for a picture as she passed by. Just like Rachelle, she was a total sweetie and happy to stop for a pic.

That afternoon we went to lunch at Glowbal Grill and Satay Bar on Mainland St where Rob Pattinson (Edward) and others are know to frequent several times a week. This place was great and I totally recommend it!

The long awaited Twilight entry....

Okay, it's really only been a week. So, I finally have something exciting to blog about. At least it's exciting to me, others may not find it to be, but that's their problem.

Several months ago, I was visiting my friends, Steph and Vicki, up in Seattle. Steph happens to be a very avid Twilight fan and insisted that I should start reading the series. I had heard a little bit about Twilight and thought "Why not?". Unfortunately, at the time, I think I was just kind of passively reading it. Well, I went to visit them again a few weeks before the Twilight movie came out in theaters and this time had become more aware of the hype around the series. So, that night at their place, I started reading it again with a more vested interest. Let's just say, I could not put the book down. I stayed up most of the night and then woke up early the next morning to finish it. And then, I couldn't wait to start on the next one, New Moon. And then the next one (Eclipse) and finally the fourth one (Breaking Dawn).

I know that the idea of a series about a romance between a vampire and a human sounds kind of silly, but the way Stephenie Meyer writes it is so addictive. And I always tell people that if there were a such thing as Christian vampires, these would be them. The Cullens are "vegetarian" vampires, they don't eat people and fight against the evil vamps. The only problem is that if you're single and reading the series, it can be rather depressing. Because you wind up moping around your house wondering when your Edward is gonna show up. Yes, speaking from personal experience... Okay, I'm gonna end this particular blog post to avoid writing a massive one. My next entry will be about my crazy Twilight weekend in Vancouver :-)