In The Mood

A good portion of you who read my blog know about the quote pictures that I have made. I think I've made ten of them: Anne of Avonlea, Pride & Prejudice (Colin Firth version), Pride & Prejudice (2005 version), Harry Potter, Disney, Emma/Persuasion, Jane Eyre (2007 version), North & South, Random Period Movies and Random Modern Movies. Well, I'm kind of in the mood to at it again. I have a request for the new Jane Austen movies and I thought of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Here's the question: Can you think of any other great quotable movies that would be fun to make quote picture for? Add a comment to this entry or email me any ideas you might have. You can even send along quotes, pictures, etc. If you are reading this and have no idea what I am talking about, below is an example of one that I have done. (If you're interested in getting any/all of the ones I have made, feel free to ask.)

My Masterpiece

It's been an interesting couple of days. Some things went really well and others not so well. On Friday I went up to my friend Aaron's work so that he could help me with my website and email. We figured out several things ie. setting up a shopping cart and making sure our merchant account was compatible with the cart. We also set up my business email through Thunderbird, which is what I have been wanting to do, but haven't been very successful. So up 'til then I was using Outlook Express. Well, I've tried to access my email several times today with no success. Argh! I've tried Thunderbird, Outlook and through my web host. And all I get is nothing. I thought perhaps that I hadn't received any emails, so I sent one from my personal account - one on Friday, the other today. Neither of those have appeared. It's just frustrating! I don't want to fix it, but it will have to be done and the sooner the better.

On Saturday I had some free time, so I read a lot and watched Pride & Prejudice. It was just lovely! What more could a girl ask for. Then today I accompanied the musical number at church - which turned out well. I also had to play the organ. I don't really like to play the organ and so I realize that my attitude might be a hindrance to my skill. That being said, I practiced for about 20-30 minutes before I had to play. I especially practiced the pedals and the intros. Then, I played them. Not one of the intros was stellar. In fact on one of them I read the wrong thing entirely. How does that happen? I just don't know. Then there is also this guy at my church who has some unique musical qualities. His face scrunches up a bit when he sings and he doesn't move his lips much, so he has a similar tone on everything he sings. Then he also sings really loud and confident. Every time I play I almost burst out laughing. Sometimes he starts the song a half a beat after everyone and most of the time he holds the note out two beats too long. It just cracks me up. I don't know whether I should cut off with him or the chorister. I mean, he is so loud. Some days it is really hard not to burst out laughing during the song - on those days I have a huge grin on my face.

I had some free time this evening, so I did a tutorial on how to make woodgrain from scratch in Photoshop. I finished the tutorial and was so pleased with what I had made that I wanted to make a work of art out of it. I was reminded about a conversation I had earlier today with my friend, Marie, about the BBC Robin Hood. I realized that I hadn't made a background for this show. I know - it's shocking! I ended up doing another tutorial on how to make aged paper. I picked out some of my favorite Robin Hood pictures and saturated and texturized the edges. I also made the nails that are hanging the pictures. I just am so proud of this background because barring the pictures and the font, everything else I created. So take a look at my masterpiece. If you want a copy for your background just email me and I'll send it to you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is my newest valentine design

Chinese New Year at the Library

On Saturday, the downtown library hosted a Chinese New Year celebration. Everyone and anyone who wanted to come was welcome. They had several Chinese themed activities, including writing banners for people in Chinese. (See the pictures below). In conjunction with this, the library also hosted their volunteer appreciation party. Since I am a volunteer, I was invited to this event. It was a lot of fun, as expected. I took mom with me, since we're allowed to bring a guest and it's so much more fun to go with others. They gave us all stickers with our Chinese horoscope animal on it. I am the year of the pig and mom is the year of the rabbit, although she thought she was the year of the ox. (Victoria is the year of the Ox). They had little place cards on all of the tables that had the qualities attributes of the people for all of the different animals. It was fun to read them all. They had some really nice food there as well. There was chocolate Costco cake, a cheese tray, a veggie tray, cookies, focacia bread, a shrimp tray, crackers, sushi and Martinelli's apple cider to drink. I don't think Mom or I have stuffed ourselves that much for a long time. It was wonderful! Then as we left the gave all of the volunteers a large Chinese take-out box with literary quote fortune cookies from the library store. All in all it was a lot of fun.

Attributes of a Year of the Pig person:

The Pig type is usually an honest, straightforward and patient person. They are a modest, shy character who prefers to work quietly behind the scenes. When others despair, they are often there to offer support. This type of person is reserved with those they do not know too well, but as time passes and they gain confidence, those around them may discover a lively and warm-hearted person behind that mask of aloofness. Despite those born in the year of pig having a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, they have few close friends who understand them and share their inner thoughts and feelings. It is easy to put trust in pig type; they won't let you down and will never even attempt to do so. Such people simply want to do everything right according to social norms.

It is important to remember that these people are not vengeful creatures. If someone tries to take advantage of them, the pig type tend to withdraw to reflect on the problem and protect themselves. All they need in such situations is a little time to find a constructive way to respond. The people of the pig type are conservative creatures of habit. They dislike being made to travel too far from familiar surroundings, unless it is a trip to the countryside. They love nature and are never happier than when they are out somewhere, far from the city.

There is a tolerant and peaceful side to their character. Such people are never afraid to allow others their freedom of expression; they do not want to cause arguments and if there is any way to avoid arguing, they will probably take this option. However, they are not weak and if the situation forces them to fight these people will rise to the occasion, whether it is to defend themselves or those close to them.

I think that is a really good summary of my character, for the most part. Below are some pictures that I took at the library. The first two of the President's Day display that Tommy and I created and the next two are of the Chinese New Year events at the library.

Humor and Humbling

I know I'm a little late, but I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Groundhog Day! I actually had forgotten about this silly holiday until my sister, Victoria came home that day. She told us that "Positawny Phil" had seen his shadow so it was six more weeks of winter. After I picked myself up off of the floor from laughing so hard, we had a little lesson in Groundhog Day. More specifically I explained to her the the groundhog's name is Punxsutawny Phil, not Positawny. I said I was positively sure of it. Ha ha ha!

On Monday I broke tradition went to my ward FHE. I know, breathe in, breathe out. It was a shock to most people. I teach a piano lesson until about 6:30 and they usually start at 6:00, not to mention that I usually don't want to participate in most of the activities. This week we got to go on a tour of the State Prison. The Warden is one of the High Counselors for my ward. We didn't get to go into the hard core part of prison, but we went to their drug rehab center. Well, everyone who is in there was on drugs. They are not now, but that's one of the reasons that they landed in jail. I take it back, it was called the Corrections center, but it's still about the same thing. There were several thousand men in there (we went to the male facility), in a space that was uncomfortably small. They had like a hundred beds, bunk beds with 5 or less inch think mattresses, several metal tables with benches hooked to them and toilets and showers where you could see the man next to you in a space about as big as a full size basketball court. As we walked around and saw the men, the Warden said that they felt like they were on display - like a circus. But I tell you what, I don't know who felt more uncomfortable, us or them. We stared or tried not to stare at them and they stared right back at us. It was a very sobering place. We also saw a video about how the prison operated. Then a panel of six inmates came in and talked to us and answered our questions. Two of the guys on the panel had hit and killed someone while driving drunk. The rest of them had all committed a crime using a deadly weapon. One of the guys had been in and out three times. The part of prison that they were in was a rehab of sorts. They got an education, therapy and learned how to cope in the real world. Of all the people that go through this program only about 10% of them become repeat offenders. Whereas those who don't go through this program about 80% are repeat offenders. One of the guys was going up for his parole hearing in the next month or two and it was interesting to hear about the goals this guy had. I mean, I felt like a slacker listening to him. It really made me want to re-evaluate my life and set some better goals. It was really inspiring. Overall it was sobering and educational trip. I mean most of these guys started on drugs when they were just 8 years old. I wish that we, as a society, could take the eight year olds on a trip to the prison and show them where they will end up if they take drugs. I could not stand that kind of lack of privacy. It make me uncomfortable just thinking about it. I really felt bad for some of the guys in there. What a hard life they have led, all because of their free agency. It makes me grateful for my own ability to make good decisions for me and those around me.

I finished reading Persuasion this past week. As I read I highlighted all of my favorite passages. It was so wonderful! A couple of days ago I went onto the Project Gutenburg website and copied all of these parts into a word document. (BTW if you haven't been to Project Gutenburg you really should check it out. It is amazing!) So over the next couple of days, weeks, however long it take me to get through them all I will be posting these parts as well as my own commentary on them. I can't even tell you how excited I am!!!

The Jane Austen Top Tens

My friend Jill and I were talking about our favorite Jane Austen movies, books, stories, etc. yesterday and thus I was inspired to make up these lists.

If I were to rate my Jane Austen stories/books by favorites it would probably go as follows:
1. Persuasion
2. Pride & Prejudice
3. Northanger Abbey
4. Emma
5. Mansfield Park
6. Sense & Sensibility

On the other had if I were to rate my favorite Jane Austen movies it would probably go as follows:
1. Persuasion 2007
2. Pride & Prejudice 2005 (mostly because it's shorter and I can watch it in one evening!)
3. Pride & Prejudice A&E version (Colin Firth)
4. Pride & Prejudice 1985 (he is the Mr. Darcy I picture when I read the book)
5. Northanger Abbey 2007
6. Persuasion 1980ish
7. Persuasion 1993 (with Cirian Hinds)
8. Emma (Gweneth version)
9. Mansfield Park 2007
10. Bride & Prejudice
11. Emma (Kate Beckinsale version)
12. Sense & Sensibility (Emma Thompson version)
13. Pride & Prejudice (LDS version, if they had left out all of the references to Mormonism it would have been up higher on the list)
14. Mansfield Park (the nasty, incestuous version that came out in theaters)

While I am making a lists, my favorite period movies of all time are:
1. Persuasion 2007
2. Pride & Prejudice 2005 & A&E version
2. North & South (no, that's not a typo, the three of them tie for second place)
3. Jane Eyre 2007
4. The Scarlet Pimpernel
5. The Phantom of the Opera
6. Anne of Avonlea
7. Pride & Prejudice 1985
8. Northanger Abbey
9. Under the Greenwood Tree
10. Persuasion 1980 & 1993
11. Miss Potter
12. The Count of Monte Cristo (Newest version)