An Idea Is Bulletproof

willow_kat talked about keeping track of the movies she watched in 2008 and since I do tend to watch a lot of movies I thought I'd give that a go along with my booklist.

( ACTION! )

A tally of my books read in 2008

( -Books read and reviewed numbers 1-92 )

So the time to actually make resolutions is upon us once again. I liked the ones I made last year so I'm keeping them and coming up with some new ones.

So here are the big ones, on the first of the month I'll pick out my little monthly resolutions that I'm going to reward myself for completing :)

( In 2008 I resolve to... )
To everyone on my friendslist (and also to those who also just stop by here randomly to read) I wish you all a fabulous 2008!

I just had a run in with the most monstrous family at the grocery store. They left their kids alone in line behind me. No idea where the parents went since they didn't come back to the cart with more groceries or anything. These two little boys around maybe age 9 and 11 spent the time playing around and bumping their cart into mine. I decided to not really care about that since it's not like it's my personal cart and these kids just looked like the type who probably got told off enough at home. Then the mom came back and she totally kept moving her cart up so it was bumping me! Rude. Then as I went through the check out there was someone still bagging his groceries at the end of my line so I had the cart in the aisle by the cash and was loading my groceries there. This woman kept hitting her cart against mine and I said that I could't go anywhere because someone was CLEARLY at the end of the row and was just finishing up and I'd move when he was through. Then her husband comes through, makes this man move his cart which slows him down more and then makes me move out to the end of the row which means I can no longer load my groceries so he can move the cart out and load his families groceries, all the while these children are running around and being in everyone elses way. Just not a great way to start my day. I was going to pop out to get milk but I think I'm being a hermit for the remainder of the day. At least at the end of the day that's not my family, those must be some miserable people.

Christmas was lovely this year. My family apparently all decided to spoil each other. Some highlights for me were: my new homemade Harry Potter scarf (with my initials on it!), my brother giving me his old Nintendo DS system, lots of distraction there :), Getting both the Serenity travel destination postcards and the currency pack! (browncoat_2x2 when you got these did you get 2 boxes? I've only opened one of mine and I'm not sure if the other is going to be the same or something different), the Christmas at Ivy Cottage book which I didn't know existed 'til this year, a stack of Buffy comics that my parents found at Value Village all in fantastic condition! and the Done The Impossible DVD. I surprised my Brother with an accordian (a small one) which I'd brought back from NYC this year. He'd been trying to guess what I'd bought him at the Royal Wood show earlier this year and he totally guessed an accordian and I managed to convince him that there was no way I'd have brought an accordian back from NYC. Hehe :)

On Boxing Day my Mom, Brother and I went out to see Sweeny Todd. Without spoiling anything I can say that it’s like Sondheim light. Not bad, I quite enjoyed it, but very much simplified. Johnny Depp was by far the weakest singer in the cast, but he held his own and what he lacked vocally he made up in acting which obviously is his forte. Helena Bonham Carter did really well, apparently she had to do a LOT of vocal lessons so no one would complain that she got the role just because she’s married to Tim Burton. Visually the movie reminded me of Moulin Rouge only darker and with that Tim Burton flare. My mom said it was like watching an opera. I’ve informed her that no, it was like watching a Sondheim show. She's trying to deny that she liked a musical.

There was one woman in the audience who was clearly not well, she would scream at the screen when the movie got tense. Whoever was taking care of her did a great job of quieting her down whenever she had an outburst but I kept thinking that if she reacts this strongly to stressful situations on screen then perhaps Sweeny Todd was not the best pick to see on the big screen, especially not when it's just opened and the theatre will be busy. That being said I was more annoyed with the girl who was there with her Mom just down the row from me who said "this is terrible, I hate it" after the first line Johnny Depp sang (which is all of 2 minutes into the movie.) I couldn't tell if she thought it was terrible because he's not as good as the people who are in this show on stage or if she thought it was terrible because she did not like musicals. I'm guessing the latter though. At least her Mom told her to get out right then or stop bitching and she shut up.

Then yesterday Viv came over and we did our gift exchange and chatted and played with Hermes (the cat) who was being a big suck all night lol.

Happy Christmas to those who celebrate it :) Happy day off from work to those who don't ;)

I hope everyone is having a fantastic day. I have already had not one but TWO Christmas miracles this year! Firstly the exceptionally nice Harbourfront staff. I may actually want to buy tickets from them again if they keep that up lol. Secondly I was watching my yearly Christmas TV specials last night (Xfiles The Ghosts Who Stole Christmas and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Amends) and my brother decided he'd just watch the Xfiles one with me and he NEVER wants to watch BtVS. Then after he decided he'd stay to watch the Buffy episode AND has decided that maybe Buffy is a good show after all! He's going to start borrowing my DVDs!

I hope everyone else is having great days as well. If you're being Christmassy I hope that Santa brought you everything you wanted and that your holiday is shiny :) If you're just enjoying the day off from work then I hope you have a great day and get to relax and enjoy yourself :)

So this weekend in addition to being on a Sarah Slean concert high I was also productive.

I wrapped up all of my Christmas presents. Mailed the Passioneer Holiday Project goodies from the prize draw and mailed Ava and Julie's tshirts. Woke up early on Saturday and Sunday morning to watch The Magician's House (seriously part two Sunday at 7am, not the most fun ever!) Uploaded the photos of the card and did a little photoshop editing on the side for some friends and sent off some emails that needed sending.

Phew. I took a nap today and am still exausted! I'm glad it's just one day of work and then 2 more days of holiday even if they're busy days. There will still be a good amount of downtime for some relaxation :) I do have to remember to pack my Buffy and Xfiles Christmas specials so I can watch them tomorrow night :)

Hey look, it's another really long post. I'll cut the concert stuff when I get there :)

So yesterday was the second day of Slean concerts AND the day when Andrea and I put together the card for the Passioneer Holiday Project. Which means that Andrea spends a day being very arts and crafty and I spend a day helping when I can and not getting in the way the rest of the time ;) We ended up having 30 people participating this year. I was thrilled as it looked like we weren't going ot break 10 for a while there which was freaking me out. But it ended up better than well and the card looked amazing when it was finished :)

All was done on time and we made it to the venue in excellent time to meet up with lots of people before the show.

And on to the lengthy concert stuff:

( Tim Baker (opening act) )

( Sarah Slean )

Last night was the first of Sarah's annual Harbourfront shows. I have no love for the venue but I do adore seeing Sarah play live and last night was a fantastic show!

All of yesterday was good. I only had a 1/2 day at work. Then I made my way up to the CNIB to visit Mel and Todd and to get my camera and DVDs which I'd forgotten at their house.

Then Andrea made her way to my place and we did a Christmas gift exchange and OMG she got me such an awesome gift. A graphic novel of Haunted Mansion stories from Disney World. Two of the authors are Roman Dirge and Serena Valentino so you know it's good :) I read through it this morning and love it!

On our way to the concert we met up with Leanne (who we lost after the show but if you come by this review, hi Leanne) who we'd actually met at the first of these concerts 2 years ago and had given her a ticket to move up a few rows in the orchestra becase we had an extra. Usher who hated me didn't like that game as I remember it. Apparently good deeds weren't cool by her. But how fun is it that we met the same person again!?

Heads up, Warner is handing out fun little cards promoting the new album and that you can download Get Home on Sarah's webpage. I noticed that there were extras on the merch table so if you miss out getting one in the lobby then head for the table :) I was surprised at the degree that Warner is actually promoting Sarah this time around. I've never seen this much effort from them before. Which reminds me, for those of you on Facebook someone from Warner asked me to let people know that Sarah now has an official Facebook group. Type in "Sarah Slean" in the search bar and her official one is the first one that pops up. I'm a co-moderator on the second one that shows up, Passioneers (totally unoffical) join that too :)

The opening act was Tim Baker from the band Hey Rosetta, He was quite good, I'd be interested in seeing his whole band perform to see what the total sound is like. However solo he held up really well despite the fact that Hfront has possibly the worst mics ever. The main one kept shorting out unless the wire was in a certain position. Touch the mic and it died. Not the most fun game ever.

Then we had intermission and then the highlight of the night, the fabulous Sarah Slean!

( Review and setlist are under the cut )

1. It's the last day to get your info in to slean_holiday@yahoo.ca for the Passioneer Holiday card to Sarah Slean if you want to be included in the draw for prizes. You can still submit your info 'til the end of the day on Wednesday and be included on the card though.

2. My stomach is hurting a bit less today which is good since that means that probably it was just stress and not appendicitis or anything dramatic like that.

3. I am wearing my new R. Tam session tshirt today, hidden under a sweater so I'm work appropriate. I just couldn't wait 'til Friday to wear it. I think that everyone is designing shirts which are better and better, some of them are starting to look really professional and great. The Doctor Who ones from last weekend have convinced me even more that I need to watch the new Doctor Who series.

4. I am almost done my Christmas shopping *yay* I have a bit more to do but it's not that really. Some stocking stuffers and a couple of gift cards really :)