Monday Mindspacing Vol. 102

1) Last week I saw an article that had exclamation points in the title and instinctively went to turn down the sound on my computer. LOLOL!
2) I am in the worst sleep and work pattern ever.  I sleep in these random spurts and am awake until 4 am or later DOING NOTHING.
3) It creeps me out when people crack or pop their bones.  Fingers?  Meh.  Back? Ankle?  NECK!?! WHYYYYYY????  Rashan and one of my closest friends, SP, crack their necks DAILY!!  SP GRABS HER HEAD AND PHYSICALLY, LOUDLY, CRACKS.HER.NECK.  OMG!!!  Every time I see it I react as loudly as that sentence was written.  Every.single.time.  "But it feels so gooood."  What you have is a sickness. (LOL)
4) You may not know this about me but I am slightly dramatic.
5) I saw my trainer for the first time last Monday and it was frightening. FRIGHTENING! But my ankle is mostly back so that was exciting!  And then the next day I did Just Dance on the Wii which was EXTREMELY fun but then I could not walk or sit or get up the next day and it was bad.  But it confirmed the fact that I don't ever want to be w/o my trainer.  Can someone please hire me so I can afford her services?
6) I'm beginning to dislike Winston-Salem as much as I disliked Pittsburgh.  I'm ready to leave this town.  Now.  But I also don't Rashan to have to leave a job he likes and does well.  But we've discussed it and we'll be going wherever there is a wonderful opportunity for me (provided it's not some deserted place (the college is the entire population of 5k) in the middle of nowhere).
7) I had a hummus-like dip that I fully expected to dislike that I now can't stop thinking about.  Chickpeas, salsa and mango.  It looks like baby food but IT WAS SO GOOD!!
8) There's nothing more terrible than like getting a twitter follower request from someone who's a friend of a friend.  I allowed it once and said person then tried to talk to me and joke around like we knew each other.  Whaaaaa?  Does not compute.  In person I'm often open to meeting new people and can sit down and make fast "friends" but on the interwebs?  I can be rather guarded.  I need you to work your way to all of that.  Thank you ever so much.
9) I'm soooo glad I convinced/cajoled/begged Rashan to let me go to Savannah enough that we finally went this weekend!!!  MY LIFE IS NOW SEMI-COMPLETE!!!  I saw palm trees! I had oysters within 20 minutes of getting into town!  (Those oysters almost had me trying to convince Rashan to move back here...)  I GOT OUT OF WINSTON-SALEM!!!!
10) I hate when Iron Chef America uses live fish or whole animals.  I DO NOT want to see any animal's face when I'm going to eat it unless it comes from the sea.  And I don't want to see it die!!  Ugh.  Suckling pig?  I almost felt ill.
11) I.nstagram feels so kitschy to me.  Like look at me! I'm so indie! I make vintage-y photographs in 2011.
12) Sweetie... you really shouldn't talk about someone's poor grammar in a post RIDDLED, RACKED & RANSACKED by what? Take a wild guess, blog la familia!
13) I'm in a good book-reading rhythm! Yay!  It has me extra excited!  If you want in on the blog book club, we discuss a book each month at Nerd Girl's spot.  On June 13th, we're doing Miss Black America.  I enjoyed it, it's a quick read.  If you read something other than blogs, hop to it!
14) Me, Naima & Stacey had so much fun getting dressed by our men last week!  Check out our fly outfits on The Record Dish.  Also... if you still don't "get" twitter, I did two posts on that here last week.  Ya missed it!

Movies 2011, Week 20

May 22-28, 2011
I had some good movie times this week & I likes that! :)
94) Anatomy of a Murder. 1959 Oscar 7 time nominee about a legal proceeding after a man's wife (Lee Remick) is raped and the husband admits to killing the rapist.  Yo. It's AMAZING how little it takes to make a film riveting in the first 10 minutes.  Little and much.  Little as in you don't have to overdo the dialogue, the acting, the directing, the editing, the set design, anything.  But much as in it takes so much more effort and skill to show that level of restraint.  As you see, they caught me from the outset.  In general, I don't like Jimmy Stewart but this is the kind of role he works in.  I hate him as a rube.  Great music including an appearance by none other than Duke Ellington.  Awesome movie. 5 stars
95) Frankenstein. Classic film based on Mary Shelley's novel about the doctor who created a monster who went on to terrorize a town.  Just okay. 3 stars
96) Morning Glory. Rachael McAdams is a producer coming on to fix a struggling morning news program starring anchors who hate each other: Diane Keaton & Harrison Ford.  Why did I watch this?  I spent way too much time critiquing how similar it is to a morning news show i.e. there are never ever that many people yawning at 4:30 in the morning.  You actually get really used to it.  And you've been awake much longer.  Some plot breaks, some bad acting.  Not great.  Not the worst movie I've ever seen. 2.9 stars
97) Cop Out. Bruce Willis & Tracy Morgan are rogue cops. I think I watched this so I can talk about how bad it is.  It's really bad. And let's not even mention the little kid who said more curse words in one scene than I've said in the last year.  Not cute.  1.9 stars
98) The Blob. Steve McQueen stars in the 1958 horror classic about a blob that's eating its way through a town but nobody believes the teens who see it and tell about it.  Pretty hilarious.  Extremely campy.  A fun watch.  3.4 stars

A Guide to Twitter Pt. II

Okay!  Today we'll cover the pros & cons of twitter and more of the norms, what you can expect to see or experience on twitter, expected behavior.  If you missed part I, find it here.

11) When twitter is over capacity, you see a bunch of birds trying to carry a whale in a net.  This is called a fail whale.  It means there are too many people tweeting at once.  Sometimes it means something huge has happened like the Oscars or Michael Jackson died.  Other times it's just twitter's inability to handle more than 97 tweets at once.  (J/k twitter newbies. Twitter can handle 98 tweets at once.)

12) This leads us to twitter jail.  That's when twitter thinks you're spam, Gorgeous Puddin.  ROTFL!!  Twitter suspends your account if you tweet more than 100 times per hour or 1000xs/day.  Basically twitter also wants you to shut up.  And so do the rest of us.

13) It's often considered common courtesy to follow people back who follow you but sometimes you have people who are just doing that to increase their number of followers.  If you don't know this person and they don't interest you, ignore them, unfollow them or block them.  Blocking is the same everywhere.  They can't see any of your tweets.  What to do when you've followed too much: http://mashable.com/2009/03/10/twitter-followholic/

14) Learn some basic text speak and abbreviation. It'll help you w/the character count and to understand 75% more tweets. LOL  But don't, please don't start talking like some psychotic teenager. "RU cmng 2 th mvzs 2day?" "ur hilarys LOLXZ."  ARGH!!!

15) Describe all links in the same tweet.  If you post a link, I will assume it's spam unless you describe it and I'm not clicking on it.  Many sites will allow you to just click on the twitter icon on that site or page to share it with your tweeps, shortening the link for you. 

16) Because of the character limit on twitter, bit.ly is one of the most popular free link shortening sites.  It allows you to post and describe a link w/o using all of your allotted characters.  Even if you have enough characters, use bit.ly or something similar anyway, please.  Twitter should automatically shorten links but until it does, go ahead and take the extra step.  It looks cleaner.

17) If you want to post pictures of your food, pets, kids, things you're doing, you have to use an outside service like yfrog, twitpic or lockerz (formerly plixi).  If you connect it to your twitter account, it's incredibly easy to post photos and even video.  The site you use will host it but automatically put a link to the media on your timeline.

18) If you're responding to a tweet more than 30 minutes old (or less if you're interacting with a frequent tweeter), please reference the tweet to which you are referring.  Let's say I say, "I love The Office! It has redeemed itself!" (It has... partially.)
Good: The Office was AWESOME last week!
Bad: That's so funny! 
Also bad: What happened?
The latter two are the most common type of bad @ reply.  OMG WHAT are you talking about 19 months later???  It's like what old people do on facebook (MOM) but at least that's attached to the picture/status in question.  On twitter, I literally have no idea what you're talking about.

19) Immediacy is one of the biggest boons to twitter.  If a bold face name does something, it's on the TTs (remember? Trending topics) almost immediately.  I've had almost every major breaking news story in the last year broken on twitter.  Seriously.  So while there is a great deal of frivolity, you can learn some important things on there, too.

20) Spoilers.  This is one of the biggest drawbacks to twitter.  The uninitiated often spoil tv shows and movie plots.  This is a huge no-no because with DVR, Hulu (yes, I know what that is...) and different time zones, people watch at such widely varied time that if you're watching in real time and tweeting specifics, you can and will spoil a show for someone.  Please don't.  ESPECIALLY FINALES!!!  

Okay tweet "I can't stand Angelo!! I wish he would go home!!" For his original Top Chef season, this was fine.  There are no identifying details and I might say that at any time.  A bad tweet is the less obvious "YESSS!!! I'M SO GLAD HE WENT HOME!!!" when EVERYONE knows you hate him or more obvious, "FINALLY! ANGELO WENT HOME!"  Either way, your West Coast followers hate you.  Awards shows are the exception a) because they often air at the same time on both costs and b) it's SO fun to read and write tweets during awards shows!

21) Another twitter upside?  Far fewer parents/grandparents/other related old people.  I love them but I don't need them commenting on my every life activity.

22) Most importantly, don't take it personal.  If someone's not following you, it's not because they hate you or find you uninteresting.  Maybe you tweet too much for them or curse too much or preach too much or share your politics a little too vehemently or participate in #twitterafterdark (raunchy tweets) or have too much drama or don't tweet enough or tweet what I consider mundane or I want to talk about you or I don't want you in my business.  All of these are reasons I might (and have) stopped following close friends, bloggers and yes, family members (my sister's gotten axed twice).  I don't love or like any (most) of those people any less.  I just don't want to receive their tweets in my timeline (TL).  There are a bunch of other reasons but whatever the reason, DON'T TAKE IT PERSONAL!

A Guide to Twitter Pt. I

The other day my friend asked me about twitter and I was getting a headache from all of her questions.  It's not like she's the first... she's just the youngest (27).  And it was making me weary.  I didn't realize there was so much to say about twitter until I started typing this up so this will be a multi-part excursion.  I'm keeping it to two for now.  This is going to be extremely basic then moving to more specific to try to cover the most frequent questions I get when people learn I've been tweeting for more than 3 years.  Of course I have a lot of opinions about twitter (that you can and should take with a grain of salt... I have a low annoyance meter about some things. It's a problem. I'm working on it.) but many of these things are norms and mores I've picked up along the way.

What is it?  A microblogging site.  Essentially it's a 140-character thought you have & share with followers (like friends on facebook except it's quite acceptable to interact with strangers and celebrities).  It's shorter than a blog post.  Hence microblogging.  It can really be about anything that flits through the transoms of your mind.  I tweet about food and being hungry A LOT. It's basically like a 24/7 Monday Mindspacing post up in that piece.  I rarely TMI it but there are people who like to do so.  Other common topics include technology, coupons, shopping, fashion, your day, television shows (live tweeting makes (almost) EVERYTHING WORTH WATCHING!!), your location (which you can use in conjunction w/Four Square or a similar program to autotweet it for you).  Basically anything you're interested in, there is a community of tweeters waiting for you.

1) What's a timeline?  A stream of the tweets of the people you follow.  Essentially it's just like the news feed on facebook.

2) Who to follow? Friends, bloggers, I don't recommend coworkers if you tweet about work (work tweets should generally be kept to what you wouldn't mind your boss seeing per usual even if private), people you like or think are funny (tho many celebs are funny on tv but not on twitter... why??? IDK), people who have similar interests or talk about things you want to know, a news organization or 20 so you can be up on the stories other people are talking about.

3) Retweeting. When you either hit the 'retweet' button or manually copy and paste the tweet with RT in front of the person's name.
Ex. RT @oprah A lot of ‘lasts’ today. I’m really feeling like it’s the end. Still all sweet, no bitter. 

You don't want to overuse this feature because then you're essentially sharing no thoughts of your own but just everything everyone else is saying.  If I wanted to know what they were saying, I'd follow them.  So retweeting should be saved for the best/most interesting/funniest tweets.  If you RT every tweet you see (with or without your opinion attached), no one wants to read that.  And please don't retweet things filled w/typos and grammatical errors.  You look as crazy as that person.  Ahem HU homie... lol

4) Trending topics or TTs. The most tweeted topics at a given time.  You can customize it by world, U.S., or city (the biggest ones are on there).  They range from funny to offensive with overlap in both categories.  A lot of people add their voices to TTs once they pop up, making them stay up longer.  Popular dead people are always TTs they day they die and sometimes a while after and sometimes it comes around again on their birthday or the anniversary of their death i.e. Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Malcolm X.  There is also a phenomenon known as black twitter that can get kind of racist and/or ridiculous.  Basically a TT stays on twitter forever (12 hours or more) because tons of black people are thought to be talking about it i.e. #thingsblackpeoplehate.  One non-black writer amusingly admitted to being slightly obsessed with it.

5) A hashtag, notified by #, is a way to join others in on your conversation.  By using #, twitter hyperlinks your hashtag.  It can be a word or a group of words.  You can't use spaces or symbols.  You can start one or add on to the conversation in progress i.e. with a TT. (Look how much you're learning!)  #fail was one of the most famous early ones, used to signify bad behavior or something along those lines.  They get funny when they're a sentence or song lyric like in one of Rashan's recent tweets: FB comment: "But whats down in the dark always comes to light" #toturnaphraseincorrectly

6) Amount. In general, if you need multiple tweets to express your point, you need to take it to a blog post, a note on fb or a phone conversation w/someone who loves you.  If you do this once a week or less and it takes less than 6 tweets, it's fine but if daily you're using 10 tweets in a row for one thought w/o interaction, please go somewhere with that.  The same applies to twitlonger.  With this people can click a link to see the rest of your tweet.  If you're using this for more than 10% of your tweets... Tweeting excessively to one person or a group is fine if you're @ replying those specific people.  It becomes a problem (for some, not others) when you're tweeting ad nauseum.  If you find yourself tweeting 40 or more times an hour 5 or more times a day, you have a problem.  It's called addiction.  And there's an app for that.

7) At replies or @ replies.  These are essential for talking to a single person or a particular group of people.  That's how you avoid wearing people out with your tweeting.  I don't need to see your every conversation. @ reply that one person you're specifically talking to. 

8) Private accounts.  You use these if you want to control who sees your tweets.  If you're a trash talker or in a high profile or sensitive job, you should go private.  If you're anonymous and/or don't care who sees your tweets (which can open you up to some new friends), stay public.  I used to go public for every Top Chef & Project Runway because there were VERY amusing public people and it was fun to interact.  If your account is private, people can't see your tweet even if you reply specifically to them. 

9) Please don't say twittering or twitterers.  Or twitting or twits. (LOL @ that last one.)  It's tweeting and tweeters.  If people say to me, "Oh are you a tweeterer?"  I say, "*blink blink* I tweet..."  (Then pray they don't ask me for my handle aka twitter name.)  There are many, many ways of i.d.ing your twitter followers i.e. tweeps, tweeple, twam (twitter family) and on and on.  Some more ridiculous than others.  I like tweeps and rarely tweeple but I'm not a most fan of the other names.  Personal choice.

10) Add a picture.  Even if you're private, use some picture of yourself, please.  I need to know who I'm talking to.  We all do.

Questions??

P.S. There are some very amusing things happening on The Record Dish as our guys try to dress us this week.

Monday Mindspacing Vol. 101

1) I hate crafts that call for using old books. Whyyyyyyyyy???? Why must you ruin beautiful books???  If it is already missing the cover or something, I'll allow it but it still makes me cringe.
2) Sometimes I wish there wasn't so much overlap between twitter, the blog & facebook.  Sometimes I feel like I have no outlet to vent about people who are out of order.  And this really makes no sense considering I am on fb, blogger & twitter!!
3) I've decided I want to see a bunch of really potentially bad and hopefully some good movies this summer.  I have made my list with their release dates in parentheses.  I'M GOING TO THE THEATER!!
May: The Hangover Part II (26)
June: Super 8 (10) & Bad Teacher (24)
July: Larry Crowne (1) & Horrible Bosses (8), Crazy Stupid Love (29-maybe I will see it)
August: The Change-Up (5)
4) I see there are a lot of baby announcements and bumps all over the blogosphere.  You do not have to look for clues between the lines of my posts.  I know... you're thinking you're clever.  You're not.  I like babies more than I used (when they're not mine & I don't have to change their diapers or lose sleep) but I've always liked baby shows.  Every week, I'm like, "Someone is over here thinking I'm going to tell them I'm pregnant next week."  Not going to happen.  I refrain from writing things sometimes because I don't feel like being bothered with 'Are you trying to tell us something???' comments.  If you've been skimming this, let me put it in all caps.  I'M NOT PREGNANT!!  AND I DON'T WANT ANY BABIES RIGHT NOW!!  End friendly reminder.
5) We've had a goal breakthrough!! So I set these two yearly goals that I've either missed accidentally (a photo a day for a year) or had to miss (thrice weekly workouts) in the last week.  When I set these goals, I set them very rigidly i.e. MUST make goal or else you die!  J/k.  If I missed a day or a week before spraining my ankle, I would've said, now I have to start over.  Now I'm like hey... life happens.  There are setbacks but that doesn't mean you give up midstream! Dust yourself off and try again!  The point of setting the goals was to set my mind to something and accomplish it.  To take more meaningful photos (some of them... yes), capture more of my life as it happens (definitely) & get back in shape (ABSOLUTELY! I'm stronger than ever before!).  I unintentionally landed on this even more important reminder of the magic of life!  So as far as I'm concerned, I'm still on track with both of those goals.  Go me!
6) Dear every station that starts or ends a program outside of the hour or half hour, YOU ARE THE WORST!!! YOU KNOW I WATCH ON DVR!!  Martin on TV One this weekend was the worst.  The episodes started at :25!!!  As in instead of starting at 4:30, that joint started at 4:25!!! What kind of foolishness?!  What in the sam hill???  LOL What a funny saying.  But y'all. For real. Stop doing that.
7) You know how when you rate films on Netflix, it then suggests films for you to watch?  I wish there was something like that for books.  Is there?
8) Rashan has ruined my relationship with the NYTimes.  I now look at many more of their articles than I previously would have and say, "What was the point of that?" "Did we learn anything from the reading of said article?" "Where's the rest of it?"  SMH.
9) People make up things to be outraged about just so they can chatter.  You don't really care about that THAT much.  Stop pretending.
10) I'm sad about what CNN has become.  That website focuses less and less on real news with every passing month.  Most of the things pushed to the front page could just as easily be featured on a tabloid or joke website.  What's the point?
11) I also have no tolerance for old news.  If you don't talk about something in the first 24 hours, please leave!  Yes, I know this is crazy.
12) Rashan is dressing me this week, Stacey's dad is dressing her & commenter Naima's fiancé is dressing her!  It is extra amusing!  Check us out on The Record Dish.
13) Guess who passed her book goal for the month a week ago? Meeeeee!!
14) Sending off an app for a job I really want today.  Send up prayers that if that's the opportunity God wants me to have that will help me grow spiritually and mentally and emotionally, that will be the job I receive.  And if not, that the one that IS for me is headed my way!  Thanks!  :)

Movies 2011, Week 19

May 15-21, 2011
Even though I didn't really love most of the movies I saw this week, I still really enjoyed the leisurely feeling that comes with watching a lot of easy films in one week.
89) Singles. 1992 movie about a bunch of 20-somethings looking for love.  Very 90s feel but in a good way.  Cute.  3.4 stars
90) Escape from Alcatraz. 1979 film starring Clint Eastwood about a possible successful break from the notorious prison.  I liked it enough.  I didn't love it.  I think it moved a little too slowly without explanation and included some plot contrivances that were supposed to help explain the break but really did little to advance the film.  3.3 stars
91) Network. Outrageous film about the machinations surrounding ratings at network television stations.  Working at the local level and consuming a ridiculous amount of news in the last 8 years, it was creepily similar at times.  Extra crazy.  4.4 stars
92) No Strings Attached. Natalie Portman & Ashton Kutcher film about friends with benefits.  Stupid concept.  You know at the beginning that one of them is going to catch feelings.  Is it gonna be the original cliche where she's the one or the 2nd original cliche where he's the one catching feelings?  The best scenes?  After the hospital party and after the first engagement.  Don't worry, that's not a spoiler.  You know both of those are coming in some form.  The coming to an agreement final scene was so cheesy I literally laughed out loud. COOOOORNY!!  Still fun enough to watch.  If you like cheese and rom coms, I think you'd like this.  3.6 stars
93) Tammy and the Bachelor. 1957 film starring Debbie Reynolds & Leslie Nielsen. I knew he was in the film and STILL didn't recognize him... ever... LOL. I'm usually great at picking out familiar faces.  It's about a plane crash victim and the girl who falls in love with him.  Odd film.  Some pretty bad acting.  But still one of those old movies you could watch or have on in the background.  Not great, not terrible. 3.4 stars

Love

I'm avoiding stuff.  So... hey! I know! Let's take pictures in my lab!

Cheese!

Pow!

Someone's surprised!

What's so funny??

Yo so crazy! If you don't know that tv show, you should just end it now.

Now act normal.

I said normal!

What are you doing?

 Noooo! What are you doing??

 Thank you!

 This was supposed to be my picture!

 Come here you big lug!

 You missed my cheek, dear!

But I still love you!

Monday Mindspacing Vol. 100

HAPPY 100TH MONDAY MINDSPACING!!!  Thank you to everyone for loving this series and doing your own takes on it!  It's been a while since I explained.  Mindspacing is when I allow you to take a trip through the space in my mind.  LOL

Some of your favorites: Vol. 77 (blog design confusion, old fb complaints, ad failures), Vol. 74 (best coworker ever, nosy interweb neighbors, fb not caring), Vol. 59 (2002 spoiler alert, kids toleration, Chef Rashan & Nautica Alexis), Vol. 49 (ugly photographs, fb spoiler alert!, formspring), Vol. 47
(Rashan v. beer, empty house, Mexican), Vol.35 (lemon pepper, pickled eggs, coke addict & drug signals), Vol. 33 (post-game interviews, Canadian/British 'z' hate, EVOO musings), Vol. 29 (dyslexic smiley faces, plant souls, sounding "smart"), aaaaand the original Monday Mindspacing from June 1, 2009.  If you'd like to read them all (for those of you who refuse to work... at work), click here.
 
1) I hate when chefs say fresh avocado.  You just want to say fresh.  Have you ever had frozen, freeze-dried or any other form of avocado other than fresh?  How often?  If I'm looking at it in slices, don't I know it's fresh?  Or am I that slow on the uptake?
2) My favorite Iron Chef judges are Karine Bakhoum, Jeffrey Steingarten & Cady White.  Hands down.  Good thing they're go-to judges.
3) Ever since Rashan & I saw a commercial on a local television station about teens getting high on nutmeg, he can't hear nutmeg without touting the ability to get high off of it.  LOLOLOL  Television stations should really stop making up ways to frighten overprotective parents.  Also, as much as I love nutmeg, my child better KNOW, if I go to use my nutmeg and it's not there, THERE WILL SOME SMOKE!!! IN.THE.CITY!!!  (Wow it's been a long time since I said that... LOL)
4) I'm gonna pass on your unsolicited marital advice.  I know so far you have 4 years on me but THAT little gem you're handing out right there sounds like a case by case basis thing and you're issuing near-absolutes.  No thanks.
5) Theirselves is not a word. You're welcome.
6) Right now I hate Rihanna.  The words to her Sa.ndM song irritate me but it comes on in the gym and the thing is just so catchy! It gets in my head and stays for WEEKS!!  GO 'WAY!
7) I also, many, many months ago, thought FTW mean f the world... and I rarely curse.  That, like IKR as "I know that's right," rarely fit.  If you didn't know, FTW means for the win. LOLOL
8) Okay loves, I need your help narrowing down my fashion challenge!  Help!  And join!
9) I don't trust anyone who says tweethearts.
10) I'm sensitive about my eyelashes because one time my aunt asked me where mine were.  "We have long lashes in our family. Where did you get those little stumpy things?"  Well my mom's almost hairless so I guess I didn't get that from y'all.  :P Meanie.  I don't have any hair on my legs, either.  You wanna talk about that?
11) EYE AND LEAF. http://www.youtube.com/user/StayFabuluss#p/u/4/WoleqKKk1vU  I don't spend that much time on making up my entire face in a year.  I'm not even exaggerating.  In the 3 years I was in Pittsburgh I may have worn make-up 6xs.  And that's mascara, lipgloss & eyeshadow.  Done.  Oh and I did watch this whole thing with at least my ears and most of the time my eyes...............................
12) A few months ago a dude I had the BIGGEST crush on in middle and h.s. started talking to me on fb and asked me for my number.  I said no.  He said why not.  I said b/c I have a bf.  He said so?  I laughed.  Dude.  You're over 30 and you appear to be doing the same things and associating with the same sorts of (apparently directionless) people you did when 10 years ago.  I dodged a bullet.  But more importantly, you have this semi-flirtatious tone and there is really no reason for us to correspond.  I'm a grown woman in an adult relationship.  I've put away childish things... like pretending it's no big deal for us to have "friendly" conversations when I see what you're about.  K.I.M. (Keep it moving)
13) We were watching "One Born Every Minute"... well I was watching and torturing Rashan with it.  There was a first year resident delivering and Rashan was like, "NO WAY.  No first year resident is delivering my first child."  Hey man!  We watch 'Scrubs'!  I'm all in.  (Maybe... who the heck knows?)
14) As much as I'm over being a gimp, I like having an out for any and all events I don't want to attend.  Also, turns out it's not a fracture but a sprain.  I had 6 xrays to confirm it.  *scowl*  More details later this week if you want them.  I was supposed to talk about it last week but you know blogger killed itself.

Movies 2011, Weeks 17 & 18

May 1-7, 2011
81) Deck the Halls. Matthew Broderick & Danny DeVito star as neighbors dueling over Christmas when one of them wants his house visible from space.  Odd cameos from familiar faces.  Some annoying ancillary characters.  I don't know why I watched this other than I was looking for something light.  It was short and still too long.  2.2 stars
82) Face in the Crowd. Elia Kazan's classic 1957 film starring Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes, small town drunk turned big city ego and on camera star.  Essentially the rise and fall of a television hero.  Pretty awesome.  4.4 stars
83) Mother and Child.  Indie movie starring Annette Bening, Naomi Watts & Kerry Washington about a woman who regrets giving up her daughter for adoption and another one who wants to become an adoptive mother.  There was some unnecessary intersecting of the story lines that didn't really help the film.  It was also just a little bit too long (due mostly to an over-reliance on montage).  Still, worth a watch.  It's instant on Netflix.  3.6 stars

May 8-14, 2011
84) The Uninvited. 1944 film about a man and his sister who cheaply buy a home, not knowing it's haunted.  It started out okay then started to drag and grow extremely cheesy.  Pass.  2.4 stars
85) Herb & Dorothy. Documentary about a couple who aggressively collected thousands of works from modern artists over decades on a modest budget.  Kind of interesting but also a little too long.  I'm sure an artist or art student would enjoy this more.  3 stars
86) Bunny and the Bull. Strange movie about a shut-in with a very active imagination and the adventures he goes on in his head.  I kind of liked it.  I think blogger Nicole would really like it.  3.5 stars
87) Bridesmaids. Kristen Wiig co-wrote and co-starred. Maya Rudolph and some other familiar names and faces also joined the party.  It's a bridesmaids competition when one of the girls gets married.  Some very funny moments.  Times where I was cackling!  LOL.  I definitely enjoyed it. 4 stars
88) The Untouchables. Film about G man Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and his band of the Untouchables in Chicago going after Al Capone (Robert Deniro).  Pretty awesome.  It took a ton of restraint not to google the result in the real story.  The music was over the top in some areas.  3.8 stars

Hate

I hate blogger right now.  BOTH of my blogs disappeared from my dashboard last night.  Rashan's have been gone for long stretches for the last two weeks.  GET IT TOGETHER, BLOGGER!!!  I'll try to post when I'm not ready to go up to Google and personally ask them about the problem!

Monday Mindspacing Vol. 99

1) If your tweets go into twitlonger (for the twitter unfamiliar, that's for tweets longer than 140 characters), I only read the part that's actually on twitter.  I'm not sorry about that.
2) My dad asked if me and Rah were starting a family yet.  Is that a real question?  Most decidedly not.  Act right.
3) One of my goals for 2011 is to challenge myself sartorially.  I haven't done that yet... and I find I make the most interesting choices when I'm in some sort of group activity... so methinks a challenge is in the works.  Look for more details on The Record Dish on Wednesday.  I hope you guys will join me!!! :)
4) This woman said "My husband & I are 25 1/2 weeks pregnant."  False.  YOU are that pregnant.  I will allow you to say we're expecting/having a baby/gonna be parents.  But you cannot say you're both pregnant.  I will allow my future husband to say this if he agrees to carry the baby for the last 4 months of the pregnancy.
5) My grandma said she felt 30 years old!  She also said she was on cloud 90 from all the birthday attention!  LOLOL  I love it!
6) My cousin tried to one-up me on grandma's happy birthday.  She said, "May she have 90 more!"  Really?  You say that about a 5yo.  A 1yo.  Heck, I'll even let you say it about a 10 or 15yo.  But an 84yo woman?  Go somewhere.
7) I hate when people trash talk a child on the internet.  If there were always cameras on you all the time when you were 8, I'm sure we could talk about the foolishness that you wore as well.  Furthermore, THAT'S A CHILD!!  Go be a better person.
8) I don't like kabobs.
9) Rashan was in the car rapping on the way to Charlotte over the weekend and it reminded me of the video he made a few years ago before we ever met of him rapping while driving.  It was the most adorable, nostalgic thing ever!
10) I tried to surprise my Mom for Mother's Day and you know what she said?  I had a feeling.  WHAT!?!  That mother's intuition is RUINING my fun!  HMPH!

11) While home I fell and severely sprained my ankle, complete with an avulsion fracture.  I went to sleep but didn't sleep well.  When I woke up for good feeling worse at 7:30 am (after less than 4hours of sleep), I knew I had to go to the hospital.  So I have at least 4-6 weeks until it heals & a splint.  And you know one of my first thoughts?  This is really going to ruin my workout schedule.  Addict.
12) My fall story is terribly boring.  I was flitting around in my mom's too big, untied shoes and I rolled my ankle.  I really have no idea how it happened.  Please use your inventive minds to come up with something better. GO!
13) Y'all, there is never a good day to air your grievances with your child's father but it's especially tacky on holidays.  If that man pays you little to no attention on Thursday, why would he care about Mother's Day?
14) Know Rashan's self-proclaimed favorite sound?  My uncontrollable laughter.  How cute is that?? :)

May Goals

First let's talk about April!
1) Read at least 810 total chapters out of 1189 and complete Deuteronomy, Mark & Joshua.  CHECK!  Finished those books and got up to 828 books read.
2) Continue to work out AT LEAST three times a week.  Done!  And my body is really starting to reflect that! :)
3) Eat better meals.  I have definitely been more aware of the kinds of food I was eating and tried to limit foods that aren't great for me.
4) Make AND KEEP a budget.  I spent less... but I can't say I made a budget. :/
5) Read at least two books. Done!
6) Watch at least 4 (2007) AFI list movies.  Done!

So for May, let's do more big things!
1) Read 65 more books of the Bible to reach 893 total chapters.  I'm including the completion of the books of Judges, Ezra and Acts.
2) Increase my weekly workouts to 4 times per week.
3) Track my meals to ensure I'm eating better.
4) Make and keep a budget.  Guess how I'm already fixing this?  By actually writing a budget.  Boom.

5) Read at least 3 books.
6) Watch at least 5 movies on the AFI list.
7) Complete at least two 30 Before 30 goals.
8) Challenge myself sartorially.  It's on my list of 2011 goals that I hadn't even thought too much about but it's one I love and I hope you'll join me on!  Details coming on The Record Dish next Wednesday!!

Happy Birthday to my grandma!  She's 84 years old today!  That's her next to a statue of Medgar Evers at the Medgar Evers Public Library in Jackson, MS.

Monday Mindspacing Vol. 98

1) After weeks of ignoring Pinterest on fashion blogs... I'm now addicted.  This is Pserendipity's fault.  She invited me... It's basically a giant clipboard.  You add pictures of stuff you like in different categories.  But I'm adding it to my CV anyway.  LOLOLOL  What?  I'm in communications!  I have to know this stuff!
2) Will Ferrell is terrible on "The Office."  There.  I said it.  And it wasn't hard.
3) I hate when people call food "New American" or "Regional American" cuisine.  SCOWL.  It always yields the same overpriced menu items.
4) There are a lot of bad movies out there.  I'm not sure why I watched so many of them in a row this weekend...
5) You don't have to like the royal wedding.  I don't like Housewives of anywhere, The Game, Bad Girls Club, any VH1 or MTV show but I let you talk about them.  This whole your priorities aren't in order if you watched the royal wedding thing that people are so self-righteously proclaiming?  Get over yourselves.
6) Scallop shells are sooo pretty.  Too bad I don't like scallops.
7) Jeffrey Steingarten is the best Iron Chef judge EVER!!
8) I had zeppole this weekend (Italian doughnuts) and YUM! WINNING! Slapped some nutella on there and went to another place.
9) Would you like to hear more about food?  I bombed out on the first meal in a while this weekend.  It was overcooked pan fried fish and spinach tomato pasta.  Yuck.  I still have two pieces of rockfish so I'll try something different.
10) I HATE the way Rashan eats fig newtons.  It is soooo nasty.  He eats 8 cookies at once, smushes them all together in his mouth "so it's all newton" (or no newton... IDK) and commences to reveal the smushy bits as he rolls them around noisily in his mouth.  HANDS DOWN the most disgusting thing he does.
11) No matter what happens or doesn't happen as a result of Osama's death, you can't do anything about it.  Don't fear it or waste your time worrying about it.  Be encouraged. 
12) HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Movies 2011, Weeks 14 - 16

April 10-16, 2011
69) Night At the Opera. Marx brothers movie about hijinks surrounding an opera.  I'm not a Marx Bros. girl so I had lowered expectations going into this.  It was actually not that bad.  I liked it more than other Marx bros movies I've seen.  3.3 stars
70) City Lights. Charlie Chaplin silent movie about a tramp who falls in love with a blind girl who thinks he's a millionaire.  I was kind of disappointed by the end. :/ 3.4 stars

April 17-23, 2011
71) I Love You Phillip Morris.  I really don't even know what to say about this indie movie.  Jim Carrey stars as a married cop turned gay con man who finds the love of his life in jail.  Incredibly strange, oddly appealing at times, appalling at others.  3.4 stars
72) Wise Girl. 1937 film about an heiress who poses as a poor girl to find her dead sister's kids, who are living with their uncle.  It had it's good moments but it's not the best movie I've ever seen.  Pretty predictable.  3.3 stars
73) It's Kind of A Funny Story.  Indie-like film starring Zach Galifianakis about a teenager who checks himself into a mental health clinic and is unexpectedly forced to live among the adult patients.  Enjoyable and cute.  3.8 stars
74) The Switch. Jennifer Anniston stars in a film about a 40-something woman whose friend has to tell her he subbed her spermdonorsample with his own.  Rather ridiculous and predictable and worst of all at least 15 minutes longer than it needed to be.  It's so strange how you can switch 3 details and still have the exact same movie that's been made for the last 20+ years.  2.9 stars
75) The Book of Eli. Denzel Washington and Mila Kunis star in this film about a man determined to save a sacred text to protect humanity in a post-apocalyptic town.  I enjoyed it.  Probably because of the scripture quotes.  3.6 stars
76) Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County. HBO film about homeless kids who live across the street from Disneyland.  As depressing as you might expect with the addition of condescending  questions from the filmmaker throughout.  2.2 stars

April 24-30, 2011
77) Heartbreaker. French film about a team hired to break up relationships.  Extremely cute!  Exactly the kind of French films Rashan and I used to watch at the start of our relationship.  Awww!  4 stars
78) Red. Bruce Willis stars in this 2010 comedy about an ex-CIA agent now being hunted by the government.  I was amused.  Rashan was not.  3.6 stars
79) Easy Rider. 1969 movie starring Dennis Hopper & Peter Fonda about drug dealers trying to get to New Orleans.  Exactly the kind of movie I never enjoy.  I hate the AFI for making me watch this.  The only part I enjoyed was the end.  2 stars
80) My Life in Ruins. Nia Varvaldos stars in a film set in Greece about a stuck up tour guide who gives boring tours and what? I'll let you guess.  It's very predictable.  Exactly what you imagine will happen, does.  Really bad.  2.3 stars