Turkey Day

Thanksgiving. Thanks-a-bunch Day. Turkey-Day. The list goes on and on...
 It’s that wonderful time of year when you and all your family members and friends come round the dinner table to give thanks and be merry. Wine is poured and feasts are held and hands are clasped in prayer as the head host says a blessing. ...Nice picture right?Thanksgiving is fun right?Well…maybe yours was!NOT MINE!...Anyways, I'm sure everyone says the same thing. "Oh, but there your family! You should love having them over!"Ya...sure.Regardless of my feelings towards this day of thanks, I find that while Thanksgiving can be taxing it can also be full of gut-bursting laughter. Pun intended.  But then IT began!The music floated softly by my ears at first before becoming stronger, the familiar beats wafted in the air, hips started to sway as our Latin blood turned to fire beneath our veins!My family was drawn in like moths to a flame. Alas, It was that time that me and my family had so long been anticipating! ...THE SALSA DANCING COMPETITION! (Round of applause)Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, in one corner we the dancing couples, in another corner we have the spasmodic children, and in the center of the dance floor we have the best dancer in the country.Yes that’s right!In his bright sequence rhinestone dress shirt that he still had from the 60's (and refuses to give away)...It’s my great uncle PAPO!My poor uncle Papo still believes that he is in the sixties and therefore had been stuck for the past twenty years dancing the disco at every Thanksgiving since before I was born.Spooky...Afterwards, everything had died down again as the hordes of food was served and everyone proceeded to gorge themselves into oblivion. It was quite a sight let me tell you. Somehow I firmly believe that my Grandmother's traditional Latin prayer was actually a secret plea to God that we would kill each other over all of the food.  My two-year-old brother even bit me for a bite of my mother's family favorite guava and cheesecake. I still have bit marks.Ow...When everything was said and done, and each single scrap of food had been either eaten or shoved into someone's trunk, the men returned to watching football, the women kept on chatting amongst themselves, and the younger children began running around like lunatics thanks to their now potent sugar high.All in all, I found this Thanksgiving to be nothing short of repetitive.

  

I am a fan of this FANtastic movie. (5 Stars)

‘The chorus’ is a wonderfully impacting film. This is an extraordinarily beautiful, sweet, and heartwarming film. Whoever will watch this film will feel their heartstrings being pulled by the joy, sorrow, and tragedies that are condensed within the angelic choir boys songs. In this movie, the director Christophe Barratier has shown off his superb cinematography skills. By choosing his actors, Barratier has successfully captured the raw emotions through his actors, the fantastic lighting techniques, and the production of such a heart-wrenching story.

‘The Chorus’ is a charming story of hope infused with so much optimism and nostalgia. It is genuinely heartwarming and truly inspiring. This movie is a humble testament to celebrate innocence and beauty of childhood and hope. In the movie the actual chorus of young children they used, sang like angels. This little film gives hope to children who are engaged in the arts in some form, and who have struggled to overcome, or at least survive, the damage of earlier years of neglect. It made tears come to my eyes.

As well as the superb acting, Christophe Barratier has also shown his mastery over lighting and cinematography. His contrast from the lighting differentiates depending on the over-all mood or atmosphere of the scene. The dark atmosphere is matched perfectly with the dank, dirty little rooms and prisons within the orphanage, while the lighthearted tones are set outside in the bright cheerful morning air. The emotions and actions of the movie are enhanced as well by the wonderful background music and orchestra. From soft soprano flutes to miraculous background choruses, these music numbers set the entire mood for the movie and create a sense of interest in the certain scene occurring at the time.

Finally, one of the most noteworthy and memorable aspects of this movie is the production of such a hopeful yet heart-wrenching plot. In this movie, Christophe Barratier has created a world set in the present where two elderly men are reminiscing about their childhood, yet the actual movie occurs in the past of the French countryside during the early 1900’s. The story of a failed musician converting a group of difficult children into a choir isn’t something a normal audience would think of first when looking for such a profound movie, but Christophe Barratier pulls it off in this movie with a plot that is simply touching. Despite all the children are not professional actors, they add a sense of realism and sincerity to this film that truly captures the essence of the wayward, troubled child within this French correction center for the juvenile orphans. The pain, joy, sadness, and mischievousness that these young and inexperienced, or, older and experienced, actors portray in this movie appear to be very profound and real, thus earning a realistic aspect in which the audience can relate whole hearted to the characters, despite probably never being in their situation before.

In short, the movie ‘The chorus’, by Christophe Barratier, was a wonderful film that was both inspiring and heartfelt. The screenplay, cinematography, acting, and overall plot of this film were amazing and memorable. Audiences will be able to relate to this movie, because the actors were so sincere in their acting and wonderfully portrayed to be real human beings with real faults that we can all relate to in one way or another. The raw emotions and lighting within this movie blended and complemented each other wonderfully, brought a sense of sorrow or joy on and off during the film. The plot was simply magnificent and so realistic that I could image this movie as partially being a part of French history that was kept locked away in that old dusty journal at the beginning of the film. To be simple, short, and sweet, ‘The Choir’ deserves five stars and nothing less, nothing more.

 Actually it was was so good that I wouldn’t mind watching again…or maybe twice more…three times?

The DO's and Don't of Babysitting

The Do's and Don't of Babysitting!

DO: Make sure at all times to keep all of the doors locked!

DO: Keep the child, baby, or teenager out of the kitchen! I don't care what age they are; If they want a snack you give it to them!

DO: Be nice and respectful of the person's house and child you are watching over.

DO: Read the child a bed-time story. (Doesn't matter what age it is, I realized that everyone likes them.)

DO: Make a planned schedule or follow the one a the parents give you for their child, so you avoid a much stress as possible.

DON'T: Invite over friends if this is not your house. PERIOD!

DON'T: Be on your phone constantly if you are bored.

DON'T: Talk down or bad to the kid. If you don't like them, then suck it up!

DON'T: Be lazy and not do anything remotely fun or exciting with the child, such as letting them watch the T.V. the whole time you are there.

DON'T: Ask for your fee once the parents return or complain about their child to them. THIS IS A BIG NO NO!

that-that-thats all folks!

I Luv this Book!

Book Review:

“From the corner of his eye”

By: Dean Koontz

I am a HUGE Dean Koontz fan, but I'm also a critic. Within the horror/suspense genre, Koontz generally writes two types of novels:

1)    'Government conspiracies'

2)     'Madman chasing an innocent man/child/woman/dog/couple/ all of the above.'

The gov't ones are great, as a matter of fact, it was one of them that got me hooked on this author.

While "From the Corner of His Eye" DOES have a madman chasing innocent people, it's a very different type of suspense novel that Dean Koontz normally writes. You've been told, within the first couple of chapters, almost everything (but not quite) about who's going to die and who will live on.

But for ME, that was okay, because in THIS novel, the story of the characters--each beautifully written and fleshed out--IS the journey. "From the Corner of His Eye" is far more than suspense (and there IS still plenty of it)...it is a deep, powerful SPIRITUAL book. Yes, there are a good number of biblical references, with most characters having a biblical corollary; especially Bartholomew, one of the heroes of the story, who has as his namesake one of the lesser-known Apostles.

The characters are some of Koontz's best. The villain is deliciously loathsome, yet such a sociopath that you almost feel...not SORRY for him, but just find yourself saying "what a pathetically deluded creep!"

In the end, it's clear that Koontz is mixing a good stalker-murder-thriller with an interesting theory about religion and quantum physics... namely, that religion and quantum physics can not only coexist but actually support each other.

But…

If none of that makes sense, you probably just need to read the book!

--Amanda Eccles

Ha Ha...Really?... Its Halloween today!?

"No! Why?! Why!!!???"

Yes, that was my reaction once I had been told that one of my most treasured holidays was today.

...go ahead a laugh...
 yes... get it out of you're  systems.

In any case, I had yet again been told of something, of significant value to me, a little to late.
Halloween, a wonderful time of year where everyone can dress up as anyone this wish, receive unholy amounts of diabetic inducing sugar filled treats, and leave behind who they are if only for one night a year. That's what everyone is supposed to believe right?
WRONG!
Once you leave behind all of the childish notions of the holiday itself you're only left with one heck of a mess to clean up after.
Face it folks, this holiday is terrible unless you're one of the lucky ones celebrating it.
Take my Halloween for example.
 I had to give up any plans I had to babysit for a family friend. That was all fine and dandy, until the lights went out...
Apparently, the older teenage boy of the family I was babysitting for had decided to have a little fun in trying to frighten his siblings and possibly me.
Not going to happen buddy.
Grabbing the nearest solid object I could find as a blunt weapon and with goodwill hunting if you catch my drift. After a few fruitless runs around the entire house I still couldn't find the sneaky little weasel. Giving up, I decided to push the strange behavior to the back of my mind and continue entertaining the two twin children in my charge.
A couple of hours later another incident occurred. This time it involved a crate of fireworks, an air-horn, and a carton of eggs. Needless to say I wasn't impressed...
AT ALL!
After screaming for a solid half an hour I managed to scare both the rebellious teenage son in my care and his equally terrible partners in crime. My first inclination in figuring out exactly what day it was happened once I had explained the situation to the naughty boy's parents.
They simply laughed at my befuddled expression once I was done explaining just how their driveway had become soaked in eggs and charcoal.

"Oh come on hon! You didn't know it was Halloween?"
"Um...no."

Next Year's Halloween...

More laughter ensured as my face flushed cherry red in both anger and embarrassment, and with that explanation I quickly rushed home. Upon entering my lovely abound I quickly ignored the world around me as I picked up a Hersey's Bar, the size of my forearm, conveniently lying on the dining room table and collapsed onto my bed. I can't remember much after that, but when I woke up the next morning I had realized I had been snuggling the same bar of half eaten chocolate all night.
So with that lovely incident behind me, I have come to both love and hate this accursed holiday and I look forward to revenge-Ahem!...um I mean a good time next year.