Inner Ramblings

Aloha Friday!

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:42:00 -0400

It's Friday, which means it's time for Aloha Friday! I haven't done this meme in a while since I've been so busy with everything, but I had a free second today. If you want to play along, visit the Island Life blog and post your question. Make sure to visit the other participants too!

What are your weekend plans?

This weekend... Tonight we have DH's birthday dinner at my MIL's house, then tomorrow during the day we might go to Busch Gardens (not sure yet). Saturday night we're going to Zoo Boo (Halloween at our local family zoo), and then Sunday DH is gone all day so I might clean the house and do something fun with DS (like go swimming at my brother's house). Sunday night is the football game (Patriots!) so I'm pretty excited about that... I also plan to get through another session of my MT stuff and finish my exam for one of the holistic childcare courses, but those are mighty big dreams, LOL!

Look of the Year!

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:10:00 -0400

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Look Of The Year is looking for people from all over the world to enter their beauty contest. Have a picture that makes you look like one of America's Next Top Models? Send in your best pictures and you may just get the chance to be the next model working in Paris, New York or Milan!

Join Look of the Year today and get ready to start a new life with beautiful people from all over the world!

Swooning Over Johnny Depp

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:38:00 -0500

I love Johnny Depp. There's something so charismatic about him! I love his movies, especially the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and Finding Neverland. They were do different, but so "Johnny"!

In Finding Neverland Johnny Depp plays a Scottish playwright named J.M. Barrie who is looking for some inspiration. He unexpectedly finds himself entwined with a family with a widowed woman and four fatherless children, and the story blossoms from there. Some of my favorite quotes include: "Porthos dreams of being a bear, and you want to shatter those dreams by saying he's *just* a dog? What a horrible candle-snuffing word. That's like saying, "He can't climb that mountain, he's just a man", or "That's not a diamond, it's just a rock." Just." and, " Young boys should never be sent to bed... they always wake up a day older."

Then you have the Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl movie. I just adore Deep's character, Jack Sparrow. He's sarcastic, out for #1 the whole time, and is uncharacteristically klutzy for a pirate!... There are a ton of great quotes from that movie as well, but I think one of my favorite scenes was when these words were uttered:

Jack Sparrow: [to Weatherby Swann] I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically.
Jack Sparrow: I want you to know that I was rooting for you. Know that.
[to Commodore Norrington]
Jack Sparrow: Elizabeth... it would never have worked between us darling. I'm sorry... Will... nice hat. Friends... This is the day that you will ALWAYS remember as the day that you...
[backs up and trips over ledge]

Both of these movies are so different, but I'd have to say that my favorite part would be the one in Pirates of the Caribbean. I'll take humor over serious any day!

I'm super excited to see the new Johnny Depp movie, Sweeney Todd. I can't wait to see what he brings to his character in this film! I have to visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site soon and play around with all the information they have over there. You can also visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace and see what's going on. Tons of Sweeney Todd information is available!

Sweeny Tood

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:02:00 -0500

Have you seen the trailers for the new Tim Burton film, Sweeny Todd? It's looks great! I went to visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site and, in true Tim Burton style, this looks like a really unique movie! I also got to visit Sweeney Todd on MySpace which was pretty cool to.

There's a great site related to the movie where you can confess past acts of revenge. You can call in, write, or video your confessions about past acts of revenge and then you get your very own "I Confess" badge when you're done, sort of like a bade of honor . I went on the site to see what people had to say, and I was pretty surprised by what people will admit to!

I have my past too, but I don't think that I'd take a video of myself admitting to a lot of it! I would, however, admit that when I was younger, my friend and I broke into the Jr. High-school and let all of the animals in the science room out of their cages. It was wild! Way more chaotic than I thought it was going to be, that's for sure. We didn't put them back in to their cages before leaving (what would have been the fun in that?) so the next day when the teachers came in there were guinea pigs, birds, ducks, rabbits, and snakes throughout the room! We were never caught, but I was always afraid that they'd figure out it was us someday. Ahhh, see now? I feel relieved that I got that out. Maybe you should head over there and do some confessing of your own!

Free St. Augustine Artwalk

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:06:00 -0500

It's almost time for the First Friday Weekend Artwalk!

Have you heard about the St. Augustine Artwalk yet? During the first weekend of every month lies the chance for a self-guided tour through St. Augustine to look at all the great artwork. Galleries remain open and you can walk the streets looking at everything from photography, architecture, print work... There's live music to enjoy and snacks to eat, as well as the ever-popular people watching, LOL!

I haven't been yet but Sean and I are planning to go with Ian the first weekend of December. I want to do something different and this event seems to be something that all of us will enjoy! They offer free parking and free sightseeing trolley tours that I know Ian will love and, truth be told, so will I. The last time I went to St. Augustine I only got the chance to see half of the town, and that was just not enough for me! This time I hope to learn even more about its history and see some art from the Floridians in the northern part of the state!

I'm going to try and get my parents to come too. They love St. Augustine and the art, so this even will be perfect for them!

New York City Discounts

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 17:57:00 -0500

I have a friend who lives in New York City. I mean, right in the city! I'm always jealous when I talk to her because she's mentioning "The Met", or The Museum of Natural History like it's just your every-day landmark. I mean, let's face it; Florida may have some beautiful beaches, but it isn't so hot when it comes to culture!

My friend is a mom of three so I know that doing all of the 'touristy' stuff in the city can be expensive! I want to do something nice and family oriented for her for the holidays, and I think I found just the thing: A New York CityPass!

Confused yet? The New York CityPass is this great booklet that includes a ticket to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the new Greek and Roman galleries (which I know she hasn't seen yet), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Guggenheim Museum and the American Museum of Natural History. They even include a trip to the top of the Empire State Building Observatory and tour of the Manhattan skyline from the water aboard a Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise which I know her kids would enjoy! The booklet has a map, some public transportation information and insider tips on the best time to visit each attraction which is great, but I don't think she's going to need that information, LOL!

It's low-cost too: $65 for adults and $49 for children aged 12-17. That's 50% off the combined admission price! At those prices I may be able to buy some for her whole family!

Honest Critiques

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:10:00 -0500

Some of my friends know that I'm involved in secret shopping. I love doing it because I get to go to all sorts of different stores and food Establishments, and I get my opinion heard about the service et al. It's actually a bit harder than I thought it was going to be, but I'm adjusting to what has to be done to make the job good for both myself and for the business that hired me.

BestMark is a company that provides secret shoppers for organizations looking for an edge on their competition, or for establishments that are just looking to better their service(s). Through their unique mystery shopping and customer survey programs they give a complete picture the incident-specific performance when a customer comes in contact with your organization, as well as provides the tools needed to track and trend attributes and behaviors, all of which can impact long-term customer satisfaction. It's an easy way to get the "true" impression of one's business, and that kind of information is priceless in today's cut-throat business world!

New Stephen King Release

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:10:00 -0500

It's time for a new Stephen King movie! I'm so excited because I love this type of movie. I'm not a "horror movie" kind of girl, but I do love a good psychological thriller. After reading about Stephen King's The Mist, in theaters on November 21st, it seems like it's going to deliver just that kind of movie experience.

The premise of the movie is one that I like to think about a lot. You know, it's one of those age-old questions about how well we really know the people around us, if in the face of danger they'd change, etc. I've had my share of experiences where people's true colors shown through, so this is a topic of great interest for me.

I'm reminded of one event in particular. It happened on September 11th, in fact. I was at work and we had just heard about the first plane hitting the Towers. We were all in shock and stood huddled around the radio in Joe's office. I remember the panic I felt, the feeling as if my heart were in my feet.. and then when the second plane hit it was as if our bubble of perfection had burst forever. People were hanging on to one another, crying and uttering their disbelief... And then the strangest thing happened! One by one they started turning the tragedy into their own personal tragedy, making it seem as if the experience had affected them alone. It was the strangest thing to watch because the people I thought I knew so well were morphing into creatures I couldn't believe existed. They were trying to 'one up' each other in how bad the event was going to affect them, and I heard statements ranging from "I have family in the military. This is going to be the end of my family," to, "I have all my money is stocks. I'm going to lose everything!"

You never know how people are going to react in an emergency situation, but I was truly surprised by some of the reactions. I know some of it was shock, and some of it was uttered as a means of creating some normalcy out of a situation beyond any ones control, but it really made me think about human nature and how, no matter how much we think we know about a person, we can never be 100% certain about them.

Free People Search

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:53:00 -0400

I've been playing around with this website called Spock. It's a free people and information search engine that gives you the ability to easily find exactly what your looking for. You can use names or descriptive "tags" (you know, the descripitive words like "blond", or "republican") to find what you're searching about. The cool thing about these tags is that they're created by both the person and other Spock members. Opinons about the people can then be expressed by voting for or against these tags.

I did a search on Colin Firth who I think is one of the yummiest actors around. I just adored him in the Bridget Jones series and Pride and Prejudice!

I learned a lot about him, like he has a brother, Jonathan Firth, who's an actor in both movies and on TV. I also found his (Colin's) fan website that I had no idea existed (everyone has one so I don't know why this didn't occur to me!), and I just spent over 30 minutes swooning, yes, actually swooning, over him.

I did another Spock search on Amici Forever, which is an album I adore. I actually saw them in concert here at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and it was one of the best I have ever seen. I didn't know much about them before this search, but now I feel like I know a little bit about the people behind the voices.For instance: Tsakane Valentine, one of the saprano's in the group, actually did performances for Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki!

Now, Spock isn't necessarily a social network (i.e. dating site), but they do offer things like messaging.When you do a specific seach of interest they also provide you to the person's other web locations, like their homepage,MySpace page, Wikipedia write-up, or their blog (if they have one). Become a member and check them out. You'll have fun, I promise!

Become a member and check them out. You'll have fun, I promise!

Alive!!!!

Inner Ramblings of My Mind — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:54:00 -0400

I did it, I did it, I DID IT!!!! I almost passed out during the first run-through but the accompanist was fantastic. He let me blunder and shake and gasp through it, then insisted we go through it again. He told me that he was there to follow my singing and that I should just relax and breathe like I know how to do.

The next time was pretty good! I was still nervous, but it was like I just had to get through that initial panic, almost as if I had to prove to myself that I could do it. There were even people milling around so I got a taste of what it's going to be like on Sunday. OK, maybe not quite like that, but I know I can sing in front of people again!!!!