Yesterday there was an event at my library, a poetry reading. I got up there and read a couple of my poems. (Toastmasters has improved my confidence a whole lot.) My sister Annette faithfully filmed my following recitations:
My as of yet never-before-seen poem, Contemplation.
My Thanksgiving Poem (which I also have posted at this link)
I also read a corny poem I wrote back in November '09 called Friday the 13th, but that wasn't filmed.
I hope everyone made an effort to treat the environment a little better. I know I did. Yesterday morning, my family took a walk to the supermarket with 2 large garbage bags and collected enough litter on our walk to fill both up to the brim! Wow, it feels so good to make that kind of difference. ^_^
Also, we've decided that instead of using plastic bags to hold our groceries, we'll use a reusable cloth bag. Hopefully we'll start a trend, and no one will use plastic anymore!
Speaking of going green, I finally uploaded my Toastmaster speech and evaluation from Tuesday 13th. Sorry it's taken me this long.
Interesting. Sometimes I think to myself, "gee, my friends haven't blogged in about a week. What could they possibly be doing?" And today I realized that I was doing the same thing to you guys. 0,o Sorry 'bout that.
I want to mention a lot of stuff. Saturday night was awesome! First my family and I went to a Toastmasters party at Mikita's (a member and friend) house. This is the first time Annette and I got to bring our parents as guests to a party. ^_^ Only grown-ups were allowed, so Adam couldn't come. ~,~ Oh well.
It was really really fun, and there was a great turn-out. Everyone brought food (we brought a salad and some vegetarian sushi. Yum yum), we got to talk to our friends and other fellow Toastmasters somewhat out of the context of Toastmasters, and there was a fun portion of the party where people got up to tell a joke and then later participate in a Round Robin (each person tells a bit of a story and then passes it on to the next person to make of it what they will). Boy, what a crazy story it was, too. So yeah, all of us had a good time.
Later when we got home, there was a new episode of Saturday Night Live on. Tina Fey with Justin Bieber as musical guest. It was a funny one indeed, I thought. And I'd never heard Justin sing until then. I'm thinking, what is it about this kid all over the teen magazines? Well, now I know. He's got talent. Plus he's a great actor. The skit with him in class and singing to his teacher Tina Fey? The most hilarious thing in the whole episode. ^_^
Tuesday was equally exciting. I gave my 4th Toastmaster speech, which was about simple solutions for global warming. Guess what I call it? "It is easy being green." ^_^ Sorry, Kermit. Have to disagree with you on that one. Maybe later I'll post the video of it.
Later on we got to see "Avatar" in the theater. Finally! Whoo! What a movie! ^__^ I didn't see it in 3D, but I wasn't disappointed in the least. (I don't see a lot of movies in 3D. What's the big deal, anyway? You have to wear glasses for it to work.) I loved the Na'vi and the way they lived. Funny braids they have, so they can bond with the animals... boy, the animals of that planet, Pandora. Hammer-head rhinos and dragon-like, uh... would you call them birds? I don't know, but they were awesome! You notice that all of them have 6 legs? I wonder how the Na'vi got walk on 2 legs, then. What did they descend from?
The story totally engulfed me for a good 2 and a half hours. All the action, colorfulness, jokes, music, romance... it was all well done. Unfortunately, we missed a small part of the beginning, I'm not sure how much. Probably not more than a minute or something, because we pretty much got the story. But where do the humans come from, if not from Earth? Why the heck do these people need this stupid unobtainium. (What the... who gave it that name?Unobtanium.) Oh, and why did Sigourney Weaver's character have to have a cigarette? That's about the only thing I didn't like about the whole movie. It wasn't important to the story at all. Why must people promote smoking in what would otherwise be an awesome movie??? Oh, speaking of Sigourney Weaver, I was ultra-impressed with the way her Avatar looked. How did they make it look exactly like her?! And that nerdy guy too.
Okay, I'll stop ranting about Avatar now.
Yesterday was a lot of fun. I discovered that a really awesome Michael Jackson movie, "Moonwalker," existed on YouTube. Yep, all the parts were there! ^__^ You must see this! I hope YouTube doesn't take it down any time soon, because I could see this over and over. It's full of his music and funny stop-motion animation, and the story in the second half is pretty cool, too. Maybe to some people it wouldn't make a lot of sense, because at first glance it seems like a whole mish-mash of stuff, but I think it's great, because that way you're always surprised. Michael is the greatest! I don't think I'll ever stop saying that.
YouTube is acting a little funny for me right now, so I can't embed what I thought was a hilarious part right now. But I will!
Edit: Here it is! This comes somewhere in the middle, but it stands by itself really well.
Last night I was watching "Who's Line is it Anyway" with my siblings while flipping the channels, and then we saw Wayne Brady do a really funny impression of Michael Jackson. The clip we saw on TV was 8:33 - 9:00, where Wayne is singing to Ivy the Bingo Lady.
Most all the impressions are laugh out loud funny. At least to me. The only things I don't like is when they tease about his plastic surgery, and when Wayne has a mask of a white woman with brown hair and says "Hi, I'm Michael Jackson". That's just uncalled for. But I know these guys were just having fun. Wayne sings and dances so much like him, so it's really funny!
I've been having a lot of fun seeing trailers on YouTube of "Avatar" and "How to Train Your Dragon", two movies that I haven't seen yet, but really look forward to doing so. ^_^ All the 3-D animation looks wild and awesome, but what really attracts me to these films are their stories. Both movies look like something that I can really get into, funny and smart and compelling. I can't wait until I either get my hands on a DVD of "Avatar" or see "Train your Dragon" in the theater.
It should be a beee-yoooo-tiful day at the beach tomorrow. It'll be my dad's birthday. ^_^ Since it's still Passover, we'll be eating matzah until Monday, so unfortunately there won't be cake. ~_~ Oh well.
Hv y ntcd th smll thngs tht Ggl hs bn dng t clbrt Prl Fls Dy? Wll, 'v bn ctchng @ fw. Sch s th fct tht Gml, lk m, sms t hv lst t's vwls whn y frst g t sgn n. R tht Ggl hs chngd t's nm t Tpk fr sm strng rsn. R tht YTb hs @ ftr tht shws sm f thr vds n txt chrctr frmt. 1 thnk ths stff s prtty clvr.
1 dn't thnk 'm prsnlly gng t b mkng @ bg dl t f th frst f Aprl. Ths wll prbbly b th xtnt f my flshnss. 1 hp thr ppl wll tk dvntg f ths hldy, thgh. F nyn wnts t cmmnt nd b n th sprt f thngs, pls lv m @ cmmnt n n-vwl frmt wth th trnsltn blw, lk 'v dn hr. ^_~
Hr's @ lnk t my Prl Fl's Dy pst frm lst yr, by th wy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~Translation~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Have you noticed the small things that Google has been doing to celebrate April Fools Day? Well, I've been catching a few. Such as the fact that Gmail, like me, seems to have lost it's vowels when you first go to sign in. Or that Google has changed it's name to Topeka for some strange reason. Or that YouTube has a feature that shows some of their videos in text character format. I think this stuff is pretty clever.
I don't think I'm personally going to be making a big deal out of the first of April. This will probably be the extent of my foolishness. I hope other people will take advantage of this holiday, though. If anyone wants to comment and be in the spirit of things, please leave me a comment in no-vowel format with the translation below, like I've done here. ^_~
Here's a link to my April Fool's Day post from last year, by the way.)
