I got the beat
Well, #2's done. Let's hope that there won't have to be a #3, but we'll see. Thank you all for your warm wishes and support. It means alot that you're rooting for me.
So, after my test I did what I did last time. I went shopping and I watched a movie. I told Anna I saw one of the Bangles while spying on the new macbooks in the apple store. It was actually the bassist of the Go-Go's, Jane Wiedlin. She's the kinda crazy, wild, dark-haired one. We shared the same salesman and when I beat the guy to the sales pitch, she looked at me and smiled. Who's got the beat now? Haha. Get it?
Soul star
OMG! This guy is great!
His name is Van Hunt and I dig his music. I discovered him on iTunes. I'm listening to him now on his website,
www.vanhunt.com and he's amazing. Why hadn't I heard of him before? On my way to buy his album right now. Well, not right this second, but the next chance I get.
What others are saying about him: "While Van Hunt's down tempo sound would be best termed contemporary soul, you sense this guy could soon be in competition with r&b stars like R.Kelly and Usher. Already hailed by Alicia Keys as "one of the most incredible musicians I know", I say the newcomer of the year has been found with months to spare." -BBC
ON THE JUNGLE FLOORReleased April 4, 2006
Capitol Records
1. If I Take You Home
2. Hot Stage Lights
3. Daredevil, Baby
4. Ride, Ride, Ride
5. Being A Girl
6. Suspicion
7. Mean Sleep with Nikka Costa
8. Priest or Police
9. Character
10. No Sense of Crime
11. At The End of A Slow Dance
12. The Thrill of This Love
13. Hole in My Heart
14. The Night Is Young
the way it was
Shut up. Going through withdrawal.
Here's a
behind the scenes ALIAS tribute video to Ryan Cabrera's "I Will Remember You."
My American Idol: Susan Cagle
A few weeks ago I let you know about this singer I heard of on MTV. Susan Cagle's album,
the Subway Recordings is out now. More info about her at her website,
www.susancagle.com.
Susan Cagle, singer, songwriter, musician
album: the Subway Recordings
label: Colombia
music: "urban folk"
musical influences: Lauryn Hill, The Cranberries and Alanis Morissette
musical background: been invovled in music since age 2, parents are also performers
discovery: discovered in a subway station in New York
fun facts: second oldest of ten children, members of her band are some of her siblings, lived in Venezuela, Mexico, Greece, Italy, France, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Czechoslovakia and all across the United States, sold 30,000 self-issued homemade CDs
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Several years ago, my parents started to revamp the house we've been living in since I was 6. It all started because the insurance company wouldn't renew our contract unless we chaged our wood roof. So, we replaced it. We then changed all the carpet, got new furniture, redid the kitchen and put in an island, changed the front door, got new chandilers, put in new garage doors, painted the inside and outside of the house, got a new big screen tv and finally changed the window treatment. The house was warm and inviting before, but I have to say, it seems much brighter and lighter now. Here are a few pictures of the house. I wiish I'd taken more of the old with the furniture still there, but there you go.
the dining room before:
and after:
the living room before:
and after:
You're welcome in our home anytime.
more kiddies
Christine Angela Thomas, my nineth godchild
My other kiddies:
1. Luigi, age 14
2. Jasmine, age 11
3. Sherline, age 7
4. Jovin, age 7
5. Xavier, age 6
6. Trevor, age 5
7. Tristan, age 5
8. Grace, age 4
Just found out another cousin, mother of my first godchild is expecting her third child. Congrats, Manang Lalaine and Frank! That makes three more on the way.
Goodbye to you, ALIAS.
You might be surprised by this, but I didn't watch ALIAS when it first came out. I worked on Sundays and got off when the show ended at 10pm. I didn't want to watch if I hadn't started from the beginning, but my friend told me to check it out. I thought it was good. Slowly, I caught on to the characters and the story but those darn cliffhangers kept me going back.
I remember the moment I became a fanatic. I love, love, love love stories. Second season, Vaughn was sick with the virus from the big red ball. Sydney saved his life by getting the vial that contained the cure. After visiting Syd's mother in the jail cell and telling Irina that he's in love with her daughter, Vaughn went to see Sydney to thank her for saving his life. For most of the time preceding this moment, there was tension, affection, an obvious connection between Syd and Vaughn, but many things were in the way of them being together. Anyway, they had this MOMENT. I just put that scene on
YouTube.
It's nice to know I'm not alone in feeling the loss of ALIAS. Did you know Mary J. Blige was an alias addict?
"I am a die-hard fan of Alias. Why are they taking it off the air? I don't understand! I mean, Sydney was doubled by Ana, and then she killed Ana, and now she's with Prophet Five--there's so much more to be told."
-
Mary J. Blige to E! Online's Kristen Vietch
I
love Mary J. Blige.
Here are some reasons why I loved ALIAS from an article entitled
Confessions of an 'Alias' Addict:
"Thematically, the show explored such age-old questions as fate versus free will, nature versus nurture and good versus evil, albeit in the background of slinky evening dresses and karate kicks. Above all, the show examined the intersection of love and deception.
In short, there was a surprising amount of substance accompanying all that style."
Thanks to JJ for creating a kick ass show with strong, smart characters. Thanks to Jennifer Garner and the cast for portraying those characters with heart and depth. It was brilliant. I'm bummed the show is over, but it'll live on in DVD. So I say, goodbye ALIAS.
Hi, I'm Gwen and I'm an ALIAS addict. But you already knew that.
I gotta tell you about my ALIAS autograph stories. First, I went as a seatfiller to ABC's 50th anniversary special. We weren't really seatfillers inside the show, we were the crowd welcoming the "stars" into the Pantageas theatre. I got pretty close, too. This was when she was still married to Scott Foley, so I thought I'd bring along with me her ALIAS DVDs to sign and his Felicity DVDs for him to sign. On the red carpet, chaos. When it finally died down, Jennifer and Michael walked the red carpet together. No sign of Foley. She came over to us to sign and I pulled out the DVDs. I put the ALIAS and Felicity DVD right next to each other. When she went to sign, she saw his, took a second and moved over to hers to sign. I didn't realize it then, but she and Scott were separating. Oops. She also had a blue pen in her hand already, which doesn't show too well on the black DVD. Oops
2. Still, a cool siting.
Then, a couple of years ago, I got to go to a session called "creating characters" at the Musem of Television and Radio. Jennifer Garner, Keri Russell and their show creators, JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves (co-creator of Felicity) spoke about their characters, Sydney and Felicity, how they came up with the charcters, what influences their acting, all that stuff. It was pretty cool. It was like watching a live DVD commentary. At the end of the Q&A session, the audience crowded the stage, myself included to get autographs and pictures. I brought my clipboard and the baseball card I wanted Jennifer to sign. I held it above other people's heads as she made her way down the crowd signing. After she did mine I thought, "Yay, I got it." Looked at it to find out she autographed the clipboard, not the card. Oh, well. It's still memorabilia to me. So, I went up to JJ Abrams and asked him to sign it.
The next ALIAS siting was at California Adventure. Didn't get Garner's autograph, but I did get Greg Grunberg's, JJ Abrams' best friend. You know him as Ben and Noel's roommate on Felicity, Agent Weiss on Alias, The Pilot from the pilot of Lost and the guest talking to Tom Cruise in M:i:III. Kevin Weisman, Agent Marshall happened to be walking by me, so I grabbed him for a picture. I also caught a rare Garner/Vartan moment. They were dating at the time and tried to stay apart at the event.
Last, my Vartan sitings. I've seen him play hockey several times. HOT! So HOT! Got some really close shots of him at the Stars with Sticks 2004 hockey game. We were literlly face to face, with only the clear glass barrier seperating us. At last years' game, I got to finally approach him and what do I do? I got shy and quiet. All I could do was ask for an autograph when I really wanted a picture with him. Fortunately, I found a picture another fan took from afar. That's me in the red next to him.
updated grey's writers' blog
****UPDATED 05/18/06 19:54*****
I can't see this on my mac, but it is a video shot for the ABC upfronts (a presentation by the network to potential ad execs). Remember the superbowl episdoe? George's dream/fantasy in the shower? Well, they spoofed it. Check it out
here. Oh! Hahahahahahaha! I just saw it here,
YouTube.
FYI- Shonda Rhimes has posted her thoughts on writing the finale on the
grey's blog.
Highlights (SPOILERISH):
She did not want to write off Denny, but his character was written to be killed.One good thing from Denny's tragedy- "Denny has been loved. And he dies knowing he was loved. And knowing that he loved back."“Losing My Religion” was the name of the episode because each of the interns lets go of something. George- Meredith, Christina-perfection, Izzie-Idealism, Meredith-just lets go. I didn't realize it but the prom clothes the interns were in were actually mourning clothes. They were all in dark colors, all but Izzie who was in happy pink. Only Izzie looks like she didn’t know this was coming.
Shonda loved the shot of Izzie wallking down the stairs with Alex and George behind her. I liked that shot, too. Shonda says, "Izzie has this fallen queen thing going on that I just adore."Shonda always wanted to write in a prom and she also wanted to give the show an 80's movie feel. The scene where the interns give their speeches to the chief was her homage to the breakfast club.Sanda Oh is brilliant. "And then you see her give that speech to the Chief (which by the way, Sandra Oh did brilliantly and perfectly EVERY SINGLE TAKE) and you see the struggle. Her struggle to suppress all of her humanity in pursuit of perfection. And in my mind, what we realize is that she is not cold. She is terrified. Scared that if she lets her emotions out, they will overtake her and she will be hurt. And you can’t hate her. Because it’s so incredibly human and understandable."
Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm.
Who knew cooking could be so fun? Cooking lessons with Seong- fun and yummy.
Seong: You always have to let meat rest.
Kay: Yeah, because it gets tired.
Gwen, Kay and Randy: (laughter)
Kay: Haha, I made a funny.
First, we went grocery shopping for all the ingredients. I found my new favorite place, Whole Foods. I'd never been there and was I ever overwhelmed, in a good way. So much to chose from. So many things to see. They had this stuff called chocolate flavored raw colostrum. WTF? Did that really say "colostrum?" But I thought that was what babies get from their mothers the first few days of breastfeeding. I looked it up in the dictionary to make sure. Yes, that is what it is. Hence, my face in the picture.
The cooks: Seong, me and Kay
The tasters: Randy and Rache
The menu 
appetizer:
maritime quesadiila made with
gyere cheese
brin cheese
lump crab
carmelized onions
side of cream fraiche and scallions
main course:
pork chops in a plum wine reduction (also with pork chop juice, shallots, chicken broth, butter)
asparagus with prosciotto
twice baked potato made with mexican cheddar cheese, sour cream, garlic herb cheese, carmalized onions
dessert:
apple cobbler a la modemade with granny smith and gala apples
sugar and brown sugar
flour
unsalted butter
macerated in vanilla stoli
Randy: I'm full.
Yummy times!!!
finale, grey's
"Grey's Anatomy" has always been a master of the quiet moment. Season finales are often bigger then life — using velocity to carry viewers into the next season. "Grey's" scored not only with medical drama, but with the intimate moments in between.
-Melissa Rayworth for the Associated press on
Yahoo NewsThe journey from novice to master in work and life continues on Grey's.
First hour, exciting, fast-paced, good.
Second hour, slower, sad and heartbreaking, a little anti-climatic.
My thoughts on Mere/Derek:
I liked them together in season one. They were fun and mischevious and it seemed like they could really work out, until McWifey stepped into the picture in the season one finale and Derek chose her over Mere. The moment he chose his wife, he should have shut the door on Mere and never looked back. Poor girl. She went through some humiliation and pain. She has since tried to move on. Derek should have let her move on. This...this just complicates the entire situation. Oh, the drama of it all.
As for Izzie and Denny:
Sad to see the guy go. Denny gave up his heart to live and Izzie gave her heart up for her career. Sad to see her go all ca-razy and frantic in fear and frustration, but even sadder to watch her decide to leave the program after her fiance's death. Tears came down my face even though I tried to fight it. Is that the end of Katherine Heigl on Grey's? I don't know. Izzie was too emotionally attached to her patients to be a good surgeon. Who knows?
Cristina and Burke:
Fight or flight? And Xtina chose to run. My favorite Christina scene was when she first saw Burke in the trauma room and she was in her "best supportive girlfriend" mode. I don't think they'll be able to surive as a couple after that. I don't know. I guess it could still happen. We'll see.
Overall, it was a really great second season for Grey's. If you're a fan, too, I hoped you enjoyed it as much as I did.
argh, apple!
Son of a...
I turned on my computer and opened an internet connection to find out, apple has done it to me again. Today, they announced an upgraded version of the one I bought last week. When I bought my G4, it wasn't long before the newer G4s came in. When I bought my iPod, the newer generation iPod came out within maybe a month.
So, I can mail back this computer and exchange it for the new one. I have 14 days to do it, but I need the computer to do my practice questions.
Son of a...
Strawberries
FYI- This year's California Strawberry Festival will be May 20-21 in Oxnard, CA.
why so angry?
Grey's last night, like whoa! Hee
2! I love it!
Oh, would you do what Izzie did?
From
grey's writer's blog:"As for Mer/Der… that silent scene in the elevator at the end where they have so much pain and they can’t talk to each other – well that scene originally had words. Many words. But Patrick Dempsey thought it would play stronger without words and he was right. The scene started out being about anger – hence the many words -- but if you combine anger with love, you really get pain. The pain of hating someone while still loving them. We’re told that to hate someone is bad. But if you love them at the same time, is it still bad?"
How did these writers get to be so smart? Ah...they've lived through pain, too.
Anyway, great episode last night. Can't wait for the conclusion tonight. Watch it after Oprah's Legend's Ball on ABC at 8pm.
***Updated 05/15/05 12:58***
I knew that guy looked familiar. The boss-guy on Grey's last night, Ken Marino, played Joey Potter's (Katie Holmes) college professor, Professor Wilder. Catch that Larnie?
Movie review: M:i:III
***No real spoilers. Safe to read if you plan to watch the movie.***
I liked it. It was actually better than I thought it was going to be.
You know how big a fan of ALIAS I am. I'd heard that M:i:III was basically ALIAS: the Movie, but I didn't think that. Not really. There were several call backs to ALIAS and I think that was intentional. I thought it was going to distract me. Only one of the scenes did, the 7eleven scene. It was totally ripped from ALIAS. Instead of Vaughn offering Sydney a slushee and wishing her luck on her mission, it's Billy Crudup and Tom Cruise. Not the same.
In any case, I thought the movie was fun and entertaining. It was full of action and explosions, but there was also a little character mixed in. That's JJ. JJ's storytelling style is very musical and rhythmic. He likes to open with throwing you in the middle of things, the climax to his melody. In this case, a very story, intense beat like pounding drums in crescendo. He'll then skip back to the introit to get you involved and invested in his characters. Here it was a whimsical, romantic adagio. Then, he'll revisit the melody. This time you don't only hear the pounding drums, you also hear the horns, the strings and wind instruments crescendo as well. Lastly, he'll throw you off a little and finally conclude the story, the coda.
I also enjoyed Keri Russell kick some A$$.
In M:i:III, Ethan Hunt and his team try to break into the Vatcian. Well, they did that on ALIAS' season One as well. Let me set up the scene. Sydney is a fugative. In order to prove her innocence she needs to get the code key from a piece of artwork in the Vatican in able to decipher text on a mysterious blank page. Sydney asks Vaughn, who at the moment is her "handler" to assist her. It's their first mission together in the field. Hee
2! Check it out
here.FYI- the stairs were filmed at Immaculate Heart with the background painted out and replaced with the Vatican.
My overall rating of M:i:III 4 out of 5 stars.
Reason for the season
Reasons why WE celebrated Cinco de Mayo:- Bev got a new job
- Pat got a new job
- Seong's done with finals
- Cile's Birthday
- Anna's 3 month probation is over
- Ja's damn website is finally done!
- James is going to india next week
- ANDY TECSON is back from the Phillippines
- the Gerali parentals are gone for a month
- many other reasons I can't remember right now
Cinco De Mayo
...I see drunk people.
Yep, that's my roommate. Ha
2. Ha
3. Ha
x.
Someone didn't learn their lesson the last time. Oh, James. Classic.
Remember this?
and
Oh, that's right. You don't. =)
Here's some of what happened that night (cile and pat have more pics):
Can't forget to mention Drunks #3 and #4, Kay and Bev. Don't have pics of them, but can't describe the states of mind they were in. All I know is Kay kept saying she was hot, "Feel my hands! I feel hot." I saw Bev tilt her head back, close her eyes and purse-breath, when you put your lips together and breath like you're going to blow out a birthday cake. Later, an emotional drunk came out to play. Fun times!
Saints &
Sinners!
Evil Inside!
MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo processor
I've been frustrated with not being able to use some of the NCLEX study questions on PC programs on my Mac. Really frustrated. Went to the library and hoped to use the public computer. No good. Won't run. I looked into buying a PC notebook for the sake of having a PC around, went to Fry's and felt completely overwhelmed. What the heck is all this computer geek stuff- intel celeron, intel centrino, AMD something or the other?
So, I called my computer-cousin, John. I swear, I'm so lucky I have such a big family that can hook me up and get my back when I need anything. He suggested the MacBook Pro that can run both Mac and PC crap together. Two evils combine to form one BIG evil! Aaaaaaah, can't run away.
Beware: Gwennie's got a new toy (once it gets here).
