all the intrinsic qualities

Origami Love

2010-01-05T20:53:00.000-05:00

Leave it up to my sister to gift me something like this.

While I do love origami, the fact that it's a Page-A-Day Calendar... well, let's just say I have trouble just remembering to change the month on a regular calendar.

I did not even remember to do day one on day one. I was home for a few hours before heading out to house/pet sit, but it was the furthest thing from my mind. I've had a lot of catching up to do since then. One good thing though, Sundays appear to be free days. ;)

dove :: party hat

fox :: boomerang airplane

On a Whole Other Level

2010-01-03T17:51:00.000-05:00

The nerdiness of my Avatar fandom went up another notch today.

I've already seen the movie twice, and I'm dying to go see it again. Nobody wants to go with me though.
But anyhow...
Went on a grocery shopping run today. Mom's orders. Yes, I still live at home. My job doesn't support me, boo! Took a detour through the electronics section to check out Wii games since my sister's boyfriend bought her one for xmas.

Nothing good! Surprise, surprise.

Then I see Terminator Salvation posters! Oooh.
Both ones were just the machines... Moving on. Then out of nowhere... AVATAR posters!! *squeeee*

I gave in.

The quality is crap, unfortunately. Creases all of the damn thing.. but I like it. <3

A Mouse in the House

2010-01-02T23:36:00.000-05:00

House sitting for a co-worker. More like pet sitting, really. Which is basically cool. I like pets....except the snake. Eh..

It's only for the weekend, unlike the week I did in August. But this time, it's a little different.
I had to work this morning, and though I was dead tired last night, I had a hell of a time falling asleep. Chalk it up to the dog constantly going over to the window like there's someone here, or the fact that that window is huge, and there's no drapes on it. Slightly uncomfortable.

Could also be that I'm sleeping on the couch. Hm.

Had my mobile phone's alarm set so I wouldn't oversleep, but I didn't end up needing it. Just before six in the morning, I woke to the cat running into the room, then out. Into the room and out.... over and over and over! WTF.

Having a cat myself, I knew something was up. She was carrying something in her mouth.

I hoped it was a toy.

Nope!
OH....CRAP!! It squeaked! What the hell is going on?!

The cat--a normally sweet, cute, cuddly little ball of fur--was playing with a mouse. Just playing with. Picking it up and carrying it all over the place, then dropping it to see if it'd run. It did. Then it'd start squeaking again.

Ugh!

I had to admit, I was proud of myself for not jumping on a chair, shrieking my head off, but that's about as far as I got. I did start shrieking at the dog who wasn't doing a damn thing, and at the cat for not ending the poor rodent's misery immediately. Fat lot of good it did me though!

Dog! Do your job, and rid this house of the intruder! *Dog walks away uninterested*

Cat! Quit playing with it and get rid of it!! *Cat ignores me*

The cat ended up losing the mouse. Right afterward, I left for work. So as far as I know, it's still running around in here...and I have one more night to go.

Please let that mouse have gone outside! Please...

I want to go home now.

Sam Worthington/Avatar Love

2010-01-01T21:46:00.001-05:00

Who really knows why we end up liking something? What about a person?

Is it some deep psychological reason? Evolution? Heh...

For whatever ~~weird~~ reason, from the first time I saw Sam Worthington, I thought, "Damn, that is one good looking man!"
It was in the beginning of Terminator Salvation. Sam played Marcus Wright, a murderer on death row. Did that bother me? A little. I try not to sympathize with or otherwise care about characters like that. But at the same time, I didn't care! He had a beautiful voice and he was gorgeous!

After he was dead himself, I threw away my concerns and focused on the movie. Christian Bale! Whoohoo! But of course, Marcus re-emerged (nearly naked and covered in mud, I might add) after the massive explosion that killed everybody except Bale's character, John Connor. Weird!
I had to admit, I was happy to see Marcus Wright again. Murderer or not. He was some eye candy I hadn't expected. Throughout the movie, my eyes were glued to him, and we found out that he wasn't such a bad guy after all. Ahh, sweet relief! And even though he turned out to be part machine, that didn't stop him from trying to help save the people he ended up caring about. Take that, Skynet! Ha!

After the movie, I made my dad wait until I could read the credits and see who this lovely mystery man was, since I didn't know at the time. And then we went to Pizza Hut, and I promptly IMDb'd Sam on my phone. :)

So went my first encounter.

Since then, I kept an extra eye out for anything to do with him. And waited, miserably, for Terminator Salvation to come out on DVD.
And now, Avatar! I didn't even know what it was about for the longest time. Only that there were going to be huge blue beings called the Na'vi.
The closer and closer it came to the release date, the more it was featured on TV. And the more I began to look forward to it. My sister and I had planned on going to see the earliest showing of it that Friday. 10:15 am. Can't even say how much I was looking forward to it! But then, of course, reality smacks you in the face. I got called into work. Boo!

Needless to say, I was in a bad mood all day. I needed my Sam fix, and didn't get it.
By the time I was headed home, I had given up. Had to work Saturday too, so that was a no-go.

Around comes Sunday. No mail on Sunday, so I didn't have to work. :)
The earliest showing was still 10:15am. My dad and I headed out early. He hates crowds. Hates! Heh. I didn't think it would be too bad so early in the morning. But this was the only IMAX theater around, so it shouldn't have been a surprise. The theater was nearly half full when we got in...and we were twenty minutes early. It was full with people still trickling in when the movie started.

Can we say "chills"? Shoot... I was practically shaking with excitement and the built up anticipation by then.
And it delivered. On a massive scale.
I'm so in love with this movie! It's incredible. Abso-freaking-lutely amazing. Sam Worthington is fantastic. Both as his human character Jake Sully, and his blue avatar counterpart. And you totally believe in the world it's set in, which is beautiful on it's own.
One of the few movies that I instantly have the urge to watch again, which is ultra rare.

Here's the trailer

I'll leave it at that. I don't want to spoil it for anybody! Haha! Go see it!

Scones. And a little bit of Green.

2009-04-22T16:51:00.004-04:00

First time making scones. Ever.
These were coconut scones, and coconut = YUM.

I think they turned out alright. Of course, the only scone I've had was a dried out cinnamon scone from a Starbucks in the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport....at about one in the morning. Probably not the freshest example. But it had decent flavor.

These....had not a whole lot of flavor. The coconut that went into it, sweetened shredded coconut and coconut milk, gave only the sightest hint of flavor. They ended up tasting like sweetened cooked flour.

Still look good though! =P

Next time, I'll have to add some coconut extract...or go with a different flavor.

:)

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Some greenery from my bedroom window. Most are succulents.

Some baby Baby Jade. They're so tiny!! These have been growing from a fallen leaf of my more mature plant for probably six months.

Golden Pagodas.

More jade, two separate plants. Then these last three are an Umbrella plant I adopted from Lowe's. It has such glossy bright green leaves...lovely. :)

Adventures in Baking, part 2

2009-04-20T21:08:00.007-04:00

Part 2, sort of.... I didn't actually bake the angel food cake from my previous post...

Hmmm....

COOKIES!

So, I've had this Cookies cookbook since a little before this past Christmas, but hadn't tried out any of the recipes, though I've kept my eye on one for Ginger-Lemon Cookies.

Today, time for baking. :)

(photos are clickable thumbnails, click for larger view. I'm so loving the macro feature on my digital camera <3)

Ginger-Lemon Cookies. They are most excellent. One of my favorite flavor & scent combinations, how could they not be good?

Mocha-Cinnamon Chocolate Chip cookies. Pretty good. I think I put in a little too much cinnamon. But they're still quite tasty...my dad keeps stealing some....so they must be. ;)

Muscari, Daffodils, & Cake

2009-04-19T21:53:00.003-04:00

Some spring flowers!

Muscari, Blue Magic

Daffodils

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I've been itching to cook some of the recipes I've put into a notebook, planning on a big Sunday dinner.

Didn't happen.

I did however make a cake. =)

Recipe courtesy of Kraft Foods.

YUM

Oktapodi

2009-03-02T02:40:00.002-05:00

This animated short actually won the Acadamy Award for animated shorts!

It's awesome.
Check it.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

2009-02-27T20:48:00.004-05:00

Birthday post!!

So! What did Susie do on her birthday?
Well, it started off slow, waking up at 10, then resetting my alarm to 11. Yes, I do quite like my sleep. :) Then, I took a warm shower, played on the computer for a bit, blow dried my hair, and put on some makeup. My mom and I were planning on going to see Slumdog Millionaire, but her and my dad weren't home then--out having a little chat with their financial advisor, or something like that. Then they got home, and my dad left again, hmm. I didn't say anything, thinking she had remembered the movie.

But she just sat at her computer for the next three hours. One showing missed. I always feel bad for saying something like, "Today is my birthday. This is what I want to do," and expecting people to go along with it. I don't want to be a demanding person, or have a fit because something didn't go my way. I hate people who are like that (though, I know everyone sometimes has days like that, myself included). So I go remind her. Oi.. to make a long story short... we were late. LOL

We got there half way through the Watchmen trailer (this movie looks SO good!!!), and we got settled--with her trying to open up a bag of Skittles--as this trailer came on. X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

And to my complete shock, who do I see in the trailer??
Daniel Henney!! One of my most beloved Korean actors! Okay... so he's only half-Korean.... but he's also from Michigan! All around awesomeness. :)

And yes, Slumdog Millionaire is very much worth going to see!

my old fallback

2009-02-22T16:59:00.002-05:00

I'm going to try my best not to post too many of these; a bad habit not easily broken. But! In an effort to not forget about this thing.... I need to keep posting. :)

(reply if you like w/ your own results)

You Attract a Capricorn

When down to earth, responsible, loyal Capricorn meet you, they've met their match.

You are as ethical as Capricorn, and they respect your values.

You are also able to be a loyal and caring partner to your Capricorn, even when times are tough.

You are there to cheer up or motivate your Capricorn - which never goes unappreciated.

What Sign Do You Attract?

You Are Iceman

You tried to live a normal life, but it just wasn't possible

A bit of a slacker, you rather tell jokes than cultivate your powers

Powers: turning self and others into ice, making ice weapons, becoming nearly invisible

Which of the X-Men Are You?

Soo's got Seoul

2009-02-19T21:38:00.002-05:00

Too cute! Go vote for Soo! :)

Knowing (2009)

2009-02-19T20:28:00.000-05:00

Cast:
Nicolas Cage as John Koestler, a professor
Rose Byrne as Diana Whelhan
Chandler Canterbury as Caleb Koestler, the professor's son

Premise:
John Koestler (Cage), a professor, finds that the contents of a time capsule at his son's elementary school makes predictions of the future that have come true. The predictions lead the teacher to believe the world is ending, and that he and his son are involved in the apocalypse.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowing_(film)

Trailer:

It does look like an awesome movie, I'll give it that. And the sci-fi/thriller/mystery genre is one of my favorites in both films and novels.
Great.
My sister is also fully intent on going to see it in the theater.
Cool.

I was right along there with her until, in the trailer, someone says, "What happens when the numbers run out?"

CRAP.
This is an apocalypse movie?!

Yeah. So...
I'm not going to go see it. I haven't even made it to my 25th birthday yet, and all these movies and documentaries are coming out about the supposed apocalypse in 2012.
NO! Why?!

I've been looking forward to a solar eclipse in 2012 since elementary school. Is this what they're talking about? I thought we had gotten past the "Oh my god, the end of days is here! The sun went out!" type thing. Right?
So, if it isn't the eclipse, is it before? after?

This whole thing terrifies me, and I most definitely will not pay for an addition to that terror.

Jury Duty

2009-02-19T00:06:00.000-05:00

As you can probably guess by the title, I have jury duty. My first time!
Oh! what fun.

Tomorrow and Friday, and then the following Thursday and Friday (aka my 25th birthday *gag*). All days at 8:30am. I suppose that most people would find that time just fine, but I am nearly nocturnal. A night person more correctly. It's midnight as I'm typing this sentence, and I feel wide awake.

Perhaps it was the two cups of green tea? I need to remember not to drink it when I need to wake up any time before noon. I do believe that it's only the selection process, but could they have picked any day but my birthday? Do they do that to everyone?

Oi.

Moving on....and hopefully into bed.
Goodnight.

Aygo Football / Her Morning Elegance

2009-02-18T00:10:00.001-05:00

So, I don't really sleep all that well. lol Which leads to watching some interesting things on tv early in the morning. BBC America, VH1, and Fuse are about the only channels that have decent programming at all hours of the morning. Top Gear is a favorite show of mine on BBCA, an awesomely entertaining car show.

Case in point :: Toyota Aygo Football

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flKzjuDhFDs

^ You'll have to click the link--embedding was disabled :/
The first little bit is kinda boring, but it gets much better! Looks like great fun.

Second, music videos. Most are, you know, normal. Bands playing, doing strange things, but nothing new really. This one was cooooool.... I was half awake, more on the sleepy side of things when I saw it. The tv was turned down to where I didn't really hear the song, but the video, well, see for yourself:

Oren Lavie's Her Morning Elegance