Tis the Season

Long time, no write.  Believe it or not, I have not given up on my blog.  I simply got carried away and swept up in all the Christmas activities last week.

I had every intention of posting on the days leading up to Christmas Eve, but I just couldn't keep up with everything.  We ended up all over the city delivering gifts to friends, and had to make a stop to visit a friend who found himself stuck in a hospital bed over the holiday.

The only writing I actually got done last week was a handful of articles with strict deadlines attached to them.

I did get a ton of amazing birthday and Christmas gifts last week from my husband, friends, and family.  As the week goes on I'll be sharing my experiences with things like my new digital camera!

Until then, deadlines are calling my name.

Farce of the Penguins

Maybe you've seen the trailers for Farce of the Penguins.  If so, do not be fooled.  We thought this film looked hysterical.   Boy, did we regret renting it.

Farce of the Penguins is basically a parody of March of the Penguins.  The film follows the journey of the male penguins’ 70-mile trek to breed with the females waiting at the breeding grounds. Penguins Carl and Jimmy talk about their lives, food, and sex during their hike. Back at the breeding grounds, Melissa and Vicky talk about men and how to know when you meet “the one.”

Farce of the Penguins was written and directed by Bob Saget and narrated by Samuel Jackson.  It also stars the voices of well-known stars, such as Lewis Black, Tracy Morgan, Whoopi Goldberg, Dane Cook, and Christina Applegate.

With those stars involved, it sounds like a recipe for success, right?  Wrong.  

The film is full of one-liners that could really only crack up a 12-year-old.  I can understand and get into raunchy, over the top comedy.  That's obviously what they were going for, but they failed miserably.

The only thing else I can say is I want my hour and twenty minutes back!

Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock

I've had a few days to play around with my birthday gifts, and I just have to say that I'm addicted to Guitar Hero.

I am a guitar player.  I've been playing since the age of 6.  When Guitar Hero first came out, I thought, "You've got to be kidding me?  This is crap!  Learn how to play the damn guitar."  Then this past summer a friend of mine invited me over to try it out.  Man, I loved it!  I have talked about it a lot since then, and mother picked it up for me.

This game will keep you occupied for a long time.  Not only are there more than 70 songs to learn and play, but there are four different difficulty modes.

So I began playing on "easy" mode the other night.  I got through the first eight songs and then I had to battle another guitar player to go on.  I beat him (after about three tries) and now I'm moving on to more songs.  

Then I got the bright idea to try the same songs in "expert" mode.  Oh my god!  It's going to take a lot of practice to work up to "expert."  I then tried "hard."  Still no dice.  I couldn't even make it to the lyrics in the song before I lost and had to start over.  I didn't even try "medium."  My ego had been beaten to a pulp and I was put back in my place.  Only "easy" for now.

So I'll practice my little heart out in "easy" mode until I work my way up to the harder levels ... I'll be doing all this while my collection of six real guitars collect some dust because I just can't put my Guitar Hero down!

Guitar Hero AND Nintendo DS Lite!

So I need to get into my private life here for a moment.  I'm a Christmas baby (born four days before).  Because of that, my mother has always tried to do something nice for me the week before my birthday.  When you're born so close to the holidays, your birthday can kind of get lost in the shuffle.

Yesterday she had my husband and I over to celebrate my birthday.  I feel so spoiled this year.  Not only did she get me the entire Guitar Hero game pack for my PS2, but she also got me a Nintendo DS Lite, along with a game for the DS Lite!  

I should probably mention that I am turning 33 this year, however, I've always been a gamer.  My dad had me playing Atari before I was even in kindergarten.  I felt like a kid yesterday though.  How many 33-year-olds can say that they left their mother's house with a car full of games?

I feel like I'm on information overload.  I know I need to get some writing done today, but my mind is on the games sitting in my living room.  I did play Guitar Hero for a bit last night, but I haven't gotten to the DS Lite yet.  I have a feeling I'm going to be the complete opposite of productive this week. 

After I've played around with both for a good amount of time, I'll post back here and let you all know what I think.  

My New Laptop is Coming!

I got great news today.  My new laptop has officially shipped!  My computer has been growing slower and slower over the last few weeks.  I've done everything I can to make it keep up with my pace, but to no avail.  At this point it's an old system, so it probably is about  time to replace it.

I have to tell you though, I didn't really need an excuse to want a laptop.  I just needed a reason to justify it.  This summer will be so much better than the previous two.  I won't be stuck in my little office when it's beautiful out.  I can just pack up the laptop and  bring it out to the backyard or take a walk down to the park.  What a great way to work!

I didn't even take any paid assignments this week, simply because my desktop computer has been so temperamental.  I didn't want to get caught with a deadline that I couldn't make because of my technical issues.  

The laptop is still supposed to take 3 to 5 business days to get here, but that's okay with me.  The only thing I'm a little nervous about is it comes with Vista as its operating system.  I've never used Vista, and quite honestly, I've heard a lot of negative things about it.  I figure I'll need a day or two just to play around with it and figure out how it works.  So, if I disappear for a couple of days next week, now you know why.

If anyone out there has encouraging words about Vista, I'm all ears!

Searching for the Holiday Spirit

Christmas is generally my favorite time of year.  Seriously, I'm like a kid all over again the entire month of December.  This year I just can't seem to get myself into it.  Don't get me wrong.  I have put up the tree and I have bought gifts.  Unfortunately, I just can't afford as many gifts as I have in the past.  

I think what has happened is the financial crisis all around us.  Every morning when I turn on the news, without missing a beat I hear about another company that is laying off large amounts of workers.  It just seems like everyone is hurting so badly this year that it's hard to be in the spirit of the holidays.  

As I'm writing this I decided to put my favorite Christmas CD on.  I have to admit that it is making me a little more "jolly."  It's an amazing CD ... but not your typical stuff.  If you've never heard of them before, I highly recommend checking out The Tran-Siberian Orchestra.  They're a mix of classical music along with rock and roll.  I'm sure you can download some of their stuff somewhere to take a listen for yourself.  They have a few CDs.  If you do decide to look up their stuff, I'd recommend Christmas Eve and Other Stories.

I figure I still have two weeks to find my holiday spirit one step at a time.  We're supposed to get between 4 and 8 inches of snow tonight.  Maybe that will help!

Here We Go

Hello to everyone who is taking the time to stop by and read my blog.  I've been writing for many years, but I'm new to the blogging world.  I decided some time ago to start a blog, but couldn't pick just one single topic to blog about.  That kept me from getting started.  

Then it hit me ... anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm the most opinionated person they know.  (oh, and my husband will tell you I also am never wrong ... in my opinion anyway).  I let him think he's right every once in a while.  

As you can see from my blog's address, this is my experiment of opinion.  When my freelance writing assignments call for it, I absolutely love writing reviews (aka sharing my opinions).  I always seem to have something to say, even while I work on writing assignments all by my lonesome in my home office.

With that said, my vision for this blog is to share my thoughts and opinions on numerous things.  That could be the new laptop I'm expecting to be delivered next week.  It may be an episode of Heroes that ticked me off.  It could be about how that talking baby in TV commercials creeps me out.

Maybe you'll learn about a product you were contemplating purchasing. Maybe you'll just get a good laugh as I rant and rave about the snow falling outside my office window.  I just hope that you enjoy the journey with me.