Christmas Eve was at the house as usual. But in the early afternoon, we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa’s house to see them, take a few photos, and drop off presents. I’m working on processing the photos to post to the photos site.
This specific photo was taken on December 24, 2010, in San Jose.
Angelina Jolie as Salt
Netflix Synopsis:
After she's accused of being a Russian sleeper spy, rogue CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) goes on the run, using every tactic, accent and disguise she knows to elude her pursuers, clear her name and protect her husband. Her supervisor, Winter (Liev Schreiber), buys her story, while counterintelligence officer Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) decidedly does not and will do anything to stop her in this fast-paced, intrigue-filled spy adventure.
My Take:
I really wanted to like this movie, and I did for about the first third. But then it took a sudden turn down when the movie changed direction from plausible to unbelievable super-action hero. I mean, I believe the Jason Bourne movies more than Salt. Granted, the film was well shot, and the chases and stunts were well choreographed. I know, it’s a movie, and things don’t have to be realistic. Perhaps it was my mistake going into this film hoping for an actual action/espionage film, as opposed to pure cartoonish action sequences. I prefer Angelina Jolie’s in Wanted than in this film.
For me, any empathy for “Salt” was lost, as the story failed to support her actions or motivation. But I guess this isn’t a movie about character motivation, but of the momentum of action.
Rating: Cable TV Worthy
A Christmas card type photo, don’t you think?
Ah, Christmastime. It’s a time of joy and wonder and sharing good times with family and friends. And you know what? It’s Mia’s first Christmas!
She had a great Christmas Eve. During the day we were able to see Grandma and Grandpa. At night, she stayed up as long as she could, entertaining everyone with her cuteness and antics. Unfortunately, her eyes grew heavy just a little after 8pm. She finally fell asleep.
What do we have planned for Christmas day? More fun at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, than who knows what. Merry Christmas to everyone!
This photo was taken on November 26, 2010. The photo is part of a session where we tried to capture images to be used for our Christmas cards. You can find the rest of the photos here. If you need the password to the photo gallery, don’t hesitate to email me at feedback [at] janella [dot] com.
Mia and Binky
Binky. Waa Waa. Chup Chup. ‘cifer. Well, it’s that green thing in this photo that Mia puts in her mouth to calm herself. We were at Maggiano’s celebrating Farrah’s birthday when I snapped this photo using the Canon S95.
This photo was taken on December 19th, 2010 at Maggiano’s.
Another video, instead of a photo, today. This video is from this past Thanksgiving. There are so many things to be thankful for this year. This was Mia’s first Thanksgiving. We spent the first part of the day at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We enjoyed a nice breakfast.
Later in the afternoon, we traveled to the Traber’s house with Nana for Thanksgiving dinner. As always, my sister made a great turkey, and there were plenty of other things to eat as well.
This video was taken on Thursday, November 25, 2010.
Instead of a photo today, I’m publishing a small video. Mia loves going outside. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold or raining. We bundled her up and gave her to Nana, who walked with her around the front of the house. She even introduced Mia to the lawn Santa Claus. We still need to visit mall Santa Claus this year as well.
This video was taken on December 4, 2010.
This photo was taken by the good people at our daycare. Mia looks so comfortable, doesn’t she? Even though we miss these tiny moments because Mia is at daycare and not with us, we know she is making friends, learning, and having fun. By the way, today is Mia’s fifth month birthday!
This photo was taken on November 3, 2010.
Visit usesthis.com
An interesting site that is a collection of “nerdy interviews"revolving around hardware and software these nerds choose to use. It’s insightful to get a peak at what tools (mostly Apple Macs) and the software these nerds choose. It makes me wish I was making more money to buy some of these “toys”.
Mia had her first immunization shots yesterday. Oh, the pain! But she’s a trooper, a tough cookie, like her mom.
She was given three shots and a sweet liquid that was taken orally. Farrah readily volunteered to hold me, though she didn’t really know what to expect. As she tightly held Mia the nurse gave the first shot into Mia’s right leg. When the needle entered Mia’s thigh, and the plunger was pressed down, Mia let out the biggest cry I ever heard from her tiny mouth. The scream was heartfelt and piercing. The nurse then gave Mia a few drops of the sweet liquid in an effort to soothe her. It calmed her for a brief moment until the other two shots were administered to her left leg. She was given the last of the sweet liquid to calm her down a bit. But you could see the tears streaming down the side of her face. It’s heartbreaking not being able to do anything but say, “It’ll be all right. You’re fine now.”
She cried until she could cry no longer. Exhausted, she fell asleep on the drive home.
Mia was quiet for a few hours. But then she awoke screaming, most likely from the pain in her legs. I was on my way home when Farrah told me 0.8 ml of acetaminophen, as dictated by the doctor, helped Mia through the next rough few hours. I don’t think we ever heard her cry so badly.
I’m extremely late in posting this, but it’s time to say goodbye to Vox. I hosted this blog there for a while - from July 2006 to June 2008.
The appeal of Vox, to me, was the community that was created during its inception. I found it easy to connect with people who shared common interests from various places around the world. Vox also allowed a user to post privately or to a specific group of people you designated. Unfortunately in order to comment on any post you had to be a Vox member.
Vox’s other limitations - lack of customization, lack of exporting data, lack of using a personal domain, and displaying of advertising you couldn’t control - made Vox not worth the trouble. People I had connected with started to drop off, going back to their personal websites (e.g. WordPress, Movable Type, etc). Thus ended my time at Vox.
I plan to import the view posts I have from Vox into this blog. They’ll be tagged appropriately, probably something as simple as “Vox”.
It was good while it lasted.
I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean. Is Darth Vader everywhere?
There are obvious reasons to be thankful, especially this year. As always, I’m thankful for my family who supports me in whatever I choose to do. I’m thankful for the friends who are always there for me. I’m thankful for my health - even though there have been a couple of rough patches this year. I’m thankful for being gainfully employed - though this may change next year. I’m thankful for having a wife who puts up with me. And I’m thankful for our healthy little baby girl.
This photo was taken with Mia’s Grandma on Thanksgiving morning. 2010.
The plan in the morning was for Mia to wear this lovely outfit to daycare. (Aren’t those tights cute?) Of course, it didn’t turn out to be the case. After taking a few photos, Mia promptly made the dress part “unwearable” for the day.
Mia is getting stronger. She grips items with her hands, making some of them difficult to take away. She can’t stand on her own - those are mommy’s hands holding her up - but she can stand propped like that for a while. Next thing you know she’ll be running around the house.
This photo was taken on the morning of November 23, 2010.
Great work done by graphic designer Fabian Glez (via laughingsquid)
Visit whenitdrops.com
In a previous life, I was a record store manager. (Yes, I can hear Mia now, “What’s a record?") Back then, I would enjoy new release Tuesdays, when new music and movie rentals would show up. It was easy to keep track of what was coming out back then. Ever since I’ve been out of retail, it has been a bit more difficult to determine when “this title” is available for rent or “that artist” is coming out with something new.
It looks as if When It Drops tries to help to provide this information. It’s a simple clean site showing what came out last week, what is coming out this week, and what is being released in the next few weeks. The site covers theater movies, music, DVDs, games, and books. Check it out.
Yesterday, we were very grateful to share a special moment in our friends' lives as we attended their wedding. The ceremonies and reception took place at The Janet Pomeroy Center. Yes, there were two ceremonies, or rather one ceremony separated into two parts. The first part was a Buddhist Nepalese ceremony. The second portion, briefly captured in the video clip, was a Christian Filipino ceremony. They were wonderful ceremonies. And the reception - the food, drink, singing, and dancing - made for a memorable time.
Congratulations to Lotte and Angche!!!
Wow, a post other than photos and Twitter updates! Yeah, I’ve been a bit behind in reviewing movies that I’ve been able to watch the last couple of months. Yes, even with Mia, work, and all the things life has to throw at you, there is still a little time to enjoy a movie. Well, I enjoyed some of them. Others were not so good.
Karate Kid (2010) - Why remake this movie? They should have just called it “Kung Fu Kid” considering that’s what Jaden Smith is learning. Jaden Smith overacts and Jackie Chan doesn’t get enough screen time. A valiant effort to not use the same script, but it falls short. Rating: Rental
Robin Hood - Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett aren’t bad in this movie. It’s just that the story isn’t compelling at the least. Rating: Cable TV
Inception - This is the last film we saw in the theater. I thought it was great, not realizing it was a long film. I would have liked to have seen some of the scenes in IMAX, but overall I was satisfied to watch it on the big screen. If you get this on blu-ray, I hope you have a large screen to watch it on, to get the full effect. Rating: Full Admission
The Losers - Action-packed movie, but no characters to care about. Zoe Saldana was the only thing going for this movie. Rating: Rental
The Blind Side - Likable actors and characters. Good solid story. I can see why Sandra Bullock was nominated for an Oscar (not sure she should have won it though). Rating: Matinee
She’s Out of My League - A predictable movie with a few funny moments. The shaving scene, and the outtakes of it, were a bit disturbing. Rating: Cable TV
Killers - An awful movie. A waste of time. I’m not sure why I bothered renting it. Oh, I know why. I rented Mr. & Mrs. Smith at the same time. I wanted to compare the two films. At least I watched one good film. Avoid Killers all costs. Rating: Cable TV
Date Night - Tina Fey and Steve Carell are hilarious in this film. But I thought it would have been funnier than it turned out to be. Rating: Cable TV
The Book of Eli - Strong performance by Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman. Not sure if Mila Kunis worked in this film for me though. The ending was a surprise, but not enough for me to watch the movie again. Rating: Rental
Shutter Island - Well told story. Solid acting. Looks gorgeous in blu-ray. I wouldn’t mind watching it again, though I don’t think it holds up with repeat viewing. Rating: Matinee
Hot Tub Time Machine - Good funny movie that reminds me of the teen movies of the 80’s. Rating: Matinee
Kick-Ass - I was expecting funny/violent, which it started off as. Then it turned serious/violent. Action sequences were nice, but the overall tone of the film didn’t work for me. Rating: Rental
Zombieland - Another solid funny movie. Even though zombies scare Farrah, she sat through this film and enjoyed it. Worth a repeat viewing. Rating: Full Admission
Mia and Roseola
I believe it started on Sunday. A slight redness developed on her cheeks. By Tuesday, it spread ever so slightly to her arms. Today we saw a doctor who diagnosed it as roseola. It’s nothing serious. It seems to look worse than it is. Either way, Mia is staying home with me today.
Mia had her second set of immunizations on Friday. The occurrence of roseola after the shots appears to be coincidental, as the vaccines she was given wouldn’t normally produce a rash. She had a rough night last night - waking every two hours wanting attention and food. But today, at least for now, she’s in good spirits. If the rash gets better tomorrow, she’ll be able to go back to daycare.
This photo was taken on the night of November 16, 2010. It was taken after Mia took her bath. You can see a bit of the rash on her cheeks.
One of Mia’s favorite toys is the Winkel, or Wink as we call it. She just seems to like gnawing on the little sucker. She also can wave it around now and almost throw it - of course not on purpose. I was able to take a series of photos through the crib slats using the Canon 17-55mm lens.
The photo was taken on November 6, 2010.
Bonus!!!
It’s a video bonus! Enjoy.
Note: I am trying out Vimeo for videos. If you can comment, either on Facebook or here, on how the video loads for you, it would be helpful. I can then decide whether to stick with Vimeo or go with YouTube. A YouTube version of the same video is below.
Vimeo version
YouTube version.