I'm Neil Diamond!

I found out today that Neil Diamond is coming to the Energy Solutions Arena (Delta Center), December 19th! Tickets go on sale this Monday, October 6. I sent most of you a text letting you know this. Dad sent me a text back telling me to post it on the blog so we can discuss. Well, he first asked if it was the real Neil, hee hee. I don't know how much tickets are yet, I'm trying to find that out. As soon as I know, I'll let you guys know. Okay, let's discuss.

Moral Disorder

3 stars

This was actually a book I didn't read, but rather listened to it on my ipod while doing housework. Kind of the same thing, as I heard the book, but didn't actually "read" it. I find that listening to books while hanging up clothes, doing dishes, etc. breaks up the monotony of housework and sometimes, if the book is really good, I make up stuff to do so I may continue "reading". So anyway, just wanted to clear that up.
First I am going to talk a little about Margaret Atwood, she is a fairly well acclaimed author, the only books I am at all familiar with are: The Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Eye and I believe Amy and Mom read "The Tent" in book club a while back? This is my first book of hers I have actually read (but didn't: see above). Anyway, all I have to say is that it was interesting stories to do housework to. I didn't find in particularly enlightening, nor did I get a big "wow" at the end. In fact, more then anything it got a big HUH?
It is cited as being a collection of stories which is true, as they all stand on their own, but it is stories of the same lady as a young girl, a teenager, a college age girl and an adult, then a (fairly) old lady.
Here is what the back had to say:

Margaret Atwood’s latest brilliant collection of short stories follows the life of a single character, seen as a girl growing up the 1930s, a young woman in the 50s and 60s, and, in the present day, half of a couple, no longer young, reflecting on the new state of the world. Each story focuses on the ways relationships transform a character’s life: a woman’s complex love for a married man, the grief upon the death of parents and the joy with the birth of children, the realization of what growing old with someone you love really means. By turns funny, lyrical, incisive, earthy, shocking, and deeply personal, Moral Disorder displays Atwood’s celebrated storytelling gifts and unmistakable style to their best advantage.

I've got to say, it was well written, she does seem to have a knack for storytelling, I suppose you could call it "earthy" but I gotta say, I certainly was never "shocked". To sum up: I liked it ok, I wouldn't call it a waste of time (how could you when you were able to put away 6 loads of laundry, clean 3 bathrooms including floors and tubs and showers, do countless amounts of dishes all while reading?) Although it certainly wasn't what I would describe as "memorable", but well written. Read this book if you are looking for something easy, relaxing, and good old fashioned storytelling, but don't expect to be totally wowed (or shocked).

Pops finished "Twilight"

Now that was a wierd story. Now what? Does Bella get bitten by that 100 year old high school Vampire? Boy, he would be a great football player for the H.S. team of Forks, WA. I can't get my head around kissing cold lips. Might as well go out with a turkey or a reptile. Do I understand right, that to kill a vampire you have to tear him up and burn him? Gross! Meyer is a good story teller. Very interesting reading and keeps you going as things get progressively more insane and wierd. Good though! I liked it. Im down for the next volume.

Sundays with Sue 9/28/08

Today is the first Sunday's with Sue! Yay! I want to go over a couple of things first. Em had a good point that if we use the comments section to post our guesses, then everyone can see everyone elses guesses, and therefore cheat! So do not use the comments to post your guess. Please either email your guesses to me camandsue2004@yahoo.com, or send me a myspace message. I will collect them and then post the answer and the winners in the comments. You guys would vote me Nerd of the Year if you saw the spreadsheet I created to keep track of all this.

What do you win? Nothing, just the satisfaction that you got something Wright, hee hee (quote from dad).

We are going to use the honor system here. So if anyone decides they are going to use google or something to figure out the quote there is nothing I can do about that. But you are the one that has to live with yourself.

I am going to use quotes from movies, songs, tv shows and books. I was thinking that to make it a little more difficult, that I won't tell you what medium the quote comes from. I will this week, but let me know what you think. And if anyone comes up with any other suggestions, let me know.

Amy! You need to be in on this! Haley, if your mom doesn't create an account and join the family blog, then you need to create one for her.

Here is the first quote. It's from a movie:

Tell me you don't miss the fun?
I don't.
The laughs?
I don't.
The pizzas in the bathtub?

The Office: Review/Thoughts/Stuff

I decided I wanted to write my first official blog entry on The Office.

Before I ever saw it, or knew what it was about, or even knew who was in it- it was recommended to me by multiple people. People who I respect and have an awesome sense of humor, and I highly value their opinions. I finally saw it for the first time when Haley showed it to me on a computer screen at the Phisters while their kitchen was being remodeled. We stood in the living room looking at this tiny window on the screen and for some reason it had subtitles in another language.

I was an instant fan of Dwight while watching the Halloween episode where he is dressed as a "Sith Lord" and keeps saying "quiet you..."

After that, B and I got the DVD's and have been addicted ever since. I can remember a few times when I was working at The Office Shop (not only similar in title- but in work environment as well, which made it that much funnier at the time) I would specifically come home on my lunch breaks in order to watch the show. I even put them in at 7am and watched them before work once or twice. I remember Bronwyn devoting pretty much a whole Saturday, if not, the whole weekend to The Office.

There have been times when I couldn't watch any more, fearing I might not be able to ever laugh again because my stomach muscles hurt so bad.

Sometimes I would laugh so hard I would almost (or maybe a little bit) pee my pants, but hesitate to go to the bathroom because I didn't want to miss anything. You might think I'm kidding...

Last night, we watched season 4 disc 2. Poor tired B fell asleep during the first episode, and I ended up watching 4 or 5 more by myself. After season three, I didn't think that the show could get any funnier, I honestly had that thought, yet every episode in season four seems to one-up the previous one. I almost lost it last night during the dinner party episode, falling off the couch laughing so hard all alone.

It blows me away how they can pack that many funny lines into such a short amount of time. I always have to rewind it because I miss so much do to my own loud laughter. I swear it takes me twice as long to watch an episode because of all the rewinding. (probably annoys the hud out of B)

I think part of the reason that show is so funny, and Amy agrees with me on this, is that all of us know someone or have known someone that is at least a little bit like every character in that show. It's amazing to me how they can take the most annoying, nerdy, know-it-all, rude, selfish, insecure, racist, air-headed, controlling and just weird personalities- exaggerate them, and yet still make it hilarious and enjoyable to watch! We don't enjoy character traits like that in real life, it usually sucks to spend more than 5 minutes around people like that!

But the script writing, improve, acting, and everything else involved in making that show, make it my favorite TV show of all time. (which isn't really saying much... What TV shows have I ever been into?? Sorry for the anti-climatic ending.)

Movie quote contest

"Fill your hand, you son-of-a-bitch"

Newman has been in my top five or six best male actors for a long time. Props to him for staying married to Joanne Woodward, for driving race cars and having blue eyes.

1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

2. Absence of Malice

3. The Sting

4. Cool Hand Luke

5. The Color of Money (sorry to you who don't like Tom Cruse)

RIP, Paul

Check it Out, if it Pleases

Fun website I found:

http://www.songfacts.com/

I always like to know as much background and facts as I can about songs I especially care for. This is one place to go.....




I love you internet!

Sorry, sometimes I just marvel about how much the internet has revolutionized our life.

Top five random comments from Pops

1. Eye donont spill two goodt, so don't laugh.

2. Steve Martin (Bowfinger) rubber banding the dogs legs together is a Wright classic.

3. P.T.& A. is special. John Candy is under appreciated, just see Uncle Buck again if you don't
think so. And also Splash. Where did that picture of "Owen" come from? You have to do
something with that for Skippy for Christmas. Is the Owen scene on You Tube?

4. When will all of us get together again in one house for a party? It has to include: Matt & B,
Sue and Cam, Ems and Rob, Amy and Scott, Cat and Travis & shirley (ha,ha,ha) Mom and I?
We need a big house or hall with a large screen TV and lots of food and a computer and a
DVD, VHS recorder/player. Maybe Haley and Marcus could also come because they seem to
be almost adults now. I don't want to wait for our 50 annaversy (sp, yeah I kow)

5. I love my job. Got another raise last week. I don't work too hard and I get to watch
airplanes land and take off and get paid for it. How cool is that? I pulled my shirt over my
head this morning and the whole collar and front was wet. Tiny peed on it this morning
early. I almost hit her with a shovel or something. Got over it...sort-of.

I am Sam

This is a really great movie I just saw last Saturday. It came out in 2001 and stars Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer. Four stars.

It is about a mentally retarded and autistic man (Penn) who gets a homeless woman pregnant. When the baby is born, she just up and leaves him to raise her (a surprisingly cute little 7 year old Dakota Fanning). Usually I can't stand her, but I guess 7 year old precociousness can be cute but loses it's cuteness at around 11.

Sam is really easy to fall for. He is obsessed with The Beatle's for one thing. And you just can't help but sympathize with him raising a little girl on his own. He works at Starbucks and tries so hard to do the right thing even though, of course, he's clueless. Luckily he has an agoraphobic neighbor (Dianne Wiest) who helps him to understand the little things like how newborn babies need to eat every two hours. He also has this adorable bunch of friends (all challenged in a myriad of ways) that help him.

They seem to be getting on OK, then on Lucy (Diamond)'s 7th birthday, DCFS gets called and she is taken away from Sam. It becomes clear that poor Lucy loves her dad so much, but knows he is different from other daddys. She is super smart, but stops trying when she discovers that she is starting to get more intelligent than her dad and it upset her. So she's having problems at school.

The rest of the movie is Sam trying to get Lucy back with the help of a high-priced lawyer (Michelle Pfeiffer). She ends up accepting it pro-bono to prove to her colleagues that she's not a total snobby piece of crap. Said lawyer, by the way has a young son who she has no real relationship with.

As the movie progresses she becomes less and less annoyed by Sam and really starts to like him and to want to help him. He ultimately prods her into an epiphany about what is wrong with her life and relationship with her son.

I don't want to go much further with this, but it is a must see. Sean Penn is brilliant. It is moving and sweet. Really, really good.

Top 5 famous people you may be surprised I like

Most of you know that I pretty much dislike most famous people. I think most of them are overrated, over-paid, not as talented as people think they are, and I think most of them would be absolutely dreadful to meet in person. There are however, a lot of them that I do like. This is a list of 5 famous people it will probably surprise you that I like.

5-Al Roker
4-Kathy Lee Gifford
3-Dwayne Johnson "The Rock"
2-Kathy Griffin
1-Donny and Marie Osmond

Surprised? The Kathy Griffin one may not be all that surprising. Her life on the D-List was a very pleasent surprise when I discovered it over the summer. I always thought she was kind of funny, but that show totally cracks me and Cam up. And I don't like The Rock because of his wrestling career, never watched him wrestle. But he can be really funny. If you haven't seen the movie Be Cool, you have to see it. He is the best in it.

Top 5 Shopping/Makeover scenes in movies

1: Brittany Murphy/Tai in Clueless
2: Julia Roberts/Viv in Pretty Woman
3: Drew Barrymore/Danielle in Ever After
4: Belle in the yellow dress/Beauty and the Beast

And the best one EVER

5: Carla Gugino/Rebecca in Son in Law

Another idea

Okay, I have another idea. I was inspired by Emily's friend Emily's blog. (I sometimes link to Emily's blog through Emily's blog, so I can get to her sister Jane's blog. Catch that?) Anyway, one day I noticed she does a Movie Quote Monday. I thought it was kind of funny, she lists 5 quotes and then has everyone guess. I think it would be fun to do something similar. I propose, every Sunday, I put a quote on the blog. It can be a quote from a book, movie, tv show or song. Then everyone can guess. We can call it Sunday's with Sue (I just giggled for like 10 minutes when that name popped in my head). Tell me what you think.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - 4 Stars

I finally did it! I finally started reading Harry Potter after many proddings for many years I finally broke down and did it. I don't know what my hang-ups were. I guess, since I had seen the movies, I figured that I had seen it all and therefore, didn't need to read the books. I will admit, that I was wrong. There was a lot of stuff in the book that I loved that wasn't in the movie. I really thoroughly enjoyed the book and thought it was charming, witty, and fun. I guess one of my biggest reasons for not reading them also was that I was afraid that I wouldn't "care" much or have sympathy for Harry himself. Like it wasn't enough for me to keep reading and reading. I like to really care for the characters in a book and so I worried about that. I realize now that I do. I really like Harry and I actually feel really bad for him. I think he is a cute little kid and I think it is so sad that he lost his parents so young and had to live with those awful Durselys! Anyway, I thought the book was great and I am planning to start the Chamber of Secrets later on today!

I gave it four stars because I loved it but don't quite think it is a "Wright Classic."

Top 5 reasons Pretty Woman sucks as a movie

I watched this recently with Dad, and I have to say, it really bugged me. It gets 1

1: It's a Cinderella story about a hooker.
2: Julia Roberts is way too classy to be a hooker.
3: Julia Roberts was not a very good actress in it.
4: My mom has a huge crush on Richard Gere, so he automatically bugs me.
5: Stuckie the lawyer is a complete jerky slimebally.

Sue, I want to know what you think. And I did like her clothes in the movie. Clothes make the movie sometimes.

Top 5 reasons why I love my XL-2 camera

1: It doesn't get annoyed with me because I flush EVERYTHING down the toilet

2: It has never accidently elbowed me in almost every part of my body. 

3: It doesn't talk baby talk for 3 straight hours.

4: It lets me cut my fingernails in church.

5: It doesn't fall asleep during movies.  

Rarnees test blog (pretty much done by B)

Book Club Book for September

Since I can pretty much tell you that Amy or Jane will not get around to posting Sue's idea, I will do the honors. I am in the Book Club for a few months anyway. The book we are reading for September is "Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain. A classic but one the three of us aren't really too excited about for some reason. I'm sure it will be good though. So if any of you want to join us, please do!

An idea

Hi Everyone, it's Sue! I have an idea for the Wright family book, music, movie, entertainment review/recommendation blog. (In memory of David Foster Wallace can we refer to the blog as W.F.B.M.M.E.R.R.B.? Just kidding, that is not my idea). My idea is that Amy and/or mom should do a monthly post on what their book of the month club is reading. They should do a post at the beginning of the month letting everyone know what book they are reading. Then they could do a follow up post after the get together and let us know what ideas etc were discussed. That way, if they are reading a book anyone else is interested in reading, they can read it at the same time. Then, we can turn the comments into our own discussion like we always do!

Blogger hints and helps

It has come under my radar that maybe a few of you could use a little help on some blogger points and to make your lives a little easier. So, I am going to share some the of the stuff I have picked up on since being here.

For instance did you know you can have on your dashboard a live feed of all the blogs you follow? Therefore, when you sign in, you see a list of all the blogs you follow and their latest entries? I used to have to click into all of my blogs to see if there is anything new. Now, I can just log in and see what's new.
All you have to do, is become a follower of the blogs you are interested in. To do that, go to your dashboard and you will see "reading list" it will probably say -you are not currently following any blogs- under that a bit, there is a blue button that says "add" click that and get the url of the blog you would like to follow and click and paste it in there. This is a pretty new feature (2 or 3 weeks) and it has made my (blog) life a lot easier.

My next hint, is something I realized Sue doesn't do (since I was given her password to figure out a glitch she had) I noticed she doesn't subscribe to the option of having comments emailed to her. You can click a little box that will send you an email every time someone comments on your profile. Here is where you will find that option: While you are signed onto your blog, go to the right hand corner (top) and hit "customize" then click the "settings" tab, from there click on the "comments" tab. Then at the very bottom of that page, it says "comment notification email" you type in your main email address then hit save and voila! You will never miss a comment.

My last hint for now is how to get a notification when someone comments after you on any given blog you have commented on. B, you have to make a comment using your real identity for this, but boy is it worth it. To have this option show up, BEFORE you comment you have to already be logged on. This is simple and most of you undoubtedly know this, but I thought I would share, in case you have missed it. After typing your comment, below somewhere it will say "you are currently posting as "blah blah blah" then it will have a box that says email followup comments to -blah blah blah. It will probably be your google account and if you are like me, only set that account up to have a blog and don't visit it, therefore that is no use to you right? WRONG! Gmail has a handy little option to have all items in your inbox automatically forwarded to any email of your choosing. Here is how you do that: Log into your gmail account. In the top right hand corner, click "settings" in that screen, click "forwarding and POP/IMAP". The first line says: Forwarding, then click the bubble to :forward a copy of incoming mail to "blah" and then type in your account. Then, you never have to go into that account at all, and you won't miss strings of comments on someone else's blog.

I lied I have one more hint. To create a link to another site like this, all you have to do is: While composing a post, you have lots of little options up on your toolbar like font, text size bold, yada yada, right before "left justified" there is a little picture of a green world and a chain (or something) -that is it. First, you will want to copy the url of the website you want (it is much easier to do this in another window of course), then, go back to your post and type the word that you want to have become the link like I did "this" then highlight it, then click the green world thing. A little window will pop up that says "add url" the http will be highlighted, you may want to just backspace to erase it, since usually when you copy a url, you have copied that part and if you paste the url of your choosing, it will then be doubled. then paste your own url and that should do it.

I hope someone finds some use of these hints, you may already know all of this, if so, then great, but I know we have some blogger virgins and blogger novices here, so maybe something here will help someone.

Em

Welcome! (and rules)

Alright, the sight is formed, but not done! I have some ideas and these are just my ideas, since this is all of ours, and -I welcome your ideas. I would propose that we kind of use the same form for our posts. Such as:

Make your post title the title of whatever it is you are going to talk about

1st thing a picture if you have one
2nd thing author or director or whatever you want to use to distinguish it
3rd thing your star rating

then go into your review

Then, at the bottom of the posts while you are wrighting them (hee hee) there is a bar that says "labels for this post" please for your first one, (next time it will pop up when you start) type your name and then picks, example, I would type "Emily's picks" then a comma and type "book" "movie" and so forth. That way, we will be able to archive them by our picks and also by the genre. I will do the first official review right now to show you all.

Also, I like to create a link somewhere, where anyone can click and see an impartial view of the subject. Such as a link to the movie on IMDB or Amazon or Barnes and Noble .com, for books. (not a must, but I think we will find it handy. I almost always go to those sites anyway whenever anyone mentions something, so this would be really helpful). You will find my link to the movie I reviewed with the word "movie" (it's underlined) in my review below.

Happy reading, watching, blah blah blah

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Steve Martin and John Candy

5 Stars!

This is a movie I enjoy immensely to watch with my family, in fact, putting this movie on is an event in our household. Steve Martin just wants to go home for Thanksgiving, but he keeps running into John Candy. There are some scenes that just put us on the floor, such as:

-Neal (Steve Martin) getting out of the shower and using a tiny little washcloth to dry off with as Dell (John Candy) has used all the towels, then he proceeds to wash his face in a sink filled with Dell's dirty socks and dry his face with his giant underwear.

- "Those aren't pillows!"

- "They can buff that out, no problem"

But this movie's crowning achievement is a cameo by an actor that is in a ton of movies, but is known in our family as "Owen". Owen is a household name with us and can be reproduced for good laughs anytime for hours with an impression by Scott.
He is chewing on tobacco the whole time and snorts and makes this face...........man, that's some good cinema!

"You the shower curtain fella?"

"People train don't run outta Witchita, lessen your a hog or a cattle. People train run outta (insert face) studville."

Top fives

I have another idea (yeah, I'm full of them!)

In the spirit of High Fidelity (I have only read the book, but I assume they do this in the movie too). They are always doing a "top 5" of something. I think this would also be fun to do randomly on here. Just label them "top fives". In the comments, share with us your top five of the same subject.

I'll start....

Top five Dr. Seuss Books

1. The King's Stilts
2. Yertle the Turtle
3. The Sleep Book
4. The Lorax
5. Thudwicke the Big Hearted Moose

Dr Seuss (list of books if you need a brain jog)