Saturday & Montreal en Lumiere 2015!

If you haven’t noticed already, my weekly adventures have turned into individual posts.  I don’t necessary do a whole lot during the winter, especially when this year has been brutally in the freezing point.  The radio said last week or over the weekend that the coldness in February broke some records.  Just to give you an idea..

On Saturday morning, I did a little morning surprise for our 7th anniversary. I posted a little fun recording session last night with my boyfriend in celebration for it if you missed it, its here .  You might have because I forgot to put on a title and realized it afterwards, then changed the link, so maybe it might end up having the “page not found” come up.  I don’t know how these things work.  Anyways, I debated a little about posting this again but seeing as not everyone is going to check out the video, I’m going to post some of the pics here and talk a little bit more elaborately on Saturday and the Montreal en Lumiere festival since we explored the downtown area, which is new to us.

 Saturday morning surprise

This is only a portion.  But right from walking through the door I had a trail of post-it notes listing “Why I Love You”.  There was pretty much very little prep work except for getting earlier than my boyfriend arriving home from work.  I also hid away in one of the rooms that he wouldn’t cross by, but when he stepped through the door, I put on a song that we love.

Montreal en Lumiere 2015: Downtown @ Quartier des Spectacles/Place des Arts area

Complexe Guy Favreau: art

This second one is really cool.  There’s this projector up top and it has this very video game-esque sequence when we walked by imitating a helicopter and some dudes running around.  It looked a bit like an escape video game.  That was pretty fun.

Complexe Desjardins: Salon du Livre Gourmand

These two books was our anniversary gifts to us.  I know I know, its just another excuse to spend.  I’m telling you though, these two are quite good investments, I can already feel it.  Maybe its going to be my next project idea: Quebec cuisine.  What do you think?

I’m not much of a cook but I certainly want to be a better cook at least a less frustrated one that enjoys the art of cooking.  Talking about that, once I get myself settled into my new place (hopefully this coming weekend) and get the kitchen organized, we’re starting the Baking Through Disney project.

Quartier des Spectacles/Place des Arts (outdoors area)

Urban slides

Ferris Wheel and Heat shelters

Urban zipline

That blurry flash is the person ziplining.  I had my phone so I couldn’t get really great shots.  I’m telling you though, if the line-up wasn’t so intense, I would’ve done it.  There’s something so amazing about ziplining over thousands of people in a city. Can you imagine how it would feel? Just wow! Whoever thought that up, please bring this back next year.

Ice sculpture: Harp

Garden of Lights/ Food kiosk area

Pianist on Ice Piano

The Pool, interactive “game”

Scene RBC

Break Dance performance

La Maison de la Suisse

Its been a while since I’ve felt this hype for Montreal en Lumiere.  Last year, we went to the outside area of the main festival and saw penguins in the show and the Planetarium and Biodome.  This year, it felt amazing.  I’ve never actually stayed the whole night for this Nuit Blanche/all nighter event.  But with tons of free stuff from 6pm-6am, this festival is absolutely worth the time and even pushing through the crowd didn’t feel too bad either.

We also made a little stop at Hydro Quebec building to see the painting inside which was an abstract art by Mousseau with a series of lights panel running behind it which changed to emphasis different aspects of the painting itself.  It was pretty interesting.

However, the reason we had ventured downtown was for my friend’s belated birthday dinner so we made our way up to Ace Grill & Bar. I had Filet Mignon Brochette which was actually better than I expected. 🙂

Filet Mignon brochette

It may have been a late dinner but its been a while that I’ve seen my friends around so it was really nice to kind of catch up with everyone and share some laughs.

Saturday was pretty awesome and the weekend itself was efficient.  I just always wish it was longer.

Thoughts on Montreal en Lumiere?

Montreal Comiccon 2014!

The past weekend was Montreal Comiccon! I’ve never been to Comiccon in Montreal and although last year I wanted to go, I had to give it up because I had something more important in the form of TIFF for The Wind Rises and Rigor Mortis.  I totally do not regret making that trip. However, this year, I’m working on the Montreal events and this one was right on the list and I bought the ticket right when they were released.  I only got a 1 day pass.  However, after Saturday, I’m positive that I’m going to be going back and maybe even for 3 days if they have great guests..we’ll have to see for next year.

Lets not get ahead of myself: here’s how Saturday went!

Shortly after running into Day’s Lee, we saw Spiderman perched on the railings on top of the escalators leading to the hall looking awesome.

Spiderman

The line-up was super intense.  It was one line to get our tickets checked, then another line to get our tickets scanned and hands stamped then up the escalators and weaving all over the place to eventually get to the exhibition hall area.  Apparently, starting this year, Montreal Comiccon took over all of Palais des Congres (the convention centre in Montreal) so it covered all the floors.  We took a good look at the map to get to the first Q&A.  The lineup took longer than expected so I didn’t get to Billy Boyd’s Q&A so we went straight to Star Trek with three lovely ladies, Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden.

Star Trek Q&A panel: Marina Sirtis, Denise Crosby, Gates McFadden

I haven’t watched a lot of Star Trek.  Only bits and pieces of it: a little bit of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine mostly.  However, these ladies was absolutely a joy to watch.  They were all extremely hilarious and entertaining!

Getting out of this one, we looked at the time and found it perfect timing to go straight to lineup for Sir Patrick Stewart’s Q&A in the main exhibition hall.  We sat down to eat lunch while waiting an hour in advance.  We chatted a little and before we knew it, we were moving inside. We managed to sit in the middle of the last row in the first section.  Still, my zoom wasn’t great so this was the best I could get.

Sir Patrick Stewart Q&A Panel

There is something amazing about seeing Sir Patrick Stewart.  It could be the whole crowd giving him a standing ovation as he entered the hall.  Or just how completely classy he is while bringing in lots of funny moments.  He is extremely charming to watch and so very much achieved.  It was really something to hear him talk about how he didn’t take himself getting a role in Star Trek serious as his family didn’t either and how even when he got he role, he didn’t unpack the whole time because he wholeheartedly believed that they would realize they made a terrible mistake and would kick him out.  When asked who was the best to work with in all of XMen, he thought for a second and said Ellen Page.  He even explained in a funny way how he should be called Sir Patrick (as opposed to Sir Stewart) and even joked with someone who said Good Evening although it was clearly the afternoon.  Regardless of the questions, he took each one and gave it his own twist and it made for an extremely lively and fun panel to listen to.

Plus, he gave us a quick 5 minutes update of what he is up to.  Aside from the next X-Men movie, he is part of this Seth McFarlane produced sitcom called Blunt Talk.  And he recited some Shakespeare which I didn’t record the whole thing.

After this panel, and finally finding our way to get back downstairs, we managed to get to the main area where there was tons of amazing costumes.

Warcraft (I think)

Silent Hill

Spaceballs

Frozen

There’s a whole bunch that I don’t know.  If its part of video games (newer ones) or anime, chances are I won’t know them.  However, the efforts are amazing.  So amazing that Day’s asked me if maybe we should do it next year.  I mean, I did a pretty quick version of Resident Evil before.  With a year to plan, I’m sure I could ressurect that or do something else.  Its always something to consider.

After a bit of shopping and photos, we had to get to Q&A panel for Danny Glover.

Danny Glover Q&A

Danny Glover is an actor that I’ve known more of his more recent roles.  I know what he has done before and I really should get around to see those roles.  You can tell that he’s a man with a lot of deep thoughts.  Plus, he took a lot of time to give detailed answers to the questions.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to stay for the whole thing and had to leave, and even that apparently wasn’t soon enough for the next Q&A.

The next Q&A panel was in the main exhibition hall again and this time, although arriving 45 minutes in advance, we ended up lining up right at the entrance of the waiting area.  That was pretty intense.  This Q&A was for Stephen Amell 🙂 Its also my last Q&A for the day.

Stephen Amell Q&A panel

Needless to say, although I was only 3 rows back from where I was for Sir Patrick Stewart earlier in the day, it was far enough that you can’t really see much.  Still, he had people lined up to ask him questions even before he entered the stage.  There were two rules as he entered with the Comiccon host: No marriage proposals (because he’s already married and he touched his wedding ring at that same time) and no asking him to take off his shirt (because then the host would do it). I wasn’t exactly sure on what to expect for Stephen Amell because I am a newer fan of his and I haven’t followed his social media much either.  However, everyone asks a lot about the stunts and asks him to recite lines like “You have failed this city”.

He talks about how he wants to get the chance to do all the stunts himself and sometimes he really works on a simpler but more realistic version to make it work.  He did that for one scene where he tells the stunt crew about how they were robbing him of the opportunity to slide over the hood of a car and he argues to get it shot both ways and eventually  his way works better and thats the one they used.  A charming and funny guy to listen to.  He makes a few jokes and talks about how he would love to have Arrow as part of the Justice League movie except with shooting schedules for TV series, it wouldn’t work for shooting a movie.

The best part was this part where they asked him to recite the lines for the opening of Season 2 or something (I couldn’t hear that question properly) but he gave it his own twist and decided to do the first opening of the pilot in Season 1 of Arrow instead.

After this last Q&A panel, we were ready to walk the exhibition hall and all the vendors and stalls. They had a few things for viewing and we took pictures here and there.

Indiana Jones

Ghostbusters

Doctor Who phone booth (100% of donations went to Montreal Children’s Hospital)

Piglet visiting the Comiccon

Little Big Planet 3 poster at PS4 booth

This may sound stupid but I’d totally get a PS4 JUST to play Little Big Planet 3.  Thats how much I love it.  Just to justify this picture a little.

Now, I was being extremely cheap and kept thinking about the photo op and eventually by the time I wanted to do it, it was full.  So to end this post off, its not Stephen Amell but this guy has a fantastic Arrow costume.

And that was my first Montreal Comiccon! It was so much fun and I’m definitely going again next year. Whether in costume or not, I’ll think about that a little first 😉 However, next year’s Montreal Comiccon is now pushed into early July, set for July 3-5, 2015.  If you are looking to check it out, jot that down on your calenders!

Also, please go check out Day’s post on the Montreal Comiccon right HERE!

Which costume up there do you find the most impressive?  Out of curiosity, would you like to see Arrow as part of  the Justice League movie? 

Heat Wave, Home Stuff & Luck!

I realize I talk about weather a lot but its the Montrealer in me. The proof is right HERE in #14 ;).  Well, at least you all gain knowledge about how Montreal’s weather is doing, right?

This week has been calm for the most part (although a lot of you still seem to find my life crazy busy…which it isn’t).  The goal of this post is to see the positives in the little thing.  Even when its just the simplest things going on.  Sure, my weekend is busy especially on hot days because I’m accepting that its the part of owning a house. Plus, its slowing down at work so I find myself trying to fit in what I didn’t have time to do before August.

Anyways, this week has been rather special for various reasons and I’m about to get into my next little steps that I’d like to share.

1) Surprise Sunflowers

Sunflowers

Some of you would agree that July is kind of the dead season for flowers and gardening.  The garden is just green.  A few weeks ago, I talked about the hard work of squirrels burying sunflower seeds in our front yard and after a few small ones bloomed, a gigantic one bloomed last week and its just a lovely yellow delight.

Flowers always make me happy 🙂

Do you like flowers? Whats your favorite ones?

2) Harvests

Raspberry and Tomato

I haven’t gotten a picture of my raspberry harvests to show yet.  This week’s was by far the best harvest so far and I see lots coming out.  I just need to find a way to prop up the leaves so it has room to grow freely.  I actually need to do the same for my yellow zucchini plant as well.

3) Winning an Advanced Screening

I never win anything. EVER. My luck is shot.  I think it has to do with having used up a lot of luck finding the amazing people that entered my life so I have none for anything else. So, when I got the email that I won these advanced screening tickets for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. I was skeptical until I actually got the pass in the mail.  Which I did on Monday and invited my best friend to go with me.  Although, I’ve been completely ridiculously slow at putting up my post for Guardians of the Galaxy, I pushed myself to at least put this one up because its a significant event in my life, one that makes me feel so very lucky 🙂 If you missed my double review of Sin City 1&2, head on over HERE.

Have you seen Sin City: A Dame to Kill For? What did you think?

4) Cleaning Plushies

First batch of plushies

As said in the beginning, this weekend was gorgeous. It was just so hot with a nice little cool breeze here and there. I’m at the stage of moving where its the dusty little plushies that need to move so I brought the first batch over and gave them all a nice wash.  The first batch are the smaller ones and my non-Disney collection ones.  Oh right, I collect Disney plushies but its really for the goal of hitting ALL the Disney stores eventually 😉 So, feeling a little bit more accomplished, I hung these up and they pretty much spent a good part of the weekend drying off.  The small took only the Saturday whereas, there was two larger ones (not here) that are still drying today 🙂

Next batch is next weekend for the Disney, my guess is Zazu, Classic Mickey and Stitch might get the second round 😉 Maybe a few more…I don’t know yet.  Maybe I’ll let the relatively new Bambi join in.  Dumbo, Lady and Tramp are the oldest bunch so they might be the hardest to clean.

Do you own collections? What do you like to collect?

5) New Fruit Discoveries

Pluot/Plumcots

I love Costco for many reasons.  Oh yeah, so many reasons, one of them is the gluten-free choices I talk about all the time.  Now, the other one includes having all these awesome fruit selections.  I find Costco fruit a bit pricey but when I saw these little beauties and had no idea what they were.  I figured they must be those hybrid fruits and they were.  These are called Pluots or online says, Plumcots.  Its a mix of plums and apricots except its closer to the plum taste (whereas if you had aprium then it’d be more apricot taste).  These taste very delightful and I can see them going very well in pies, tarts, even crumb bars. If we don’t finish them before they get completely ripe, I’ll probably have to use them to bake 😉

Have you tried any hybrid fruits? Have you tried Pluots/Plumcots/Apriums?

6) Garden Mission

Garden Mission

The downside of buying the house in winter is not seeing what the garden looks like or how the previous owners cared for it.  Thats something I’ve learned.  My previous owners were certainly not in the green thumb category because now that everything has pretty  much grown, I can just see how disastrous and neglected it was. So after I went crazy cutting and freeing one of the plants in the back so that they have some sort of space and order, I started pulling out weeds (still!).  Now I have patches of empty soil sitting around waiting for some grass seeds to fill up the space.

My mission on Sunday ended with this patch which could look so nice but with the ungroomed overgrown hedges here, it just looks like a mess.  Do you see the chrysanthemum? No, right? Well, its there. And this picture was after I already pulled out a ton of plants and vine-y weeds. How to fix this mess?

I have so many plants to pull out because its just way overgrown and too much. This is the final month before things switch around.

And please, someone tell me what leaves bear tiny apple-like fruits and sheds bark, leaves and twigs in the middle of August? I’m stumped! I’ve been searching for the two gigantic trees and the type and I just can’t find it.  Maybe I should have taken a picture but I’m still a bit angry that I’m the only crazy person raking leaves in August..haha!

7) The Lion King Musical

I love musicals. This year, I already gave up a bunch of concerts because I’m trying to budget my money better. I was about to give up The Lion King musical until there was a 25% off coupon online for some pretty awesome seats.  Yesterday, me and my girl friends went out to see it at Place des Arts. We had balcony seats, which is a completely different experience.  Plus, whats nice is that being in the balcony, you get to see the animals walking down the aisles and then the people in the upper balconies and around.  The show is just so fun.  The singing, the costumes and the props: all so beautiful. Its really one of the best musicals I’ve seen.  My favorite was the starting of the second part and there was the bird props soaring all over the room.  It was so magical 🙂

Have you seen The Lion King Musical before?

8) Inspiring (and Energetic) Music

Shattered Glass – Brad Paisley

Footprints (Kaaze remix) – Tiesto

Just two really  nice songs with different styles depending on what you like that has really caught my attention.  I love Brad Paisley’s new single Shattered Glass because the video is amazing and the message is inspiring. As for electronic music, I love to listen to it to sort of detach a little and relax.

What songs/music have you been listening to?

Its been an epic week! I spent time with a lot of my girl friends, my garden is progressing, the move is going well and we even started painting the dining room which is making my head spin because its a leap of faith whether the walls and color will match.

I’m not sure if its the heat or the sudden change in weather or just a lack of sleep causing it, but I’m feeling a little under the weather with a sore throat creeping up.  Hopefully, with more sleep and more water, I’ll get rid of it.  Today’s energy level is a bit low so I’ll end it here. I’ll get something fun tomorrow.

Also, this week, look forward to FINALLY  the Guardians of the Galaxy post and a few posts from my Saguenay weekend getaway 🙂

Happy Monday, my lovelies!

Book Review: Twelve Nation-The Book of Epoch by Michael Reiss and Walter Timoshenko

The Twitter-verse is one I’m still learning about.  I guess I underestimate how easily you can search up someone there or connect with other similar bloggers because when a new follower, Michael Reiss sent me a direct message asking if I’d like to review his novel, I was thinking if this was a joke. Well, things like this don’t usually happen to me especially when it comes to an absolute stranger.  Point is, I figured that I liked the genre that he wrote and it sounded interesting enough and hey, if I could help someone else promote their novel, I feel like it would be great.  You need to step out of comfort zones sometimes and just give chances to the unknown, right? Thats how I got my hands on the review copy of Twelve Nation: The Book of Epoch by Michael Reiss and Walter Timoshenko.

Meet MAC COOK, the 12-year-old who will soon find himself in the midst of a mission to save the world. Shortly after his father’s mysterious demise, and his mother’s subsequent coma, Mac is living with his grandmother while trying to adjust to a new normal – when everything turns upside down. Instead of worrying about homework and games, Mac is suddenly on a mission to save The Book of Epoch from the forces of Darkness while uncovering the secret of his father’s magical ring and the universal symbolism of TWELVE…- Book of Epoch, Goodreads

Book of Epoch is a adolescent/kids fantasy adventure book set in the future.  It references a lot of what we have right now and uses it in somewhat of a joking/mocking ways at times.  In some ways, it takes time to adapt to certain elements of our future according to The Book of Epoch but at the same time, even though at times it veers into the awkward and weird area, it still was a fast-paced novel.

One thing that this book does well is the way it presents the story.  For one, we know about Mac and his life and the struggles and he has some good friends that we get a good idea of.  He is a normal student who has his small niche of friends and the girl he likes and family that he has to protect.  Also, it uses both the real world and the fantasy dream world and fluctuates between the two as Mac visits in his quests to learn about Doria and his destiny. It incorporates a bit of mythology and also martial arts, then we have the whole video gaming aspects.  Altogether, its a pretty nice adventure with sci-fi and fantasy elements.  Definitely very fun and engaging!

Overall, this is a great kids books.  Even though I’m in my 20s, I still found it very good.  Its an exciting adventure and gives lots of twists and turns as to what happens.  Of course, as I’m not exactly the demographic of this book, there were some parts I guessed but to kids and adolescents, I think they would appreciate and enjoy it.  I definitely recommend it! 🙂

A huge thanks to Michael for asking me to review this! 🙂 To reach the Twelve Nations site for the book, you can click on the book cover or right HERE!

Recap of NaNoWriMo 2013!

I’m not a writer.  Goodness, no, I’m not a writer. When I signed up for my third year of NaNoWriMo in mid October, I knew that.  I don’t plan on publishing what I write, ever.  So, people ask me why I do it? Its probably for the same reasons that I blog. Its my creative outlet and aside from the stressful last few days when I have no idea HOW I can manage to crank out x thousands of words, I look back and I’ve learned a lot.

NaNoWriMo this year was actually pretty surprising.  I’ve never really looked back at the process but this year my goal was to be disciplined and to stay as on track as possible.  The first 10 days actually faired pretty well.  I had been burned out from work on November 1st but I still managed to almost reach my first 1,667 at the end of the day.  I slipped behind by a day and held onto that.  My issue was preparing for my weekend away and the actual trip took away a lot of my time and after that, it was a game of catch up. Then I made the horrible decision of watching TV series and then I lost my focus. I mean it went from 5,000 words then 10,000 words behind in the week that followed.

Going in this last week was hard.  I wanted to give up with everything in life happening at the same time.  But, I reminded myself that I can still get back on track.. I did it last year with even less word count. So I sat down, pulled out my notebook and took a section to brainstorm the next few things I wanted to happen in my novel.  Those things got me through the 10,000 words, then I took another timeout to outline the connections and possible crossings that could happen and there you go, ideas came flowing back to me. Stress, of course came at the same rate but I averaged about 3000 – 4000 words a night in the past few nights.  It wouldn’t be enough to make it but at least, the last day was on a Saturday and I can just sit and write and write and write. It didn’t exactly turn out that way and you’ll see why soon enough but I did spend the evening doing that 🙂

Reality was, by Friday  morning, I was exhausted and tired and with about 11,000 words left to write in two days and getting about 4 hours of sleep every night, I wasn’t sure how to approach it anymore.  Should I quit? Go on? Its funny how things happen.  My mom’s never really interferes in what I do regarding blogging and writing.  She just observes but when I started talking about it, she looked at me, and I swear she genuinely just wanted to ask me why I put myself through this crazy thing because she didn’t understand. Its funny. Thinking about it now, its been a while that I’ve answered anything with such certainty about what I do. So, what did I answer her, you ask? I told her that it was once a year that I reminded myself that I can put all my heart and energy into something, focus on it and with a fair amount of hard work, make it to the end.  It reassures me of what I can achieve. Most things in life takes time to happen even if we keep working at it but this reminds me that even if I don’t see the results now, it’ll come around eventually 🙂 The most important part is to at least start it.

Maybe that little bit meant nothing to you but to me, suddenly that whole vision of the next two days being impossible to happen actually went away. I realized why for the majority of it, I was so calm because I remembered that.  I was doing this to learn from the experience, whether I won or not wasn’t so important.  But I also value finishing what I start so if it means overdosing on some green tea and opening my eyes with a toothpick and gluing my butt to the chair for 10 hours straight, I’m going to do it.  Last year I did 40,000, whats 10,000 in 2 days, right?

Everyone has their reasons for doing (or not doing) NaNoWriMo.  Writing should be fun and the point of NaNoWriMo is not necessary that we have to pass the 50,000 but its to try your best to start something and hopefully finish it.  You’re already a winner if you did that.  Maybe there is no badge and maybe I didn’t reach my word count and I don’t get to buy the winner T-shirt but in my heart, I learned from what I experienced during these past 30 days and thats what counts.

BUT, wait, all hypothetical here because you know what? At around 11:35pm, I managed to validate my *very flawed* romance novel for a total word count of 51,048.

I really would like that one time where its not up to almost the last minute.  Good thing is that I am very proud to say that I’m actually excited to edit this one because I know that I have more stuff to add in and a whole lot of corrections and goodness, where did I put that thesaurus?

For now, I’m going to take a break and get back into some reading. I’ve missed my books SO MUCH! Especially that half-read Ender’s Game sitting at the corner of my night table crying out to me every night…

Remember to check back for the December announcements and updates 🙂 I’m aiming to get it out later today, if not, latest would be Monday morning.

Have an awesome Sunday everyone! You all rock because despite the schedule slowing down over here, you all still came and gave me support.  The likes, comments, follows all made my day when I thought my stats were going to drop.  Talk about warming my heart, that says it right there.  I give a virtual hug to everyone of you because you are all awesome! Remember that 🙂

 

Adapting to a New Pace & Attending a Book Launch!

Nanowrimo has started for a week now.  Surprisingly, a lot of my life has been consumed with it.  I can’t help but to be drowning in my own story.

On Thursday, I had a moment walking to work where my mind was still waking up and I found myself feeling like my character in my story.  Weird feeling, ladies and gents.  I pulled myself out pretty quickly but thats what happens when you have to cough up 1666 words a night, I guess. I usually aim for more.  It also marked the first day I had to stand on the way home and scribble in the upright position while balancing myself.  Probably didn’t look too elegant 😉 Still extremely efficient.  That fell apart when Friday came around and I was a full day behind and haven’t been able to catch up.  Right after this post, thats what I’ll be doing until I pass out from fatigue.  The pacing is alright in my book. With almost 12,000 words in the bank,I’m already pretty proud of myself especially since I’m using this Nanowrimo to experiment with some new stuff: a new genre (*ahem* romance) and third person narration (usually I just do first person).  Challenges all around! Another update next week!

Plus, I have my whole workout challenges that I’ve set in place and those will be more in detail on Monday’s post 🙂

One of the highlights of this week (and maybe a bit sad and cold realization) is that winter is sneaking its chilly arms into Montreal.  Snow is expected soon and its been getting cold.  Even the first of my Christmas cactus have started blooming.

White Christmas Cactus

I probably sounded like a crazy lady when I leaned over and had a heart to heart conversation with it about how they were blooming a bit too early.  Christmas is more than a month away, no? But then, the only witness was my cat looking at me through the plants by the window.  Although her main focus wasn’t me, which has lead us to focus a lot on bird-watching.  I actually say in one week, the abundant robins but also, one Blue Jay and an red cardinal. I haven’t seen one of those in so many years.  Imagine my excitement!

Bird!

Another from last weekend that I forgot to mention in the last personal update was that I made another batch of those awesome Peanut-BETTER Gingersnaps! That recipe just total rules! If you missed it before, check it out HERE! This time, I made it for the Halloween party and I believe I made the best batch so far.  They were the perfect size and shape 🙂

Peanut-BETTER Gingersnaps

There was another reason why my word count dropped on Friday.  I tried to write as much as I could but I was out pretty much from right after work till midnight with my best friend.  We went for a delicious dinner at our normal hangout, Les 3 Brasseurs and shared a pitcher of Sangria. Those look even nicer in the pitcher than in a glass. Plus, I finally had my fix of BBQ ribs that I’ve been wanting to eat forever!

Les 3 Brasseurs Sangria!

Ribs! Yummy!

After that, we made a late decision to go do some long-awaited karaoke just the two of us! I did make some recording but I’m a tad shy to post it up.  So if you ask, maybe I’ll put it up in a separate post, or I’ll whip something up at home, of course, my system is not as awesome but I do have the gear. 🙂 It was really fun and thats what counts!

I ALWAYS leave the best news for last, right? You already know from the title but I attended a book launch this afternoon of an awesome girl friend that I’ve mentioned on multiple occasion and also a dear blogger, Day’s Lee! She did her official book launch for her young adult novel, Guitar Hero at a cute little bookstore called Babar Bookstore in Pointe-Claire.

Her books, Guitar Hero on display on top of a fireplace

Signing books for attendees of her launch 🙂

The food table 🙂

Day’s offered us some very delicious snacks and in addition, she made the almond cookies.  They are pretty awesome. She actually posted up the recipe the other day, check it out HERE if you want to give it a shot! There’s no milk in almond cookies so I could have it. YAY! You rule Day’s! 🙂

My own signed copy! 🙂

I’m all for supporting my friends plus Day’s is my inspiration (she probably doesn’t know that).  She reminds me that no matter how hard it is, its perfectly okay to pick up our courage and follow our dreams.  A huge congrats to Day’s! I’m going to review the book in December (in case you were wondering).  I’ve already read it once before it was released last year but I’m not sure if she fixed anything, so I’m going to read it a second time.  I urge you to give it a shot.  Show her some love! 🙂 

This week has been pretty eventful.  Since I’ve taken up enough of your time (and well, my novel is calling out to me), I’m going to leave you with some music that I’ve loved this week!

Who is tempted to watch some Pirates of the Caribbean now, eh? 😉

This is my thoughts right now!

If you want some more reading, I actually wrote a post about something similar to encourage my writing in Nanowrimo the first year, it helps me till now (not so much the first time).  Its right HERE! These 300 reminds me to keep going!

Have a great rest of the weekend! 🙂

On the Road..(yet again)!

Morning my awesome blogging buddies!

As the title says, I’m on the road again for the weekend! By the time this posted, I will have left already and happily (hopefully, if traffic cooperates, we never know in Montreal) on my way to the wonderful and bustling city of Toronto.

I have nothing in particular scheduled except to have an fun girls getaway with my best friend.  The only thing planned is 2 movies at Toronto Film Fest (TIFF) to see Rigor Mortis and The Wind Rises tonight and Sunday respectively.  I have to send out some thanks to Daniel at Daniel’s Film Reviews for helping me figure out the schedule for my busy day today. I also need to thank Joseph at Cinema Monster for all the updates related to the movies screening before the event so that I ended up being tempted to go 🙂 Compared to them I’m extremely late to the party since this is the last weekend, I believe.  I’m just grateful that the schedules of the movies I wanted to see landed on the weekend. Click on their links, those are the reviews of movies they saw at TIFF.  Remember to explore both of their blogs because its quality stuff 🙂

Also, please pray that my best friend and I both get out of that Rigor Mortis movie alive.  We’re both scaredy cats so I’m not exactly sure how that’ll turn out but I was too curious to pass up that chance.  Well, good thing is that it overlaps Saturday where I have nothing planned, so worse some to worse, I’ll just stay up and write up that review afterwards 😉 On the note of reviews, I will try to have that one up the night of if possible.  The Wind Rises will have to wait since I have to get back on the road in the afternoon to get back to Montreal. Work (a lot of it) awaits me on Monday!

You know that I wouldn’t leave you with nothing.  As always, I will let you all bring in Friday and the weekend with some awesome music! Pump up the energy!

I do have another post drafted for tomorrow 🙂 However, I won’t be answering comments as frequently but I will get back to you!

Talk soon 🙂

Recommendations Round-up!

After exactly a month of August/September Recommendations month, I’ve managed to go through 15 movie recommendations and 2 book reviews from fellow bloggers and given them some credit.

In case you missed some of them, here is the entire list.

1) Dirty Dancing

2) Tai Chi Zero

3) The Descent

4) Forgetting Sarah Marshall

5) The Killer Inside Me

6) Romancing the Stone

7) Best Laid Plans

8) Say Anything

9) Kai Po Che!

10) Upside Down

11) Raising Arizona

12) Shaun of the Dead

13) The Jewel of the Nile

14) Sixteen Candles

15) Jab We Met

Along with the two e-books

16) A Woman Lost by T.B. Markinson

17) The First Pillar (Everville #1) by Roy  Huff

I had lots of fun with this! Did you?

It was an eye-opening experience and I actually was exposed to a lot of movies that I probably wouldn’t have watched otherwise.  Learned about the existence of Jake Ryan and Lloyd Dobler, Casey Affleck and his act of being a crazy guy, a world with opposite gravity, plans gone wrong, a claustrophic cave experience, adventures with jungle man and famous author, both inspiring and/or romantic Bollywood flicks, even had some zombies thrown in the mix.  I’d say it was a very colorful month 🙂

I certainly am thinking of doing this again but with a lot more advanced preparation to get recommended movies together instead of winging it day by day.  Plus, I only managed to mention to a small fraction of bloggers and I want to let everyone know about all of YOU 🙂

Remember to drop me more recommendations after reviews and if you have published a book, I’d love to include it in to share your work.  If you also want to recommend books, I’m totally down for that also!

Would you want me to do another recommendations month? Tell me what you thought about it: suggestions, comments, maybe a different way to set it up?

I Want to Punch “You” in the Face, but…

No no, not you!

I mean 90210! As late as I am with TV series, its my latest TV binge watch series! It may have ended but doesn’t mean I can’t get all crazy and want to punch someone because I’m still watching the final season.  Especially when it comes to HIM!

Liam Court (played by Matt Lanter) in 90210

A few episodes ago, I was feeling so bad for Liam.  If you think your life was bad, you have to check out his.  He gets ALL the crazy chicks, and even those that are now normal, he got them when they were crazy.  Then, I start thinking, its because all the characters, despite being now in college phase or just out of high school in whatever stage in life, they are all still acting like they are in high school.  Really? Is that what happens when you are rich at a young age with trust funds? OKAY, not the point!

But then, that also makes me realize, WHY I actually want to punch his (very handsome) face? Because he also makes a bunch of dumb choices! In no world are the choices he makes, mostly relationships (especially casual, sometimes serious), makes any damn sense! He may have hooked up with a lot of the girls in the 90210 series itself but right from the start, I knew he was the best with Annie. Let me present her to you if you don’t know her!

Annie & Liam Season 5

The script for this has been pushing them on and off together but its obvious the connection is still there! Which makes it all the more frustrating when I’ve really bonded with her character for some reason in Season 5. And like anything you spend extended amounts of time with, even the most meaningless things start having some meaning.

Especially when Annie starts fantasizing about it like this!

And especially when they always are so passionate when they are together!

 

The frustration of it all! I want to punch him in the face, but…then I don’t really want to.  I could just stop watching it, right? But then, you know I’ll be right there tonight watching another episode or two 🙂

I never understood the appeal of these series but sometimes, they just drag me right back in even when I lose hope because I feel like its not going anywhere.

Overanalyzing, right? I know!

Was this supposed to have any meaning? Meh, probably not! It was just to release some funky frustration and man, those are some hot kisses that I’d like to remember 😉 It sure makes me feel all sexy just watching it!

Happy Thursday everyone 🙂 This was absolutely meaningless but if you stuck around, I’m very happy you did!

Daily Prompt: Procrastination

Daily Prompt (August 18): What have you been putting off doing? Why?

Dear old procrastination!

Its funny, one of the reasons these daily prompts are always up later than the day of is just for that same reason and also because I procrastinate or as I call it, take a break, from reading blogs or anything in general so they pile up! Do you guys know, I read about 5 posts this weekend and I had managed on Friday to catch up with all the posts.  By Monday, I managed to have almost 500 posts in my inbox *faints*.  BUT, we are not here to talk about my reading posts slower than usual.

This morning, I sat and looked at my calender/schedule/notes whiteboard next to my bed and I wanted to make sure everything was up  to date.  Whenever I look at that board, there is one item that always gets pushed back and pushed back because it never has an end date.  You know what that is? Editing my first draft of that NaNoWriMo novel that I cranked out in something like 10 days last November.  I’ve opened up that file with the intention of editing it over and over again but somehow I can’t get much done.

In June, I managed to get a few chapters (like 5 meaning about 20%) edited but I realized why I lacked the motivation to do it.  Last November, when I thought up this story, it was all in the moment.  Now, I can’t find that feeling I had for it when I first wrote it.  I know I want to edit it.  Its not that I want to publish it but I never like starting something and not finishing it.  Plus, its my baby.  You have no idea how proud I was when I reached my goals 2 hours before the deadline after writing and writing and writing non-stop for a full solid week.  I loved that feeling and I tried so hard to get there. Now, I just need the right self pep talk and the right push to just get it done!

Let’s hope before the next NaNoWriMo comes around in November I’ll at least have this edited one time! I’m pretty sure if I feel good enough about it at the end, I’ll kick in those perfectionist values and edit it another time before I bind it as a personal reminder of my first ever unpublished novel and something to remind myself that when I put my heart into something, I can achieve anything!

I’m going to beat you one day, Procrastination! And it’ll be soon!

What have you been procrastinating? Are you in for the next NaNoWriMo?