• 15:08 * I'd seriously look like a red cheese wheel after all the red wine 'n cheese I've been consuming lately, were I not working out a lot! #fb #
• 16:55 * We're celebrating my stepfather's birthday today. :) My niece keeps saying my name. Like teh kittehs, it melts my heart. <3 AWW. #fb #

- Chris (cK1)

http://www.fanplusfriend.com/c2/SP00031_02.jpg <- What I want to know, dear friends... do you do the tucks BEFORE sewing the side seams, or after, once it's a tube?

The ruffler rocks my world -- and I also bought the 3-pintuck foot for my machine, so that's my next technique to tackle.

I need frills, people. I need them. BLACK FRILLS.

Someone on Twitter asked for the annotated Batman DVD guide I wrote up for a friend, so I'll Just Leave This Here. It's very subjective, though; some episodes I didn't care for, someone else might.

( Guide behind the cut. )

Movie review time!

So, James Cameron's been poking away at his magnum opus for about ten years now. It's finally in theatres -- and just in time, since when he started, 3-D as a mainstream concept was laughable. Now, it's commonplace and accepted. Good for him. But does the movie work? Not "Does it live up to the hype", does it WORK?

Let's say it works despite itself.

I'll get the negative out of the way right now. The story is predictable and utterly tedious. Everything happens that you expect to happen -- a single sentence can summarize up the whole thing, "It's one of those movies where greedy white guys wanna displace the natives, except one of them goes native and leads a resistance." Done. You now know the entire plot of Avatar. The story unfolds exactly as you'd expect, a straight as an arrow path with no ambiguity and no nuance whatsoever. That makes the whole affair completely tedious... there are times when you just want them to get on with it, because you already know how it's going to go. For a movie so alive with color, it's totally black and white, and doesn't even bother trying to reach for anything beyond the basics.

So, if you aren't watching for the story, why watch? Three things: Characters, Spectacle, and Experience.

The characters are pretty nicely designed. They have distinctive voices and personalities, and the interplay of them as they move through the scenarios presented is interesting. Our hero is a bit generic, true, but everybody around him in Pink and Blue works well. None of them really surprise us or have any grey area to them, but they're enjoyable to watch and even the CG characters are so well animated that the ACTING comes through nicely. I can watch these guys and care about them, and that's the key to knowing if they work or not.

The spectacle is off the freaking map. Not just the 3-D, which is terrific (if a bit difficult to get into, since the image feels a bit too 'processed' at times) but the large-scale battles, the amazing environments, soaring through the sky... even walking around on ground level is amazing. This is a treat for the eyes and you always want to see more of it, with the movie only too happy to dish up new things to enjoy as you go.

That's where the experience comes into play; beyond Michael Bay-esque explosions and huge-scale objects to stare at, soaking in the WORLD that's been designed and coordinated by the artists is a delight. Even the more subtle visuals are quite a sight to behold, and they all blend together seamlessly into a living, breathing world... one that's easy to suspend your disbelief and revel in.

Overall... you can enjoy this movie, provided you go into it with the right frame of mind. It's a summer blockbuster, a popcorn movie. The writing is not nearly on par with Cameron's other work. But that's fine, if you go so you can watch blue people fight space marines and explore an MMORPG-esque fantasy world. And now is the time to go, while you can still catch it in 3-D... on home theatre systems it'll still be impressive, but it's not going to be 'what the doctor ordered'. So, if you've got an afternoon to kill and want something that'll entertain the hell out of you even if it doesn't fire up your neurons, it'll play nicely.

My review of Avatar: Painfully predictable. One-dimensional military. One of Cameron's weaker movies... but still really beautiful visually.

• 13:49 * This kitty's melting my heart. She keeps putting her paws up on the computer chair between my legs 'n poking her head up to get pet. #fb #

- Chris (cK1)

Someone PLEASE talk me out of buying a DSi? My phone does evrerything it does except DS games. But I'm losing the fight.

Today is The Big M's biggest call volume of the year. I have 10 hours of it. But its what I get paid for so lets do it with some style.

I know some of you would appreciate my loot! Coughcoughtropigaliacoughcough.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Or a happy holiday, if that's the case. I had a great Christmas - I think my ear infection is finally clear (a Christmas miracle!) and I got a fairly nice haul this year. My mom gave me a nice new comforter, BSG The Complete Series on Blu-Ray, and various other TV Shows on DVD (The Office S5, Fringe S1 on BD, Gossip Girl S2, The Closer S4, Psych S3). Oh, I also got a $100 Target Gift Card so I can buy a vacuum when I get back to California! All in all, we had a good time. I think she liked all the things I got her, so it was a very Merry Christmas indeed!

And I watched A Christmas Story in whole or in part about 10 times, so it was pretty awesome.

Can't wait for karaoke tomorrow and then NYE Party at Eric and Jessi's next week! Should be a blast.

I just played a little Mass Effect and now I'm going to watch an episode of Buffy and then try to sleep so I can take my mom to the airport tomorrow at 5:30. Awesome?

• 18:08 * I don't support today's commercial/religious aspects, but I'm glad it brings us together. Tell your loved ones that ya care for 'em. #fb #

- Chris (cK1)

Hey guys! Merry Christmas, happy Solstice (I know it was earlier this week, sorry!), happy Hanukkah, Kwanza, and anything else you might celebrate, you unique individual, you :)

I'm not sure why but Christmas always depresses me a little. Maybe it's all of the excitement building up to it, I forget that it's not as big of a deal when you get older, or just that it's over so fast... I love visiting with family that I don't get to see every day, I love sharing a meal, stories, and gifts with my family. I love my mom and dad, my brother and his wife, and my husband, it was wonderful being gathered together with them all this morning!

I'm so terribly sleepy. I'm also very excited for the year to come--I've been reading a book on the South Beach Diet (the one that hubby's doctor recommended) and I'm seriously looking forward to start it after next week! We're holding off until January 1st (though I'm still dieting via portion control, going all-out before you start a diet is just silly) because we have one more family function on new year's, and the first two weeks of SBD is really strict! But any diet that urges you to snack on eggs and cheese is the one for me, hehe :) I'll probably pickle a bunch of eggs to keep in the fridge, and we'll buy lots of cheeses and stuff that the book tells us to eat... Hopefully we can make it to the whole foods market to buy more olive oil and some interesting nuts & teas!

I'm going to start jogging again, too. I guess with finals I had an excuse to stop, but I really want to jog and get back into the shape I was in :3 Also John hooked the PS2 up in my workout area so I can play DDR again! And when it's nice out maybe I'll bike around the town a bit when I'm not at work.

I'm really happy about this new year...  I plan on watching lots of anime, getting a puppy, planting a garden! Trying to enjoy FREE activities (gosh, I swear, every website I've ever bought anything from emails me regularly, tempting.... and that's a lot of websites, lol). I'm turning TWENTY in exactly six months! Six months and I'll finally be rid of being a "teenager", thank goodness!

I could probably go on, I guess I'm just getting a little sappy. :)