Hi - I think I mentioned awhile back that I help put together a semi-monthly newsletter for my team at work - it's mostly just fun stuff like movie suggestions, crafts, facts about holidays, recipes and other fun ideas.

I'm in charge of the media section and the creative corner (arts, crafts, etc.), and our theme for February, of course, is Valentine's Day.

I'm not much of a fan of romantic movies (in fact, I don't like romantic comedies much at all), yet I want to come up with a list of good movie suggestions for Valentine's Day.
So that's where my friends come in:

Please post a comment with your favorite romantic movies, or the best movies you can suggest for Valentine's Day. These can even be anti-Valentine's Day movies (one that comes to mind is War of the Roses with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner), for those who hate the holiday! Whatever you can suggest would be great!

Also, if you're a crafty person, can you suggest any fun craft ideas for Valentine's Day - not necessarily for kids, but for anyone?

Thanks in advance!!!

While I'm waiting for some shows to download, I thought I'd do a quick post. My computer is quickly starting to overheat, so this may be brief...

The weather continues to be hot here. Next week is the first of October - isn't summer supposed to be over? Sometimes I feel like I'm being tested way beyond my limits of patience and perseverance. And I'm starting to crave foods that I can't get here in Fuji - foods like fish and chips, and ravioli, and lasagna and Thai and Indian food...

It's pretty easy to see that if I start to make lists of the pros and cons of living in Japan, the cons far outweigh the pros... of course at the moment, the pros are having both income and health insurance - things that I will lose the instant that I return to the U.S.

but I'm not here to bore you with my problems and my complaints. I'm here to discuss something far more shallow (but fun): TV and Movies!

First TV. I'm patiently waiting for all my favorite shows to start, meanwhile catching up on White Collar (which apparently is on hiatus until January), and watching the first season of Legend of the Seeker . And since I was bored, and caught up on most everything else, I finally watched the first episode of Chuck last night, and I'm already hooked! I know - I'm very very late to the party! But now I see why this show is so popular - it's brilliant!

And of course all my shows are starting at exactly the same time that I'm returning to work - which means that when I am home I will not only be making lesson plans, but downloading and watching about 5 shows a week, plus trying to watch the first three seasons of Chuck . But since I have no life, then I can live vicariously through my shows...

And now to movies. Of course being here in Fuji, I can't watch movies in real life either. I'm resigned to watching them when they have been released on DVD or somehow finding a download (usually some terrible cam version) on the internet. I'm still waiting for a decent download of Inception since I didn't manage to see it in the theater when I visited the U.S. this summer. I've been interested in some of the movies that are coming out soon, especially the following:

The Fighter - starring Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg (and Amy Adams, who I adore). This looks really amazing, especially since Christian Bale supposedly lost a bunch of weight to prepare for the role (just like he did for The Machinist ), proving what an amazing method actor he can be!



Love and Other Drugs - starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway
It's a romantic comedy about the pharmaceutical industry (apparently Jake's selling Viagra!), and it looks a bit cheesy I admit... but Jake looks adorable. And it's good to see him with Anne Hathaway again (they were together awhile back in Brokeback Mountain). She's always a pleasure to watch.



The Tourist - with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie
I have to admit, I'm against this movie in so many ways, but I will still be intrigued to see it. First, I don't like Angelina Jolie. I'm sorry but she just bugs me, even if she has proven to be a good actress. I can't see her and Johnny Depp together in any way, shape or form - and especially not romantically. And second, Johnny has definitely seen better days - he is starting to look far too eccentric and haggard for my taste. Third, this movie just seems to be so unoriginal - it's definitely a rip off of North By Northwest and Silver Streak - both of which are about a man who meets a beautiful stranger on a train (or elsewhere), and who get mistaken for someone else and then have bad guys after them. It's been done before. I just wonder how good Johnny is at playing a plain old regular guy.



And finally, I'm very interested to see Woody Allen's new film called You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - it stars Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts and Josh Brolin. Woody continues to make quirky and original films even into his 70s, and I will always be a fan!
This one again deals with marriage, infidelity and divorce - territories Woody has dealt with often. But for fans, I'm sure it will be fun! (oh and it also has Antonio Banderas and Frieda Pinto - very interesting!)




Thanks for indulging me and sorry for all the clutter on your friend's pages... hope you enjoyed those trailers though.

I'm off now - gotta turn off my computer before it spontaneously goes up in flames!

in my effort to avoid all of the important things in life (exercise, studying, writing), I've been reading too much stuff on the internet. for all you Johnny Depp fans out there, I found this video slideshow of his adventures in gender-bending through the years. I've always loved him, and seeing all these clips makes me realize what a talented actor he really is. I haven't seen the movie Before Night Falls (though it was on my Netflix queue for about a year before I left the country). The only one of these I didn't like was Willy Wonka - Johnny went way over the top on that one, and his performance gave me nightmares! and of course on this slideshow they didn't include some of my favorite of his performances, like Donnie Brasco, Dead Man, Gilbert Grape, and Benny and Joon... (but I guess those were not considered "gender-bending"?)

I've decided that I don't want to see the new Alice movie. I'm sure that the whole cast is good in it, and I'm sure that visually it's very stunning... but I read this review on Slate's website, and it sounds like Tim Burton is taking WAYYY too many liberties with the story. I'm a purist - I can't see why people can't make movie adaptations that even slightly resemble the story, especially when you're dealing with something as classic as Lewis Carroll! And why make the Mad Hatter a love interest for Alice? there wasn't the slightest hint of that in the book.

I'm not trying to sound like a snob, but I wrote a paper on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in college. I really loved everything about those stories! It's like seeing the Leonardo DiCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet - or any of these modern adaptations of Shakespeare. they don't work for me.

I know many people will disagree with me about this, but film adaptations work only when they stay true to the original author's vision. Why else do we want to see the film except to see a broader view of what we've read and loved?

anyway, that's enough of my soapbox. I'm back to staring at katakana and kanji and wondering if I'll ever learn Japanese well enough...

I haven't really posted my thoughts on the Oscars, except in my thedailyactor community. So here goes: Overall, I thought the show was pretty good, though the awards were more often than not predictable, and the song and dance numbers were incredibly silly. Don't get me wrong - I love Hugh Jackman, and as host he was charming, gorgeous, funny and entertaining. But please - Beyonce, Zak Efron, Vanessa Hudgens??? why did we have to see them? and why was Miley Cyrus getting so much attention at the pre-Oscar red carpet shows?? Can she please go away?? Forever!!

Highlights of the show for me: the speeches by Heath's family (started me getting emotional), Kate's acceptance speech (she had me in tears - she's class personified - and wasn't her Dad adorable!?), Sean's acceptance speech (again had me laughing and crying - of course I also wanted Mickey Rourke and Frank Langella to win - a three-way tie would have been nice!), the acceptance speech by the Milk screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (had me in tears too - he's so adorable), the little "performance" by tightrope walker Philippe Petit when the filmmakers accepted their award for best documentary Man on Wire (I can't wait to see that movie), and of course seeing all the adorable kids and the whole cast up there for Slumdog Millionaire ! I'm so happy for Danny Boyle and all the winners for that awesome film.

and now I still need to see Frost/Nixon - and I really want to see the Japanese movie that won for best foreign language film Okuribito (aka Departures). I have no idea when it will be out on DVD. But just read this synopsis - it sounds so good: (from imdb) Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of "Nokanshi," acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living. .

I have some very good news: My sister gave birth to a baby girl yesterday morning in Seattle.
My new niece, Shannon Dayle Dixon, weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces, and measured 19 inches long. Baby and mother are both perfectly healthy, and will be released from the hospital tomorrow morning. My mom and dad are staying with my sister and her family for the rest of the weekend.

I had meant to post about my niece yesterday, but my boss worked me like a slave, and then I had class until 9:00 so I was just dead by the time I got home!

So better late than never, please join me in welcoming little Shannon Dayle into the world! Pictures will be posted when (or more like IF) I get some from my relatives!!

thank goodness it's the weekend again!!

I've got so many movies to watch - one netflix dvd at home, which I believe is the James Dean biopic with my honey James Franco; three movies that I've downloaded, including The Reader which I'm gonna have to watch before Sunday night's Oscars; and I've just realized that I can watch The Visitor on instant play through Netflix. that one's got an oscar-nominated lead actor, Richard Jenkins - and I've heard the movie is quite good.

Problem is, I'm so damn tired that I can't even see straight. so I guess I'll toddle off to bed early, sleep a bit, and get up early and watch a movie or two...

then tomorrow night we're going to a church fundraiser at which my husband is playing with his band. free food and good live music - not bad!!


more later, when I'm not falling asleep on my keyboard...zzzzzzzzzzz

I really need to stop ordering bad movies from Netflix. Last night I watched (or should I say I tried to watch) the remake of Journey to the Center of the Earth . so you're asking, why on earth did I rent that silly mess? Good question... I can't even remember why I put it on my queue.
I guess the trailer made it look Jurassic park-like and fun... I didn't even get to the fun part, if there was any. I turned it off after about 40 minutes, after it started resembling the second Indiana Jones movie (and not a good resemblance). Brendan Fraser really needs to start making good movies again - he's starting to get typecast as the nerdy professor-action hero type after all the Mummy movies. In this movie he was so uninspired, and the actress playing the Icelandic guide was horribly annoying. and the special effects were just a joke. I felt like I was watching a movie made by a teenager!

I think it's really time to put my Netflix membership on hold. I just can't find anything worth renting anymore...

and speaking of movies, I'm not sure if I'll even watch the Academy Awards this year. (I think I might have said the same thing last year, and ended up watching only half of the awards then)... Honestly I don't care anymore, and that makes me so sad. I might watch simply to see Hugh Jackman as the host(*melt*), and to see the beautiful dresses and the gorgeous men. This is the second year that I haven't seen ANY of the movies up for best picture - and I only care about a few of them. I guess everyone's saying that Benjamin Button is good, but I am not interested. I'm not interested in The Reader. I might see Slumdog Millionaire once it's on DVD. And Frost/Nixon too. of course I really want to see Milk, but it won't win. It's so easy to predict the winners every year - it's all political after all. Ever since Brokeback Mountain lost to Crash a few years back, I just gave up on caring. It's so disappointing.

I'm just stealing stuff all over the place tonight - I saw this list of AFI's top ten in ten categories in pnksaph's post.

( here's my list )

I feel like I should post more often - it's just that I don't feel like I've much to say that I haven't already said. Not much is happening these day really. I have sort of started my job search again, which is stressful and depressing. I hate job hunting because it just makes me feel so inferior. sometimes I wish I would have just stuck with teaching - by now I might have had enough experience to get an actual full time job. But who knows... we are always faced with decisions in life, and sometimes perhaps we make a wrong decision, or choose a path or direction that isn't right. What then do we do? Do we regret it and ultimately give up hope, or do we just try to learn from it? Whenever I look for a job, or try a new career path (like I'm doing with the paralegal thing), it makes me feel like I'm under a microscope - and perhaps I don't like seeing myself the way others do. Does that make sense? Probably not - I'm probably just rambling... Anyway, I do need to really focus on finding a job - not just for more money, but for my own mental and physical health. I go to work and I get headaches. That can't be good.

Luckily for the next few weeks I do have more free time - before school begins on January 23rd. I started a new knitting project (a muffler to match my cute green hat) - i'm not sure if I'm happy with it though - the color scheme I chose looks somewhat like an easter basket! I'm reading "The Golden Compass" - though I haven't gotten very far because I'm always too tired when I sit to read. Last night, for example, I was going to read but I fell asleep by 10 p.m. how boring is my life?! I've watched a couple movies lately: Next and Fracture .

( cut for mini movie reviews )

One more thing - if you remember, I mentioned that my cat was sick a couple weeks ago - he couldn't poop. He's doing much better, no thanks to that stupid vet who took my money but didn't even help my cat. That vet never even suggested that my cat might have been throwing up because he was constipated - instead he took x-rays which didn't show anything. Of course not! And he never suggested anything for the cat's diet to help the situation. My husband and I have nursed Leo with simple enemas, lots of water, and a diet of more canned food and less dry. But also I bought some native american herbal medicine from an online site called Native Remedies (the pet site is Pet Alive), it's like metamucil for cats. it's helped so far! I'm not going back to that vet again - and I'm considering writing a letter of complaint to that office.

It's getting late so off I go. I hope everyone's new year is going great so far!

again, I'm looking for some movie recommendations to add to my DVD queue on Netflix. My queue already has tons of movies on it, but none seem to be what I want to watch right now. After watching Pan's Labyrinth , and after watching Terry Gilliam's Brazil again last night, which I hadn't seen for many years, I need something that is equally as stimulating, equally as good.

So has anyone seen anything, old or new, foreign or indie or Hollywood made that you think is worth my time?

Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Mine is a bit sluggish, as for some reason I have very little energy to do anything. maybe it's the humidity, maybe it's some dormant bug that won't leave my system, or just boredom.
I just hope that I can get some energy back by the time I go to work tomorrow - I have a feeling that work will be crazy.