Miniseed

Karen and I watched the Happiest Baby On The Block last week.

In the DVD, Dr. Karp mentions that babies may have come a trimester early and hence cannot support its own head and need constant attention. Then he goes on to connect his own exercises with an experience of the baby while in the womb.

Dr. Karp starts the demonstration by manages to wrap the baby up really tightly like a cocoon, or a straight-jacket. It didn’t seem to have much effect because the baby cried much harder than before. Then he turns the baby on its side position, hisses in his ears so loudly to the baby is stunned, similar to the effect of a tazer, then proceed to shake the baby’s head like washing a bowl of rice. With the shaking, the baby is so distraunt with the movements that the baby cannot actively cry, and eventually tires and gives up Lastly, he introduces a break-through product and technique, called “using the pacifier”.

At the end of the day, some parents may wish to treat their baby’s head like a bowl of rice, but I prefer to use the loving methods, such as Crouching Tiger or the Waltz method. That way I can bond with my daughter, and get a workout in the process.

I had some extra time between feedings, dug into my media vault and found this old infomercial that I thought was interesting…

The writer’s strike had pushed us toward exploring new shows, and the One Tree Hill season 5 premier, which seemed like a new series, got us hooked. Who knows, maybe we’ll even name our child Lucas.

(warning: spoilers below)

Up to this point, Randal had been a class-act.  In all episodes, it seemed like Randal spoke highly of his peers, was full of integrity, and was full of heart.  He also seemed genuinely founded in his faith, making references to his church.  So tonight, when Trump asked him which project he would like to head, Karen and I fully anticipated him shying away from the Casino.  Wrong.  He fully embraced grandeur of Atlantic City, taking us by surprise.

However, it wasn’t until the final 5 minutes of the 2-hour finale that he had gone from one of my most respected candidate to the least respected.  Half way into the episode, Karen already suspected that Trump will hire both, especially when he foreshadowed it when they chose different projects.  So when Trump seeked Randal’s opinion on Rebecca’s hiring, I thought “here we go”.  Based on his past relationship with Rebecca, I fully expected the response to be, “You know, Mr. Trump, I’ve worked with Rebecca and she’s smart and capable. She will be a great asset to your organization.  I highly recommend her.”  As you know, the episode unfolded with Randal denying Rebecca’s employment by requesting to be the sole Apprentice, and Trump respected his wishes.  Unbelievable.  I understand that Randal wants tonight to be his night, but he has already been declared the winner!  It’s as if Randal grew horns and fangs and transformed into an evil grinch overnight!  I had no choice but to roll my eyes and sigh in disgust.

Who are you?  Where’s Randal and what did you do with him?!?

Last Saturday, we undertook an expedition on the corn maze in Snohomish, and we returned with an Oscar-nominee.

Karen recently dragged me into watching a Korean drama called “Full House”, which we finished yesterday.  It’s actually a cute Romantic drama about a Movie Star and a girl who got into a contractual marriage due to circumstances.  While there were 16 episodes, at least it’s not like some of the Taiwanese or Hong Kong series that drag on to 40+ episodes.  Once we started watching, it was hard to stop because of all the cliff hangers connecting the episodes.

The actress in this drama is Song Hye Gyo.  As you may have remembered from the Miss Universe pagent blog, I like pointing out people who look like others.  In this case, it’s Yuki, a singer from Taiwan who sang “Monster”.  Karen and I had a heated discussion about whether they really look alike, but let us take a look…

Song Hye Gyo

Yuki Hsu

Check out the eyebrows, the eyes, the mouth…  The resemblance is staggering!

Recently I found a couple of unexpected presents in my mailbox at work, one of which was a free $15 Starbucks Card!  Why?  I have no idea… something about community participation, but whatever.    Karen conveniently relieved me of my Starbucks Card.

Then another day I was pleasantly surprised with the other gift in the mailbox–1 month free netflix subscription!  So I signed up.  With the exception of the one time my mailman completely missed the little red flag on the side of the mailbox and proceeded to stack the incoming mail on top of it, things are going smoothly.  With 2 weeks introductory offer plus 1 month from the gift card, that’s about 6 weeks of nonstop DVD action!

Without these subsidizing incentives, Blockbuster is a better deal.  If I had a sudden urge to watch Supergirl at 11:40pm, a quick visit to the local store will suffice.  With Netflix, however, I would need to take one of my DVDs, put it in the envelope, drop it in my mailbox, go online, log in, add it to the queue, move it up in the queue, and twirl my fingers for the next 5 days as I patiently wait for it to come in the mail.  Finally, I may end up getting Screwball instead of Supergirl if they ran out of the title!  Factoring in the fact that USPS slacks off on Sundays, that’s quite a bit of down time.

Still, can’t beat free DVDs even if it takes a while to get here. 

First of all, Happy Birthday to Karen this weekend!  It was a very hectic weekend, with a wedding, an open house, two birthday celebrations (Happyfish and Family), church, movie, and all the stuff in between, there was barely time for a breather!  I will get around to posting a few pictures on the blog soon.

Some of us watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith today, but before I get to that let’s go to a tangent on theatres.  First of all, the biggest screen at Crossroads is still my favorite theatre, even without stadium seating, because it has the best screen and sound combination next to Cinerama.  In case you’re wondering, you can always know which movie is on the big screen by glancing at the first entry on the ticket box movie list.  Karen and I tried the new Lowes up in Alderwood Mall, which also a decent-sized screen, but it was lacking in the audio department.  It didn’t pass my stringent aural litmus test: when explosions occur, my heart needs to feel the pressure and my butt needs to shake.  I felt neither, just loudness.  The conclusion–the theatre is no good.

As for the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I enjoyed it.  Sure, you either love or hate Brad Pitt, but who can dislike Angelina Jolie, who fits this Assassin/Tomb Raider type of role so perfectly.  The storyline is rather unique, as two assassins married without knowing about each other’s secrets.  Again, I will refrain from disclosing spoilers, but suffice to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Karen and I give it a two thumbs up.

As for the Magic Bean update that has been preoccupying all of your minds lately, all I can say is that there is disturbance in the soil.  Nothing worthy of a picture yet, but I have a hunch that something major may take place in the next few days.  Mark my words. 

So Karen had already watched the Phantom of the Opera DVD just last week, but she insisted that I watch it with her again.  It was enjoyable, but one inconsistency really irked me.  For the first half of the movie, the Phantom looked like this stud with slicked hair and perfect facials.  At one point you could even see his entire flawless forehead.  Then when the mask is ripped off, half of the forehead is riddled with scars filling an area inconcealable with some of the masks worn.  Also, the eye suddenly resembles that of Tales from the Crypt!  What the heck?!!  Did they really think they could sneak this little detail pass the scrutinizing audience like myself?  Imagine me wearing a tiny snoopy band-aid on my hand, and when it is peeled off, my entire hand and arm is covered in leprousy.  Slight oversight?

That, along with the weak, untrained voice of the Phantom, are the only sore spots in the movie.  Despite those issues, I would still recommend this movie, especially if you’ve seen the musical as it augments the storyline.

Tonight we watched the Miss Universe pagent, skipping insignificant portions with fast forward and 30-second skip, courtesy of Tivo.  Now typically the show is not particularly exciting, but each of us picked a contestant to root for starting with the final 15.   Jeffrey chose Greece, Grace chose Dominican Republic, Carol chose Venezuela, Karen chose Israel, David chose Peru, Freddy (David’s brother) chose Puerto Rico.  Unfortunately, none of us won as Canada took the crown.  The closest was Freddy’s runner up Puerto Rico.  His sophisticated hieuristic for making choices was … choosing the worst candidate, and while the rest of us dropped like flies, he made it as far as the runner up to Miss Universe!  Go figure.

While watching, we noticing celebrity resemblances.  I noticed that Grace, an Alias addict, may have subconsciously chosen Dominican Republic due to her close resemblance to Jennifer Garner.  Let’s put up pictures for comparison: 

Miss Dominican Republic

Jennifer Garner

Carol made some associations herself.  She thought that my Mexico looked like Mariah Carey:

Miss Mexico

Mariah Carey

And that Miss South Africa looked like Celine Dion:

Miss South Africa

Celine Dion

Do you see the resemblance here?  I believe mine is the closest thank you very much.