Mix Tapes and Forgotten Diaries

Derek and I have moved into an apartment in Sandy.  It's small, but it's clean.  I'm really liking it.  And as usually happens when packing stuff up that you haven't actually seen in a really long time, I have found a lot of forgotten things.  A lot of my stuff was in plastic storage boxes in the closet at the duplex.  I really hadn't done anything with those boxes since I put stuff in them in the first place.  I had gone through them a couple of times, but never really looked at much.  I found a ton of old tapes.  Mix tapes and even a tape that says "Danni's Diary".  I may have recorded over what was actually the diary on that tape, but I'm curious about it and I'm going to have to listen to see what's on it.

Several of my old mix tapes had actual mixes on them.  I'm not talking about just different songs.  I used to go through my music and the lyrics in my music to write my own new songs.  I would find lines in different songs by different artists to express how I was feeling at that time.  Then I would record just that one line from the CD onto the tape and make a completely new song out of several different songs.  It was actually a lot of fun.  A few of these old tapes have those on them.

Most of the tapes are just mixes of my favourite songs from my CDs, or a mix of music that I would hear on the radio.  I'd listen to the radio, and if a song came on that sounded good or interesting, I'd hit record.  I haven't listened to any of these tapes for probably a good 12 years or so.  Since Jareth's been listening to them, I've come to a conclusion.  I'm going to go through each of these tapes.  I'm going to get a list made up of all the songs on each tape.  Then I'm going to download each of those songs.  Then I can make mix CDs of the same songs I had on my tapes.  I'm actually really excited about this.

Okay, I know.  This entry wasn't a very good one.  But I'm really enjoying going through my old things and finding all this old stuff.  I should get pictures of a couple other things I found.  Ha!  Yeah.  I have a stuffed animal (sorta) called Chubbles.  Oh!  I found pictures online!

This is Chubbles.  I don't think I ever had the book shown in this picture, but that's my Chubbles, alright.  All About Chubbles and Here's a video of the noise he makes.  Mine looks exactly like the one in the picture.  Oh man.  I love my Chubbles.  ^_^  Derek thinks I'm crazy, but I don't care.

I also have this really really old troll doll.  It's not like the crazy haired 80's trolls we all had (just admit it...).  It's older than that.  That's one that I'll just have to get a picture of because I'm not going to find it online.

So yeah.  I'm really excited to be going through all this old stuff and finding stuff I had forgotten about.  ^_^  It's actually a lot of fun.

And that's really all I've got right now.  So until next time....

Battle: Los Angeles

Okay, so first off, it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't rant about something, right?  I won passes to Battle: Los Angeles.  Along with about a million other people.  I had to get to the theatre at 3:30 to get in line so I knew I would actually get the tickets.  I ended up getting there at about 3:15.

Note to self
When waiting in a line for over 30 minutes (or any amount of time, really), take headphones!

It was awful.  I was pretty close to the front of the line, and the way it wound around, the very first people in line were literally right next to me.  It was a woman and her 8 year old son.  Approximately 8.  I couldn't be bothered to ask. 

This kid must have thought he was on American Idol.  He was singing.  Some random song that he probably heard on the radio.  Wouldn't have been a big deal except that he kept singing the same line over and over and over and ...  well, you get the idea.  The worst part was that he was incredibly off key.  I love music.  I love singing.  And when I hear someone that's that far off key, it's like nails on a chalkboard.  Shudder

So I did the best I could to ignore him.  That actually came a lot easier than expected.  Mostly because there were far more annoying people around me.  There were two men in front of me.  The bigger of the two (they were both taller than me, but this one was probably a bit over 6 feet tall and probably just as big around) smelled like he hadn't showered for two weeks.  Wretch!  

You would think that was the worst.  Nope!  Not even by a long shot.  The three people behind me couldn't have been more than 19.  I think the oldest was about 19.  The other two were 16 or 17.  I think the youngest girl was 16, her boyfriend was 17, and the older girl (the other girl's sister) was about 19.  I got all of this from their conversation because they didn't shut up and stop yammering the entire time.  The 19 year old was in college (Salt Lake Community, to be precise).  She started talking about how insane it was to take notes in class and there's no way she'd ever do that.  The younger girl is a teacher's assistant or something for elementary school kids.  The oldest says to her sister, "I have to make a mask for my art class.  You should have your kids make masks and bring them home.  Then I can pick the best one and turn that in for my project.  I'm too lazy to make my own."  Why is she even IN school?  A degree does you no good if you don't actually learn anything.

Behind them was another very large man.  Well, guy.  He wasn't old enough to be called a man.  He had headphones in (lucky bastard), and his phone ringer turned all the way up.  Every time he got a text, there would be a 10 second excerpt from a song.  The problem was, the only part of the lyrics you could really hear was a very loud and clear "fuck".  You're in a public theatre and there are plenty of children around.  Turn your phone ringer off if it's not appropriate!  Not to mention the simple fact that he's getting texts every minute, on the minute (okay, this is an exaggeration as I really wasn't paying close enough attention to know exactly how often it was) and that damn 10 seconds keeps playing.  He can't hear it, but everyone around him can.

Finally, the wait was over and I got the tickets.  Thank god.

Now, onto the movie (finally, I know).

I actually really enjoyed the movie, for the most part.  It had a good story, great actors, and a ton of action.  Lots of things blowing up.  However, the guy that introduced the movie at the beginning had it right:  "A great first-person shooter".  Due to all the crazy camera angles.

It really felt like they were trying to save money by shaking the camera around a lot during the action sequences so they didn't have to focus too much on little details.  When they showed the aliens up close, the camera was also shaking around.  I really got the impression that they were either too lazy to actually give it good details, or they just didn't want to spend the money.  The camera shaking kind of made me sick after a while.

All in all, however, it was a really good show.  I enjoyed the plot, the ending was good, there was a plethora of explosions, it made me laugh, and it made me cry.  Literally.  I actually cried.  But there was good reason, don't judge me!

One of my favourite scenes was near the end.

And that's where I'm going to end because I don't want to give too much away.  ^_^  The cinematography leaves some to be desired, but all in all, if you have a chance, see this movie.  It's a really good show.

Reality

This entry is going to be a little out of the norm for me, but oh well.  Deal with it.  If you don't like it, don't read what I write.  ^_~

Based on my previous entries, you'd probably never guess it, but I'm a total reality show addict.  Not reality shows like Jersey Shore or The Kardashians or anything like that.  I'd rather be decapitated than have to sit through those shows.  No, shows like American Idol and Survivor.  I'm horribly addicted.  I used to refuse to watch shows like that.  Before I met my husband.  He loves Survivor, so I sat through it with him one time and I'm totally in love now.  As for American Idol, well, he told me the auditions were funny to watch so you could see all the terrible singers.  We watched the auditions last season and I fell right into the black hole that is American Idol and I've been watching it since.

I don't love everything about the show, please don't misunderstand.  I can't handle Ryan Seacrest.  The guy just rubs me the wrong way.  To the point where I want to just claw his eyes out every time I hear him say "This...  Is American Idol..."  Blah blah blah.  Whatever pretty boy.  But the show itself is something interesting.

I've always wanted to be a singer.  From the moment I could first carry a tune.  Why, I couldn't tell you.  But I have.  This show gives people like me just a little bit of hope.  I don't have hope that I could ever actually be on that stage in the top 24, but at least I could put in an effort to try, right?  Well, that's what I'm planning on.  The age cap is 28.  That's how old I will be during the next audition run.  I'm going to audition.  I'm probably going to end up on TV as one of the worst, but hey, it'll be fun in the process.  I've never done anything that big, so I'd really love to have that item crossed off my bucket list.

This season of the show is interesting, I must admit.  There are about 5 guys that I absolutely love.  The others can just go to hell for all I care.  Especially Jordan Dorsey.  That guy...  I don't like the way he sings and I haven't since his first audition.  I wish he had done the OMG song during Hollywood week because I truly believe he would have been sent home.  Talent (or the lack there of) aside, he's just an ass.  The way he was running his own auditions for his group on group day was ridiculous.  Then, even after he finally agrees to one guy (whom I thought wasn't nearly as good as the other two they showed him "auditioning"), he eventually just ends up leaving that group anyway.  I can't believe the nerve of that guy.  I mean, I understand it's a competition and you need to be watching your own back and moving yourself forward, but as Derek and I saw on Bridal Plasty (another reality show I fell into), you don't have to step on everyone in your path to get to the top, and in the end, being friends with those you're competing against can end up working in your favour.  This is something Jordan needs to learn, but I don't believe he ever will.  The guy is a douche (pardon my French) that will always step on everyone in his way to try to reach the top.  He really couldn't care less about anyone but himself.

The second person I'm completely against is Clint Jun Gamboa.  This guy is an absolute joke.  How he made it through Hollywood Week, I'll never know.  He's also another douche on the roster.  After accepting Scotty McCreery into his group of already 4, making his group 5, he kicked Jacee (extremely talented 15 year old kid) out of the group because "It just works better with 4".  Why did he even accept Scotty into the group in the first place if he only wanted 4? And if he were going to kick anyone out, it should have been Scotty (don't get me wrong, I love this kid..  I think he's going to make it really far in this competition), simply because he was the most recent to join the group.  But no, he gets rid of the 15 year old kid.  I felt bad for the guy!  He was in tears!  I can understand the feeling of rejection he must have had.  Poor kid.  But, in the end, Jacee was not added to the top 24.  To be honest, I think that's for the best.  He's very talented, but he does need a year or two to mature and work on his stage presence.  A few pounds lost wouldn't hurt any either.  But I really do hope he comes back.  And screw Clint for being such a jerk.  I know he says it wasn't personal, but whatever.  He was just being a selfish douche and that's something I just can't get past.  I don't care for his voice, either.  lol...

My absolute favourites...  These are the five I hope to see in the top 10.  Casey Abrams (a Seth Rogen look-a-like with AMAZING talent - not just in his voice, but the instruments he plays), James Durbin (not even aspergers or turrets can stop this kid from belting out the lyrics to some kick ass rocker songs - I am totally in love with this guy's voice - he feels the music and he makes his audience feel it too), Scotty McCreery (this kid WILL be a big country star - I guarantee multiple country recording companies are chomping at the bit to have this guy off Idol so they can nab him up - he is definitely going to make it in the industry with his gorgeous deep country voice), Paul McDonald (I can't believe this guy isn't already signed somewhere - last night's rendition of the Rod Stewart song Maggie Mae was to the T a perfect cover), and last but not least, Brett Loewenstern (cheeky red-head whose personality reminds me a bit of Pauly Shore, but his voice by far makes up for any of his downfalls - and I love the way he moves around and throws his hair around while he sings).

I can't wait to see where these five guys go.  I think they will do amazing things with their voices.

As for the girls (who will be showcased on tonight's episode), I really have no favourites yet.  Well, I can say this...  I really love Naima Adedapo's look.  I'm not really sure what I think of her voice, but her look is striking.  The other girls haven't really stuck out in my mind like the guys did this year.  We'll have to see where they go and what they can do tonight, but I'm not really holding my breath for an amazing performance or anything.

Alright, I think I'm done with my reality show tirade.  For anyone that actually read this whole thing, congrats.  I don't think I could have done it.  Ha!  But now you have a little more insight into the mind that is mine.  Don't worry.  There won't be a lot of entries like this one.  I had just read another article online about last night's episode and I wanted to get my two cents in.  Thanks for reading!