keeping the line between the past and the present

Easy Corn Muffins!

2012-01-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

1 cup of cornmeal
1.5 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar, or other sweetener
1 standard size can of creamed corn

Mix them all together (preferably with a mixer), and bake them off! I used a mini muffin tin and got exactly 24 cute lil muffins. I also sprinkled them with paprika before baking. They took about 12 minutes in a 400 degree oven. :)

These are 2 for 1 weight watcher points plus value, in case you were wondering (and I know you were).

Chicken Carbonara!

2012-01-05T18:44:00.001-08:00

So, I sort of want to start a "Cooking Light" blog, but have no idea what to call it, or anything like that, so for now, I'll just add this recipe on to my old blog. If you have any ideas on what I could call a recipe blog featuring (mostly) light cooking, please give me your suggestions!!

Anyway, as requested:

Chicken Carbonara

Ingredients:

8 oz linguine pasta
18 oz. chicken breast
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
1 1/2 cups peas
1 sweet onion
1 clove garlic
6 strips bacon
1 cup fat free chicken broth
2 tbsp skim milk
4 oz reduced fat cream cheese
3 oz 2% velveeta
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Basil, Parsley, Seasoned Salt, Salt and Pepper

Dice up your sweet onion, and get it sauteing in your olive oil, along with your garlic (chopped finely or pressed)
Once they start to get brown and fragrant, cut your chicken into bite sized pieces and add to pan with some basil and parsley, cook chicken, lightly season with seasoned salt.
While chicken is cooking, partially cook your bacon in the microwave (about 4 minutes in the microwave), or however you prefer. (I did it in the microwave to keep as much grease out of the picture as I could.)
Once your bacon is partially cooked, chop it into small pieces, and add it into the chicken. Add about 1 tsp of the bacon fat to the chicken and onion mixture- discard the rest.
Let everything cook together, and cook your pasta while the chicken cooks.When straining pasta, reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. The starch from the cooking process will help thicken your sauce!
If peas are frozen, give them a zap in the microwave.
Make your cream sauce by melting your butter in a large skillet, and then whisking the flour into it, whisking constantly so no lumps form, making a roux. Once your roux is a bubbly paste, add in your pasta water, and continue to whisk over medium heat, until mixture thickens.
Add milk, whisk until thickened once again.
Add chicken broth- again, mix until thickened.
Add in velveeta and cream cheese, stirring and helping them to melt by breaking up. Keep heating and whisking until thick.
Season with salt and pepper.
Now, fold in chicken and bacon mixture until covered in sauce. Add peas and pasta, stir until all is coated with sauce.
Transfer to an oven safe baking dish, and top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

This has been adapted from Cooking Light magazine. I made my own changes. The bacon adds a lot of flavor, but cooking it separately and draining off all but 1 tsp. of the grease cuts calories, as well as using very little butter. The reduced fat cream cheese and velveeta also help keep the calorie count down on this recipe!

I calculated approximately 11 WW points plus per 1.5 cup serving. :) Enjoy!

2010-12-19T20:16:00.000-08:00

love love LOVE these guys.

Thai Chicken and Vegetables

2010-11-22T14:58:00.000-08:00

So, I just finished making this crock pot recipe, and I have to say, it's cooking right now and looks absolutely superb. I got it from a crock pot recipe book, but modified it quite a bit. Here it is:

5 Chicken Drumsticks
1/2 Can coconut milk
Fresh Green Beans
1 bag matchstick carrots
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup salsa
1/2 rough chopped onion
1 1/2 cups extra crunchy peanut butter
Juice from 1/2 lime (about 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp)
2 bags quick cook rice
Scallions

Take your chicken out and place them in a bowl. Pour 1/2 the can of coconut milk over the chicken legs.

Next, while those marinate, mix together 1 cup of peanut butter with the lime juice, soy sauce and salsa. Place the chicken legs in the crock pot, pouring the extra coconut milk over the chicken.

Add your peanut butter/salsa mixture to the crock pot,as well as your chopped onion. Cook 1 hour and 45 minutes on high, or until chicken looks cooked on the outside.

Once the chicken is starting to appear cooked on the outside, add in your green beans, and allow to cook for 30 more minutes.

Next, add your matchstick carrots, and cook until the chicken is completely cooked through- probably about one more hour.

If you want to do this while you're at work and can't be adding things at different times, set the crock pot to low, cook the chicken for 8-9 hours while you're gone, and then once you get home add the veggies and crank it up to high for an hour.

Serve over rice, with fresh scallions on top.

I'll post pictures when I serve it!

Update

2010-10-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

They say once you do something for 21 days in a row, it becomes a habit. I don't know who 'they' refers to (there's a really funny Paul Reiser bit about that, actually), but I do know that it seems logical to me. To succeed for almost a whole month at doing something every day would probably form a habit for me.

So, I'm using http://habitforge.com/ to try to form the habit to write in my blog every day.

I'm totally bogged down with lesson planning and grading papers and all of that right now, but I should be able to come up with some little tidbit from my day every day, I would think. We'll see.

When you sign up at Habitforge, you'll be sent an e-mail every day asking you if you did whatever your goal was the previous day. You click yes if you did it, and no if you didn't. And that's that.

Maybe I should also start one for going to the gym...

I'm about to do that now, actually. I've lost 16 pounds in the past couple months, but I've been stalling, and it's because I've not been going to the gym as regularly as I was before. So, here goes!

NYC weekend

2010-08-31T17:15:00.000-07:00

Spent this past weekend in NYC, visiting Beth, and it was great.

It's a long hike for me- I travel out of Boston by bus, which is about 5 hours each way with traffic, 4.5 without, but we make the most of the weekend and it's totally worth it.

This weekend, we biked around Governors Island, which is such a strange, intriguing and unique place.

You can rent nice pretty blue bikes for cheapo money (15$ per 2 hours, 25$ for four hours), and bike around the island.

(Me on said pretty blue bike)

The weather was beaut, and there was a nice breeze- biking around an island that looks like downtown Portsmouth (except with a view of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and some mighty big buildings) with the wind in your hair...just awesome!

(Doesn't it look like Portsmouth?)

That night, we had dinner at a cute little cafe called Penelope, and saw Le Cage aux Folles, with Kelsey Grammer, who looked FAB and was singing and dancing and all of that jazz.

Great weekend! :) Trying not to get down on the fact that I watched what I ate and biked 6-7 miles and gained a pound this week :( ... I'm still down 12 total, though, which I have to remember.

My Name is Sam...and I'm a tea addict.

2010-05-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

While moving out of my old apartment, I had a shocking revelation. I am addicted to buying tea. I don't even think I'm as addicted to drinking tea as I am to buying it. I mean sure, I drink tea almost every day in the winter and fall months...but I own so much tea it is ridiculous. A filled a whole staples paperbox with tea..and still had more tea left over that didn't fit.

I have flavored teas, black teas, white teas, green teas, herbal teas. Lots of Yogi tea, loose tea from TeaVana... I've got it all.

I definitely have enough tea to last a lifetime.

2010-03-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

Still more rain here in Salem. It has rained all day for the past 2 days, and it's not supposed to let up any time soon. 2 out of our 3 main parking lots here on campus are completely flooded- cars were towed today. This is what the main lot looked like today (got this pic from a friend, don't know who the crazy girl is, or who made it)

So yeah. It's a lake. And I'm unhappy. I hate being wet.

Spring bugs me sometimes

2010-03-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

I'm happy that it's spring, for sure. We've had some nice weather, there are crocuses in our front yard, and I've already spent a nice day out reading in the sun.

However, springtime makes me uneasy, too.

I hate rain, and it's supposed to rain all week. Rain makes me cranky. I hate having the bottom of my pants wet, and I can't sit through 4 hours of class in my rain boots. It makes me not want to walk to the gym, and all I want to do is curl up on the couch with hot chocolate- and both of these things do not help me toward my weight loss goals.

The rain sucks.

Also, with the rain and nice weather come those lovely friends of mine, the house centipede. I had a house centipede problem last year when I first moved in to my current apartment, and I'd take spiders any day over these suckers.

If you don't understand what all of the fuss is about, watch this and then try to tell me I'm a baby.

These disgusting bugs are fast, they can crawl on walls, and they hang out in the place where you're most vulnerable- the shower.

And they love it when it's warm and wet out. Hopefully I move the hell out of here before they come back.

2010-02-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

Also, i have a twitter account now, and I'm trying it out for fun.

www.twitter.com/skliggamon

2010-02-18T20:23:00.000-08:00

Ahh what has happened? I abandoned my blog for a while. And I'm doing so again, right now, because I need to go study for a Geology exam.

But, alas! I shall be back more frequently, I hope.

This might turn in to my journal as I keep track of my calories and exercise, as I'm trying to lose 40ish pounds by May.

I'll be bahck!

2009-12-22T12:09:00.000-08:00

I am finally home for Christmas...and I feel like I have a ton to do. I definitely have a bit of last minute shopping to do, and tonight I'm really really wanting to make some christmas cookies, though if I want them to actually taste edible on Christmas, I should probably wait until at least tomorrow...

godiva update

2009-12-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a little over a month since I bought my Godiva shampoo bar from Lush- and it's still going strong! I'd bet it's about 2/3 the size it was when I originally got it..meaning I'll get 2 more months out of it?! That would be fantastic.

I also invested in their American Cream conditioner tonight. I ran out of conditioner and I'm slowly trying to replace all of my products with Lush ones, so I went for it. $8.95 for a pretty small bottle- so we'll see how it does.

I also got a generous sample of 'Rockstar' soap, and purchased a $5.00 block of Angel's Delight holiday soap...it smells like fruit punch. I needed something fruity, because the only soap I've been using is 'Vanilla in the Mist' (also from Lush, of course) and it smells very rich and sort of like a baked good. It's delish, but kind of heavy so I wanted a light fruity one. I definitely got that with both Rockstar and Angel's. Can't wait to put them to the test tomorrow.

The picture posted is of Angel's Delight. Very pretty soap.

2009-12-02T14:05:00.001-08:00

Sooo...Bethany and I are going to Bermuda on another cruise? Ummm YEAH we are!! It's pretty awesome when you have a Grandma who is a cruise addict and loves the company of her Granddaughters!!!

crafting

2009-11-23T11:33:00.001-08:00

I made the little whale that is on the cover of the 'softies' book in my last post, but stupidly forgot to take a picture. I made it for my roommate Coreen's birthday...so maybe I'll ask her if I can snag a picture of it.

I've got two more lil animals to make from it, and I'll try to post those too...but tonight, it's pillows. Pillows are pretty easy to make, and I got a super cute fabric from wal mart, before they started getting rid of all of their fabric.

I'm making the pillows for my room at home, which is being totally revamped between now and the time that I will be moving back home, student teaching, and finally trying to find a teaching job. I'll be living at home and paying off my loans until I can find a decently priced apartment and a permanent job at a high school (at least as permanent as jobs can be these days).

Since I have no idea how long that will be, I'm redoing my room. Even if it only ends up being a couple years, it will be worth it.

Right now, I'm thinking black and white with either a pale blue or pale yellow. I'm definitely leaning more toward yellow.

I also of course cannot wait to go to Ikea and get some new furniture for said room. Hooray for furniture!

This christmas...

2009-11-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

This year, as Christmas comes along, my plan is to make lots of home made gifts. I got a really super cute book from the 25 cent book sale shelf at my college library. It's called 'Pretty Little Patchwork'. It's mostly for beginners, but as I consider myself to be a beginner, that was just perfect for me.

I already have a couple little things picked out from it, I just have to bring my sewing machine to school and buy the fabric. Since Wal*Mart made the decision to stop carrying fabric (very depressing as there's one right near me at home), I'll have to journey to a Jo Ann's fabric, most likely.

Another book I'll be using is:

There are some super cute ideas in there, too.

The idea, basically, is to save some money while also giving some really thoughtful gifts. I have already found gifts for my sister in both of these books, as well as for my mom.

I'm really trying to scope out the deals and keep my holiday spending to a minimum.

Everyone seems to be conscious of holiday spending this year. This is the first year in the history of ever it seems, that we have put a spending cap on the Kligerman family secret santa gifts. This year, we're to spend $30 on our gifts, and no more. I think this is a fantastic notion, as people really tend to get out of control and forget the real meaning of the holiday.

I'm not a religious person by any means. I've grown up to actually despise the Catholic religion that I was brought up to follow. However, Christmas is still a time of the year I love. I don't celebrate it because it's Jesus' birthday, and maybe that's wrong. To me, Christmas is a wonderful tradition that involves family, friends, good food and giving. These things are important to me.

So to me, the true meaning of Christmas is giving, and getting together with friends and family. Maybe I've got it wrong, but that's why I celebrate Christmas every year.

I'm sure I won't be able to make gifts for everyone, but I'm starting to compile a list of things that can be made. I've already purchased my secret santa gift, but I might also add something home made to the package.

This year I'll be painting, crafting, burning christmas cd's for some friends, or even regular mix cd's, and framing meaningful pictures.

I have a great inexpensive idea for my mom, too, that I'm very excited to get started on.

All of that said, Happy Christmas Crafting! I can't wait to get started and watch some Christmas movies while drinking hot cocoa and crafting!

Lush

2009-10-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

I am officially in love with Lush.

For anyone who doesn't know, Lush is a cosmetics store, but all of the cosmetics are handmade, very unique, and designed with the environment in mind. Lush also has stores worldwide! From France to Croatia, to Hong Kong, Australia and Chile, they're growing and popping up everywhere!

I first heard of Lush when Bethany bought me one of their massage bars for Christmas a couple years ago. The massage bars are super cool- it's basically lotion in a solid form, you rub in in between your palms and the heat from your skin softens the outer most layer of the bar until it rubs onto your skin like lotion.

They have many products that are solid versions of things that are usually liquids- shampoos, conditioners, lotion, bubble bath, etc.

The idea is the more we use things that are solid like this, the last plastic bottles and containers we're using. Some of their products do come in plastic, but even these products are made with all natural ingredients that are environmentally responsibleThey have little reusable aluminium containters for all of the solid stuff so it doesn't just melt all over your shower.

I just bougt their Godiva Shampoo Bar last night and used it right when I got home. I was worried that it wouldn't get my hair as soapy as I would like it to, since my hair is pretty thick and it usually takes a good palmful of shampoo to get it soapy- but it worked perfectly!

It got my hair nice and soapy, and it smells fantastic- definitely more of a natural smell than you may be used to, but it smells great. I'm in love.

Here's what my new shampoo looks like:

All of the ingredients in this shampoo bar are natural, and most of them are even organic. This bar is not one of the vegan bars as it contains cocoa butter for smooth hair...but, there are many vegan selections, too.

Pretty strange, huh? It works though! Try it out sometime.

Don't be scared about the prices at Lush. Yes, this shampoo bar ran me $9.95 ... but, that's to be expected when buying cosmetics from a smallish company that uses all natural and many organic ingredients.

ALAS! We'll see how it works...but this shampoo bar is supposed to last as long as 3 bottles of shampoo! I'll put it to the test!

2009-10-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

I am currently packing to spend a weekend in Bar Harbor. Trying so hard not to overpack.

I can't wait to post some cool pictures on here once I get back!

For now: off to do some more packing while watching Season 8 of Seinfeld. It's time to buy a new season though- I'm on disc 4 already :(. Now I'm only missing seasons 7 and 9.

Ae revoir!

A fall painting

2009-09-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to paint something new every week.

Look what I painted this week!

Yayyyy me! I'm giving it to my mom tonight. I think we're probably going to want to go to Michael's to get it framed, though.

Next week I'm going to paint something for my Dad, but I'm not sure what yet...

Bloggity Blog

2009-09-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

Time to start blogging again!

I am sitting here watching Glee, eating a delicious salad. Marinated steak tips, red onion, iceberg and romaine hearts, green peppers, edamame, cucumbers, chick peas, carrots and fresh parmesan cheese.

I've been trying really hard to lose some weight since I've been back at school, and lost 4 pounds on my first week back! I start my exercise routine next week, now that I'm all familiarized with where my classes are.

For now, I'm posting a recipe I just made the other day!

Low Fat but still yummy cupcakes

1 Box of whatever cake mix you want

1 can of whatever diet soda you want

(I used French vanilla cake mix and a can of diet cream soda)

1 tub of cool whip light

1/2 block of neufchatel cheese (reduced fat cream cheese)- room temp

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix them together, and fill your cupcake cups in your muffin tin. Cook according to the box's instructions.

Icing:

Blend together 1 tub of cool whip light with the 1/2 block of cream cheese, and add the vanilla.

Simple, right? They're delicious, though! I topped mine with sprinkles.

2009-06-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

So after a somewhat extensive hiatus, I'm back. It's been a while, but I finally felt up to updating my blog again.

So I'm putting serious thought into becoming vegetarian. Well, technically flexitarian. So as the wiki page states, a flexitarian is someone who is mainly vegetarian, but occasionally eats meat.

I want to switch to a mainly vegetarian diet for several reasons, but the main reason is the healthy benefits that will come from mainly eating vegetables. Our meat industry in this country is really scary to me, and I think I will feel better once I cut it out of my diet.

However, I don't have a problem eating meat occasionally, as a treat. Once I do my research and start, I will try to limit my meat eating slowly, like maybe having meat ever other day, then eventually once a week, then once every two weeks, etc.

It will be nice to be able to eat meat every once in a while, but to mainly delete it from my diet.
I'm not sure when I'll start this process, it may wait until I get back to school and have the help of my vegetarian roommate Coreen, or I may start sooner than that, I'm not sure yet.

I already eat lots of vegetarian foods, like almost every morningstar farms product I can get my hands on, and I'm excited to start cooking with their vegetarian 'meat' crumbles, which will allow me to still make things like tacos and casseroles that contain ground beef.

I had a vegetarian chili last year around Christmas time at Elyse's house that had the Morningstar Farms faux steak strips, and I was totally fooled! Products like these will make it somewhat easy for me to mostly give up meat.

The only concern I have is eating dinner with my family. I don't want my family to feel like they need to cook me something special myself just because they're eating meat. We generally will have some sort of vegetable and side pasta or potato, and as long as that's the case, I would be totally fine just eating the vegetable and side, I definitely don't need a special meal cooked just for me.

We'll see how it goes. I'm trying to compile a list of recipes I can make for myself (and Coreen) once I get back to school, at this point. Wish me luck!

2009-06-11T21:50:00.001-07:00

Yes, I'm aware of the fact that I haven't updated in while. I will hopefully have more motivation to change that fact soon.

2009-05-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

So I reallly realllllllllllly reallllllyyyy need a digital camera. I can't find mine. Haven't been able to find it for about a year now, and while I really can't remember losing it anywhere, I also can't live the rest of my life without a camera, hoping that I'll find it, because I love taking pictures.

I'd love to buy one before the cruise, but I don't know if it's realistic or not. I don't want to pay more than 150 for it, but I want a decent camera.

Oh the woes of having no money.

hidden treasures!

2009-04-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

So, I recently became obsessed with the LivingSocial application on facebook, and one of those "pick your top five" categories was "cereals from your childhood".

There was a cereal in the early 90's called "Sprinkle Spangles", and it was my favorite, tied with Captain Crunch. It was extremely short lived, only lasting 2 years, but I put that as one of my favorites. Kristin is the only other person I know who remembers this cereal, and we used to talk about it, although we thought it was called "Sprinkle Sprangles".

Anyway, I also discovered another cereal that was released simultaneously with SS, known as 'Hidden Treasures'. I LOVED THAT CEREAL. I had forgotten all about it!

They looked like Captain Crunch, but in the center of each piece was either grape, cherry or orange filling, or some didn't have any filling at all.

Anyone remember these?

This article gives some more info about these flopped cereals.

Chester French

2009-04-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a music video that simultaneously amuses and frightens me.

I really like the song, it's an American Eagle song, and that's how I first heard it. The guy is really cute too. However, is the excessive violence necessary? Is this really the sort of thing that creates the atmosphere people want to be in while shopping? These are just questions that I have.

I mean, I think a couple solid punches would have given us the right idea. "Okay, this chick is badass and gets what she wants, and no guy of hers will get in the way."

Whatever, it's a decent song anyway.

I'm going to try to post a playlist of my favorite AE songs here tomorrow.

p.s. they get to listen to Ben Folds at Aerie! How rude!

Top 5 favorite easter candies

2009-04-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

5. Peeps
4. Lindt Chocolate Bunnies
3. Cadbury Creme Eggs
2. Starburst Jelly Beans
1. Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs

YUM.

Music

2009-04-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

While watching American Idol tonight, as one of the guest performers "Flo Rida" was performing, it really dawned on me how embarrassed I am that this is the music of my generation. I mean, one can argue that the music of my generation was more late 90's, like 'No Doubt' type stuff, but really, it's all been crap, and music is one of the many aspects of my life which sometimes makes me feel like I was born in the wrong generation.

There is good music out there even today. There really is. It's just really hard to find, and it takes a conscious effort. There's Death Vessel, There's Ben Folds, there are the Mountain Goats, there's Ben Kweller, Rilo Kiley, Belle and Sebastian and Kimya Dawson. Even some of the popular artists have some good songs out there. I admire a Regina Spektor song here and there, I love my Christina Aguilera, and I'm quite a MIKA fan these days, too.

It just sucks that the popular music, the stuff our generation will be remembered for, is so damned terrible. Just the name 'flo rida' is embarassing. I suppose it's some play on Florida, or I at least hope so.

This 'Flo' character took parts from 'You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive, and those were the only decent parts of the song and the rest was all crappy rapping. I hate it. I truly do. I hate the radio, and I hate riding in the car with people who listen to the radio, because you can't do anything about it because it's their car, and they're giving you a ride, but the radio really sucks and it's all of the same songs over and over and 9 times out of 10 the songs are freaking terrible.

This is why I submerse myself in the bands I have already mentioned as well as The Beatles, Wings, AC/DC, Steve Miller Band, and a few other classics. What has happened to music? To even call this generation's music by that name is to stretch the word to the very edge of its meaning.

Also, completely off topic, this is so cool and everyone should watch it. Alex showed it to me just a few minutes ago.

Here's the link if you have a webcam and want to try it.

Complete Persepolis

2009-04-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading The Complete Persepolis for Classics of World Lit II.

It's pretty cool so far, the pictures are super cute. Maybe I'll add writing a graphic novel to the list of things I want to do.

I'm excited to see how it'll turn out, and it's really fun to feel like you're reading a comic book.

Here's a link to what the inside of the book looks like.

I love this frozen yogurt.

2009-04-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

This is the most delicious frozen thing I have eaten in a long time.

It's a cherry frozen yogurt, but the cherry flavor is that of real cherries, not fake maraschino flavoring. It has HUGE chunks of real cherries, lots of them, too, and the occasional dark chocolate chunk as well. It's so good! And even though it's frozen yogurt, I like it just as much as almost any ice cream I've tried (with the exception of Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Buns- nothing beats it).

The nutrition facts are great, too. Each 4 oz serving (which equals 1/2 cup) has 140 calories, and 3 grams of fat. Not too shabby, weighing in at only 3 Weight Watchers points.

The bad part- it's not cheap. This 2 pint (two Ben and Jerry's worth) container I purchased at Crosby's Market was $4.29. Crosby's is definitely more expensive than a Market Basket, Shaw's or Stop & Shop, but even so, it's not going to be the same price as Hood or anything of that nature. This is true of most foods that are healthier for us, plus this frozen yogurt is also all natural.

Go for it! You won't be sorry- and if you eat an actual serving size every time, you'll get 8 servings- that's not so bad for 4 bucks.

Sunshine Cleaning

2009-04-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

I recently saw Sunshine Cleaning, and I gotta agree with nearly everyone else who's talking about it. It was great. I went into the theater knowing very little about the film, actually, and was surprised at how dark it was. I had no idea what it was at all about, and without giving it away, it really was very dark.

The characters all had lots of depth, I was happy with all of the performances, and with the script and character development in general. The humor was light and dark at the same time, something that's not easily achieved. You'd find yourself chuckling, essentially at death, which doesn't happen very often.

The movie did leave me with a few questions and a few loose ends that needed to be tied up, and there were a couple story lines that either needed to be further examined and explained, or not examined at all.

You can definitely feel the 'Little Miss Sunshine' type style, and that's a good thing to me. The movie also had a soundtrack that made me want to run home and download all of it on Itunes.

Go see it! It was a good one.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

2009-03-11T14:42:00.001-07:00

So, they're making my alltime favorite children's book into an animated film. Needless to say, when my dad texted me this information, I was beyond psyched.

This book is amazing. I love the story itself, the illustrations, and just the general idea. I also liked the fact that there weren't really any main characters. The story was just that- a story, a bedtime story. It was a general story of a far away land called Chewandswallow (I of course didn't figure out the humor in this title until much later than I should have, and though I read it every day, I still pronounced the name "chesanwallow") and this place is much different than anywhere we know- because they don't buy their food at the grocery store, because it falls from the sky! Their weather is how they get their food. Believe it or not, this allows for a very creative, in depth story, in which Barret answers almost any question you would have about a land like this, with specific details, like how when people from Chewandswallow would watch the weather, it would provide them with an idea of what that day's food would be, and the job of the town sanitation department.

The illustrations were another one of my favorite elements, they were somehow different from any others I'd seen before.

And now, sony pictures is making it into a movie. And, so far, I'm disappointed.

First of all, they're changing the plot. According to Zap2it.com, "Unlike the book, the film will give the origins of the phenomena: a scientist who seeks to end world hunger by creating the unusual weather. Unfortunately, the weather, like sour milk, takes a turn for the worse."

I don't want the origins! I want the story I grew up with! Hopefully, the movie will expand on the book, and not completely avoid it.

The other problem is the animation. It's too funky and strange. It would have been cool if they could have somehow incorporated the type of illustrations found in the book itself. There's only one picture released that I've been able to find so far, and the characters are weird. Their hands are monstrous, as well as their eyes, and they're dressed too...teenagery? It just doesn't seem right to me. I liked how the book was mainly primary colors, it really just worked. The new angle they're taking on the animation just isn't jiving with me, but maybe things will change when the trailer comes out.

Wish list...

2009-03-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

I want.

A really long review of Paper Towns, by John Green

2009-03-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

I had to write this review for my young adult lit class, I just thought I'd post it here, too.

Paper Towns

Paper Towns is a novel by John Green, who has also written the young adult novels An Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska. Paper Towns is his third novel, published in 2008. In this novel, we follow the life of our narrator, Quinby Jacobsen (known as Q) and his exploits as a senior in high school. He has admired his neighbor and classmate, Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar, ever since their childhood friendship died and they went separate ways, until one night when she knocks on his window at midnight and literally climbs back into his life. They spend a night of revenge together dolling out punishments to Margo’s popular friends who have betrayed her, and Q figures the next day at school will be different. He’s right, but things don’t turn out the way he’d hoped or thought they would. Suddenly, Margo is a mystery, and she’s left clues for Q to unravel. He soon finds himself learning more and more about the girl he thought he knew.

I’m still not exactly sure how I feel about this text. All of John Green’s novels have a certain addictive quality to them- they’re the type you can’t put down, and Paper Towns definitely lives up to this expectation. The characters, especially Margo and Q are very deep, and you really feel like you’ve gotten to know them by the end. Green’s characters face real issues, like sex, drinking, wanting to be a part of the ‘popular crowd’, graduating and moving on from what they’ve always known. I like that Paper Towns doesn’t dumb these issues down. They’re very real, important situations, and John Green does a good job presenting them and making them seem as important as they really are.

Another ‘pro’ about this novel is the literary references it contains. One of the clues Margo leaves for Q is the book of poetry Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. She has highlighted certain passages from ‘Songs of Myself’, and Q must figure out what these passages mean to Margo in order to solve the mystery. In the beginning, Q can’t even begin to decipher the poem, and he has real hard time with it. But his drive and determination to solve the mystery that is Margo forces him to keep reading and trying, and eventually he figures out the poem even further than is necessary to get the clue from Margo, and he ends up really liking the it. I really enjoyed the idea having Q struggle with poetry in this novel, because it’s something that so many students encounter in high school. The fact that Q keeps trying to interpret it for his own reasons, and eventually ends up liking the poem is just another part of the whole book that is great. It would be a cool idea to have students simultaneously study “Song of Myself” and see if the novel helps them to learn the meaning of the poem, or if they agree with the interpretations made by Margo and Q.

I also like the message that John Green sends about the popular crowd. In the end, Q finds out that Margo, the most popular girl in the whole school is also just another kid struggling to fit in, because she’s really pretending to be someone she isn’t around her popular friends.

The development of the story is very well crafted, the story moves along well with no plot issues that I came across, I felt the whole story developed at a decent pace, and there were definitely no spots that I wanted to skip through or skim. Because the text has sort of an underlying mystery to it, it really helped me to move through quickly, as I was on the edge of my seat wanting Q to solve the mystery the whole time.

All of these great aspects aside, the text definitely has some issues, and is not perfect. One of my main issues from the text is the language. I found myself wondering ‘do kids really talk like this now?” It hasn’t been that long since I was a senior in high school, and my little brother is still in high school, so though I’d love to give John Green the benefit of the doubt, I’m pretty sure his language is severely off. I’m not sure whether Green just didn’t do enough research, or if he’s just trying too hard, but I was a bit annoyed with the characters’ unrealistic speech. I’ve been trying to do some research myself, to see if I’m alone in this stance, and I’m not. For example, on page 14, “Bro, you should just hit that…God, that is one candy-coated honeybunny.” Guys don’t really call girls “honeybunnies”, and they definitely don’t do it 4 times in one conversation as is found in Paper Towns. Another example where the language doesn’t quite match up is on page 25. Q says to Margo “I’m IMing with Ben Starling.” As someone who grew up when IM was coming out, and someone who still uses IM, I picked out the fake sounding language right away. You don’t IM with someone, you just IM them. I don’t know why, and to be honest there’s no real rule, it’s just that that isn’t how kids say it, and little tiny discrepancies like that are something kids will notice and think ‘this book is written by an old guy.’

Also, the stereotypical group of friends is present in this book, and it really annoys me. There’s the token black character who says things like ‘bro’ and ‘your mom really likes the brothers’, the rowdy friend who gets too drunk at parties and generally embarrasses himself, the computer whiz whose name is of course ‘Radar’ (who also happens to be the same character as the black guy) who can do almost anything on his palm pilot, and Quentin, who’s the nerdy guy trying to fit in but secretly wants to score a hot popular girl.

Another problem with this text lies in the fact that John Green does a lot of ‘telling’ where he should be ‘showing’. Anyone who has had any sort of creative writing experience has probably come across this problem, or been critiqued for doing this very thing, so it’s not something that’s easy to accomplish, but Green needs to work on it. Q will tell us how ‘awesome’ Margo is, and how it’s hard for him to explain how ‘awesome’ she is, where he really should have had Margo’s actions, thoughts and words speak for themselves.

This novel is also shockingly similar to John Green’s other novels, as well as the young adult novel As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway. John Green definitely has a certain M.O.: The main character is always a nerdy guy, who’s clever, witty and smart, but deep down wants to be with a cute popular girl. Something triggers an emotional journey into self for this character, and during this journey he makes a realization about himself, and realizes what’s keeping him from getting what he wants. This novel sticks very strictly to that M.O., as did An Abundance of Katherines and Looking for Alaska.

Gregory Galloway’s novel, As Simple As Snow is about a girl named Anna who is just like Margo, except she’s not popular. She has the same mysterious air about her, she’s cute, quirky and fun just as Margo is, and Galloway’s main character, who remains unnamed, falls in love with Anna in a short period of time (just as Q does), and then she disappears, leaving clues behind for him. Paper Towns was so incredibly similar to this story, that it lost some credibility for me in that respect.

Though these novels are similar in plot points, they are not trying to make the same point though. The point of Paper Towns is that we don’t always know people they way we think we do. Q and all of his classmates think they have Margo all figured out, and it turns out they are very wrong about her. This novel is also about love, and going the distance for people you care about. It’s about different types of relationships, and the importance of friends.

If this novel shares similarities with any of our texts, it would be Speak. Margo is similar to Melinda in a couple different respects. They’re both hiding secrets inside and putting on fake fronts so that they won’t be forced to tell others what’s really going on. They both are also having issues with fitting in (though opposite issues: Margo fits in for acting like someone she’s not, Melina doesn’t fit in because of who she is because of her secret).

I’m still unsure whether or not I would teach this text. The text could be a bit controversial with parents, as most of John Green’s texts contain salty language and sexual encounters. His book Looking for Alaska is commonly banned, because of a scene containing oral sex. I don’t think this text contains anything more sexual than what we’ve read so far in class, but the little sexual remarks and connotations happen much more frequently in this text than others, making it a potential problem. The bigger problem is that these sexual remarks aren’t even realistic, and it’s like Green was trying too hard to add them, like he wrote the novel and then went back and stuck them in so that the younger generation would find the book funny and contemporary. For example, on page 14, “Bro, I saw your mom kiss you on the cheek this morning, and forgive me, but I swear to God I was like, man, I wish I was Q. And also, I wish my cheeks had penises.” This is so blatantly not the kind of thing teenagers say. It’s like Green tried to take a ‘your mom’ joke way too far, and this is what he ended up with.

I did really enjoy reading the book, even if my critique has been seemingly more negative than positive. The scenes are well described, the twists and turns in the novel are not predictable, most of the happenings are plausible, and other than some of the “off” teen lingo, the characters are generally very funny, clever and enjoyable. The Leaves of Grass aspect of the novel could also provide for some great lessons.

However, while it does have potential for some great lessons, I’m just not sure if students would go for it or not. The central problem of the text lies in the fact that the language, characters and plot are ideal for 9^th&10^th grade students (maybe 11^th but that might be pushing it), but some of the metaphors might be lost on students of this age. It’s not so much that they wouldn’t be able to understand the metaphors, but the text is too rich in metaphorical meaning especially in the last few pages, that some of it was even lost on me, and I sat wondering whether seniors in high school really sit together and discuss the metaphorical meaning of their own lives, comparing themselves to leaves of grass. I felt that it was very fake, and that most students wouldn’t be able to relate to the pages and pages of the connections between Margo and Q’s lives to Walt Whitman’s poetry. The idea would have worked much better if the metaphors had been left to the students and teachers to find, rather than having Q and Margo discuss them in plain black and white, going over every single painstaking similarity and connection. This novel leaves very little to be discussed or interpreted by students and teachers together, because John Green spells it out for us paragraph after paragraph. He does all the work for us, and doesn’t let us make the connections on our own.

Overall, this is a well written and crafted story that I would recommend to students for entertainment purposes, but I wouldn’t teach the text myself. Any interesting text with great vocabulary and character development is a good thing, because it’s important that kids read, no matter what they’re reading. This book has that addictive quality that will keep students reading, and will encourage them to find more books like Paper Towns and read more often. I just feel that it doesn’t have quite enough substance to teach in a classroom setting.

Please, don't give me back that filet o fish, just shut UP.

2009-03-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

The new McDonald's Filet-o-Fish commercial is the most annoying thing ever. It is really a problem. It makes me scared to watch TV, just knowing that there is a possibility that I may have to endure this horrible commercial.

It makes me wonder who at McDonald's advertising team or group or whatever actually thought that this commercial was a good idea. Who thought that we would like to listen to that, and be encouraged to buy their creepy fish product.

I really don't want to post this on my blog, but I figure if I'm going to talk about it, I should post it here too.

Terrible.

How I Met Your Mother

2009-03-01T06:02:00.001-08:00

This show is absolutely amazing. It has recently moved from being one of my favorite shows to being my sole favorite show. Sure, it used to be on par with Desperate Housewives and The Office, but it has far surpassed both of them a long time ago (and to be honest, it was always way better than Desperate Housewives, anyway.)

I discovered how wonderful this show was when I started watching it over from the very very beginning. I'd always tuned in when I could, but didn't really follow it religiously.

Even in its first season, it's obvious that this show is here to stay. Most shows are 'different' in their first season- the characters haven't really been figured out, they're still feeling them out, so when you go back to the first season after watching recent episodes, it's like you're watching weird dream-sequence versions of the characters (Seinfeld is a great example of this phenomenon).

This is not the case for the cast of HIMYM. Lily and Marshall are adorable, and have the couplehood thing down right from the very start, Ted is the cute main character, longing to find love in a time where it's trendy to be single and not cool for guys to profess their love to you too soon, and Barney. He's just Barney. Barney is absolutely spot on from the very beginning, which is so impressive because he's so eccentric and he's just such a 'different' character. I feel that Robin is the only character who isn't really at her best until season 2.

Anyway, the point is, I love this show.

I want one of these.

2009-02-27T06:05:00.001-08:00

Life without dessert- no one should have to do it.

2009-02-26T20:44:00.000-08:00

Allison got through in American Idol! I am happy about that fact.
Spent 20$ more on crafting supplies- that makes 30$ total so far in this headband selling attempt- we'll see- if it doesn't work out then I'll have a pretty good supply of gifts for my sister and friends for a little while at least... :)

Not much else to say- didn't do so well on my diet today, Alex, Coreen and I hit applebee's and we hit it hard, dessert shooters and all. So far am down 9 pounds though- not too shabby, I told myself that once I'd lost 20 I could get the tattoo I've been wanting, so 11 more to go on that one. I've learned that it's okay to lose track every once in a while because it keeps you going. No one can live life without a little dessert every once in a while, you know??

You know what movie was lame? Coraline.

2009-02-25T19:32:00.001-08:00

Yeah, you heard me. I *wince*did not like Coraline.

Why is everyone going so nuts over this film? What's so gosh darned special about it?
To answer my own rhetorical question, the animation. I will so super give them that. The animation was beautiful, it was very aesthetically pleasing, and I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the movie.

However, that was about the end of the entertainment value road for me. Coraline in short: "We're moving to a new house! I met a boy! There's a weird tunnel to an alternate world! Buttons! WHAT?! GHOST CHILDREN? EVIL MOTHER? WE NEED TO GET EYEBALLS! WE GOT THE EYEBALLS!? WE DID?! Okay good."

The plot was so disjointed, and the movie moved so slowly at first, showing us the alternate world and making us wonder what was up...then everything was THROWN at us! Bethany and I were left with so many questions.

Why was the mother the evil one? They were both deadbeat parents, so why did the mother turn into an evil villain, while the dad just ended up being all weird but not really evil?

Did this story actually have a moral? Other than: "if your parents suck, maybe you should crawl through a tunnel to an alternate world at your new house, and you'll have a newfound love for them." That really got me- her parents suck, and in the end really, they're still going to be the same crappy parents who don't pay attention to her...did they undergo some kind of transformation?

Where was the character development? How did she go from exchanging about 5 minutes worth of words with Wybie to being his best friend in the end?

Beth and I were antsy the whole time, both seeming to wonder when it was going to 'get good' and when we were going to become sucked into this magical world ourselves. It never really happened.

In the end, I'd say this movie was visually stimulating with some cute moments, but to be honest, it was really lacking, and the 3D aspect was its saving grace.

What? I'm blogging?

2009-02-25T16:31:00.000-08:00

So, Bethany's super cute blog inspired me to start one (though I'd be lying if I said that Bar ney Stinson's didn't also encourage me to start one...) but this is the sort of thing that I generally start with the best of intentions for keeping up with it, and then, lo and behold, 6 months later, there's only one entry to be read.

So we'll see what happens.

Last night, I posted 3 super cute headbands for sale at my store at etsy.com, and I'm hoping they'll actually sell. Etsy is a great idea in theory, but the problem that I'm encountering is that it costs 20 cents every time you want to post an item for sale. It's not too high a price, but it stops me from posting everything I'd like to, because I don't want to spend money posting things until I know how they'll sell. So right now I only have 3 things posted, hoping to feel out the market and see what people actually want to buy, when I'd rather have many different colors and patterns of headbands for sale. See my dilemma? I'll give it a few days and maybe post some more things later.

Also today I started reading Lucky (Alice Sebold). It's good so far, intriguing, interesting, but also very gruesome and the intense parts where she's describing her rape (the very beginning) made my bones sort of feel like jelly and made me sort of twist uncomfortably in my seat- because they're described really way too well. However, the book becomes less about the actual rape itself and about her ability to deal with it and all of the effort she puts into finding her rapist, and the events leading to his arrest. I haven't finished yet, but so far, I'm liking it. It's easy to see where she got her inspiration for The Lovely Bones.

Something else awesome! I just got hired at American Eagle Outfitters and I'm super excited. My first shift is next Tuesday, and I'm pretty pumped to be working at a place I love, and also just to be making money in general. It's also sweet to get a 40% off discount (25% off sale items), but I dropped 40$ the other day reaaall quick. But I got some cute items:

Aaaand I had a savings of $17.50 with my discount! Yippee!

I guess that's all for tonight- tuning in to American Idol now. (They're a disappointing lot so far. We'll see, I guess.)