Thursday, January 29, 2009

I Have Some Movies I Want To Share About!


City Of Ember:

This is a 2008 sleeper.
In Canada it was a limited release film and it was not highly publicized.
I think this was a huge mistake!

If you like Sci Fi, Thriller, and or Fantasy, you need to see this movie! There are lots of familiar faces and the story is rich! I really like this story and the movie must be put on your MUST SEE list!

Al put me on to this film and I was really fortunate to get a chance to view it!

Here is the trailer:




The Lost Room:

This was a mini series released by the SciFi Channel. Originally it was three episodes playing at about 1.5 hrs each.
This too has some great known faces in it, and this story is being compared to "Heroes"...but more believable.
The concept in the story is intriguing. It is ScFi and a Crime drama rolled into one.
If you like Law And Order, or Heroes, or Lost, or even StarGate you will really like this movie.
The story is not futuristic, it is contemporary.

Here is the Trailer:






I know I don't talk about movies often. Carl and I watch more movies than TV. We are still movie theatre goers too. We haven't just fallen into waiting until the film comes out on video. We really enjoy getting out go to a film. We see all the popular movies, and once in a while we get to see some not so popular ones that are soo interesting too. You hear a the hype and the news about the films so I don't often share about them here. I will share about one of the popular ones out now too though.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button:

This movie is a really interesting story. It is a long film that does not feel long. Carl and I were both really into the story and the time went fast. I was thrilled at the CGI in this movie. I was also really happy to see it was not an old story. Many good films are from old books, that could be close to 100yrs old. This story proves itself to have been developed from this current time and I really like that.


Here is the trailer:


Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Something A Little Different While I Await Some Necessary RAM

I am computer free for a few days.
Yep!

Not so good for me.
I am now awaiting some necessary RAM as I have maxxed out my laptop RAM doing video conversions etc.
I am accessing all of my Etsy and stuff the old fashioned way, and not through email prompts.
I am provider email free until the computer is RAM rich.

So I am limping on a wing and a prayer until it arrives.
I can't show you new videos or uploads so I figured you might like to check out my Son Alex's revamped blog.

Al is a University student in the world of Computer Science. He already has his own very successful web development company. It is interesting to hear his stories about what he is plugged into and what he is working on.

Hope you enjoy it!:

http://automaticpixel.com/blog/

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Yesterday Obama Became President Of The United States Of America

I watched the TV most of the day yesterday.
I was in awe of the number of people in Washington for the event.
It was very amazing.

I found out today that the White House will have a daily blog: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

I am quite interested in how the blog idea will work. Seeing his campaign was quite strong on the web.

I think this will be a tough job for him. I really hope things settle quickly. I think the world will feel much more stable once things settle in the US.

Friday, January 09, 2009


My Heart Breaks For My Friend
(please click on the Blue words to read more details about Warrant Officer Robert John Wilson)

#100

You all know that my Husband Carl and my Son Alex are Canadian Military Reservists. Our family is so proud of them for their dedication to Canada and The Queen for taking on this part-time training for the security of our homeland.

Today as I write this I cry and cry.
When your family is in the military, whether they are a full-time soldier or a part-time soldier, you share an affinity with other military families. It is a giant fraternal family which connects you with many people.

Once your family is in the military, you feel like there are always a million arms reaching out to you holding you up, and patting you on the back, and cheering with you on the good days, and on the bad ones......the shoulders of those million arms all collectively slump, and every soldier fraternal family mourns a loss together, and through the sadness a tiny light glows and gets bigger and bigger. That light is a memory, a reason, a purpose and a hope. It is what keeps the troops going, what makes a soldier choose to do what they do.........LOVE, DEDICATION, A TRUE CALLING. Soldiers become soldiers because they have a calling. Yes, a calling. It is just like a religious calling. It is like God and soldiers make a deal. God blesses them with a love so great, that they are willing to lay down their lives for everyone's sake, so the rest of us can be at peace. So we can choose to be pacifists, and to sit comfortably in our homes and enjoy the privileges of this life each day. The soldier's love for their country is so great, that it compels them to go that next step further, and choose to serve.

I know in some places soldiers are conscripted and their ideals about their job are a bit different at first, but once they are doing their job they become bonded to the calling as well. There is no escaping the calling once the training begins.

Right now our Reservist unit has approximately 32 soldiers in dedicated combat in Afghanistan and Sudan. These soldiers are our friends. Folks we see every week when they are here. Most of them are close to my Son Alex's age. Many are not married. A few are a bit older and have wives and children.....A couple are old guys who have seen combat in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Croatia already.....
Here in Canada our reservists have always been trained well. They get more training than most American full-time military recruits. Canada has always trained their military reservists well, and always given them the option of attaching to a regular force unit and serving in battle. Our guys choose to serve. And our reservists choose to serve part-time at home, while doing their full-time carriers as well.......and these days our unit Brothers are taking leave from their full-time jobs to serve in battle. They are making a conscious choice to step away from the comforts that home provides, with job security and an easy life to fulfill their Calling in a whole and complete way. I think about this every single day.

I think about it because the Calling stretches beyond the brothers who serve. It leaches into the hearts of the family too. If Carl or Alex told me tomorrow they are stepping aside of this easy life to go to battle I would be fine with it because I know it is a choice they HAVE to make. One made because the calling and love of being a civil servant is too great for them just to hang back. It hurts a lot when people ask a soldier's family dumb questions like "Why would they choose to put themselves in harms way?" or to slight the war efforts by saying, "We have no business being there...."
Canadian Military is dedicated to NATO. We are peace keeping forces. Actually peace making...these days... but none-the-less our troops serve the world. They put themselves in harms way so the world has the luxuries it has today. And today, so Afghani people can have some freedoms from a life we could not imagine as we sit in our homes with our computers and browse the world wide web for mostly fun. A life where the basics of life are taken away from them forcibly and their lives are shattered by death and destruction daily....... we didn't start the mess, but or forces are compelled to take action towards stopping it!

So my long preamble is to bring me to the real reason I write today.
My Friend Has lost her Son.
Ann has been my Dr's Nurse for quite a long time. And because of my illness, our family sees her often. Our soldier light is our connection to her. Our conversations about her son and his service are our bond. She too is a soldier, only she serves in the Salvation Army. Dedicating her time and life to serve the community as her blessed calling. An absolutely lovely woman who has a heart bigger than you can imagine.
On December 5th, all the soldier families here took a moment from their day to stand in silence and say a prayer for more fallen comrads. We have been doing this a lot. On that day we marked our 100th soldier killed in battle while serving their calling, to serve NATO, to keep peace for the sake of the world. The 100th soldier that freely chose to give his life for everyone because they loved us all that much....!

I am so saddened that I didn't make the connection to the Soldier's name that day. For the media kept saying the unit was from Gagetown, and not Petewawa. So for some reason the name Warrant Officer Robert John Wilson did not register in my mind as someone we knew...Carl didn't make the connection either.
When I saw Ann yesterday I knew something was wrong. The saddness on her face was unbearable. Then she said to me, "You don't know, do you?" Then my heart sank. I knew then.
She shared some details with me about the process they went through after this. And we shared our words of comfort. "He was doing what he loved, he DID make a difference, and it was necessary he become a hero." And then a weird sad smile between us.

These last months we had talked often about this tour Rob was on. It was probably going to be his last one. He was a training officer and had many battle tours. But this one was really special. It was really dangerous because he was training Afghan soldiers how to fight for themselves. The most important job in peace keeping is to help that country stand on its feet and take the steps to freedom, and training the Afghan soldiers is one of the biggest steps to that perpetual freedom. Of course it is the most dangerous too, because those on the training battles will be specifically targetted by the enemy.
Please take a moment to imagine our soldiers in full battlement and training. With the years and years of time and dedicated service and knowledge of weaponry and tactics training people who didn't have running water or shoes or food on their table a few months ago. People who may not even be able to read, so they can learn how to use sofisticated weapons and tactics so save their own lives in the future. It is almost infathonable to imagine.

I read Rob was killed instantly in his armoured vehicle. INSTANTLY.
Instantly is an interesting word. Soldiers like to hear it. It gives them hope that their brother did not suffer. I will hold on to that hope.
But......mind you......I will take to my heart that instantly probably meant a death so hanus you want to shut off your mind to the possibilities.......think about that for a minute, and remember he served for YOU.

Please read this interview Rob did for the press in December:
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1335030

Please read this article about Warrant Robert John Wilson at Hero Fund
http://www.herofund.ca/?cat=112

Condolensces Guestbook for Warrant Officer Robert John Wilson
(please remember anti-military comments in a military guestbook are in bad taste)
http://www.legacy.com/Can/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=120990623

As of this moment the CANADIAN DEATH TOLL IS 107

Sunday, January 04, 2009

The Last Comic Standing is Continuing till the end of February!

Well Jeremy has come up in the votes.
There was a huge influx of votes and it is being looked into, but I think they will find that it is just us webby folks voting on internet and on cell phone text message.

Please keep voting for Jeremy. I would really like to hear that Jeremy won when we see eachother on Feb 28th.

LETS GET THE CANADIAN GUY VOTED IN AS THE BEST COMIC STANDING!!!!

click on this voting link and then go to Jeremy's profile and press vote now.