Update

Snow days, I thought I'd never see them again, but my organization has been very liberal with them this winter season. I think this is our 4th snow day of the year; I remember that when I first started with them 4 and a half years ago, they wouldn't let us go home, much less close the clinic unless we were absolutely buried in the white stuff. I'm not complaining of course, because unlike the kids, we don't have to make it up, which just lost a day of "actual" work. 

It's actually nice that I had this unexpected day off, I'll be leaving to the Caribbean at the end of this week, I'll be accompanying the interns on their yearly class trip, and serve as their guide and translator. I've organized the trip for two years, but this is the first year I get to go, and I am starting to get exited. At first I really couldn't get into it, because I was afraid something would go wrong while I was down there with my boss, but I have done everything I'm suppose to do, and if it goes wrong then it won't be my fault. Now, with this little gift of a day off, I can start packing, getting everything ready so that I won't forget anything. 

Slumdog Millionaire

Today I went to see "Slumdog Millionaire" with my Mom at the movie theatre, and I have to say that I found it extremely enjoyable. 

The story follows a "slumdog" named Jamal and his brother Salim. These two brothers from the slums of Mumbi are orphaned when their mother is murdered in the muslim-hindu riots. They escaped the fighting along with a girl name Latika and live in the dump until they are "rescued" by a man who claims to be from an orphanage. The man is actually a gangster who uses children for begging. Afterwards a lot of crazy shit happens in which the main threat of the story is Jamals determination to reunite with his childhood love Latika. In an attempt to find her he tries out for the show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and is subsequently arrested (when the show breaks for the night and he is one answer away from winning) on suspicion of cheating, because how can an uneducated slumdog know the answers to the questions. 

My first impression was that both my Mother and I enjoyed the movie and also that it was a movie that was very brutal at times. It is being marketed as a feel good movie, but although there are "feel good" moments you are quite bruised by the time they get there. 

What made it enjoyable for me was that although it has the formulaic "boy meets girl" story line, the way it gets there is very different from what we are accustomed to. It has a different prospective, and it showed it in an entertaining and fast paste way, even though the movie is 2 hours long. 

When I got home from seeing the movie I went online to read about it and saw that there was some criticism for the portrayal of the slums, and the story in general. It didn't bother me in the sense that the movie is fiction, and as a fictional piece of work it can be admired. I look at it this way, how many movies about or in Boston are completely ludicrous (The Departed) yet I still enjoyed them for what they are: cinematographic fiction.

So, if you have two free hours, go watch it and enjoy a very unconventional love story. 

Cool Video - Great Song

I saw this at the Daily Dish Mental Health Break segments....very cool, here's Her morning elegance by Oren Lavie...

The Day came and went.....

Yesterday was Inauguration Day....

I stayed home yesterday to watch the inauguration, a couple of friends made fun of me, but I felt that it was a very important day, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss a thing. The most impressive thing about the day was the crowd of people that were day. It was extraordinary that so many people were there to celebrate an important day, but a day we celebrate every four year, yet this year it was like no other year. There is something out there a desperation to believe once again that a person a leader can help guide us through this difficult time. Now, I voted for Obama, but I am a realistic about what we face and what he as president can accomplish, and it worries me that some out there have such blind faith. We should be hopeful, yet realistic about the abilities and shortcomings of our president. 

I do, however, sincerely hope that he is able to accomplish the task he has set for himself and for this country. His speech which was quite sober and not what I had expected ( I wanted a more rhetorical high speech), did hint  about what will come and what we can expect it won't be easy but if we work together we might be able to overcome the harsh times that come ahead. He did a magnificent job of pushing this idea across, and I believe if anybody is able to do this, to help us come through to the other side, it would be him. 

In the end, I think he had a great inauguration, because of who he is and what he represents. Two of my only, "ahh not so good moments" moment were Aretha, she seemed completely off her game and the poet, not the best poem for the occasion. I did, however, love the John Williams composition "Air and Simple Gifts" with Yo Yo Man, Issac Pearlman, Anthony McGuiness, and Gabriela Montero, it was one of the loveliest sounds I've ever heard....

The inauguration

Well, we only have one week to go before our President-elect Obama get sworn into office as our 44th President. I decided to take the day off, so that I can watch everything on TV. I am extremely excited about this, it has been a long rode, but we have finally gotten to the starting line. All I ask for is that we are better off 4 or 8 year from now, and that this time has serve to teach us better, and that we are wiser now then we were then. It won't be easy but I think that if we all take responsibility for our communities and learn to make certain sacrifices, we can create something even more awesome then what we already have. 

Banner #2

Okay, here is my second attempt at a banner, and I think i like this one better. It's a picture of the view from my bedroom window. 

Practice makes perfect

Edit: this was the original picture I wrote about: 

 I decided to to photoshop my banner, and I had no idea what I was in for. First, although I have photoshop in my computer I've only used it a hand full of time, and I'm not very good at it. Second, I have an old version of photoshop, which is antiquated and not user friendly at all. And thirdly, it's a pain in the ass to use photoshop. 

Anyway, I decided to give myself a personalized banner, because eventually I would like to customize my own blog template. So, I google blog template tutorial and found one for photoshop, it was easy to understand although some of the steps where different because I have a mac. At first I was following all of the steps, and everything was going well. Unfortunately, half way through to creating my boarder I decided I didn't want the picture that I had so I had to improvise and use one of my own picture from my iphoto files. 

I couldn't find exactly what I wanted but I made do with what I had, and used a photo I too from the top of Notre Dame is Paris, and then used a photo I found of an air balloon. Played around with the picture, in the artistic elements of photoshop and created what you see now. Sadly, this was my second version as my computer decided to kick me out of photoshop without saving my work. Three hours later Voila! Mediocrity personified.

This is so, gonna be a work in progress......

Let's get winning

So, I was at Chasing Inspiration, and found out that there was a contest at another blog. The designers name is Sanna, and she created from what I can see very lovely bags. If you head over to her blog, you can also enter the contest as well. Good luck to all!