well, what can i say? everything's turning up dandy this side of town:

refurbished in powdery floral blue!

finally! after 5 months, my tiny corner of the world has found itself brand new again! i always thought my old blog layouts look so cluttered, and i so wanted those neat rectangular boxes to fix 'em up. leaving blogskins resigned, i got the idea from Vic and searched around this fantastic icons & graphic resource. so it's still Scarlett in the header -- Cinderella, nonetheless -- but the LJ-style code & background image were mainly Jessica's, so many thanks to her! :) ... this version doesn't have a definite theme, but since my favorite song while i worked out the kinks was Snow Patrol's "Open Your Eyes", i'd say it was amply inspired by that.



(P.S. : OMG it took me two & a half frickin' hours just to troubleshoot this in the Blogger template! i'm such a retard when it comes to technology. let me know what you think of the layout -- whether it's a mess on your browser, etc. thanks a bunch!)

an exercise in futility fluidity

i'm starting a new blog (apart from this) @ The Casual Observer where i can 'stretch' my ability to write creative nonfiction, i.e. essays and social commentaries. yup, there's The HT Project but i'm working this out as my own summer assignment (so it's a clean slate)... my goal is to produce as much as 20 posts this vacation, and i hope this could be the impetus to resuscitate my languishing quasi-journalistic career AND well-being (lol). i've always wanted to be some magazine / newspaper columnist, so i thought "why not start here?" ... wish me inspiration, and wait for further updates. ^_^

movies i've seen

over the weekend, i've seen two very different films on dvd. The first, Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno), is a Spanish film set in the 1940's Franco dictatorship that revolves around a young girl and her fantasy world -- well, at least that's what the premise is. at first thought it would be a 'kiddie' movie, but heavens i was dead wrong! not to distort your idea of it, but the film really was dark and gruesome and more appropriate for adults. 30 minutes into it, you'll see people getting murdered, blood, a crazy faun, disgusting frog spew... you get the picture. (goodness gracious, the girl's imagination definitely IS wild. :p) also, the political background of the movie provides allegorical undertones, which makes some scenes unsettling. on a cheery note however, this would make for a great escapist afternoon. Ivana Baquero as our protagonist Ofelia is simply terrific. how they were able to create those fascinating magical realms were amazing. it's easy to delve into Ofelia's world if you allow yourself to, and be swept away.



the second one would be The History Boys. it's set in Britain circa 1983 where a pack of small-town, bright but unruly young men are up for an 'intensive' preparation process by their motley crew of teachers to the university admissions for Oxford and Cambridge. this one made for a sweet consolation after reeling from "Pan's" (i watched them back-to-back)... very entertaining to watch. the film's entitled such because their main focus would be the history subject, of which a new teacher was ushered in to bring a shrewd approach to the boys' learning. you'll pick up a lot of interesting tidbits, trivia, melodies -- not to mention a soundtrack smattering of 80's rock. the characters are absolutely likeable, the guys shine in their respective parts, and i'd say the most memorable performance would be by Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon of "Harry Potter" fame) who plays an aging teacher on General Studies (boy, I'd love that subject.) one more thing, "Bewitched" by Rufus Wainwright haunts around if you stick till the credits.



(late rave: the folks & i might just be watching "spiderman 3" today -- that is, if we aren't so fazed about the first-day rush. but i wanna catch it! :D )

les aventures culinaires d'ellie!

last saturday, mom brought home fresh seafood from the Seafood Market, and 'twas a rarity that we'd feast on home-cooked seafood aside from fish (ok, i'm getting redundant using that "s" word!), so it was definitely a new thing for me to try my "occasional cook" powers on crustaceans. i soooo LOVE shrimps & prawns & crabs that i decided to make an extravaganza out of them! it was pretty laborious but rewarding anyway -- cooked up 1) prawns sautéed in butter & garlic (which reminded me of the Yellow Cab pizza, only better harharhar), 2) shrimp fried rice (yay!), and 3) seafood soup (with all the ingredients in). lavish praise from the folks, really good dinner. there's more on the fridge :D

schizo-babel

as you've witnessed the launch of my new layout (chic, isn't it? *lol*), there's got to be some cool stuff. another one of those would be the "Language" function somewhere at the Links bar (atop the header!) ... powered by Google Translate, schizoesque can now be accessed by the French-literate, or say, "Look Ma, my blog's in
Chinese!" you can also try the site in Italian, German or even Japanese! though i must tell you, they aren't perfect and accurate in parsing out my babble... but they're worth a try ;) it's cool to see my blog in a different language. let's go international baby!

une, deux, trois...

speaking of "going international", i've reached a new height of Francophilia by... well, 'trying' to speak it! i bought a phrasebook entitled French for Xenophobes *rofl* which i plan to devour during the stretch of summer. this hilarious little book tells me that i can converse in perfect French by pronouncing them in English! so far i've learned the days of the week, the months, the four seasons, and how to count from 1-10 both written and orally. et voila! ^_^ yes, i expect the self-education won't come off as fluently-tongued (more like tongue-tied!) since it isn't complete like a manual or a dictionary or an audio instruction, just some common phrases & words here and there. (and for heaven's sake, i don't know where French actually comes useful in my life -- backpacking through Paris & Marseilles, perhaps. how i wish!) ... i can go ballistic wondering how to use gender in things (yes, there is -- a cabbage is male, and a potato's female!) and all those vowel sounds, but then it's just my new pastime. there are even funny pick-up lines in the book. here's one (English - bold, French - italics, pronunciation - parentheses):



Is that a baguette in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
C'est une baguette dans ta poche ou tu est juste content de me voir?
(Say / tune / bag ett / don / ta / posh / oo / too / ay / con ton / dur / mur / voo are?) *wink, wink*



A tout à l'heure! ♥

Libellés : blog, food, francophilia, life, movies

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