Black Eyed Peas Concert at the OC Fair!

My all-time Favorite Black Eyed Peas song...Have to watch this to the end!
This was the best concert I have ever been to!


Will.i.Am's Tribute to Michael Jackson...

Water Baby

Guess who's not afraid to put her face in the water anymore? Woo hoo!!

Jakey and Jordy Go For Olympic Gold!!

WooHoo Jakey and Jordy!!eCards today!

Testing the new miniDV camcorder

I ran into some pretty good after Christmas/New Years clearance sales this year in stores getting rid of discontinued electronics. One find I picked up was a Samsung MiniDV camcorder for $50. This was perfect - I could lend the clearance sale camcorder out to my parents and the kids while leaving mine at home readily available if needed. Bishop was the first to test out the new camcorder and here is a short, 15 second sample of his work:

Waiting for Santa Claus

(Click on the picture to view full size)

Christmas, Filipino Style: Hanging Up the Parol

Parols are ornamental star-like Christmas lanterns from the Philippines. They are traditionally made out of bamboo and paper and come in various sizes, shapes and designs. Its shape is said to be inspired by the star on the Nativity of Jesus that guided the Magi to the manger.


Nothing kicks off the Christmas Season like hanging up the parols at Lola and Lolo's house.
Night time view:
The picture below WOULD HAVE been a perfect shot of the entrance to Lola and Lolo's house adorned with the parol except for a nosey passerby...

Twilight

Ok...so if you're a fan of the books I'd say pay full price to watch it. If you haven't read the books yet, do the matinee. I'd actually recommend watching the movie first and then reading the book/books to fill in the blanks. I wouldn't say the movie is BAD...it's like "Footloose"...awkwardly corny but still worth watching. Let's see, the acting was painful to watch in a lot of scenes, the directing was awful, and the movie as a whole had the total flavor of "low budget." But it IS Twilight and they did try to include a lot of details from the book into the movie, of course it didn't follow the book exactly (there's a lot to try to interpret and fit into two hours). So if you're going to see it, go into it knowing it's going to be corny. Despite his bad acting, Robert Pattinson is the perfect Edward and Kristen Stewart playing Bella was kind of flat, but I liked her portrayal of Bella better than the whiney, insecure, co-dependent book version of Bella (except for the SUPER LAME melt-down stuttering scene in the hospital...BARF!). Here's something unexpected: I did end up accepting Taylor Lautner as Jacob. Taylor Lautner is actually a good actor, but the wig needs a SERIOUS upgrade. New major gripe: Who the heck did they cast as Sam Uley? OMG, that guy looks like he's 4'11" and 85 pounds and he's supposed to be the wolf pack leader! Good Lord, the guy playing Embry looks like he could knock Sam out with his pinky. We'll see how they pull this one off when "New Moon" comes out. At least the actors playing Sam and Embry are actual Native Americans.