Hi guys! I’ve missed a few daily post challenges, so here is my way of getting up to speed.
August 30th, 2011, The Daily Post question is: If you could be part of any fictional universe, what would it be? Why?
I used to dream of being in the Myst Series universe when I was young and first played the game in 2001. Myst Uru is where you can travel to any world imaginable using ‘linking books’, which after being touched will take you to wherever is described in the book itself. The possibilities of where you could go, what you could see and do, are endless.
Now onto sharing a photo recently sent to me…
Here’s a photo of a species of white peacock my uncle took in America. Really beautiful bird. You can click the image to see it full-size.
Also, recently I got Rosetta Stone! The goal is to learn French really well. It would be neat to speak/write in another language fluently… Plus, if I ever go to Europe, It’d be a great help. Occasionally in the future you might see me blogging in french too, for practice.
On August 29th, 2011, the Daily Post challenge was to write a movie review.
Here in North America, the highest grossing movie in history is Avatar. In Japan, a different kind of movie took the spotlight, and that’s Spirited Away.
Few people can say they’ve never heard of Spirited Away. When it was first released in 2001, it received huge praise from critics worldwide. According to Wikipedia,
“Rotten Tomatoes reports that 97% of critics have given the film a positive review, based on 155 reviews, certifying it “Fresh”, with an average rating of 8.5/10, and ranks as the thirteenth-best animated film on the site.In 2005, Spirited away was ranked the twelfth-best animated film of all time by IGN. The film is also ranked #9 of the highest-rated movies of all time on Metacritic; being the highest rated traditionally animated film on the site. The film ranked #10 in Empire magazine‘s “The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema” in 2010.“
All this praise is not empty. With 100% certainty, I can say Spirited Away is one of the best animated films of all time, alongside Princess Mononoke. The renowned Hayao Miyazaki directed both films.
Spirited Away starts off with a girl named Chihiro, and her family, who are moving to the suburbs. Chihiro’s father winds up lost while taking a shortcut to their new home, and they come to an abrupt stop in front of a long tunnel. Deciding to explore the area, Chihiro’s parents (whilst dragging along a sulky Chihiro), somehow end up crossing over to the spirit world. Their own greed turns them both into pigs, and now Chihiro is left to to weave the dangers of the spirit world, turn her parents back, and get them all home. Pretty daunting task for an ten-year-old.
One thing I love about this movie is how carefully Chihiro matures throughout it. At the beginning, we find a sulky, whiny little girl with no sense of adventure or independence. As time progresses and she matures, we watch her become someone who is independent and selfless.
Another thing is the soundtrack. Varied and beautiful to the extreme, especially the piano scores. The hours and dedication put into each piece shows.
Most of the scenes were hand-drawn, which is an amazing feat when you think about how long the movie is. The animation is smooth, colorful, flawless, and really is one of the things that makes this movie stand out any other animated feature.
The story line itself is enough to place this at the top. Deep and satisfying, this story doesn’t disappoint. You can feel the attention put into making the best story possible here. Hayao Miyazaki’s movies never feature the simple “good” vs. “evil” plots we often see, but explore the concept of an antagonist with many sides. We find in this movie that no person is simply “evil”, people simply have different motivations and beliefs. The result is that every character is well-rounded and complex. It’s hard to go back to movies with simpler plots after watching masterpieces like this.
Overall, Spirited Away is a brilliant movie, one that anyone will love. Even if you don’t usually watch animated movies, you’ll find it difficult not to appreciate this one’s charm. Give it a watch.
On August 27th, The Daily Post question is: Do you believe in UFO’s? If yes, why do you think others do not? If no, why do you think others do?
Honestly, I don’t know. There isn’t enough (credible) evidence of them being spotted in Earth’s skies for me to say that I think they do, yet I feel like I can’t 100% dismiss the possibility that something is out there. Who knows, maybe there have been UFO’s that have visited Earth. I think for now I’ll remain skeptical.
On August 28th, The Daily Post challenge is to: Describe the perfect Sunday. What is the best Sunday you’ve ever had? What is the best possible second half of a weekend you can ever imagine having? Who would you spend time with? Where would you be? What would you do?
My idea of a perfect Sunday is one spent doing something fun with my relatives, or friends. Either that or a good session spent at the gym, or going for a hike around the mountain, or even a jog around the block. I could see myself doing a lot of writing as well.
The best Sunday I’ve had… I can’t think of a specific experience, but it was probably one spent with relatives or friends. I’ve spent most of my Sundays having to go to church until this year, so there was never many opportunities to get much done during the day.
Best possible second half of my week would be to have little to no homework from my high school. Normally, I always make an effort to spend as much time as possible with the people who I don’t normally get to see, like my friends from other schools or my boyfriend. Long jogs and visits to the gym are the perfect way to end the day. I’d like to go with other people more often.
On August 26th, 2011, The Daily Post Photo Challenge theme is: Up.
Click on any of the images to see them full size.
To the top of the stairs.
Looking up the stairs to where my cat is hanging out.
Caught by a strand of web.
Hundreds of plant seeds were in the air the day I took this picture, continuing a delicate late-summer journey up into the cloudless sky. This one remained, caught by a thin strand of cobweb.
Here’s to hoping summer lasts forever.
25 °C/77 °F, outside today. Not a cloud in the sky. I laid down on the front lawn using the grass as a cushion for this shot. The single tree in our front yard makes for an OK sunshade.
School has started up again, and I’ve finally found time to write a blog post. My plan was to write a post a day, but realistically, that’s been next to impossible. Over the summer I’ve been on vacation, and unable to use a computer. I attempted to write a post on my iPod at some point, but scrapped that idea after I had some trouble getting WordPress to even work. So, for now, I’ll be catching up on The Daily Post challenges that I’ve missed.
On August 25th, 2011, The Daily Post challenge is to make up a word, and its definition.
The word I came up with was schröcat, which means, “a cat that appears dead, but is alive.”.
Fuzzy is always sitting like this.
The first part of the word, “Schrö”, comes from the paradox known as Schrödinger’s cat, which describes a scenario where a cat is either alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event. And the last part of the word, “cat“, is pretty self-explanatory.
So there you have it.
On August 26th, 2011,The Daily Post question is… When is it ok to lie? To strangers? To friends? To family? To yourself?
This question is a hard one to answer. It’s very open-ended, and general. Depending on the situation, I think it may be okay to lie. Or, maybe not. For strangers, a lot of people, myself included, tend to bend the truth more often than we care to realize. For me, it’s mostly when I want to make what I’m saying more unique, so I ‘change it up’. I try to not do this if there’s a chance I may get to know them better, avoiding any of those awkward ‘um-you-didn’t-really-do-that-did-you?’ situations, but sometimes it’s so hard. For the most part, I think they’re harmless, maybe even a little entertaining. No harm in stirring up a little interest, right?
I find it a bit harder to lie to friends. They know me, and any lie told is risking losing their trust, or making you look like an idiot. The only time I really lie is to embellish some details from time to time, or omitting something that they don’t need to know. To me, secrets are important. I never feel the need to share something with someone “just because.” I find that often you’ll regret it later. I’m not the type to lie to spare a friend’s feelings, but I won’t tell you what I really think freely.
My immediate family are the ones I find it difficult to tell the truth to. Growing up, saying what was on my mind, or how I really felt about something almost always went wrong. I’d end up upsetting them, or getting into shit over something unimportant. I guess now I find it difficult to communicate honestly with my family because of that. Their inability to talk things out in a mature way, and stay reasonable about some subjects doesn’t help either. I do lie to them quite often, and don’t intend to change that, seeing as the truth rarely benefits me. It’s sad, but they have lost the right to my trust and honesty.
I’ll catch up on more challenges and questions in future posts!
Today’s The Daily Post question: Have you been to where your parents were born? What was it like?
My Dad was born on a modest farm outside of Edmonton. His entire family eventually left it to pursue a life in the city, but kept the land. Over the years, some of the land grew wild, becoming a dense mess of trees, shrubs, and prairie grass. The family sold or rented out the quarters for the most part,
In a bout of nostalgia, my dad and his brothers got together to go visit their old home, myself and Lorne included. We trekked blindly through the bush, hoping to find a recognizable landmark. We found none, tet, we all found it was entertaining enough to just wander the land.
The most comical moment was when one of my uncles brushed past a willow, knocking a large, grey object out of it. In a moment confusion, we all stood still for a moment and studied it, trying to figure out what it was. That’s when the bees showed up. We didn’t stand around after that much.
My mother was born in a city outside of Vancouver. Growing up, she took us down there often. I love Vancouver, it’s a beautiful city right along the ocean, full of exciting things to do and see. I was lucky to have gotten the opportunity to experience everything the city has to offer. My love of the ocean first began from my visits to Vancouver and the islands around it.
Currently, I am in Seattle getting ready to board a plane at 11:23 pm to Chicago. Very excited to finally be on my way to Cedar Point! Today was an eventful day in itself, I got to hold a few scorpions, tarantulas, and many exotic species of lizards at an animal refuge. I also got to meet the gecko and tree frogs that star in the TELUS commercials!
Today’s The Daily Post challenge: try to think about nothing. What happens?
I’m entertained fairly easily, but I need constant entertainment if I want to stay happy. When I tried to empty my mind from all thoughts, and think about nothing, I found myself thinking about an old meditation technique. Breathe in blue, breath out red. Point is, that’s not thinking about nothing, that is still something. The more I try to clear my mind completely, the more my imagination kicks into overdrive.
It almosts feels impossible for me to think of nothing. I’m much happier letting myself wander around whichever thought comes my way without any resistance…
Original.
Almost everyday, I go jogging around a mountain, to this gorgeous view. It makes all my effort absolutely worth it. My iPod took this photo, hence the horrid quality. I was able to “fix it up” a smidge using Photoshop.
Much better.
Even if this place is a desert, the hills get pretty green in the in the summer, and the sky always turns really beautiful during sunset. It was very, very windy on the mountain, which probably didn’t help the blur with the iPod trying to fly out of my hands.
Today’s The Daily Post challenge is to write a story in six letters.
Clever girl, disregarding a bitter reality.
Sounds almost… poetic? Somehow, it reminds me of a haiku, my favorite kind of poetry.
On another note, over the summer I have lost 7.3 lbs! For comparison, here’s a photo:
Woah.
It’s insane that the pic shows 7 pounds of meat! Harder still to think I’ve lost that much, just by changing my eating habits and doing a bit more exercise. The MyNetDiary app has helped majorly as well.
The photo is from another blog, you can view it by clicking the photo.
While browsing someone’s blog, I noticed they had posted something interesting every single day, citing a blog called The Daily Post as their inspiration. I decided to check it out, and wow. Everyday, it provides a topic/starting point for you to blog about. It looks pretty fun, so I’m goingto give it a shot.
So, it begins! I am going to try writing a post, once a day, everyday. Looking forward to it.
Ciao,
Shavonne
P.s. – Diggin’ this new goldfish background I found for the blog.
First Here, then There 