Mid-July Update

Today's blog post is just going to be an all update kind of post, sort of like a filler post. Anyway, I told myself aloud: I am determined to blog today. And guess what? It worked. I find that when I audibly tell myself to do things I actually do it. I know it sounds a little crazy or lame to talk to yourself but hey no harm no foul right?

So what have I've been doing?

I've been working a 40 hour per a week job and it wears me out. I'm an assistant teacher at an engineering camp, Design Camp, and I teach middle school students. The students have so much energy and being around them truly makes me feel old. So after a day of Design Camp, I'm usually really tired, but in denial that I'm tired. Like I try to sleep at my usually time of post midnight but I just end up passing out completely pre-twelve. It's so weird! There are also some nights where I can't even make it through a movie – my youngest sister and I have been watching movies before bed – before falling asleep on the sofa. Hopefully, the reason I'm so tired is because teaching is repetitive and tires me out and not because my youthful energy has run dried.

So does that mean I haven't done anything at all besides the necessities and work?

Some days, that's true. But I have managed to do a couple things. For one, I've worked on my goal of making a floating lantern. And for now, let's just say attempt one did not float. I've also been to the movie theater twice and watched a couple movies at home. I'm not exactly sure which movies I've watched at home but basically after July 4th, I've watched almost all the Miyazaki films, How to Train Your Dragon, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Part 1. The two movies I saw at the theater were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Winnie the Pooh. The release of the last Harry Potter movie kind of snuck up on me. As you may have noticed, I haven't posted any Harry Potter related news in a while. Not even about Pottermore, which I really should of. (I had woken up early for J. K. Rowling's annoucement of Pottermore and then refreshed the page for 53 minutes until the website successfully took my email.) I didn't even go to the midnight premiere like I did for the last film or see it on opening day. I'm still kind of bummed I didn't see it opening day. (When I was pre-ordering tickets way back in June – IMAX tickets regardless of which movie and especially for Harry Potter are hard to come by – I had opted to see it in IMAX 3D with my sisters, one of which we had to pick up from camp, instead of opening day.) And while I have so much to say about the final Harry Potter film, I'll just say it was great but I wish there was more especially with the Lupin and Tonks (my favorite character) subplot and the Snape and Lily flashbacks montage. (I am particularly peeved that while they emphasized Harry having Lily's eyes. Lily neither had the green eyes of the novel Harry or the blue eyes of blue-eyed Daniel Radcliffe Harry.) The other movie I saw at the theater, Winnie the Pooh, I saw with my youngest sister. I'm an animation fan so that was my reason for going and my sister just likes Pooh. Winnie the Pooh was what I expected: nostalgic, well animated, and well, a Winnie the Pooh story.

Is there anything else I want to discuss?

Yes! Remember Apple's Think Different campaign I talked about in my last post. Well, I was so inspired that I decided I wanted to purchase one of the posters from the campaign to hang for inspiration. I was thinking of the Amelia Earhart poster. (Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. I'm not exactly sure why I picked Amelia Earhart. It was an unconscious pick that I will have to think more about what the reason was, because there has to be a reason why I chose Amelia Earhart when I had the way more innovative Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison and the likes to choose from.) So I googled the posters. Turns out these Think Different posters are collector's items. Most posters if original sell for $200 upward! Yup, there goes that idea. But wait. Remember how I saw these posters first at work. So I talked to my boss, the executive director of Design Camp, and he offered to give me one of his! I picked the Amelia Earhart one! So now I have a $200 poster sitting on top my electric fireplace propped against the wall. VERY COOL! Thank You, Mr. Design Camp Executive Director for the poster, my job, and more.

You can see on the right corner a copy of Apple's Think Different "To the Crazy One's" message.

Final Words?
It's been really hot and because I'm still not yet used to the central air – we have non AC friendly windows so I've never had AC in my house until now – I feel like it's not summer and I'm cheating Mother Earth.