She Got Balls

Annie Edson Taylor (1838–1921)
An American adventurer who, on her 63rd birthday became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. The desire to secure her later years financially, and avoid the poorhouse, made her came up with the idea. The trip itself took less than twenty minutes. Afterwards she told the press: “If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat… I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall.”

I am speechless. What a crazily courageous woman.

http://www.swiss-miss.com

My Heroes

I love watching the Oscars to see what and who wins best picture and best performances. The other things I love to watch are actors off-screen being themselves - life of the rich and famous will forever intrigue me - and of course judging the best dressed. But most of all, I like to see which movies and who wins the creative categories. The set design and production, directing, costume, visual effects, audio and sound, cinematography and last but not least the hair and makeup. These people receive as much credit as the actors that rake in all the fame and glory. For those who ask, why design? They are the first on set and last to leave with the longest worked hours. Without them, your fantastic movies would cease to exist.

I pegged the following movies for the nominated creative categories:
Skyfall, Life of Pi and Les Miserables.

The Winners were:

Best Cinematography
Claudio Miranda - Life of Pi

Best Directing
Ang lee - Life of Pi

Best Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran - Anna Karenina 

Best Hair & Makeup
Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell - Les Miserables

Best Production Design
Rick Carter (Production Design), Jim Erickson (Set Decoration) - Lincoln

Best Editing
William Goldenberg- Argo

Best Music, Original Song
Adele and Paul Epworth - Skyfall 

Best Music, Orginal Score
Michael Danna - Life of Pi

Best Sound Editing
Per Hallberg and Karen Baker - Skyfall
AND
Paul N. J. Ottosson, Zero Dark Thirty

Best Sound Mixing
Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes - Les Miserables

Best Visual Effects
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott - Life of Pi

Best Writing for Adapted Screenplay
Chris Terrio - Argo

Best Writing for Original ScreeplayQuentin Tarantino - Django Unchained

One more thing,

wise words from winner Ben Affleck for Best Picture, Argo ...

And The Winner ..

.. for best animated short film goes to
Walt Disney's John Kahrs', Paperman!

These were the other nominated films.

Adam and Dog - Minkyu Lee


Fresh Guacamole - PES

Head Over Heels - Timothy Rechart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly

And The Longest Daycare by David Silverman. Starring Maggie Simpson.

Hey

.. are you a dreamer?

Thursday's Rambles.

Right now :
Desperately trying to get my shit together, but also wanting to embrace the unemployed status and lifestyle ..

At the moment I sit at my desk with the moon as the only source of light shining into my room. I'm content listening to The Temptations greatest hits and appreciating the silhouette of the bouquet of roses Josh bought for me on Valentines day, and the collection of glass bottles and second-hand ceramic wine bottles. Gotta love defined shapes!

My room appears chaotic. Which is the state is has been in for the past 3 years. My focus and attention span does not last very long. I have never been able to complete a task and there are two reasons that come to mind. One, I find something new I want to pursue (distractions). Two, I get lazy or bored. Oh, the third reason would be I continually make plans to do other things beside it. I guess beginning with a lack of determination inevitably ends in my unfinished tasks. I've told my friend I would, without fail rearrange and redecorate my room this month. I also said that last month. And there have been breakthroughs and some kind of progress. But I will be honest, every step I take, I take 3 backwards. Which means I haven't gotten very far. At times, I overexert myself and my brain fails to comprehend anything. Other times, which is most of the time, I panic and have mini anxiety attacks and go into an emotional spiral. My poor unfortunate friends who have to endure me ..

Much like this post, I have no structure in my life right now.

Time to get a moment's shuteye ;)

We All Go A Little Mad Sometimes.

What My Neighbour Looks Like.

I think.

Another Sunday

Vy's refreshing salad/ Rocket, feta, sun-dried tomatoes, and sour-dough bread. Simple/

Mum's mouth-watering pho. Perfect broth, tender beef, fresh basil leaves from the garden. Mmm/

Dad's squid sauced-marinated chicken drummets, in a ginger and black bean broth, with spring onions.

Friday Food Hoppin' + ACMI

Chilling out at the Foxtel Festival Hub - part of Melbourne Festival at Alexandra Gardens.

Along the Yarra; Newly built Hamer Hall along Southbank.

Game Masters at ACMI, just for the cool kids.

Octopus balls at Yoyagi on Swanston.

Steak And .. Lobster?

My dreamy man.

McDreamy going for the Lobster special. It did not disappoint.

 
I'm certain my poor steak sandwich suffered it's sogginess while waiting for Josh's juicy lobster to cook :'(

A Food Coma Week

8th - 17th
Dinner originally consisted of my usual family members with Jen as guest. But then Lynh dropped by it became a party of 7. Luckily there was enough food!

Pan-fried, thyme pork chops, with a sweet pear and red onion chutney in a red wine vinegar and sweet potato mash and crunchy fresh green beans on the side. Other, side-main dishes were the honey mustard, rocket, red apple and parmesan salad and creamy pumpkin and garlic penne. Cooked by yours truly! I'm most proud of my chutney, which Vy and ate everyday with tasty cheese and crackers for days :)

 Parma with my favourite topping - Pineapples! At Slices, Caroline Springs.

 Lazy morning (and extremely indulgent) breakfast at The Coffee Club. A bowl of special K, bran, sultanas, almonds and soy milk usually does the trick.

 Double date with Stace & Jam at Mambo's. Three guesses which one is Stacey's.

 Soy marinated beef and pork with caramelised onions, with Mum's home

 Mum's bowl. They say the Vietnamese love their fresh greens. Love, is an understatement for Mum.

Anything Could Happen.

Ellie Goulding!

While 'You' Were Sleeping ...

I have the tendency to have out of this world dreams. These were last nights. They both felt cold and dark. Far from any place I would ever be in.

I was running down a dark dirty street, in the late of night, all the thugs were up to their usual no good routines, going about their business. It didn't stop them from giving me curious looks. Why did I look our of breath, why did I look panicked and desperate, they were probably wondering. Who cares, I had to find them. Where were they? There it was, in the old run down theater,  it had to be that. I ran towards it and stopped at the front. It was dark inside, abandoned a long time ago, I could tell. I went to turn the door knob, locked. Of course. I balled up my fist and smashed the glass. I reached inside and unlocked the door, I entered, crunching my boots on the broken glass. 

Why did he run to this part of town? How would this help? I walked down the hallway, past the lobby. There were a  set of winding  stairs. I walked towards it and climbed it. It creaked. And creaked. The climb felt forever. Finally I reached the top. There were two doors. One to the left and one to the right. I entered the right door, cautiously. Inside there was nothing, no one. I heard a thump on the wall. I found them. They were just in the next room.  I didn't wait. I spun around and quickened my pace, burst open the door, and surely enough there he was. Holding my baby. 

"What, the hell, are you thinking?" I asked, slowly, so I wouldn't lose my shit. He put up his hand in defence of his actions, "It was to protect them, you have to understand. You needed to learn how to find them." He was out of his mind. "You came into my house, and took my children from me. I don't know why you did it. I don't even know much about you. But I'm here now, and I'm taking them back." He smiled. "That's all I wanted." He said. Fucking insane. I opened my arms and lowered myself to one knee, he ran over to. My baby. And then I heard something creak behind me. I turned around and saw my older son poke his head out from the room behind the door. There he was. I was wondering where he ... 

Suddenly, a whistle blew in the distance. It couldn't be. It was 'the' bus. The one that ran through this side of the state, once, a year. We have to be on it. We need to be on it. I picked up the little one and gestured to the older one to follow. I run, three steps at a time. My older one is slowly following behind, but he can make it, he's fast, I know he can. I see the strange man who took my boys, standing at the top of the stairs looking down. I keep going. The bus will be there for a few minutes and then gone. If i don't make it, its another lost chance of a better life. Keep going!! I run towards it and it gets closer and closer. Finally i reach it, the final passengers are boarding. I get on. I find a two seater. Put my little one down and touch his face. The bus engine rumbles and slowly departs .. Wait. Oh no. As it passes the theater  i see my older one just step out from the theater doors ... This bus is a no return ticket. It makes one stop. And that's the final destination. It stops for no one and lets no one off.  I watch in slow horror. I have left my first born in oldtown. How. How. How did I do that. I am paralysed. I watch him grow smaller. He's wiping his eyes. He's crying. I came all this way to be even further away from him. I see the stranger run out up to him. He looks at the bus, at me. He puts a hand on his shoulder. What have i done.

______________________________________________
Josh and I. We ran away to an abandoned school building. It was slightly eerie because it was empty and in the dark of night. We climbed the stairs to the third storey and found a room with a bed in it. We laid down and looked up above us. For some reason, there was no ceiling, we were looking at a black sky scattered with stars. It was beautiful. And then we heard sirens. We looked at each other sadly but knowingly. The walls seems to close in as were running to the exit. We made it outside and then ran down the street. There were spotlights in the sky searching for us. We became surrounded by men in black and were cuffed. Two other men were cuffed as well, being pushed along, trailing behind us. We were brought to a roof to,p to be interrogated it seemed. The two other men were Russian. While they started to interrogate us, one of the Russians broke free of his cuffs and pulled out a massive stereo out of nowhere and blasted some kind of music. And then he shouted at the top of his lungs, "WE ARE BORN FREEEE" his voice boomed and echoed through the city streets.

Mum's Banh Bot Loc.

Little Creatures Dining Hall.

I Ordered A Steak Sandwich!

Candy.