Pixar's Brave

The pinnacle of my waiting had finally been fulfilled yesterday afternoon. I had been waiting very impatiently for months, probably since at least December. Yes, I finally got to see Brave, the new Pixar movie.
I got a group of friends together and we caught some lunch at Red Robin first. I had the new Tavern Burger. It was alright, but I found the reason why it was cheaper than other burgers, even though it had two patties, it was smaller than the normal burgers. Don't get me wrong, it was good and for 6.99 for a burger and fries at Red Robin is a good deal, but I was kind of expecting it a bit bigger. Luckily the fries are never-ending and so because the burger was smaller, I finished up my appetite on fries, which are always good.

I did not plan enough time for the movie at 1:30 and a lunch at 12:30, so by the end of our lunchtime, we would not have made it in time for the 1:30 showing so we had to wait around and go to the 4 showing. It turns out that that was the best option anyway because I got to spend some fun time with my friends.
We first got in line and got our tickets so we would not have to wait in line before the movie. We went through the Old Mill district and walked down the shops. We had no real direction or purpose, just killing time and spending time. It was awesome. We went into some stores that we had not been in. We got a chance to see what Orvis is like- expensive clothing. We went into Gingers (I think)- the fancy kitchen store. We went into the Spice shop right next to it- wow there were some potent smells there.
I had a funny experience there. I wanted to take a whiff of a mesquite smoke powder thing and opened up the jar to sniff. It was so powerful it made me cry a little bit. Jeez, that was really strong. I found out afterwards by a friend that I had not taken the time to read the label that said, be careful. Oops.

We also went into a gallery of art down there in the Old Mill. It was neat to see.

As we were walking back we were joking of how we were going to get the best seats because we were there 1/2 hour early and did not have to wait in line. THAT did not happen. Sure, we were there nice and early, and we did not have to wait in line, but we did not get those cool seats. You know the ones, the ones where you sit right in the middle of the theatre and get the bars that you can hang your feet on. We arrived at the theatre to find out we had to search for 4 seats together.

The Short, La Luna, was alright. It had me laughing at times and the animation was good. I did not appreciate it until the end of the short. By the end I liked it, but I still like Day and Night better. I was not a big fan of the grunts that the gentlemen did in the short. Usually Pixar can do a great job with having a short without any words, but this was not one of them.

Now onto the movie.
It was amazing. The animation was very impressive. I just am amazed at how the quality and realisticness (i don't know if thats a word, but even if it is not, I still like it, or realisticity, I like that one too) of the animation. I think Pixar still has a ways to go to get their people looking more realistic. I do know that they work to make people look realistic but not too realistic. I guess I could see them getting a bit more realistic (like scrooge, from the newer animated Christmas Carol) without getting to that point of too realistic where it turns people off or creeps them out.

The story was alright, but not crazy-good. Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters. Merida is my kinda girl. She is independent and fun-loving. She is a princess. She just doesn't want to be like her mother and have all the boring responsibility that she currently has. King Fergus is hilarious. He does not wear the pants in the family though (literally, he wears a kilt) because his wife, the Queen Elinor is kind of in charge of the family (and Kingdom). Fergus is like Merida, fun loving and not necessarily responsible. He likes to go hunting for bears. Queen Elinor is the strict, Matriarch. She is in charge of the kingdom and always has respect. The triplets are always getting into trouble. They love to go around the castle and steal food and have fun. They also help Merida out a few times.
I really liked this movie, I just did not see it as totally original. It reminds me of another movie in some respects, but I am not going to mention the movie in case you go, I want you to be surprised about the storyline.
It is certainly a good movie, Pixar-worthy, and Movie Theatre-Worthy.
I loved the accents. I told my friend I was sitting next to that I needed to go to Scottland or Ireland to find my future bride because I like the accents so much.

Now onto my cautions of this movie.
I would highly recommend NOT taking young children. This movie has some intense scenes that will scare a kid quite a bit. There is a bear in there that is very realistic and scary. My nieces would not be able to handle it in theaters, as well as many other young children. I would say maybe bringing a 4 year old at the earliest, perhaps even 5 or 6.

The movie, overall, rates an 8 on the Pixar scale. Right there in between Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc.

Big Mac

The first day of WWDC 12 started Monday. In case you don't know the lingo- WWDC is the World Wide Developers Conference. This is an Apple event where they love to introduce new products to their iOS developers.
I always look forward to this first day- not because I spent the $1000 or so dollars to get a ticket to the event (not that I could have- it went sold out in under 2 hours), but instead because of the Keynote address.
Usually, I am right online at 10AM and following the liveblog- usually from Engadget, but this time, I was sleeping, blame it on the night job. Anyway, Instead I went straight to Apple.com and watched the keynote instead.
As rumored, they introduced a new MacBook Air (nothing special there), and the New MacBook Pro (this is the one that everyone is talking about- lots of features- Retina Display, USB 3, up to 16GB of Ram, SSD Hard Drive, faster processor, HDMI port, ect)
They also talked about the new Mac version- Mountain Lion, which was somewhat, but not amazingly impressive.
And of course the new iOS 6- there are some cool features to this- I am excited for the new Maps. At first, I was bummed because I enjoy Google Maps on iOS, but after viewing the demo, I am impressed.
Also, as a part of 6 is more sharing /facebook/twitter options, a nice new call feature (that I won't use because I just have the touch) and also Siri for iPad 2/3.

There were many good things happening in the Apple Universe this week and I look forward to seeing and trying them out.

You may be wondering if I regret my choosing to purchase my new Mac (Big Mac) earlier than waiting for the new MacBook Pro to come out? Well, I am divided. I like the look of the new one. It is sleek and sexy, but I would certainly miss my optical drive. I use it quite a bit for burning dads and such.
I also did not want to wait that long for a new Mac. If I would get the new one, it would cost too much too- I would have to get a huge SSD drive to have close to the same amount of space I have now. I would want to get the optical drive, which would cost more. and so on.

I am happy with my Big Mac.

Trials and Tribulation (at Work)

I started a new job, two weeks ago today. As a certified teacher, I was/am having rejection issues. After over four years of being certified and applying to countless jobs, both near and far, I was facing rejection on a regular basis. "Why can't I find a job that fits for me?" "What did I do wrong that makes me unwanted in the job market?" "What can I do to fix this?" and "What am I going to do if I never find a job  in my field?" were all questions going through my head and one time or another.
I felt like my life had/has not begun because the career path that I chose was not working out.
Then came along a job at KTVZ- my local news station.
After having a great reference from a friend, and an interview that I felt went well, I got the call that I was chosen out of the applicants to take over the Master Control/Tech Director job for the morning show. I was very proud to be chosen for this job because it was the first "Yes, we want you!" that I had received in a long while.

... Then I found out the hours- Midnight to 8AM
... then I found out the pay- about half as much as I get/got as a substitute teacher
... but I stuck it out, just grateful to have a job.

Then I started training for this job. To give a bit of pre-background, I have always excelled at technology-use. I am a natural and a digital-native as we are called. I have been around it all my life and have enjoyed working with it more than anything. Well, the training on this job has been tough because it has not come easy to me. I have struggled with learning the new system that I am working with- both with the Master Control part and the Tech Directing part of my job. I have felt like a failure at both spots in the past few weeks; whether it has been deleting files that I shouldn't or not knowing how to fix a playlist, or not being quick enough with the camera shots and all the different parts to the directing position.

By this last weekend, I was almost at my wits end. I went to church on Sunday telling people when they asked that I was not having that much fun with it and saying that life's too short to be doing something that you don't like. I was really feeling the pressure and not wanting to go back to this job. It's not that I am a quitter; I try my best, but at some point, if it is not working out for me or for my employer/boss then we need to cut the cord.

My feelings could have been due to my terrible day on Friday. As I have said, the hours are hard to get used to- I have to set my alarm for 11:15 or :30 and zoom into work by midnight. Well, I have been using my iPod touch for that and it has worked fairly well,... except for friday. I changed something and that messed me up. So, no wakeup alarm. Instead I was awoken to a text message at 12:09 saying "Are you coming into work tonight?" So, I rushed to get there as soon as I could, and of course it was the day that my boss was there to wish the person I was taking over goodbye, so, right in front of him.
Terrible start to the day to say the least.

Then, I made some goof ups on MC (Master Control) that I had made twice in a row. dumb. And to top it off, I had been taking some cut-ins for the news at the end of the show. This is where we have staged "This is your local alert Newscast" just a 2 minute blurb with all the headlines. Well, I had been working it where the current director would tell me what to take and when and I would do it. I did not have as much responsibility as the whole directing, but some. On Friday, my boss says, "you do it all". I totally goofed that up and it was taken back away from me because of it, so yeah, Friday was not my best day and left me feeling like I did not belong in the newsroom.

But, the good news is that I did better this morning. I had not issues with my MC part of the job. I got everything done that needed to be- didn't delete anything. And I felt confident at the Audio board- sure I had a few goof ups, but not bad ones. And I was able to work on the Tech Directing in spurts and get used to it more and more.

I am still not a fan of the per hourly wage that I receive, and the time that I have to work, especially last night when I got NO Sleep and was dragging the whole night, but at least I am a bit more confident.