Musica Monday

Have you seen the movie Wreck-It Ralph? If you haven't, drop what you're doing and go watch it NOW!! After you have witnessed the amazingness and cuteness then you can come back and finish my post and listen to the music :) thanks! It is probably one of the cutest movies I have seen in a very long while (other than Despicable Me 2, which you should also go see if its still in theaters). For those of you who have seen it, pit your minds at rest, this is not the first time I've seen this movie, it face the song I've chosen for today was my ring tone until my phone had to be fixed so it worked again...it was being stupid until I fully updated it. As you know from previous posts, not all the music I listen to is in English. I have been listening to Spanish music for years and have gotten into French and Japanese music in the past two years. Today I'm going to be featuring a Japanese song that was used in the movie as a sound track for the game Sugar Rush. Performed by AKB48, the song "Sugar Rush" has become pretty well known, and I will admit that it is one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack (which I did actually buy!) other than Rihanna's "Shut Up and Drive".

AKB48 is classified as J-pop. Japanese pop, or J-pop, which is a musical genre beginning in the 1990s in Japan, has become an integral part of Japanese culture and is featured in much of their culture both in video games and anime as well as on television and some news stations. J-pop has become an international concept in the past decade or so with the introduction of more and more video games and anime into the United States from Japan featuring this type of music.
Well, I have jumped onto this bandwagon and Wreck-It Ralph has only helped with finding more music in this genre. I hope that you all enjoy this as much as I do. It is an all girl band but I hope that you enjoy and look them up for more songs, they are quite good. I do have another Japanese artist/sensation that I would like to share with you later when I get around to it, so look for that in the future!

Love you all!
Sara :)

Purchase from Amazon

I officially have a job as of now (yay!), it's not exactly what I've been wanting, but I won't complain too much because I've been trying to find another and it's quite difficult to get hired around here apparently... Anyways, it's an income. I made my first purchase of things I don't need but really want this past week and I wanted to share with you these things! I should add that both of these purchases are from Amazon.

The first thing I got was a complete set of the six movie series starting in 1934 called The Thin Man. I saw this movie for the first time this past semester and loved it! I would encourage all of you who enjoy witty banter, mystery, and humor to watch at least the first in this series. That's my favorite one! I also got an extra DVD in the set which is one where the dynamic relationship between the two main characters (who are Mr. and Mrs. Nick and Nora Charles) and follows the careers of each actor. Loving this set, it was worth the purchase!

                                          

The second item I purchased was a espresso maker. I have a close friend back at college who used this to make some espresso over the past semester and when it was done right and with good beans, it was quite delicious. It's a simple little device that simply requires you to put water in the bottom and then add a little funnel with coffee grinds. The top section is added next, and acts as a sort of teapot, holding the hot coffee mixture. Once together, the pot is placed on the stove and as the water boils it absorbs the coffee grinds and somehow makes its way all the way up to the top part where you will end up with your coffee! It's it cute! It's pretty handy :)
Now, anyone who knows me knows that I wasn't a big coffee drinker before college and I'm still not really big on it now. But when it' made right it can be delicious, plus I was watching Brunch with Bobby, on Cooking Channel, and he had a recipe that involved using this to make lattes and mochas, which in my opinion also made this a worthy purchase. Once I get around to giving this a try I will let you know how it ends up going!

                                       

What do you guys think? Any suggestions for other things to save up for? I am saving up to move out of my parents' basement hopefully within the next 6-8 months also, so that will be exciting once it happens!

Love,

Sara :)

Musica Monday

My humor, as of late, has taken a slightly darker turn. I'm not exactly sure why, there isn't much of a cause for it right now, other than my seemingly lack of hours at my current job (days keep getting cut and things just aren't working out). Anyways, I say all of this because the song that I can't get out of my head today is called "Dead" by My Chemical Romance. For those of you who don't know, it's a song all about being dead (duh). I'm not a big fan of My Chemical Romance but they have had a few songs that have caught my interest, or more have caught my ear as of late. "To The End" is one of them, but the other is "Dead". I can't help but slightly laugh at this song and smile when I hear it, it's so catchy and much more upbeat than you would expect! Enjoy! Forgive me if this isn't your style at all, the video is a bit high on the macabre scale, and quite violent (so young children please avert your eyes!). Favorite line of this song? "If life ain't just a joke, then why are we laughing?"

I should also throw in a pitch for a what the rest of my week will be filled with. Namely: the summer musical: Shrek the musical! For those of you around town who have seen the posters, please come! It is hilarious and I'm going to put up one of my favorite songs from the show, and if you aren't around here or haven't seen posters either you don't live in my neck of the woods or you are not looking very hard...

Enjoy!

Love,

Sara :)

Foodie Friday: Lazy Day

Hey, so I was planning on sharing a recipe that I made, but I didn't actually cook anything yesterday... In other words, I understand that feeling people talk about getting when they just don't want to cook anything. I ended up making some potato soup from a box. I do have a few things I would like to try making soon, but we take it one day at a time. I also made pancakes yesterday, they turned out like pancakes but the batter I used was not what I'm used to, so they turned out tasting a little strange...I promise that I'm really not a bad chef! I just have days that are not days that I can cook well :P

Happens!

Love,

Sara :)

Books Books Books: Bourne Identity Review

The Bourne Identity was an extremely popular movie series starring Matt Damon and I will be the first to say that it was an awesome movie. In light of that, I decided to read the book that brought forth the idea of the movie, yet after reading Ludlum's work, I really can't figure out where this idea came from. So what follows is my review of the book to which I gave 3 stars.

"Despite my initial reluctance with this book, I will admit to really enjoying the last half. The first half or so took me a while to get into. I would suggest it only to people who want to read intense detail and have some major time on their hands. DO NOT compare this book to the movie. It is impossible and makes the book that much harder to read. The emotion in the story was well portrayed, but I did come across aspects where my thought was: ' This has nothing to do with the story therefore I don't care this much about banking processes!' I did realize that there was an importance later on but I struggled to get to that point. But overall, quite good!"

I shall continue my reading with my next titles: Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and Cocaine Blues: a Phryne Fisher Mystery by Kerry Greenwood. Any other recommendations?

Love,

Sara :)

Musica Monday

Have you ever heard one of those songs that you aren't really sure that you liked but found yourself huming along to? Well, the musica that I have for this week is one of those songs! The first time I heard this song was while I was listening to a Pandora station for The Pierces, a band I have talked about a bit before. The Soho Dolls is an English band based in London that formed in 2003 and is still going strong today. This song is called "Pleasures of Soho" and is from an older album of theirs. For those of you who don't know, Soho is an area of the city of Westminister in England that up until the 1980s was known for it's sex shops and night life. However, since the 1980s, there has been a big switch and Soho is now mostly a fashion district with little remnants of the sex shops that used to populate its streets.
Westminister and Soho are places that I do plan on visiting when I get the chance to travel again to England. Maybe we will get to see Soho Dolls when we are there! :P

I hope that you enjoy it! Have a great week my dear friends!
Love,
Sara :)

Updates on Reading

Alright, I finished my night time read, After the Fall by Victoria Roberts. I give it a good review, I mean how often do you have squirrels dressed in kimonos, a yeti, and a family living comfortably in Central Park? Not too often I would expect! Roberts is a cartoonist for the New York Times (I believe) and her drawings are brilliant and allow the reader to also see the characters they are reading about. It is a very quick read, but I think it is still worth a look :) even for the little kiddies! It talks about family and getting through difficult situations in a fun way.

Otherwise, I'm still working my way through The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. This book has its moments but it is dense and confusing at points. Don't compare it to the movie because that is nearly impossible. But I am determined to finish it and I will let you know what I think at the end (which will have to be soon since I've run out of days to have it out of the library :P).

Happy reading my friends!

Love,

Sara :)

Food Testing

Food brings people together, and what better time to do this than during a graduation party? I have just finished typing up and will be sending out my grad party invites tomorrow! The party itself is next month, Sunday, August 11 and until then (and after) I will be trying different types of recipes in hopes of being able to make some homemade lunch food on that day! :) I know that's ambitious but I also have found that I really enjoy cooking!

Going along with that, there will probably be more posts on food starting either tonight or tomorrow since I will be making dinner on thursdays for the rest of the summer and as long as I'm living here. I'm starting tonight with a recipe that I found in a magazine called 'Eating Well'. You will soon see what it is :D

Love you all!
Sara :)

Bike, Books, and Cat

So I've been a little lacking on the blogging part of my life. For this I apologize, but life has been happening as of late, what can I say? 

Anyways, today I brought out my bike for the first time! Pumped up the tires and took my TREK out on the road. Literally. Riding on the road is so much more fun :3 I rode down to the public library to return some books and to get something for me to read at night. To explain, I try and read either poem, a short story, or a chapter from a cute story. I found the third today! After the Fall is a short novel by Victoria Roberts about a family living in a million dollar house, only to wake up one morning with all their stuff and themselves living in Central Park! I really couldn't turn this down when I read the summary!

Look how cute that cover is!!

I also wanted to include a few pictures of my cat, Dorito. He's a crazy can and I'm really gonna miss him when I move, but I do hope to get my own pet then :D

Enjoy the pics of Dorito and my hairbrush...

Love you all!!

Sara :)