Top 5 Thursday: Oscar 2013 Wins

I love the Oscars, always look forward to them. I also try to predict every year, but I didn't do that great this year. I loved the host (I heart Seth MacFarlane) and I did see some great wins. Here are my favorite wins of the 2013 Oscars.

5. "Brave" winning Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
If a Disney movie is nominated, it will most likely win. I love "Brave", like practically every other Disney movie. Deserved!

4. Jennifer Lawrenve winning Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Although I was hoping for my favorite Naomi Watts and thinking it was going to be Jessica Chastain, I was so happy for Jennifer Lawrence. And felt so bad for her that she fell, but if I had just won an Oscar I wouldn't give a damn. And that speech was so touching and a bit awkward.

3. Daniel Day-Lewis winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
What a fabulous actor he is. He is the first actor to win three Academy Awards. I haven't seen "Lincoln" yet, but just a little clip tells me how great his performance is.

2. Quentin Tarantino winning Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
I was hoping he would be nominated for the best director award, because that's what he really deserves. But he so deserved this one as well. Tarantino is an awesome screenwriter and he's so unique. No one is like this guy.

1. Christoph Waltz winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
How amazing is this. Five years ago nobody outside Germany and Austria had heard from this guy and now he wins his second Academy Award. I loved him as Dr. King Schultz in "Django Unchained". It was totally unexpected though, because I really thought Tommy Lee Jones was going to win.

They Almost Made the Top 5: "Argo" for winning Best Motion Picture of the Year

Weekly Photo Challenge 2013 - Theme 8: Rain

This weeks theme, one of my favorites:

Rain isn't pleasant when you're on you bike, you have a long way to go and all of sudden a big rainstorm drops on you. But when you just got lucky and got home in time, it's so much fun. I love rain, when I'm in bed and I can hear the raindrops. Or when I'm on the couch reading a book and drinking a cup of tea. And this is one of my favorite photos so far.

Movie Trailer Sunday (74)

This weeks movies are about a schoolmusical,

Hunky Dory
Description: It's the beginning of the summer of 1976 in South Wales. But school's not out yet, so Viv (Minnie Driver), a fiery high school drama teacher, is determined to fire up her hormonal, apathetic students one last time by putting on the best end-of-the-year show the school has ever seen: a glam rock-infused musical version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Can she overcome the typical teenage distractions of sex and drugs with some great rock and roll?
Director: Marc Evans
Starring: Minnie Driver, Aneurin Barnard, Haydn Gwynne, Bob Pugh, Owen Teale, Steve Speirs
Trailer: Trailer "Hunky Dory"
Comment: I somehow always liked Minnie Driver

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Description: At an outdoor café a Pakistani man named Changez (Riz Ahmed) tells Bobby (Liev Schreiber), an American journalist, about his experiences in the United States. Roll back ten years, and we find a younger Changez fresh from Princeton, seeking fortune and glory on Wall Street. The American Dream seems well within his grasp, complete with a smart and gorgeous artist girlfriend, Erica (Kate Hudson). But when the Twin Towers are attacked, a cultural divide slowly begins to crack open between Changez and Erica. Changez�s dream soon begins to slip into nightmare: profiled, wrongfully arrested, strip-searched and interrogated, he is transformed from a well-educated, upwardly mobile businessman to a scapegoat and perceived enemy. With time, he begins to hear the call of his own homeland.
Director: Mira Nair
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Liev Schreiber, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland
Trailer: Trailer "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"

Kiss of the Damned
Description: Beautiful vampire Djuna (Josephine de La Baume) tries to resist the advances of the handsome, human screenwriter Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia), but eventually gives in to their passion. When her troublemaker sister Mimi (Roxane Mesquida) unexpectedly comes to visit, Djuna's love story is threatened, and the whole vampire community becomes endangered...
Director: Xan Cassavetes
Starring: Josephine de La Baume, Milo Ventimiglia, Roxane Mesquida, Riley Keough
Trailer: Trailer "Kiss of the Damned"

Love is All You Need
Description: It's a story about a group of people all seeking love, about passion and happiness, about jealousy and loneliness. First and foremost, it's a story about having the courage to change your life � even when you think it's too late.
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Trine Dyrholm, Paprika Steen
Trailer: Trailer "Love is All You Need"

Something Real and Good
Description: A young man and woman meet by chance in an airport while waiting for a delayed flight. When the plane is rerouted, they decide to make the best of it, and over the course of one night, realize that sometimes it takes a detour to make a connection. br /> Director: Luke Rivett
Starring: Alex Hannant, Matt Jones
Trailer: Trailer "Something Real and Good"
Comment: Oh my God, want to see this!!!

In My Mailbox (85)

Only 4 postcards this week, but I'm happy with every card I find in my mailbox. I got this real special one from Berlin, Germany. It's graffity. The sender likes the movie "Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain" and that's also one of my favorites.

Sent: february 13th 2013
Received: february 20th 2013
Distance: 529 km (329 miles)
Travel Time: 7 days

My favorite of the week, and also one of my all-time favorites, came from Nokia, Finland. What a beautiful postcard, I love this one.

Sent: february 16th 2013
Received: february 22nd 2013
Distance: 1,566 km (973 miles)
Travel Time: 6 days

This black & white postcard I received from Focsami, Romania. It's the first card from this country. The sender didn't relly write much on the back, but still it's a nice card.

Sent: february 18th 2013
Received: february 23rd 2013
Distance: 1,674 km (1,040 miles)
Travel Time: 5 days

My other favorite came today. These two fantastic bears came from Poznan, Poland. Also not a lot of writing on the back, but who cares. This card is great!

Sent: february 10th 2013
Received: february 23rd 2013
Distance: 763 km (474 miles)
Travel Time: 13 days

Thanks Lukas, Nina, Mircea and Marzena for your amazing and wonderful postcards this week.

50 Books Challenge 2013 - # 6: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Author: Mark Twain
Story:
Start: february 18th 2013
End: february 22nd 2013
Comment: The book was banned by some schools and libraries in the past, for its crudeness. I can see that is might have seem crude in that time, but nowadays it's really not that bad. I just picked this book up by accident. I bumped in to it in the library and I decided to read it. The book is good, well written, and usually chuckle-worthy. However, there are points when it seems endless, like they are never going to get out of the river--a lot of the stories hard seem like unimportant side-tracks. Huckleberry is a very likeable character and I enjoyed reading about his adventures. It's definitely a classic you should have read, but it's not one of my favorites and I don't think it will every get on me reread list.
Rating: 3/ 5

Top 5 Thursday: Bear Postcards

I've been a postcrosser for 531 days now and I've received so many amazing cards already. I think I'm going to do this more often, make a top 5 of some of my cards. For example, I've received some bear postcards and I'd like to share with you my favorites. Here they are.

5. Minsk, Belarus (Maria)
This cutie pie made my day when I received it. Great psotcard.

4. Changsha, China (Green)
Pandas are amazing creatures. Always wanted to see one, never did. I received quite some panda cards by the way, this is a fantastic card.

3. Kiev, Ukraine (Andrii)
What a lovely racoon.I can't believe that people hate them for trashing their... eh trash. Isn't he cute?

2. Kiev, Ukraine (Katherine)
It's like he's posing. Amazing postcard, made me really happy.

1. Jyväskylä, Finland (Blue and Loki)
This polar bear is my favorite bear card I've got so far. It's just so beautiful. Just the headshot.

Weekly Photo Challenge 2013 - Theme 7: Fruit

Here is this weeks theme.

I love fruit (not all), their taste, their freshness, their colors. Because green is my color since I moved into my new place, I decided to go for the green apple.

50 Books Challenge 2013 - # 5: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle # 1)

Title: A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle # 1)
Author: Libba Bray
Story: Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order.
Start: february 9th 2013
End: february 17th 2013
Comment: As a fan of historical book like these, I just had to read this book. I started to read and I thought it was amazing. The beginning was so promising and I just wanted more. The story is set in 1895 and we follow sixteen-year-old Gemma Doyle. After her mother died she is enrolled at the Spence Academy. She is unable to fit in, because the other students are snobby . But when Gemma finds a diary that was written twenty years ago, that sheds light on Spence's history and her own prophetic visions. The book is unique because it finds a way to combinate historical fiction and the supernatural. That makes it mysterious. But with that it also almost didn't feel like I was reading a story set in 1895. Sometimes it had a very modern feel to it. I also felt there were too many different elements going on with this book for any of them to have been completely successful. "A Great and Terrible Beauty" turned in to a big surprise, but not something I was hoping for. Amazing at first, but a bit disappointing in the end.
Rating: 3/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (73)

This weeks trailers are about the CIA, a father reaching out for help trying to raise his five teenage daughters, an internship, tow mothers falling for each others sons and

The Numbers Station
Description: After his latest mission goes disastrously wrong, veteran CIA black ops agent Emerson Kent (John Cusack) is given one last chance to prove he still has what it takes to do his job. His new assignment: guarding Katherine (Malin Akerman), a code operator at a top-secret remote CIA "Numbers Station" where encrypted messages are sent and received. When an elite team of heavily armed assailants lays siege to the station, Emerson and Katherine suddenly find themselves in a life-or-death struggle against an unknown enemy. With the station compromised and innocent lives at stake, they must stop the deadly plot before it's too late.
Director: Kasper Barfoed
Starring: John Cusack, Malin Akerman
Trailer: Trailer "The Numbers Station"
Comment: John Cusack is back, hell yeah!

Mental
Description: The Moochmore girls are certain they all suffer from some kind of undiagnosed mental illness, because if they're not crazy then they're just unpopular. Their mother Shirley (Rebecca Gibney), unable to cope with her demanding daughters and unsupported by her philandering politician husband, Barry (Anthony LaPaglia), suffers a nervous breakdown. After Barry commits his wife to a mental hospital he finds himself alone with 5 teenage girls he barely knows. Desperate, he impulsively picks up a hitchhiker named Shaz (Toni Collette) and installs her in his home as nanny to his daughters.
Director: P.J. Hogan
Starring: Toni Collette, Liev Schreiber, Anthony Lapaglia, Rebecca Gibney, Kerry Fox, Caroline Goodall, Deborah Mailman, Sam Clark
Trailer: Trailer "Mental"

The Internship
Description: Two old school salesmen find themselves suddenly unemployed and passed-by in the digital world, try to reinvent themselves by becoming interns at a major tech company.
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Max Minghella, Rose Byrne, John Goodman, Dylan O'Brien, JoAnna Garcia, Eric Andre, Josh Brener, Tiya Sircar, Tobit Raphael, Will Ferrell
Trailer: Trailer "The Internship"
Comment: love them both!

Two Mothers
Description: The story of two childhood friends and neighbors falling for each other's sons.
Director: Anne Fontaine
Starring: Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel, James Frescheville
Trailer: Trailer "Two Mothers"
Comment: Excited about this.

If I Were You
Description: Madelyn Reid (Marcia Gay Harden) accidentally learns of her husband's infidelity when she saves his sexy young mistress (Leonor Watling) from a bungled suicide attempt. When her unsuspecting young rival suggests the two new best friends take each other's advice on everything. Madelyn sees an opportunity to seize the upper hand. But the plan backfires when the aspiring young actress insists Madelyn keep her end of the bargain�and orders her to star as King Lear in a very amateur production, with Lucy playing The Fool. Things really get out of control when Lucy starts giving Madelyn instructions on dealing with an amorous coworker and a handsome stranger (Aidan Quinn).
Director: Joan Carr-Wiggin
Starring: Marcia Gay Harden, Aidan Quinn, Leonor Watling, Joseph Kell
Trailer: Trailer "If I Were You"

In My Mailbox (84)

Eleven official postcards and one private swap. So, a good week for me as a postcrosser. The first postcard came from Banda Aceh, Indonesia. A wonderful postcard from the movie "Cinderella Man".

Sent: january 31st 2013
Received: february 12th 2013
Distance: 9,481 km (5,891 miles)
Travel Time: 12 days

From my neighbours in Belgium, Korttijk to be exact, I received this amazing vintage add. I happen to love Paris, so this is perfect.

Sent: february 6th 2013
Received: february 12th
Distance: 195 km (121 miles)
Travel Time: 6 days

From Bejing, China I got this gorgeous cat.

Sent: january 25th 2013
Received: january 13th 2013
Distance: 7,866 km (4,888 miles)
Travel Time: 19 days

From Hongkong I got this postcard. It's a tree and I think the sender made this picture herself.

Sent: january 29th 2013
Received: february 13th 2013
Distance: 9,292 km (5,774 miles)
Travel Time: 15 days

From my other neighbours in Germany, Heilbronn, I got this amazing fall postcard. It's my favorite of the week. The sender is a huge Keira Knightley fan, she's also one of my favorites.

Sent: february 9th 2013
Received: february 13th 2013
Distance: 325 km (202 miles)
Travel Time: 4 days

From Kaohsiung City, Taiwan I got these adorable panda's. The sender bought the card in a zoo, where she was taking a trip with her college class.

Sent: january 30th 2013
Received: february 14th 2013
Distance: 9,625 km (5,981 miles)
Travel Time: 15 days

From my own country, Groningen, the Netherlands, I got this late (or maybe very early) christmas card. Or I at least think it's a christmas card, because the deer is wearing an ornament in his antler. But a very nice card, even if it isn't Christmas right now.

Sent: february 12th 2013
Received: february 14th 2013
Distance: 248 km (154 miles)
Travel Time: 2 days

From Voronezh, Russia I got this unique and beautiful postcard with the turtle and butterflies. Sadly enough the card was pretty damaged. Lukcily the sender scanned the card, so this is how it looked when it was send to me.

Sent: february 5th 2013
Received: februari 15th 2013
Distance: 2,292 km (1,424 miles)
Travel Time: 10 days

A card from the US. Ozark, Alabama to be exact. It has been traveling for quite some time now. The flower on the card blossoms only once a year, at night. Pretty sepcial right.

Sent: november 29th 2012
Received: february 16th 2013
Distance: 7,482 km (4,649 miles)
Travel Time: 79 days

And two psotcards from Portugal on the same day. This one is from Leiria, Portugal. It's a Portugese monument.

Sent: february 7th 2013
Received: february 16th 2013
Distance: 1,713 km (1,064 miles)
Travel Time: 9 days

And the other one came from Santarém, Portugal. Typical Portugese clothes. The sender wrote his test in both English and Portugese.

Sent: february 5th 2013
Received: february 16th 2013
Distance: 1,753 km (1,089 miles)
Travel Time: 11 days

And again from my Russian friend Anton I received a nice postcard. This is already the third, but I saw he hasn't received any cards yet.

Thanks Ari, Anne Marie, Ruby, Smily, Julia, Quak, Alie, Julia, Jennifer, Pedro, Paulo and Anton for the postcards.

Movie Moments: Orange County

A breakthrough for Tom Hanks' son Colin Hanks, who I think is amazing and should get more attention. I don't know why, but I always loved this movie. I decided to rewatch it and make a list of my favorite moments.

Moment # 1:Meet Shaun
We meet Shaun Brumbder, who’s writing a letter to Marcus Skinner. He tells him about his life in Orange County and how he got the idea of becoming a writer.

Moment # 2: Lance watches Spongebob
Shaun is excited abot his letter from Stanford, but all his lazy brother Lance cares about is Spongebob.

Moment # 3: Wrong Transcript
Shaun didn’t get in to Stanford and he doesn’t understand why. He visits the students counselor and finds out she send in the transcript of a Shane Brainard. He, dumb as he is, did get in to Stanford.

Moment # 4: Visitors
Ashley arranged for Tanya’s grandfather to visit Shaun, he works at Stanford. Shaun gets one more chance to get in to Stanford. His mother is getting ready and puts on a dress that makes her look like a piñata. Shaun tells Lance he needs to stay in his room. When Lance asks him why, Shaun tells him he embarrasses him. When the guest arrive, Shaun’s mom Cindy acts weird and starts telling them her whole life story. Then Lance walks in in his underwear, Shaun’s friends shows up and Bob starts acting mad. Everything is going wrong and Shaun’s last chance is gone.

Moment # 5: Lance driving skills
Lance drives Shaun and Ashley to Stanford, because he can do it in 3 hours. But he’s an awful driver. He hardly pays attention to the road and when something happens he blames the other drivers.

Moment # 6: Lance sets a fire.
When Shaun got the dean of admission to put his name on the list of Stanford attendees and they arrive at the office, they see it’s on fire. Set by Lance.

Moment # 7: Shaun meets Marcus Skinner
Shaun is walking on campus when all of a sudden he sees Marcus Skinner walk by. He asks him about his story and Marcus says he enjoyed reading it. He invites Shaun to his office to talk about the story. He tells Shaun he doesn’t need to leave Orange County to become a good writer, he already is one.

Moment # 8: “You banged mom?”
When Shaun, Lance and Ashley return from Stanford, they see their dad. When he wants to tell them he and their mom got back together Lance asks him: “You banged mom?”

Moment # 9: Shaun stays
The trip wasn’t all for nothing, because Shaun realizes that his inspiration is right in front of him. Shaun decides to stay in Orange County and everybody is happy.

Favorite Moment: Moment # 4: Visitors