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