In My Mailbox (99)

Seven officials and one private swap. I'm not a fan of churches, but this doesn't look like one. It's from Turku, Finland.

Sent: may 23rd 2013
Received: may 28th 2013
Distance: 1,441 km (895 miles)
Travel Time: 5 days

I also go another US mapcard for my collection. Manchester, Maine.

Sent: may 19th 2013
Received: may 28th 2013
Distance: 5,613 km (3,488 miles)
Travel Time: 9 days

A moviecard from Huzhou, China. I don;t know the movie though...

Sent: may 17th 2013
Received: may 28th 2013
Distance: 8,915 km (5,540 miles)
Travel Time: 11 days

This 'apple cat' came from Dhipropetovsk, Ukraine. It's kinda cute.

Sent: may 6th 2013
Received: may 30th 2013
Distance: 2,102 km (1,306 miles)
Travel Time: 24 days

These very cute squirrels came from Bilthoven, Netherlands. It's a Beatrix Potter drawing. I love it.

Sent: may 30th 2013
Received: may 31st 2013
Distance: 117 km (73 miles)
Travel Time: 1 day

This one came from Bacelona, Spain. Not my taste, but nice anyway.

Sent: may 27th 2013
Received: may 31st 2013
Distance: 1,101 km (684 miles)
Travel Time: 4 days

An this psotcard from Chemnitz, Germany is realy not my taste. It looks like a late 80's/ early 90's card. Where's Miami Vice?

Sent: may 23rd 2013
Received: june 1st 2013
Distance: 498 km (309 miles)
Travel Time: 9 days

And a private swap from my Polish friend. She knows how much I love the fall!

Thanks Puvu, Neal, Sim, Rem, Marieke, Santi, Lothar and Patricia for your cards this week.

50 Books Challenge 2013 Update - May

I'm a little behind again, because I only read three books this month. Basically because of one book, that really was a bit of a drag.

# 17. Mr. Pip by Lloyd Jones - 5/ 5
# 18. The Child Thief by Brom - 2/ 5
# 19. The Snow Child - 4,5/ 5

Average: 3,8

Favorite of the Month: Mr. Pip

I'm very confident tht evenually I will reach my goal again. Really happy about this next theme, because it's the last month of school for me as a teacher before summer vacation starts:

I already picked up some great books that I know will get m on track again. I'll keep you updated on my challenge.

50 Books Challeng 2013 - # 20: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Title: The Snow Child
Author: Eowyn Ivey
Story: Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.
Start: may 21st 2013
End: may 31st 2013
Comment: I was really interested in this story, but I had one fear: that this was going to be a very slow paced book. It was, but not in a bad way. Not a lot of spectacular things happen, but it keeps your attention at all times. For inpatient readers it's not going to work. The setting is wonderful and can sometimes feel a little overpowering. It's an enchanting and magical story. If this wasn't recommended to me, I would probably walk passed it in the bookstore, but I'm really happy to have read this. It's a wonderful book, very sad though. You feel for the characters and that only happens when you care forthe characters. Eowyn Ivey writes as from heaven, can't wait to read more of her work. Great read, thanks Beth from goodreads for recommending it to me.
Rating: 4,5/ 5

Top 5 Thursday: Bad Decisions in Movies

Sometmes when I'm watching a movie, I'm on the coutch screaming at the screen asking the characters why the hell they would do that. Making bad choices or decisions are often seen in horrormovies, but the once I choose are bigger. Here are the five worst decisions in movies.

5. Zombieland
It’s kind of smart that Bill Murray tried to survive the zombie apocalypse by pretending he was a zombie himself. But what’s really not such a good idea is to try and scare the trigger happy Jesse Eisenberg by pretending to be a zombie. You just signed your own dead warrant.

4. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Off course you want to help the little T-rex, but it’s not smart to take him into your trailer with a very angry mommy looking for her young.

3. King Kong
Who brings a giant, raging gorilla to New York? That’s just asking for trouble. As much as I love gorilla's, that's just not a good idea. Just leave him on the island, where he’s happy.

2. Jurassic Park
The entire park is surrounded by an electric-fence, but there is no back-up system for when the power fails. The movie wouldn’t be excited if they did, but still.

1. Deep Blue Sea
If the sharks brain might cure Alzheimer, why the hell would you set up a totally isolated and abandoned from civilization laboratory in the middle of the ocean? I couldn’t concentrate on my work really, with hungry sharks lurking at me all the time.

They Almost Made the Top 5: The Last King of Scotland, Looper, Demolition Man

In the Picture: The Characters from "The 40 Year Old Virgin"

I recently rewatched "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and I decided to give all the characters some individual attention.

Andy Stitzer
Played by: Steve Carell
Andy is 40 years old and still a virgin. He is involuntarily celibate. Andy lives alone and is somewhat childlike. He collects action figures and plays videogames. But Andy is a very kind, shy and loveable man.

David
Played by: Paul Rudd
David is Andy’s co-worker. He really wants a serious relationship, but he is still hung up on his ex-girlfriend. It’s almost disturbing.

Cal
Played by: Seth Rogen
Cal also works at SmartTech and has a perverted sense of humor. He talks about sex a lot, many forms of it.

Jay
Played by: Romany Malco
Another co-worker of Andy. He’s the only one in a serious relationship of the SmartTech group. But he’s whipped. Jay is not aloud to do anything, he’s kinda her bitch.

Trish
Played by: Catherine Keener
Trish is a storeowner across the street of Andy’s work. They hit it of immediately and Andy goes on a date with her. She is really nice and is seriously interested in Andy.

Paula
Played by: Jane Lynch
Paula is the storemanager of SmartTech. She should actually be sued for sexual harassment, because she makes sexual remarks to her colleagues all the time. She even wants to be Andy’s sexbuddy. Strange woman.

Beth
Played by: Elizabeth Banks
Beth is a woman Andy meets at a bookstore, where she works. She seems interested in Andy and she would be perfect for Andy to finally lose his virginity. But Beth’s a bit crazy.

Favorite Character: Andy Stitzer

Weekly Photo Challenge 2013 - Theme # 21: Breakfast

Here is this weeks challenge.

I'm not much of a breakfast person, but when I have the day off I sometimes like having something nice for breakfast. But still lunch is a better meal for me.

Movie Trailer Sunday (89)

Here are this weeks trailers.

As Cool As I Am
Description: Teenager Lucy Diamond of Great Falls, Montana, struggles with the onset of womanhood on her own, while her immature, self-centered parents, having married very young, try to recapture the youth they feel they missed.
Director: Max Mayer
Starring: Claire Danes, James Marsden, Sarah Bolger, Jeremy Sisto, Thomas Mann
Trailer: Trailer "As Cool As I Am"

Just Like A Woman
Description: Mona (Golshifte Farahani), 26, an immigrant from North Africa, runs her in-laws' mini market in Chicago. She's married to Mourad, a man who can't stand up to his authoritarian mother. Marilyn (Sienna Miller), 29, is a receptionist at a computer repair company. Her marriage with Harvey is on the ropes. The only thing in her life that makes her happy is her belly dance, a passion shared by Mona. One morning, Mona's mother-in-law is found dead in her bed. Mona realizes that she mixed the wrong dose while preparing her medicine. Realizing that she might be accused of murder, Mona runs away and flees Chicago by bus. With nothing left to lose, Mona decides to go to Santa Fe to enter a contest hoping to join a famous belly dance company.
Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Starring: Sienna Miller, Golshifte Farahani, Roschdy Zem, Chafia Boudraa
Trailer: Trailer "Just Like a Woman"

Don Jon
Description: Jon Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a strong, handsome, good old fashioned guy. His buddies call him Don Jon due to his ability to "pull" a different woman every weekend, but even the finest fling doesn't compare to the bliss he finds alone in front of the computer watching pornography. Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson) is a bright, beautiful, good old fashioned girl. Raised on romantic Hollywood movies, she's determined to find her Prince Charming and ride off into the sunset. Wrestling with good old fashioned expectations of the opposite sex, Jon and Barbara struggle against a media culture full of false fantasies to try and find true intimacy
Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza,
Trailer: Trailer "Don Jon"
Comment: Joseph Gordon-Levitt not only stars but he alo wrote and directed this flm. Want to see it!

We're the Miller
Description: David Burke (Jason Sudeikis) is a small-time pot dealer whose clientele includes chefs and soccer moms, but no kids�after all, he has his scruples. So what could go wrong? Plenty. Preferring to keep a low profile for obvious reasons, he learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished when he tries to help out some local teens and winds up getting jumped by a trio of gutter punks. Stealing his stash and his cash, they leave him in major debt to his supplier, Brad (Ed Helms). In order to wipe the slate clean�and maintain a clean bill of health�David must now become a big-time drug smuggler by bringing Brad�s latest shipment in from Mexico. Twisting the arms of his neighbors, cynical stripper Rose (Jennifer Aniston) and wannabe customer Kenny (Will Poulter), and the tatted-and-pierced streetwise teen Casey (Emma Roberts), he devises a foolproof plan. One fake wife, two pretend kids and a huge, shiny RV later, the "Millers" are headed south of the border for a Fourth of July weekend that is sure to end with a bang.
Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Emma Roberts, Nick Offerman, Kathryn Hahn, Will Poulter, Ed Helms
Trailer: Traler"We're the Millers"
Comment: Jenn is still hot!

Metallica Through the Never
Description: Trip (Dane DeHaan), a young roadie for Metallica, is sent on an urgent mission during the band's show. But what seems like a simple assignment turns into a surreal adventure.
Director: Nimród Antal
Starring: Dane DeHaan, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo
Trailer: Trailer "Metallica Through the Never"