A Love Story of a Spoon

This is a stop-motion picture I created for my final in my Conceptual Art class. The assignment was just to tell any story we want in any way. (Yeah, pretty open.) He just wanted us to tell it in a way we normally wouldn't. For some reason I got the idea randomly. I just knew I wanted to tell a love story about a spoon. Didn't know what, when, or how at the time. I asked my friend who my spoon should fall in love with and she jokingly said, "the moon!" I rolled with it.

It took about 800 pictures to create. I worked non-stop for about 5 hours to just take the pictures. I hope you enjoy it! I enjoyed making it (Although I'm sure my roommate thought I was a weirdo because I took pictures of a spoon for 5 hours.)

Bloopers:
- You can see my fingers holding the spoon sometimes
- You can see the white sticky stuff I used to hold up the spoon and the ruler
- You see the clips I used to hold up the scissor
- In the beginning when the ruler and tape dispenser come alive, you can see my phone behind the ruler helping it stay up
- Toward the end, when the spoon is near the window, you can see my face reflected in the window sometimes

The song is "The Blues With A Feeling" by Duke Ellington.

Who Is the Mother?

If you didn't see last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother, then turn away now!

[Spoiler Alert!]

Who is the mother? The only hint is the yellow umbrella. Since I started watching the show, I honestly couldn't have cared less who the mother is because Ted's mishaps and lessons learned along the way to finding The One were fun enough for me. However, after last night's episode, I want to know more! It was a half hour filled with anticipation and an ending that left you feeling a bit unsatisfied.

In the episode, older Ted said that something monumental happened that day. And when I saw Ted take that stupid yellow umbrella with him, I was so excited. I couldn't believe that it was finally going happening--they were going to reveal the mother. In the beginning of the episode, Ted was walking along when out of nowhere someone unseen tapped his shoulder. Then the entire episode contained flashbacks to what happened earlier that day that led him to that moment. Finally we come back to the tap on the shoulder...and it's Stella!! There is no possible way that Stella is the mother because older Ted already said so earlier in the season. Those tricky bastards! Well, this doesn't mean that his chance meeting with Stella is not going to be important. I am pretty sure it is a huge turning point. But we still don't know what it all means. We'll just have to wait patiently. =(

I leave you with some funny quotes from yesterday's episode:

Marshall (obsessed with making charts): This is a pie chart describing my favorite bars. And this is a bar graph describing my favorite pies.

Barney (looking for his 199th conquest): Marshall, knowing how important this is to me, do you think Lily would even consider? I’d do all the work.
Marshall: I will end your life.

Robin: I ate something from this place and three hours later I was spewing like an open hydrant.
Ted: From where?
Robin: That's a gross question.

The intervention for Marshall and his addiction to charts:
Robin: Enough with the charts.
Barney: And the graphs
Ted: Really any visual representation of data.
Marshall: Not an idiot. 'K. I know how you guys feel about my charts and my graphs. As a matter of fact, I made a chart of your reaction to my charts. Let's take a look. Yes it is true. Since Celecia, your interest in my charts has been steadily dropping. But based on recent trends, I have also made a projection chart. And look, huge spike in interest coming. And this isn't just some dead cat bounce. This is big sustainable growth over the long term.
Barney: You're a big sustainable growth.

Better Off Ted

We got our first topic request from a reader! Yay! Although he has threatened to drop our blog from his blogroll for unrelated reasons. He is a big meanie. =( Perhaps this post on his requested topic will persuade him otherwise...or maybe not. So yesterday, I did some research on the show, Better Off Ted. And by "research," I mean I watched a couple episodes online. (My husband mocked me when I said I had to do "research." Hehe.) I recall watching a couple episodes while on the elliptical at the gym too. The show premiered this past March but is in danger of getting canceled. So on behalf of our pain in the butt reader, I implore you to please watch! It is usually on Wednesday on CBS. But it airs on a special night this week, Tuesday, May 4, at 8:30p. Or you can watch old episodes here.

Better Off Ted is a satirical office comedy about a good guy named Ted who works for an evil corporation that manufactures questionable products. He runs the research and development department and works with two zany scientists. Ted also has to deal with his boss played by Portia de Rossi who is immoral and unethical and an alpha female if there is such a thing. Ted and his team work together on crazy inventions like meatless beef and energy patches that look exactly like band-aids. The show is entertaining and interesting, and I can see why a lot of people like this show. But please don't bite my head off when I say I just don't get it. I thought it was only okay, which made it difficult to write about. But I gave it a chance, and so should you. =)

Jon and Kate Plus 8

Last year, I was obsessed with Jon and Kate Plus 8. Jon and Kate have a set of twins and a set of sextuplets (thus, the plus 8). It is TLC's most popular show. It reruns on TLC all the time. So every chance I got, I watched this show until I was literally sick of it. I was fascinated by how a big family like that works. Also, their kids are so adorable and funny.

A lot of people love to hate Kate because she beats up on her husband all the time and is kinda OCD. However, because of her, her household is a well-oiled machine. Jon and Kate have also raised good, well-mannered children. They don't get enough credit for that. Also, it is obvious that they all love each other despite the bickering among the parents and kids and between the parents and kids.

Then my view of Jon and Kate Plus 8 turned upside down when I heard that Jon may be having an affair. See the US Weekly article. Of course, it may not be true, but still!! He was caught at a local nightclub at 2am with a mystery woman while Kate was away promoting her new book. He was heard calling the woman "babe." He was visibly intoxicated and wasn't wearing his wedding ring. This all sounds very suspicious. Jon denies the affair. But I don't know. Jon admitted to poor judgment on his part. Poor judgment, indeed.

Update 5/19/09: News (if you can call it news) came out recently that Kate may be having an affair with their family bodyguard. And Jon and Kate have been having marital problems for a long time. The TLC film crew said they have difficulty getting 15 minutes of good footage without them yelling at each other. And now, they are going to split up and do not even want to work on it! What is going on?!?! The media may be completely full of crap. But this is terrible for the family and especially for those eight kids. And if this is true, shame on Jon and Kate...for shame.

Friday Feature: Tina's Stories Written By Tara

Or sometimes Laura if Tara is feeling particularly lazy and eventually Tina (This is the rest of the title, if you didn't get that).

I guess it's about time we reinstated The 3 Sisters. So Laura and I devised a plan to keep Tina part of the blog while reducing work for her and unfortunately increasing work for us. Ugh! But I guess that is what sisters are for. That reminds me. I got the weirdest fortune from my fortune cookie yesterday that kinda applies to this situation: "A best friend [or sister] is always there for you especially when they rather be anywhere else." Weird and random...but somehow fitting.

But I digress. This feature is about Tina and her stories. Her stories will mainly be funny things her kids did or said. She has tons of them every day. So basically, I just have to listen to her, remember her stories and then relay it to you people. Here goes the first of many of Tina's stories (Hopefully, we can keep this up.):

Her 6-year-old daughter, Carmen, is really sensitive. Sad movies make her cry. Awww... So she was watching Airbud. How can that be sad? I don't know. I never watched it. But there is this one part in the movie where the mother makes the kid get rid of the dog. So the kid takes the dog to the woods, throws a ball for him to fetch and leaves him there. Here comes the tears from Carmen. Tina notices and says to her 3-year-old, Rachel, "Look at Jie jie. She's crying because the movie is so sad. Tell her not to cry." And Rachel turns to her sister and says "Jie jie, it's no-kay. It's just a moo-wie." (Jie jie is Chinese for big sister).

THEE END! (Side story: Tina read a story to Carmen before bed last night. And at the end of the book, Tina said "Thee end." Carmen retorts "Why do you say 'thee end?' It's THE, not THEE." Tina didn't have a response to that. She was outwitted by a six-year-old.)