Julie & Julia

This story has really inspired me to blog more. Based on two true stories,the two main characters are both living in different times.One in the 1940's and another in 2002. Julie in year 202 was somewhat lost in her life, not finishing things she had started. Influenced by Julia Child, Julie started a project. This project is attempting to cook everything in Julia's french cookbook in a year's time. Julie blogs about her project on the internet and it's an everyday thing. 524 recipes and 365 days, she would have to cook at least one recipe per day and she blogs about her journey everyday.

Having something to do everyday and to blog about is a good thing, because you have something to do at least once a day. I believe blogging improves your writing skills as well and expressing your thoughts and experiences at the same time. Julie was going to be a writer but she only finished half a novel, not enough to be a writer. After work and feeling sad she will do the one thing she loves to do and that is cooking which helps her to relax and makes her happy.

Julia on the other hand has a story of her own and it's about her journey in french cooking, how her cookbook came to be. She moved to Paris with her husband and she absolutely loves eating french food. As a housewife she has nothing to do at home but feeling bored and so she takes lessons in making hats and then playing bridge but it's not exciting enough for her. Therefore she searches for french cookbooks to learn french cooking and found there isn't one in English, all of it are in french which she is not familiar with.

Julia with determination in learning went to a cooking school. She started with basics but it was just too basic such as how to boil an egg. She then joins a more advanced class where she is the only woman in there. She was the last in class but with her determination she practices at home and soon she is top of her class. After graduating from the cooking school she teaches US housewives french cooking with two more ladies who are french. These two ladies were writing a cookbook in English but did not succeed in publishing it and asked Julia to join. Therefore Julia Child's cookbook was in the making.

This story inspired me to be more determined in pursuing a dream or even small things that you like to do, be it cooking, sewing, drawing and many more. Having something to do everyday, something you love to do, it makes life more fulfilling. This is because you have something to look forward everyday, you put your heart into it and you enjoy your outcome. I will be on the lookout on what projects that I can tackle and blog about everyday and hopefully it improves my writing which brings me closer to be a writer. Hopefully one day I will be a writer and have a few books of my own, I also like the idea of becoming an editor :P.

Things I love when I was a kid......

Chip...chip...chip n Dale, rescue rangers! I was addicted to the TV most of my childhood days, watching cartoons and TVB dramas with my grandma. Cartoons were how I learned English, I used to watch a few hours of TV whenever possible. The cartoons that I loved watching was Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers, Tail Spin, Gummy Bears, CareBears, Smurf, Jem, Transformers, My Little Pony, Dungeons and Dragons, Thundercats, Looney Tunes and many more.

These cartoons are all unique and you don't see their stories overlapping or repetative at all. Children nowadays don't have cartoons like those times, now we have Ben 10, Teen Titans and many that I don't know. Most of it are action cartoons and children have also shifted their attention to Japanese animation.

When we watched Gummy bears, Smurf and Care bears we learn about community, living in a big family, helping each other. Those were the values being portraited, everyone working together towards a common goal and having a common enemy.

Besides cartoons being shown on TV, animation that are movies was also a favorite of mine. We have The Nutcracker Prince, Swan Princess, Anastasia, Cinderella, Snow White, Quest for Camelot, Beauty and the Beast and many more. If you ask the children about the old Disney movies they may know a few due to the Disney Princess having merchandisers sold worldwide. But I'm sure many would not know the stories they came, yes the name but not the whole story.

One thing that I find about those movies is that they have a great soundtrack, most of it always have very good love songs. In this new 21st century I can't remember any movies that like the ones that I used to watch, most of it are either 3D comedy, family related or action packed, I miss the good old love stories where the couple in the story always have a duet.

Below are pictures of the mentioned cartoons and also youtube video links of the wonderful songs:

• Quest for Camelot
• Swan Princess
• Thumbelina
• Anastasia

Idol gives back

I have been following American Idol season 7 since the beginning and was quite impress with the talent this year. Although there are some that I feel that they should have been gone soon but have still stayed on. Jason Castro and Kristy Lee Cook are the people I feel that should have been voted off instead of Ramielle and Amanda. This year the male singers are very good. Well back to my title, Idol gives back, it was a great thing that they have done.

I didn't know much about the sufferings of Africa until I watched this. It was saddening to know that 30 seconds a child dies of malaria in Africa, other than that, there are many children that have lost their parents to AIDS and need their grandparents to care for them. This is one hardship in life that I know you and I who are in our comfort zones might not have the strength to go through compared to those children.

What I want to urge to everyone is to do something, if you want to travel there and help them, do so with a plan. If you want to donate, find means to donate, donate as much as you can. All my friends who are working, I'm sure rm 100 or 200 is okay to donate out. Since we're working, losing a bit of spending money gives great help to those in africa. My plan is to sponsor a child from World Vision. In doing this, we helped a child, to give them hope and to give them a chance for education. So please take a look at the world vision link and I hope you will help out.

Another thing I would like to highlight would be the KL freeze@ Pavilion. For more info check out http://me.zestful.org/2008/04/video-kl-freeze-pavillio/ or http://randomalphabets.com/. I came across it on thestar.com.my, take a look at it.