POST#53: PARENTAL GUIDANCE!!

Hi guys! Today we're talking about Parental Guidance. It's a really AWESOME movie! I highly recommend seeing the movie. Parental Guidance (previously titled Us & Them) is a 2012 American comedy film starring Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Marisa Tomei and Tom Everett Scott and directed by Andy Fickman. The film was released on December 25, 2012. Artie and Diane Decker agree to visit Atlanta to look after their three grandchildren when their type-A helicopter parents need to leave town for work. Diane is determined to prove to her grandchildren that they aren't just the 'other grandparents'. Problems arise when the kids' 21st-century behaviors collide with Artie and Diane's old-school methods. Although at the beginning of the week, Alice doesn't trust her parents to look after her kids, by the end they become more than just the'other grandparents'. Artie is nicknamed Fartie by the youngest child Barker, who is very defiant and cheeky. Harper is very tense for a violin audition, her grandma tells her she should have some fun and not worry about her audition, while Alice disagrees until later when she realizes that Harper doesn't want to audition. Turner has speech classes due to a stutter but with the help of his grandfather, he overcomes this.

Cast:
Billy Crystal as Artie "Fartie" Decker
Bette Midler as Diane Decker
Marisa Tomei as Alice Decker Simmons
Tom Everett Scott as Phil Simmons
Bailee Madison as Harper Decker Simmons
Joshua Rush as Turner Decker Simmons
Kyle Harrison Breitkopf as Barker Decker Simmons
Gedde Watanabe as Mr. Cheng
Cade Jones as Ivan
Mavrick Moreno as Cody
Madison Lintz as Ashley

It was a really funny movie!!! If you're going to see the movie, be prepared to laugh and to learn a couple of life-lessons! It was so good I watched the movie, not one, but TWO times....

Happy weekend!

Maria.

POST#52: KINDLE FIRE AND 1ST ANNIVERSARY!!!

Happy 1st blogaversary! Today marks the 52nd consecutive week! Thanks for the support! It's been quite an an adventure! 



Today we're talking about the Kindle Fire, one of my Christmas gifts. The Kindle Fire has a 7-inch touchscreen, and you can play games, read e-books and surf the web. It's an AWESOME tablet! The Kindle Fire is the 2nd best-selling tablet next to Apple's iPad. On a totally different note, in my school, we had the day off today because they handed out the grades for the semester and I pulled off straight A's! Oh, and I'm going to a spelling bee next week! Stay tuned!

Happy weekend!


Maria.

POST#51: NEVERSECONDS!!!

Hey! Today we're discussing NeverSeconds, a fellow blog written by Martha Payne, a nine-year-old blogger from Scotland. And what is the blog about, you ask? Well, it's about her school lunches. She reviews her lunches like a restaurant or food critic. Under the pseudonym "VEG" (an acronym for veritas ex gustu, meaning "truth from tasting" in Latin), she launched her first blog post on 30 April 2012, with the help of her dad, Dave. It features daily entries reviewing her £2 ($3.22 US Dollar) school meals, that she chooses. She rates the food on a 1-10 scale "Food-o-Meter", gives it a health rating from 1-10, and a picture of the food. The blog hit international news, and with the consequent revenue, she started donating it to a charity called Mary's Meals. By mid-June 2012, she raised £90,000 ($145,170 US Dollar), which the charity decided to use it to fund the building of a new kitchen in at the 1,963-pupil Lirangwe Primary School in Blantyre, Malawi. On June 14, Martha was removed from her Math class, taken to the principal's office, and told that she could no longer take photos of her food inside the cafeteria. The decision had come down from Argyll and Bute Council, who had become cautious of negative press reaction and the effect it was having on the school lunch ladies. Of particular concern was an article in the Daily Record newspaper, which had published a photograph of Martha alongside chef Nick Nairn under the headline "Time to fire the dinner ladies". In response, Martha wrote an entry entitled "Goodbye", explaining the council's decision, followed by a commentary from her father. Human rights group Big Brother Watch called the act "an authoritarian infringement on her civil liberties." On June 15, following an online protest, the council issued a press release defending the decision. However, after the intervention of local Scottish National Party MSP and Education Secretary Mike Russell, council leader Roddy McCuish told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme:



<<There's no place for censorship in Argyll and Bute Council and there never has been and there never will be. I've just instructed senior officials to immediately withdraw the ban on pictures from the school dining hall. It's a good thing to do, to change your mind, and I've certainly done that>>. 

The ban was later cited as a "classic example of local government failing to grasp the power of social media", while BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones jokingly called the ban "a brilliant scheme to put their region in the west of Scotland on the map." As a result of the controversy, Martha's Just Giving total rose to more than £40,000 ($64,520 US Dollar) by the afternoon of June 15, and to £65,000 ($104,845 US Dollar) the following day. By July it stood at £110,412 ($178,094 US Dollar). In late November 2012 it was over £123,000 ($198,399 US Dollar).

It is one of my favorite blogs! I look foward to it daily.

Happy weekend! 

Maria.

POST#50: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy New Year! I'm going to tell you guys about what I did on New Year's Eve. So, one of my mom and dad's friends was hosting a NYE party. So, the day before the party, we bought "POP-ITS", sparklers, and "Ground Bloom Flowers". We all counted down to midnight, we shot fireworks and viewed other people's fireworks. It was really fun! We were there 'til 3:30 am, and I went to bed at 4 am. It was awesome! I saw friends that I haven't seen in a long time, and also I have partied a lot, so the holidays were really awesome :-)

Me and one of my friends waving sparklers! NYE 2013

Happy weekend!

Maria.

POST#49: TOP 12 OF 2012!!!!

Happy New Year! Today marks my last blog post (Don't worry! I won't stop blogging!) before the new year, so I'm doing a 2012 recap through a "Top 12 in 2012" list, #12 being the least, and #1 being the best. I'm gonna go through all the awesome things (and also, whatever was impressing) that happened during 2012. So, behold! The list!

TOP 12 OF 2012:

1. Santa giving me a Kindle Fire (I didn't even ask for it, Santa knows his stuff!) 
2. Starting up my blog!
3. Step Up Revolution (refer to post #28)
4. The Summer Olympics and The Fierce Five (refer to posts #27 and #28)
5. Starting fifth grade :) (refer to post #29)
6. Joining my school's Ecology Club. (refer to post #35)
7. Wreck-it-Ralph (refer to post #41)
8. Starting to read The Hunger Games (refer to post #38)
9. Getting a laptop.
10. One Direction on iCarly :) (refer to post #48)
11. Me winning the capitals of the world competition. (refer to post #43)
12. Kate Middleton getting pregnant with twins.

A special thanks to everyone who's laid eyes, read, and supported the blog! Especially to the international readers!!! And with these last words, I will ring in the New Year of all-new posts and the blog's first anniversary!

Happy Holidays, New Year, and weekend!


Maria.

POST#48: ONE DIRECTION :)

Hey! Today we're talking about One Direction, one of my favorite music artists. They are hot, and they sing really good!!!! One Direction is an English-Irish boyband, made up of Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles and Liam Payne. They were formed in The X Factor UK and finished in third place, afterwards, they signed to Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records. They have released two albums, Up All Night and Take Me Home, have broken several records, topped the charts in several countries, and released lots of chart-topping hit singles like "What Makes You Beautiful" and "Live While We're Young". They've sold over 15 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. They have appeared on Saturday Night Live, iCarly, and more. My favorite members are Zayn, Liam and Harry! 

From L-R: Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson

Happy weekend!


Maria.

POST#47: TEMPLE RUN!!!!

Hi guys! Today we're talking about Temple Run, one of my FAVE apps on the face of the Earth!!!! I love Temple Run!!!!!
Temple Run is an endless, freemium (free) game app by Imangi Studios. The player takes the role of an explorer that attempts to steal an idol from a temple and is being chased by "demonic monkeys". Temple Run is about a group of wandering explorers, where one of the characters, controlled by the player, that steals an idol from an ancient temple and is caught and chased by malevolent monkeys out of the temple, creating a "temple run". The player swipes up and down to dodge obstacles, left or right to turn directions, upward to jump, and tilts sideways to collect coins which they can use to buy in-game power ups and characters. The characters that you can buy with the in-game coins are:

Guy Dangerous, "just your average explorer" (default explorer)

Scarlett Fox, "a cunning escape artist" (10,000 coins)

Barry Bones, "a city cop with attitude" (10,000 coins)

Karma Lee, "the fastest legs in the Far East" (25,000 coins)

Montana Smith, "the second greatest explorer ever" (25,000 coins)

Francisco Montoya, "the conquistador" (25,000 coins)

Zack Wonder, "football star" (25,000 coins)

There is no finish line and the objective is to run as far as possible. There is also a "Temple Run: Brave"  game for .99 cents on Google Play and the Apple App Store.

My condolences and prayers to the families of the victims of today's Newtown, Conneticut elementary school shooting. 

Happy weekend!

Maria.