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Monday, February 28, 2011

The King's Speech



This weekend I found myself seated in a cinema with my eyes glued to the screen, watching a movie about an underdog who get's a chance to make his mark on the world. No, I'm not talking about Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never". Justin Bieber may seem like king of everything but he still has a long way to go before he's anywhere close to filling the shoes of the king in the oscar winning film "The King's Speech".

Normally I'm not into the style of British cinema but I have got to say that "The King's Speech" contained all the right ingrediants that make up a good story.  Like all great movies, there is a protagonist with a flaw that he must overcome in order to fulfill his destiny. In the case of the movie, it was his speech and stuttering problem. With the aid of a speech therapist who has a bag full of unorthodox methods and absolutely no formal credentials to back him up, the soon to be king George faces his worst fear head on.

The story almost seemed like a modern day Moses and Aaron, Bertie being moses and his brother being Aaron. At first glance, when you look at the two brothers, one has the skill, charm, and charisma and appears to be what people think a King should be. But his character flaws become apparent when he his character makes a decision to abdicate the throne and all his kingly duties and obligations to marry who he loves....leaving Bertie as Britain's one and only hope.

I won't give away too much of the story now that after the Oscars many of you will probably be rushing to go see it. But I will say that history shows that everything happens for a reason. I wonder where England would be today if the events that happened in the movie played out differently and it ended up his brother ruling instead of him. Would they have survived the war?

Behind every great man is a great woman and Queen Elizabeth the first would prove herself worthy of her royal title.  The quote that you see below is her response to the idea of sending her children to Canada or her leaving London during the 8 month Blitz when Germany bombed England day and nite.
 "The children won´t go without me. I won´t leave the King. And the King will never leave" - Queen Elizabeth

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Monday, February 21, 2011

Handling Class with Class

William and Kate shun traditional wedding list...Image by humberpike via Flickr

 Unless you belong to some lost tribe of indigenous people, by now you should have heard about the marriage between Kate Middleton and Prince William. The announcement rocked many different levels and parts of society all the way from the fashion world to Britain's class system. What has struck me most about all of this is the couple's ability to handle the subject of social class with class. 

 Many of you out there look to my blogs for a great example in a relationship. But it is good for you to know that I have my role models as well. William and Kate's relationship provided the perfect resource for me very recently when I had to handle another very delicate topic with my friend Marisa, the theme of social class. In addition to dealing with different languages and cultures in our relationship, I had to break it to her that we are also from different social classes.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

The Joy of Milk



Remember those cute little firefox cubs named Spark & Ember that did a blogpost earlier on? I found out within the last few days that there is a contest to see who can do the funniest voiceovers alongside clips of the cubs. So I downloaded clips of the cubs provided and with the magic of imovie, combined this cute clip of one of the cubs with my twisted sense of humour....



Find more artists like Santa Clara at Myspace Music

Monday, February 14, 2011

Grinding Up Common Grounds....



Happy Valentines Day! On this day where we fill the air with sappy aphorisms about love, I thought it might be a breathe of fresh air to a blog on the theme of love & friendships but sans the cheesiness. There is nothing that melts cheesiness into fondue like dishing out juicy details and hot gossip about me and my BFF.

So grab your morning coffee because on today's blog we're going to be grinding up common grounds the way you grind up coffee grounds. It's time to let the cat out of the bag as I reveal one of the most shocking relationship revelations about Marisa & I.....WE HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON!!!!

Bet you never saw that one coming! But I could place my hand on a holy Bible and swear to you the truth of that statement. If we were to go to court and the judge and jury were to put our friendship on trial based on our things in common, we would get indicted. She's extremely feminine, a definite "girly girl". For me, I'm 30 years old and I'm still trying to find a feminine bone in my body. When I was in Canada and I was looking for a souvenir for her, I literally had to think "OK, what do girls like?" Alot of my friends are girls who aren't overly feminine.

Marisa is my first friend who is about as feminine as they get. This is just one of the many things on the list that are seemingly opposite. We differ in everything right down to our taste in music. If we hung out together I would probably be waiting for her outside a clothing or makeup store and as soon as she was done, I'd drag her into the electronics store to check out the latest technology offering.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Webisode 1 - Santiago, Chile



Andy Spandy drops by Santiago, Chile....

@strugsnotdrugs

Just a little note here that I´ve turned my other blogsite tango2themoon into somewhat of an Andy Spandy fansite. All future webisodes are going to be posted on that blogsite instead of this one.  It has it´s own RSS feed that you can subscribe to. But if you follow me on twitter, you will continue to receive notifications through my feed when a new webisode has been posted.


Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Bad Romance



Gung Hey Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year!

Not only is this time of the year special for me because it is Chinese New Year but this day in particular is very special. Because it is one year anniversary of "Making the Same Difference". It just seems like yesterday when I found myself entering the words "how to start a blog" into a search engine to figure out how to get started.

But my success began when I realized that this was really God's idea, not mine. He already had a plan to get me where I am. Of course I would have to work hard but at the end of the day, where I am today has nothing to do with my own greatness or cleverness. It's his idea....I'm just along for the ride! It's important to realize that all fame and influence comes from God and he's only lending some of it to me so that I can turn around and make him even more famous :)

On this special day, you need to know that each one of you that have visited this blogsite have played a significant part in the growth. There is a symbiotic relationship between us. I write blogs and you keep coming back. When I see that you keep coming back, it encourages me to want to grow as a writer. People cannot get famous without fans. I will never understand celebs who don't treat their fans right because it is because of their fans that make them what they are.

I also want to acknowledge my fans that were actually there with me in the "labor room" the very day this site was born. Your visits to this site daily and weekly make all the difference. I know some of you by name and want you to know that many times when I wanted to quit writing on this blogsite, it was you that was in my thoughts and gave me the desire and will to keep going.

The other group of people I would like to thank is for the wonderful people that look out for me and who keep me accountable as a blogger. Honestly, I feel nervous every single time I push the "publish" button and make one of my blogs public. I never know if what I have written is something right, or if I am "off" or what the blog sounds like to other people.

And I appreciate every person who has ever taken time out to mention something about what I write or even when it comes to things like copyrights and using other people's material on my blogsite. Also, I appreciate those of you who from time to time give me feedback on your experience with the blogsite and comment on things like navigation or user friendliness. Your feedback is vital to the success of my blogsite.

And what I know that can thank every single fan for is for allowing me to experiment with new things. Alot of people don't understand that being a blogger is something that I didn't become overnite, I had to grow into it. Bloggers are actually a sub-culture and I had to find out what it meant to be a blogger and what that looked like. Having such open-minded fans makes all the difference in helping me develop my own unique style.

About the Gaga videos, there is a good reason for it. Leave it up to me to post her most controversial performances! LOL But seriously, the way Gaga treats her fans is such an inspiration for me. I have a friend who worked for MTV and dealt with celebs all the time. She met Gaga and told me that Gaga is not only talented but extremely hardworking as well. She drives herself to give her fans only the very best of her as an artist. I kiss the ground that Lady Gaga walks on....

You know what I would love more than anything in the world this next coming year? To have a "Bad Romance" with all of you out there. I wanna take you for a ride so crazy that you either can't get enough of "Making the Same Difference" or you never wanna come back! There is no room for middle ground. The word "mediocrity" doesn't exist in my vocabulary!

My dream for this blogsite is for "Making the Same Difference" to live up to it's name and be about "making the same difference". You can help me realize that dream by participating in this fundraiser for Generosity Water. It would be a fantastic way to celebrate and mark the one year anniversary of this blogsite. Where are we going to be 5 years from now? Hopefully we'll still be having a "bad romance" :)


Thursday, February 03, 2011

Bohemian Rapsodia



The year of the tiger is over and the year of the rabbit has begun! And what better way to celebrate the ending of the year of the tiger and the beginning of the year of rabbit than with this beautiful top that I found with the imprint of a tiger on it? Ironically enough, the day I stumbled upon this top was Chinese New Years Eve...the last day of the Year of the Tiger before we usher in the Year of the Rabbit.

The story really is quite funny because originally the only reason I was in mall was because I needed new underwear (and NO....you will not be getting any pic of those). After finding an amazing deal for "undies" where I got 2 for the price of $10 CDN, I decided to take a stroll. I wasn't intending to purchase anything more.....it was just a browse.

My favorite Argentine designer is called Rapsodia. Rapsodia is known for clothing that has a free flowing bohemian designs. Rapsodia is also known for having a high price tag on it's products. As well, like alot of clothing shops in Argentina, the majority of the clothing is tailored made for sizes 4-6. Being a girl who tends to be a bit more "busty" and who definitely sports a stomach, already in Canada shopping for clothing is difficult enough. Knowing that Argentina caters to certain body type, I certainly had no intention of running around to a million stores trying my luck to see if by the off chance any of them had something would not only fit me but would look good as well.

But that afternoon in the mall, heaven smiled and all the stars position in perfect alignment and I met my destiny hanging on a clothing rack in Rapsodia. I went into the store simply to have a look and all the new stuff in their collection this season. The moment I walked in, this top was the first thing I saw. I ignored it and proceeded to ask the girl if they had any clothes in sizes for a girl with my body type. The employee put together a selection of clothing and this shirt was one of them.

I stepped into the dressing room and tried out the clothing from the selection she gave me. I guess it must have been my destiny to purchase this top because none of the others really fit me and this was the only one that not only fit but looked flattering as well. And if that wasn't enough to convince me that this was the one, the price tag was pretty much sealed the deal. $219 pesos for the top which is $55 CDN. $55 for a top that is designer brand that looks & feels good and compliments my body type.

Lions and tigers and bears.......OH MY!!!!!



Generosity Water Fundraiser

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?



How do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you catch a cloud and bring it down?

The answer is.....YOU DON'T!!!!

Before I begin this blogpost, I want to make sure that we are not confused between the name of my best friend Marisa and my new student, Maria. Both names begin with "M" and although they are very different people, the one thing they both have is D.E.T.E.R.M.I.N.A.T.I.O.N. I met Maria on my very first day in my new cell group when I started attending the other branch of church in November. How she found out that I teach english is a very interesting story. What happened is that the group leader was asking everyone in the group if they are going to a certain church event. I replied "No" because I teach english on that day.

After the cell group, she started asking me questions about my costs for a lesson and said she might be interested. "Fine, just let me know what you want." I replied and silently recorded that conversation and put it at the back of my mind. I have alot of people that say to me "I want to learn english" but they never follow up. It wasn't that I didn't believe her, I just wanted to observe.

I saw her off and on during the cell group and a couple of weeks later, she comes back to me and says that she is interested. I gave her the same reply and told her to let me know when she was ready. Then in January, she says to me that she wants to start at the beginning of February. To tell you the truth, I was pretty impressed....and for a good reason. You see, she has a 2 or 3 year old son. He is the cutest little thing and is also quite a ball of energy! But I think she is the one with alot of balls to want to go ahead and take on english despite having a 2 or 3 year old and not using him as an excuse not to learn.

Amorous Alpacas

Amorous Alpacas