Quote of the Week

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

Albert Camus
French existentialist author & philosopher (1913 - 1960)

Up

I saw this film a couple of weeks ago and I loved it. It is one of the nicest films that I’ve seen in a long time. There are some sad and poignant moments but overall it is great fun and a lovely story. Pixar have done a great job with the characters, the voices and the animation. If you haven’t been to see it already go now! How could you miss out on an animated film that has talking dogs?

Ps. Squirrel?!? (go and see the film and you’ll understand)

Dictionary Corner # 52

Prima facie – adjective and adverb (Law)

Accepted as correct until proven otherwise.

- ORIGIN Latin

Quote of the Week

Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.

Aristotle
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)

The Ice Cream Personality Test

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You like to think of yourself as a fairly modest person. And it's true that you don't talk yourself up... but you're also pretty happy with who you are. You are incredibly cautious. You rather miss out on something than make a mistake. No one would ever call you wild... but they would call you responsible. You are a fairly open minded person with a wide range of tastes. You are quite accepting of unusual ideas and people. You tend to have a one track mind. You prefer not to multitask. You are a serious and contemplative person. You definitely do your own thing in life.

The Ice Cream Personality Test

Yuko Ogura Wallpaper

Yuko Ogura Wallpaper

Yuko Ogura Wallpaper

Zhang Ziyi Wallpaper

Zhang Ziyi Wallpaper

Zhang Ziyi Wallpaper

Zooey Deschanel Wallpaper

Zooey Deschanel Wallpaper

Zooey Deschanel Wallpaper

Quote of the Week

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.

Euripides
Greek tragic dramatist (484 BC - 406 BC)

Fantastic Confectionary Idea

Milka have come up with an ingenious idea, they have added Dime bar pieces to some of their Milka bars. The end result is some extremely yummy chocolate. Beware, because if you like Dime bars then you could get completed addicted to this new bar!!!

Natalie Portman Collection

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman was born on June 9th, 1981 in Jerusalem, Israel, as the only child of a doctor father (from Israel) and an artist mother (from Cincinnati, Ohio), who also acts as Natalie's agent. She left Israel for Washington, DC, when she was still very young. After a few more moves, her family finally settled in New York, where she still lives to this day. She graduated with honors, and her academic achievements allowed her to attend Harvard.

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

Leslie Louise Bibb images

Leslie Bibb

Leslie Louise Bibb was born in Bismarck, North Dakota, on November 17, 1974, and raised in Nelson County, Virginia. Later she and her mother, along with her three older sisters, moved to Richmond, where Leslie attended an all-girls Catholic high school, St. Gertrude's.

In 1990 "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (1986) and the Elite Agency held a nationwide modeling search; Leslie's mother took photos of her then 16-year-old daughter and sent them in. Although Leslie wasn't impressed with the photos, the judges--John Casablancas, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Iman--were, and they picked her as the winner.

Leslie Bibb

Leslie Bibb

Leslie Bibb

Leslie Bibb

Leslie Bibb

Forest Whitaker pictures

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker has packaged a king-size talent into his hulking 6' 2", 220 lb frame. The athletically-inclined Whitaker initially found his way into college via a football scholarship. Later, however, he transferred to USC where he set his concentration on music and earned two more scholarships training as an operatic tenor. This, in turn, led to another scholarship at Berkeley with a renewed focus on acting and the performing stage.

Whitaker made his film debut at the age of 21 in the raucous comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) wherein he played, quite naturally, a footballer. He went on to play another student pigskin player in his second film Vision Quest (1985). He gain experience on TV as well with featured spots on such varied shows as "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978) and "Cagney & Lacey" (1982), not to mention the TV-movie Civil War epic "North and South" (1985) and its sequel, the movie that truly put him on the map The Color of Money (1986). His one big scene as a naive-looking pool player who out-hustles Paul Newman's Fast Eddie Felson was pure electricity. This led to more visible roles in the "A" class films Platoon (1986), Stakeout (1987), and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), which culminated in his breakout lead portrayal of the tortured jazz icon 'Charlie "Bird' Parker' in Clint Eastwood's passion project Bird (1988), for which Whitaker won the Cannes Film Festival award for "best actor" and a Golden Globe nomination.

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker

Sela Ward

Sela Ward

Hallelujah for Sela. Everyone's favorite "Sister" was born Sela Ann Ward, on July 11, 1956, in Meridian, Mississippi. Sela's parents were Granberry Holland (an electrical engineer) and Annie Kate Ward; the 3 younger children in the family are Jenna (1957), Berry (1959) and Brock (1961). "Sela" is a Hebrew word that means "rock, boulder, cliff." Sela graduated from the University of Alabama in 1977, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in art and advertising; Sela was also a cheerleader for the Crimson Tide football team, a Homecoming Queen and a member of the Chi Omega sorority. Sela moved to New York to work for an advertising agency. Responding to a friend's suggestion that she was tall (5'7") and pretty enough to try modeling, Sela began a highly successful career with the Wilhelmina Agency. Sela's first gig was in the Pepsi advertising department, and her first commercial was for Maybelline. After appearing in 20 national TV commercials, Sela moved to L.A. and got her first TV role in "Emerald Point N.A.S." (1983); she dated tall costar Richard Dean Anderson for 3 years (which is much longer than the TV series lasted). Sela's movie break came by appearing with Burt Reynolds in the film The Man Who Loved Women (1983), and by now her acting career was established. But perhaps Sela is best known for starring in the TV series "Sisters" (1991), which ran for 6 seasons. The series was a big hit with women, and if the males in the audience stuck around after the steamy (literally) opening sauna sequence, they too would discover a series with fascinating writing and story plots, with Sela as "Teddy"-- in the fashion industry she began her first company, which she wanted to call Teddy Wear. In 1992 and 1994, Sela got the Golden Globe nomination for best lead actress in a drama series; in 1994, she won an Emmy Award and, in 1996, the Screen Actors Guild Award. During the series' run, Sela married Howard Sherman (May 23, 1992 - present). They had two children: Austin Ward (May 13, 1994), Anabella Raye (May 30, 1998). Still very much a pretty woman, Sela appeared in Runaway Bride (1999) as Pretty Bar Woman. In 2000, Sela won her 2nd Emmy award, this time for work in "Once and Again" (1999).

Sela Ward

Sela Ward

Sela Ward

Sela Ward

Sela Ward

Dylan Walsh

Dylan Walsh

Dylan Walsh atau Charles M. Walsh (lahir di Los Angeles, California, Amerika Serikat, 17 November 1963; umur 45 tahun) adalah seorang pemeran Amerika Serikat yang dikenal dalam perannya sebagai Sean McNamara dalam film seri Amerika Nip/Tuck. Karirnya dimulai pada acara FTV Soldier Boys serta serial Kate and Allie. Dylan juga akan bermain dalam film The Stepfather yang merupakan pembuatan ulang film yang sudah pernah dibuat. Film ini akan beredar pada tahun 2009.

Dylan Walsh

Dylan Walsh

Dylan Walsh

Dylan Walsh

Penn Badgley, Penn Badgley,

Penn Badgley,

Penn Badgley,

Penn Badgley,

Penn Badgley,

Penn Badgley,

Penn Badgley,

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Badgley split his childhood years between Richmond, Virginia. and Seattle, Washington. In Seattle he was involved in the Seattle Children's Theater and did voice-overs for a children's radio station. It was through these experiences that Badgley discovered his love of acting. This passion brought him one summer to Hollywood, where he landed an agent and his first big break guest-starring on "Will & Grace" (1998). After relocating with his mother to Los Angeles, Badgley secured several recurring roles on "The Young and the Restless" (1973), "The Brothers Garcia" (2000), and "Daddio" (2000).

Badgley currently lives in Los Angeles. At the age of 14, Penn completed his California High School Proficiency Exam and began attending Santa Monica City College. Also musically gifted, he enjoys singing, writing, and playing the guitar. In his spare time, Badgley likes to go surfing, skiing and snowboarding.

Quote of the Week

One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.

John Wanamaker

‘Dear Economist’ Again

Another good one from Tim Hardford…

Dear Economist: Solve my good boy, bad boy dilemma

Suppose we plot my preference curve for a man as units of “good boy” traits (thoughtfulness, caring, emotional support) versus “bad boy” traits (adventurousness, sexual attractiveness).

My boyfriend, whom I’ve been dating for a year, would come up very high on the former and low on the latter. This situation was fine for me before, but now I’m having a hard time being attracted to him and I wonder if I want to continue the relationship. Has my preference curve simply shifted more in favour of the “bad boy” traits? I know the one year is a sunk cost, but I’m reluctant to give up so easily on such a nice man.

Beatrice


Dear Beatrice,

It is a pleasure to receive a letter that packs so much consumer choice theory into so little space – although I sense a creeping confusion in your question. You speak of a preference curve expressing a trade-off between good boy and bad boy traits. (By the way, I recommend the term “indifference curve”, both because it is technically more precise, and because it makes you sound sexy and unavailable.) Yet you do not specify your budget constraint. You act as if you can have a thoughtful boyfriend or a sexy boyfriend, but not both. I wonder why you think this is true. Perhaps you should hang around with economists more.

Let us take your problem at face value, though, and assume that you cannot simply find a man who has it all. If so, the problem you describe is familiar enough: that of diminishing returns. Only little children want to eat their favourite food for every meal, or listen to the same story again and again. For most of us, variety is the spice of life. So dump your boyfriend and find a rogue. Date him for a year. It is bound to end in tears, and then you can find yourself another ugly, tedious – yet thoughtful – man. They are not in short supply.