World's hottest guys...revisited

About a year and a half ago, as one of my 43 things on 43things.com, I made a list of the 43 hottest male celebrities of all time, spending hours pouring over pictures and determining exactly where each of them ranked. Two more people were added after the list was over, and I would since add one more, so the list currently stands at 46. I haven't looked at the list in about a year, so I'm going to revisit the list here and see how it holds up to time. Here are the original 43, in their original order:

43. Leonardo DiCaprio
42. Eric Bana
41. Anthony Kearns
40. Will Smith
39. Adam Sandler
38. Viggo Mortesen
37. Billy Zane
36. Jamie Bamber
35. Matthew McConaughey
34. Dane Cook
33. Gerard Butler
32. Derek Jeter
31. Blaine Larson
30. Luke Mably
29. Ryan Reynolds
28. Vin Deisel
27. Orlando Bloom
26. Ryan Phillippe
25. Zach Braff
24. Gene Kelly
23. Elvis Presley
22. Joaquin Phoenix
21. Mario
20. Brad Pitt
19. Ioan Gruffudd
18. Ralph Fiennes
17. Alex Rodriguez
16. Montgomery Clift
15. John Krasinski
14. James McAvoy
13. Prince William
12. Daniel Craig
11. Ewan McGregor

And the top ten!

10. Johnny Depp
9. Shane West
8. Ami James
7. James Franco
6. Clive Owen
5. Channing Tatum
4. Jonathan Rhys Meyers
3. Matt Damon
2. Heath Ledger
1. Jude Law

The two later additions were Dominic Cooper and Jeffery Dean Morgan and the one that I would add now, quite possibly as my number one, is Wentworth Miller from Prison Break (see photo).

Overall, looking at the list, I would say it's pretty accurate. There are a couple people I would movie higher (Ryan Phillippe being one) a couple people I might add (Taylor Lautner) and a couple I would remove all together (Zach Braff). But over all, it's pretty good. Although I would make Wentworth Miller number one. No question about that the more I think about it. He beats them all out by a mile.

Restraint

I'm really trying to be better about curbing my ridiculous spending habits. I don't splurge on a regular basis, but when I do, I do it so much that it just threatens my budgeting for like a month. I went into today planning on spending no money, just chilling at home and eating the food we have here. But then I woke up this morning and was really craving pizza. Aaron is lactose intolerant, despite the fact that he LOVES cheese, and he has a really hard time keeping himself from eating it anyway and just dealing with the consequences. But he gets really sick afterwards so, to be a good girlfriend, I usually won't eat cheese or drink milk when he's around because it just makes it harder for him. So the only time I get to indulge myself is on days when he is at work and I am off...like today.

So anyway, I was really craving pizza but also feeling lazy, so I got online to Dominos.com to see how much it would cost me to order a pizza. It was going to be like fifteen bucks for a medium pizza and I figured that I should just go to the store, which is only like two blocks away and get one and cook it myself, since it's not exactly hard. So I head off to Rite Aid, but of course they also have the Maybelline Pearls lipstick that I've been wanting FOREVER (well, OK just since a couple of days ago when I got my issue of Cosmo). But it's $7.19 just for the lipstick, and six bucks for the pizza. Then I see the Tresemme lightweight mousse that I've also been wanting AND I'm almost out of the mousse I have, so of course that's a good justification. The mousse is on sale for only $3.99, but I really want the lipstick, so I wander around the store about twelve times trying to decide. I have the money, I'm not going to go broke if I get all three, but at the same time, I am trying to curb my spending habits, and this is definitely more than I am supposed to be spending daily.

Finally I tell myself that I will get the lipstick another day, since I don't really need it right away and it's not going anywhere, and just get the pizza and the mousse. So I get in line with my two items and right away start feeling guilty. I have enough mousse left in my current bottle to last me a few more days, and eleven dollars is still more than I should be spending, so I dash back out of line and, without thinking too much, put the mousse back and quickly pay for my pizza before I can change my mind. I just got home, put the pizza in the oven and am feeling very satisfied with myself over not buying anything other than what I came to get. I should have just walked in, gotten the pizza and left without stopping to browse. But I have to say, I am very proud of myself that even in the face of intense temptation, I was strong and did not give in.

Just wanted to share.

Anthony Kearns

I wanted to tell you about my favorite singer, actually my favorite musician all the way around. His name is Anthony Kearns and he is one of the founding members of The Irish Tenors, which originally included John McDermott and Ronan Tynan, and now is Anthony Kearns, Finbar Wright and Karl Scully. He is classically trained and sings traditional Irish music, opera and various other ballads all in a very classical style.

I've been a fan of his since I was about 9 years old when I saw the Irish Tenors sing on PBS for the first time. Since then I have been to two of his solo concerts in the US and am anxiously waiting to find out when he will be in the area next. I got to meet him once after the first concert that I went to of his, which was pretty much the thrill of the lifetime. He was very kind, very gracious with his adorable Irish accent. I highly recommend that anyone who has not heard him sing, get on YouTube and listen to a few of his songs. He has a voice that will just warm your heart. It is so rich and full and vibrant.

Get Him to the Greek

Well I watched it the other night, and thought I'd give you a quick review.

First, the plot. Jonah Hill plays up and coming record company employee Aaron Green whose career and reputation is put on the line with his idea to have has-been druggie rock star Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) star in a anniversary concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. But Aldous is in London, so Aaron must attempt to escort him back within 72 hours for the concert, and make an appearance on the Today Show along the way. But Aldous has other ideas and won't come quietly.

Their 72 hour journey to get back to LA is somewhat reminiscent of the Hangover, as they attend party after party and Aaron's innocence is taken advantage of. Russell Brand is hilarious as the out-of-control rocker and Jonah Hill's surprised, innocent facial expressions get a work out. Over all a very funny movie, and one that had my boyfriend and I laughing out loud on many occasions. My only complaint is that toward the end, they tried to put in the moral in the form of a long, serious scene between our two main characters in which they discuss their lives and the mistakes they've made and how they are going to change for the better. It is only broken up with some hilarity by the fact that Aldous Snow is bleeding profusely into the pool and doesn't seem to notice it. If they had to put in a lesson or show that the characters had learned theirs, they did the best they could have. But it is an unnecessary distraction for viewers who are not watching the movie in hopes that Aldous Snow becomes Mother Theresa. But other than that one scene and a couple shorter ones like it, a very watchable, laugh-out-loud movie. Four stars out of five.

Budgeting and other downfalls

So I have a list (previously shared) of things I want to do in the next year or so, nearly all of which take some degree of money. So in order to accomplish these things, I need to have a plan in place to to be able to come up with the cash-ola.

So I figured out what I want to do that will be expensive, how much money it will cost and how much I will need to save by various points to be able to do it. The good news is, I can do pretty much everything on my list without too much pain or saving. The bad news is that I do have to be pretty disciplined in my spending habits.

But with some proper saving, and assuming I don't lose my job before then, I can go to Paris for two weeks with my sister in April, go to LA for a couple days to see Craig Ferguson in the summer and then go to NYC for a week or so around my birthday, all of which would be super awesome. So it's no splurging or crazy shopping trips for me for a while. But traveling is what I love second best (after Aaron), so it's worth it. So hopefully next year I can do the City of Light, City that never Sleeps and City of Flowers and Sunshine in one AWESOME spring and summer!!

Guilty pleasures

I was thinking about guilty pleasures today, since I was indulging one of mine. Every month I end up in line at the grocery store, waiting with my groceries, when the sirens begin. The new issue of Cosmopolitan will be there, gleaming in all it's sleek glory. Every month I attempt to resist it's call, since it's five dollars that could be better spent elsewhere. And every month I have varying degrees of success. This month, I resisted for about two weeks before finally giving in and justifying it to myself (I was good. I ate lots of fruit and vegis this week. And I only spent four dollars yesterday. I deserve it) So I bought it, devoured it in all of it's meaty, gossipy, consumer goodness, and immediately felt guilty. Especially since it's never just five dollars. Every issue features MUST HAVE buys for (insert season here). They range from clothing, which I can usually avoid, since I hate trying things on, and they are usually so far out of my price range, to hair products, which I immediately buy all of, since my goal is to have Kim Kardashian hair.

So that is my guilty pleasure. What's yours?

Home is the Sailor

I was watching the videos on YouTube of Jessica Watson's homecoming to Sydney in May, and I noticed that her mother, as Jessica stepped off of Ella's Pink Lady, said "Home is the sailor, home from the sea." It was such a perfect line for the moment and I knew I had heard it from a poem before so I had to look it up to refresh my memory of it's origin. Turns out it is from a lovely Robert Lewis Stevenson poem, which I put here:

Requiem

Under the wide and starry sky

Dig the grave and let me lie

Gladly did I live and gladly die

And I laid me down with a will

This be the verse you 'grave for me

"Here he lies where he long'd to be;

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter, home from the hill."

National Novel Writing Month

I know I've mentioned NaNoWriMo a couple of times recently so I thought I should mention it a bit further. NaNoWriMo is an abbreviation for NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth. It is held annually in November, and hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world participate by attempting to write a 50,000 word, semi-coherent novel from 12:01 AM on November 1st, until 11:59 PM on November 30th. The idea is to simply get your ideas on paper, and accept that the first draft will be bad whether you spend thirty days, or thirty years on it. Editing comes later.

Participants chat online at http://www.nanowrimo.com/ and discuss everything from grammar issues to favorite novel-writing snacks. In addition, local groups will meet up for "write-ins" at local coffee shops and libraries, where they work on their novels, chat, and have various contests for highest word count, etc. NaNoWriMo is all about the word counts. NaNoers have a million ways to boost their word count, from the fair (long stories told by one character to another) to the slightly unfair, but still doable (having a character with twelve middle names, which are all used every time they are spoken to, or having a character quote long passages of Scripture)

I participated for the first time in 2008, writing, and finishing, a 75,000 word novel based on my personal experience with online dating and the stigma that I felt from family and friends. In 2009, I was too busy and didn't participate but I'm going to go for it again in 2010. Every year, various regions (as small as a city or as large as a country) compete for highest total word count among everyone in their region. Seattle has consistently won, year after year.

This year, my novel is going to be a mystery/thriller novel about a young photojournalist who stumbles upon a village deep in the jungles of Venezuela where the people are living just as if they are in a 1950's New England village. He must attempt to find out the sinister scheme behind their disappearance from 1953 Pennsylvania and their re-appearance in 2010 Venezuela. Along the way he gains friends and a girlfriend, and possibly finds out some dark secrets in his family's history.

So starting in October I need to begin constructing an outline for it (outlining etc before November is fair game, as long as you don't start any actual writing) to be ready in time for November 1st. Then in November I need to average over 1600 words a day to "win" NaNoWriMo by completing my novel.

There's still time to sign up if anyone is interested. It's free and just for fun. Check out http://www.nanowrimo.com/ for more information.

Living on Capitol Hill

Well, we live on Capitol Hill, which is, of course, Seattle's party/gay central. (Not that we fall into either of these categories, it also happens to be a fairly inexpensive and relatively safe part of the city). We used to live on the west side of the building, facing downtown and away from the street, but now we're on the fourth floor overlooking Harvard Ave. And, boy, do we see and hear some crazy stuff go down. Especially on weekends. For example, some kids just ran by screaming, "EVERYBODY RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!"

Of course, it just occurred to me that that wouldn't be quite so funny if a tsunami or something hits in 30 seconds, but for now, I'm amused.

More about readers

On closer inspection of my stats page, it appears they break down my readers in all sorts of ways, short of actually telling me who they are. 9 of them use Internet Explorer, 6 use Foxfire and 2 use Java. Also, 11 are from the US, but 6 are from Canada, and seeing as how I don't actually know anyone in Canada (I don't think) that means that there at least a few strangers on here.

Again, interesting to probably no one but myself.

Readers...

Well I didn't actually expect that anyone would read my blog, I mostly did it for my own amusement/to make myself feel important, but from looking at my stats, it appears that 17 people have viewed my blog in the last month, which is kind of interesting to me. Who are these mystery readers? Were they people I know? Or just bored random surfers of the Internet? It's rather intriguing to me. Is it the same person seventeen times? Or seventeen different people?

On a side note, one thing on my 43 things list is to attend a taping of the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. I love the show and I've always thought it would be fun to be in the studio audience on one of my favorite shows. Anyway, I was looking into price estimates to give me an idea of how much I'd need, and it appears that flights from Seattle to Long Beach, which isn't too far from LA, are only about 180 dollars round trip, which means I might actually be able to pull this off, especially if I could talk my sister into going with, and thus splitting the hotel bill with me.

I also keep forgetting to really talk about my sister. Her name is Robin, she's two years younger than me and has pretty much been my best friend forever. Anyway, up until the last few days, we've talked on the phone about three times a week since I lived with her, and seen each other every two or three months. Well she is going to Bible school in Germany this year, and just left on Thursday. She'll be home for Christmas and then home for good in April, but it's weird having her so far away. I got to Skype with her for a little bit yesterday morning, and I'm hoping that she gets up early enough this morning to chat before I have to go to bed (they are 9 hours ahead so it's about 6:30 AM there right now, and 9:30 PM here).

I guess that's all for me for now, I'm going to try to write a couple more letters to injured soldiers and do some dishes before Aaron gets home in three hours or so.

I

Day off...

I have the day off today so I'm hoping to get some letters to injured soldiers written. I wrote two yesterday so I have fourteen more to go.

Also on the agenda is watching a documentary on Shackelton that I got from work yesterday. I think I've seen this particular one once before but I think it's fascinating and also the closest ng.thing that our store has to sailing videos.

Speaking of sailing, I had a dream last night where I was out on a sailboat. It was a lovely day and I was sailing around a bay by myself (incidentally enough I was on Ella's Pink Lady, Jessica Watson's boat). Suddenly the weather turned bad out of the blue, so I reefed in the mainsail and secured everything in the cabin to prepare for the storm. Also, someone sabatoged the boat by cutting all the lines down super short, so I had to use the new knots I've been learning to tie new ones on. It was kind of cool because I did all the right things in my dream, so I know that somehow my subconcious has caught on to all the sailing books I've been reading. It's kind of funny though.

Fall...

First off, apoligies for the lack of posts recently. Fall is officially upon us here in the Pacific Northwest. It's rainy and wet out. I'm hoping for a cold/snowy winter. I love the snow and the ice but I hate the constant drizzle.

I think I've mentioned my 43 Things.com list, things that I want to do in life. Well I always try to reevaluate my goals every so often and decide which of them I can achieve within a few months, within a year, or within 5 years. Some of them will take some planning and/or saving, so without looking ahead and figuring out when I'm going to hit some of my goals, they will never come to be. I'm constantly asking myself, "How can I make my next goal come true."

Also, I don't like to do New Year's resolutions for a couple of reasons. First of all, it feels fake, because everyone is doing it, and secondly, the holidays are such a busy time, it's hard to find time to breathe, let alone set realistic and achievable goals for yourself.

So I tend to set goals on or around my birthday, as it is in the fall and the summer is over and it's time to buckle down and get some stuff done.

So I have two sets of goals. First are things to get done before the new year, things I think I can realistically achieve before the end of 2010. And second, things that I want to accomplish before I'm 23, or before next September.

So first off, things from my 43things list that I want to do before December 31st.

1. Take a yoga class

I've decided to put this off for now because Blockbuster has declared bankruptsy and I

don't want to spend money I don't have to until I'm sure that my store won't be closing.

But I would really like to do this before the end of the year.

2. Pay for the person behind me

I'm still working out the logistics of this one but I'm going to try to get this done before

the end of the year.

3. Send a telegram

My brother's birthday is at the end of October and I am going to try to send him one.

4. Send 20 letters to injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

I've already written 4 over the last year or so so 16 should be doable.

5. Go a week without the Internet

This one will be hard for me but I should be able to pull this off within three months.

6. This one is not on my 43things.com list, but I'd like to complete NaNoWriMo 2010 in November also (check out nanowrimo.com if you don't know what it is. More posts about NaNo will follow I'm sure)

So I think I should be able to get those done by the end of the year. They are doable as well as cheap in case I lose my job!

Now, before I turn 23 next year, I'd like to have done the following:

1. Visit New York. Since I actually have 3 things on my list that could all be accomplished by doing this one, I'm planning a trip to New York City for my birthday next year, which will also coincide with the 10th anniversary of 9-11 since one of the things is to be at Ground Zero for the anniversary. The other one is to see a Broadway play on Broadway.

2. Learn to sail. I'm thinking next summer?

3. Be part of a flash mob. Always wanted to do this, but having trouble finding a schedule or something? Anyone have ideas? If I knew more people in Seattle I'd orginize one myself. But I'm hoping that I can find one to participate in.

Well, that's it for me for now.

Birthday, tattoo and sailing

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. Saturday my family came to visit for my birthday. Robin and I got matching tattoos and then we went down to the waterfront for lunch and a walk around. Of course there was a sailboat down there, which just renewed my wishes to learn to sail. I got some sailboat earrings, which was the closest I could come to affording a real boat at that time.

My parents gave me a Barnes and Noble giftcard so I went downtown today to use it and ended up buying "Sailing for Dummies." A bit premature perhaps since I have never even been on a sailboat, but so it goes.

I've read five chapters so far, and am figuring out some of the sailing terms, and trying to remember what all the different ropes do. I'd love to take a sailing lesson and get to put my knowledge to the test, but that may have to wait a bit.

Big day tomorrow!

So my family (parents, younger sisters and younger brother) are coming to visit tomorrow for my birthday. This will be the first time that they get to see Aaron and my new place. The plan is for them to come up and check out the apartment, then I'm going to unwrap presents and we can eat cake etc. and then we're going to go to Slave to the Needle for Robin and me to get our tattoos. After tattoos, we're going to go down to the water front, check out Pike Place Market, etc. and eat dinner at Ivars. Should be awesome!

Of course Aaron was super excited when I told him my family was coming to visit (NOT!) Not that he doesn't like them but you know, hanging with the in-laws is never too much fun. Since they just came to visit about a month ago, and he hung out all day with us with out TOO much complaining, I let him off the hook this time so he bailed and is going out with his brothers all day. Which I'm letting him do without too much guilt tripping! LOL

I'm very excited for tomorrow. I just finished cleaning up the house, folding the last bits of laundry from yesterday, doing some dishes, and some vacuuming. Of course, being the lazy butt that I am, I got most, but not all of it done. Although that will probably be ok because tomorrow I'll be so excited for them to get here that I'll need something to do to keep from literally bouncing around the house all morning!

Never Forget September 11

In about twelve hours, it will be exactly 9 years since that history-defining, tragic moment when terrorists attacked innocent civilians in New York. Where were you when you heard the news?

I was almost 13 years old, homeschooled and living with my three younger siblings and parents on a farm in Chehalis, WA. I was a huge baseball fan, and the Mariners were fast approaching a major-league-record 116 wins. There was a Mariners game that evening and as I sat in my bedroom that morning with my sister I was stoked to fill out another scorecard for that game.

My sister, Robin, who was 10 years old, went out through the living room to use the bathroom and when she came back, she said, "Dad wants you to come out to the living room." I asked her why and she shrugged, so we headed out to the living room and my dad had the TV hooked up to the roof antenna, which was unusual because we rarely watched TV. The first thing he said to me was "The baseball game is canceled tonight."

That whole day and the next day we watched TV, those same videos of the towers falling, the fire, and the planes over and over again.

So where were you when the world stopped turning, on that September day?

Trying to do things on my list...

So I'm a bit short on cash these days, a combination of getting almost no hours this week, being sick for most of the week two weeks ago and getting a new tattoo on Saturday, so I can't do very many of the things on my bucket list because a lot of them require dinero. So I am trying to work on some free or cheap things on my list.

One of the cheaper things on the list is "pay for the person behind me." I don't have a car so I can't do it in the drive through and we don't have toll booths. I was thinking of trying to do it at McDonalds or some place but I don't know how I would know what their food was going to cost when they haven't even ordered it yet. Ideas?

Another Jessica Watson post...

Just found out that she's going to be on the Wendy William's show this afternoon. Thank goodness there will be something worth watching on afternoon television! Super excited that she's in the US. Unfortunatly only in New York and LA which are both a little too far away for me to make it. :-(

Come to Seattle, Jessica!

Tattoo

So I have one tattoo right now, on my left wrist that says Freedom is not Free. On Saturday my sister, Robin, and I are getting matching tattoos on our ankles. We grew up on a farm, called Willow Tree Farm because there is a big old willow tree in the back. So my sister drew a picture of a willow tree and we're going to get a slightly modified version of it on our ankles to commemorate being sisters and where we grew up. I'm pretty excited as it will be Robin's first tattoo. Also, Robin is going to Germany for the next year for school so I won't get to see her for a while. We're best friends and we talk on the phone several times a week so it will be weird not to have her be a quick phone call away.

43things.com

So I have to recommend a website that I frequent. It's called 43things.com and it allows you to create a list of up to 43 things that you want to do before you die. They can be small things, such as write a poem or huge things like sail around the world (LOL). Then, you can talk with other people who are trying to accomplish the same things, read posts by people who have done what you want to do, and cheer for other people trying to accomplish their goals. It's 100% free and extremely motivational. I have accomplished so many things that I probably never would have simply because of the list. Having your goals some place concrete is awesome. You can even set deadlines for yourself to accomplish each goal with a consequence if you don't do it. I would really recommend that you check it out.

Jessica Watson-Ella's Pink Lady

So I figured I should tell you about my current obsession. Let me start off by saying that I have one of those obsessive personalities. I will find out about a new thing, whatever it may be, and become obsessed with it. I will be 100% focused on it and that will last about two weeks and I will lose all focus and move on to something new. It's great for getting a lot of stuff done in a short amount of time, but anything that requires more time than about two weeks to acomplish, ends up half finished.

So I'm trying to get better about it, and focus my attention for long enough to accomplish things, instead of spending two weeks Googleing something until I get bored.

So anyway, about two weeks ago, I stumbled across YouTube videos of Jessica Watson's video diary. For those of you who don't know who Jessica Watson is, she is a 17-year-old Australian girl who, in May of 2010 became the youngest person to sail solo, non-stop and unassisted around the world. She spend 210 days on her 34 foot sail boat, Ella's Pink Lady, at sea, sailing from Sydney around the world and back to Sydney.

I read her blog and when her book, True Spirit, (which is the number one best seller in Australia right now) came out in the US last week, I read that from start to finish. She is very inspiring, funny and mature for 17. Her story inspired me so much that I started thinking about sailing and how much fun it would be to learn to sail. Of course I live in Seattle, so there's no shortage of sailboats and sailing lessons so I looked in to it, and it looks like an eight hour beginning sailing lesson is going to cost me about 300 dollars. I don't have that kind of money laying around but it's my birthday next week so I'm hoping that a combination of birthday money and some saving over the next month or so should make it possible to take a class here pretty soon.

I don't know if I'll be circumnavigating the globe anytime soon but at least it would be kind of fun to get on the water and see what it's like. And I would also like to highly recommend True Spirit by Jessica Watson. She is a remarkable young woman and her book is amazing and entertaining.

Starting off...

Well, I suppose I should introduce myself to my non-existant readers out there. My name is Anna and I'll be 22 on Monday. I live in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood with my boyfriend Aaron. I am an assistant manager at Blockbuster.

I normally work about 40 hours a week with two non-consecutive days off. This week, however, I have four days off in a row. Usually I would spend the days sleeping in, laying around the house and possibly doing a little cleaning. Today, though, I am going to start a blog. I kept trying to think of a "theme" or a subject for a blog but I couldn't come up with one, so I think this is going to be about my life. Not that it's particularly exciting, but maybe someone will be interested.