why so serious?

I am not un-cultured. Just because I didn't see one of the BEST films all year until seven months after the fact has NO bearing on my cultur...a...bility. (?) Bear with me here.

Well, all of you EARLY birds, (or should I say 'on time' birds) this will be old news to you. But if you consider this amazing masterpiece "old news" already then you OBVIOUSLY didn't appreciate it enough and you should be THANKING me for bringing it to your attention again right before the Oscars tomorrow night. So, I finally watched this. Four. Times. Or something. So, be happy for me. I am officially the LAST human being (excluding my parents) to have seen The. Dark. Knight. Oh, and Heath Ledger is a sick joker. So awesome. 

 

I also saw this. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews from friends - but I couldn't totally ignore the critics and their high endorsements. And honestly, you can never go wrong with Pixar. Anyway, I'm trying this new thing where I actually, like, WATCH the movies that are being shown on the screen rather than doing a Sudoku puzzle or working on some other distracting project. And this is definitely a movie that a viewer has to give a lot to in order to appreciate it. But seriously, just pay attention to this endearing little robot. This is a great movie. I really liked it. :)

p.s. Take note of the release date on the Wall-E poster: June 27? Yeah. My birthday is June 26. Also known as the day that we hopped on an airplane for Tahiti. I missed this by one DAY. *Sigh*

it's funny.

It's funny, sometimes, how the things that are always important to a person are so easy to stop doing. Like... exercising is a huge one. Even if you just skip ONE day you're schedule is totally messed up and you can't get back into the habit. Another big one for me is journal writing. I skip one day and I feel like I need to write an epic novel about EVERYTHING I missed - when in reality you just need to write a couple things down about what you did and then call it good. I can never seem to do that.

 

And apparently that's how it is with me and blogging.

 

I got out of the habit, and so much happened I keep thinking: "Well where do I even START?!" There's so much I COULD talk about... but I just don't know what!!" 

 

Well, this is Lauren saying hi and hello and that she is going to try her best to update this a little more often. Seriously folks.

 

Have a nice day!

hail the conquering hero

I do not accept defeat. I believe in persistence and no matter how many websites I have to go through in order to watch Lost Season Five I will do it. Once I made it onto the fifth or sixth page in my google search (after many, many failed attempts and many death signs yelling at me to go back to America-- I swear it would come to the point that the sign would appear even before I tried to watch anything....) triumph was mine. I stumbled upon a very sympathetic website called {lost-streams.com} that has allowed me to watch the ENTIRE first two episodes of LOST without questioning the American in me!

 

To put it lightly I am a very, very happy person. 

 

I actually haven't watched it yet because regardless of the nice website... our internet still isn't, um, fast. So it's been buffering since 7:30 this morning (It's almost 11:30 now) But I'm patient. I'm very patient. 

 

And I'm a very happy person.

i have high hopes

We were lucky enough to watch the inauguration here in Tahiti - some was dubbed over in French with French commentators, but the rest was in English. It was neat to watch. (And I am in LOVE with {this} performance! So beautiful.) (And I liked all of Michelle Obama's wardrobe.) I am excited for this new change and have high hopes for him as President. :)

letters

To Whom it May Concern at abc.com,

I have been watching a television series of yours, namely LOST, for many years. And in light of the new season premiering this coming Wednesday (the 21st of January) I was much hoping to stick with the story. But that's where I have a little problem, see... I am slightly, um, limited as to what I can watch on TV nowadays... and due to my limitations, I was greatly looking forward to streaming Lost via your free episodes spot on your website. 

 

But no. 

 

Apparently these are only available to "United States residents only." Yes, it is true that I am currently living in French Polynesia, but that does NOT change my citizenship to the United States of America. The only way I can really watch Lost is to buy episodes via iTunes for three bucks apiece - but we all know once you start you simply can't stop so that'd add up to be over fifty dollars which is money that I don't have... When I normally would be watching it for FREE in my LIVING room in America. 

 

I'll admit that I didn't start following on-air until the third season because I didn't realize it's coolness until I borrowed the first two seasons from my sister and maybe that is why you are punishing me. But I really wish that you would look into this problem. I hope to hear from you soon. Sorry for the run-on sentences.

 

Sincerely,

Lauren Smith

 

Dear youtube.com,

Thank you for all of your wonderful contributions. I love you. Thank you even more for allowing me (in Tahiti) to stay caught up with this new season of American Idol by posting videos of selected performances featured in the show. Perhaps you and ABC could arrange a meeting to collab. a little. Forward this on to them, to let them know just how much better you are. Keep up the great work!

 

With love,

Lauren Smith

xoxo

christmas time is here... still?

This post is actually intended to be about something that happened yesterday... but in honor of the fact that Christmas DID happen I thought I'd at least post a FEW pictures of the twenty-fifth.

 

We had a few Elders over for breakfast while two of them used our vonage phone to call home to their folks. And below is our tree with our presents neatly arranged on the table guy.

 

Okay, that's enough that's enough. Christmas was grand - I got some fun things, iTunes credit, an awesome necklace from New Zealand, a few practical things etc. etc. Oh, the whole fam got a LOT of chocolate/candy stuff. 

 

But over here we like to celebrate Christmas going into January, and it looks like we might continue the party into February or March even (depending on when some other packages decide to get here.) And yesterday we got THIS in the mail...

 

Back home in SPRINGVILLE at the ward's Christmas party - they had a little table-guy for cards to missionaries. And I guess that, like, includes us! So we were terribly excited to see a package-guy carrying some darling Christmas cards for us! :) (Full of lots of snow and snowmen and Santa Clauses and other cute Christmas things) It was so exciting to get some fun mail from some awesome people in our ward in Utah. Here's a shout out to all you Springcreek 15th ward members (whoever of you reads my blog anyway - and if you're one of those people who DO keep track of this, pass the shout out along will ya? Thanks, xoxo) and a thank you thank you from some very grateful people far away in Tahiti for sending some love our way. We love you guys! :D

feelin' fine in two thousand and nine

Is it about time I posted? I'd say it's about time I posted. I don't know if I've even looked at my blog throughout all of December. I've just been too busy! Eating... and watching movies... and playing games! Yeah.

 

Well, in case you hadn't noticed 2008 left us, and 2009 is here. I thought I'd post some of my favorite things that came about in two thousand and eight.

 

Favorite Thing I Ate

Normally I could never pin point a specific meal that out-did every other meal that I ate in an entire year... but I happened to be hungry while typing and I was thinking about the delicious meal I had at my sister's where Rich cooked the most divine fajitas one could ever taste... :) My mouth is officially watering. And I don't know if I have eaten anything that can out-top that this past year.

 

Favorite Songs

Any guesses? Yup. Viva La Vida. Of course. It's amazing.

Disturbia - Rihanna. It's just... cool and excitified.

Miss Independent - Ne-yo.

4 Minutes - Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland. WE'VE ONLY GOT FOUR MINUTES TO SAVE THE WORLD! This is the best when driving in the car. Lots of memories with this song :)  

Nine in the Afternoon - Panic at the Disco

Human - The Killers. Amazing new album. Love it :)

Hollywood's Not America - Ferras

Forever - Chris Brown

Spiralling - Keane

Chasing Pavements - Adele

 

Yeah, these are all really mainstream songs that everybody's heard of... and usually my thing is obscure indie songs. But I do both. :)

 

Favorite Music Artists I discovered: (well... more like enjoyed more this year.)

Chairlift

Lykke Li

Lenka

The Hush Sound

Panic Attract

Joshua Radin (thanks meg)

Imogen Heap

Copeland

Tristan Prettyman

Justin Nozuka

The Starting Line

Radiohead

Jason Mraz

Paramore

All Time Low

Oh yeah, and Coldplay. But they weren't a new discovery.

...and many more. :)

 

Favorite Movies I saw in Theaters

This is a toughie... and I'm sure I WOULD say Dark Knight if I had seen that in the theatre but since I haven't... I'd have to say Ironman and Dan in Real Life. Yes, definitely those two. 

 

Favorite Restaurant

Tucanos. Without a doubt. Mmmmm delicious.

 

Best Books I Read

This is hard, because I didn't do too much reading this year. (Something I'm hoping to be different in 2009...) but all in all I'd choose The Book of Mormon. (I finished on Christmas Day!! Wonderful experience.) And I'm almost finished with Little Women which I'm enjoying very much. My favorite short story I read was given to me as a Christmas present from our next door neighbor - The Stones. It's called The Lesson by Carol Lynn Pearson, and it's great. Check it out, it's wonderful. (The link takes you to the version on Google Books.)

 

Favorite TV Shows

Lost. I'm so depressed I can't watch the next season. Of course, The Office. And we really got into Monk this year - Tony Shalhoub is my hero.

 

Favorite Hobbies

Playing the piano, creating arrangements. I love taking piano at the Conservatory, I've learned so much! It's been a really, really neat experience. And my French teacher is awesome.

Finding new music.

Writing.

Watching movies.

Running, playing basketball. (I need to get into that again after ALL I ate over the holidays!!)

 

Some Milestones

I passed Physics.

I took the ACT

I joined the facebook world. 

Oh yeah, we moved to Tahiti.

I went to Prom (my one and only)

As of December I can function somewhat well in another language

I turned 17 years old

I've went to New Zealand (en route to Tahiti)

We found a happy home for our dog Allie

I got good at making cinnamon rolls.... mmmmmmm....

I colored my hair back to brown. Yikes.

 

I have many New Years Resolutions. But I think the one way to "sum" up what i want for this upcoming year is in one word: 

succeed. 

And I hope to do that to the best of my ability. Happy 2009 everybody!

workspace

So right now I am burning a kabajillion CDs for the missionaries. It's the present from my parents - a CD full of pictures. And I sort of got semi-put-in-charge of all of the technical stuff. So that's what I've been doing all morning! And this is my multi-tasking workspace.

 

You will notice in this photo...

=>>Three piles of CDs meaning that I have only one-and-a-half more piles to go! (Ten in each, and we need about 45-ish.)

=>>My charging iPod. Uh, it just needed to be charged.

=>>My carry-with-me-everywhere notebook, with a list of things needed to get done. In green colored pencil. Because that's how I roll.

=>>About ten thousand annoying little wires connected to all of the little contraptions that make internet use possible. So annoying. But oh well.

=>>Le Livre de Mormon/The Book of Mormon. I know it's awful to be multitasking while reading scripture. But I'm a little behind and the goal is to finish by next week.

=>>My cup of ice. Anyone that has known me or spent a full day with me where there is a semi-large cup and an ice machine will know that I am constantly eating ice. Constantly. It's always there. Yup. Take the nugget-ice machines at Heber Valley Girl's camp for example. We used to CONSTANTLY make trips to that. Half of the time just for me. I'm just cool like that.

=>>You can somewhat see the open iTunes window. I was listening to The Postal Service. Because their electronic-ness rocks my socks.

 

What you CAN'T see...

=>>Me. Clearly. But I now have funny hair and I was wearing glasses and hadn't gotten ready at all yet. Not that that REALLY matters but I just didn't want to be in any pictures! So... too bad. Deal.

=>>The other plethora of windows open on the mac. Such as three or four word documents that I was updating with my randomness, Facebook and entertaining myself with these awesome little button things called flair (seriously: so addicting. So many wonderful things in one place! Bah!), my email, my blog (obviously), probably someone elses blog, and I think I was looking at USA Today or something exciting like that. [[yes, it is possible to do that many things at once. try me.]]

=>>My mom. In the kitchen. Cooking. A. Lot. And preparing things for tomorrow. Oh! Yes, what we're doing all of this for is the huge Christmas Zone Conference we have tomorrow that we brought all of the missionaries in for. In which case we have a couple sisters and a mission couple staying at our house. So we were preparing for that.

=>>My dad. (Not unusual, but still factual) He was picking up people at airports, running errands for the mish, at the mission office and other such things.

=>>The mess that I had just cleaned up. Yes!

=>>Prolly a ton of other things that I can't think of right now!

Oh, and p.s. this is officially my 50th post on this blog. How EXCITING! This is me saying YAY!