Two blog posts in one day? Crazy! I normally wouldn't blog so often, but the main purpose of this blog was for me to record my life during 2013, so that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I'm Canadian, in case you haven't gotten that, and tonight I went and saw a Canadian group called The Tenors. If you've never heard them, go on YouTube right now and listen to them. Then once you've fallen in love with their voices, go buy their album.

Anyways, it was such an incredible concert, and I wanted to catalogue it I guess so I could look back and remember how much I enjoyed it. They sang classics like Make You Feel My Love, and Hallelujah, as well as some of their own original music. They also brought the house down with a tear-jerking performance of Bring Me Home from Les Miserable (I know, right?) and Nessun Dorma. I honestly had goosebumps the whole evening.

That about says it. Definitely go check out The Tenors, they are so amazing.

The Oscars

It happened. Anne Hathaway said it best in her speech referring to her winning the coveted award for best actress in a supporting role. I of course am referring to the ceremony in general. What I seem to forget each year, (mostly because this is the first year I have ever sat down to watch the full award ceremony) is how long it goes. The funny thing is, I didn't find myself checking the clock every ten minutes to see when it would end. This is the first time in Oscar history that I've actually been interested in seeing who won, and had an opinion about everyone who did (I loved Les Mis and all, but the Hobbit should have won best hair and makeup).

In addition to the fact that I enjoyed the Oscars purely because I actually have a goal of watching all the movies nominated, (and am almost half-way through) I was pleasantly surprised by the host this year, Seth MacFarlane. While I've never been a fan of Family Guy, or any other of Seth's shows, I did watch Ted as part of my Oscar goal, and so I had an expectation as to what I'd see Seth do as host. My expectations were met with a rather charming, and talented man. His jokes weren't too off kilter, and I was flabbergasted by his professionally trained singing. I must say, I've developed a bit of a crush.

Apart from Seth's singing, all of the other musical performance were outstanding! The Oscar's this year had a theme: musicals. Both James Bond performances provided goosebumps, (Adele won best song, so I'd expect nothing less) but my favourite musical performance had to be the wonderful mashup of Chicago, Dream Girls, and Les Miserables. Catherine Zeta Jones personified Velma Kelly perfectly, just as if she had starred in the movie this year. Jennifer Hudson made every eye water with her performance of "And I am telling you I'm not going", but when the cast of Les Miserables came out, I couldn't contain myself. As I said in my review earlier this year, Les Mis was fantastically put together with a very talented cast of performers, and I was in awe with how fantastic each actor sang their part in the ensemble.

A few other highlights of the night:

- Reese Witherspoon's dress was DIVINE.
- Playing the "JAWS" theme if a speech was going to long. Hilarious.
- Paperman won best animated digital short, yay!
- Adele's emotional win for Best Original Song.
- Daniel Day-Lewis' acceptance speech was so lovely, a well deserved win.
- Jennifer Lawrence falls up the stairs (something I would most certainly have done) and then recovering well by saying, "you're all just standing up because I fell and that's embarassing"
- Argo winning best movie. Ben Afleck was so grateful, and inspiring in his speech. And nothing says "haha" for getting a Best Director snub than winning best movie. Perfect.

There is so much more I could gush about, I mean, the Oscars were like, 5 years long. But these were just the highlights that stood out to me.

I've had glasses since I started college in 2010, but I've always been one of those deviant glasses-wearers that only starts wearing their glasses when they start getting tension-headaches. It would always just slip my mind to wear them; I'd forget to put them on when I woke up, or bring them to class. To be completely honest, I just didn't like the way I looked in glasses either, so I just wouldn't wear them.

Anyways, this defiance towards glasses has predictably worsened my sight to the point where it was time to upgrade the prescription and get a new pair-o'-glasses. Yesterday was the day to upgrade.

I have to say, getting my eyes checked was a lot more fun than the last time, my optometrist retired and I was forced to find a new eye doc. Man, am I glad I did! There's nothing better than have an attractive young doctor (with the dreamiest blue eyes) look into your eyes and tell you, "you have really nice eyes". I mean, he could have been referring to the overall health of my eyes being nice, but I'd prefer to think he was referring to my beautiful green peepers.

The overall selecting of the frames is a bit of an anxious-stirring thing, don't you think? I mean, I just kept thinking, these are the glasses I'll be stuck with for at least another year, so pick a pair that you like. This time around, I'm wearing these suckers all the time so I don't reduce myself to blindness. It took me a good hour to select the pair that I ended up with, and only with the help of a friend, and two of the assistants at the office. But overall, I think I chose a great pair!

I took this just as I was leaving the office, obviously super excited about my new specs, (they are Ray Ban 5228 5043 for those wondering). I thought I'd go for something fun, because if I'm going to wear glasses, they might at well make a statement.

Let's see how long I manage to wear these on a regular basis, shall we?

The 85th Academy Awards is this Sunday, so I thought it appropriate to post an updated progress status on my nominee list. I've powered through the animated shorts (they are all YouTube), and I'm awaiting tomorrow so I can buy the rest on iTunes. I think I'm making great progress, even though I know I won't be able to watch them all before the award show (that wasn't the point anyways). I'm really enjoying watching movies that are out of comfort zone as well. I'm just not sure which movie to watch next. Anyways, here's the list:

2013 Academy Award Nominees

[ ] 5 Broken Cameras (Best Documentary)

[ ] A Royal Affair (Best Foreign Language Film- Denmark)

[X] Adam and Dog (Best Short Film [Animated])

[ ] Amour (Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film- Austria, Best Original Screenplay)

[ ] Anna Karenina (Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Music [Original Score], Best Production Design)

[ ] Argo (Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Music [Original Score], Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing)

[ ] Asad (Best Short Film [Documentary])

[X] Avengers, The (Best Visual Effects)

[ ] Beasts of the Southern Wild (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay)

[X] Brave (Best Animated Feature)

[ ] Buzkashi Boys (Best Short Film [Documentary])

[ ] Chasing Ice (Best Music [Original Song])*song only

[ ] Curfew (Best Short Film [Documentary])

[ ] Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduq) (Best Short Film [Documentary])

[ ] Django Unchained (Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Screenplay)

[ ] Flight (Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay)

[ ] Frankenweenie (Best Animated Feature)

[X] Fresh Guacamole (Best Short Film [Animated])

[ ] Gatekeepers, The (Best Documentary)

[X] Head Over Heels (Best Short Film [Animated])

[ ] Henry (Best Short Film [Documentary])

[ ] Hitchcock (best Makeup and Hairstyling)

[X] Hobbit, The: An Unexpected Journey (Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design)

[ ] How to Survive a Plague (Best Documentary)

[ ] Impossible, The (Best Actress)

[ ] Inocente (Best Documentary Short)

[ ] Invisible War, The (Best Documentary)

[ ] Kings Point (Best Documentary Short)

[ ] Kon-Tiki (Best Foreign Language Film- Norway)

[X] Les Miserables (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Music [Original Song], Best Production Design, Best Sound Mixing)

[ ] Life of Pi (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Music [Original Score], Best Music [Original Song], Best Production Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay)

[ ] Lincoln (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Music [Original Score], Best Production Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Adapted Screenplay)

[X] Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare' (Best Short Film [Animated])

[ ] Master, The (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress)

[X] Mirror, Mirror (Best Costume Design)

[ ] Mondays at Racie (Best Documentary Short)

[ ] Moonrise Kingdom (Best Original Screenplay)

[ ] No (Best Foreign Language Film- Chile)

[ ] Open Heart (Best Documentary Short)

[X] Paperman (Best Short Film [Animated])

[ ] ParaNorman (Best Animated Feature)

[X] Pirates, The! Band of Misfits (Best Animated Feature)

[ ] Prometheus (Best Visual Effects)

[ ] Redemption (Best Documentary Short)

[ ] Searching for Sugar Man (Best Documentary)

[ ] Sessions, The (Best Supporting Actress)

[X] Silver Linings Playbook (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay)

[ ] Skyfall (Best Cinematography, Best Music [Original Score], Best Music [Original Song], Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing)

[X] Snow White and the Huntsman (Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects)

[X] Ted (Best Music [Original Song])*song only

[ ] War Witch (Best Foreign Language Film- Canada)

[ ] Wreck-It Ralph (Best Animated Feature)

[ ] Zero Dark Thirty (Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Screenplay)

If you've been following my goals for 2013, you'll know that one of my goals is to take more risks. When I thought of this goal, I had some things in mind like skydiving, or taking up scuba diving.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized what I had in mind was just to do things that would take me out of my comfort zone.

Another one of my goals is to read more books (25 to be precise). While attempting to find some books to add to this pile of 25, I found myself engulfed in the world of "Booktube". This is an online community of people that read and review books. The more I watched the videos, the more I wanted to be a part of this community. 

I just find myself at a crossroads. I don't want to commit myself to something that I won't be able to keep up (remember that whole procrastinating thing). I mean, I could care less if no one watches the videos, I'm 90% sure no one reads this blog, but if you are reading this, I need your help. Should I start a BookTube channel? I'm motivated by affirmation, and if I'm not encouraged to do something, I likely won't do it.