Ian & Katie's Costa Rican Adventure

I wanted to try loading some video onto my blog (inspired by Cblakes), so this is the video you get. This is a little video montage I put together of our trip to Costa Rica. Its over a year old, but I still think its a pretty cool video with some pretty cool pictures. Maybe it will inspire some of you to take a trip to Costa Rica. Pura Vida!

The Canadians Hoarked Our Idea, Eh

Cblakes and I did a lot of smooth things while we were down at BYU together, but one of the smoothest things we did was to make a romantic fire video. While languishing away in our little apartments during the long months of Provo's winter, we longed for the comfort of warm fire. We longed to curl up in front of a cozy fireplace with a book and a warm cup of cocoa. So we decided to do something about it. We made our own fireplace. With the help of either Mike or Judd (I can't remember which one of you was on a mission and which one was helping us at this time), we got a camcorder and recorded the gas fire at Jim and Jane's for about an hour or so. While we were recording the fire, we played smooth, romantic songs for background music. The finished result: a video of a warm, inviting fire that we could play on our apartment TV that played smooth love songs in the background. We were very proud of it. Tell me that idea and execution were not brilliant. What girl could resist such charms?

So what do I find out the other day from my cousin Whitney's (the Canadian) blog (http://whitneyjdavis.blogspot.com)? The Canadians have hoarked our idea. Not only do they have a cable station that just plays video of a fireplace with Christmas background music, but you can also buy DVDs that do the same thing! I'm not sure whether to be mad because the Canadians hoarked our idea or to admire them for their brilliance.

Welcome to the Blogosphere

I hope you will all join me in giving Katie a warm welcome into the blogosphere! She has started a blog, and we have been working on getting it ready for the public for the last couple of weeks. It is now ready to launch. Enjoy: www.katiecafe.blogspot.com

Stupid Microsoft

This is a really funny video review of Windows' new operating system, Vista. It compares Vista with Mac's OS X. Its short, and I promise you will like it. It appears that this guy does weekly video reviews of technology-related things for the New York Times, and the few that I looked at were pretty funny. This might be a site to bookmark, especially for technology buffs like Cblakes (I don't know why the URL is so long, but it works).

http://video.on.nytimes.com/ifr_main.jsp?nsid=b26f34614:10f8c404286:-3172&rf=sitemap&fr_story=d14603c1e23e6ce37920a8134a2e27b1405a4991&st=1166290646873&mp=FLV&cpf=false&fvn=9&fr=121606_120614_26f34614x10f8bf8e912x694d&rdm=999742.9494534861

More Pics

Its been a while since I posted any pictures of Grace. She is now 4 months old. She got her shots yesterday, and she has been a little fussy, sad, and lethargic. We feel like she is getting pretty big, and she has grown, but she is still only in the 2nd percentile for weight (she's in the 40th percentile in length). But the doctor said she is healthy, so we're happy. She is really aware of her surroundings now and gets excited to see you, which is awesome. She will also "talk" to you with her "goooo"s and her "coooo"s. She loves music and will sometimes "sing" when Katie plays her violin.

Some of these pictures are from Thanksgiving and have Owen in them as well.

Movie Review: The Prestige

Two weeks ago, I went and saw The Prestige with Darth Spencer, Rumbler and TJ. It was really good. Its hard to review because you don't want to give anything away. Basically, its a cool story that takes place in an interesting context (19th Century magicians). There are all kinds of twists and turns, which keeps things interesting and keeps the audience guessing. I thought the film-making was quite nice. The cinematography, set design, and costumes were excellent, creating rich images of 19th Century England. And the editing/directing was masterful: the director managed to simultaneously tell the story from three different time periods without confusing the audience and without resorting to flashing dates up on the screen each time the time period changed. The acting was excellent and engaging. My only complaint is that the story seemed to leave a few loose ends, but that flaw is understandable considering how much subject matter the director managed to fit into the 2 hours. Overall, I would highly recommend this movie.