Leahs Cafe

My parents in law have moved from CA to IL after retirement, one of the things they missed is the annual Livermore Rodeo parade. They have always been part of the parade for the past 30 odd years they live there.

My father in law was part of the organizing team and the announcer for the parade for many years. He even got to be the Grand Marshall in 2004.

Have you ever participated in a rodeo parade? I have only watched some rodeo parades on the TVs. However, I have probably heard enough of all the descriptions the cowboys, the Stage Coaches, the marching bands, the floats, the Rodeo Rockettes, the crowds dressed in western and all the exciting happening during the parade. :-) This is just a rodeo parade for a supposedly small town. Can you imagine what is it like to have all the best rodeo champions gathered for a Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (WNFR) at Las Vegas?

I asked the big boy whether he had heard of the WNFR since he used to work and live in Las Vegas for a couple of years. He told me he saw the Wranglers cowboys signing autographs at the tourist mall that he worked, but he is not sure where is the signed autograph now (Roll eyes).

May be you have always wanted to see a live rodeo event? If you are going to be in Las Vegas this December, while checking good deals on Las Vegas Hotels, you might want to pick up a couple of WNFR Tickets so you may get to see the show too while there.

As our internet speed getting faster and broadband more affordable in the last few years, the User generated video sites are the popular thing that create a lot of buzzes on the web. Do you have accounts with some of the well known free video sharing sites? Do you know they are several others out there and one of them is YawpBox.

Like most free video sharing sites, you just have to create a free account with a valid email. Then, you will be able to rate stories, videos and pictures. For the general public and blogger like me, another free video hosting site like YawpBox can only be a good thing, the more the merrier, so to speak. I have taken some videos of the Montessori environment, the students and the presentations of materials, the only kind of videos that I have taken so far, though I might use a video every now and then instead of writing a post on my blogs. :-)

I think free video hosting sites are utilized for a lot more purposes than just hosting homemade videos. I know the entertainment industry has been using it to share movie trailers to create buzzes. The independent film makers also use it to share their latest projects. I have also seen a couple of wonderfully made but no longer in production Montessori videos on the video hosting sites that otherwise many people would not have access to them at all. Of course all of us have watched many of the hillarious and funny videos that got pass through our email list, sometime this kind of videos really make my day when I was all stressed out at work.:-)

Have you ever considered sharing a video that could be used in a TV show? A segment on YawpBox that called YawpBoxTV hosted by Lex and Terry will share their insights with witty commentary on some of the popular user uploaded videos at YawpBox. If your video is good and creative, Lex & Terry will feature it on their show and you could find yourself being watched by millions of viewers!

You may want to start watching Lex and Terry at YawpBoxTV and take up their challenge for the next video assignment at the Lex and Terry Challenge page. Choose the category that works for you and then go ahead, upload something, anyone can be a star on this show, your 15 minutes of fame awaits.

Went for the movie “I am Legend” today.

My ex-colleague CF was in town to settle some business. We decided to meet and went downtown to have dinner at this touristy place. They have so many variety of food to choose and most were good, we ended up ordered too many things and we were stuffed!

Since this new movie place is so near where both of us live and we haven’t been there, we decided to pop in for a movie. We were not sure what were showing at this theater, but we picked “I am Legend” among a few others when we were there.

The movie starring Will Smith is kind of dark, eerie and emotionally shattering. Much of the firm is about the solitary and hopelessness of a single remnant in New York City, after a major epidemic of disease that killed everyone else. But, it’s not boring at all, the whole thing is rather beautifully haunting and genuinely moving.

I would think this movie is classified as action thriller, but this is not your normal loud and jittery action movie. There are quite a bit of melancholy scenes and contemplation that you normally won’t find in an action-thriller. Overall, it’s an entertaining movie, except for the last 10 minutes, the movie ended quite abruptly, maybe they were running out of budget. :-)