Reviews and More

My brother is not the most fiscally responsible person around. Whenever he gets his paycheck, paying off bills is the last thing on his mind. He would rather go out and have fun with his friends or do just about anything else than satisfy his creditors. As a result, his credit rating is less than ideal, and this has impacted his ability to access resources that would help him get out of debt. For example, he wouldn’t be able to qualify for any secured loans or remortgages since he doesn’t have anything that can be used as collateral, so he has pretty much resigned himself to living in debt.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! I’ve been reading a lot of information about loans and other forms of financial help, and I’ve seen enough to know that no case is entirely hopeless. There are plenty of institutions out there that are willing to provide poor credit loans or unsecured loans to people who may not have property or collateral, but meet other minimum requirements.

I think the best thing for my brother to do — and others like him that might be in similar situations — is to talk to a credit specialist and find out exactly which options are open to them. People might be surprised at all the proactive things they can do to help get out of debt now!

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is an organization that I wholeheartedly believe in, and I try to support them in many different ways. Whether it’s spreading awareness via my blogs or making an outright donation, I get a lot of satisfaction out of being able to help — no matter how small the gesture.

Another great way to help St. Jude is to purchase items from their online store, called the Hope Catalog. The Hope Catalog contains all kinds of fantastic products that can be used for yourself or given as gifts.

In addition to the usual t-shirts, jackets, and caps, the Hope Catalog also offers jewelry, music, books, candles, ceramic crafts, mugs, bags, and more. Most of the items carry the famous St. Jude logo, which I like because people who aren’t familiar with the logo often stop to ask me what it’s for. I’ve just placed a $150 order with the Hope Catalog online store and can’t wait for my items to arrive!

Oh, another thing I want to mention is that the products in the Hope Catalog are all very reasonably priced. For example, an adult-sized t-shirt is just $12 and jackets are just $25. I know other online stores that sell comparable items (not St. Jude-related, of course) for much more than that. It’s not unusual to see stores wanting $25 for a t-shirt with a logo on it or $50 for a windbreaker.

In my opinion, the St. Jude Hope Catalog works out well for everyone. The purchaser gets quality items at low prices and the kids of St. Jude benefit from the proceeds. It’s a win-win situation, so please order something and show your support now!

There are a lot of websites out there that allow you to access free eCards, but if you’ve ever tried any of them, then you know the selection on most of those sites is rather limited. That doesn’t do me any good at all because then I either have to send the same greeting to my family and friends over and over again or move on to another site. I prefer to have a wide variety of cards to choose from, which is why I’ve been taking notice of Egreetings.com lately.

Egreetings.com offers so many eCard choices for so many different occasions that I’m sure I can always find a cool card to send. For example, they’ve got a couple pages listing free, funny birthday eCards for me to browse through, as well as cards geared towards holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, and more. Of course all the cards on the Egreetings site can be personalized with a message or pictures, and you can even add voice messages to some of them! How cool is that!

While there are tons of free eCards on the site, you might want to consider a paid membership that would allow you to access every single greeting on the site and to send an unlimited number of eCards for one year. The cost of this membership is just $13.99, and you can even request a free 30-day trial that would grant you member privileges for that time period. If you like the experience, you can upgrade to a full membership and start taking advantage of all the conveniences associated with the site, such as scheduling eCards to be sent on specific days and saving money compared to traditional greetings.

Here’s an example of a Valentine’s card from the site. If you like what you see, be sure to visit Egreetings.com today!

I haven’t liked an M. Night Shyamalan movie since 1999’s The Sixth Sense, yet I keep watching and watching in the hopes that he’ll regain the form that once catapulted him to Hollywood golden boy status. I know that some people would say that his recent movies are every bit as good (or perhaps even better) than The Sixth Sense, but I definitely don’t feel that way. So when I heard that The Lady in the Water received bad reviews, I wasn’t surprised. And yet, I felt compelled to watch nevertheless.

The Lady in the Water is a difficult movie to describe because very little of it makes sense. By now most people know that Shyamalan based this film on a bedtime tale that he wrote for his children, and while I was watching I got the impression that the plot did indeed feel like it was made up on the spot.

Paul Giamatti stars as apartment building superintendant Cleveland Heep. One day, Heep falls and hits his head by the pool, and later wakes up to discover that a young woman brought him back to his apartment. The woman, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, is named Story (yeah, unfortunately I’m not kidding), and she comes from another world. She’s been living in the apartment complex pool and she needs help from various tenants (the Protector, the Interpreter, the Guardian, etc.) in order to make it back safely.

That’s about the only part of the plot that I think I understood. There are other elements involved, but Shyamalan was all over the place with the details, so the whole thing was rather difficult to follow. For example, I don’t know why Story was living in that pool to begin with. I think the reason was mentioned, but I guess I wasn’t paying close enough attention. Also, I don’t know why she had to be carried away to her own world by a giant eagle (again, I’m not kidding here) or why a weird creature made of shrubbery (?) was stalking her.

The rest of the plot was pretty incomprehensible, and from what I’ve read in other reviews and opinons, I’m not the only one who didn’t “get it”. Yes, I know Shyamalan has said that the movie is about the creative storytelling process, but whatever… it still didn’t make sense and wasn’t entertaining at all.

The Lady in the Water failed on nearly every front. I didn’t find any of the characters compelling, I wasn’t interested in whether or not Story got home, and I thought the acting was subpar. I know a lot of people have said that Giamatti was good in this film, but his portrayal of Heep annoyed me to no end. And Howard — she was just terrible! It was torture for me to watch these people for nearly two hours.

Overall, I can’t see how any but the staunchest Shyamalan fans would like The Lady in the Water. I give it 4.0 stars out of 10.

My family and I were planning to go to Disney World in Florida for one of our vacations this year, but we’ve changed our minds and will be going to Washington, D.C. instead. I’m okay with that decision even though I spent a lot of time online looking for an Orlando rental or other accommodation options. I guess it’s time to turn my attention to finding DC lodgings now!

I’ve been friends with “SB” since we were in college together. He still lives in the same state where we went to school, but I’ve moved on so we rarely see each other. However, we keep in touch pretty regularly and acknowlege each other on holidays, birthdays, and so forth.

SB’s birthday is coming up, and since he’s a priest he has always appreciated Catholic gifts more than anything else. I’ve given him various tokens over the years, and am thinking of purchasing a Bible cover for him this year. I’ve visited his office and know that he uses these items, which of course makes me happy. I’m just glad that he’s so easy to shop for!