Oscars - Best Dressed and Worst

Could Halle Berry be any more gorgeous? No, would be the answer to that question, so she's my pick for best dressed. She was impeccable, as usual; the hair, the makeup, the minimal jewelry...and that spectacular dress on her stunning body. Okay, I'm gushing.
And the worst dressed? Hands down it was Cate Blanchett in that Princess Leia thing with the icky yellow beads on the neckline. And the big, round, blank bodice that was just crying out for...well...

It's Oscar Night...ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Oscar night is one of my favorite things and here I am on my blog. That's because the damn show is boring me to tears. The opening video was pretty fun but god, someone wake me when this is over.
The acceptance speeches are dreadful, and the bits are generally stupid and pointless. Helen Mirrin speaking French? Kevin Spacey singing? Melissa Leo just needed to sit down and shut up. Ann Hathaway coming out in a tuxedo and James Franco coming out in drag was not clever, not funny. A lot of work for no payoff.
And really, why would Kirk Douglas do that? That was just painful to watch. It was worse than watching Dick Clark do New Year's eve (I know, I know...).
It's the worst show in my memory.
If there's a plus side it's that the dresses are mostly spectacular.
Okay, I'm going back to sleep now.

Tele-conversation on Internet Marketing

If you missed yesterday's Mikki & Friends tele-conversation (with yours truly as the moderator) with Ed Primeau on Internet Marketing you can listen to it here:

He offers some great tips on using video in your Internet marketing campaign.
There are lots of other great Mikki&Friends tele-conversations in the archives. Check them out.

Valentine's Day - Part 2

I know I pretty much trashed Valentine's Day in my post titled Valentine's Day is a Trap..., and I stand by my cynicism. But there is a plus to that insipid pseudo-holiday. For the last 20 years my dear friend Barbara (that's me and Barb about the time she first started sending them) has sent me a Valentine's card. Through the mail. Not an easy-way-out eCard but a real, flesh and blood card that she picks out special, just for me (and I'm sure a number of other people she loves, like maybe her husband, but I like to think she just does it for me).
Well this year NO CARD. Quel dommage. It made me sad. I missed it.
But then Barbara called me and said the card she sent was returned to her by the post office for some reason, and she wanted me to know she had it for me. And that made me unaccountably happy! And it's the funniest card.
Thanks, Barb. You're my valentine!
(In case you can't read it the lady on the left is saying, "You know...when we get old...when we get old...what was I going to say?" and the lady on the right says, "You were going to say it's Valentine's Day and we should go to a bar and flirt with the guys.")

Movie Review: Cedar Rapids

What a hilarious and clever script. It could easily have been slapstick in the hands of another director or different actors but instead is outrageous but believable, and laugh-out-loud funny. All the performances are authentic, all the characters come across as quirky but credible.
Ed Helms is Tim, the principal nerd, who's sent to an insurance convention to replace the company hot-shot who died unexpectedly (of auto-asphyxiation). It's Tim's first airplane flight, his roommate is probably the first black man he's ever come in contact with and he's enamored with the Comfort Inn-type hotel with the fake palm trees in the courtyard. It's all new and oh-my-gosh exciting and Ed Helms pulls it off in a sweet, endearing way.
John C. Reilly is hysterical as the gross and obnoxious third roommate, Dean, the guy Tim was told to avoid at all costs. But despite Dean's boorish behavior it turns out he has a heart, and that's what keeps this film from falling into the stupid pool. The characters are human and vulnerable, and people you'd want to know.
The humor is sometimes gross but outrageously funny. It's an hour and a half of complete fun.
4 stars out of 5

Want to Retire in Five Years?

Very clever little video showing us what financial advisors have to deal with.
Send this to your financial advisor friends. They'll love it.

Valentine's Day is a Trap...

...don't fall in.
The anxiety of Valentine's Day started for me in grammar school which was about 180 years ago. It was a simpler time, a time before political correctness, before it was determined we needed to protect children from the realities of life. So we brought valentines to school but not for every single, friggin' child in the class, only for the ones we liked. We covered shoe boxes with crepe paper and ribbons and paper hearts, and then we cut a slit in the top and people went around dropping valentines into your box.
Or not.
Ah, what a great ego-killing exercise. Real Life 101, teaching us about rejection and disappointment. Here's where I learned that life is all about getting your heart stomped on, when Jim Evans didn't put a valentine in my shoe box in third grade.
Is it any wonder I'm a cynical Valentine's Day-hater? Is it any wonder no one ever accused me of being a romantic?
So if this is your first year in a new relationship and you're wondering what to do for V-Day I hope you and your new valentine are on the same page. And remember, whatever you do now you're setting a precedent. So if you go all out you're going to have to top it next year and in two years and possibly thirty. Do relationships really need more pressure than what's intrinsically built in?
And if you're already in a committed relationship do you need a trumped-up, pseudo-holiday to remind you to say I love you?