cameos.

Yes, I saw New Moon. Yes, I liked it. No, I didn't like Dakota Fanning's cameo.

It made no point! She's a completely A-List actress...starring for 2 minutes, has 12 words, and adding absolutely nothing to the storyline...in a complete A-List movie. Couldn't the studio have saved themselves the probably major paycheck for her appearance on someone a little more D-List? And then it got me thinking about advertising and how her appearance in the previews, posters, and L.A. and New York premieres probably got more people who weren't planning on seeing it to see it because of "the amazing cast". Well...it worked. And I was disappointed with it. Lame. (P.S. Dakota Fanning's entire box office succes can be summed up with 9 numbers: $810,225,006!! Her role should have been bigger...just sayin.).

And then it got me to thinking about another A-List actor who made and appearance in a movie just for the sake of either 1) a paycheck, or 2) to get people drawn to the theater.
No other movie cameo comes to more personal dis-satisfaction than The Rock in The Mummy Returns. WHAT??? His face was plastered on all the posters/commercials/previews/books/magazines/dvd covers...all in attempt to get 14 year old boys to get to the theater (of which was my first midnight premiere ever as a sophomore in high school...I went with Diane, Annette, and Zac...). Anyway, it worked, and I'm still quite bitter. Not only was he only in 2 and 1/2 minutes of the movie,

but he didn't say a SINGLE word. NOT ONE WORD!! AND THEN, to top off the embarrassment of the first minute that he was in the movie, he comes back at the end (for his final minute and a half) as the Computer Graphic Scorpion King. It wasn't even him!

Super lame.

Other nominees for terrible cameos in highly advertised movies:

Sigourney Weaver in Vantage Point
Audrey Hepburn in Always

Keith Richards in Pirates 3

Reese Witherspoon in Penelope

Steve Carrell in Bewitched

Mel Gibson in Fairytale

Queen Latifah in Stranger Than Fiction

Kathy Bates in anything.

christmas assignments.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!!


Dear Family,

Self-Designated Family Elf here!! This year for Christmas we cannot all be together, so we must again rely on phone calls, blogs, texts (for those willing...), emails, and shipped presents to unite us. (And as a personal favor, all you people who will be in Tennessee better post lots of Christmas pictures galore...as we Salinas people will as well!!). Anyway, Mom asked me to create the annual
Shipley Family Christmas Exchange List: 2009 Edition.
I drew all the names out of a hat so it's completely random! Mom also said that Papa will be taken care of. So here we go:

Nana...Josh
Bob...Nana
Dad...Bob
Mom...Kiana
Jamie...Scott
Anita...Craig
Robin...Mom
Josh...Jamie
Scott...Dad
Kiana...Anita
Craig...Robin

And if the kids wanna get involved and get a cousin a little gift (which I think would be fun as cousins; but its up to all you parents as obviously I don't have kids yet to contribute to such things...):

Brooklyn...Parker
Abby...Macy
Lori...Ollie
Gracie...Donovan
Parker...Brooklyn
Macy...Abby
Ollie...Lori
Donovan...Gracie

Ready! Set! Go Ho HO!!! Merry Christmas!

Love,
Self-Designated Family Elf

awesome things.

One of my best friends Matt Briney...

(of whom I must give credit for showing me this website or I'd never hear the end of it...) texted me this website the other day:

www.1000awesomethings.com

I've been obsessed with it ever since because it is such a funny and easy website to relate to.

Amongst my favorite things that are awesome from this website:

#990: Picking a "Q" and "U" at the same time in Scrabble.
#987: Picking the perfect nacho off someone else's plate.
#851: Your family car growing up.
#819: The Take-a-Penny, Leave-a-Penny bowl.
#737: Catching someone singing in their car and sharing a moment with them.
#736: The smell of play-doh.
#710: When little babies let out adult-sized burps.
#694: Screaming at characters in movies to do things.
#639: Carrying all the groceries in from the car in one big trip.

Aww...Enjoy the awesome things in life.

Here's a few of my own:
*The minutes between laying your head down to falling asleep.
*Witnessing someone discover for the first time that... yes...Bruce Willis was dead the entire time.
*When your nieces and nephews give you hugs.
*When you're at a red light and have time to send a quick text.
*When you genuinely serve someone.
*Making a game out of how late you can keep your roommates up being the least amount of annoying as possible.
*Discovering your last piece of gum during Sacrament Meeting.
*Opening a fresh, new CD.
*Witnessing a family pray together for the first time.
*When the brown-noser in class finally realizes his efforts go unnoticed.
*Phone calls from old friends.
*Twix

you know you're in rexburg when...

You Know You're In Rexburg When...

...you have lunch plans with one person and ten people end up coming.

...you find LDS Temple figurines at Wal-Mart.

...you experience all 4 seasons in the course of one day.

...saying "I took a 2 year break" doesn't need to be translated.

...you witness the evolution of a relationship from first date to marriage in one semester. (Or half a semester. Or half of a half of a semester. Etc...)

...it's somebody you knows birthday; every day.

...you refer to Idaho Falls as the "big city."

...you've been on the same first date 50 times: dinner, movie, and an awkward cuddle session.

...everyone owns the clean-flicked version of "Crash".

...you ditch class and then see your professor at lunch.

...your dentist, academic advisor, and Bishop are all the same person.

...the phrase "Do I dazzle you?" is considered hott. Thanks Twilight.

...the school newspaper's "Letters to the Editor" section consists of weekly endless debates of whether or not Harry Potter is in fact, actually evil.

...you've reached the mental state of believing it's ok to wear socks with sandals to the grocery store.

..."Horkleys?" is a question.

...facebook stalking is a daily occurence.

...you check out their ring finger before you check out them.

...it's ok for 24 year old boys to date 18 year old girls, but not for 24 year old girls to date 18 year old boys.

...all directions stem from the Wal-Mart parking lot.

...love triangle's are a staple obstacle for every relationship to overcome.

...Edward Cullen is a level of expectation.

...you get to grade your own papers/tests by way of guilt. "You can cheat if you'd like but then you'll go to hell," the teachers warn.

...prank wars elevate from comic jokes to downright personal.

...you must endure the awkward "you were two minutes past curfew" conversation.

...girls refrigerators are decorated with "you know you've picked the right man when..." parophenelia.

...drama! drama! drama!

...nobody can keep a secret. xoxo, gossip girl.

...the local "club" changes locations every weekend.

...Snuggie's are deemed popular.

...you have to go from your roommate Ryan's movie collection, to Red Box, to Horkley's, to Great American Video, and finally to the expensive Hollywood Video to find the city's one single copy of "Ghostbuster's 2 ".

...you know the true story behind the epic rivalry between Old Fong's and New Fong's.

...you just can't help but love it.

...he's/she's just not that into you.


credit and inspiration for these also include: matt, mike, josie, meghan, jemma,
katie, kristi, sarah, brooke, and brock.

my worst enemy.

So this year for Halloween I didn't dress up. I know, I know, many of you were upset by this (sorry Kim) because I usually have, may I say, unusually creative costumes...just sayin. But really, nothing beats Quailman from 2006...

So I'm too scared to try to top that.

Anyway! I ended up going down to Utah with about 8 friends and we ended up going to the Haunted Forest in American Fork. Terrifying. So so scary. Even though it was all fake and stuff, it got me good. But I also get scared easily. (Jaws still terrifies me).

But the greatest part of the Haunted Forest was making a complete idiot of myself!! And because of this, I hate trees. Yes, trees are my new worst enemy (goodbye snow!!). So there I was, halfway through the Haunted Forest (which is designed incredibly might I add...), and at this point I was in the back of our group. We went into a tunnel that went beneath the ground and eventually came out the other end above ground. As we exited this tunnel, OUT OF NOWHERE the Texas Chainsaw Massacre person-it-killer popped out behind our group and started chasing, who else?, me!!! With his scary mask and loud chainsaw roaring it really creeped me out! Obviously I wasn't scared for my life or anything, but it was creepy being in the back of the group! So I start BOOKING it, full speed, to get in the front of our group, knocking over people as I scrambled. So looking behind me, with chainsaw man two feet behind me, I make it about fifteen steps, turn my head in front of me just in time to WHACK!!!!! run straight into a tree.