Saturday, March 14, 2009

well then!



nothing that I didn't know...

General Description
As an Encourager, you are very relationship oriented and respond naturally to the needs of others. You want to be seen as an excellent listener who can respond to the challenge of helping others in practical ways, including solving personal problems.

Typical Areas of Strength
Encouragers, like you, are typically energetic, friendly, encouraging, patient, understanding, loyal, steady, dependable, and are willing to listen to the needs of others.

Typical Areas of Struggle
You often shy away from conflict and may avoid making difficult people decisions, rather than hurt the feelings of others.

Your Preferred Activities
Because you cooperate well with others, you function best with access to people who need assistance, encouragement, development.

Your Communication Style
You communicate through carefully chosen words, gestures, body language, facial expressions, and listening skills to communicate your concern.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

on the screen: Marley & Me

Condemn me if you wish, but I'm a fan of Owen Wilson (not so crazy over Jennifer Aniston, but oh well) and when I got free tickets to watch this it was quite an interesting proposition. The fact that it was in Cineleisure dampened the enthusiasm a bit but hey, it's a free ticket.

Marley & Me is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by John Grogan (played by Owen Wilson) and charts the roughly 13 years that the Grogan family had Marley, a yellow lab retriever.

The story starts with Grogan getting married, and moving down to Miami where they adopt a puppy and that kicks off their adventures. The dog ends up eating and destroying pretty much their entire home, and tensions arise as the family has children and pressures mount.

I know, doesn't sound like much of a story, right? The fact is, it really does have a good storyline and I was riveted for the entire 2 hours of the movie. There are funny moments (with Owen Wilson, how could there not be?), there are dramatic moments, and there are pretty sad moments. And of course, the main star of the show is always... Marley. Apparently played by many different yellow labs (I guess they couldn't age the dog with make-up the way they could with humans), Marley steals the show and carries it all the way through your heart-strings.

I really did enjoy Marley & Me, even though I left the cinema feeling kinda sad. All in all, it's just one of those movies that isn't really blockbuster material, but still really does affect you in some way.

Alright, ratings! I'd give this movie a 7.2/10. Owen Wilson was reliable as always, and surprisingly, Jennifer Aniston gave a great, powerful performance as well, you almost couldn't recognize her from her role in Friends. And of course, there was Marley :)