tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63857988075172762162011-11-27T18:59:38.449-05:00Reviews of movies, books, and more, by an opinionated pop-culture addict.ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-65312038300999156722010-03-30T13:23:00.000-04:002010-03-30T13:23:30.997-04:00

Please check out my new blog location here: http://myopinionatedblog.wordpress.com/

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-53403155136268155732010-03-05T09:38:00.000-05:002010-03-05T09:38:16.125-05:00

Thanks to my friend Laura, I got an update about this whole Zynga fiasco.  Here's a link to the article explaining it all: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/the-zynga-haiti-controver_n_485919.html So it looks like there was confusion among some people about the two different campaigns.  I'm not sure where that confusion came from since I saw that there were two campaigns when I read the

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-36576763543029212062010-03-04T12:19:00.000-05:002010-03-04T12:19:55.574-05:00

Upon reviewing my Twitter updates this morning, something caught my eye.  Apparently Zynga, the company known for such popular Facebook applications as YoVille, FarmVille, and MafiaWars, to name a few, kept 50% of the money they raised for Haiti.  Now, in fairness to Zynga, they didn't keep that a secret.  But they didn't make it clear either, in my opinion, and that's the problem.  In fact, one

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-33985702150905647162010-03-04T12:13:00.000-05:002010-03-04T12:13:03.226-05:00

First, let me give a public thanks to my friend Jennifer for providing me with my new blog title.  I was looking for something that was a little more descriptive of the types of things I'd be blogging.  In the end, with Jennifer's help, I've decided on "In My Opinion..."  The main goal of my blog is to give everyone my ever-so-important opinion on whatever catches my fancy.  For the most part,

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-56297061558047386092010-02-23T11:35:00.002-05:002010-02-23T11:36:06.770-05:00

I feel I should have the right to see this list: Banks at risk of going bust tops 700 Posted using ShareThis

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-68110710503677636802010-02-02T11:27:00.000-05:002010-02-02T11:27:39.735-05:00

So lately I've come to realize that my only television exposure these days has been to either Logo or Nick Jr.  I've begun joking to my friends that I'm going to start having nightmares about Go, Diego, Go! in drag.  I joke, but it could happen. Lately that's all I see.  My son is going on four and most of his TV viewing interests are geared towards Nick Jr.  I see Diego, Kai Lan, Dora, Max and

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-51520144669174055872010-02-01T22:20:00.000-05:002010-02-01T22:20:12.665-05:00

The other night I got sucked into "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert"  It's an Australian movie about 3 drag queens who take a long trip into the desert to perform their big show in Alice Springs.  Their ride; an aging bus named Priscilla.  Now, I'd heard of this movie before, but never paid it any mind.  I'm a fan of horror flicks, comedies, the occasional drama, and

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-35162790749607387372009-07-13T10:30:00.002-04:002009-07-13T10:39:52.044-04:00

Coming soon to Kind of Weird (aka popculturechick.com), product reviews! Mostly I'll be reviewing books, but I'll also review interesting products, bentos, interesting sites, etc. Today the blog becomes fully public. Anyone with suggestions on something to review, please feel free to email me!My main slant will stay with the blog title. I'll be reviewing things that are kind of weird. For

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-27991229955202440402009-06-26T14:13:00.003-04:002009-06-26T14:31:51.383-04:00

Fluuuu-uuu-uuu. Ok, channeling a bit of Roger Daltry there, sorry.So my son has the infamous H1N1, or as some know it, the swine flu. I have been terrified of this since it first came about. My kids both have adrenal disorders that make illness a tricky situation. They have to get extra meds as soon as they get sick. If you wait too long, they end up in the hospital. After seeing our son

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-30093435469108953512009-05-15T22:58:00.004-04:002009-05-15T23:10:37.538-04:00

This song has been stuck in my head for the past two days. Panic Switch by Silversun Pickups.First I blame Greg Roche. (afternoon DJ on DC101) He has been playing this song every single day, I think. I don't miss many of his broadcasts. Anyway, he thinks the song needs to be a follow-up to one of the Bourne movies. Having never seen them, and detesting Matt Damon, I just got sucked into the

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-74379604033440226712009-04-06T10:33:00.004-04:002009-04-06T11:51:26.091-04:00

I have a serious addiction to Hello Kitty. I partly blame my daughter. Before she was born in November, I just liked Hello Kitty. I had some Hello Kitty bento stuff and that was cool and good enough for me.Now, however, I am completely, over-the-bend, addicted. I have a Hello Kitty mouse.In my cube at work I have a Hello Kitty poster. I also have a Hello Kitty tumbler and stickers and even a

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-66558875569965877032008-06-23T09:12:00.002-04:002008-06-23T09:30:06.467-04:00

Ok, so I went a little bento crazy over the weekend. Obviously I'm into it to the point where I'm making an extra blog entry over it.I actually ordered bento dividers and a few sauce containers via ebay. I bought another bento box at the Lotte store in Fairfax, so now I have three of them. I got new Hello Kitty chopsticks, and I think my Hello Kitty obsession is going into new territory. It's

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-19195872662309680322008-06-23T09:06:00.002-04:002008-06-23T09:12:49.667-04:00

Oooh that sounds kind of dirty! But really it's just a reference to my obsession with "Throwdown! With Bobby Flay"I heart this show. I love that there are Throwdown marathons. One thing that makes me sad is watching Bobby lose all the time. Sometimes I think it's just because he veers so far off the mark of the person he's up against, it's impossible to win. I bet if he tried to duplicate

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-88059843321955889552008-06-13T10:21:00.004-04:002008-06-13T11:23:43.423-04:00

So I got the bento I won from ebay yesterday! WOOT! It's so cute! (or should I say, kawaii?)I even got two molds with it. Isn't it awesome?I've also got some links from craftster.org for bento related items. There is a swap going on right now that I missed. Next bento swap, though, I'm totally in.Links a-plenty!http://community.livejournal.com/eat_my_bento/http://www.justbento.com/http://

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-77374599326999348892008-06-11T10:52:00.004-04:002008-06-11T11:01:14.908-04:00

That is my setting today. I'm at work. I should be doing...well...work. There's not a lot to do, but if I get it done now then it's a whole free afternoon, right? But I want to be doing a billion other creative or crafty type things rather than boring PC-related work.I want to make some crafty felt stuffies for one of my best friends. She lives in Texas, so every so often we ship each other

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-67917565171757386742008-06-09T12:16:00.004-04:002010-02-02T20:15:26.201-05:00

That's right. I know ridiculous amounts of pop-culture flotsam and jetsam. None of it will ever help me make money, and it will never win me any awards or anything fun like that. So here it will go, spilled out onto 'teh interwebs'. My pop-culture interests are pretty varied, so one day you might be reading about the previous night's Top Chef, or you might be reading about Bento Boxes (my

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-84638009133593864032007-10-22T09:13:00.000-04:002007-10-22T10:09:12.585-04:00

"and it opened up my eyes I saw the sign, life is demanding without understanding..."Oops. Ok, so no, not that sign. I feel like I spent all weekend trying to read signs, though. Especially on the way home from Scranton yesterday. "Babe, did you see that sign? Perkins was at the last exit.""No, it's ok, there's another one coming in 3 exits from now.""Wait a minute, was that the sign for

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6385798807517276216.post-67905444873121652642007-10-18T22:40:00.000-04:002007-10-18T23:11:20.028-04:00

It's time to NaNo again. National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo as we crazy NaNo people call it) comes around once every November to suck me in. 30 days after I begin, I'll have a shiny new novel (50 thousand words or more) and a sense of accomplishment...not to mention a nice little Pdf printout saying what a "Winner!" I am.Usually about this time (just under two weeks away from the

ali_mareahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729640592234360463noreply@blogger.com0