The X Factor: Red, White and Why is CeCe Frey Still Here?

If you're here, then you're most likely a fan of big time talent show, The X Factor.  This is my second X Factor entry on this blog; my first featured my favourite UK contestant from season 7, Cher Lloyd.  I'm happy to see that my predictions have been right; although she didn't win the competition, she has been successful after the show.  I love her fun, charming and poppy style and I really believe that she will continue to make waves in the music industry.

The beautiful Cher Lloyd rocking a red pouty lip

As the title suggests though, this entry will focus on The X Factor USA.  I've been following the second season and I've been enjoying it for the most part but find myself frustrated about some others, which I'll get into later.  There are definitely some wonderful acts that I have been rooting for.  At this point of the competition though, I see one act with the undeniable X Factor; that would be the amazingly talented Carly Rose Sonenclar.  At the tender age of 13 she has proven to be a force of nature with a remarkable singing voice.  She is a major sweetheart and never fails to captivate the audience.

America's sweetheart Carly Rose Sonenclar

Britney Spears is a great mentor and I feel she does a great job figuring out what works for her acts and what America wants to see.  Britney is the gravitational force that had me tune in.  The Queen of Pop definitely doesn't have trouble drawing in a crowd.  I'm so glad to see her on the judges panel.  I love Ms. Spears' funny facial expressions and honest feedback.  Her body of experience makes her a great asset to The X Factor team.

The many faces of Britney Spears

I feel the opposite about judge and mentor Demi Lovato.  While I think she's personally talented and very likeable, I feel she doesn't quite understand the competition.  Her acts have not been strong under her guidance.  I've never felt blown away by any of them during the live shows, except when Paige Thomas sang Coldplay's "Paradise" for a survival song (having been in the bottom 2.)  Everything about that performance was brilliant, but unfortunately Paige's talent couldn't be showcased in this fashion during regular live performances and she has been sent home this week.  I really wish the best of luck to Paige Thomas.  She seems like a very sweet person who has the passion and drive to follow her heart and dreams.

Paige Thomas and her adorable daughter on stage during auditions

I feel Demi really needs to start listening to Simon Cowell.  Every time Simon has an opinion about one of her acts, I am in full agreement.  I feel she is doing her acts a disservice by not taking any of Simon's feedback.  He's been doing this show for a long time and understands the perfect formulation for The X Factor.

Demi Lovato and Simon Cowell in disagreement on the X Factor judges panel

Demi makes a lot of bad decisions, but I think there is one decision she should have never made.  I saw a star in one of the acts she didn't put through onto the live shows.  I believe that if Jillian Jensen, whose audition has now reached over 10 million hits on YouTube, had the chance to perform live, Demi would've had an act that would've made it far...maybe even win.  Although seeing how Demi's acts have been doing under her wing, maybe it's in Jillian's best interest to have not made it through this time.  I hope Jillian tries again, because I know she can go far in the competition.  Who doesn't like a good comeback!

Jillian Jensen pouring her heart and soul on stage during auditions

With that said lets get to the nitty gritty.  You may disagree with me, but I can't help but feel this way after seeing so many wonderful acts being sent home. I strongly feel CeCe Frey should not have lasted this long in the competition.  She has been in the bottom 2 far too often, and I feel she gets saved any week that America sees she's in a vulnerable position.  In this season they reveal the rankings of the American vote and her results have been very volatile.  It almost seems she is getting the pity vote whenever she suddenly jumps a few rankings up, from being in the bottom 2 the previous week.

It's so sad that someone like Vino Alan who has been in the top 3 numerous times, is being sent home this week.  What a shame.  Vino Alan has a soulful and powerful voice, so much heart and a loveable personality.  He's an example of not to judge a book by its cover.  With his rough and tumble exterior, inside he is nothing but a big pool of love!  He does a lot of great work spreading joy to the troops with his voice and I really hope that life outside The X Factor treats him well, but I'm sure it will! Good luck Vino!

Vino Alan connecting with the audience

Back to my rant though...I'm going to sound like Gretchen Weiners from the movie Mean Girls talking about "Queen Bee" Regina George, but what's so special about CeCe Frey?  Yes, she's a beautiful girl, but the X Factor is more than just looks (ex. Susan Boyle.)  CeCe misses the mark on all other points.  Her vocals are not technically sound.  While she has a powerful voice, I often find her songs are sung flat or off key.  Watch Demi's facial expressions and you can see even she is not impressed.  Each week I have not seen her progress in the vocal department.  On another account, her personality is seriously lacking.  Demi, who is CeCe's mentor, even said during the judges houses that her personality was unlikeable...and I still find her to be.  If CeCe Frey is not sent home next week, then I will have to say goodbye to another amazing act.

The remaining acts include:

1. Diamond White:  This young diva is like a little Whitney Houston.  I know that whatever happens in the competition she has a future in music.
2. Fifth Harmony:  These wonderful girls have formed a strong and genuine bond over the course of the competition.  Each of them on their own sound amazing and together they are incredible.  It's exciting to see the birth of a new girl group.  Girl power all the way!
3. Emblem3: These boys with their fun and energetic personalities and cool Cali sound weren't always a favourite of mine, but they've definitely grown on me.  They have proved to be a talented group over the course of the live shows and I know they have more musical skills to showcase.
4. Tate Stevens:  To have a country singer in the competition is refreshing.  You may be surprised to hear this, but I happen to like myself some country.  He's definitely a fan favourite and his devotion to his wife is so lovely.  He dedicates every performance to her...doesn't that melt your heart!
5. Carly Rose Sonenclar:  Need I say more?

In conclusion, if CeCe takes out another talented act who is far more unique, loveable and talented than her, then this blogger is going to have a virtual hissy fit haha.  Okay maybe not that bad but I'll be kind of disappointed as a viewer.  Now don't get me wrong CeCe fans, I never said she outright sucked, I just think she doesn't embody The X Factor.  Remember American voters...this show is the X Factor, not season 2 and on of American Idol...no more pity votes please!  And now I leave you with CeCe...

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New Girl on the Block

It's about time that I write up about one of my new favourite shows, New Girl.  It's a sitcom about Jess A.K.A. Jessica Day (Zooey Deschanel) a very quirky, go-getting elementary school teacher who moves into an apartment shared with three single guys, who are best friends.  The guys are Nick (Jake M. Johnson), a bartender going through the motions of a hard breakup, Schmidt (Max Greenfield), a young professional who is a loveable douchebag with obsessive compulsive tendencies and Winston (Larmorne Morris), a former roommate who returns after playing professional basketball in Latvia for 2 years with no real idea what his next venture is.  There is also Cece (Hannah Simone) who is Jess's very supportive and loving best friend who works as a model.

It's pretty amazing how wonderful and supportive the guys are to Jess as she goes through a bad breakup.  I won't say what happens because I don't want to completely spoil it for you if you haven't watched it. Without further ado, let me describe how wonderful each main character is!

Winston is often the voice of reason in the male trio, although not when it comes to his own life.  When he left for Latvia he forgot about the things he left behind in the US.  Now that he's back he has to deal with his past, which includes old cars, old relationships and old ways.  We see his struggle of being unemployed and trying to figure out what he wants to do in his life.  Winston is a fast learner as we see in one episode called "Bells", but he often forgets how much potential he has.  With his friends' support and encouragement, we definitely can foresee him propel into a great future.

This is bad quality, but one of Winston's best scenes!  Here he is to save the day - he's a super star!

Schmidt is quite the character.  Deep down past all the douchebaggery is a major sweet heart.  To me he's the type of person who knows exactly what they're doing, but doesn't always know why they're doing it.  To explain it better, a lot of the things he does is to try to get the approval of others and he forgets what he wants in the end.  On the outside things look good; great fashion sense, good job, good health and etc. but he has some insecurities to work through and needs to be more honest with himself and less concerned about what others think.  All in all he's a very nice guy just looking for love :P.  

Also this!  Kind of a spoiler...but this is Schmidt way back in the day.




Cece is Jess's best gal pal who lives in another apartment with her fellow model friends.  From what I gather Jess and her go all the way back to high school, and perhaps even earlier.  We still haven't seen exactly how the two met, and I don't know if we ever will.  That would be cool to see some flash backs of them when they were younger, 'cause they've done that for a couple of different episodes already.  Cece is very protective of Jess and helps her through thick and thin.  In her own life she's still figuring out things when it comes to dating.  She doesn't have the best taste in men, but a large part of it may be due to the men that revolve around in her industry.  When the guys meet Cece, it's obvious that they're very attracted to her.  Guys will be guys? haha




Nick is a down on his luck bartender who recently got dumped by his girlfriend.  He's a mess when it comes with dating and women in general.  He's also the groups handy man...although he has a Mickey Mouse way of fixing things around the apartment.  I think he has a unique way of approaching different situations, but in the end he gets the job done.  He often speaks his mind and is very direct.  Out of the guys I think he wears his heart on his sleeve the most, not being afraid to show emotion and spill out his feelings.  His insecurities hold him back from going after what he truly wants, but he's working on it.  I'm rooting for Nick!




Jess has been dubbed as "Adorkable."  What a great word!  She generally has a positive outlook on life.  She sees the best in everything and everyone, although sometimes that gets her into trouble.  She works as an elementary school teacher. When it comes to her students she's very dedicated and does her best to get them to be as enthusiastic about things as she is...even if that means writing a song about it.  She adds a whole new dynamic to the apartment and brings a breath of fresh air that the guys needed.  Her quirky personality and ways are not something you come by everyday, but you can tell the guys taken a great liking to her.  Most of the time she's really nice, but she's not afraid to speak her mind to the people who need to hear it.  When it comes to dating she gets really insecure about what to do.  Usually it just takes the love and support of her friends to set Jess in the right direction and go full force!  She herself is a great friend and will pretty much do anything just to see her friends do well.



Overall I love everything about this show.  It's a half hour long show that I look forward to every Tuesday.  Plus I love saying "Oh a new New girl is on TV tonight!"  Saying "new" twice feels like untreaded speech territory.  Anyways the situations are hysterical, the characters are all loveable, the underlying story is just great!  If you haven't watched this show, I suggest you do and thank me later.  Now I leave you to this awesome music video.



  

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Where Would I Be Without Music?

I realized I haven't blogged in 4 months and it has been around 2 or 3 months since I've made any videos.  I'm slowly falling off the face of the internet.  I cheated on Twitter with Facebook as a way to reconnect with people again after abandoning Facebook for a long time.  One friend even commented saying this was the most active they've seen me on FB haha.  Then recently a friend of mine that I met through YouTube messaged me on Twitter and it led us to reconnect on Facebook.  I guess I'm not good at keeping my social media life well balanced :P.  As I said when I first began this blog..."blogging is just so much easier", so if it is, I might as well do it!

So some of you might be wondering where I've been.  I'm kind of a weird one...I tend to disappear when something is going on in my life (either bad or good), just as a way to focus on the situation, or a way to escape, 'cause we all need to get some fresh air every once in a while.  I think I'm ready for an internet comeback though starting with this post :-).  

I wanted to dedicate this post to music that I love.  It helps me get through tough times, and it makes good days even better...you can often find me in my cubicle at work or in transit bopping my head to the music or trying to sing along haha.  I love hunting for new music, and when you do find that song you thought you only heard in your dreams - it's like falling in love for the first time...at least for me :P.  I love to share music, because I hope that people feel that same magical connection with a song too and it makes them just as happy.  I used to share a lot of music on Twitter and when I was reintroducing my face on Facebook I went and decided to share music...lots of music...I had a theme everyday.  Some of my favourite themes included: Memory Lane Monday, Whistling Wednesday, and Soundtrack Saturday...I also love alliteration.  Anyways without further ado some songs that made my heart melt and were stuck on repeat.


Flight Facilities - Crave You ft. Giselle: I was actually eating a popsicle on a hot summer day coming across this track.  It's cute, fun and addicting. 


Memoryhouse - Foreground: This is actually a cover by Memoryhouse.  The original is by Grizzly Bear.  I love how hauntingly chill this sounds.  


Neon Indian - Polish Girl:  I feel like I'm on a space adventure where there are dance parties and smoke machines.  This one just brings a smile to my face.


Hammock - Tristia:  Sometimes songs are better without lyrics.  If there were words I think it would say "Things will get better.  We're in it together."  Cheesy I know...but give it a listen and see for yourself.


Goldfrapp - It's Not Over Yet:  Sad and beautiful cover by Goldfrapp.  I like all the instruments and the emotion in the vocals. 


Lana Del Rey - Video Games:  An old Hollywood star reincarnated in this 25 year old beauty by the stage name of Lana Del Rey.  Love her voice, love her songs.  How perfect this song is called video games...


 

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Growing Up With Action Flicks and Looking Up to Kick Ass Chicks

This post is for all the laddddiiiieees...actually you guys will like it too. I don't really know anyone who doesn't like a female heroine, unless they're an evil villain or one of their ex-boyfriends :P. I grew up on a lot of action/martial arts movies, but few of them featured kick ass females. Most of the time if there was a main female role, she played the damsel in distress, but that might be due to the fact I was a little girl and watched a lot of Disney Princess movies as well :P.




I knew from an early age that a princess didn't have to wait around for a prince to rescue her. Anyone recall "The Paper Bag Princess" by Robert Munsch? One of the greatest children's books ever written...that and "The Very Hungry Catepillar" :P.



There are a good chunk of females who have graced the silver screen or the boob tube who took on great challenges, both physical and emotional but in my case I'm not talking about figure skating scandals, cheerleading sabotage, ballet turned hip-hop dancing switcheroo type of challenges, although those can be entertaining as well :P. I'm talking about super heroines, evil villianesses and overall rough and tumble chica's. Some of my personal all time faves include (in no particular order):


Sarah Connor, the mother you don't want to ever disobey, from The Terminator films, played by Linda Hamilton

The very intelligent and brave Lieutenant Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise, played by Sigourney Weaver

The mystical, quirky, loving and fighting spirit of Leeloo from "The Fifth Element", played by Milla Jovovich

The mysterious, devious and dynamic Catwoman from DC's Batman, in which I LOVED Michelle Pfeiffers performance

Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) the strong-willed teenage girl coming into adulthood, from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV series created by Joss Whedon

Max Guevara the genetically enhanced transgenic super-soldier, from the TV series "Dark Angel" played by Jessica Alba

(From left to right) Gabrielle (Renée O'Connor) the faithful and quirky sidekick, Callisto (Hudson Leick) the misunderstood and maniacal warrior, and Xena (Lucy Lawless) THE Warrior Princess, from "Xena: Warrior Princess" TV Series created by Sam Raimi

(In order of appearance) Kiddo Beatrix (Uma Thurman), Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) and O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) from the Kill Bill films from the mind of Quentin Tarantino. Sorry to all you Vernita Green fans, I just thought out of all the characters she was lacking something...I think the suburban life kind of killed her in the end :P.



Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley), the runway model turned bounty hunter from the movie "Domino." This character was based on a true story. How much is true, I'm not sure, but she's still one of my faves :).

(In order of appearance) The powerful and independent Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) and the swift and rebellious Jiao Long (Ziyi Zhang) from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

The intuitive, highly gifted and graceful River Tam (Summer Glau) from the TV Series "Firefly" and the feature film "Serenity."

The super slick and kick ass Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) from the Matrix trilogy.

The in-your-face Landlady (Yuen Qiu) with big heart and hidden martial art skills from Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle."

The miraculous and magnificent Quorra (Olivia Wilde) from Tron Legacy.

Here is Nikita (Peta Wilson) in the TV series "La Femme Nikita"

And here is Alex (Lyndsey Fonseca) and Nikita (Maggie Q) from the 2010 version of Nikita launched on the CW network.

There are many other kick ass females I left off the list...but I could be here all night if I keep at this rate hahaha. Right now I just want to focus on Nikita. I used to watch the 90's La Femme Nikita with Peta Wilson, which was created in Canada :). My mother and sisters tuned in one night and got hooked to this character and story. In this version Nikita had been a homeless woman being wrongly accused of murdering a cop, but in fact she was being set up for reasons unknown to her at the time. Although a lifetime in jail seemed like the only thing in her future, Nikita's life was going to change drastically. She had been set up by Section One, a top-secret government agency, who proceeded to fake her suicide in jail and recruit her to be trained as a highly skilled assassin. If she failed to comply she would then be killed. The series was amazing, so I was very sad to see it off the air.

Then 2010 rolled around and I started seeing promos for a remake of Nikita, starring one my fave actresses Maggie Q. I first saw her in a Chinese produced movie that my dad had bought called Naked Weapon. Although the plot line was plenty ridiculous, it was definitely entertaining. Just as a warning, this is not a movie to watch with your parents. I wish someone had warned me as there is one graphic scene in there that is more uncomfortable than just any other regular sex scene hahaha.

So in this remake Nikita has gone rogue, from the secret government agency, called Division. She recruits and trains a young girl by the name of Alex to join in her mission to seek revenge and take down the agency which has both brought destruction to their lives.

I've been waiting for a show like this to come on the air for a good long while. I love action, but I love it even more when the characters and story are multi-dimensional. In some of the episodes they go back in time to help explain more recent events. They give the back story of the characters, so you can see how far along they've transformed and what challenges they had to endure to get where they are today. Plus all the action sequences are very well done. Maggie Q was trained under Jackie Chan and does all her own stunts in Nikita :). If you like action, and a good story, be sure to check out this show.

Here is a link to one of my favorite fight scenes (embedding was disabled, so you're going to have to make the jump to YouTube): Nikita Fight Scene

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SeaNanners For President and My 15 Seconds of YouTube Excitement

I haven't written a post in a while, but really wanted to document my experience when my "A Blurb: SeaNanners Gets Serious" vid gained a lot of attention briefly. Also just wanted to give bit of a back story of why I was inspired to make this video. If you haven't seen it, I've posted it just below :)




I guess I'll start at the very beginning. For a little while I've been trying to teach myself After Effects in my spare time. It's been a challenge with the little free time I do have juggling work, planning birthdays, planning farewells, planning baby showers, being a bridesmaid, spending time with friends and family, necessary chores and life in general haha. I'm at "that age" where life is exploding in my face. Being a young adult is sure something, but I'm making the most of it while I can before my next phase of adulthood haha. Anyways continuing on :P...


For a long time I really wanted to make a motion typography video. Then one day I noticed a new SeaNanners video in my subscriptions box. I tuned in and listened to his thoughts and just found myself really happy with the message he was conveying about life - how each of us fit in the world. I've had similar thoughts before, but it was just nice to see some positivity and wisdom being spread out into the world. I don't think enough people on YouTube really do this, especially people who have huge fan bases that can take advantage of it and do some good with it. Unfortunately this particular video has been set to private and can no longer be viewed. This was most likely done as he is a YouTube partner and he used copy-written music in the background which conflicts with the partnership program rules.

Now some of you may not be familiar with SeaNanners. SeaNanners is Adam Montoya who started posting Call of Duty gameplay/commentary on YouTube and over a period of time he started gaining a huge audience because he's exceptionally good at the game and has a great attitude and outlook on life. I came across one of his commentaries on the "Most Viewed" section called Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro...I think. I found it to be very enjoyable to listen to his random thoughts about women and cooking - I guess he was asking his audience what he should make a video about, if they would want more specific CoD tips and tricks or general life chats and updates. At this point I think he was starting to open up more on YouTube and started connecting with his viewers which drew me in. I'm not huge on FPS's, not that I wouldn't play if I had the opportunity but I'm not really one to sit and watch CoD tips and tricks since I don't play that particular game. My all time fav FPS though has to be GoldenEye 007 for N64...old school I know but that game has some very fond memories for me...like feeling proud after the moment where I played through the train level without any assistance from my older sisters, making up the code phrase "do you want to kill me?" to start up a multiplayer match with my sisters...oh my dad returning the game the first time claiming the game was too violent but in reality my mom wanted him to return it since it was an impulse buy, and we ended up repurchasing it at a later date :P. ANYWAYS getting caught up in memories...moving along.


This is the part where I sound like a stalker but this story has been shared before and I find it very inspiring so don't judge me! hahaha. Adam's whole YouTube thing was purely a hobby and still is. His original career path was more focused on being a filmmaker of sorts. He entered a lot of film competitions and I believe did a lot of freelancing. The economy started to suck big time and the recession happened which hurt a lot of people including him in finding more work. Times were tough - and times are still tough as a lot of people are still affected by it now, including myself - but enough about that! So he posted CoD commentary as a hobby and his audience grew to massive proportions and continues to grow today. I think I joined on when he was around or under 100K subscribers...and now he has well over 600K subs...just insane in the membrane right? So his videos were getting massive views and he was building a very loyal audience. The great people at Machinima.com caught notice and then proposed him a position as a Segment Producer for their Respawn channel. He's been doing very well ever since - making the big move from Washington to California and being part of an awesome team at Machinima. It's great to see good things happen to good people.


So yes I'm a "fan girl" although I really dislike that term lol. I'm not waving around a flag with a banana floating in the ocean or have a huge foam finger with SeaNanners written across of it - :P those are just a few of the images I get when I hear "fan girl/boy." So I really wanted to make something special as a tribute to these inspiring words, from an inspiring person and do it as part of a project in which I taught myself motion typography and other things that is After Effects.

This project took me a period of 2 weeks of working on and off of it, so I don't know how many man hours it took. I would come home from work and try to spend time on it, and there was a weekend in there where I got sick and couldn't work on it at all. After Effects crashed on me several times, and I even had another version I exported before I released the final version on YouTube. There was a lot of reworking and figuring out things in AE, and yelling at my dear ol' computer which needs some hardware updates.

I finally completed it, tweeted it out like any one of my other vids and then it all happened. HE saw it...I figured he gets a lot of @mentions so it would be buried deep under a bunch of tweets. He saw it and I guess he liked it 'cause he retweeted it out to his 100K Twitter followers, and "liked" it on YouTube...then a wave of SeaFanners (lol) were directed to my video and it blew up in to which I have called "My 15 seconds of YouTube excitement." My reaction was not one I was expecting...I was of course ecstatic...beyond ecstatic...my heart was on hyper drive, I couldn't think straight, was purely speechless...well when I wanted to talk it was jibberish hahaha. I think I received 20K hits on the first day and it rose gradually to almost 50K hits today. It received a bunch of video honors, which I'll list some of the more significant ones below:

First Day
#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Film & Animation - Canada
#1 - Top Favorited (Today) - Film & Animation - Canada
#1 - Top Rated (Today) - Film & Animation - Canada
#1 - Top Rated (This Week) - Film & Animation - Canada
#2 - Top Favorited (Today) - Canada
#3 - Top Favorited (Today) - Film & Animation
#5 - Top Rated (Today) - Film & Animation

Second Day
#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Film & Animation - Canada
#1 - Top Favorited (Today) - Canada (Landed me on the homepage)

#1 - Top Favorited (Today) - Film & Animation - Canada

#1 - Top Favorited (Today) - Film & Animation

#1 - Top Rated (Today) - Film & Animation - Canada

#1 - Top Rated (This Week) - Film & Animation - Canada


I also got #35 Most Viewed in Canada, landing me on the 2nd Most Viewed page on the 2nd day...although I only got a screenshot of when I was #40.

This was when everything was just at an all time unbelievable moment of reality and the same time YouTube emailed me about putting ad-sense on the video (which I declined).

Although a short ride of thrill and excitement, I am forever grateful and will remember this forever. The thing that made this the most enjoyable was actually making someones day a little better. I received one comment that said something along the lines of "before this I was very depressed, now I'm feeling a lot happier." That means the world to me to have affected someone that greatly to change their day for the better :). My ultimate goal is to keep improving my motion graphics, vfx, video editing and etc skills so that I can bring my imagination to life and hopefully bring happiness to others. Anyways that's pretty much the full story. Thanks for reading if you've stuck around for this long :P. Hope you're all doing well!

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Refreshing Ye Ol' User Name

So I've been inspired to write a new blog by fellow blogger and best friend Laura AKA bubbasmi. I haven't done so since I went away on Christmas vacation.

I just wanted to keep this post short and sweet and just acknowledge the fact that I'm slowly going through the process of switching over to my new user name "carmahdee" in place of "karmadee888". I was never really happy with karmadee888, even though how similar it is. I really didn't like the 8's...I hate having numbers in a user name, especially when I don't necessarily identify with the number other than being my favorite/lucky number.

I kind of got inspired to do this refresh because I hated the direction my two YouTube channels were going. One was mostly vlogs, a few little video compilations and very few creative skits. The other channel was used for recorded gaming sessions and entertainment news. I kept thinking how much I disliked managing two channels, but only really created the 2nd channel to acquire a better "brand."

So now that I'm re-branding I feel that carmahdee is just a simplified way of putting my first and last name together and adding "dee" for "design" or for the play on "chickaDEE" one of my favorite birds that I grew up with. In the end the 8's just seemed cluttered.

I also got inspired by a lovely YouTuber named Courtney who recently reinvented her YouTube channel and goes by "courtneypants". Her original user name was "sailme90" which she also just grew out of. Despite the fact I'm sure she loves the videos that are on her older channel, the user name just didn't mean as much to her anymore.

So this is my reasoning behind switching up the names - combining the two channels together and hopefully spitting out brand new content which is more in tune with my joy of creating video content. I want to provide entertaining video content about the stuff I like and document my life at the same time, in one place.

I know I'll lose some subscribers and all the views I've acquired over the years, but I'm okay with that. I know the ones who do enjoy what I do will stick with me and that means a lot. It was never really about the number of subscribers and view count for me anyways. Thank you to those who have supported me thus far. I truly do appreciate all your feedback, comments and "likes". You're the bomb-diggity. So on that note, please subscribe to my very empty and plain channel http://www.youtube.com/user/carmahdee and stay tuned for some fresh new content from yours truly!

Love,
Carla

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Cher Lloyd Has The X Factor and Bob's Your Teapot!

I always enjoy clips of X Factor that roll up on YouTube's Most Viewed, because they're usually quite entertaining.  They either feature some interesting auditions...

Ablisa need to hug it out

Or some amazing talent :) 

Leona Lewis has a crystal voice

Recently my attention has been captured by young contestant Cher Lloyd of 17 years, (16 when she first auditioned) from Malvern, Worcestershire.  I've been following up with every performance since she had impressed the judges during her wicked audition singing Keri Hilson's version of Soulja Boy's "Turn My Swag On."  She was nervous but definitely had no reason to be as all 4 judges, including guest judge Natalie Imbruglia, passed her on through to the next round.

Ripped jeans are not my thing but Cher pulls them off well.

Cher had then passed X Factors boot camp round with a risky song selection, (an arrangement of Swizz Beatz's "That Oprah" and Coldplay's "Viva La Vida") where Nicole Scherzinger was a guest judge.  It's been floating around that Cher had lied when she stated in a clip mentioning she had written some of the lyrics for the boot camp round.  In the actual performance she stuck to the lyrics of the original artists.  It only looks as if she lied because of how the show was edited.  Cher had decided to change the arrangement and cut out her own lyrics, which was a good idea in my opinion, but that doesn't make her a liar.  I just wanted to clear this up because I really dislike seeing someone being wrongfully accused.

Cher sheds a few tears after her boot camp mash up.  Don't cry for me Argentina...

Next up were the Judges Houses where Cher failed to finish performing Mike Posner's "Cooler Than Me" in front of judge Cheryl Cole and guest judge will.i.am due to a case of tonsillitis.  I could imagine how nerve racking and stressful this part of the competition is as it's the last phase before entering the live shows.  What bad timing to lose your voice.

Ricola!

Despite Cher being unable to perform, Cheryl Cole saw something special and selected her to move on in the competition, though the tabloids begged to differ.  People had believed she could not handle the pressure and wasn't ready to be in the limelight.  Cher proved them wrong as she swept the crowd during the first round of live shows singing "Just Be Good To Me" and spitting out some rhymes.

Cher proving them wrong in parachute pants.

I haven't even bothered to look at the other contestants because I like to believe Cher will win the show and become a hit among other successful recording artists.  Why do I like Cher so much?  She has a lovely personality, great voice, rap skills, and is an all around "cross the T's and dot the I's" performer.  She's the whole package bringing her own style to each song.  Most times when I watch a contestant off a talent search show, I often find myself bored.  I'm tired of hearing karaoke versions of the same old ballads.  I want something fresh and modern and Cher certainly delivers.  The competition is nearing towards the end and I wish Cher the best of luck in the hopes of winning this season's X Factor.  Anyways enough of me typing, I'll just end the post with some of my favorite performances from Miss Lloyd :).

UPDATE:  Cher Lloyd didn't win the X Factor, but she did make it to the top four finalists.  She did an amazing job throughout the competition.  She performed a mash up of  "The Clapping Song" and "Get Ur Freak On" and she performed "Where Is The Love" which led into performing a duet of "I Got A Feeling" with will.i.am.  Despite losing the competition Cher won big time by getting signed a record contract with will.i.am.  I'm excited to see where Cher's career goes from here.  Congrats Cher :).

Turn My Swag On Audition (A Great Start!)

It's A Hard Knock Life (Knock Out Rap)

No Diggity/Shout Mash Up (Killer Performance/Energy)

Sorry Seems To Be/Mocking Bird Mash Up (Stunning and Stellar)

Nothin' On You - Full Clip (Tip Top Tailors!)

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America's Next Top Relatable Model: Ann Ward/ Bullying Sucks: It Will Get Better

I never thought I'd be writing a post like this as it exposes one of my "secret shames."  You may be more familiar with the term closet geek, but I am the opposite of that, I suppose I'm a closet girly girl...sort of. I do like to dress up and play around with make-up, hair and nails but when it comes to media related things such as chick flicks, girly shows, womens magazines and "Britney Spearsesque" music I tend to be less open in sharing these things. I guess most of the reason is because most of my friends are guys who don't really care to talk outside games, geekery, sexy babes and sports. I guess this blog is a good place to release that girly build-up...in which I won't refer to as girly build-up anymore 'cause that just sounds gross lol.

So I'm coming out of the girly girl closet hahaha

So I haven't followed America's Next Top Model closely for quite some time. I watched the first two or so seasons and eventually lost interest which was probably due to some bitchiness or cattiness among the contestants or general bad feelings I got when I watched the show.  I then checked in again when one season featured shorter models, but never really followed all the way through.  This season though, Tyra Banks kicked it up 10 notches by offering some huge prizes, which included:

1) A contract with IMG Models, one of the top international modeling management companies in the world.
2) A fashion spread in Vogue Italia and an additional spread and cover of Beauty in Vogue.
3) A $100,000 contract with Cover Girl Cosmetics.
4) And some new found confidence!

It's time to get serious because the stakes are high!

So my closet girliness was intrigued and tuned in to watch the entire season of America's Next Top Model Cycle 15. I was hooked mostly because I was rooting for 19 year old, Ann Ward from Dallas, Texas, who caught my interest immediately. For me she was completely relatable. I once was her; completely shy, bullied in high school, lacked confidence, and was uniquely awkward. Apparently Ann Ward caused some controversy before the season even aired, which I didn't read about until after the season was over. A promo for ANTM had featured Tyra commenting on Ann's small waist. People from all over were flaming Tyra for promoting unhealthy bodies, which was not the case and Tyra defended her case by stating, "As a leader in celebrating and promoting healthy body image, I must admit that I regrettably didn’t see this clip before it was released to the public. But on behalf of the Top Model team, these were not the intentions, and we truly apologize for any confusion, anger or disappointment it may have caused." I guess all that complained didn't watch the "KISS MY FAT ASS!!" Tyra show episode.

Ann Ward had been teased and bullied for being thin and being blessed with a height of 6'2".  It never mattered what any of those bullies said to Ann, because she truly came out on top.  She was the first in ANTM history to receive top photo 5 times consecutively and by the end of the competition was announced the winner of ANTM cycle 15.  This was the first time I was actually overjoyed about an ANTM winner. Ann is very talented, beautiful and has an amazing future ahead of her! (Side note: I also read that Ann plays video games which makes me love her even more!)

Ann Ward's photo from the Matthew Rolston photo shoot

I know how it is to be bullied for being thin from experience and some may think it's not as bad as being bullied for being overweight but in the end bullying is bullying no matter what, where and who does it. I was bullied and teased for a lot of different things and of course this includes things I couldn't change about myself, (like being short or Asian.  How messed up is that?)  My peers were feeding me a lot of negativity and I had grown to believe that there was something horribly wrong with me. I was a thin girl growing up, but it wasn't unhealthy; it was a mixture of my parents genes, a healthy diet, my youths metabolism and a mixture of physical education. I was naturally thin, but it didn't stop girls from accusing me for being bulimic or anorexic.  For me the bullying started in elementary school; I got my first taste of how nasty girls can be, which is not far off from the movie "Mean Girls."

The lamest creation of an evil teenage girl is the 3-way call phone trap...

So I got bullied and teased by boys and girls, some I knew and some I didn't even know at all.  End of elementary and all throughout high school I was pretty insecure with myself, but it wasn't all bad.  A lot of good came from that experience.  I was able to channel all that teenage angst creatively (as seen below.)  I saw the world with different eyes and experienced it in a way that made me who I am today, so for that I am thankful.

Look what I made mom!  Me at 17 once again haha.

I attended college in the fall after high school graduation. It was a new beginning for me as I was moving to a whole new city and could gain a brand new perspective.  I knew I couldn't think so negatively about myself anymore and started transforming all of the negative thoughts into positive ones.  I started to enjoy myself more and worried less of what others thought.  I learned a whole heck of a lot during those years, met some amazingly awesome people who I consider the best people on this planet, learned to love and believe in myself and also found great love at the same time :).  I gradually transformed into someone with higher self-esteem and confidence.  It really is true when they say "It will get better."  Even though that's the message/slogan for the gay rights/anti-suicide campaign, it applies to all aspects of bullying.  I have my family and close friends to thank for being there and supporting me during my young years when I was bullied.  To anyone who is a subject to bullying, don't be afraid to talk to someone about it.  I can wholeheartedly say...it will get better and that's a promise!

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Things used to be so cheery around here.

I've been a long time fan of Harry Potter.  I first started reading the books in grade 8 and immediately fell in love.  J.K. Rowling is one spectacular author and many others would wholeheartedly agree.  It's a great feeling to share this story with people of all ages, (and I really do mean ALL ages,) and have them join in on the wonderful world and characters of Harry Potter and fall in love just as much.


  Some may think it's childish to read a series following a boy wizard, but I would have to disagree and tell those who are reluctant to pick up any of the books, based off that particular assumption, to open their minds up a little.  Yes it's a work of fiction, but I think the underlying messages, the relationships between the characters and the characters themselves are so well written that the reader can dive right in and find it believable.  The books make an easy connection to some real life tragedies, real relationships and real people.  Don't be afraid if there's some fantasy thrown into the mix, that's where the fun is, the mystery and the adventure...and not to get all psychological, but isn't that what life is about sometimes?  So take a risk, even if it's as simple as picking up a book and reading it.  Have some fun and let loose.

Put down the drugs kids and read an effin' book.

This weekend Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 released in theaters.  It was a pretty magical day altogether because it had started snowing that same night.  HP7 Part 1 made a whopping 125.1 million in weekend box office sales.  It totally smashed everything else that was in theaters, although I do agree with other web posts that it could be higher.

It's like the more money we come across, the more problems we see

The screening I went to, the room wasn't fully packed.  That may have been due to several screenings on opening night and I just happened to go to the last one within a smaller town.  I'm not complaining, as it's always a bit more comfy when the room isn't packed, but just surprised that it wasn't as busy as previous years.  Once the previews ended, the whole audience hushed each other into silence and we all felt each others excitement :).

Schoooo excited!

Synopsis: In an unexpected and tragic turn of events in the last film, the lives of young wizards and witch, Harry, Ron and Hermione, are greatly affected as well as the rest of the wizarding world.  This year the trio do not return to attend Hogwarts.  Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic are rapidly turning from bad to worse through Voldemort's control and their safety is merely existent wherever they choose to go.  Their main focus now is to end Voldemort's rise to power by hunting down and destroying the Horcruxes, which are the key to Voldemort's immortality.  With the knowledge, skills and clues left behind they band together in this seemingly dark, lost and lonely world to uncover the mystery of the Deathly Hallows and continue their fight for the greater good.

Run to the hills, run for your lives!

A story can be interpreted to film in many different ways and this is just one vision of that story crammed into a 2-3 hour timeline.  I really appreciate the hard work and effort these talented individuals put into making this story come to life.  If we were all so nit-picky about how that gets translated to film, then it really takes away that certain appreciation for the arts so many people tend to forget.  And with that said, here's my take on the film, without giving away too much. WARNING: To those who do not want an inklet of info about this latest HP film, you probably don't want to read further if that's the case.

I have to say that this film was one of the most beautifully shot.  Some of the scenes were breathtakingly gorgeous and would make for a good 2011 calendar. 

I do like myself a cool rock formation.

The film gets right to business and offers us a bit of humour for starters.  From then on it's fast paced and full of action.  Hold on to your seats for a bumpy ride!

David Yates did a tremendous job directing this film.  The feelings and tone captured throughout the film were perfect.  Yates definitely captured the darkness again.  There were a few times I jumped out my seat, held onto my seat and a couple scenes that made me feel nervous and uneasy.  If it wasn't for the PG-13 rating I'm sure this film would've included some imagery that would make it a whole heck of a lot darker.

I can do everything you can do, but better and in heels!

You might want to look up from this one Hermione!

The look of panic on Ron's face really stirs up some nerves in this chase scene.

One of my favorite scenes is with Harry and Hermione dancing in the tent together.  It was a very tender, sweet and awkward combination, that brought a warmth to the sadness and hopelessness that surrounded the two young friends.  

Insert "awww" here

The villains are bad as ever, but Bellatrix Lestrange takes the cake!

Overall the film met expectations.  The acting was great. I think Rupert Grint who plays Ron Weasley, really outdone himself this time round.  The costumes, make-up, visual effects, props, sets, lighting, music, sound, editing...everything was done beautifully.  I found myself entertained and never bored throughout the entire film and loved every bit of it.  I really can't wait for Part 2 which will be a bittersweet ending to the series.  At least we don't have to wait a full year for the next release!  Hope you enjoyed this little review and blog entry.  Happy Sunday everyone!

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