In My Head


Saturday, August 25, 2007
I'm in Charlotte, NC next week for business, but I decided to come down a few days early and do some sightseeing.

So we got here last night after sitting on the runway at PHL for over an hour after our scheduled departure time. Ugh. We spent a very short night in Charlotte, rented a car, and drove two hours in the mountains of northwestern NC to Asheville, home of the Biltmore Estate, the largest home in America.

This house (castle?) is CRAZY. I need to check my facts, but it has probably over 100 rooms (43 bathrooms alone) and is on about 150 acres of land. Our house tour took us about an hour and a half to finish, and they only have about 35 rooms open to the public!

It's gorgeous. Unfortunately, tourists are not allowed to take photos of the interior of the house, so I was a good little girl and complied with the rules.

I will share with you a few other pictures I took today: the exterior of the Estate and some pics I shot in the unbelievably extensive gardens on the home's property.

Enjoy!





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Posted by Lori at 8/25/2007 09:26:00 PM |
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Learn the name of their character, so that when everyone else in the crowd is shouting the movie star's REAL name, you can shout his character's name, thereby ensuring that you REALLY get his attention!

I stopped by the set again after work just for the hell of it. There were only about 20 or so onlookers there. Just as I got there, Mark's Escalade pulled up!

They shot for another hour and a half, and we all stood on the shoulder of the road across the street from the set.

I got a better picture of Shyamalan, then I noticed the black Escalade pulling up to the edge of the set. I figured that meant that Mark would soon be coming out, so I slowly worked my way down the road until I was just about directly across the street from the SUV.

Five minutes or so passed, and there he was! Besides a production assistant, I was the person standing closest to his ride. Unfortunately, the road was now open to traffic, so cars kept coming between my perfect shot of him! Dammit.

Anyway, the people behind me started shouting, "Mark! Mark!" and he waved to everyone as he climbed into his ride.

I waited for a break in the shouting, then yelled, "Yo, Elliott!"

And that did the trick! His head whipped around and he looked me right in the eye! I waved and smiled at him, and he gave me a thumbs-up and yelled back, "I love you!"

Apparently, last night after shooting was finished for the day, he actually came over to our side of the street and posed for pictures with fans. Too bad I missed that.



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Posted by Lori at 8/23/2007 09:04:00 PM |


If you look closely, the guy in the grey shirt and jeans is M. Night. And the girl he's speaking to is Zooey Deschanel.





Today's pics are not quite as good as yesterday's. They were shooting mostly exterior shots this morning, and as I'd expected, there were a LOT more gawkers today than yesterday. Also much more security and pushy production assistants.

From what I observed, making a movie is a majorly tedious process. They shot the same two-minute scene at least EIGHT times when I was there.

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Posted by Lori at 8/23/2007 12:54:00 PM |
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Posted by Lori at 8/22/2007 01:16:00 PM |


More to come shortly...

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Posted by Lori at 8/22/2007 12:58:00 PM |
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
I just had to mention that I have gotten about a kajillion (give or take a few) hits since I posted last week about M. Night Shyamalan filming across the street from my office.

If the weather is agreeable, I'm going to walk over there on my lunch break tomorrow and see if I can get a few pictures to post here.

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Posted by Lori at 8/21/2007 04:44:00 PM |
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Took some pictures when I was down the city over the weekend.

Enjoy!




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Posted by Lori at 8/15/2007 04:56:00 PM |
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
For three days next week, M. Night Shyamalan will be filming scenes from his latest movie literally right across the street from my office!!!

This movie, currently titled "The Happening," will star Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, and Zooey Deschanel. It's scheduled to release in June 2008.

My only question is this: WHY couldn't Joaquin have been in THIS ONE????

Dammit.

So should I go over there and try to get some pictures? More importantly, do you think I could convince Marky Mark to drop trou and show me his Calvins???

UPDATE! So here's an estimate of the shooting schedule:

Wednesday, 8/22 and Thursday, 8/23: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Friday, 8/24: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

I saw a camera crew outside yesterday when I was coming back from my lunch break. Looked like they were testing different shots.

Very exciting!

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Posted by Lori at 8/14/2007 08:51:00 AM |
Monday, August 06, 2007
YEAH BABY!!!!!

Definitely one of the hardest tests I've ever sat for.

About halfway through it, I thought it'd take a miracle for me to pass it.

I'm still a little bit in disbelief.

Whew.

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Posted by Lori at 8/06/2007 08:53:00 PM |
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Cranky. Mentally drained. Completely anxiety-ridden and severely sleep-deprived (yes, I really AM writing this post at 2:41 a.m.!!).

I've been doing my final studying for the NASD Series 65 investment license exam, which I will be taking on Monday, 8/6 at 1:30 p.m.

If I pass, I will be a Registered Investment Adviser representative. Whoop-dee-doo.

The material covered in the exam is extensive, and the prep for it has been grueling, quite frankly. It's mostly self-study, but I decided to up my chances of passing on the first try by enrolling in a two-day intensive review class. That was this past Monday and Tuesday in Center City (Teri, I was thinking of you...I took the train into town those days and got off at Suburban Station, and then walked the four blocks or so to the classroom at 16th and Walnut.).

The exam topics include both federal and state regulations on the securities and investments industry, equity and debt securities (aka stocks and bonds), other securities products (aka options, variable annuities, commodities, and futures), retirement plans, asset allocation models, tax law, investment strategies, and a far-reaching overview of economics and the different types of investment analysis.

Bleh. Especially on the econ part...I took a general overview Economics course in college and got a D+.

I have serious doubts about my ability to pass this exam. I've been taking a kajillion practice exams, and I've been scoring just a teeny bit below the passing grade, which is 68.5%. I've been getting scores like 63% and 66%, which simultaneously annoys and reassures me. I'm annoyed because it's so damn close to a passing score but not QUITE there...and I'm reassured because it's so damn close to a passing score, which indicates that there must be some hope that I will get through it successfully.

So on Monday around 1:30 p.m., please, PLEASE think some good thoughts for me. It's a 3-hour exam with 130 multiple-multiple choice (that's not a typo) questions, but the practice exams I've done so far have taken me just over an hour to complete.

I will be soooooo glad when this is over and behind me.

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Posted by Lori at 8/04/2007 02:41:00 AM |

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