Kiwi Design Blog 2 Year Anniversary!

Hard to believe its been 2 years already, time moves so quickly! Technically the anniversary was about 2 weeks ago, but I've been super busy with school so I didn't have time to post anything. Last year I had about 4, 000 views and my goal was to get around 10,000 views by this year, and I've actually exceeded it and have recieved over 12,000! I've definitely been lacking on my posts the last 5 or 6 months, but I post much more regularly on Kiwi Film Review with trailers, lists, and reviews so be sure to check that out! In celebration for the anniversary I'm going to share my most recent attempt at filmmaking. Its my first year final film called "The Robbery." Its a short comedy and is pretty ridiculous. Please enjoy and thank you for all of the support over the last 2 years!

The Robbery from Gill Dawe on Vimeo.

1 Year Anniversary

So, today is the official 1 year Anniversary of my Kiwi Design Blog! How exciting! To celebrate today I plan on posting my review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, also, I'm updating my Top 10 Films of 2012 list because I was slightly premature and missed 3 of the films nominated for Best Picture, big mistake. I might even be able to pump out a review of Oz: The Great and Powerful. I can't promise the last one but I'm going to make a sincere effort. Thanks to everyone who supported me and checked out my posts this year. Hope to make the next year even more successful!

Chicken & Broccoli Pasta

Well, I haven't posted any recipes in quite some time so I thought I should post one of my favorites. I like to call it Chicken & Broccoli Pasta.

Serving size 3-4 people depending on portion sizes. If serving to 4 add more a bit more pasta, if serving to more then 4 adjust ingredients to fit your needs.

Ingredients:

2- Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 cup Broccoli(or any desired amount)

Half a box of Rotini

1 bottle of Classico's Alfredo & Sun-dried Tomato Sauce

Instructions:

1.) After gathering your ingredients, put your defrosted chicken breasts into a pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes or until cooked fully through. 

2.) While cooking the chicken breasts cook Rotini as the package instructs. Normally they tend to be ready around the same time as the chicken breasts.

3.) When you notice the chicken and pasta are ready, put bottle of the Classico Sauce into a large pan and put on medium heat. Cut up chunks of broccoli and put in sauce to cook a bit. I normally cut the broccoli to be about one-bite sized.

4.) Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and put in pan with sauce and broccoli. Drain Rotini and do the same.

5.) Cook together for about 10 minutes, until it is all fully cooked together, then serve. I normally serve with a salad, but however you like to serve is fine.

Enjoy!

I find this recipe pretty easy, only downside is that you have two pots and a pan to clean up, but I definitely think its worth it, tastes great! I've tried it without broccoli as well, but it just doesn't taste as great. 

Updates

Just thought I'd write about some recent updates I've done. I've added some links at the top of the home page to a few new pages I've created. A few weeks ago I made a page with all of the links of the film reviews I've ever done, which is under the Kiwi Film Review page. I also added 3 more pages yesterday, Photography, Recipes, and DIY. The Photography page is basically a portfolio of some of my favorite pictures, and the Recipes and DIY pages just have links to the posts I've made that are under those categories.

Kiwi Film Review: Lincoln

IMDB: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 90%

Roger Ebert: 4/4 Stars

Star: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, David Strathairn, Tommy Lee Jones.
Director: Stephen Spielberg
Writer: Tony Kushner

Release Date: 16 November 2012
Described by IMDB as: "In 1865, as the American Civil War winds inexorably toward conclusion, U.S. president Abraham Lincoln endeavors to achieve passage of the landmark constitutional amendment which will forever ban slavery from the United States. However, his task is a race against time, for peace may come at any time, and if it comes before the amendment is passed, the returning southern states will stop it before it can become law. Lincoln must, by almost any means possible, obtain enough votes from a recalcitrant Congress before peace arrives and it is too late. Yet the president is torn, as an early peace would save thousands of lives. As the nation confronts its conscience over the freedom of its entire population, Lincoln faces his own crisis of conscience -- end slavery or end the war."

I find it quite hard to review films like this. I like to refer to them as "Oscar films" even though the nominations obviously have not yet been released. These are films that without doubt, will definitely be nominated for oscars based on their actors, directors, and general themes. Since all of these categories are covered far and beyond with Daniel Day-Lewis, Steven Spielberg, and Abraham Lincoln, this film is not only an "Oscar film", but probably one of the top contenders for winning best picture. Unfortunately, the difficult part in reviewing these films is the fact that there are many parts that are, for lack of a better word, dull. 

Now, don't let this deter you from watching this film, as it was a fantastic film, and displays a very important part in history. I found it hard not to see clear parallels between the 1865 fight to abolish slavery, and the current day fight in America for equal rights for gay lesbian people. I will never understand how people could be so hateful that they feel people shouldn't have equal rights. I felt myself quite enraged through some parts of this film, when talking about how all men are not created equal. How dare someone presume that they have the authority to decide that.

I have to say almost the entire first half of the film was so, so dull. Now, I totally understand how important it was to set up the second half, but that doesn't make it any less, well, boring. But the second half definitely made up for it. Its not one of those films with crazy thrill and excitement, but when the 13th Amendment passed I have to say I just wanted to stand up and cheer as the people on the screen were doing. I definitely teared up a little bit when that happened, as I'm sure anyone with a heart would have. Its astonishing that slavery was abolished almost 150 years ago, and yet slavery still persists. I thought it was great timing to release this film, right after the election. I think its a great film to reignite patriotism among Americans in a time that they are incredibly divided.

I'm not even sure how to begin on how fantastic Daniel Day-Lewis was in this film, but lets be honest,  could we expect anything less? He has to be one of the greatest character actors of our generation, possible even of all time. Whenever I see his name in the titles I almost know for sure that I'm going to enjoy it. I couldn't believe how much he resembled Abraham Lincoln in this film. Unbelievable. Makeup should definitely get an Oscar nod for that one. The cast list in this film is pretty incredible. Mrs. Lincoln is played by Sally Field, their child Robert Lincoln is played by none other then Joseph Gordon Levitt. There were numerous other cameos by great actors as well, most of them only for a few moments really, I guess everyone wanted in a big film like this, even if it was just a small part. I really liked Tommy Lee Jones' storyline. I loved his pure enthusiasm and hope for the Amendment to pass, I won't give any spoilers, but his part at the end added a little extra to my heart.

I have to say that I didn't know anything about the timeline of these evenets, but I was pretty shocked by how quickly the whole thing happened. I mean, obviously the war went on much longer then what was in this film. I didn't realize that the amendment was passed on January 31st 1865, then the war was ended in the beginning of April and Lincoln was killed on April the 15th. I really didn't realize three of those things were so close together. 

Overall I really liked this film, unfortunately I'm going to have to take off a few points for the beginning, but I couldn't give it a low score because it really was an amazing piece of work. I went with a friend who said it could have ended earlier, but I think it was important to show both the ending of the Civil War, and Lincoln's death.

I'm going to give it an 8/10. Solid film, definitely expecting big things at the Oscars.

New Blog Header

As I promised earlier I created a new header for my blog. I felt like it was serious need of a facelift and thats what it got. Even though you can clearly see it above I figured I'd post it anyways for future reference. I'm actually extremely happy with it. As you can see its a pretty similar

Here she is:

New Business Card Design

Well, since its been about 10 years since my last update, I thought I'd finally add some design to my blog, which seems legit since I'm a design student. I spent most of the night on a new business card concept. 
I'm actually quite impressed with my work on this one.

Take a look:

I'll try to be back with a new movie review ASAP. I've seen a lot of great ones lately so I'm sure I'll have a bunch all at once. I'll also have a bunch of photography posts in the next few weeks. Now that I'm back to school and a schedule, I promise I'll have more updates! Also, keep an eye out for a new look for the blog!