I have attempted to write this blog post three times now. I write half of it and get tired of writing so I save it and go away thinking I'll get to it the next day. Little do I realize, the next time I get to it, it's been a week and I don't feel like posting anything I wrote! So I start all over again. Hopefully, this post will actually make it to fruition!
Weather for a while here was really warm. Our store has almost no airflow unless the front doors are open and if it's windy, you can't have the doors open because the wind just BARRELS through it. So we tried to keep the doors open as much as possible, but the humidity was gross. The temperature this week has gone down a little, but our store still gets pretty warm and the weather of late has been that it's just a little too cold to leave the front doors open or the cashiers start to freeze to death. It's unfortunate that anywhere away from the doors ends up being warm and stuffy. I've been in the office a lot with our manager being gone and that room has no vent for anything so it's either stuffy as all get out or an ice box. Yuck.
Anyway, beyond that, our manager had the baby! Or, I should say, his wife had the baby. :) Baby will be three weeks old on Sunday (depending when I end up posting this, this could be either tomorrow or today). I've been managing the store and will be managing it for a total of 5 weeks. I'm glad he can take that time to be with the baby. Only get them at that age once, right? Mostly, the store is running. It's had its rocky moments for various reasons and we did, mostly, finish the month out strong, but we did miss plan altogether. Oh well, at least I got some good 4 days in there at the end. The start of July has been good (knock on wood!). We'll see if we can maintain that momentum the rest of the month, though. It's kind of early to be saying things like that. It took me about a week, but I think I've finally got my manager groove on. The first week was a big scramble because it was the end of the month and a lot of things happen at the end of the month. I got it all done, but I felt like I spent a week just scrambling. In fact, because my days off changed (just till our manager gets back), I almost had 4 days off in a row. I had two days off, worked one, and had another two days off. The one day I worked I spent almost all day in the office because I had a lot of things to do that had to be done before I left for another 2 days off. It was crazy! Mostly, though, it's been going well. I haven't seen any higher-ups and I'm not sure if that's because I'm managing the store well so they're not worried or if it's because they're all busy with our new CEO/President coming on (our old one's last day was June 28th -- he retired) and the new store opening in Soledad (opens the 25th). At any rate, I definitely feel like I've firmly planted in the "manager" role, though. Before, it was a lot of questions about where to send things and being a little more timid about doing some things. Now, I feel like I've got this. I think... :P
Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. My Aquarium report is in for peer review so I've got a little down time right now (it was ready for peer review on the 20th of June). So that's kind of nice. I'm doing some reading and have gotten into reality TV a lot. I'm watching Hell's Kitchen, MasterChef, Whodunnit?, and Top Shot. Mostly watching Hell's Kitchen because it's an easy extension of MasterChef, but I really like MasterChef more than Hell's Kitchen. I find MasterChef more interesting to watch, whereas Hell's Kitchen is a lot of yelling and people messing up how to cook food. MasterChef is more about how they cook the food and then criticizing how they cooked/prepped/handled the food. I've always enjoyed Top Shot, but I forgot the new season started and that it was an All Stars season. I have to admit, I was maybe a little *too* excited for the fact Top Shot was back. I'm enjoying the season and it's fun seeing people from the past 4 season. I really liked some of the people from the past so it's good to see them back and how a lot of the episodes and challenges are the same things from past seasons, but amped up. Whodunnit? was a fluke that I got into. It was just there and I had read about it so I just started watching it and now I'm curious to see how it finishes. I think it's clever, but I think part of its current cleverness is because it's a new show so you're not entirely sure how it'll play out. I will say, thus far, I think they're handling it in an interesting way. It is a little cheesy at times (there are no real dead bodies) or overly dramatized, but it works to a point.
Been feeling nostalgic over the closing of Hollywood Park lately. Its last summer meet is about to come to a close (1 more week) and it'll be sad! They'll get a winter meet in Nov-Dec, but, after that, it'll be closed and construction should start the first of the new year. 75 years of history demolished to build new housing and retail in Inglewood, CA. Sad...So many great and well-known horses originated and ran at that track. Three triple crown winners (Citation, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed) ran there. Zenyatta and I'll Have Another (last year's Kentucky/Preakness winner) were based there. Seabiscuit ran there too. So sad. Bay Meadows closing down was sad, but nothing like this. It's historic! The Warner Brothers (yes, THE Warner Bros) managed the track when it first opened. Great Hollywood industry leaders helped get that track off the ground. No clue who where all the horses will be stabled when Santa Anita is closed. Looks like California is getting closer, but we'll see. If I can, I think I'll try going to one of its last days in December (closing day and its LAST day is Dec 22nd). It was the first track I went to and I got to see Zenyatta there. I should try going.
Anyway, movies I'm watching about one a week in theater and rentals have been sort of low. A lot of "eh" movies to watch on DVD. I want to see Beautiful Creatures, but I really had problems reading through the book (not even sure how I made it through the 2nd one!) that I can't seem to bring myself to watch the movie. I am curious to see how they did it, but...eh. We'll see.
Monsters University (Pixar) - Good Pixar film. Not their best, but it was cute. I liked learning the little tidbits here and there about the characters when they're in Monsters, Inc. It is pretty predictable, but what are you going to expect when this is a prequel? I did like how they made you see the parallels between Monsters University and our Universities. That was fun to see. I just don't think it was *that* good, though. It was a little too "kiddy" perhaps? I'm not sure. Some of the enjoyment of Pixar films is how an adult can see the film and get just as much enjoyment out of it as a kid can (or so I think it does), but this was maybe just a little too predictable...? Not sure. It just didn't quite live up to my own hype, but it was still cute and a good film. Grade: B
Man of Steel (Henry Cavill, Amy Adams) - This actually was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. True, Cavill doesn't say a whole lot, but I generally liked it and I liked the origin building and how they explained things. I liked his costume, flying stance, and the way they did the story. I liked how they didn't go immediately into a Lex Luthor story and I liked how it was more flashbacks to the past instead of starting firmly in the past and building forward. I liked Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon. Costner wasn't the greatest, but that was also how his role was written. Adams was a little flat for me, but she wasn't terrible. There were some bad/stupid moments, but it was generally pretty good and fulfilled the reason you're seeing it in theaters rather than at home. Grade: B
Side Effects (Rooney Mara, Channing Tatum, Jude Law) - This was not what I expected the movie to be when I saw the previews. I saw the previews enough that I wanted to see it and thought it'd be more like a thriller version of Contagion. Yeah, that wasn't it. I had the thriller part right, but it was NOTHING like Contagion. I think if I hadn't had Contagion in my head, I would have been okay. This was much more of a thriller than I thought it was going to be too. I rather enjoyed it, though. I thought the acting was good and the plot was good. There's a twist that you catch on to about midway through the movie, but you're still somewhat unsure how it's completely going to pan out. You get the general idea of how it's going to end, but you just don't have all the facts. The trailer also leads you slightly off the correct path too so I was surprised how instrumental Law's character is to the movie. To say the least, it's a good drama-thriller and leads you on a little chase. Grade: B
Oz the Great and Powerful (James Franco, etc) - I knew this was going to be bad (reason I didn't see it in theater), but I was curious to know how bad and what they'd do to the "origin" story of the Wizard of Oz. Uhm, yeah. My conclusion from the movie: Oz became the Wizard of Oz because he was a player. Yes, he was a player. Being a player gets him into all sorts of trouble that result in him needing to "become" the Wizard of Oz behind all the theatrics. And, him being a player, is what turned the Wicked Witch of the West into the, well, Wicked Witch. Wow, it was bad... Grade: D (it entertained a little, hence the reason it's not an F)
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton) - I was curious to see what they'd do to Hansel and Gretel and knew it'd be bad, but, again, I didn't realize how bad it was going to be. It's laughable sometimes, but it did entertain if you can go with the fact the plot is supremely weak and it's just a lot of chasing and nonsense. With that said, I do think they appropriately cast because Renner is good for the females and Arterton is good for the males. So, I guess they got something semi-right... Grade: D
The Call (Halle Berry) - If they took out all the screaming and whining from the abductee in the first half of the movie (maybe 2/3), I think I'd have liked it better. I mean, okay, if I was abducted and thrown into a car trunk, I might be a little hysterical at times, but this girl (and, again, she was young) was really grating on my nerves. I just couldn't take all the hysterics...And, again, I understand that a girl who is 16 or something, abducted, and tossed into a trunk is going to be devastated and scared, but it wasn't pleasant to listen to or really watch. I did enjoy Berry's character, though, and thought it was actually kind of interesting to watch even though Berry's character is on the phone for 3/4 of the film, but...gah. The girl! When she got over the hysterics, I was more inclined to watch. I could NOT stand the ending, though. I 100% disagree with that ending. The ending completely killed the movie for me. Sure, they're both traumatized and everything, but I honestly can't fathom that ending. The ending was more about vengeance and I can't support that type of ending. So, despite the fact I probably would have given the movie a C on its own, I'm giving it a D for the ending alone. Grade: D
I'll be seeing Despicable Me 2 in theater on Monday. Don't think I'll see Lone Ranger in theater...I don't think it'll be bad in the sense I'll dislike it, but...I don't know. Something turns me off from the trailer. I need to find someone who's seen it...
Anyway, off to keep reading. :)
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
Hacking up a lung is never fun...
It's been 3 weeks since I was sick and I'm still coughing up a lung on a daily basis. It's definitely in my lungs. I can feel when I breathe the cilia in my lungs fluttering (makes me cough) and I'm still phlegm-y. To be fair to myself, my co-workers who also got this are also coughing, but I sound the worst of them all by a long shot. I feel fine other than the coughing, but it is annoying and woke me up last night (first time in a while) because my throat dried out and I couldn't stop coughing. So annoying!
With that, not a whole lot new has happened. My report for the Aquarium is in for internal review right now. So that's moving along. Work is work. There's been some serious drama, but things are still ticking along. We have been struggling to make plan, though. I'm not sure what's going on with the area right now, but it's been a struggle. My manager goes on paternity leave any day now so that'll be interesting when he leaves. Chris and I are still job hunting. Nothing new there. Other than that, not a whole lot.
I have watched several movies in the last few weeks, though. Funny how it went from 1 new movie to 9 new movies! Nothing particularly great and a lot of disappointments.
Guilt Trip (Seth Rogan, Barbara Streisand) - Come one...You know you're curious about how this duo did! At least, I was, which is why I rented it. It's definitely not fantastic. It's a son-mother type of movie where the mom seems annoying and is overly into the business of the son who tends to deflect the mother. They, oviously, bond over their road trip. It was interesting to see Streisand in this type of movie and also to see Rogan take his normal comedies down a whole lot to an almost family level (not a family movie, but for Rogan's normal stuff, it's close!). It just could have been better in almost every way. Grade: C-
The Numbers Station (John Cusack, Malin Akerman) - This movie takes place entirely at the number station, which is kind of interesting for an "action" film. I liked the acting, mostly. Cusack does a good closed-mouth-non-social type and the action is pretty good given there are no car chases or explosions. With that said, it's not super fantastic either. It is rather short (1.5 hours, opposed to the normal 2 these days), but fills the movie pretty well. It's paced well, but there's just not a whole lot to it. It's like some sort of Bourne movie without the "oomph." It's just missing something to make it better. It passed the time, but it's easily forgettable. Grade: C
Broken City (Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones) - Police crime-thriller. It's okay too. Revolves around a former-cop-turned-private-investigator and a city mayor. Zeta-Jones is the mayor's wife. So it's part mystery and part political thriller where Crowe has Wahlberg look into his wife and Wahlberg thinks it's for cheating on him, but, in fact, it's for some other reason. It's not original and I think that's the problem with this film. It's supposed to be a sort of Law Abiding Citizen type of movie, but doesn't quite get there. It doesn't have the same message and not the same execution. It's decent acting and that's what saves it from being worse. Grade: C
Parker (Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez) - I knew this would be silly, but I had to see it to see how it was. Actually, the romance that usually ends up in these types of films doesn't go the way you think it would, which was sort of refreshing. It was okay. Lopez was really just a side-bar in the whole film and, in ways, wasn't even really needed. Statham's role was basically to go out and stop a crime/revenge. Nothing new either. Grade: C-
Promised Land (Matt Damon, Frances McDormand) - I can see why this didn't do better. It's a good cast and it's a decent film, but you get about 2/3 of the way through and it just falls flat. It was kind of disappointing in that case. Even if you ignore the environmental tone to the film and replaced it with something else, the movie just doesn't really go anywhere except to turn a ladder climber back to his hometown roots...? I didn't really feel like the environmental issue of fracking was the main message or them trying to shove something down your throat. It was purely the foundation in which the movie was based on. It could have been any other issue and the movie would have felt the same. I liked it to a point, though, so it wasn't totally lost, but it definitely didn't quite make it to a good film. Grade: C+
Warm Bodies (Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer) - This kind of surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. It's not great, but it's cute and I liked how love, affection, and caring for each other helped turn the zombies back to humans. Call me a sap, but, let's face it, we can all use some more human kindness in our lives to keep us from turning into, well, zombies and eating each other on our way to our own survival. At any rate, cute idea, pretty good execution, and decent acting. Nothing too graphic or scary, but it is a zombie movie so you see a little gore, but it's pretty tame in comparison to most films. Mostly a predictable film and the zombie speech pattern (understandable) was sometimes hard to listen to, but they're zombies, right? Grade: B-/C+
Safe Haven (Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough) - Oh Nicholas Sparks...I'm weird, perhaps, but the age-gap between Duhamel and Hough sometimes bothered me! They don't really look it in the film (they're 16 years apart in real life), but still! When I got past that, I liked the film up till its climax. When it hit its climax, I had problems with Hough's acting and the screenplay. I was mostly okay with it up till then. I also had problems with the character of Jo, but, as it turned out, she was meant to act that way because (the way I felt about her) was actually who she was. Who'd of thunk? LoL I guess I would have clued in earlier if I wasn't watching it at 1am. :) It's not an entirely original story since I watch enough crime-dramas to have guessed in the first 10 minutes what was going on, but even *I* was lulled into a false sense of safety because I forgot I had guessed it in the beginning. I did laugh at the end, though, when things resolved because of the obvious "don't want to mar the lovely reunion and happy moment" of the movie at the end. I watch far too many crime shows because I always hone in on the moments where blood should be present and it's not and Safe Haven had that moment and it made me laugh for the aforementioned reason. At any rate, it's okay. Your typical Sparks, but it's not one of the better Sparks either. Grade: B-/C+
Now You See Me (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco) - I knew this wouldn't be great, but I still had hopes for this to be a good film. I adore Ocean's Eleven and any type of movie/show where it takes you on this grand illusion and then shows you at the end or somewhere what truly happened. So, come on, big heists, magicians, and a decent cast? Yes! I knew the critics weren't liking it, but the fans were giving it a decent review so with the movie tickets I won from work, we went and saw it. Yeah, I had higher hopes for it. It did lead you around a little, but it was more of a mix between Ocean's Eleven, Robin Hood, and National Treasure (i.e., secret society). Again, nothing wrong with those 3 things, but there wasn't enough "magic" in it. It was more about the police chase than it was about the actual heists. In addition, things were explained almost right away so you lost the "whoa" moments quicker than Ocean's Eleven (revealed at the very end in one big move). It also felt long and felt like it was tying up a lot of ends at the end that went on for 30+ minutes. It led you on a merry chase, but it definitely felt like either too much was going on or it wasn't laid out well. I think it's something I might have to watch again to really get a grasp. I liked the acting and really wanted to like it more, but there definitely needed to be more "magic" in it. Grade: B-
Star Trek: Into Darkness (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch) - This was just like Now You See Me. I had higher hopes for it and it didn't meet those hopes. It was really good up till the climax or one of them...? And it just lost me after that. The first half of the film I really enjoyed and even was thinking I liked it better than the first one and then Marcus did his thing and that was when I went, "...What?" I get the point of the Marcus-Kahn plot-line, but it either needed to have been executed better or one of them (Marcus or Kahn) needed to be removed altogether. In addition, the end with Kirk was totally not needed and just made you roll your eyes and say, "Another JJ Abrams film." With that said, it was a mostly fun watch and it was good to see in theaters, but I'll be interested to see what the 3rd film is about given the way this one ended. I just wish something was tightened up in the film or something. It was disappointing for me. I do still love the casting for the entire crew, though. Grade: B
Summer is in full swing for movies. Not sure of what I really want to see in theaters, but the movies I'm going to watch (whether in theater or on DVD) from the summer (through August) are definitely these:
Anyway, time to go and eat some dinner and paint the nails. Or, contemplate painting the nails...My schedule is all thrown off. I just painted my nails on Tues night and I don't really want to repaint, but this mani won't last the week and doing tape nail art takes a long time. So, I really only have either tonight or Sunday to paint and I semi want to repaint tonight. I guess I'll go do some swatches and see what inspires me first. :)
With that, not a whole lot new has happened. My report for the Aquarium is in for internal review right now. So that's moving along. Work is work. There's been some serious drama, but things are still ticking along. We have been struggling to make plan, though. I'm not sure what's going on with the area right now, but it's been a struggle. My manager goes on paternity leave any day now so that'll be interesting when he leaves. Chris and I are still job hunting. Nothing new there. Other than that, not a whole lot.
I have watched several movies in the last few weeks, though. Funny how it went from 1 new movie to 9 new movies! Nothing particularly great and a lot of disappointments.
Guilt Trip (Seth Rogan, Barbara Streisand) - Come one...You know you're curious about how this duo did! At least, I was, which is why I rented it. It's definitely not fantastic. It's a son-mother type of movie where the mom seems annoying and is overly into the business of the son who tends to deflect the mother. They, oviously, bond over their road trip. It was interesting to see Streisand in this type of movie and also to see Rogan take his normal comedies down a whole lot to an almost family level (not a family movie, but for Rogan's normal stuff, it's close!). It just could have been better in almost every way. Grade: C-
The Numbers Station (John Cusack, Malin Akerman) - This movie takes place entirely at the number station, which is kind of interesting for an "action" film. I liked the acting, mostly. Cusack does a good closed-mouth-non-social type and the action is pretty good given there are no car chases or explosions. With that said, it's not super fantastic either. It is rather short (1.5 hours, opposed to the normal 2 these days), but fills the movie pretty well. It's paced well, but there's just not a whole lot to it. It's like some sort of Bourne movie without the "oomph." It's just missing something to make it better. It passed the time, but it's easily forgettable. Grade: C
Broken City (Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones) - Police crime-thriller. It's okay too. Revolves around a former-cop-turned-private-investigator and a city mayor. Zeta-Jones is the mayor's wife. So it's part mystery and part political thriller where Crowe has Wahlberg look into his wife and Wahlberg thinks it's for cheating on him, but, in fact, it's for some other reason. It's not original and I think that's the problem with this film. It's supposed to be a sort of Law Abiding Citizen type of movie, but doesn't quite get there. It doesn't have the same message and not the same execution. It's decent acting and that's what saves it from being worse. Grade: C
Parker (Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez) - I knew this would be silly, but I had to see it to see how it was. Actually, the romance that usually ends up in these types of films doesn't go the way you think it would, which was sort of refreshing. It was okay. Lopez was really just a side-bar in the whole film and, in ways, wasn't even really needed. Statham's role was basically to go out and stop a crime/revenge. Nothing new either. Grade: C-
Promised Land (Matt Damon, Frances McDormand) - I can see why this didn't do better. It's a good cast and it's a decent film, but you get about 2/3 of the way through and it just falls flat. It was kind of disappointing in that case. Even if you ignore the environmental tone to the film and replaced it with something else, the movie just doesn't really go anywhere except to turn a ladder climber back to his hometown roots...? I didn't really feel like the environmental issue of fracking was the main message or them trying to shove something down your throat. It was purely the foundation in which the movie was based on. It could have been any other issue and the movie would have felt the same. I liked it to a point, though, so it wasn't totally lost, but it definitely didn't quite make it to a good film. Grade: C+
Warm Bodies (Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer) - This kind of surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. It's not great, but it's cute and I liked how love, affection, and caring for each other helped turn the zombies back to humans. Call me a sap, but, let's face it, we can all use some more human kindness in our lives to keep us from turning into, well, zombies and eating each other on our way to our own survival. At any rate, cute idea, pretty good execution, and decent acting. Nothing too graphic or scary, but it is a zombie movie so you see a little gore, but it's pretty tame in comparison to most films. Mostly a predictable film and the zombie speech pattern (understandable) was sometimes hard to listen to, but they're zombies, right? Grade: B-/C+
Safe Haven (Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough) - Oh Nicholas Sparks...I'm weird, perhaps, but the age-gap between Duhamel and Hough sometimes bothered me! They don't really look it in the film (they're 16 years apart in real life), but still! When I got past that, I liked the film up till its climax. When it hit its climax, I had problems with Hough's acting and the screenplay. I was mostly okay with it up till then. I also had problems with the character of Jo, but, as it turned out, she was meant to act that way because (the way I felt about her) was actually who she was. Who'd of thunk? LoL I guess I would have clued in earlier if I wasn't watching it at 1am. :) It's not an entirely original story since I watch enough crime-dramas to have guessed in the first 10 minutes what was going on, but even *I* was lulled into a false sense of safety because I forgot I had guessed it in the beginning. I did laugh at the end, though, when things resolved because of the obvious "don't want to mar the lovely reunion and happy moment" of the movie at the end. I watch far too many crime shows because I always hone in on the moments where blood should be present and it's not and Safe Haven had that moment and it made me laugh for the aforementioned reason. At any rate, it's okay. Your typical Sparks, but it's not one of the better Sparks either. Grade: B-/C+
Now You See Me (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco) - I knew this wouldn't be great, but I still had hopes for this to be a good film. I adore Ocean's Eleven and any type of movie/show where it takes you on this grand illusion and then shows you at the end or somewhere what truly happened. So, come on, big heists, magicians, and a decent cast? Yes! I knew the critics weren't liking it, but the fans were giving it a decent review so with the movie tickets I won from work, we went and saw it. Yeah, I had higher hopes for it. It did lead you around a little, but it was more of a mix between Ocean's Eleven, Robin Hood, and National Treasure (i.e., secret society). Again, nothing wrong with those 3 things, but there wasn't enough "magic" in it. It was more about the police chase than it was about the actual heists. In addition, things were explained almost right away so you lost the "whoa" moments quicker than Ocean's Eleven (revealed at the very end in one big move). It also felt long and felt like it was tying up a lot of ends at the end that went on for 30+ minutes. It led you on a merry chase, but it definitely felt like either too much was going on or it wasn't laid out well. I think it's something I might have to watch again to really get a grasp. I liked the acting and really wanted to like it more, but there definitely needed to be more "magic" in it. Grade: B-
Star Trek: Into Darkness (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch) - This was just like Now You See Me. I had higher hopes for it and it didn't meet those hopes. It was really good up till the climax or one of them...? And it just lost me after that. The first half of the film I really enjoyed and even was thinking I liked it better than the first one and then Marcus did his thing and that was when I went, "...What?" I get the point of the Marcus-Kahn plot-line, but it either needed to have been executed better or one of them (Marcus or Kahn) needed to be removed altogether. In addition, the end with Kirk was totally not needed and just made you roll your eyes and say, "Another JJ Abrams film." With that said, it was a mostly fun watch and it was good to see in theaters, but I'll be interested to see what the 3rd film is about given the way this one ended. I just wish something was tightened up in the film or something. It was disappointing for me. I do still love the casting for the entire crew, though. Grade: B
Summer is in full swing for movies. Not sure of what I really want to see in theaters, but the movies I'm going to watch (whether in theater or on DVD) from the summer (through August) are definitely these:
- The Internship (definite DVD)
- Much Ado About Nothing (most likely DVD)
- Man of Steel
- Monsters University
- World War Z
- The Heat (definite DVD)
- Despicable Me 2 (most likely DVD)
- The Lone Ranger (possible DVD)
- Grown Ups 2 (definite DVD)
- Pacific Rim (definite DVD)
- Red 2
- The Wolverine
- Elysium (definite DVD)
- Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (most likely DVD)
- Planes (possible DVD)
- Kick-Ass 2
- The Butler (definite DVD)
Anyway, time to go and eat some dinner and paint the nails. Or, contemplate painting the nails...My schedule is all thrown off. I just painted my nails on Tues night and I don't really want to repaint, but this mani won't last the week and doing tape nail art takes a long time. So, I really only have either tonight or Sunday to paint and I semi want to repaint tonight. I guess I'll go do some swatches and see what inspires me first. :)
Friday, April 26, 2013
Randomess: A Little of This and That
Not a whole lot to update, but I want to mention a few things I've found and love in the past few weeks and other random updates.
I have thick hair. It's currently just below my shoulder blades, but I have a lot of hair and THICK hair. Not to mention I'll grow it down to my lower back in a few months. So anything plastic I want to put into my hair I break. It's always been a problem and over the years I've accumulated some metal hair accessories, but they're hard to find without breaking the bank. I like shiny hair things, but don't want to spend more than $10 for them. Well, I recently broke my spending limit for these Flexi 8's. They're shaped in an 8-shape with a pin and they're STURDY. For years I've been looking for something to get my hair up in a up-down twist (like a French Twist, but without the roll) that isn't plastic. I have a super large plastic hair claw (never seen one since I bought that), but I've been slowly breaking the teeth off. I think it's got about half its teeth left now. In addition, it doesn't quite fit all my hair. I found Flexi 8 a while ago, but have been stalling because of the price. The other month, they were having a free shipping deal and I caved. Well, I've now got 5 of them! I've got 2 small sizes for doing my hair half-up (in the information, I should be able to use an extra small, but my hair is too thick or I have too much); one medium for a pony tail (it's a smidgen too big if my hair is dry and super smooth, but it's the only size that'll work for it); and 2 extra large for my up-dos (i.e., up-down twist). It's amazing! They're super strong and the pin has these 3 notches in it to secure the pin so it can't slip out. Not only that, but the extra large gets my hair totally up and it's secure (again, I should have been able to use a large, but it was too small and when my hair is wet, an extra large almost doesn't work depending on where I secure it on the twist). I adore them. They are expensive at around $21 for the extra large, $14 for the smalls, $15 for the mediums, but I'm paying for something I haven't been able to find anywhere else and it'll last for, seemingly, ever. I also like all the styles they have. It's simply amazing finding something that can have my hair up all the way and I don't have to worry about it breaking on me. I'm not the most gentle with my hair so I need metal so I don't break it and I don't worry about these at all. Highly recommend for those with hair issues like me. :P A seller (bought from first): https://www.flexi8.com/ Main page (they do a flexi-of-the-month): http://www.lillarose.biz/ (they don't have exactly the same designs available)
Music is something I like, but I'm not particularly picky about it. I have always liked just about any music, though (techno, dance, ethnic, soundtracks, rock, pop, country, folk, rap, etc). However, I primarily use it as background noise when I'm concentrating on stuff (e.g., writing papers, research, etc). It's background noise so I tend to lean towards soundtracks. I adore soundtracks (will find during a movie I'll concentrate more on the soundtrack than the movie sometimes) and love how instrumental music can invoke certain emotions without having to say any words. I like singing too, don't get me wrong, but I can live without it since I tend to tune out the actual lyrics and tune more towards the singing sound and the music itself. Anyway, at work we're tired of our main radio station we listen to. There's always songs you abhor and then you hear the same songs over and over again. So in the past month we've taken to using a co-workers Spotify account and created a playlist of music we generally all like (you'll never please EVERYONE on staff) and is work appropriate. The co-worker with Spotify started it, but then never got back to it. So I took up the reigns (we use Spotify on my phone at work since I can part with my phone all day and am one of the few phones who can use Spotify on my phone) and added music to it. During this ordeal (I've spent NUMEROUS hours looking for music), I've found I'm mostly an alternative music girl. Specifically, in the alternative/indie rock and indie folk area. So, during this music finding, I stumbled upon a group called Lord Huron. I love them. I've found a lot of music/songs I like that are work appropriate, but Lord Huron is one I have found that I like for myself. It's not quite work appropriate since it's folk-y and it'd drive my co-workers nut and it is a little low-key, but I like it. It's indie folk, but it sort of has a hint of like John Denver-cowboy-country in it. It's hard to describe, but I really like it and it makes you feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere. It's soothing, but has a nice upbeat feel to it. It's now the album I listen to when I'm working and need background noise. I even BOUGHT the CD ("CD" meaning the digital album, of course) because I liked it so much (Spotify is great, but I'm not paying for the subscription). Stranger (YouTube video link - I find the videos a little odd) and Time to Run (YouTube video link) are probably their two more popular ones, but I like the entire Lonesome Dreams album.
Off the topic of new things I love, Zenyatta had her foal a month ago! I realized I never mentioned anything about it! Her new colt was born on April 1st, which is her birthday! He's an absolute cutie, which you can see almost 4 week old photos here (last 3 photos are of her first foal who is over a year old now!). Zenyatta's first colt was recently named Cozmic One too. It was picked for a variety of different reasons (his birthday, being Zenyatta's first foal, his star on his forehead, etc). I'm a little surprised by the name given the Mosses have typically named horses to do with the music industry, but Coz works (the "z" is for Zenyatta, of course). With that, the Kentucky Derby (reason I remembered I never mentioned 13Z earlier!) is in 2 weeks from tomorrow (Sat). It's CRAZY! The field is taking shape too with the new "point" system, but we'll find out the week of the full order and stuff. I don't have a particular favorite right now too. I think I've just learned to wait!
I'm still doing my nails, but I've definitely restarted myself. I'm just painting mostly. I went from heavy glitters to heavy shimmers to light shimmers/cremes with stamps and now I'm just painting, mostly. I think I just got tired of doing all the extravagance! I did do nail art this time around, but it was the first time in 4-5 manis or so. Plus, I had a nail breakage that I've been trying to grow out and reshape for weeks now. It's finally okay, but I had to trim everything down to reshape it. I've done 28 manis since January 1st and it's been 17 weeks from the New Year. About 1.5 manis a week, which is down from what I was doing at the end of last year (2-3 a week, most times 3). Crazy...!
Started watching Law & Order: SVU. It was just "there" to watch on Hulu+. It's okay. You usually think of Law & Order as the "original" procedural crime-drama show since it's been around so long. I think it's okay, but I do prefer my normal ones (CSI, Criminal Minds, Castle, Bones, etc) more because they have an "oomph" to them in one way or another. L&O works for just watching whatever, though.
Watched two movies, this week. One a repeat and one new one.
The Impossible (Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor) - Wow. Okay, I get the nomination for Watts. She is amazing in the film. Actually, everyone is good in the film and it's a good film. It's absolutely intense, though. I can't imagine going through ANY of that. The movie definitely left me feeling tense at the end. It's definitely not a film for everyone, but I'm glad I watched it. It just gives you a small glimpse into what everyone went through during the tsunami. With that said, the real Maria who Watts is based off of had a real hand in everything (was on set, script, etc) so the movie is pretty accurate to what happened and how she felt, which makes it all the more crazy to watch. It was also filmed on location in certain scenes. I do feel like the movie was well paced, which is kind of amazing given the story. Grade: B/B+ (B+ for the sheer fact this was made close to the truth)
Rewatched Les Miserables and it's just as good the 2nd time. Jackman and Hathaway astound me with their singing. Everyone does a good job, but Jackman and Hathaway definitely take the top prizes for it. I do still love Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter as the Thénardiers and Barks as Eponine. The casting in this film is simply spot on. It still moved me through the 2nd watch. No tears (I think I cried through the last half of the film the first time), but it still gave me chills and the singing/music still moves me. I rented the movie for this 2nd watch, but I think I'll buy the movie down the road. It's something I'll want to watch again and, if anything, want to support the sales for.
With that, Iron Man 3 comes out next Friday (May 3rd). I am so excited!! It should be good and officially starts the summer kick off for movies. So far, I've seen 31 new movies this year, which means I'm on track to watch 100 movies this year. We'll see, though.
Anyway, with that, I'm off!
I have thick hair. It's currently just below my shoulder blades, but I have a lot of hair and THICK hair. Not to mention I'll grow it down to my lower back in a few months. So anything plastic I want to put into my hair I break. It's always been a problem and over the years I've accumulated some metal hair accessories, but they're hard to find without breaking the bank. I like shiny hair things, but don't want to spend more than $10 for them. Well, I recently broke my spending limit for these Flexi 8's. They're shaped in an 8-shape with a pin and they're STURDY. For years I've been looking for something to get my hair up in a up-down twist (like a French Twist, but without the roll) that isn't plastic. I have a super large plastic hair claw (never seen one since I bought that), but I've been slowly breaking the teeth off. I think it's got about half its teeth left now. In addition, it doesn't quite fit all my hair. I found Flexi 8 a while ago, but have been stalling because of the price. The other month, they were having a free shipping deal and I caved. Well, I've now got 5 of them! I've got 2 small sizes for doing my hair half-up (in the information, I should be able to use an extra small, but my hair is too thick or I have too much); one medium for a pony tail (it's a smidgen too big if my hair is dry and super smooth, but it's the only size that'll work for it); and 2 extra large for my up-dos (i.e., up-down twist). It's amazing! They're super strong and the pin has these 3 notches in it to secure the pin so it can't slip out. Not only that, but the extra large gets my hair totally up and it's secure (again, I should have been able to use a large, but it was too small and when my hair is wet, an extra large almost doesn't work depending on where I secure it on the twist). I adore them. They are expensive at around $21 for the extra large, $14 for the smalls, $15 for the mediums, but I'm paying for something I haven't been able to find anywhere else and it'll last for, seemingly, ever. I also like all the styles they have. It's simply amazing finding something that can have my hair up all the way and I don't have to worry about it breaking on me. I'm not the most gentle with my hair so I need metal so I don't break it and I don't worry about these at all. Highly recommend for those with hair issues like me. :P A seller (bought from first): https://www.flexi8.com/ Main page (they do a flexi-of-the-month): http://www.lillarose.biz/ (they don't have exactly the same designs available)
Music is something I like, but I'm not particularly picky about it. I have always liked just about any music, though (techno, dance, ethnic, soundtracks, rock, pop, country, folk, rap, etc). However, I primarily use it as background noise when I'm concentrating on stuff (e.g., writing papers, research, etc). It's background noise so I tend to lean towards soundtracks. I adore soundtracks (will find during a movie I'll concentrate more on the soundtrack than the movie sometimes) and love how instrumental music can invoke certain emotions without having to say any words. I like singing too, don't get me wrong, but I can live without it since I tend to tune out the actual lyrics and tune more towards the singing sound and the music itself. Anyway, at work we're tired of our main radio station we listen to. There's always songs you abhor and then you hear the same songs over and over again. So in the past month we've taken to using a co-workers Spotify account and created a playlist of music we generally all like (you'll never please EVERYONE on staff) and is work appropriate. The co-worker with Spotify started it, but then never got back to it. So I took up the reigns (we use Spotify on my phone at work since I can part with my phone all day and am one of the few phones who can use Spotify on my phone) and added music to it. During this ordeal (I've spent NUMEROUS hours looking for music), I've found I'm mostly an alternative music girl. Specifically, in the alternative/indie rock and indie folk area. So, during this music finding, I stumbled upon a group called Lord Huron. I love them. I've found a lot of music/songs I like that are work appropriate, but Lord Huron is one I have found that I like for myself. It's not quite work appropriate since it's folk-y and it'd drive my co-workers nut and it is a little low-key, but I like it. It's indie folk, but it sort of has a hint of like John Denver-cowboy-country in it. It's hard to describe, but I really like it and it makes you feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere. It's soothing, but has a nice upbeat feel to it. It's now the album I listen to when I'm working and need background noise. I even BOUGHT the CD ("CD" meaning the digital album, of course) because I liked it so much (Spotify is great, but I'm not paying for the subscription). Stranger (YouTube video link - I find the videos a little odd) and Time to Run (YouTube video link) are probably their two more popular ones, but I like the entire Lonesome Dreams album.
Off the topic of new things I love, Zenyatta had her foal a month ago! I realized I never mentioned anything about it! Her new colt was born on April 1st, which is her birthday! He's an absolute cutie, which you can see almost 4 week old photos here (last 3 photos are of her first foal who is over a year old now!). Zenyatta's first colt was recently named Cozmic One too. It was picked for a variety of different reasons (his birthday, being Zenyatta's first foal, his star on his forehead, etc). I'm a little surprised by the name given the Mosses have typically named horses to do with the music industry, but Coz works (the "z" is for Zenyatta, of course). With that, the Kentucky Derby (reason I remembered I never mentioned 13Z earlier!) is in 2 weeks from tomorrow (Sat). It's CRAZY! The field is taking shape too with the new "point" system, but we'll find out the week of the full order and stuff. I don't have a particular favorite right now too. I think I've just learned to wait!
I'm still doing my nails, but I've definitely restarted myself. I'm just painting mostly. I went from heavy glitters to heavy shimmers to light shimmers/cremes with stamps and now I'm just painting, mostly. I think I just got tired of doing all the extravagance! I did do nail art this time around, but it was the first time in 4-5 manis or so. Plus, I had a nail breakage that I've been trying to grow out and reshape for weeks now. It's finally okay, but I had to trim everything down to reshape it. I've done 28 manis since January 1st and it's been 17 weeks from the New Year. About 1.5 manis a week, which is down from what I was doing at the end of last year (2-3 a week, most times 3). Crazy...!
Started watching Law & Order: SVU. It was just "there" to watch on Hulu+. It's okay. You usually think of Law & Order as the "original" procedural crime-drama show since it's been around so long. I think it's okay, but I do prefer my normal ones (CSI, Criminal Minds, Castle, Bones, etc) more because they have an "oomph" to them in one way or another. L&O works for just watching whatever, though.
Watched two movies, this week. One a repeat and one new one.
The Impossible (Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor) - Wow. Okay, I get the nomination for Watts. She is amazing in the film. Actually, everyone is good in the film and it's a good film. It's absolutely intense, though. I can't imagine going through ANY of that. The movie definitely left me feeling tense at the end. It's definitely not a film for everyone, but I'm glad I watched it. It just gives you a small glimpse into what everyone went through during the tsunami. With that said, the real Maria who Watts is based off of had a real hand in everything (was on set, script, etc) so the movie is pretty accurate to what happened and how she felt, which makes it all the more crazy to watch. It was also filmed on location in certain scenes. I do feel like the movie was well paced, which is kind of amazing given the story. Grade: B/B+ (B+ for the sheer fact this was made close to the truth)
Rewatched Les Miserables and it's just as good the 2nd time. Jackman and Hathaway astound me with their singing. Everyone does a good job, but Jackman and Hathaway definitely take the top prizes for it. I do still love Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter as the Thénardiers and Barks as Eponine. The casting in this film is simply spot on. It still moved me through the 2nd watch. No tears (I think I cried through the last half of the film the first time), but it still gave me chills and the singing/music still moves me. I rented the movie for this 2nd watch, but I think I'll buy the movie down the road. It's something I'll want to watch again and, if anything, want to support the sales for.
With that, Iron Man 3 comes out next Friday (May 3rd). I am so excited!! It should be good and officially starts the summer kick off for movies. So far, I've seen 31 new movies this year, which means I'm on track to watch 100 movies this year. We'll see, though.
Anyway, with that, I'm off!
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Sore muscles, a shrinking stomach, and movies
So, we've decided at work to do a "Biggest Losers" work challenge for 4 weeks. It came out of a bought of silliness and I randomly suggested it to some of us and they jumped on board. So I asked around to a few more and there are 5 of us (including me) in the battle to lose the most weight in 4 weeks. $50 pot just to make it easy and add a little incentive, but it's been interesting and we haven't even completed one week! The funny thing about doing this amongst the 5 of us is we're both encouraging and trying to sabotage each other at the same time and the rest of our co-workers are trying to encourage us. So eating is sometimes hilarious or even talking about food. I'm not sure how serious the 5 of us, as a collective, are truly taking this, but I'm at least really using this to get myself motivated to eat better and lose some weight. I started losing some at the end of last year, but Christmas rolled around and traveling through me out of my routine and I was never able to get back on to it (didn't help when I started playing LotRo either, which has finally died, thanks to Defiance).
I actually started exercising and thinking of what I eat the week before we did our first (and initial) weigh in to get myself going. I'm not, per se, "dieting," but I am trying to be conscious of what I eat and eat less and healthier. I don't always hit it and I sometimes splurge (I had ice cream today...Bad me!), but I'm generally doing better and I've lost 3 lbs! Okay, so it's probably water weight, but at least it's down rather than up! (Our biggest joke is that we'll gain weight instead of lose it.)
I have decided no sugar. For me, that entails soda, candy, and cookies. Okay, ice cream kind of through that out the window for me tonight (and I had a little soda a few days ago), but it's a HUGE decrease of the amount I *was* eating/drinking. I generally don't drink a lot of soda, but I do go in waves and I was in a big uptick in soda so I cut that out. As for candy, I've always had a huge sweet tooth and I was gnawing on sugar (fruit snacks -- yummy! -- or some candy) almost nightly and not just a few, but maybe 1 or 2 packs of fruit snacks a night and maybe even 1 during lunch. It was rather bad. It was to the point where eating sugar just made my teeth feel like they hurt. So, cutting the sugar out has been another big step for me.
I am also being more aware of how much I eat and when I eat. I know you're supposed to graze throughout the day and some days I'm better than that than others, but I'm now trying to eat my biggest meal at lunch and taper off earlier at night. Before, I was probably bellcurving closer to night (after I got home) and eating less (or snacking) at work. And by bellcurving, I mean my biggest meal was at home after work and then I snacked somewhere before or after that too. I'm never a big morning eater since it's hard to shove food down my throat when I first wake up, but I have noticed with eating less at night, I'm waking up hungrier in the morning, which allows me to eat a *little* something to try and wake my metabolism up. I've felt better doing it this way too. I'm sure it has something to do with fueling myself for the day. :P
Anyway, so, the past 1.5 weeks I've been exercising almost daily (I missed two days because I passed out asleep both days; I exercise at night; and 1am is a little late to exercise...) and been eating better. The stomach is shrinking and the muscles are a little sore. I can't make it a whole day at work on my feet without my legs hurting again, but I know I'll get past that over time. Chris bought me a subscription to Fitness Mag to help encourage me and he's been better about offering me food and sugar (every time we'd go to the store he'd ask me if I wanted soda (that was a 50-50 chance) or candy (that was almost every time a yes)). So, we'll see how this goes! If anything, the 4 weeks should be interesting with my co-workers. We all keep laughing about our "healthy" lunches and what we have and haven't done. We all kid each other so much. So much, in fact, that Andrew today was trying to offer me candy he found in the breakroom. Thanks dude... :)
As for LotRo, as I mentioned earlier, we're no longer playing. Defiance came out so the boys jumped ship and started playing that. Defiance is coupled with a TV show that is on SyFy. The game came out about 2 (or 3? What week am I in? LoL) before the TV show airs. The show airs on Monday. It's the first game to come out with a simultaneous show. So there was the first part of the game you played and then you could "finish that." When the TV show airs on Monday, a new patch goes through and more game content is opened. It won't exactly parallel the show or a new patch won't be released every episode, but about a quarter of the show or so will be in the game. Amazon (someone's in trouble!) accidentally made the pilot episode available (unless "pilot previews" are now 1.5 hours long and suspiciously look an awful lot like a pilot episode) so we watched it. It was an okay show. I like the main dude, but the rest will come with time, hopefully. I haven't played the game, but Chris thought it was okay too. I did feel a *little* left out because he knew what some things and I had to go, "What?" whenever he mentioned something, but it's not like I couldn't follow the episode or get into the world. It's simply he has a little more "canon" under is belt than I do. So, it's an interesting concept and will be interesting to see how it does.
As for movies, well, I've watched a "few" in the last few weeks.
Rise of the Guardians - Funny thing about this is I watched it 2 or 3 days before Easter, which part of the movie takes place about 2 or 3 days before Easter! (I forget exactly how many days.) I thought it was cute. I liked what each "Guardian" is supposed to be guarding (Santa Claus - Wonder; Easter Bunny - Hope; Tooth Fairy - Memories; Sandman - Dreams; Jack Frost - Fun). The Boogeyman is scary and it was scary how he "invaded" the world, but it was interesting too. It was basically about making kids lose hope or making their dreams scary, etc. I can't say it's to the caliber of Wreck-It Ralph, but I liked it and it's another solid DreamWorks film. Grade: B/B-
Killing Them Softly (Brad Pitt) - Definitely neo-noir and it's okay. It's not horrible, but it's not really my cup of tea either. I also felt like the cast was not used well. The beginning story and why the whole film happened was just stupid (really, those guys weren't bright, but that was kind of the point too!). Pitt's character wasn't bad, but the film is a neo-noir and that's not usually my thing. Grade: C/C-
Life of Pi (Suraj Sharma) - Okay, so it is a little stylized and not a whole lot happens for a great deal of the film and there are some stupid moments from Pi, but I liked it. It is a theological film and I can't really compare it to the book (I read 1/3 of the book), but I liked the film. I found it interesting and the ending really made you think too. It made you first think if the entire story was made up or not, but if you delved into it, it also made you wonder about God. I mean, in the beginning, he does say that he's going to tell you a story to make you believe in God. It's, in the end, a story about rationality vs faith. Can you believe in the unbelievable or do you need to rationalize it to something that makes sense? With that said, I thought the journey of being on the boat was interesting on its own. I liked the style of the film and, yeah, it got a little "dreamy" and "other worldly" at points, but it sort of fit in with the whole story. I really liked it, at any rate. It won't be for everyone and not every animal on the boat survive in the beginning (nothing graphic, but it still upset me none-the-less), but I really liked it. One of those films I'm really glad I watched (great directing, good acting, etc), but it's unlikely I'll ever watch it again (e.g., War Horse). Grade: A
Straight A's (Anna Paquin, Ryan Phillippe, Luke Wilson) - What...? This was my first response when the movie ended. What...? Definitely not what I thought. I thought it was going to end differently. I didn't think it was a rom-com, but I didn't think it'd be such a drama film either. And there's "drama" and then there is DRAMA and this trio definitely have the drama in their relationship. I still don't even quite get the end or the meaning of the title? I don't know. The acting wasn't bad, but it was just baffling to me... Grade: C-/D+
Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) - I knew this film would happen to his assassination, but I didn't realize how political the film was going to be. Not that it was a bad thing, I just didn't expect it. Daniel Day-Lewis did an amazing acting job, though. Liam Neeson was originally cast for the role and I don't think he could have done as good of a job as Day-Lewis (and I like Neeson a lot). It's a good, solid cast and it was interesting to see the political maneuvering to get the 13th Amendment passed. I've read that people say it's not historically accurate on how "critical" or "important" certain events were played to be, but it's a movie...You need some suspense and questioning on whether it was going to come about or not or how close it'd be. It is a rather long film, though. I wouldn't say it's *too* long, but it is just long. Grade: B
Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren) - Sometimes trailers lead you astray on how a film would be, but this trailer was exactly what it was and I just didn't believe it. Not the best of films and I didn't exactly like the feel of the film. Not that the feel was bad, but it just felt kind of weird that it's a docudrama and filmed in a way to make you feel all movie. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it was just a docudrama instead of the stylization to make you feel like it was one of his films. With that said, I did enjoy the story of Hitchcock and his wife. It seemed like that they really did love each other and did really collaborate quite a lot, but they both had their "issues" to work through in their partnership. I liked Hopkins make-up too, but sometimes it didn't feel real. Grade: C/C+ (C+ if it didn't have that weird feel to it)
With that, I've watched all but 1 (Amour) of the Best Picture nominated films. I have to say, I wish Life of Pi won. Don't get me wrong, Argo was a good film and Lincoln was too, but Life of Pi was more to me. I felt like Life of Pi hit me more emotionally/spiritually, where Argo was more drama-suspense, Lincoln drama-politics, and Silver Linings Playbook drama-comedy. Django Unchained, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Les Miserables, and Zero Dark Thirty just never really seemed like they had a chance to win to me. All good films too. I don't doubt their excellency to be nominated (they are all quality films), but I just felt like Life of Pi is a little more what the Academy likes (in feel), but it is a little more "spiritual" and Argo is more movies-help-save-lives. I'm not so surprised Lincoln didn't win either after seeing it. It's an excellent film, but it's not a film like King's Speech. It misses something just by a hair to make it Best Picture winner. Course, I like Life of Pi more than Argo, so who's to say I know the majority of the Academy at all! ;)
Anyway, with that, time to go to bed!
I actually started exercising and thinking of what I eat the week before we did our first (and initial) weigh in to get myself going. I'm not, per se, "dieting," but I am trying to be conscious of what I eat and eat less and healthier. I don't always hit it and I sometimes splurge (I had ice cream today...Bad me!), but I'm generally doing better and I've lost 3 lbs! Okay, so it's probably water weight, but at least it's down rather than up! (Our biggest joke is that we'll gain weight instead of lose it.)
I have decided no sugar. For me, that entails soda, candy, and cookies. Okay, ice cream kind of through that out the window for me tonight (and I had a little soda a few days ago), but it's a HUGE decrease of the amount I *was* eating/drinking. I generally don't drink a lot of soda, but I do go in waves and I was in a big uptick in soda so I cut that out. As for candy, I've always had a huge sweet tooth and I was gnawing on sugar (fruit snacks -- yummy! -- or some candy) almost nightly and not just a few, but maybe 1 or 2 packs of fruit snacks a night and maybe even 1 during lunch. It was rather bad. It was to the point where eating sugar just made my teeth feel like they hurt. So, cutting the sugar out has been another big step for me.
I am also being more aware of how much I eat and when I eat. I know you're supposed to graze throughout the day and some days I'm better than that than others, but I'm now trying to eat my biggest meal at lunch and taper off earlier at night. Before, I was probably bellcurving closer to night (after I got home) and eating less (or snacking) at work. And by bellcurving, I mean my biggest meal was at home after work and then I snacked somewhere before or after that too. I'm never a big morning eater since it's hard to shove food down my throat when I first wake up, but I have noticed with eating less at night, I'm waking up hungrier in the morning, which allows me to eat a *little* something to try and wake my metabolism up. I've felt better doing it this way too. I'm sure it has something to do with fueling myself for the day. :P
Anyway, so, the past 1.5 weeks I've been exercising almost daily (I missed two days because I passed out asleep both days; I exercise at night; and 1am is a little late to exercise...) and been eating better. The stomach is shrinking and the muscles are a little sore. I can't make it a whole day at work on my feet without my legs hurting again, but I know I'll get past that over time. Chris bought me a subscription to Fitness Mag to help encourage me and he's been better about offering me food and sugar (every time we'd go to the store he'd ask me if I wanted soda (that was a 50-50 chance) or candy (that was almost every time a yes)). So, we'll see how this goes! If anything, the 4 weeks should be interesting with my co-workers. We all keep laughing about our "healthy" lunches and what we have and haven't done. We all kid each other so much. So much, in fact, that Andrew today was trying to offer me candy he found in the breakroom. Thanks dude... :)
As for LotRo, as I mentioned earlier, we're no longer playing. Defiance came out so the boys jumped ship and started playing that. Defiance is coupled with a TV show that is on SyFy. The game came out about 2 (or 3? What week am I in? LoL) before the TV show airs. The show airs on Monday. It's the first game to come out with a simultaneous show. So there was the first part of the game you played and then you could "finish that." When the TV show airs on Monday, a new patch goes through and more game content is opened. It won't exactly parallel the show or a new patch won't be released every episode, but about a quarter of the show or so will be in the game. Amazon (someone's in trouble!) accidentally made the pilot episode available (unless "pilot previews" are now 1.5 hours long and suspiciously look an awful lot like a pilot episode) so we watched it. It was an okay show. I like the main dude, but the rest will come with time, hopefully. I haven't played the game, but Chris thought it was okay too. I did feel a *little* left out because he knew what some things and I had to go, "What?" whenever he mentioned something, but it's not like I couldn't follow the episode or get into the world. It's simply he has a little more "canon" under is belt than I do. So, it's an interesting concept and will be interesting to see how it does.
As for movies, well, I've watched a "few" in the last few weeks.
Rise of the Guardians - Funny thing about this is I watched it 2 or 3 days before Easter, which part of the movie takes place about 2 or 3 days before Easter! (I forget exactly how many days.) I thought it was cute. I liked what each "Guardian" is supposed to be guarding (Santa Claus - Wonder; Easter Bunny - Hope; Tooth Fairy - Memories; Sandman - Dreams; Jack Frost - Fun). The Boogeyman is scary and it was scary how he "invaded" the world, but it was interesting too. It was basically about making kids lose hope or making their dreams scary, etc. I can't say it's to the caliber of Wreck-It Ralph, but I liked it and it's another solid DreamWorks film. Grade: B/B-
Killing Them Softly (Brad Pitt) - Definitely neo-noir and it's okay. It's not horrible, but it's not really my cup of tea either. I also felt like the cast was not used well. The beginning story and why the whole film happened was just stupid (really, those guys weren't bright, but that was kind of the point too!). Pitt's character wasn't bad, but the film is a neo-noir and that's not usually my thing. Grade: C/C-
Life of Pi (Suraj Sharma) - Okay, so it is a little stylized and not a whole lot happens for a great deal of the film and there are some stupid moments from Pi, but I liked it. It is a theological film and I can't really compare it to the book (I read 1/3 of the book), but I liked the film. I found it interesting and the ending really made you think too. It made you first think if the entire story was made up or not, but if you delved into it, it also made you wonder about God. I mean, in the beginning, he does say that he's going to tell you a story to make you believe in God. It's, in the end, a story about rationality vs faith. Can you believe in the unbelievable or do you need to rationalize it to something that makes sense? With that said, I thought the journey of being on the boat was interesting on its own. I liked the style of the film and, yeah, it got a little "dreamy" and "other worldly" at points, but it sort of fit in with the whole story. I really liked it, at any rate. It won't be for everyone and not every animal on the boat survive in the beginning (nothing graphic, but it still upset me none-the-less), but I really liked it. One of those films I'm really glad I watched (great directing, good acting, etc), but it's unlikely I'll ever watch it again (e.g., War Horse). Grade: A
Straight A's (Anna Paquin, Ryan Phillippe, Luke Wilson) - What...? This was my first response when the movie ended. What...? Definitely not what I thought. I thought it was going to end differently. I didn't think it was a rom-com, but I didn't think it'd be such a drama film either. And there's "drama" and then there is DRAMA and this trio definitely have the drama in their relationship. I still don't even quite get the end or the meaning of the title? I don't know. The acting wasn't bad, but it was just baffling to me... Grade: C-/D+
Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) - I knew this film would happen to his assassination, but I didn't realize how political the film was going to be. Not that it was a bad thing, I just didn't expect it. Daniel Day-Lewis did an amazing acting job, though. Liam Neeson was originally cast for the role and I don't think he could have done as good of a job as Day-Lewis (and I like Neeson a lot). It's a good, solid cast and it was interesting to see the political maneuvering to get the 13th Amendment passed. I've read that people say it's not historically accurate on how "critical" or "important" certain events were played to be, but it's a movie...You need some suspense and questioning on whether it was going to come about or not or how close it'd be. It is a rather long film, though. I wouldn't say it's *too* long, but it is just long. Grade: B
Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren) - Sometimes trailers lead you astray on how a film would be, but this trailer was exactly what it was and I just didn't believe it. Not the best of films and I didn't exactly like the feel of the film. Not that the feel was bad, but it just felt kind of weird that it's a docudrama and filmed in a way to make you feel all movie. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it was just a docudrama instead of the stylization to make you feel like it was one of his films. With that said, I did enjoy the story of Hitchcock and his wife. It seemed like that they really did love each other and did really collaborate quite a lot, but they both had their "issues" to work through in their partnership. I liked Hopkins make-up too, but sometimes it didn't feel real. Grade: C/C+ (C+ if it didn't have that weird feel to it)
With that, I've watched all but 1 (Amour) of the Best Picture nominated films. I have to say, I wish Life of Pi won. Don't get me wrong, Argo was a good film and Lincoln was too, but Life of Pi was more to me. I felt like Life of Pi hit me more emotionally/spiritually, where Argo was more drama-suspense, Lincoln drama-politics, and Silver Linings Playbook drama-comedy. Django Unchained, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Les Miserables, and Zero Dark Thirty just never really seemed like they had a chance to win to me. All good films too. I don't doubt their excellency to be nominated (they are all quality films), but I just felt like Life of Pi is a little more what the Academy likes (in feel), but it is a little more "spiritual" and Argo is more movies-help-save-lives. I'm not so surprised Lincoln didn't win either after seeing it. It's an excellent film, but it's not a film like King's Speech. It misses something just by a hair to make it Best Picture winner. Course, I like Life of Pi more than Argo, so who's to say I know the majority of the Academy at all! ;)
Anyway, with that, time to go to bed!
Friday, March 22, 2013
Aquarium Contract, Part 2 and Movies
So, I turned in my final report for the Aquarium this week. It's all finished and it's off to be copy-edited! Huzzah! The same day I turned it in, I get an email asking me to do the Philippines version of the report! They're paying me a 4th of what I did for the other one, but that was significantly harder and also was 5 countries. The Philippines is highly researched and has the most information available. So, it should be a lot easier, especially since the intro is mostly completed (e.g., US importance). So...that'll be interesting to do. I still have to look over and sign the contract.
I survived this week of work! I'm feeling loads better and am almost completely well. I've got an annoying slight congestion and a cough that crops up randomly, but it's not too bad. I feel almost back to normal and feel 10xs better than last week. I didn't realize HOW bad I felt till this week when I started getting back into the rhythm of work and getting back to my normal duties. I can tell how badly I felt because there are certain things I do on a daily or at least every few days and they weren't taken care of for a week. I certainly went through the motion of work for a week, but not much else.
Anyway, on to movies!
Lots of the fall movies are now coming out on DVD and it's definitely kind of refreshing watching good movies rather than the random stuff I sometimes watch like this first one I'm going to write about...
Man with the Iron Fists (RZA, Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu) - Wow...What a bad film. It's silly, over the top, and just bad...It's like a combination of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Kill Bill. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. The effects weren't bad and it does have that sort of old school martial arts film to it, but there's just too much in it that made it silly and bad. Grade: D
Argo (Ben Affleck) - Well...I understand why it was well received. It is a good film. Affleck does a great job in building the suspense and making you wonder if they'll make it out okay. I know it's not all factual as it really wasn't that intense getting them out of the country (i.e., the airport scene), but it was still good to watch. Affleck's character felt a little flat, but that is the way he is supposed to be too so I can't tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing. It's just something you obviously notice compared to all the other actors/actresses in the movie. I still haven't seen Life of Pi or Lincoln so I can't really comment on Best Picture, yet, but if what I hear about Life of Pi or Lincoln is correct, Argo shouldn't have won, but I'll really discuss that later when I've seen them. It's a good watch if you're looking for something to watch, but if you have no interest in it, it's not that important to watch it. I find it above average, but not spectacular. Grade: B
Zero Dark Thirty (Jessica Chastain) - Again, I can see why people like it. Bigelow did do a good directing job and the movie is interesting, but boy is it long. You feel the length of the movie, but it does go along at a nice clip (even if it is a little over 2.5 hours long). I can see complaints too (e.g., the torture scenes), but there's nothing overly graphic. Chastain did a good job. She was tenacious in her lead and stoic in her job, even when one of her friends was killed. I don't think it particularly deserved Best Picture, but then I didn't think Hurt Locker did either. Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty have similar feels to them if you watched Hurt Locker. I liked it, but it, again, is above average, but not spectacular. I think it's good, but it didn't captivate me. Grade: B
Anna Karenina (Kiera Knightley, Jude Law) - You know, Anna definitely has some sort of mental issue. In some ways, you think poorly of Vronsky and Anna because they cheated on her husband, but then you go along and feel sort of sorry for Vronsky for putting up with Anna's unstable mental state. I did find the production style really interesting. They did it like it was a play. So you'd watch a scene and then it'd zoom out and different backgrounds would drop down like you're at a play and they're changing scenes. It did various things like that a lot. It was a little confusing at first, but when you got the hang of it, it was a really neat way to transition between scenes. You do have to say that, in this story, Karenina is definitely "saintly," as she even says when she think she's dying. He put up with an awful lot for the love of his wife. I enjoyed the costumes and the sets, but Anna is not very likeable and then she falls apart at the end, which makes it even harder to really like her. It did feel a little "over produced," though...It was okay. Grade: C for the production was impressive (her costumes were amazing!), but C- because Anna isn't likeable.
Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) - I adored this film and think it should have won Best Animation. Brave wasn't bad and neither was ParaNorman or Frankenweenie, but Wreck-It Ralph is definitely my favorite of the 4/5 animations I saw. Brave was kind of a sub-par Pixar film, which is saying something since a sub-par Pixar is still a better film than most others (animation or non-animation). Frankenweenie has the Tim Burton stamp on it and ParaNorman wasn't bad. Wreck-It Ralph has humor, heart, adventure, and good ol' nostalgia. I loved how an adult could see the little things in it and laugh over it (pong!), while a child would just like it for the story and the fun of it. It was clever how they did the video games, but also showed the age difference in technology. You have the newer and HD games (e.g., Hero's Duty in the movie) and then the older arcade games like Wreck-It Ralph. I liked the little people in Wreck-It Ralph's game and how they animated them to be like in the video game so their movements weren't smooth. They had a little stutter and when they hopped they did a hop noise. I liked the first person shooter game too and how they handled first person shooter mode. In a lot of ways, Wreck-It Ralph is like the video game equivalent of Toy Story. The games "come alive" when no one is around and worry about being "unplugged." The movie did give me a big craving for candy, though, since most of the movie is in Candy Rush...Anyway, I really liked this movie and can see why everyone really liked it. Disney has definitely had some solid animation hits lately (e.g., Tangled) and this is one I'd recommend for people to watch. Grade: A
I started watching The Following on HuluPlus. It's the big series right now, but I heard it is gory. Gory as in a lot of blood. If it's possible, it'd be considered more gory than the CSIs or something. It's not really "graphic," but it's definitely not tame either. It's so far interesting, but I don't know if I'll keep watching on a regular basis. It's just something to watch while I'm doing my nails or something since I can easily watch it on my iPad. Kevin Bacon is good, though.
Anyway, time to go paint my nails. The Post Office lost one of my packages today. : I'm thinking it has to be at the post office, but they can't find it. Great. It's the polish I've been waiting for too! One of my favorite Indie brands is back (after a very long hiatus) and it was 2 of her new polishes and I was going to wear one of them this week, but...yeah. I guess not! At least I'm not short on polish to wear...
I survived this week of work! I'm feeling loads better and am almost completely well. I've got an annoying slight congestion and a cough that crops up randomly, but it's not too bad. I feel almost back to normal and feel 10xs better than last week. I didn't realize HOW bad I felt till this week when I started getting back into the rhythm of work and getting back to my normal duties. I can tell how badly I felt because there are certain things I do on a daily or at least every few days and they weren't taken care of for a week. I certainly went through the motion of work for a week, but not much else.
Anyway, on to movies!
Lots of the fall movies are now coming out on DVD and it's definitely kind of refreshing watching good movies rather than the random stuff I sometimes watch like this first one I'm going to write about...
Man with the Iron Fists (RZA, Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu) - Wow...What a bad film. It's silly, over the top, and just bad...It's like a combination of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Kill Bill. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. The effects weren't bad and it does have that sort of old school martial arts film to it, but there's just too much in it that made it silly and bad. Grade: D
Argo (Ben Affleck) - Well...I understand why it was well received. It is a good film. Affleck does a great job in building the suspense and making you wonder if they'll make it out okay. I know it's not all factual as it really wasn't that intense getting them out of the country (i.e., the airport scene), but it was still good to watch. Affleck's character felt a little flat, but that is the way he is supposed to be too so I can't tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing. It's just something you obviously notice compared to all the other actors/actresses in the movie. I still haven't seen Life of Pi or Lincoln so I can't really comment on Best Picture, yet, but if what I hear about Life of Pi or Lincoln is correct, Argo shouldn't have won, but I'll really discuss that later when I've seen them. It's a good watch if you're looking for something to watch, but if you have no interest in it, it's not that important to watch it. I find it above average, but not spectacular. Grade: B
Zero Dark Thirty (Jessica Chastain) - Again, I can see why people like it. Bigelow did do a good directing job and the movie is interesting, but boy is it long. You feel the length of the movie, but it does go along at a nice clip (even if it is a little over 2.5 hours long). I can see complaints too (e.g., the torture scenes), but there's nothing overly graphic. Chastain did a good job. She was tenacious in her lead and stoic in her job, even when one of her friends was killed. I don't think it particularly deserved Best Picture, but then I didn't think Hurt Locker did either. Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty have similar feels to them if you watched Hurt Locker. I liked it, but it, again, is above average, but not spectacular. I think it's good, but it didn't captivate me. Grade: B
Anna Karenina (Kiera Knightley, Jude Law) - You know, Anna definitely has some sort of mental issue. In some ways, you think poorly of Vronsky and Anna because they cheated on her husband, but then you go along and feel sort of sorry for Vronsky for putting up with Anna's unstable mental state. I did find the production style really interesting. They did it like it was a play. So you'd watch a scene and then it'd zoom out and different backgrounds would drop down like you're at a play and they're changing scenes. It did various things like that a lot. It was a little confusing at first, but when you got the hang of it, it was a really neat way to transition between scenes. You do have to say that, in this story, Karenina is definitely "saintly," as she even says when she think she's dying. He put up with an awful lot for the love of his wife. I enjoyed the costumes and the sets, but Anna is not very likeable and then she falls apart at the end, which makes it even harder to really like her. It did feel a little "over produced," though...It was okay. Grade: C for the production was impressive (her costumes were amazing!), but C- because Anna isn't likeable.
Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) - I adored this film and think it should have won Best Animation. Brave wasn't bad and neither was ParaNorman or Frankenweenie, but Wreck-It Ralph is definitely my favorite of the 4/5 animations I saw. Brave was kind of a sub-par Pixar film, which is saying something since a sub-par Pixar is still a better film than most others (animation or non-animation). Frankenweenie has the Tim Burton stamp on it and ParaNorman wasn't bad. Wreck-It Ralph has humor, heart, adventure, and good ol' nostalgia. I loved how an adult could see the little things in it and laugh over it (pong!), while a child would just like it for the story and the fun of it. It was clever how they did the video games, but also showed the age difference in technology. You have the newer and HD games (e.g., Hero's Duty in the movie) and then the older arcade games like Wreck-It Ralph. I liked the little people in Wreck-It Ralph's game and how they animated them to be like in the video game so their movements weren't smooth. They had a little stutter and when they hopped they did a hop noise. I liked the first person shooter game too and how they handled first person shooter mode. In a lot of ways, Wreck-It Ralph is like the video game equivalent of Toy Story. The games "come alive" when no one is around and worry about being "unplugged." The movie did give me a big craving for candy, though, since most of the movie is in Candy Rush...Anyway, I really liked this movie and can see why everyone really liked it. Disney has definitely had some solid animation hits lately (e.g., Tangled) and this is one I'd recommend for people to watch. Grade: A
I started watching The Following on HuluPlus. It's the big series right now, but I heard it is gory. Gory as in a lot of blood. If it's possible, it'd be considered more gory than the CSIs or something. It's not really "graphic," but it's definitely not tame either. It's so far interesting, but I don't know if I'll keep watching on a regular basis. It's just something to watch while I'm doing my nails or something since I can easily watch it on my iPad. Kevin Bacon is good, though.
Anyway, time to go paint my nails. The Post Office lost one of my packages today. : I'm thinking it has to be at the post office, but they can't find it. Great. It's the polish I've been waiting for too! One of my favorite Indie brands is back (after a very long hiatus) and it was 2 of her new polishes and I was going to wear one of them this week, but...yeah. I guess not! At least I'm not short on polish to wear...
Saturday, March 16, 2013
TV watching when you're sick...
I'm dubbing the last month the month of illness. It first started with an infected, huge cyst. Then I had a week long stint with hives from the antibiotics for the cyst. Then I'm well for like a week or something and then I come down with a cold that is the sickliest I've been in over a year. I actually left work early 3/5 days and took a longer lunch one of the other days (the day I closed). I'm still sick, but it's better. I'm like maybe 60% well. It's amazing how tiring and horrible being sick is. It's definitely not something I've missed and it's shocked my co-workers because I've never gone home sick!
Anyway, while being sick, I haven't really wanted to do much, so I started watching TV shows again to pass the time. So this past week I found out in January (wow) that Redbox sent me my beta access code to try out the Redbox Instant. I also had a free month trial for HuluPlus from Chegg and I found CBS has a streaming app, which then started me thinking and comparing everything...
Redbox Instant vs Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant - So, I've discussed Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant before, which basically concluded that they're similar, but I like the next episode auto function on Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant doesn't have it. I have another thing I'd like to add about the apps. Netflix app you can use either on your wireless network or over wifi. Amazon Prime Instant only allows you to use it over your wifi, which I find a little weird. So, Netflix reigns over those two. The Amazon Prime Instant app is a little less user friendly too, but it's not a big deal.
I've been interested in Redbox Instant for a while, but was curious what was available to stream. Well, turns out, it's pretty much the same stuff that the other two have, but it doesn't seem to have TV shows. The app is okay too. I haven't tried it off of wifi, but considering the less amount of content (i.e., TV shows), it pretty much makes it the lesser of the 3. The only thing it has going for it is the 4 kiosk credits, but the major draw OF streaming is the fact I don't have to GO to the kiosk. Hence, I'm not going to subscribe (after my free trial is over). The 4 credits and maybe 1 or 2 movies I'll stream a month means I'm spending par on what I would pay if I just went to the kiosk every time (assuming I use all 4 credits AND stream 2 movies a month). I'd rather just not subscribe and go to the kiosk since I've got the same movies available on Amazon Prime Instant and I pay a year subscription for that. So, Redbox Instant...? Disappointment. I'll keep using Amazon Prime Instant and keep using the kiosk for Redbox, but no Instant subscription.
HuluPlus and CBS streaming - I used to use Hulu way back in the day when you didn't have to pay. Since then, I've just stopped and never wanted to pay or wait (week delay for new episodes?) so I never used it. A month free subscription came up (not the trial one on the webpage so, technically, I could get 2 months free) and I thought, "Why not?". I signed up while sick and it's come in handy. I've caught up on Bones and Castle thanks to it. Not to mention the app is handy. It's a decent app, but the webpage version has the Netflix similar next episode option when you finish an episode. Fox, ABC, and NBC both use HuluPlus, but CBS has its own streaming and doesn't use HuluPlus.
I don't particularly like the CBS version. First off, it only has the last 2-3 episodes of a season and maybe 1 other random one in the season (on CSI it's the first one and another show it's like the 5th one). I'm further behind than 3 episodes (more like 6) so it's a little awkward, BUT it's completely free (unlike HuluPlus). Then again, you can watch the last 2-3 episodes for free on Hulu, but you can't stream them on their app. So, it's a trade off. Subscribe and get a full season and app capabilities or go for free and only have the last 2-3 episodes available on the webpage only. It's more than the last 2-3 episode thing with the CBS version, though. I haven't webpage streamed, but their app is a little off. It has closed captioning (as HuluPlus has too), but it's not synced correctly and I think it's because the commercials don't break where they should. You have that pause right before a commercial, but their ads come maybe 2 or 3 seconds before the pause. So then the ads happen and then you go back to the show and THEN you get that last 2-3 seconds with the pause following it. It's kind of weird. I've also read that sometimes if you leave the app in the middle of an episode, the sound and closed captions will get off from the video. I haven't had that experience, but I also closed the app in the middle of an ad and it wasn't closed that long. I do wish CBS did something to make the entire season available, though. I also wish, sad to say, that CBS would mix-up their ads a little. I saw the same ads for all 3 CSI episodes I watched. I found you repeated ads on HuluPlus, but not as much. I watched the same ad maybe maybe 3-4 times each episode (there are 2-3 ads per break and about 4 or 5 breaks) or, at the very least, some variation of the same company. CBS was the EXACT same 5 ads for all 3 episodes, which meant I'm really tired of the Jack in the Box "Hot Mess" commercial and the Buick commercial. If you're going to torture me by making me watch ads, at least mix them up!
So, during my illness, I've definitely been doing a lot of app streaming on my iPad mini, which has been nice, but there are definite quirks on everything! It has allowed me to sort of catch up on my TV shows too. I'm a little awkwardly catching up with CSI and the other CBS shows since I'm up on the last 3 episodes, but missing episodes 11-13 (or somewhere around there).
Anyway, that's about all for now. I have watched one new movie, but I'll wait till I get another one or something.
Anyway, while being sick, I haven't really wanted to do much, so I started watching TV shows again to pass the time. So this past week I found out in January (wow) that Redbox sent me my beta access code to try out the Redbox Instant. I also had a free month trial for HuluPlus from Chegg and I found CBS has a streaming app, which then started me thinking and comparing everything...
Redbox Instant vs Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant - So, I've discussed Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant before, which basically concluded that they're similar, but I like the next episode auto function on Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant doesn't have it. I have another thing I'd like to add about the apps. Netflix app you can use either on your wireless network or over wifi. Amazon Prime Instant only allows you to use it over your wifi, which I find a little weird. So, Netflix reigns over those two. The Amazon Prime Instant app is a little less user friendly too, but it's not a big deal.
I've been interested in Redbox Instant for a while, but was curious what was available to stream. Well, turns out, it's pretty much the same stuff that the other two have, but it doesn't seem to have TV shows. The app is okay too. I haven't tried it off of wifi, but considering the less amount of content (i.e., TV shows), it pretty much makes it the lesser of the 3. The only thing it has going for it is the 4 kiosk credits, but the major draw OF streaming is the fact I don't have to GO to the kiosk. Hence, I'm not going to subscribe (after my free trial is over). The 4 credits and maybe 1 or 2 movies I'll stream a month means I'm spending par on what I would pay if I just went to the kiosk every time (assuming I use all 4 credits AND stream 2 movies a month). I'd rather just not subscribe and go to the kiosk since I've got the same movies available on Amazon Prime Instant and I pay a year subscription for that. So, Redbox Instant...? Disappointment. I'll keep using Amazon Prime Instant and keep using the kiosk for Redbox, but no Instant subscription.
HuluPlus and CBS streaming - I used to use Hulu way back in the day when you didn't have to pay. Since then, I've just stopped and never wanted to pay or wait (week delay for new episodes?) so I never used it. A month free subscription came up (not the trial one on the webpage so, technically, I could get 2 months free) and I thought, "Why not?". I signed up while sick and it's come in handy. I've caught up on Bones and Castle thanks to it. Not to mention the app is handy. It's a decent app, but the webpage version has the Netflix similar next episode option when you finish an episode. Fox, ABC, and NBC both use HuluPlus, but CBS has its own streaming and doesn't use HuluPlus.
I don't particularly like the CBS version. First off, it only has the last 2-3 episodes of a season and maybe 1 other random one in the season (on CSI it's the first one and another show it's like the 5th one). I'm further behind than 3 episodes (more like 6) so it's a little awkward, BUT it's completely free (unlike HuluPlus). Then again, you can watch the last 2-3 episodes for free on Hulu, but you can't stream them on their app. So, it's a trade off. Subscribe and get a full season and app capabilities or go for free and only have the last 2-3 episodes available on the webpage only. It's more than the last 2-3 episode thing with the CBS version, though. I haven't webpage streamed, but their app is a little off. It has closed captioning (as HuluPlus has too), but it's not synced correctly and I think it's because the commercials don't break where they should. You have that pause right before a commercial, but their ads come maybe 2 or 3 seconds before the pause. So then the ads happen and then you go back to the show and THEN you get that last 2-3 seconds with the pause following it. It's kind of weird. I've also read that sometimes if you leave the app in the middle of an episode, the sound and closed captions will get off from the video. I haven't had that experience, but I also closed the app in the middle of an ad and it wasn't closed that long. I do wish CBS did something to make the entire season available, though. I also wish, sad to say, that CBS would mix-up their ads a little. I saw the same ads for all 3 CSI episodes I watched. I found you repeated ads on HuluPlus, but not as much. I watched the same ad maybe maybe 3-4 times each episode (there are 2-3 ads per break and about 4 or 5 breaks) or, at the very least, some variation of the same company. CBS was the EXACT same 5 ads for all 3 episodes, which meant I'm really tired of the Jack in the Box "Hot Mess" commercial and the Buick commercial. If you're going to torture me by making me watch ads, at least mix them up!
So, during my illness, I've definitely been doing a lot of app streaming on my iPad mini, which has been nice, but there are definite quirks on everything! It has allowed me to sort of catch up on my TV shows too. I'm a little awkwardly catching up with CSI and the other CBS shows since I'm up on the last 3 episodes, but missing episodes 11-13 (or somewhere around there).
Anyway, that's about all for now. I have watched one new movie, but I'll wait till I get another one or something.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
The days of LotRo and movies
Now that I'm "into" Lord of the Rings Online (play almost nightly...) with a few friends and Chris, my life seems to comprise mostly of playing that and not much else! It's so bad that Chris has gotten me a gamer mouse (I "need" two thumb buttons) AND a gamer headset with a better mic. Hey, I thought my last headset was okay, but I can tell the quality difference. If anything, I actually have a bass now and my mic doesn't make me sound like a robot occasionally. For some reason everyone had problems with me sounding like a robot and not being able to understand me. :P I have also learned all sorts of complications of having a Mac and trying to game. The game client is a Mac one (when I first played LotRo back in 2009, it wasn't on the Mac, but now is), but finding a gamer mouse that works on a Mac was hard and then this mouse's drivers didn't work on the Mac with the game client so the thumb buttons were useless. I had to download a 3rd party client to get them to work. This is, technically, my 2nd new headset because the first one didn't work with a Mac since it needed a power source to get the mic to work (couldn't just plug it into the mouse jack, which is what it was and a converter is like $5-10). This one I have now (the 2nd set) is a USB one to get the mic to work. Who knew! It's been interesting, to say the least. And, no, I can't use the mic on the computer because when the fan turns on, you can hear the fan through the mic (learned that YEARS ago) and I do use the mic often and the game client makes my fan work a LOT.
I do manage to do my nails, but I'm doing them less than I used to (1-2 times a week now (occasional 3 if something chips horribly, but I go as long as possible within a week) instead of 2-3 (sometimes 4)). I'm still buying polishes, but at a MUCH slower rate (really good for my wallet and savings!) and I mostly avoid Facebook now to keep the temptation down. All those indies and new polishes coming out and all those bloggers on Facebook! I also have gone away from chunky glitters and back to holos and cremes. It's definitely a palette cleansing time. I think Christmas wore me out! I'm also doing more stamping, which I stopped doing in the latter half of last year so it's nice to get back to stamping. I also have stopped doing chunky glitters because it takes time to remove and I have to fit in nails in between LotRo times. :)
I do keep renting movies, though, but there's not a whole lot right now. It's starting to pick up, but it's been a sort of slump. Well, I guess it *feels* like a slump, even though in 2 months I've watched 12 movies. To be fair, I watched 2 of them this week. Still reading too. I fit it in between gaming and work times. It's been a slow start to the year on new books, though. Lots of my authors aren't coming out with books till summer or the latter half of the year. I have managed to read 10 or so books, though. Currently plowing through one and it's been one I've been waiting to read for 2 years! This author finished a spin-off so I haven't been with these main characters for 2 years and it's good to be back to them! My TV watching has plummeted. I never got back into watching TV shows after November. I guess it's not something I'm really missing. I think I'm really only watching the new season of Top Gear.
Anyway, the rest of life is okay. I'm in the homestretch of my contract with the Aquarium. I did my presentation this past Monday, which is sort of like my defense. It went well. Now I'm waiting on some written comments, final edits, and then I'll turn it in and I'll be finished! It'll go through copy-editing, but my job will be finished.
With that...On to movies! This is going to be short just because there are 12 movies...
Frankenweenie - It's cute. I enjoyed it. It's based on the Frankenstein story, but with a kid twist. It wouldn't appeal to all kids, but I liked it. I can see why people thought it was cute and fun, but it is a different Tim Burton film. I'm not a huge fan of Tim Burton, but I have managed to watch a few of his films and it has his style, but maybe not his normal storytelling. The animation was good, but fantastic. Grade: B- (maybe C+)
Hotel Transylvania - Another animation and I enjoyed it too. I enjoyed this about as much as Frankenweenie. Frankenweenie has the loss of a pet in the beginning and this one revolves around Dracula's daughter turning of age and the fact her mother died so he's a little protective of her. It's cute too, but not overly amazing either. Grade: B- (maybe C+)
The Paperboy (Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey) - Uhm. Wow. I definitely wasn't prepared for what I was going to see. It's a good cast and decent acting, but the story is definitely not what I was expecting and what an, uhm, ending. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone to see. I guess there's a morale somewhere at the end, but it's such a downer of a movie at the end that it's hard to figure out. A movie that is taking up precious memory space... Grade: D
The Cold Light of Day (Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver) - Think a Die Hard movie, but without Willis being the hero. It's a little Bourne-y too. Basically, Willis's character works for the CIA or something and while the family is on a vacation, everyone gets kidnapped except Cavill. He has to go out and save his family while avoiding misleading information from the government (i.e., Weaver) and being alone in Italy. The most upsetting thing about it is Willis is in the movie, but he ends up NOT being in the movie for it since he dies in the very beginning. When does Willis die in a movie like that?! It's an okay movie. I can see why it didn't do well. It's just okay and it's a "been there, done that" without anything truly new or interesting in it. I mean, I'm okay with the "been there, done that" type of movies, but it should at least be good and this one falls flat. Grade: C-
Seven Psychopaths (Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell) - The title says it all. It really a movie full of psychopaths, but it's kind of interesting to watch. It has a good cast too. I will say, the trailer does mislead you. Sure, the whole dognapping thing sort of centers the movie (at least Harrelson's role), but it's actually about the seven psychopaths and Farrell's character is writing a script about seven psychopaths. There were a few twists in the movie, which, if I had been watching more closely, I might have noticed, but it interesting. It does have a slightly depressing ending, but given this is done by the same people who did In Bruges, I'm not too surprised. It's good if you like movies like this, but it's not for everyone. Grade: C
Flight (Denzel Washington) - The first 20 minutes of this movie literally made me jittery for the WHOLE movie. I was so wound up after watching the flight scene. It's intense. It didn't scare me away from flying, but it's intense and definitely had me on the edge of my seat and I was watching the whole thing very intently. Washington's acting is good and I can see why he was nominated, but I also didn't feel like it was phenomenal too. He definitely plays an anti-hero, though. He drinks and takes drugs, but when that flight went all wrong, he really pulled it all together and kept his cool. If anything, that alone was impressive to see (even when you know it's acting) because the contrast between him and his co-pilot is pretty extreme in their attitudes during the ordeal. It was an interesting movie, even if it was a little frustrating with his character until the end. If you're interested in it, I'd recommend it, but it's not a "must watch." Grade: B
Hit & Run (Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard) - It's a silly movie and that's what I expected. I do really like Kristen Bell, though. I really wish they didn't cancel Veronica Mars and it always seems like Bell and Shepard are fun people. Anyway, it's pretty silly and it should at no time be taken seriously either. It's over the top too, but it works somehow. Grade: C
Playing for Keeps (Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel) - When I started watching this, I could have sworn I had already seen it. I had seen the trailer SO much, I had somehow convinced myself I had seen it when I saw the intro. I still somehow think I've seen it already, but I haven't. Either it's so predictable (your typical rom-com) or I really have seen that trailer too much. At any rate, it's pretty typical, but it's an okay cast. It's nothing special and not the greatest rom-com, though. Grade: C
A Good Day to Die Hard (Bruce Willis) - It's a Die Hard film. Expect lots of explosions, shooting, running, car scenes, and Willis saving the day at the very end. If you expect anything else, you have idea what this franchise is about. I will say that the trying to bond with his son again was "heavy" for a Die Hard film, but Willis does get some jokes in here-and-there, but it's your typical Die Hard. Grade: C
Robot and Frank (Frank Langella) - I liked this film up until the end. It was a little sad for an ending and the movie sort of left me wanting something else from it. It's a good cast, but something just doesn't quite jive with me. It was like it was too short or the "intense" part (running from the cops with the robot) was too short or whatever...But it was a cute film. I liked the premise and I liked the relationship between Frank and Robot. Maybe if it went a different way with the middle of the story it would have played out better. I wish it was better to make it great. As is, it's just good to okay. Grade: C+
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller) - A good film. I liked all the acting and the story is interesting. It's a good coming of age. Grade: B
The Intouchables (Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy) - I really liked this movie. It's a foreign film, but it's good. It's really touching and it's great to see how they both taught each other what's missing from each other's lives. It's nothing too intense as it's a movie mostly about their growing friendship, but it has humor and touching moments. I enjoyed it from start to finish and would recommend this. Sy is a great actor and Cluzet does a great job too. You definitely get involved with their friendship and enjoy it almost as much as they do. I would rewatch this on DVD and maybe will rewatch it sooner rather than later. Grade: A
Oscars...Well. I wasn't too surprised. I was a little surprised about Best Animation (Brave), but I also haven't seen Wreck-It Ralph, yet, so it's hard to say. I'll be seeing it sometime next week, I suspect. It is weird how Best Director and Best Picture weren't from the same movie. Sure, it can happen and has happened before, but the directing makes a big difference in how the movie turns out. To be fair, Affleck wasn't nominated for Best Director, which was weird too. I guess you can also have a Best Picture nom and no Best/Supporting Actor/Actress awards too, but then you can have an overall feel (e.g., Lord of the Rings). Was a little surprised about Waltz for Best Supporting Actor, but he did a really good job in Django. I was happy for Lawrence (Best Actress) and Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress). I think they both did good jobs and you gotta appreciate Lawrence's spirits after she tripped going up the stairs (saw the highlights). Adele for Skyfall (Best Song) wasn't a surprise. Will be interesting if she does the next Bond song (also starring Daniel Craig) because of Skyfall's popularity (rumors are she might). I haven't seen the opening piece for the Oscars in a while, but I liked a few pieces from Mcfarlane's. I did like the "losers" song at the end, which was kind of funny. That also took some amazingly quick memorization since they kept changing it all night! With that...Not much else to say. :)
Time to read and go to bed!
I do manage to do my nails, but I'm doing them less than I used to (1-2 times a week now (occasional 3 if something chips horribly, but I go as long as possible within a week) instead of 2-3 (sometimes 4)). I'm still buying polishes, but at a MUCH slower rate (really good for my wallet and savings!) and I mostly avoid Facebook now to keep the temptation down. All those indies and new polishes coming out and all those bloggers on Facebook! I also have gone away from chunky glitters and back to holos and cremes. It's definitely a palette cleansing time. I think Christmas wore me out! I'm also doing more stamping, which I stopped doing in the latter half of last year so it's nice to get back to stamping. I also have stopped doing chunky glitters because it takes time to remove and I have to fit in nails in between LotRo times. :)
I do keep renting movies, though, but there's not a whole lot right now. It's starting to pick up, but it's been a sort of slump. Well, I guess it *feels* like a slump, even though in 2 months I've watched 12 movies. To be fair, I watched 2 of them this week. Still reading too. I fit it in between gaming and work times. It's been a slow start to the year on new books, though. Lots of my authors aren't coming out with books till summer or the latter half of the year. I have managed to read 10 or so books, though. Currently plowing through one and it's been one I've been waiting to read for 2 years! This author finished a spin-off so I haven't been with these main characters for 2 years and it's good to be back to them! My TV watching has plummeted. I never got back into watching TV shows after November. I guess it's not something I'm really missing. I think I'm really only watching the new season of Top Gear.
Anyway, the rest of life is okay. I'm in the homestretch of my contract with the Aquarium. I did my presentation this past Monday, which is sort of like my defense. It went well. Now I'm waiting on some written comments, final edits, and then I'll turn it in and I'll be finished! It'll go through copy-editing, but my job will be finished.
With that...On to movies! This is going to be short just because there are 12 movies...
Frankenweenie - It's cute. I enjoyed it. It's based on the Frankenstein story, but with a kid twist. It wouldn't appeal to all kids, but I liked it. I can see why people thought it was cute and fun, but it is a different Tim Burton film. I'm not a huge fan of Tim Burton, but I have managed to watch a few of his films and it has his style, but maybe not his normal storytelling. The animation was good, but fantastic. Grade: B- (maybe C+)
Hotel Transylvania - Another animation and I enjoyed it too. I enjoyed this about as much as Frankenweenie. Frankenweenie has the loss of a pet in the beginning and this one revolves around Dracula's daughter turning of age and the fact her mother died so he's a little protective of her. It's cute too, but not overly amazing either. Grade: B- (maybe C+)
The Paperboy (Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey) - Uhm. Wow. I definitely wasn't prepared for what I was going to see. It's a good cast and decent acting, but the story is definitely not what I was expecting and what an, uhm, ending. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone to see. I guess there's a morale somewhere at the end, but it's such a downer of a movie at the end that it's hard to figure out. A movie that is taking up precious memory space... Grade: D
The Cold Light of Day (Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver) - Think a Die Hard movie, but without Willis being the hero. It's a little Bourne-y too. Basically, Willis's character works for the CIA or something and while the family is on a vacation, everyone gets kidnapped except Cavill. He has to go out and save his family while avoiding misleading information from the government (i.e., Weaver) and being alone in Italy. The most upsetting thing about it is Willis is in the movie, but he ends up NOT being in the movie for it since he dies in the very beginning. When does Willis die in a movie like that?! It's an okay movie. I can see why it didn't do well. It's just okay and it's a "been there, done that" without anything truly new or interesting in it. I mean, I'm okay with the "been there, done that" type of movies, but it should at least be good and this one falls flat. Grade: C-
Seven Psychopaths (Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell) - The title says it all. It really a movie full of psychopaths, but it's kind of interesting to watch. It has a good cast too. I will say, the trailer does mislead you. Sure, the whole dognapping thing sort of centers the movie (at least Harrelson's role), but it's actually about the seven psychopaths and Farrell's character is writing a script about seven psychopaths. There were a few twists in the movie, which, if I had been watching more closely, I might have noticed, but it interesting. It does have a slightly depressing ending, but given this is done by the same people who did In Bruges, I'm not too surprised. It's good if you like movies like this, but it's not for everyone. Grade: C
Flight (Denzel Washington) - The first 20 minutes of this movie literally made me jittery for the WHOLE movie. I was so wound up after watching the flight scene. It's intense. It didn't scare me away from flying, but it's intense and definitely had me on the edge of my seat and I was watching the whole thing very intently. Washington's acting is good and I can see why he was nominated, but I also didn't feel like it was phenomenal too. He definitely plays an anti-hero, though. He drinks and takes drugs, but when that flight went all wrong, he really pulled it all together and kept his cool. If anything, that alone was impressive to see (even when you know it's acting) because the contrast between him and his co-pilot is pretty extreme in their attitudes during the ordeal. It was an interesting movie, even if it was a little frustrating with his character until the end. If you're interested in it, I'd recommend it, but it's not a "must watch." Grade: B
Hit & Run (Kristen Bell, Dax Shepard) - It's a silly movie and that's what I expected. I do really like Kristen Bell, though. I really wish they didn't cancel Veronica Mars and it always seems like Bell and Shepard are fun people. Anyway, it's pretty silly and it should at no time be taken seriously either. It's over the top too, but it works somehow. Grade: C
Playing for Keeps (Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel) - When I started watching this, I could have sworn I had already seen it. I had seen the trailer SO much, I had somehow convinced myself I had seen it when I saw the intro. I still somehow think I've seen it already, but I haven't. Either it's so predictable (your typical rom-com) or I really have seen that trailer too much. At any rate, it's pretty typical, but it's an okay cast. It's nothing special and not the greatest rom-com, though. Grade: C
A Good Day to Die Hard (Bruce Willis) - It's a Die Hard film. Expect lots of explosions, shooting, running, car scenes, and Willis saving the day at the very end. If you expect anything else, you have idea what this franchise is about. I will say that the trying to bond with his son again was "heavy" for a Die Hard film, but Willis does get some jokes in here-and-there, but it's your typical Die Hard. Grade: C
Robot and Frank (Frank Langella) - I liked this film up until the end. It was a little sad for an ending and the movie sort of left me wanting something else from it. It's a good cast, but something just doesn't quite jive with me. It was like it was too short or the "intense" part (running from the cops with the robot) was too short or whatever...But it was a cute film. I liked the premise and I liked the relationship between Frank and Robot. Maybe if it went a different way with the middle of the story it would have played out better. I wish it was better to make it great. As is, it's just good to okay. Grade: C+
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller) - A good film. I liked all the acting and the story is interesting. It's a good coming of age. Grade: B
The Intouchables (Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy) - I really liked this movie. It's a foreign film, but it's good. It's really touching and it's great to see how they both taught each other what's missing from each other's lives. It's nothing too intense as it's a movie mostly about their growing friendship, but it has humor and touching moments. I enjoyed it from start to finish and would recommend this. Sy is a great actor and Cluzet does a great job too. You definitely get involved with their friendship and enjoy it almost as much as they do. I would rewatch this on DVD and maybe will rewatch it sooner rather than later. Grade: A
Oscars...Well. I wasn't too surprised. I was a little surprised about Best Animation (Brave), but I also haven't seen Wreck-It Ralph, yet, so it's hard to say. I'll be seeing it sometime next week, I suspect. It is weird how Best Director and Best Picture weren't from the same movie. Sure, it can happen and has happened before, but the directing makes a big difference in how the movie turns out. To be fair, Affleck wasn't nominated for Best Director, which was weird too. I guess you can also have a Best Picture nom and no Best/Supporting Actor/Actress awards too, but then you can have an overall feel (e.g., Lord of the Rings). Was a little surprised about Waltz for Best Supporting Actor, but he did a really good job in Django. I was happy for Lawrence (Best Actress) and Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress). I think they both did good jobs and you gotta appreciate Lawrence's spirits after she tripped going up the stairs (saw the highlights). Adele for Skyfall (Best Song) wasn't a surprise. Will be interesting if she does the next Bond song (also starring Daniel Craig) because of Skyfall's popularity (rumors are she might). I haven't seen the opening piece for the Oscars in a while, but I liked a few pieces from Mcfarlane's. I did like the "losers" song at the end, which was kind of funny. That also took some amazingly quick memorization since they kept changing it all night! With that...Not much else to say. :)
Time to read and go to bed!
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