Category: Movies

posting…New Year’s weekend

Monday, 8 January, 2007 at 11:22 am

I’ve been a lazy blogger. Bad me. Umm, lessee…

December 27th, Wednesday, took my car in for 30,000 mile maintenance. The service area’s computers were out, and we (Daddy and I) waited an hour then found out the computers were back on but they didn’t tell us. -.-

My car didn’t get worked on until 2 in the afternoon, and so my car wasn’t ready until the next day. Argh. I woke up at nine to see if the car was ready but they didn’t call so I called them, then got put on hold for about 5 minutes before I was disconnected. (It’s a very busy place with not so good channels of communication open with the customers.) So then Daddy Hidek and I went in the van to pick up Noelle Tadash and SM00 for the weekend.

Friday we (everyone, Mum Daddy Hidek Noelle Tadash SM00 me) went to Mitsuwa in Torrance. Mmm, good udon. *grin* Everyone else (except Daddy, he didn’t get anything) had ramen.

Went to the bookstore. I bought the Paradise Kiss manga series in some special large(r) format. I don’t know what it is, I can’t read the Japanese on it, but I do know it’s an inch or so larger on the sides. Then we went to Fry’s, but Mum Daddy and I stayed in the car. They had the Wii but you had to buy 5 games with it. o.O Odd.

Oh yeah, it turns out my car was ready at 10 on Thursday. They must have called right after we stepped out the door. ;.; We went to pick it up at 3 but their computers were down again so we couldn’t pay with credit card. ARGH. So we left then came back at 5 to pick up my car.

Hidek rented Talladega Nights from Blockbuster, we watched that Thursday/Friday night, I don’t remember. We thought it was really funny. ^_^;; Daddy and I (and Mickey, some) watched practically all the extras. I really liked it. But this movie had less, er, guest roles? (drivers from NASCAR) than Cars did. :/ I thought that was kinda boring. But I guess they didn’t really fit into the story.

Erm, I don’t remember, one day we watched Shimotsuma Monogatari (English title: Kamikaze Girls) and Dark Water. Was it Saturday? And we watched Talladega Nights on Friday? It was weird, ’cause after watching Dark Water, that night SM00 went into the hallway and she came out saying water was dripping from the smoke alarm. O.o! The girl was coming to haunt us! But it turned out that the toilet upstairs flooded, and leaked downstairs. ehehe That night the boys and I played Texas Hold’em. Then SM00 joined us to play the boardgame Payday. (1994 edition. Apparently, the old version didn’t have the lottery. o.o But that part is so fun! XD)

Sunday we went to their house to make mochi. (Gee, I can’t say “pound mochi” can I?)

Monday, New Year’s, that was fun. I actually got to see the whole Rose Parade for once. o.o I think last year I was too nervous about school to sit down and watch television. And all the years before, we always went to a relative’s house to celebrate and not much tv watching got done. I guess I missed out on the Stephanie Edwards and Bob Eubanks era. :( I remember her, but I never really watched so I don’t know how she did the parade.

Tuesday Daddy, Hidek and I went to Borders. I returned the Nana manga that had the security device with the dried up glue that was pulling out the paper and got a $20 journal for only $1.73 with the return and my holiday savings. woohoo! Then I went with Daddy to Barnes and Noble. Why? I dunno. Just felt like going out, maybe I felt like looking at their journals and date books.

Wednesday Mum and I went out shopping.

Thursday I watched a lot of Monk season 3.

Friday, I don’t remember. o.O Saturday all the relatives got together at Noelle’s house for New Year’s. We left our house at 9 like we planned (shocking; maybe everyone was hungry, haha) and got to Noelle’s house around 10. Had good ozoni. XD Hidek bought Wario Ware, so we played that. I made wonton with Daddy helping. Then the boys played NASCAR I don’t remember which one, for the Gamecube. Then we had dinner. Yummm. I’ve got some leftovers sitting in the fridge for dinner sometime this week. XD

Sunday packed up my stuff. Pretty much all I did was watch tv. Drove up to school. Unpacked stuff.

Christmas

Tuesday, 26 December, 2006 at 2:45 pm

A computer-less weekend! Oh my!

Let’s start on Saturday. Mum wanted me to help her make the cookies, so I did that. We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (or chocolate chip oatmeal cookies?) with some coconut thrown in ’cause Mum likes that, and “holiday nuggets.” I dunno what they are. ._. They’ve got lots of shortening and butter and sifted powdered sugar and chopped nuts, and they’re covered in powdered sugar. Very good. heehee.

Since Mum was doing other stuff (I forget what), and my elbows are I am so frickin weak, we got Mickey to hold the bowl for me while I stirred everything into dough. ehehe. And since Mickey was sacrificing his time, I thought we should put on some Christmas videos so he wouldn’t be so bored.

We watched Timmy’s Gift (Precious Moments), then It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (saw the first and last Christmas specials on TV last week), then Care Bear’s Nutcracker Suite, I Love Lucy Christmas special, Madeline’s Christmas (that tape’s going bad ;.;), then Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (and an added short that’s on the DVD), then Mickey’s Christmas Carol, then Brand Spanking New Doug Christmas special.

Grandpa’s birthday was the Monday (or Tuesday?) before, so he and Grandma came over for Chinese take-out to celebrate. My great aunt had them over for dinner earlier that week, too. Uncle R couldn’t come Saturday ’cause he had to work. XD So we had good eats. Then Little Women, the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn, was on, so we watched that. Grandma could name practically all the actors. o.o But then again, I just remembered that she asked me only once where Hidek was. Hmm. It was Grandpa who asked about a dozen times during the movie, “Is that Katherine Hepburn?” *blink*

They left a little while before the movie ended, to pick up Uncle R? So Mickey popped in another tape and he, Mum, Daddy and I watched the Hey Arnold and old Doug and Edith Ann Christmas specials.

At nine Meet Me in St. Louis was on, so Mum and I watched that until 11. ^^ One of my favorite movies, wheee!

Sunday I wrapped my presents to everybody (except Mickey and Hidek ’cause Mum did that for helping her with the cookies), then made the brownies. Mum watched The Homecoming while she made the yams. I like that movie all right, but I guess at my age it just moves too slowly for me. When I’m older I’ll probably enjoy it more. I didn’t watch the whole thing. I left around the time John Boy went to the church. Oh, I guess I went on the computer over the weekend. I talked to Adam, then went to bed at midnight.

Christmas day Mum woke me up at 8:30. I got dressed, opened my Santa present ($15), then we were actually on time and left at 9. *shock* The streets were so empty. XD One of my favorite parts of Christmas. L.A. is so dead! We got to Auntie G’s, unpacked, hung around for breakfast that Tadash and Noelle and Auntie made. Mickey and I washed the dishes and Mum dried and put things away. Then we watched Hidek beat my cousin’s husband at Texas hold’em and win $5. XD; Then we opened presents. Noelle liked her present from us. :D It was a $20-bill folded into a ring and it was in a ring box. XDD Noelle Tadash and SM00 gave me a Dooney & Bourke wristlet that SM00 picked out. I like it, it’s cute and not ugly like lots of purses out there nowadays, and it’s definitely classy.

Tadash got the Axis & Allies boardgame, so the boys and aforementioned cousin’s husband and Uncle G played that. I did the money. Muahahaha, that is my role in (boardgame) life. I finally learned how to play the game. o.o My brothers had played with my dad’s game since elementary school, then Tadash has been borrowing it lately, and we never really knew how to play. ahaha. It’s a role-playing game. o.O Gotta roll dice, always roll dice, more and more dice… I’m okay. I’ve just never seen so many dice in one place outside of a game store. I think they got through three rounds of turns.

Technically the Axis (cous’ hus and Uncle G) was winning when we had to clean up for dinner. Uncle G gained a lot of land, and he had a huge army. Mickey had land, but his resources were thin. Hidek had pretty much the same as at the beginning (oh, plus 6 tanks and no transport XD) and I think Tadash had about the same as well. He called me a Nazi ’cause I thought the Axis looked like it would win. booo.

Noelle’s family left after/during dinner (after theirs, during ours, hehe). Hidek had me and Mickey play Big 3 then Egyptian War during/after dinner. Afterwards, I read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. II some then had dessert and sat around listening to grownups talk while Hidek, Mickey, and second-oldest cousin did the dishes. We left soon after that, ’cause Mickey had to work today, and they were starting up The Devil Wears Prada. ;.; I missed it! I uh, also left my laptop and The Secret Garden there. *furtive glance* I was tired and just wanted to leave. ^^;; Mum picked them up from my second-oldest cousin’s husband today though.

Today I just watched my Monk season 3 DVDs (Mr. Monk and the Blackout, I couldn’t remember who the suspect was ¬.¬) and read volume 7 of Gokinjo Monogatari. Wahh, it’s over! But I really liked the extra chapter! Miwako!! XDDD Although I think I might like Mikako more than Miwako now. >.> Probably just because Mikako was the main character and you could go into her character more, as opposed to Miwako who was just a side character and didn’t get much development compared to Mikako or Yukari. :(

book to movie

Thursday, 14 December, 2006 at 11:33 am

I’ve decided that I will try to stop comparing movies to the original books. Mostly influenced by Neil Gaiman’s comments on his blog. Latest, “A film isn’t a book.”

But it is true. Like Count of Monte Cristo (I read it for an hour this morning and I kept thinking of the last movie), I consider them two different stories. Same plot, similar characters, but two different takes. You just can’t fit all of Alexeandre Dumas’ (paid-by-word O.x) story into a feasible movie. Maybe it’s better as a mini-series…

Also the Harry Potter stories. I was sort of meh about the first book. But I liked the first movie. (I think I read all four books before seeing the movie. I’m not sure.) I found it great fun. I don’t remember how I felt about the other books the first time, but I’ve always enjoyed the movies the first time around. Although the Potter movies are pretty close to the books. So not much of a point there.

Maybe a better example would be V for Vendetta? *hides* Ignoring the Wachowski Brothers-esque elements, I thought it was a good story. It’s not the comic. It’s a different story. I guess liberties were taken to mold the story more to current events. But who’s to say we shouldn’t have that? The original graphic novel is still there, 100% and whole for anyone who wants to get the original story. In the meantime, there’s another idea out there that was based on that story. And after a while, another movie could be made, perhaps one that’s closer to the original story.

That’s another thing, the way people rail against movie adaptations, you’d think the movie was the end-all be-all of the story. But with Count of Monte Cristo you have so many movie versions. Take your pick, which one do you think is the best? Mickey likes the French version. So does Mum. But she still likes the Guy Pierce version. I’ve never seen the French one, so I can’t really say.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, what about movie adaptations that I didn’t like? The ones that come to mind are A Wrinkle in Time and The Face on the Milk Carton. *twitch* Poor made-for-tv excuses of book adaptations. If I forget the story they were originally based on … they’re still pretty bad. But I suppose they work, for the medium that they’re in (film).

Okay, all this post serves to prove is how bad of a writer I am. Blah.

woozy, so woozy

Friday, 10 November, 2006 at 2:07 am

Well the little dog in the apartment upstairs is yapping his little head off and has been for quite a while now, so I might as well write here.

Umm, Tuesday wasn’t that interesting. Actually this whole week wasn’t really that interesting. Tuesday I took a quiz and spent an hour and fifteen minutes looking busy in art while I listened to classmates talk, since the project can be done on Illustrator and not everyone can bring their computers to class.

Wednesday I went to class then spent the rest of the day working on said art project. Or, well, I guess I kinda interspersed it with reading LJs and blogs and such, and also working on the new layout for the blog. *wry grin*

That dog sounds like it’s in a hamstertrail thing all over the apartment or something. I can hear its footsteps padding all over the floor/ceiling. x.x Annoying. I wish I could bang on the ceiling. But there’s some faux finish on it, and it’s already scraped off in the living room so I don’t want to chance damaging it here. Plus the ceiling’s too high, and I’m too short, even with a stepladder. XD

Umm lessee today is still Thursday. Well no technically it’s Friday. I have to remember that. I keep thinking it’s Friday (night) and that tomorrow (day) is Saturday.

I finished Carrie. I don’t remember what I thought. Er, I mean about what I read today. Earlier thoughts I’ve had (don’t remember typing them up here, correct me if I’m repeating myself): It’s an interesting format. The normal third person narrative interspersed with “articles” and characters’ accounts. It’s not so one-sided, I guess. Or maybe, with third person, unbiased-toward-any-character-at-all. (Unless of course there’s really cool characters that you just gotta love. *thinking of Ender and Bean*) I don’t know, it’s past 1am and I’m just kinda woo. People shouldn’t let me stay up this late. Yeah, where are you, people?! I’m saying weird totally unbased (is that a word?) stuff here.

It’s also interesting how the movie makes it all more horror movie-ish. Shock. Snap. That person’s dead. The book is more horrifying. That’s probably because you’ve got the narration there. Carrie thinks this, other people think that.

I started reading The Shining when I finished that. (Because it’s in the same book; it has four of Stephen King’s novels unabridged.) I read on Wikipedia that King didn’t like the movie. I haven’t seen the whole movie. But I pieced together the whole thing from parts I saw. And the Simpsons. *snerk* The Wikipedia entry didn’t hurt either.

I checked the school library catalog earlier this week and it said Cat’s Cradle is not checked out, but it wasn’t there this morning. grrr. There’s this option I have of asking the main desk to look through the whole library for it (like on desks and in cubicles) but that just seems like such a pain in the neck. I guess I’ll either wait for the library at home to get that book, or I’ll buy it and then donate it to the library. Or maybe just never finish it because ya know I do want to read the important books, but this book just isn’t The Count of Monte Cristo (i.e., really juicy and fun), and I’m just that lazy.

I wonder if the dog is yapping himself hoarse.

I finished Shadow of the Giant Tuesday night. Or was it Monday? Not quite sure. I can’t believe Card ended the book with Bean that way! XO I mean, sure maybe it’s interesting or whatever, but I don’t know, I just think it’s unresolved and lame. Oh well.

Now to go through the whole series (Ender and Shadow both) and write up little bios on all the characters, because fudge if I can remember all the little things, then it comes up from behind to re-enter the story and whaaa? I get confused. So I want to unconfuse myself. I’m debating whether to make a website out of it. It would be my first fansite/informational site. (The Ikyuusan one doesn’t count because uh I didn’t do anything with it. I don’t really count my guinea pig site either because there’s not much info there, just little random articles, and really bad writing on my part for the bios.) It might also be construed as copywrite infringement. :o Somehow. I don’t know. I don’t suppose so. I guess I’m just paranoid. Wow this is a huge paragraph. *cuts in half* … It’s still big.

There was a bug on my car this morning. I crawled in the passenger side because it wouldn’t get off the driver side. It looked like some sort of stinging wasp/hornet thing, so I didn’t want to make it angry. (I tried kicking it off with my foot, but he was pretty high up and I couldn’t hit him right, so he just lifted up his back leg to wave back at me. XD;;) The midsection, er the part connecting the thorax and the abdomen (I’m totally assuming that’s what they’re called; I haven’t had basic biology in a long time) was reeeeally thin, as thin as his legs, and I thought he was dying, but I don’t really know. (I actually said “WTF is that?” out loud. But not “duble-yoo tee eff is that” because that’s lame.) It didn’t have stripes like a bee or a wasp. I don’t know.

Enough of thinking about bugs. I guess the people upstairs decided 2 am was late and they wanted sleep, so they shut their dog up. Good night.

my hair

Wednesday, 18 October, 2006 at 9:57 pm

Right now I have my hair up in one of those things where the end of the ponytail isn’t pulled all the way through the hairtie. I don’t know what that style is called. Some sort of faux bun? I dunno. My hair isn’t actually long enough to all be pulled into a ponytail. I’ve finally caught on to the use of hair clips to catch those unattractive wisps of hair, though. *snerk*

Lately I’ve been thinking of letting my hair grow out and getting some sort of layered haircut, with sideswept bangs. Oooh, I want bangs! But I’m too lazy to maintain hair longer than shoulder length. Not even shoulder length. For some reason, if my hair is going to stay this length, I’m not brave enough to have any cut other than the one I’m currently sporting. Maybe because that would entail cutting my hair even shorter, and at the moment I don’t want that, I actually want longer hair, I just don’t have the patience to maintain it.

I watched Shimotsuma Monogatari tonight, aka Kamikaze Girls. Wahh, I want Momoko’s hair. ;.;