family
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

My Last Post Was March 10, 2016.

And it seemed like I fell off the face of the earth. Or Blogger, at least. What happened?

Well, I've been active on my book blog. If you follow me there, you'd know that my reading life has been thriving. I'm two books away from my 25-book goal. And I'm buying books in such a crazy pace. (I just placed yet another Book Outlet order for another 11 books. Yep.)

So why have I been away from this blog? I guess I'm blaming WonderCon 2016. LOL. I was going to post recaps of several events I attended. But those posts are tedious to do and overwhelming. You know me, I can't do short recaps with 2-3 pictures. And I never got in the right mood to dedicate time and effort to do it back in March. It then affected everything else that followed WonderCon. I went to the Captain America: Civil War premiere, by the way.

That's about it.

I even stopped journaling. I got overwhelmed; having never blogged for years to maintaining three written journals at the same time? What? I got in too deep watching those really creative journal videos that I lost sight of what it was ultimately about: writing down your thoughts at the end of the day on a medium where no one can read it. The truly personal stuff. What I really think about people. I've gone through a rather shattering reality check about some things and people that I come to love and respect and those things are the ones that should be kept out of social media. I don't fully understand it yet myself but I could talk about it to the ground without fully letting go of it. I think I need to write it down, talk about it with myself rather than someone else. I guess when I say that "I have nothing to hide," that is just a load of bull. XD

I really should start blogging here again. July is going to be a BUSY month with three conventions and a food fest. Anime Expo is right around the corner and this year, we'll be doing something different. A J-pop concert! We don't really know anyone on the roster (except Sphere) but we just want to experience being a part of the hikikomori crowd, as people call them. We're going for the very first time to EVO in Las Vegas. I'm so flippin' excited for that. And of course, KCON LA 2016. I had the easier ticket-buying experience for that... using the ever-reliable internet of Manila, Philippines!

Speaking of...


Yep. I just got back from a much-needed vacation. Mom and I did have official business in Manila but really, I just tagged along for the heck of it. I had two weeks of vacation and I wanted to use it. I needed to take a break from work and everything that came with it. And I did it at the right time. I'm happy I did. Now, I do feel a bit energized and seriously, I need the money for July's slew of events.

We also had a 9-hour layover in South Korea, going back to LA. Last time, it was 15 hours. I wasn't so lucky this time. We took the free tours provided by the airport instead of a self-tour and guys, if it were the last resort, fine... but I don't really recommend it. Not if you've been to Korea before. I mean, it wasn't BAD. If it's your first time or not really interested, it's quite good. But it could've been better. More on my trip on the next post, I promise.

(I wanted to post about our Korea self-tour after the fact but it got lost in the mess. Maybe this is the perfect time to revisit that, compare it to the guided tour. Yes?)

How is that for a quick update? Today's my first day back at work so I have a lot of catching up to do. Hopefully, things changed for the better around here while I was gone.

Hopefully.
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DREAM JOURNAL | Raining

I swear; I did not intend my most recent posts to be about journaling. In a row. Sorry. I have other stuff planned but these require less planning and I want them done right away because I might forget about them. I'm amazed that I'm remembering dreams lately. I figured, I should take note.


This time - last night, actually - it was about rain. And Bon Jovi. But we'll deal with one thing at a time. I know... a strange combination. But it's another one of those two dream nights.

The rain dream was just about less than five minutes long. It really was just like a flash. But it was special because my late maternal grandfather was in it. I don't dream about dearly departed relatives that frequently. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. What do you think?
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Mythbusters: Behind The Myths Tour - 17 December 2014



Remember this post I made last May of this year?

If At First You Don't Succeed... Myth Busted!

Seven months in the making. Actually, almost three years if you count the first Mythbusters: Behind the Myths tour. One of the many promises I made my brother (if you've been keeping up with my blog, you'd know what the others were) is to take him to see the Mythbusters. He missed that first show by a week. This time, I didn't only take him to see the show... we were VIP.

I managed to score the VIP package deal that had the best seats in the house (in my opinion), an up-close encounter with Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, and a photo-op. It was an awesome deal even for the price tag it had. But I did sacrifice The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies opening day for this though. Both fell on December 17 but both of us already saw the movie with the cast. No biggie. ;-)

We have been fans of Mythbusters for close to ten years. Same with LOTR, we have a deep history with this show. Our mother was the one who got us into the show. I did mention it to Adam during the meet and greet and he said, "Well, tell your mom we said hello." I told her that and she said that's bragging rights for her!


My brother and I had dopey smiles on our faces days after this moment. Both of us couldn't believe that we actually spoke and shook hands with these two incredible people. It's real. OMG. *moves to the side to fangirl a bit*
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The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (2014)



AKA The End of an Age.

Frodo Baggins once said, "I'm glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things." Well, Samwise Gamgee wasn't even born yet during the events of The Hobbit. What I'm saying is that I'm glad to be on this journey since it's first steps out the door where it began. (See what I did there?) And of course, all the friends I met along the way. It's like an actual fellowship, you know. Fans of either the book and/or movie will understand the thrill of meeting another person who understands and who is as passionate as you are over something. LOTR is not for everyone (but I try to make everyone watch it anyway) and that feeling of finding someone to talk to about Thranduil, Legolas, Thorin, etc... is just priceless. 

 Now, will this be a review? Eh, like I said... I have a hard time reviewing things that I love so no, definitely not a biased review. A recap maybe? Well, I don't think you'd want to read a full on fangirling complete with Tolkien jargon and mythology. A send off? Absolutely not. It may be hashtagged #OneLastTime but it's never really "the last time" with this fandom.
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Look who's going to Comikaze 2014!




THIS GIRL! And her brother. ;-)

It's his first convention and both of us are so excited. This is the closest I'll get to Comic-Con without leaving Los Angeles.

It's a three-day convention, October 31 to November 2, but we decided to just go on November 1 and 2. We figured we'll be so beat by Sunday and we planned to check out the booths on that day because Saturday is going to be JAM PACKED with panels and talks that we want to see.

Some Game of Thrones cast members are going to be there, namely Gwendoline Christie and Alfie Allen. I'm going to try to get into the signing and photo op. I'm not going to spend an extra $150 for a guaranteed spot, no thank you. I'm just going to take my chances, as always.

But really, we'll go for the experience. I'll be trying for SDCC2015 but until then, It's Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo!
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The Maze Runner (2014)




This is one of those full circle moments where related things happen immediately right after the other.  I watched this movie for the second time - yes, twice - on Sunday the 21st with my brother and mother who were also with me during the James Dashner author signing event at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena on September 12th.  Aaaand both of them have finished the trilogy whereas I've only read the first one.  It was like with Angels and Demons; all 3 of us read the source material and were looking forward to a discussion about the movie.

During his Q&A, James Dashner joked that he thought the movie was better than the book.  I figured he was saying that in jest to sell the movie and understandably, he was excited.  I shared his excitement because I enjoyed The Maze Runner a lot.  It started off slow for me but in a genre flooded by "strong young female lead characters," we needed to hear from the boys.  Thomas, Minho, Newt, and the rest of the Gladers filled up that void.

I always thought that The Hunger Games movies were better than the books.  Shoot me, it's true.  But did I agree with Mr. Dashner?  Is the movie better than the book in this case?  Yes and no.  There were parts of the book that I felt were important that were left out.  On the other hand, I also understood why they had to take the liberties that they took with the movie.

The Maze Runner to begin with is a rather complex book.  It's not one of those "spoon-fed" YA novels where the author tells you instead of shows you.  It has a lot of words that only make sense in this particular 'verse.  It started off slow with a lot of explanations - what is what, who is who, where is where. Right off the bat, Thomas, our main character, seems different. He's not as passive as the other boys.

I like how the actors brought the characters to life.  I particularly enjoyed Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) and Minho (Ki Hong Lee). The screen lights up whenever either of them are on and man, they are so awesome to watch.  Kaya Scodelario who plays Teresa looks like a Bella Swan double.  She was just... there.  Much of the stuff they left out of the book had something to do with her.  Blake Cooper as Chuck was just delightful.  It's like book!Chuck jumped off the page on to the screen.  The other Gladers were like Teresa... they were just there.  There's this one kid who had lines but for the life of me, I could not remember his name.  Eh.  And as for Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), he was okay.  I never had a clear picture of Thomas in my head anyway.

What I liked the most was the editing and pacing.  For a movie with "runner" in the name, they did well on the pace of the film.  The book runs a bit slow and steady but that might not translate well on screen.  In that case, I agreed with one huge change that they did for the adaptation. The actual running sequences were great.  The maze came alive on screen very well.  Minho, oh oppa... XD  The actor portrayed that confident but not cocky demeanor so well.  I also liked their costumes.  It felt functional and every main character had a distinct look.

However, I pictured a different look for the Grievers.  In my head, it was a cross between a jelly blob and Final Fantasy VIII's monster, X-ATM092.  The ones in the movie, I thought, were too skinny and small.  They were fierce but rather smaller than what I expected.  But hey, what do I know?

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed it.  It's no Hunger Games but it is more enjoyable than Divergent.  Would I watch it again?  Absolutely!
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