Happy bday and a movie review

Before I go any further, today is my Mom's birthday. I'm sorry Mom, I wish I could be there with you. Happy Birthday!!!

Now, on to our post...

Last night, I watched "Pretty In Pink". It wasn't the first movie that I watched, but the others are just too complicated to write a review about. Anyway, I wasn't expecting much. Well, what can you expect much from a teenage, puppy-crush movie anyway? I figured doing a review on this one will be a snap. Well, it didn't fail, although it was a little deeper than what I had expected. I was ready to bash it, ready to say how corny it was and stuff. I was planning on cleaning my carpet while watching it, with the hope that doing that chore would help ease the boredom of watching this movie. But in the middle of the movie I was actually into it. I was enthralled that I actually forgot to clean my carpet. (Dammit! Now, I remember I have to do it tonight) But I digress. So here it goes.

The movie starts by quickly making you fall in love. This girl meets her prince charming. It didn't start as a hate relationship like in a lot of teenage movies, where in the end of the movie, the guy eventually reveals himself and they both fall in love. No, this one kind of breaks from the pattern, and the two main characters immediately fall in love in each. Then I was thinking, this has got to be a mistake; there's nothing left to tell. It's done, they're in love, and I should be seeing credits rolling. Aah, as I continued to watch, now the conflict starts to build. You see the prince charming guy is rich, with snobbish friends, and the girl Andy (Molly Ringwald) has to face a lot of criticisms and name callings from the rich kids in her school. She also has a best guy friend who's trying to win her heart. And on top of all that she's trying to cope the lost of her mother and her father's incapability to accept the fact that his wife's not coming back. And of course, the relationship between the two love birds start to crack as they face these pressures.

It was engrossing to see Andy face these problems and you really begin to care about her at this point. It was, after all, a landmark movie, and my hopes that this movie is more than just a teenage/puppy love type of thing is beginning to become reality.

... until the ending came...

It was prom night, and everyone has been having problems, but during prom night, Andy wears this pink dress and that everyone was saying how stunning she is, blah blah blah. Personally I found her the most stunning whenever she was in her ordinary clothes and doing mundane things. Anyway, in her "stunning" pink dress, she comes inside the hall where the prom is, and there was this "beautiful princess effect". This effect is quite common in movies. The effect goes like this: if you're beautiful enough, and you wear a stunning dress, all of your problems are solved, the naysayers appear as losers and you end up with prince charming. Of course this is what happened, and I've never seen my interest drop faster than than the slope of a cliff.

Oh well, there goes 1.5 hours of my night last night. I really like this movie, except for the ending. There were some really touching scenes where you just care for the movie, and for me, those were the best parts. The climax/ending just ruined what could have been a great movie by choosing the easy way out. It kind of reminds me a teenage version of "Chasing Amy". Now, maybe I can do a review on that one. Hrm...

Z

Last night I cried. I felt like I lost a great friend. Thank you Z for the wacky jokes. Whether you come back or not, I’ll always be your friend.

Interesting reads.

Here are two articles by people who are "awakened". The first one's a straight up series of statements, while the second one is an interview. There really is nothing to write much about them. They make an interesting read though.

www.theopensecret.com
www.realization.org/page/doc1/doc107a.htm

Away? What?

Been busy the past few weeks. And I just found out I'll be busy the next few weeks. So, go figure. I wanted to call my Mom this weekend, but couldn't find the time to do so. I did my laundry, groceriies and some general cleaning last weekend.

Also, over the past few weeks, I've watched some movies. I told from a previous post that I'd like to do a review of them. But I always seem to find a reason to put it away...

Zoo trip!

Last weekend, Francis invited me and some friends to go to Omaha Zoo. It's about 1.5 hours away from my place and about 2-2.5 hours from theirs. It was a pretty big zoo, with an IMax theater. We were only able to visit like 4 buildings, (it's probably less than 1/4 of the entire zoo). Plus we watched an IMax movie, featuring wildlife in Alaska. The IMax theater was 6 stories tall, and as wide as your vision. Plus the fact that the projection is curved. When you're watching it, it fill your entire area of sight! It feels like you are really there.

One of the best sections we went through was the sea world section. We saw a lot of different sea animals. There was even a tunnel that runs through under this huge aquarium full of sharks, turtles, manta rays etc. There were also corals that were so colorful, they looked like cartoons (reminded me of Finding Nemo). Bright colors of Orange, Pink and Yellow! The picture here is that of me beside a pillar of jelly fishes in a blue light. They were so graceful like they were dancing. I like the color effect of this picture.

I'm gonna put the other pictures as soon as I receive them from Francis. Ciao!

Adobo

This is funny. I can't stop thinking of adobo... =P I just woke up and headed to work, and all I can think of is this Filipino dish. I can almost taste it on my tongue. I can almost smell it.

Soooo... I'm gonna be making one tonight. W00t!

Weekend trip

Last weekend, I went to Des Moines to visit a good friend of mine, Francis. After we met, we picked up a third person--Ruby, a pinay studying in Ames which is a city about 30 minutes from Des Moines.

We had a blast, and Francis showed us to some sights (one of which was the sides of a highway, cause his car broke down, and we had to have it towed). Later that day, we went to a casino, and I had lots of fun there! In fact, I can't wait to come back!

After that, we watched a Chinese show for the local Chinese community was celebrating their New Year. The show featured lots of local Chinese talents, and not being able to understand what they were saying made the show really satisfying. I was able to focus more on their movements and understand the show from that perspective.

The following day, Sunday, we just relaxed at Francis' apartment and watched a few DVDs.

Overall, the trip was a blast; I made new friends, and didn't even feel tired after the whole thing, which is unusual 'cause I usually get tired from these kinds of events.