Movies missed

I have had it pointed out to me on several occasions that I need to watch more movies.

"Watch more movies!" They say.
"But I don't have the time to dedicate to sitting down and just watching a movie." I say
And then they threaten to smack me. In a funny way, because I don't tolerate people hitting me willy-nilly.

I've come to realize that at a lot of these times they're right.

There's something going on right now where a t.v. station is broadcasting Disney movies frequently. (I'm not sure how frequently, since my mom's the one PVRing the movies).

So far we have Mulan. Which I've seen in several languages actually, but it loses something in Greek.

I actually still have a Mulan Barbie doll, although I've lost the hair extension piece that was supposed to be before she cut off her hair to join the Army in her father's place.

Secret Hero Mulan!

We've also PVR'd Beauty and the Beast... which I can't ever remember watching. I've read the book, and seen  it performed at Disney On Ice... but I don't think I've watched the movie.

I kind of feel like I may have missed part of my childhood never having watched it.

My teapots never dance =(

So I'm making a list of movies I need to watch (or need to watch again, if the only time I saw them was before I could form memory).

Thus far, I have:

Beauty and the Beast

The Lion King

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Up

Robin Hood

Sleeping Beauty

Mary Poppins

Brave (which isn't out yet, but it must be seen)

Pocahontas

Nightmare Before Christmas

The Sound of Music
Dark Crystal
Labyrinth
Battle Royale
Goemon
Dragonslayer
Ong-Bak
Braveheart
The Patriot

Some of these have been suggested by friends, so they might just be them messing around.

I won't deny that I watched a lot of T.V. when I was younger. I was an only child until I was 10, and even then I couldn't really play with my siblings.

I think I might have enjoyed shows that weren't typical. Things like Mumies Alive.

Mummies Alive

That's probably not the best example of why the show was good... since that was pretty terrible. It's so cheesy. To me it's actually so bad that it's good.

The show is about a boy who finds out he's the reincarnation of a Pharaoh, and he's being hunted by... someone, for some reason. It's been a few years since I've seen it, and I'm going off memory. Anyway, he's being hunted, but luckily some mummies are there to protect him.

Like I said, so bad it's good.

Dark Oracle


This is one of those offbeat shows. Dark Oracle is a Canadian show about fraternal twins, Callie and Lance Stone, who have their lives basically taken over by a comic book (it's the best description I can give).

That's the intro to the show, as well as a commercial for it that was run on YTV. I've been a fan of this since I was in elementary school (so about six years). Being a little more... dark minded than others, you could say, it was a good semi-dark show.

Actually, Alex House, who plays Lance, has been filming the show Todd and the Book of Pure Evil in Winnipeg.

Here's the IMDB for Dark Oracle:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437711/

And here's the IMDB for Todd and the Book of Pure Evil:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558128/

I'll be posting again later, bye all!

New Dungeons and Dragons fun!

Finally, I get to go back to playing Dungeons and Dragons, just in time for school to be going on break.

As far as I understand, it's the same group I was with before, so that guarantees some interesting stories.

Unfortunately, I still have to make my character. Writing her up should be easy, but assigning her skills will be the more difficult part, since I have to roll my numbers in front of the DM.

I've decided not to gender bend this time, since last time I had a male character, at least for a while. That's a funny story actually. My character (when he was still a male half-elf), was helping another character in our group hunt down a young T-Rex to feed his wolf, when the T-Rex ate me. The rest of my group was so close to saving me, but I died one turn before they could kill the T-Rex.

I would have been fine with them leaving my character dead, and then writing a new character. They essentially told me that I didn't get a say in the matter though, and resurrected me.

Funny thing about resurrection in D&D, you get to roll  two dice, a percentile dice, and a D10 (a 10 sided dice).

Then you add them together, and depending on what percentile you get, that's the species you're resurrected as. It depends on which chart you're using, but it generally isn't the same species you were before.

Then you get to roll the dice again, to use the percentage to find your gender.

   

Essentially from something like this...

to this.

And that's how I ended up going from a male half-elf, to a female gnoll.











I didn't have it as bad as another character in our group though, he had a minion who got eaten by another dinosaur. The minion, Leonardo (name after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, not the artist), was a male human. He had the luck to be resurrected as a female centaur.

Yup. He wasn't too happy.

Poor guy (gal?) then had the luck to be caught when we were attacked by a hydra.

It also could breath fire.

The fact it could breath fire was a very important fact. Because it set him on fire. So, we had our Druid resurrect him again.

This time he had the luck to come back as a female Gnoll, just like me.

My friend let the minion go home after that, he felt Leonardo had been killed enough.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Anyway, back to the not gender bending this time. 

Since this is an all rouge group this time, I decided to go for a tiny unassuming female assassin/healer.

I've based her on a character on the character Kyler Stern from Brent Weeks Night Angel Trilogy. The big way they will be similar is that both of them are assassins with a good grasp of poisons.

They are both orphans, though he, if I recall correctly, always was an orphan, while she watched her parents and siblings die.

I suppose I should mention her name, I've decided on Aidan. Aidan is Irish in origin and means little fire.

Anyway, Kylar is trained as an assassin, and poses as a number of other profession (such as a healer). Aidan will have a healers background, thus knowing the properties of plants and having some surgical knowledge, and turn assassin after her family is killed.

Once I've got a full background written up on her, I will post it, possibly with a sketch of her I'm working on.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Something I'd like to point out to people who might be thinking of joining a D&D group who enjoy writing, this is a great way to bring your characters to life.

Aidan might be based partially on a character from another book, but my previous character, Kori, was based on a story I've been writing, I basically picked him up out of that story, and ploped him into D&D character format.

But now I must be off! Bye Bye!

Japan!

I am going to go to Japan this summer.

http://www.uni.edu/becker/japanese.html

Or at least, I'm going to do my damnedest to get there.

Other than the fact that for many many years I've wanted to go to Japan, I know two people who will be teaching there.

My cousin is in Gifu teaching English there as I... um... type. I also have a friend who will be going out there in a few months to teach English, and he'll be trying for Osaka.

Osaka Castle

I'm starting to save up once Christmas has passed, and if anyone has any knowledge of what it's like to travel to Japan, and any great places to visit, it would be greatly appreciated if you would comment! ^w^ (That's a cat smiley face)

My cousin who's out there, Kevin Brown, told me that I can use his photo's in my blog, so I've got some beautiful pictures of Japan to put in here today! I've also got some silly photo's! If anyone has any questions about the photo's comment and I can ask him for more information about them. ^w^

ありがとう！おやすみ！
Thank you! Goodnight!

Priest

Well, this movie's a little older, it came out last Spring.

I liked this movie, but the few other people I know who saw it didn't.

I think the difference was that they went in looking for a well made movie with a good plot line. The movie was well made, it had good effects. The plot line... it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great.

That's why I think my friends didn't like it.

Thin plotline? What?

I agree, the plotline wasn't the best. It might be better in the graphic novel version, but I haven't read that yet.

I liked it more than my friends because I went into that movie expecting to see some vampires get killed.

And you know what? I got that. And I loved it.

It's not too memorable to me, I find that I can only loosely remember what happened now (when normally I can remember more). But at the time it was good.

The person I went to see it with had a very funny thought during the movie:

"Why don't vampire hunters wear neck guards?"

Onto the next order of business, I have a poster from the movie.

This poster, actually.

So, this is only really applicable to people who live in Winnipeg, since I'm not at the moment willing to ship a poster somewhere out of town.

If you're interested in having this poster, the first Winnipeger who comments on this post saying their favorite Vampire movie, and why it's your favorite, I will bring the poster to you (only if you live in Winnipeg, I'm sorry, but I can't mail it.)

That's about it for now! Nighty night!

Movie Days

Alrighty everyone. First of all, no pictures this week, since the movies I saw last week weren't too appropriate. Also, there will be a wee bit of foul language in a bit, just a heads up.

Last Friday (after attending a Remembrance Day ceremony) I went to see A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas with a friend. Then, later that night I went to see Immortals with other friends.

The next day, after work, I went to my friends house, and watched Heavy Metal 2000.

On a side note, I was sick of movies  by the end of the weekend, but not the company I was keeping.

First of all, A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas.

Well, for some odd reason, the theater I went to thought this movie was rated 14A. It's really, really not. It's 18A. It's 18A for very good reasons. There is foul language, drug use, nudity, general inappropriate content, and did I mention the nudity? I'm not really a prude when it comes to people being naked, but that was waaaaaay more male genitalia than I needed to see in one movie. I can only imagine how the girl sitting near me who appeared to be less than 16 felt.

That being said, it wasn't too bad. I haven't seen the other Harold and Kumar movies (mostly because I didn't want to), and to be honest I probably won't watch them unless my friend wants to watch them with me. I wouldn't suggest watching it if you're easily offended by... well, most things. If you liked the other movies in the series, I've been told (by people who like them) that this is a good one to see.

Immortals


I wasn't really going to see this movie, but I was asked along as a... fourth wheel? It makes sense to me, but I can't explain my friends personal lives.

For a 3D movie, it used the 3D effects very very well. I've seen some pretty terrible 3D, and this was pretty damn good.

I don't really have anything I can say on how they represent Ancient Greece, though for some reason they interpret a Greek accent into a... semi-English accent? Which, to be honest, is probably for the better, the Greek accent can be hard to understand. I've known my dad all my life (haha) and I still have a hard time understanding him sometimes.

-Insanely- violent though. If any of you read my blog post on the movie Drive, you`ll have a bit of an idea on how I feel towards head squishing.

Well, I almost threw up during Immortals too. Lets just leave it to your imagination now.

Heavy Metal 2000


This isn't a new movie in any sense. It's an interesting movie though.

Really inappropriate in most ways too.

The first time I saw this I think I was still in junior high. Which isn't really a good thing. I say that because I saw it on Teletoon. You know, the children's show channel. This might be animated, but there is nudity, violence, sex, sexual reference, swearing, and I'm fairly certain illegal substance use. On Teletoon.

That I watched it when I was younger explains a lot about me I've been told.

I do truly enjoy this movie, to me it's so bad that it's good.

And I will give a real spoiler, this is my favorite line in the movie:

"How do you lose a six foot B**** and a talking rock! How do you do that?"

It makes me laugh so hard every time I hear that.

This movie is rater R. It's got good reason to be. But it also has Billy Idol voicing one of the characters, which makes it kind of awesome.

It also has a pretty decent soundtrack if you like metal.

One I particularily enjoy is "Psychosexy" by Sinisstar. It's fun to dance too.

But, time for bed, night all!

Kenny Shields and Streetheart!

Alright everyone, no movie goodness this week. I was planning to watch a movie tonight, but my mom won tickets to go see Kenny Shields and Streetheart tonight!




That's their song Action. I find it's the one that sticks in my head the most.

Another concert in Winnipeg this month is The Tea Party! They're playing The Burton Cummings Theater on November 23rd. I am so very, very excited. So you guys get to easily get the links to some Tea Party songs!




Here you go!
Now I must away, see you all next week!

The cats meow

This past weekend, Puss in Boots came out.

Thank you Puss in Boots blog

And, oh my gosh, was it adorable.

Kinda like this... Well, exactly like this.

There was a surprising amount of innuendo though. I know they through innuendo in so that adults can enjoy it as much as the children the movies are intended for do, but with Puss in Boots, it almost seemed like it was more for adults.

We find out about Puss' past in this movie, and meet "Kitty Softpaws" (played by Salma Hayek)

"That's a lot of heel for a guy."

It's not too bad a movie, it appeals to both children and adults... but be prepared for awkward questions from the kidlings if they're old enough to understand that something inappropriate has been said, but not know what it was. 

In Other News

If anyone reading this is a fan of the Inheritance Cycle, happy days are here again.

For those who have never read the books from the Inheritance Cycle, it is made of the books Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. It will also finally, finally, have the last book in the series, Inheritance coming out in four days (from this post).

Finally. FINALLY.

It might be hard for people to see how happy I am that Inheritance is finally coming out. So I'll explain. The first book in the series, Eragon, came out in 2002. I would have been about eight or nine. Originally the Inheritance Cycle was called the Inheritance Trilogy. When Brisingr was released in 2008, I thought there would finally be closure on the series. But no. It didn't wrap it up, and I've been wondering since then if Christopher Paolini was ever going to end the series. And he finally is. Finally.

If anyone is interested in finding out more, here's Christopher Paolini's website: http://www.alagaesia.com/index.php

On that note, I'm off! Bye!