February was a busy month for me. Not as crazy as January, but quite busy. I think February was more of a "get exposed to as much of my collection as possible" month than anything else.
Anywho, if you are curious about my thoughts on
anything, as always,
please go ahead and ask. :)
- (food) Brownie in a cookie
-- I don't remember what this was called exactly, but there's a menu item at Jack Astor's right now that's a cookie with a brownie filling. It's really sweet and yummy. The cookie is pretty huge, though, so sharing it with somebody might be good.
- (food) Easy Oreo Truffle -- This was the chocolate I tried making this year for Valentine's Day. Since I'm not a fan of cheese, it was pretty difficult for me to make this. Smelling the softened cream cheese was horrendous! And then the mental anguish of taste-testing, knowing that there's cream cheese in it. Overall, I'd say it was a big success. People really liked them (yay!!) - (musical artist) Ludovico Einaudi -- How I got exposed to this was kinda funny. I was in the music store, looking for the Warm Bodies soundtrack (which doesn't exist ._.). Some nice, intense piano piece was playing at the time. I was so curious that my sister asked the employee what music was playing. I ended up buying the CD for that piano piece. Now it's what I listen to often at work, hahah.
- (Anime): Red Garden -- This series often leaned toward the dreary side. Their singing was also quite eerie sometimes (despite the voice-actors having really good singing voices). But all in all, this was a really engaging series. I really enjoyed it. - (Anime - OVA): Dead Girls -- This is an OVA sequel to Red Garden. It's not as emotionally driven as Red Garden, but it has some value to it. - (Movie): Battle Royale -- This was shown in theatres as part of the Digital Film Fest. It was a really great turn out. The theatre was almost packed full. Unfortunately, the shorter, theatrical version was shown. - (Movie): Warm Bodies-- This is great. Watch it :)
- (Movie): Identity Thief
-- This movie wasn't as funny as I was expecting it to be. I appreciated that it had some substance, since not every slapstick comedies has that.
- (Movie): My Bloody Valentine -- Blahhh. I'm not a fan of the director's style.
- (Movie): Casshern
-- This is a Japanese live-action movie loosely based off of the anime series of the same name. The story kinda sucks and it's hard to feel any connection to any of the characters. But the soundtrack is pretty decent.
Playing:
- (PS3): Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale --
Somehow, I don't get the feeling that this was made with a lot of love. I played through one character's story, and finished it pretty quickly.
- (DS): WarioWare D.I.Y. -- This was really neat. A collection of short mini-games, and a section for you to create games and stuff.
Reading:
- Nothing this time.
Currently...
Playing (not all at once):
- (PS3): Folklore - (PS3): Borderlands 2 - (DS): Legacy of Ys: Book I & II - (DS): Final Fantasy III(stopped. Sorry to say, but it was boring. Absolutely nothing was driving me to continue playing. And the grinding! Ugh!!) - (PSP): Persona - (PSP): Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - (Wii): Fortune Street - (PS2): Ape Escape 3 - (PS2): Atelier Iris 2
Watching:
- (Anime): Yu Yu Hakusho - (Anime): Shakugan no Shana
Reading:
- Nothing this time.
That's
it for February. Here are some random photos / videos:
One of the entrances to Vaughan Mills. It is such a huge mall.
The cookie with the brownie filling.
My attempt on the Easy Oreo Truffles.
"Time Lapse" by Ludovico Einaudi. This is what caught my interest that time in the music store.
**This entry will be a little disjointed. Sorry if it's confusing in any way**
So this past Wednesday (Feb. 20), I tuned into Sony's Playstation Meeting, which talked about their new console, the PS4. While there are some points I have concerns about (which I will mention at the end), overall, the PS4 and its capabilities seem sick and I'm excited about its launch. But... I'm also a little hesitant. Maybe I've just been in the dark, or maybe it's because I just bought a PS3 about 2 years ago, but the PS4's launch date (this holiday) seems too soon. I'm not ready to put down the PS3 controller and transition. That and other thoughts went through my mind as I watched the Playstation Meeting. Well, I've been a gamer for many, many years -- let's say for over 20 years. During that time, I've amassed a considerable collection of games, some of which I've yet to experience (and they're for the older consoles / handhelds, like the PS1 and GBA). Knowing that the PS4 is coming out soon, I'm just thinking, Another console? I'm going to have more backlog of games, and more consoles to hold onto while I go through the rest of my collection. I know not every gamer experiences this. Some wouldn't consider this an issue, even if they're as backlogged as me. For me, my room is running out of space. And until I go through at least 90% of my collection, I kinda feel like I'm "behind". Also, being a gamer for many years, I've come to wonder, What kind of new games would I want to experience? These days, I've been finding myself with less and less free time. Unless the story or gameplay grabs me, I can't afford to spend hours on just one game -- not when I have so many games left to play. Also, would I want a new gaming experience? Or more of the same? By now, I can say something along the lines of "been there, done that" to many games. I mean, I have played many different sorts -- RPGs, side-scrolling, text-based, rhythm, shooters, FPS, even wrestling. I guess what I'm really trying to say is: I'm aware that my gaming criteria are getting more picky. There are some things that I know I don't want to experience (tedious grinding, unappealing storylines, unnecessary time-sucks, etc.). So what would I want to play on the PS4? Or on any next-gen console, for that matter. I know these "dilemmas" won't stop me from gaming. It also won't stop me from eventually owning whichever next-gen consoles that I want. But... it makes me think. Maybe... just maybe: gaming won't be such a big thing for me in the future. Thinking about that scares me a little, hahaha. Okay, I'm done talking about my "dilemmas". Now to move to my concerns regarding the Playstation Meeting. Mark Cerny said this when talking about the PS4 personalizing the gamer experience:
But, as this system learns your likes and dislikes, we can take this a step further: you'll discover content pre-loaded and ready to go on your console by your favourite creator or in your favourite genre. Our long-term vision is to reduce download times of additional titles to zero. If we know enough about you to predict the next game you'll purchase, then that game can be loaded and ready to go before you even click the "buy" button. So... the last sentence kinda creeps me out. How would that work? How could the PS4 purchase a game before me giving confirmation that it's what I want to buy? Credit card pre-authorization? What if I don't like the purchase? I think there needs to be more detail for that. I don't mind the PS4 selecting and downloading free content while I'm not around (given that I have a decent amount of monthly bandwidth). I'd be very curious if it could predict the next games I'll like, but having something / someone else buy my games for me? NO. One joy of shopping is knowing that you're the one clicking that "buy" button. :) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Perry said this when talking about cloud gaming:
With Gaikai Cloud technology, our goal is to make free exploration possible for virtually any Playstation 4 game in the Playstation store. So imagine you're in the store. You're checking out the latest titles and you see something that catches your eye. No problem. You can simply press the X button to hop in, and start playing the game. Now in the past, not all games were available, and the ones that were had to be kind of the lite version where they had been edited down so that they can be downloaded reasonably quickly. With Gaikai in the Playstation store, you'll be able to instantly experience anything that you want. I've always liked that concept of: try it for free, share it if you like it, and pay only for the games you fall in love with. I have doubts with this. Actually, it makes me worried about PS4's future. I understand that the more who are aware of a game, the better chance of it being bought. It should also remove gaming piracy for PS4 (and eventually PS3, PS2, PS1 games). But... the revenue might not make up for the service. For this service to sustain, I'm expecting some kind of advertising before you can start up the game, or maybe even a low monthly subscription. It would be great if this service sustains. It just sounds too good to be true right now. Unfortunately, one thing that I really need to know wasn't addressed in the Playstation Meeting: will it be region-free? Hahaha, that might be the ultimate deal-breaker for me. And if there's a game I really, really want that's on it. Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to comment :)
Format Watched: In theatres (Tuesday February 12, 2013)
Approx. Runtime: 98 minutes (1 hours, 38 minutes)
Language Watched: English
Type of Movie: Romantic, Comedy, Zombie
Overall Impression: I really enjoyed it! It's heartwarming, sweet, and funny.
SPOILER ALERT WARNING!!
This
review will contain some spoilers -- or rather, there will be a
"Spoilers" section at the end of the review to go into further detail
about certain things. There may still be slight spoilers throughout the
review, but I've tried my best to keep them at a minimum.
PERSONAL STANDING (Pre-exposures, thoughts, etc.)
I first heard about Warm Bodies while waiting for another movie to start (Les Miserables, I think). It was a short clip about Warm Bodies -- talking about the plot and its originality. A zombie falling in love? Seeing things from a zombie's perspective? Yeah, that does seem pretty original. At that, I made a mental note of its release date.
Later on, I saw a full trailer of Warm Bodies. Then I thought, Damn it! The trailer spoiled some of the movie's mystery (I'll mention what in the "Spoilers" section). Regardless, I was still intrigued. I just had a better idea of what to expect, and I was right: something heartwarming, sweet, and funny.
STORY
Warm Bodies follows R, one of the many zombies roaming around during the "zombie apocalypse". During a zombie attack, R meets and falls in love with Julie, a human. He goes against his instinct and doesn't eat her -- he wants to protect her. As he pushes himself and struggles to communicate with her, other zombies take notice and are slowly affected as well.
And that's where I'll stop. I almost feel like saying anything more would spoil the universe. Sometimes part of the fun in watching the movie is experiencing its world first-hand, instead of reading about it. I gotta say, though -- I do find some of it pretty unique and original (I'll mention it in the "Spoilers" section).
Warm Bodies is definitely NOT like another zombie apocalypse horror survival-type movie.
A ZOMBIE'S PERSPECTIVE
In Warm Bodies, we see things through R's perspective. There's a lot of voice-over narration and that's R explaining everything to us -- his world, his thoughts, how he wants to verbally / physically communicate with others but he can't (due to his zombie nature restricting those expressions).
It's... interesting. I've never thought about how a zombie would view the world, let alone what kind of thoughts it would have. According to Warm Bodies, a zombie seems pretty human -- just encased in a non-expressive body that needs to eat humans to survive.
HUMOUR IN A ZOMBIE MOVIE
A lot of the humour in Warm Bodies comes from R's voice-over narration. It's very straight-to-point and, keeping to his zombie nature, pretty monotone and non-expressive. While in a high-paced situation, R's non-expressive narration is a funny juxtaposition. I'll mention one of my favourite thoughts of his in the "Spoilers" section.
ACTING/CHARACTERS
I've got no complaints about the acting. Nicholas Hoult is great as R. I gotta wonder how many cuts they had to take between scenes, 'cuz I don't remember him blinking at all. And he almost always kept the same dead, "zombie" look.
R in his typical dead, "zombie" look.
CHARACTERS
R is just a sweetheart. I think almost everybody could relate to a character like him -- being nervous around somebody you like; trying not to act silly; trying to be cool; trying to impress; overthinking things and being way too self-conscious of your own actions; wanting to say something but just not able to. I know I've been there before.
Unfortunately I don't remember very much about Julie, or the other human characters. I remember liking M, R's zombie friend. He has some pretty funny one-liners, and his characterization is kinda sweet.
MUSIC
The music here is great. In a movie where the main character is unable to verbally and physically express himself, music plays a huge role in getting those thoughts and emotions across. And it succeeds here. The soundtrack is mainly comprised of 80's tunes and some modern tracks.
Now... where the heck is the soundtrack CD?! Hahaha, once Warm Bodies was over, I went to the nearest music store, intent on buying the soundtrack. And I couldn't find it. I'm relieved to know that I wasn't the only one interested in the music. Just Google "warm bodies soundtrack yahoo" and you'll find a lot questions about the soundtrack listing.
In terms of the music score for Warm Bodies (where there is a soundtrack for), I barely noticed it -- which means it worked well. There was one track that was quirky and I thought it enhanced the whole quirky charm of the movie.
MOVIE VS. THE NOVEL
I'll fill this in when I've read the novel. But I will say this:
This is so embarrassing, but when Warm Bodies was first released, I didn't know that it was based off of a novel. At some point during the movie, I thought, What an original idea. I like it. And for once, it's not based off a book! Hahaha... *facepalms*
April 21, 2013: Okay, so I've had the chance to read Warm Bodies, and I have a good amount to say. I'm going to start off with: I enjoyed the novel. It has its own moments of tenderness and also goes off into its own focus.
I would say that the novel and the movie are separate entities. R is different in the novel. Julie is very different in the novel. The things that happen around them, while most of the key issues are similar, the last half of the novel and movie are completely different from each other.
The tone is also very different. Both movie and novel have comedic moments, but the movie is more light, and way more hopeful. While the Warm Bodies novel does carry some hope to it, the tone is more sombre, serious, and even a bit... hopeless. I find that the novel is more reflective, exploring more the culture of zombie life and the significance of being alive.
If I had to say which one is better overall, I wouldn't be able to. I find that they are too different to be really comparable. The movie and the novel have their own unique voice. I could say this: I like Julie's characterization in the novel more (she isn't the perfect girl and she actually has a personality). I like the hopeful tone in the movie more. I say it's worth reading the novel at least once after watching the movie, to see that universe in its entirety.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Warm Bodies is fun. It's one of those charming, sweet, feel-good movies, where after watching it once, you kinda just want to experience it again. At least, I feel that way.
Thanks for reading! If you want some more input about something I didn't cover, feel free to ask. :)
Now
I'll do the scrolly thing so you don't see the "Spoilers" section
right away. Then I'll add some more scrolly things after the "Spoilers"
section in case anybody wants to comment, but not see the spoilers.
Before seeing the full trailer, here's what I knew:
-R, a zombie, fell in love with Julie, a human
-R wanted to communicate with her
Yeah, I only knew the bare basics. I figured that R was going to develop human characteristics -- I never thought that his development would actually turn him back into a human. I also never thought that R and Julie's interactions would affect other zombies and slowly turn them back into humans.
The trailer also showed R fully turned as a human. I mean, what the heck?! Now we don't even need to wonder.
Just as a refresher, here's the trailer for Warm Bodies:
---------------------------------------------
I do find some of it [its world] pretty unique and original
It's kinda interesting to think that some zombies feel conflicted about eating other people. It's also kinda interesting to think that zombies sorta have a choice when it comes to "turning" a person. A flesh wound will turn a person; eating their brains will not. There's also the added idea that eating the brains will give zombies a peek into that person's memories, which I think is very original. That would totally explain why zombies crave brains so much.
The whole "cure" idea for turning zombies back into humans is really sweet, too: connection / contact with others.
---------------------------------------------
I'll mention one of my favourite thoughts of his [R's thoughts]
I don't remember exactly what was happening, but R was doing his best not to be creepy around Julie. Then something happened and he thought, Oh my God -- I could die all over again. That is just way too funny... 'cuz it's soooo relatable. Making a big deal over something so minor (not being creepy around the person you like -- I think that's what was happening in that scene).
April 21, 2013: Okay, so I've watched this movie again and I know what scene I'm talking about: R implied that he had a name and Julie asked what it was. Then R was having a hard time trying to pronounce it -- to the point where he thought, This day is not going well for me -- I could die all over again. I found it so funny because it was something so minor.
If
you read my spoilers, thank for reading! Now to finish with more
scrolly things. If you disagree with anything or just want to say
something, feel free to comment :D
I'm gonna keep this blog short, so I can get back to "celebrating" (AKA doing whatever I want to do, which is playing more of Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth on the PSP -- that game is so good). So for Lunar New Year, I have another resolution. Well, it's more like a challenge. My sister told me that habits can be formed or broken if done constantly for 21 days -- that it then becomes part of one's routine. Since my sister and her fiance are starting a challenge like that, I figured that I would also join in. Starting tomorrow, my sister will refrain from eating chips for 21 days. Her fiance will refrain from drinking pop. As for me, I will clean my room :/ I'm not sure how that would be possible since there's not that much space in my room to begin with, but we'll see.
As a New Year's gift to myself, I ordered a figure of Hatsune Miku. While I can generally resist the craze of Nendoroids, this one looks so cute. Thanks for reading! And have a good week! :)
It's been a while since I've done an "Exposures" blog entry. I think it's 'cuz I've been checking out a lot of the same places (still a Wow! Sushi fan). But there are still some new places. :)
SUSHI FUN
Location:7335 Yonge Street, Thornhill, Ontario (close to Yonge & Clark Ave.) Google Map
Contact #:905-764-7788 (according to Yelp.ca) Website: None
Type(s) of Cuisine: Japanese
Specialty (if any): Sushi Buffet
Price Range (for a main dish): Low?? -- ($15.00 for weekend Lunch Buffet; don't remember the other buffet prices)
Restaurant Size: Medium
Recommend? Standard Quality
Brief Impression
The decor looks pretty nice and it's pretty spacious inside. Unfortunately when we went, there was a hole in one of the windows, so it was a little cold (at least, we think the cold air was coming from that hole. We were too far to see if it was sealed up or anything). The server was polite, patient, and friendly.
It was our first time at Sushi Fun. We didn't fully realize that it was a buffet restaurant until we opened the menu and saw that each item had a number, but no price next to it. On each table were sheets of paper where we would write the item number and amount.
Overall, I'd say the food was pretty... meh. There were some hits and some misses. I wouldn't recommend the udon or ramen. A couple of my friends ordered them, and thought they were just "okay." I think if you find that they make a dish that you like well, then it'd be worth checking out.
What I Ate / Drank (from what I remember) ...
Dynamite Rolls -- It was okay. California Rolls -- It was okay. Sushi Pizza -- This tasted good. It was made pretty simple. Shrimp Tempura -- This was okay. Chicken Teriyaki -- This tasted good. Enoki Beef Rolls -- This was really good. Deep Fried Banana with Chocolate -- This was warm and I thought it was a little too sweet in the end.
KIREI SUSHI + BAR
Location: 81 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario (close to Church & Adelaide) Google Map
Price Range (for a main dish): Mid-High -- ($10-$15 for lunch sets; California Rolls: $6.00; Dynamite
Rolls: $9.00; Salmon Sashimi [3 pieces]: $6.00)
Restaurant Size: Medium
Recommend? Yes
Brief Impression
So my sister, her fiance, and I checked this place out for Winterlicious. We would have never stepped in here otherwise, because... the price tends to lean towards the high price range. Some of the special rolls range from $11 to $17. It's also $5 for two scoops of green tea ice cream. 5 dollars -- for green tea ice cream. What's up with that?!
The inside was spacious and clean. Our server was very polite and friendly. Just make sure the washroom stall has toilet paper if you go. Out of the four washroom stalls, two were out of toilet paper -- and the place wasn't busy when we went.
Despite the high price, I will most likely check it out at least one more time. The food was quite good. It's totally worth another experience -- just not on a regular basis.
What I Ate / Drank... Salmon Sashimi -- This was really good. Tuna Sashimi --This was really good. Butterfish Sashimi -- This was great. It was so soft and melty. Mmmm... Salmon Maki -- This was pretty standard. Salmon Sushi -- This was good. Tuna Sushi -- This was good. Tuna and Avocado Tartare -- I think there was a bit too much tuna in this, and I think the avocado should have been a little mushier, but that's just my preference. Kirei Tiramisu -- This was really delicious.
The Tiramisu. It was really yummy and filling. To me, I could probably do with sharing that dish.
Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or want to know more about anything, feel free! :)
