Saturday, July 30, 2011

a very fruitful day

I finally bought a leather case for my Kindle, woohoo! I kept postponing it, since leather case aren't exactly cheap. I'm so glad that I stumbled upon a listing in eBay. What I got is practically a bargain, even at 2,500.00 PHP. The seller was selling her M-edge Executive Cover and E-luminator for Kindle 3, and it's in excellent condition. To top it off, she even added a black silicon case for free. How can I walk away from all that? So now, I'm 2650.00 poorer, but way, way happier.

My bargain buys =)

My Kindle in its new case ♥

I played yaya for four kids today. We went swimming, and I was their chaperone. I had so much fun with Stephie, Skye, Raine & Troy. It's like being a kid again.

The fun stopped for me when it started raining - hard. I didn't mind the rain, but with it came strong winds, and it didn't take a long time before I started shivering from cold. I had goosebumps up and down my arms. So I moved from the kiddie pool into the big pool and started swimming laps to warm myself up.

When the kids got tired (finally!), we all went home. I had dinner at my cousin's place, along with the kids and the rest of my nephews who just came home from school. My tummy's bursting from all the food and dessert we consumed.

And to make my day even better, my cousin gave me Victoria's Secret undies. I adore undies, no idea why. But I love buying them and receiving them as gifts (even better). They're pink - bright pink - and I'm no fan of pink. But hey, I was never one to turn down gifts. So pink or no pink, its hella mine. ♥

Pink VS undies ♥

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Captain America (2011)

Synopsis (may contain spoilers): Based on the Marvel Comics character from World War II. A brave, yet mild-mannered young soldier named Steve Rogers, volunteers to undergo a series of experiments for a US army Super Soldier program. The military succeeds in transforming him into a human weapon, but quickly decide that their Super Soldier is far too expensive a creation to risk in combat. So, they decide to put him to use as an army celebrity and parade him across Europe to boost morale by performing in USO shows for American troops. He is even given a costume that bear the colors of Old Glory for the stage. Then, when a Nazi plot reveals itself Rogers must rise up and and become the First Avenger, in order to save his country. Steve Rogers becomes Captain America and he earns his way into the hearts and souls of every American, bringing hope and justice to a war-weary nation. Later, during a mission to Germany to stop his archenemy - The Red Skull, from launching rockets at the allies, Captain America sacrifices himself and winds up frozen in ice for almost six decades! Revived, Steve Rogers now must join forces with new heroes and become an Avenger of the modern age.

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments: I'm a sucker for select action movies like this, and I do love films with explosions. Sure, there were flaws (I mean, what movie doesn't have them?) but all in all I think it was a pretty awesome movie. Just enough humor to counter-balance the action all around. The fight scenes were great, though it lacks that "edge of my seat" feeling. And the ending was a bit too anti-climactic, don't you think?

I'm not a fan of comic-books, hell, I don't even know the difference between The Avengers and The Justice League (loser, I know, as the Bf kept pointing out). But Captain America is one movie that should not be missed, even if you aren't a comic book fan.

I can't wait to see them all teamed up in The Avengers next May. *excited*

recently read - may-july 2011

When I was finally able to download the last few books I haven't read from J.D. Robb's In Death series, I decided to postpone reading them and reread the whole series. Yes, all 32 of them. Quite a lot, so I decided not post post my recently reads until I've finish them all.

And in preparation (or more of anticipation) for the last Harry Potter movie, I reread the J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series as I always do every time a movie's about to be released.

Seems like these past 3 months had been months of rereading. Not really. I've also read a few other books apart from the In Death and Harry Potter books.
  • I'll Be Watching You (Andrea Kane)
  • Lead Me On (Julie Ortolon)
  • Dream A Little Dream (Susan Elizabeth Philips)
  • Cherry On Top (Kathleen Long)
  • The Heartbreak Pill (Anjanette Delgado)
  • This Can't Be Love (Kasey Micheals)
  • Hard Days Knight (Katie McAllister)
  • Code Name: Bikini (Christina Skye)

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

high on sleeplessness

Oh my gawd, I have such a messed up body clock. It's so screwed up that I don't know how to fix it. Usually I just adjust my sleeping time gradually, until it goes back to normal (normal means that I sleep at night and wake up early in the morning), but it doesn't work. These past few days, I sleep around 4 at the earliest and 7 at the latest - yes, that's AM, not PM. I try to sleep a little earlier, but it's no use. I'd just lie in bed, tossing and turning all night, bordering between consciousness and unconsciousness, that I'd get no rest and my body would feel beat up in the morning.

Yesterday, I slept around 10 AM, then woke up around 2 PM. I was so tired and sleepy last night that I fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow. That was about 9 PM. Imagine my delight (on a subconscious level) when I got the fall asleep that early. But of course, I should have known that it was too good to last.

I woke up sometime between 12 MN and 1 AM, and I was like, "Gawd, it's still dark. I won't get up. I won't get up." Because I know that if I give in to consciousness, I'd have a hard time going back to sleep. And I was right. 15 minutes after I woke up, I felt the urge to pee. Really bad. So I had no choice but to get up and shuffle my feet to the bathroom. Turning on the lights didn't help. Exposure to bright lights generally awakens a person, and I opted to keep the lights off, until I bumped my toe on our washing machine on my way to the bathroom. Ouch.

I wasn't able to fall asleep again. I spent the first 3 hours of wakefulness re-reading Rachel Gibson's Sex, Lies and Online Dating; and the next hour tossing and turning. Finally, I decided to stop fighting wakefulness and just take advantage of it, so I got up and booted my laptop. I spent the first half of my morning surfing the net, chatting with my friend Jen on YM, browsing Facebook, ans checking my mail. Come 9 AM, my Dad asked me to mind our store, since he's going out, and that's what I've done for the rest of the day.

I missed out on Jin's fiesta invite. Boohoo. =(

And now I think I should be going to bed, since I'm already having double vision. o.O

Monday, July 25, 2011

The Hangover Part II

Synopsis (may contain spoilers): Two years after their escapade in Las Vegas, Stu (Ed Helms), Phil (Bradley Cooper), Doug (Justin Bartha), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are traveling to Thailand to celebrate Stu's wedding to his fiancée, Lauren (Jamie Chung). Much to Alan's dismay, they are joined by Lauren's younger brother, Teddy (Mason Lee), a prodigy and pre-medical student at Stanford University. At the wedding reception, Lauren's father shows his disapproval of Stu by comparing him to rice porridge in his toast. At the end of the night, Stu hesitantly joins Phil, Doug, Alan and Teddy for a beer. Sitting at a campfire and roasting marshmallows, the group toast to Stu and Lauren's future happiness.

The following morning, Phil, Stu and Alan, along with gangster Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) (whom Alan befriended after Las Vegas) and a chainsmoking capuchin monkey, awaken in a dirty hotel room in Bangkok. Stu has a face tattoo, and Alan's head is completely shaven. However, they cannot find Teddy, only discovering his severed finger. Chow begins recalling the events of the prior night, but his heart stops after snorting a line of cocaine. Panicked, the trio dispose of Chow's body in an ice machine.

Through Doug (who left early the preceding night and is still at the resort where the wedding is to be held), they find out that Teddy is waiting in jail. Upon arriving at the prison, they are given a handicapped elderly Buddhist monk, who has taken a vow of silence. The trio and the monk travel to a bar after finding a business card only to see the entire neighborhood smouldering in ruins. They enter a nearby tattoo parlor, where they are told that they had started a fight in the club that escalated into a riot. The trio then return the monk to his Buddhist temple, where they are encouraged by the head monk to meditate to help remember past events. Alan is able to recall a strip club that they had gone to. There, they learn that Stu had engaged in sex with a katoey prostitute at the bar (with Stu being on the receiving end). Upon exiting, the trio are attacked by two Russian mobsters from whom they had apparently stolen the monkey, and Phil is shot in the arm.

After Phil is treated at a clinic, Alan confesses that he had drugged some of the marshmallows from the previous night with muscle relaxants and ADHD medication in order to sedate Teddy but accidentally mixed up the bags. Stu attacks Alan leading them to notice an address and time point for a meeting written on Alan's stomach. The trio arrive at a luxurious hotel to find another gangster, Kingsley (Paul Giamatti), who demands Chow's bank account code and password by the next morning in exchange for Teddy. They return to the hotel to try to find Chow's password, only to discover that he is still alive. After Chow explains that he had hidden the code in the monkey's jacket, they steal the monkey back from the Russian mobsters through a violent car chase, during which the monkey is shot and injured. After taking the code and leaving the monkey at a veterinary clinic, the group return to Kingsley's hotel to complete the deal. Suddenly, Interpol agents appear and arrest Chow. Kingsley turns out to be an undercover agent, who tells the trio that the police have searched all day for Teddy but were unable to find him.

Desperate and out of clues, Phil once again calls Doug's wife Tracy to inform her of their dilemma. Stu then has an epiphany and realizes that Teddy must have woken up in the middle of the night to get more ice for his severed finger (after the first bucket of ice had melted) but became trapped after the power went out while he was ascending. The trio rush back to the hotel and find Teddy in the elevator unharmed (albeit still missing a finger). The four use Chow's speedboat, the keys for which were in Teddy's pocket, to travel back to the wedding reception. Arriving just as Lauren's father is about to cancel the wedding, Stu makes a defiant speech where he rejects being boring and instead states that he is in fact quite wild. Impressed by Stu's sudden display of authority and confidence, Lauren's father finally accepts him and gives the couple his blessing. After the wedding continues on, Alan presents Stu with a special gift at the post-reception dance: a musical guest performance by Mike Tyson. Later at night as Phil, Stu, Alan, Doug, and Tyson reminisce about all of their crazy escapades, Teddy discovers that he had taken many pictures during the night on his mobile phone. Once again, the group agree to look at the pictures together once before erasing the evidence of their exploits.

Rating: 3/5

Comments: Same movie, same story, just a different setting. It's basically The Hangover Part I all over again, only less funnier. It has it's funny moments (I loved the part where Stu found out about his tattoo, and admittedly, some of the pictures shown at the end were funny), but it lacks the originality of the first movie. The only difference I could gather was that there's more full frontal nudity on this movie, and the part with the female hermaphrodite was just plain *ick*. But still, I've enjoyed watching this movie.

I'll say this, though: Bradley Cooper is still yumyumyum! ♥

-----

Mr. Chow: We had a sick night bitches!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2

Synopsis (may contain spoilers): Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort completes his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts to hunt and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. They isolate themselves to ensure their friends and families' safety. They have little knowledge about the remaining horcruxes except the possibility that two are objects once belonging to Hogwarts founders Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff, and the third may be Nagini, Voldemort's snake familiar. The whereabouts of the two founders' objects is unknown, and Nagini is presumed to be with Voldemort. As they search for the Horcruxes, the trio learn more about Dumbledore's past.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione recover the first horcrux, Salazar Slytherin's locket, by infiltrating the Ministry of Magic. Under the object's evil influence and the stress of being on the run, Ron leaves the others. A mysterious silver doe leads Harry to the Sword of Godric Gryffindor, among the few objects able to destroy horcruxes. When Harry attempts to recover the sword, the horcrux attempts to kill him. Ron reappears, saving Harry and using the sword to destroy the locket. Resuming their search, the trio repeatedly encounter a strange symbol, that an eccentric wizard named Xenophilius Lovegood tells them represents the mythical Deathly Hallows. The Hallows are three sacred objects: the Resurrection Stone, with the power to summon the dead to the living world; the Elder Wand, an unbeatable wand; and an infallible Invisibility Cloak. Harry learns that Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand, but is unaware of the other Hallows and their significance. Harry decides that finding Voldemort's horcruxes is more important than procuring the Hallows. They break into Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at the Wizarding Bank Gringotts to recover another horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup. Harry learns that another horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the school and find the Horcrux, the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and destroy the cup and the diadem.

Voldemort and his followers besiege Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, their allies, and various magical creatures defend Hogwarts. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle, including Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Fred Weasley, and Severus Snape. Harry discovers while viewing the memories of Snape that Voldemort inadvertently made Harry a horcrux when he attacked him as a baby and that Harry must die to destroy Voldemort. These memories also confirm Snape's unwavering loyalty to Dumbledore and his role as spy in Voldemort's camp. Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who casts the Killing Curse at him, sending Harry to a limbo-like state between life and death. There, Dumbledore explains that when Voldemort used Harry's blood to regain his full strength, it protected Harry from Voldemort harming him; the Horcrux inside Harry has been destroyed, and Harry can return to his body despite being hit by the Killing Curse. Harry returns, the battle resumes, and after Neville Longbottom kills Voldemort's snake Nagini, the last horcrux, Harry finally defeats Voldemort, and the wizarding world lives in peace once more.

Rating: 3.5/5

Comments: Sadly disappointing. Maybe I was expecting too much, maybe I am way too much of a fan of the book, that I could never appreciate it when they change or omit scenes in the movie. The problem is, they did omit - a LOT. And hell, what was the point of making the movie in two parts if they were going to rush the last one? They left out a lot of pertinent information, which left a lot of non-readers confused. And I wanted Snape's memories to be exactly, well, almost exactly as the one in the book, but no. The was the most heartbreaking scene for me, that, and Fred dying (but they didn't show that, bummer).

Sucks how they made it, but all in all, I really enjoyed the movie. Dammit, I'll surely miss Harry Potter and all it represented in my childhood, and most of my teenage-adult life.


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