Monday, August 30, 2010

New Journey: Part 4-Moving

Hey everyone I know you all heard I moved into my own apartment. This is probably the most nerve racking and scary experience I have had yet. Yet it is also exciting. I have no idea where I'll be in three months let alone a year, so I am blessed that this apartment is a month to month, hence no lease required. =D I am technically calling this my first apartment since in the Disney College Program, I was given an apartment, and didn't have to do any looking or finding roomates. But you all know all about my Disney College Program experience. This is my post-college-trying-to-figure-life-out-and-moving-forward experiences. I will make this short and sweet since I am typing this at starbucks, since I have no internet, or electricity in my apartment yet. (Which hopefully we will have the second as of tomorrow, otherwise we will be roughing it for a few days.)

I'll take more pics later, when we're all moved in. =D My parents came and brought most of my stuff but we still need alot of stuff..and of course electricity. If anyone has anything they don't need by the way, we might be happy to take it off your hands. =D So here's the pics, as of now...from my iphone. (which is also charging here at starbucks, since I can't charge it at home yet).

my bedroom =D




the full bathroom



our kitchen (didn't come with the fridge my parents bought it =D)


living room



dining room and balcony



and our living room (gas fireplace which is proving to help without electricity for light =D)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Inception - Movie Review

Ok all, it's been a while, but I want to start catching up on my movie reviews. And what better movie to start with then Inception, Christopher Nolan's latest summer blockbuster. It took me over a month to see this movie, but I finally saw it this week. There was only a late night showing at 9:50 so it was a late night.



A late night wouldn't usually mean much, but I'm sure it definitely was the reason my head hurt even more after the 2 hours and 22 minutes of crazy mind twisting. If you have not watched this yet, I will start by saying, you should see it. It is a MUST SEE. By far one of the best movies I have seen in a few years. It's up there with The Departed on my top 10 list for sure!

Ok, as for more specifics. This movie did not look good to me when I first saw the teaser. But little did I know it would become one of the biggest hits of the summer. Nolan captures your attention from the very beginning with his catchy plot line of inception (implanting an idea into someone's mind). Dicaprio nails this role, which slightly compares to that of his character in Shutter Island. If you like to dream, or dreams fascinate you, or confuse you or leave you screaming or wanting more, you will love this movie. Not only is the plotline interesting, it's obvious Nolan did his research on dreams. Even while I was paying attention to the movie, I found myself thinking of my own dream experiences while I watched the film. It deals with a man (Dicaprio) who is asked about being able to perform inception on someone. Through this you go with him on a journey through dream, and the dreams within a dream, which can greatly affect the dreamer and those who interfere. Blurring the line between reality and fantasy, to the point where dreaming becomes more real and less painful then reality.

I think part of this film's intrigue was it's originality. I don't know many if any movies that deal with the mind in the sense of dreaming. It's a brilliant and attention getting idea for a film. It is so complex, and many directors and writers would get lost in an idea of this nature. But I feel Nolan did an amazing job. It was alot of information to retain, but if one pays attention, it's easy to follow. I was glad to see that the concept did not get away from him. If you like movies like the Matrix, and Shutter Island, I'd say you would for sure like this film. I personally love the matrix, but this was better.

And it was not just Dicaprio that did an amazing job, but also his co-stars Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon Levitt. I've been following Levitt fairly consistently for a few years now. Starting with Stop Loss and then last year's (500) Days of Summer. And of course his old child star hits. He has proven especially recently how good of an actor he is. He can become a character and bring this intensity and reality to it, making it look easy, when it in fact is not. I found myself wondering more and more about Levitt's character, often more intrigued by his character then of Dicaprio's. He had this charisma as Dicaprio's partner that made it impossible to stop watching him. And Page, broke free from the comedic role of Juno, into a darker dreamscape architecture who discovers the truth behind Dicaprio's character. The things he hides from the others, and why he acts how he does. They had great chemistry and meshed amazingly in this film.

I will rap this up with a few more thoughts. If you like a good mind twist then you'll love this movie. If you're looking for a light movie, this is not one of them, you constantly have to think and pay attention. (I got a headache from thinking, but I didn't care, because it was so intriguing and interesting to me). There is little swearing (at least from what I remember) and minimal sexual content. If there was anything it was very subtle. I definitely don't see any reason why younger viewers could not watch this, unless it was for the violence, which is a bit intense at times, but still relatively subtle, I don't think there was any blood involved. Their only problem might be confusion. Plus it definitely gets some conversation going after the fact. So watch it. Let me know what you think, because I thought it was brilliant and genius in addition to well acted and well-made. Till next time...

Thursday, August 26, 2010

More Adventures







Well, I've been so busy lately with work and trying to find a new place to live that I haven't had much adventure time. However, I have made some time for adventures. My Next adventure after Allstar Weekend, involved Hollywood.

As most of you know, I love LA. And I have to get out of the O.C every so often, because otherwise I'd go insane. So at the beginning of the month, I planned a trip to Hollywood with my Disney friends. (Our last huge adventure with Rick, since he's going to NAU in the fall.) We all got the day off work, and were planning on hiking to the Hollywood sign. This it turns out is illegal though. So instead, we drove as far up to the sign as we could, which involved driving through the curvy Hollywood Hills. Although we got a bit lost, we kept driving up and up and through the gorgeous expensive Hollywood houses. We finally got to the sign, and I think that was the coolest thing I've seen in a while. I had seen the sign in movies, and pictures. But honestly, they don't do this justice. I'm glad I got to go. We took lots of photos when we got up there. It was very fun.

But...that was not the end of our adventure. We then headed over to Hollywood and Highland for something to eat. Had to get creative with parking etc, by driving around since there was construction going on. We however, found a spot, and headed to Johnny Rockets for lunch. After some scrumptious food, we walked over to Ameba Music Store, for some good music shopping, and by shopping I mean looking. Then we walked back, hopped in the car and headed for Millions of Milkshakes. I had the Lindsey Lohan Shake, although I'm not a fan of hers, the shake was very berry licious. =D

Then, we headed to Universal City Walk for a bit, then decided to head home via driving along the coast, since we didn't want to have to worry about traffic. Rick took us to a spot he loved along the coast, and then we drove to long beach and ate some pizza. Then we headed home, after a very long, but fun day. That was even better than I had hoped it would be =D Stay tuned for more adventure stories!