Movie Reviews

I have watched a lot of movies since my last movie review post on here.  This isn't even all of them.

The Good:

Resident Evil: Retribution

Rented this one from Redbox.  I had been checking the Redbox website every single day waiting for it to be at my Redbox location.  It was finally there and I had to rent it immediately.  I loved it so much.  I don't think it's a secret that I'm a pretty big fan of Resident Evil movies.  They're some of my favorite zombie movies.  This one was no exception.  There were some new fighting techniques, lots of action, some backstory, and some heartwarming moments, plus a really cool car chase scene.  Although the one thing that I couldn't get past is that some of them were so skimpily dressed while others were bundled in parkas in the frozen Arctic.  I'm not sure how nobody froze to death.  Other than that, I loved this movie. 4.5 stars out of 5.

God Bless America

I watched this one on Netflix.  It was amazing!  Granted, it may not be the best movie to watch with all the shootings going on lately, but I thought that it was a really great commentary on the way news is reported and the assumptions people make about shooters.  The acting was really good, and the ending was realistic.  I can't really talk about the plot without accidentally giving things away, so I'll just leave it at that.  5 stars out of 5

Hugo

I watched this one on Netflix too.  From the first time I saw the trailer, I knew I wanted to watch this movie, and I was not disappointed.  The setting of the train station seems magical.  The way that people dress is sort of steampunk-ish and the entire movie is beautifully artistic.  The plot is truly unique (as far as I can tell. I definitely haven't seen every movie ever, but I haven't seen any movies like this before) and the cast is fantastic.  I really loved this movie and highly recommend it to everyone.  5 stars out of 5

Aaah! Zombies!!! (AKA Wasting Away)

I obviously love zombie movies.  I found this one on Hulu Plus and I loved it.  It's made to be like a cheesy B-movie.  The difference is that it's a zombie movie from the perspective of the zombies.  To the zombies, everyone else is just moving extra fast and the zombies themselves can get hurt without dying, so they think that they're superheroes and everyone else is zombies.  It's really unique and cheesy and funny.  I recommend it to everyone who likes zombie movies or B-movies.  4.5 stars out of 5

The Bad:

Book of Caleb

BOOOOORRRRIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!  I watched this movie on Netflix.  I managed to watch the whole movie but it was never anything other than boring.  I hated it.  Have I ever given a movie 0 stars before? I don't know, but this one gets it.  0 stars out of 5.  Lots of people love this movie, but not me.  If you're interested, IMDB summarizes it as "A comfortable underachiever and serial prankster, in the midst of their quarter life crisis, reunite against childhood enemies in a contemporary suburban epic."

The Meh:

Alice Through the Looking Glass

I found this one on Hulu Plus and I have to watch every single Alice in Wonderland movie ever, so I watched it.  It's mostly true to the book.  The costumes are amazing.  They were my favorite part of the movie.  This movie was pretty well done, but sort of boring.  I feel like there was more that they could have done, but didn't.  I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Why my Stomach Hates Me

I had another blood test, this time for gluten intolerance.  It came back positive.  I have celiac disease, which means that anytime I eat food with even a tiny bit of gluten in it, my immune system detects it as some sort of invader and attacks my small intestine.  So the reason that I have been so sick is that my body has been attacking itself.  It really doesn't help that the doctor had me on a diet of bland food and every single thing I was eating, other than the white rice, had gluten in it.  I have to never eat gluten again and after some amount of time, my small intestine will repair itself and I'll be able to eat more and more foods again.  At the moment I can handle hardly any dairy, no chocolate, no spicy foods, and the only fruit I can eat is bananas because they aren't at all acidic.

The small intestine normally has little fibery things in it called villi.  The best analogy I can find for it online is that a normal small intestine is kind of like a carpet inside.  The villi are what help you absorb the nutrients in food during digestion.  In a person with celiac disease, the inside of the small intestine are more like a tile floor, and all (or most) of the nutrients in food just slide through instead of being caught and absorbed.

Being gluten-free is tricky because there is gluten in almost everything.  Anything with breading or bread or most thickened sauces including gravy contain gluten.  I can no longer enjoy crepes, cream puffs, onion rings, chicken nuggets, or French toast, unless gluten free.  Despite G and I being broken up, we are still great friends and he is super supportive.  He doesn't grasp the fact that gluten is automatically in anything that contains flour and he's been all upset thinking that manufacturers just add this thing called gluten to food that doesn't need it.  I tried to explain but for some reason he doesn't get it.  It's weird because he's extremely intelligent.  He was all upset because last quarter he got a 3.99 GPA in his college classes instead of a 4.0.  Anyway he took me on my first gluten-free shopping trip and tried to help me find things I could eat.  He even searched the entire frozen food aisle for this one brand of gluten-free frozen dinners that I had found online called Glutino's.  They didn't end up having it.  He also found a little tiny section of the store that was all gluten-free food.  I found gluten free crackers, gluten free oatmeal (oats themselves are gluten free but one of the foods that is very likely to get cross-contaminated by being processed on the same equipment as wheat), gluten free rice cakes, and some gluten free Thaifood that I can't eat yet because it's too flavorful and delicious for my intestine to handle.  I actually ended up finding quite a bit of food that I can eat, and there will be way more once I can handle dairy and flavor and spice again.  The shopping trip took so long because I had to read through the ingredients on every single product and if there was wheat flour or maltodextrin that didn't specify what it was made from (not sure what it is but it can be made from wheat or corn or other things) or a single ingredient that I didn't recognize, I couldn't buy it.  Safeway brand products are really good about writing exactly which allergen causing ingredients are in them after the ingredients list, but most brands don't do that, so it's very time-consuming.

It's going to be a very long process.  Even some things that don't contain gluten or dairy or spiciness still make me sick, because my small intestine is messed up.  It's definitely been a learning experience and it's a real relief to finally know what is wrong and also not to have to have expensive tests that I can't afford.  My birthday is in 24 days, the big 21.  I won't be able to drink because alcohol is pretty harsh on even a normal body.  I won't be able to have cake (because gluten-free cakes are expensive) or ice cream (because dairy doesn't like me), but I am probably going to go home to spend at least my birthday weekend with my parents.  It will probably only be the weekend because otherwise I'd have to go on another gluten-free shopping trip and since they live in a very small town, I don't think that the grocery store, which is the next town over, would have many gluten-free foods.  It's a very small grocery store.  And also I want to be able to have a good time and not get all frustrated because they have hardly anything that I can eat.

So that's where I'm at now.  I'm still very very tired, sleeping as much as 12 hours a night.  I'm still having fevers, which I found out is caused by my immune system fighting all the time.  They should go away after a while.  I still haven't been able to go back to work and my Etsy shop has become stagnant.  I haven't made any sales lately, other than one sale before Christmas.  But at least now I know what I'm dealing with and that's most of the battle.  Oh yeah, there isn't any cure for celiac disease.  It's a lifelong condition.  Most adults who have it don't throw up when they eat gluten, but I do, so mine is pretty bad.  There are different levels of celiac disease too.  There aren't any medicines for celiac disease itself, but I am taking a medicine for the acid reflux that it causes me.  To make matters worse, gluten can also be in makeup and medicine, so I have to research every single food, medicine, and makeup before using it.  Also some food companies put gluten in things that it doesn't even need to be in.  For example, candy canes themselves are gluten free, but some manufacturers roll them in flour before packaging them.  This is what I'm dealing with, people.  It is not fun but thankfully there is a huge community of people who have been dealing with it for years and quite a few of my Twitter followers are gluten-free, so at least there are plenty of people I can ask for advice.

Blog and Shop of the Month

This month's blog of the month is Decoy Betty.  I "met" Deidre a couple of days ago on Twitter after I figured out what was wrong with my stomach (which I'll tell you tomorrow).  She's super nice and I checked out her blog and I loved it.  Deidre is from America but lives in Australia.  She cooks lots of yummy food and her blog is adorable.  I love the orange and polka dots (orange is my favorite color!) and the font on her header.  She writes about a little bit of everything the same way I do, which I wish is something that more people would do.  People seem to think that if they have defined themselves as a fashion blogger or a beauty blogger, they can only talk about those things, but it's not true!  It's your blog and you can talk about anything your pretty heart desires!  Anytanget, you should definitely go check out Decoy Betty because she's super duper cool and also very nice.

blog | Twitter | Pinterest

The shop of the month is Whispering Sweetly.  Shane is a blogger who also makes really pretty jewelry.  The jewelry is partially bohemian and partially classic and all very lovely.  Here are four of the pieces for sale in her Etsy shop right now.

Pretty right?  And very colorful too.  So if you want, you should check out the shop and maybe share it or buy something, or just check out Shane's blog or say hi on Twitter, which she actually just got last month, or go look at her pins on Pinterest.

My Favorite Video Games I've Ever Played

Golden Sun II via

In no particular order, these are my favorite video games I've ever played.

1. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for Game Boy Advance
Partially because of the fact that this is the only Zelda game I've actually managed to beat (unless you count single player on Four Swords, which you really really shouldn't) and also because of the fact that the shrinking thing is really cool and also because of the addictiveness of the figurine collecting, this is my favorite Legend of Zelda game. Judge all you want.

2. Golden Sun 1 and 2 for Game Boy Advance
I'm not sure how many people have actually played these, but I adore them.  I also beat them both, which is a huge factor in whether I love games.  It's sort of like Final Fantasy.  I would describe it as a turn-based fighting strategy adventure puzzle game.  It takes a long time to beat and it's replayable as well.  You can focus on just beating the game, leveling up your characters as much as possible, collecting all of the Djinn, or a combination of everything.

3. Gex: Enter the Gecko for Game Boy Color
I'm pretty sure that this one is the most obscure on my list.  It's like if Mario was a lizard and the game was even more of a trip.  It's very bizarre.  There are a ton of levels and I never beat it, but I loved it anyway.

4. Spyro Season of Flame (or Season of Ice) for Game Boy Advance
I beat both of these games.  I love that are lots of things to collect.  Also if you get stuck in one world, you can just go to a different world instead of dying over and over again until you beat it like on some games.

5. Little Big Planet for PS3
Another game with lots and lots of things to collect.  It's extra fun (for me anyway because you can decorate your rocket ship with stuff you find and also wear different outfits that you collect).  It's a really great puzzle game with lots of levels of varying difficulties.  The bosses are crazy and the whole game is very artistic.  And I beat it too, with G's assistance.

6. Donkey Kong Country 2 for Game Boy Advance
This game is sort of a puzzle platformer.  There are lots of challenges like shooting out of a barrel when it's at the right angle so you don't die.  It can be frustrating at times, but I have beat it after a very very long time playing it.

7. Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy for Game Boy Color
This game is weird.  You're a worm with a gun.  You can get killed by big falls or by electricity or by lots of other things.  Sometimes you're in a city, others in outer space, others in a house.  It's always weird and kind of confusing.  If I remember correctly, the final boss is a mutant fish guarded by electricity.  You can also teleport through toilets, which is always fun.  I beat this game.  I think I love it so much because it's so weird and a huge part of the game is figuring out how to do things, like teleport through toilets.

8. Banjo Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge for Game Boy Advance
I beat this game as well but it took a very long time and some frustration.  There are lots of things to collect: honeycombs, music notes, special abilities, and puzzle pieces.  I liked but also hated the ability to mutate because I never actually figured out how to get some of the mutations so I died a whole lot more than I should have.  I liked that there were so many minigames and also the levels were all pretty open for exploration.  Also before you can fight the final boss battle, you have to win at trivia, which appealed to me.

9. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for Game Boy Color
I like skating games, but I'm terrible at sports games.  I love this one because you make money for accomplishing different objectives and you can do some pretty crazy tricks.

10. Frogger Temple Adventure for Game Boy Color
It's a puzzle game with Frogger!  I loved it because while the controls were very simple (move and stick tongue out), the puzzles get pretty difficult.  There are even floors that dissolve under you during one of the boss battles.  I beat this game too.

11. Lego Star Wars
Part of why this appealed to me is that I love being able to destroy parts of my environment in video games (like cutting weeds and breaking pots in Zelda games).  The large majority of why I loved this is because it's Star Wars.  I beat this game.

12. Escape from Monkey Island 2 for PC
This game was great because it's point-and-click type of adventure where you have to figure out how to advance by using items.  It's a very elaborate game and there is also a lot of humor.  I got pretty far in this game, but I got stuck after a while.

13. Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland for Game Boy
This one's pretty old school.  I love Kirby.  It's fun to play as him on Super Smash Bros.  and also he can eat things and gain their powers which is always cool.  This game has lots and lots of levels.  It is very artistic and I beat it.

14. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade for Game Boy
Another old school one.  I love the Indiana Jones movies, which is probably why I loved this game so much.  I can't remember a whole lot about it other than crawling through catacombs and the fact that I loved it.

15. Scooby Doo for PC
I can't find information about this game online anywhere (including the title).  It was a default game that came with my grandma's HP desktop computer.  It was one of those demo games that you can only play for 48 hours and then you have to buy it.  I beat it before the 48 hours was up.  It starts out with a haunted carnival and then you end up in the wild west and have a showdown that turns out to be a pie fight after escaping from jail.  I loved it because it was a complex point-and-click adventure with lots of challenges.

16. Animal Crossing: Wild World for Nintendo DS
I loved this game because there was SO MUCH to do.  There wasn't really a way to beat it.  In the winter snow fell and you could make snowmen who talked.  You could dig up fossils, catch bugs, and catch fish, which you could donate to the museum or sell.  You could also decorate your house with things that you find, buy, or shoot out of the sky with a slingshot.  It was really fun.  Sometimes your neighbors would reward you for doing quests for them too, like delivering a letter to another neighbor within a certain time limit.

17. Super Smash Bros. for anything
I love this game because even though I button mash, I almost always win.  I like to play as either Zelda or Kirby, usually Zelda.