Watching, Playing, Reading #10

Since I was so sick from September through December I've watched even more things than usual!  I'll just share my favorite movies I watched, as well as the TV series I have finished.

Watching:

Netflix:

TV series:

Jessica Jones: I honestly watched this because it's going to be my name once I'm married, but I loved it!  It's about a superhero who has quit the superhero life and is now a private investigator.  It's a dark and gritty show with a lot of emotional stuff going on, and the season finale is really great.

Grace and Frankie: Two older women's husbands tell them their wives they're leaving them...for one another.  Grace and Frankie start out hating each other but form an interesting friendship through the sudden loss of their husbands.  It's a really interesting show and I really liked it.

Bates Motel: I am forever in love with this show, and the latest season is no exception.  Norman Bates is slowly becoming more disturbed and his mother is finally starting to worry about it.  And more bodies are showing up all of the time.

The Following: The serial killer cult never fails to disappoint.  This show remains interesting and surprising.

X Files: I finally watched this show and I have no idea why I waited so long to watch it.  It's pretty much everything I love all wrapped up in one amazing show.  There are serial killers, paranormal events, monsters, aliens, and a huge government conspiracy.  Oh my goodness, I loved it!

Love: Netflix usually does a great job of every original series they make, but I found this one a little lacking.  It was kind of funny at times, but the main characters were both horrible people, which I guess was the point, but I didn't love it.

Animal House: Not to be confused with the movie of the same name, this is a documentary series about rescue dogs and super cute puppies being rescued and adopted by loving families.  I love it because all of the dogs are so cute forever and there is always a happy ending.

Movies:

After: After a bus crash two strangers find themselves back in their small hometown.  But nobody else is there and there is a strange black cloud closing in all around.  This is a great thought-provoking surreal movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It felt like it could be an episode of X Files.

House of Wax: Psycho serial killers in what turns out to be an "abandoned" small town.  This movie is action-packed and will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole thing.

Playing:

Steam (If you are already addicted to buying games on Steam swing by the Humble Bundle store to get great deals while doing good.  I'm not an affiliate.  I just love getting great deals on games while doing good.):

Divide by Sheep: This game was cool but ending up infuriating me after a while, because I am not good at math, and it is essentially a math game.

Cook, Serve, Delicious: I discovered this game when Felicia Day played it on Youtube.  It's really fun, but also super stressful.  I haven't played it in a  while because I don't need more stress.

Dreaming Sarah:  I loved this game so much!  It has great visuals and really satisfying gameplay.  It's cute and creepy.  It took me about 3 or 4 hours to finish the game and I enjoyed every second (except for the time I spent trying to fall just right on the clock level to move on).

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Android:

Alphabear: This is a fun word game with super cute collectible bear characters that you can use to help you beat levels.

Monument Valley: This is a sweet little game that sort of reminded me of Fez.  You play a princess traveling through different rotatable 3D worlds that get progressively harder to traverse.  It's a puzzle game with very relaxing visuals and pleasant gameplay.

God of Light: This is an interesting game where you use different mechanisms to direct light through three stars and into a portal.  It gets harder the more you play and adds more mechanics to direct the light.  It's pretty fun but also sometimes frustrating.

Reading: 

River Town by Peter Hessler: I've been working on this book for 4 or 5 months.  I used to read every day on the bus to and from work, but I haven't worked since September so I haven't been doing as much reading.  It is a very interesting book about an American's time teaching abroad in China in a small river town.  There is social and political comparisons to American ideals and also some interesting Chinese history.

What have been watching, playing, and reading?  Do you have any recommendations for me?

Watching, Playing, Reading #9

It's back!  The semi-monthly-ish post series which I haven't written since December.  Yes that's right, December.

Needless to say I've been watching, playing, and reading a lot since December.  And I'm definitely not going to remember all of it.  So let's get started!

Watching:

Netflix:

TV series:

Goosebumps:  I never actually watched this show as a kid, but I love it now.  It's the perfect amount of cheesy and predictable, but I'm often very wrong about what I think is going to happen.

The Wonder Years:  I had seen a handful of episodes of this show growing up and I liked it, so Jordan and I worked our way through the whole series.  It was good and worth the watch.  I like how the ending didn't ruin the whole show by being too happily ever after.

Third Rock from the Sun:  This show is goofy and ridiculous.  It is a great show to have on in the background for white noise and there isn't really a lot of plot to follow.  For those of you who don't know, it's about four aliens posing as a human family in order to learn about Earthlings.

Twin Peaks:  I've been hearing about this show for ages, so I finally started watching.  It is way to slow for Jordan so I haven't quite finished it yet.  I like the colorful characters but I have trouble telling some of the main characters apart, so sometimes I get confused.

Red vs. Blue:  This is a silly Youtube series that is now on Netflix.  It's Halo gameplay with hilarious dubbing.

Bob's Burgers:  This series is amazing and I cannot wait for more episodes.  We are constantly quoting lines from it, especially "But do you season?!" and when we get a dog in the future we are going to name it KuchiKopi.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt:  This show was amazing!  We powered through all of it in two days.  There are so many funny lines and it's just great.  If you haven't watched it you definitely should.

Taboo:  This show is super interesting.  Each episode focuses on different things that Americans might consider taboo and how they are handled by other cultures.

Movies:

House of Last Things: This movie was weird and confusing, but I kind of loved it.  I don't even know how to describe it without spoilers.

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart:  This movie reminded me of Hugo if it had made less sense.  It was visually breathtaking and the story was incredibly sweet with great characters.  Definitely worth a watch.

Stand By Me:  This movie is a classic for a reason.  It's a coming-of-age story about four childhood friends going to find a dead body, and so much more.

The Babadook:  This movie scared me a lot at first but then I found out that the villain is really silly looking.  I think the Babadook is supposed to be a metaphor for her grief over the loss of her husband and how she has to come to terms with the fact that she'll always miss him but life goes on.

The Imposter:  This movie is based on the true story of an adult who pretended to be a teenager and was placed into various homes under so many identities as their missing child.  It's really insane that this actually happened and he got away with it so many times.

Hercules:  We hadn't seen this movie in years and we watched it during a Saturday of lazy cartoon movie watching.  It did not disappoint.

Pontypool: A zombie movie I hadn't seen yet!  Well now I have.  It's a very interesting treatment of a zombie situation where nothing really happens, but the creepy part is the anticipation.

The Big Lebowski:  I hadn't seen this movie so I finally watched it so I would get the references.  I didn't love it but I didn't hate it.

Fight Club:  I was surprised how good this movie was!  I always thought it was just an action beat-em-up type of movie but I was so wrong.

Besides that we watched a bunch of Tim Burton movies that we got on Amazon, as well as a Studio Ghibli box set, also from Amazon.

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Playing:

So many video games!

I went to see my parents for a weekend while my brother was home on leave and I played the Wii while I was there.  I played this game called Death Jr. which was super fun.  I had never heard of it before.  It's nice and dark and creepy but still pretty lighthearted and fun.

I had purchased a Humble Bundle last year because it had Fez and then I found out that my computer can't handle the 3D environments so I couldn't play it.  Well Jordan bought Fez for me on Xbox and it's everything I wanted and more.  There are so many worlds to explore that I sometimes get lost, but it's still really fun.

Besides that I got a Game Boy Advance SP off of eBay just so I could get Gex Enter the Gecko from a store on The Ave called Pink Gorilla and experience the nostalgia.  Since it was the store's anniversary they had a buy 3 get 1 free sale on video games, so I also got Tak and the Power of Juju, Spyro Orange, and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, because I love the show (but it turns out that I kind of hate the game; oh well it was free).

And once again I have become somewhat addicted to Candy Crush Saga.

Reading:

Icebound by Dean Koontz, The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn, Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr., Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred by Donald Tyson, Winter Moon by Dean Koontz, Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen by Arin Andrews

I have branched out a lot in my reading selections this year.  These books were all really good except for The Harbinger, which I picked up at a thrift store for next to nothing.

Do you have any Netflix recommendations for me?  I'm always looking for new things to watch.

Watching, Playing, Reading #7

Watching, Playing, Reading is a pretty self-explanatory monthly-ish post series here on my blog.

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Watching:

on Hulu:

Finding Carter and Chasing Life: These shows are both dramas about girls who have had their lives turned upside-down and how they respond to it.  One finds out her mother is actually her kidnapper and the other learns she has cancer.  These shows are both fairly new so I haven't seen more than one or two episodes but so far I'm entertained and intrigued.

on Netflix:

TV shows:

Bones: Oh how I love this show.  There is a team of (mostly socially awkward) geniuses who work together to solve murders.  They all work at the Jeffersonian and use a variety of forensic techniques to discover the small details that others would miss.  I find it really fascinating for a few reasons: 1. murders/serial killers, 2. the cool and creative scientific processes and investigations, 3. the relationships between the team members, 4. Bones' attempts to understand people from more than just an anthropological viewpoint, 5. the cool necklaces that Bones is always wearing.  This show is intense, gory, and just funny enough to keep it together.

House, M.D.:  N and I have been watching a few episodes of this just about every night and have nearly watched it all now.  House is a genius doctor who solves all of the most difficult medical cases.  He loves puzzles and dislikes patients.  There are many humorous situations but the show is mostly a drama.

Hemlock Grove: The show starts out with a murder and then we learn that there is something supernatural going on.  There are gypsies and werewolves and drama and mystery.  And then in season 2, which I just finished there are some crazy science experiments and the season finale is insane.  I will definitely continue watching once season 3 comes out, because I have no idea what is going on anymore!

movies:

I already told you which ones I didn't like so here are the ones that I enjoyed.

Safe Haven:  Some of the reviews on Netflix are saying this is a typical chick flick.  It is not.  I don't like chick flicks but I liked this.  I could have done without the twist ending, but even with it I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  I loved the setting (It made me want to live in a small town by the sea).  The story was fairly simple but very well executed.  A woman arrives in a small town and assumes a new identity.  Just when things start working out for her, her past comes back in a frightening way.  There was action, danger, romance, and heartwarming moments, and once again it was not a chick flick.

Of Two Minds:  I would be interested to hear how accurate this movie is from someone who has bipolar disorder.  Of Two Minds explores the lives of different Americans with bipolar disorder.  They discuss the highs and the lows and the problems that they deal with.  I am fairly certain that the people in this documentary all have a pretty severe case of bipolar disorder.  I found it fascinating and sometimes heartbreaking.  It was a very emotional film.

Penelope:  This movie was sweet and family-friendly.  It's a quirky modern fairy tale about a girl cursed with the nose of a pig until she finds love.  I love how quirky it is and I adore Penelope's wardrobe, especially her jackets.  The moral of the story is to love yourself the way you are, so it's great for kids or as lighthearted fare for adults.

Frozen Ground:  On the completely opposite end of the spectrum from Penelope we have Frozen Ground, the story of an Alaska state trooper (played by Nicolas Cage) working with a 17 year old prostitute to catch the serial killer she managed to escape from.  It is fast-paced and very intense and made even sadder by the fact that it is based on actual events.

Playing:

My Singing Monsters: This game is available in the App Store, Google Play, Kindle Fire, and Nook.  I have it on my Android phone.  I just cannot get enough of this game!  You get to raise and breed monsters on an island and they produce coins which you can use to buy them things that will make them happy.  It's like you're a feudal lord for a bunch of monster vassals (if I am going to really geek out).  The monsters all sing a different song and have different things that they like.  You also get rewarded for different tasks, such as hatching a certain number of one kind of monsters or buying a certain item.  If you love monsters and love controlling worlds, you should definitely download this game.  Did I mention that it's free?  Because it is.

Reading:

Let's Pretend This Never Happened* by Jenny Lawson:  This is the book by The Bloggess that every blogger and their grandma has been talking about for ages.  I finally got around to reading it and I can honestly say that it made me laugh out loud like a crazy person in public more than any other book ever has (which is a very good thing in my opinion).  Jenny is the absolute master of telling hilarious stories and having a crazy childhood full of ridiculous stories to tell.  I also love how she can talk humorously about her anxiety and how it affects her.  It makes me feel like I'm not alone, which I know I'm not but it's nice to read about anyway.

77 Shadow Street* by Dean Koontz:  This book is dark and twisted with a capital D and T.  Some people couldn't stomach it and others didn't get it but I kind of loved it in a kind of horrified way.  I really loved the way that the chapters are told through the point of view of the different people in the house.  People fascinate me and these characters were especially fascinating and complex.  The story is of a big fancy house where some rich people live in different apartments.  The house is very secure and has a spooky history of people going crazy and murdering each other and of other people just disappearing.  Something strange is happening in this house and nobody really knows how to deal with it.  There is a time travel part into a somewhat alien and very post-apocalyptic future and the residents of the house have to try to survive the future so they can escape it and prevent it from ever taking place.  This book is not for the easily grossed out, spooked, or the faint of heart, but I think a few of you share at least some of my strange tastes and will really like it.

Frankenstein: Prodigal Son* by Dean Koontz:  I have read this book before and it is just as good the second time around.  It's about a mad scientist creating what he believes are a superior race of human beings through some very high-tech processes.  One of his first and more primitive creations, Deucalion, is trying to find a meaning to existence.  Another creation has developed a taste for violence.  A third creation is trying desperately to escape the autism that his creator purposely caused him and find out how to be happy.  This is a very interesting book which weaves together a few stories involving science, human desires, and the supernatural.

*These are affiliate links that will give me a small commission if you buy the item through Amazon.  I wouldn't link you to anything I don't really like.

Netflix Movies You Should Skip

2 thumbs down!

I watched these movies so you don't have to.  Remember that this is my opinion, but I highly recommend that you don't waste your time watching any of these movies.  Most of them sounded like they might be good after reading the description, and some of them had a great concept but poor execution.

I truly hated these ones:

100 Below Zero: I should have known better.  The whole world-changing natural disaster thing seldom works for a movie, but I thought that maybe it would be so bad that it was good.  It was not.  It was just bad, so very bad.

Alien Uprising: This movie was so boring!  There was barely even a plot.  Then they threw in lots of confusing and unnecessary chronological discontinuities that did absolutely nothing for the barely-existent plot.

Random Acts of Violence: If there's one thing you should know about me by now, it's that I love serial killer movies.  This one was awful.  First of all, it's shot like it's a documentary.  It's about this guy trying to cause more crime in the city to bring back the bohemian and artist types.  He goes around murdering random people and then gets mad when it doesn't help.  The ending, though predictable, doesn't do much to redeem the movie but at least it's a somewhat satisfying ending.  I hated the main character and all of his annoying friends.

I didn't like these ones but I didn't hate them with a passion either:

Pathology: This movie definitely had an interesting concept but I didn't like any of the characters, especially the main guy, who is a cheating liar.

Contracted: This movie had the potential to be so good!  It used becoming a zombie as a metaphor for dealing with being raped.  However the metaphor was a bit too subtle and also a bit confusing.  (For example sometimes people can see signs of something being very wrong, such as her hair falling out, eyes looking weird, but other times they just think she's acting strangely.)  So part of the time I thought that she was actually visibly becoming a zombie but other times it seemed like it was just a metaphor for how she felt.  It was very hard to understand and I think it could have definitely be done better.

Nemesis Game: This one also had potential but it ended up feeling unfinished.  I like riddles and the possibly occult/supernatural thing was intriguing but ultimately it just wasn't pulled together in a satisfying way.

Faces in the Crowd: The face blindness thing was really interesting but the visuals for it kind of made my head hurt and confused me, which is probably how the lady who had face blindness felt.  I didn't like this movie because the main character made so many stupid and risky decisions.  I understand that the movie would have been a lot less interesting and shorter without them but I just kept thinking that nobody would ever do a lot of the things that she did.

I have been watching a lot of Netflix lately, since it's been hot, I've been sick a lot, and also haven't felt like leaving the house most days in the past two weeks.  There were also some movies that I enjoyed and I will be sharing them in the next installment of Watching, Playing, Reading.

Movie Review: Odd Thomas

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Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz is one of my favorite books and I have reread it many times.  For those of you who don't know, Odd Thomas is a series of books by my favorite author, Dean Koontz.  It is about a small town fry cook who just happens to be able to see dead people, and among other things he helps the police catch their killers before they can strike again.  When I heard years ago that it was going to be made into a movie I was excited but not too excited, because books tend to be better than their movies.  I noticed that this movie was finally on Netflix yesterday. (and Netflix didn't even recommend it to me!)  I was busy yesterday so I watched it today, with low expectations, and was not disappointed.  This movie is an incredible adaptation of the book.  I would even say that it was very nearly as good as the book, if not as good.  The cast was wonderful, despite the fact that some people didn't like Stormy but she was very true to the Stormy in the book.  I don't think they could have cast it any better.  The special effects were fantastic and super creepy, especially the bodachs (which look way different and better than they do on the movie poster).  I really loved this entire movie and at the end I cried my eyes out, which never happens to me when I watch movies, even though I was pretty sure I knew how this one would end.  I give this movie 4 stars out of 5, and I highly recommend it to people who like supernatural movies involving serial killers.

One reason this movie made me cry is the beautiful relationship that Stormy and Odd have, which is all I can say about the movie without spoilers.  One of my high school friends committed suicide a few days ago and for some reason it didn't really hit me until after I watched this movie.  It's sad that anyone would ever feel so alone.  So watch this movie and make sure your loved ones know that you love them.  Life is short and precious.

Watching, Playing, Reading #6

I'm going to try to do these more often so they aren't so crazy long.

Watching:

Dexter: on Netflix; I tried to watch this show once but I couldn't get into it.  I decided to give it another shot, based on a recommendation from a friend, and I'm so glad I did!  I started two weeks ago and I am already on the eighth, and final, season.  It's about a blood spatter analyst who leads a double life.

I would recommend it to people who like psychological thrillers, serial killer stuff, and who have strong stomachs.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: on Netflix; I have seen all of this show but one of my friends had not seen any of it, so I had to help right this injustice.  We have been having at least a weekly Buffy night with lots of junk food.

I would recommend it to everyone who likes witty shows, shows with strong female characters, and supernatural shows.

The Boondock Saints: on Netflix; I watched this with N because he said it was his favorite movie in high school and he hasn't seen it in awhile.  I really liked it.  It's kind of similar to Dexter, as far as the vigilante justice stuff goes, and was pretty funny at times, which I appreciate with my action movies.  This movie is about two Irish brothers who decide to kill bad guys together.

I would recommend it to people who like some humor with their action movies, people who like vigilante justice themes, and people who like Irish accents ;)

Deadbeat: on Hulu; I watched the whole season of this in a single day.  It was really funny and I literally laughed out loud the whole time.  It's about a guy who can see and talk to dead people.  He helps them move on to the afterlife.

I would recommend this to people who like shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons.

Playing:

Flash games!  I used to be pretty addicted to these, so I cut myself off for a long time until I could play in moderation.

Edgar's Dream: This is an interactive art game with elements of Edgar Allen Poe.  It is cool, fairly easy and quick to play, and suitably creepy (especially with the sound on).  (I didn't want to go into that tiny hidden door because I expected to find pretty much what I found in there.)  To make it creepier play it late at night with the lights off like I did.

screenshot from the game; this part is reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland

White Door Room Escape:  Escape games and point-and-click games are my favorite kinds of Flash games.  This one was okay but I didn't love it.  It is written in Japanese but that doesn't affect the gameplay.  It was pretty easy and I completed it in under five minutes.  I prefer my escape games with more "logical" escape puzzles, such as having to put together electronics and find tools to aid in your escape.  This one was just finding various codes and then being able to escape after finding them all.

Reading:

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh: I have wanted to read this book ever since Allie announced that it would be a thing that would exist.  I waited and bought a used copy on Amazon because I am poor thrifty, and I read it in a single day.  This used to be a standard occurrence for me with books but I haven't finished a book in one day since I graduated high school.  Sure it helps that a lot of this book is pictures, but still. 

I would highly recommend this book to everyone who has a sense of humor and likes to laugh out loud when reading books.

Watching, Playing, Reading #5

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Watching:

Community: (which the picture above is from) I actually signed up for Hulu Plus just so I could watch this show and it was so worth it!  You can get a free trial of Hulu Plus here and if you sign up for a free trial there I'll get two weeks free, so everybody wins!  I love this show so much.  It's about a group of people who form a study group at a community college and all their crazy adventures and crazy professors.  It's zany and witty and silly and sometimes emotional.  And the characters are so great.  My favorites are definitely Troy and Abed.  They play so well off of each other.  I finished watching all of the seasons in less than a week.  No regrets.

I highly recommend this show to everyone who likes shows such as The Office, Parks and Recreation, How I Met Your Mother, and 30 Rock.

Firefly: on Netflix; I watched all of it in one day.  I loved it and I want more.  My favorite characters were River, Simon, and Kaylee.  Simon and River's relationship as brother and sister is so beautiful.  And Kaylee and Simon obviously really like each other but they're both super awkward about it and it's adorable.  If you don't know, this show is about a group of people flying through space together in the future and undergoing various criminal adventures with lots of danger.  It's so much better than my description made it sound, and it's got that great Joss Whedon humor that you might have enjoyed in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I would recommend this show to everybody.  Seriously, if you haven't seen it go watch it right now.

About a Boy: a newer series on Hulu; I am enjoying it so far.  It's got an uptight mom, a player neighbor man, and a kid who just wants to do kid things like have fun and eat tasty food.  The kid took quite a liking to the neighbor guy, but will the guy learn anything from the kid?  We'll see.

I won't recommend this one just yet because it's just three episodes in, but I do like what I've seen so far, so if you've got some time it's worth checking out.

Breaking Bad: on Netflix; I thought I should see what all of the fuss was about so I started watching it.  I watched a few episodes but it was too depressing for me, especially with the cancer thing.  I won't be watching any more of it.  However it was a very good show.  It just made me too sad.

Haunter: on Netflix;  I loved this movie.  It was slightly like The Lovely Bones in that the main character is a girl who was murdered and is trying to save a living girl from the same horrible fate.  But that is where the similarities end.  It's a wonderfully creepy movie that keeps your brain engaged the whole time.

I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys creepy mind-bending movies that keep you guessing.

An Invisible Sign: on Netflix; I loved this one too.  It's about a young woman who becomes a teacher but she has some issues and she's slowly unraveling.  She thinks that numbers are the answer to all of her problems.  A little girl in her class has some problems of her own and the two form a bond.  This movie gave me a lot of feelings.  Sidenote: I love all of Mona Grey's outfits.

I would recommend this to people who are fascinated by mental illness.

Upside Down: on Netflix; a really unique sci-fi movie, at least as far as I've seen.  Two planets orbit next to each other, one above and one below and have equal but opposite gravitational pull.  The people above are rich and the people below are poor.  The movie focuses on what happens when a boy from the lower world meets a girl from the upper world and how it changes both worlds forever.  I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  (I really loved it, actually, but I've already said that about just about everything.)

I would recommend it to everyone who enjoys beautiful sci-fi/fantasy landscapes and thought-provoking concepts.

Side Effects: on Netflix; So good!  It's about a wife who is very depressed and turns to a new medication with some very bad side effects.  There's a plot twist too.  I don't want to give anything away though.

I would recommend it to people who enjoy psychological thrillers.

The Eleventh Commandment: on Netflix; This movie is about a man escaping from a mental asylum and tracking down his uncle who put him there.  There is a serious plot twist in this one.

I would recommend it to everyone who likes very cheesy movies.  The plot is really good though.

Misbegotten:  on Netflix; This movie is about a women who gets pregnant through artificial insemination, but her joy is cut short when the psychopathic donor of the sperm tracks her down.

I would recommend this to people who like movies with psychopaths.

The Silence of the Lambs: I finally watched it and I don't know what took me so long!  I loved it.

Sightseers:  on Netflix; a dark comedy that I really enjoyed.  I don't want to give anything away but I can say that there are serial killers.

I would recommend it to anyone who liked God Bless America.

Playing:

Augmented Reality cards on my Nintendo 3DS, which G bought at a Black Friday sale and then realized he would never play it so he gave it to me.  The augmented reality cards are really cool.  You put them on a flat surface and then it looks like that surface is becoming a game.  You can have a dragon rise from your desk and then you have to battle it.  It's pretty cool.

Reading:

Soul Enchilada by David Macinnis Gill:  I bought it on Amazon because it sounded like it could be good.  It could be good with this plot, but I hate the main character!  I really can't stand her.  So it's been slow reading because she actually annoys me.  I will finish the book because I paid money for it and I'm no quitter, but it might take awhile.

Watching, Playing, Reading #4

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Watching:

Oddities and Oddities San Francisco: on Netflix; I watched all of both of these shows and I would love to see more!  It's sort of like Pawn Stars, but with taxidermy animals and infant coffins instead of laptops and watches.  There are so many interesting people and items on the show and you never know what's going to happen next.  Plus it's pretty educational, if you're into that sort of thing.

Red Dawn (the remake): on Netflix; It was a pretty good movie.  I've never seen the original but I intend to now.  It's about a bunch of high school kids trying to survive and fight back after the US is invaded.

Community: I have been waiting to watch this for a long time and now I finally am.  It is as hilarious and wonderful as I expected and I'm hooked!

Playing:

Candy Crush Saga: on Facebook; I started playing this recently and it's my guilty pleasure.  I was never going to start playing but then I did and I like it.  I only play about two levels a day so I'm not wasting all of my time on it or anything.

Reading:

still The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly;  I've just been reading it when I'm waiting for my bus so I'm taking awhile to finish it but it's such a good book that I don't want it to end!

Watching, Playing, Reading #3

Watching:

the gorgeous sunset above at Golden Gardens last night for my friend's birthday (It totally counts because this is my blog and I make the rules!)

Monsters University: from Redbox when I was recovering from being sick; I loved it and would watch it again.  You guys know how I love nice monsters.

Escape from Planet Earth: on Netflix; it's a cute movie about aliens trying to escape from Earth; very silly and perfect to watch when you're sick like I was, because there's not a complicated storyline for you to keep up with

Fangasm: on Hulu; I found out about this show because one of the bloggers I follow is on it!  It's about a house full of nerds interning for Stan Lee for his Comikaze.  Every episode makes me feel better about humanity.  And I refuse to believe it's from the producers of Jersey Shore.

Lawless: not my choice of movie but I watched this with my guy friend, N, and liked it more than I thought I would;  I had trouble taking Shia Lebeouf seriously as a bootlegger at first though.

Emily Owens, M.D.: on Netflix; I started watching this because I thought it was a comedy but then I realized it was a medical drama; I kept watching it because I liked the characters and then I stopped watching it when I found out my grandma was going to have heart surgery later in the week, because there are a lot of heart surgeries on this show that sometimes go wrong and I didn't want myself worry about my grandma's surgery any more than I already was.  She had a double bypass and it went perfectly and she is recovering nicely, which is a huge relief because nobody even knew she had anything wrong until Monday two weeks ago and she had surgery Friday of the same week.

Love Actually: on Netflix; I hated it and turned it off after 15 minutes and I'm not sorry

Love Birds: on Netflix; a romantic comedy set in New Zealand;  I loved it and it made me laugh out loud repeatedly;  It's about a man whose girlfriend leaves him and then he finds a wounded duck and becomes attached to it.  He starts to fall for the bird expert at the zoo after she helps him out with the duck.  Bonus points for no cliched airport scene.

Standing Up: on Netflix;  At first it seems like a children's movie but it is way more than that.  It reminded me of Moonrise Kingdom and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fame High: on Netflix;  I loved this documentary which is about kids attending Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.  It's amazing to see how talented these kids are and what happens after they graduate.

After Earth: from Redbox;  I loved this one as well.  It has the perfect amount of danger to seem realistic (like way in the future realistic) with lots of suspense and emotion.

Playing: not much of anything lately; I played through Insert Title Here on Desura.  It was pretty experimental and involved a lot of insulting the player.  It was also a lot shorter than I thought it would be.

Reading: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly; sometimes judging a book by its cover isn't so bad;  I chose this book because it has a great cover illustration;  it's an amazing story and beautifully written; it's about a young boy whose mother dies during the time of the Holocaust;  I can't tell if he actually lost touch with reality or if he really discovered an alternate reality but that's part of why I like this book so much.  It reminds me of Coraline, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I'm not very far into the book yet but I am really loving it so far.

What I Did this Weekend

This weekend I went to G's and cooked a lot of yummy food.  Since being diagnosed with celiac disease, I have gotten a lot more confident in my cooking skills, since I have to cook a lot more or become a bunny rabbit and just eat fresh fruits and veggies.  I successfully (and by successfully, I mean G loved it too and said it was restaurant-worthy) cooked corn pasta and hot dogs with veggies, chicken wraps on corn tortillas (gluten-free but not as expensive as fancy gluten-free tortillas), and omelets with the leftover chicken, green peppers, onion, and mushrooms.

I watched two football games and three movies.  The University of Washington Huskies won and didn't get scored on once!  And the Seattle Seahawks won too.  I got a new Seahawks shirt from the men's section at the mall.  They had women's ones but none of them had the player's names or numbers on them.  I got a Russell Wilson shirt.  I wanted Marshawn Lynch, but they were all sold out except for size XL.  We watched the Seahawks game at Roosevelt Ale House, which is a truly amazing bar because it serves delicious gluten-free food.  So far I've had a delicious breakfast sandwich there, a good burger, and amazing and ginormous nachos.  All of the food I've tried there has been really good, but I don't think I would order the burger again.  For burgers, my go-to restaurant is Blue Moon Burgers.  They are good burgers period, not just good for being gluten-free.

We got some movies from Redbox: World War Z, Now You See Me, and Olympus Has Fallen.  Have you noticed how many movies have Morgan Freeman in them lately?!  I've seen three recently that had him: World War Z, Oblivion, and Olympus Has Fallen.  World War Z was pretty great, and not just because I love zombie movies.  I really enjoyed it and I especially liked the look of the zombies.  They didn't look like their flesh was rotting right after being bit.  They were also fast zombies, which I'm not a huge fan of.  I give it a 4 out of 5.  Now You See Me was really good.  It kept me guessing the whole time.  It had a really original story (as far as I know) and a good cast.  Plus Jesse Eisenberg was in it, but not as the goof-off guy who never grows up, which was refreshing from him.  I give it a 4 out of 5 as well.  Olympus Has Fallen was better than G or I thought it would be.  It was the one I thought I might not like, but it was actually okay.  It was very action-y with lots of shooting and politics, but the story was pretty good anyway.  I give it a 3 out of 5.

We also watched The Office and The League on Netflix, which are always favorites of mine.  All in all it was a good weekend.

And in other news, my boss told me today that she's looking for another person to help out at work, which is fantastic and will hopefully relieve a lot of my stress.

Watching, Playing, Reading #2

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 Watching:

Once Upon a Time (on Netflix):  I found out that season 2 is on there now and I've been marathoning it.  It's gotten strange this season, but as far as I can tell I like it.  Who else is super excited for the Alice in Wonderland spin-off series?!  It involves a mental asylum!  (I'm not sure if I've told you this but I love mental asylum settings and mental illness themes.)

Our Idiot Brother (on Netflix): This was a really great indie comedy movie with one of my favorite actresses (Zooey Deschanel).  G and I both thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it to people who like funny things.

State of Emergency (on Netflix):  This is the worst zombie movie I have ever seen and you better believe I have seen a lot of zombie movies.  The number of zombies can be counted on your fingers and there is never any actual danger.  Never watch this movie.  I am serious.  It's not even so bad it's good.  I love those kinds of zombie movies, but this one is just slow and boring and awful.

Playing:

new (used) video games! from Al's Music Video and Games in Seattle.  This is a cool place I haven't been into for awhile.  It's just a small store with walking spaces narrow enough that you can't go past people when you're going down the aisles, but it's worth it.  There are CDs, records, video games, consoles, movies, and even guitars for sale.  I bought Tak and the Power of Juju and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, both for PS2.  When we were leaving the store, I spotted The Legend of Zelda board game in a display case!  But alas, it was not for sale.  Not that I could have afforded it if it had been, but still.  I am very pleased with both of my video game purchases.  They will give me hours and hours of enjoyment for less than $10 each.  Not bad at all.  Tak and the Power of Juju is completely silly and ridiculous, yet sometimes difficult.  I find it so hard to swing on the ropes!  Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is amazing and sometimes frustrating.  I just got the dagger and then unlocked the hourglass thing, so I can go back in time when I mess up my wall running and jumping stuff.  Plus the graphics are incredible!

Reading:

still Watchers by Dean Koontz:  It's still really good and getting better with every page.  Right now the suspense is building and foreshadowing is occurring., so I think something very exciting will happen soon.

lots of comics

lots of webcomics

as always blogs

What have you been watching, playing, and reading lately?  Anything good?

All Work and All Play

Makes me a well-balanced person, I guess.  I've been doing a lot of work lately, staying extra at work and then working on my own shop stuff when I get home.  But it's fun work.  I'm making flower crowns for my shop!  So before they're crowns, they're a pretty bouquet in my room.

fake flowers in a vase that I thrifted today for $1!, plus a sneak peek of my art wall

And I got my new game the other day, so that's awesome.  (It's one of the ones that needed funding help, Pandora: Purge of Pride)  The weather was finally nice enough to go hacky sack in the park yesterday, so I did that for almost an hour.  Then I accidentally made new friends who live in my house and one of them made a big dinner for all of us, that I could actually eat :)  (Let's call him The Chef)  It was really tasty.  There was chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce, and potatoes.  And The Chef also commisioned a necklace from me, which is super cool.  Then I hacky sacked with the other friend, who did alright despite not hacky sacking since 8th grade.  (We'll call him The Rollerblader, because he roller blades.)  And then I went to bed, because that was a whole lot of human interaction and it made me sleepy.

And in other notable events, I discovered the wonder that is Desura, and specifically Desura's free games, and downloaded a bunch of them.  So far I have only played (and completed) The Kite.   That game will make you feel feelings.  It is intense.  Seriously.

And I've also discovered that I don't hate documentaries; I just hate boring documentaries.  Now I am that person who says, "Oh, I actually just watched a really interesting documentary about that" during conversations.  Here are some documentaries that I have watched and enjoyed on Netflix recently (with handy dandy links and my ratings, out of 5 stars):

• Happy 3 stars
• Nerdcore Rising (I'm actually watching it right now, so no rating yet, but I love it so far)
• Indie Game: The Movie 5 stars
• Afterlife 4 stars
• The Human Experience 5 stars
• Bomb It 5 stars
• Dive! 4 stars
• Buskers 3 stars
• The Antics Roadshow 3 stars

I also watched two documentaries that are no longer on Netflix, but I still highly recommend them: What the #$*! Do We Know!? and What are Dreams?: Nova.  I give them both 5 stars.

Strength

via Flickr

"Little girls are not weak; they are very strong." - All the Days Before Tomorrow

I am watching this movie on Netflix right now, so I'm not sure yet if it's good, bad, or in-between, but this quote resounded with me. This guy says, "Do you think I'm weak? I'm a girl, right? A little girl... ", and the other guy wisely replies that little girls are strong. I think that it is very important to let girls know that it's okay to be strong. So many girls are taught that they can only be princesses, and not that they can be superheroes.

I Still Have the Flu

Today is day 7 of me having the flu.  I still have a fever, my lungs hurt, my throat hurts, and my back hurts.  One good thing has come out of this though.  I have finally started watching 30 Rock on Netflix and I love it.  Liz Lemon is ridiculous and awesome, even moreso because of all of the Star Wars references she makes.  So I am sorry for neglecting my blog but I just need to rest and try to get better right now.  Thank you for understanding.  I have also been reading Pinterest Fail blogs and Pinning like crazy.  Check out all of my Pin boards, organized in true OCD fashion by number of pins.

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.

Mini Movie Reviews: Choose and Fat Head

G and I found a movie on Netflix called "Choose".  It was made in 2011.  The description made it sound a bit like the Saw movies, so we watched it.  It was pretty good.  A serial killer/serial injurer made people choose between two horrible things.  The main character was a very likeable blond girl who was trying to figure out the pattern and identify the killer.  It was kind of funny that she did a better job of it than her policeman father.  The movie wasn't as predictable as I was fearing it might be.  I actually really enjoyed it and so did G.  It is pretty gory, so it's definitely not for everyone.  The very end made us both go "Wait, what?" and sort of left an opening for a sequel, which I would watch.  I give it 4 stars out of 5, and I recommend it to people who enjoy thrillers/serial killer movies.

We also watched a documentary called "Fat Head" which was pretty good.  It was about a guy trying to prove you can lose weight while eating fast food every day, if you actually use your brain.  It sort of felt like it was made in the 90's although it was actually made in 2009.  It also overused Comic Sans font, which was pretty terrible, but it was interesting enough that I give it a 3 out of 5 stars anyway.

Movie Review: Tiny Furniture

Lately I've been having insomnia.  I usually can't sleep until 3 at the very earliest.  Usually I just stay up and watch How I Met Your Mother until I feel sleepy enough to actually fall asleep.  But yesterday I finished the final episodes of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix, so I had to find something else to watch while I tried to wind down.  I picked a movie called Tiny Furniture.  The description was something about an artist, so I thought why not.  Other people who have seen this movie may disagree with me, but I found this movie incredibly boring.  The characters were annoying and the storyline was less of a storyline and more just something that happened in someone's uninteresting life.  It's the story of a girl coming home to live with her artist mother and her annoying high school sister after she graduates college.  Pretty much, she ends up having a male Youtube celebrity stay at the house, and nothing happens.  Save yourself some time and don't watch this movie.  Unless you have nothing better to do.  But believe me, you have something better to do.  Watching paint dry would be better.  Even the ending seemed like the writers just got bored of the movie and decided to stop at a random point.  I hated this movie.  I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.  I give it a quarter of a star out of 5, just because I'm not allowed by myself to give a 0.