hobbitses and holidays

ugh...so obviously i haven't blogged since mid 2011.  i really didn't realize it had been that long to be honest.  that whole pesky life thing keeps getting in the way even though it is quite a fun and interesting ride.  so down to the most recent important stuff - the hobbit of course!  good time to talk about hobbits too considering it is currently right before elevenses (although by the time i get enough spare time to devote to finishing this post we may be at time for tea).

the hobbit:  an unexpected journey - 9.5/10 snaps - i would give this movie 10/10 however some folks are displeased with the addition of content not from the actual book (apparently there's a lot from the extra appendices to the lord of the rings novels as well as a good bit just manufactured from thin air in regard to both radagast the brown and azog).  granted i have not read the book since the year 1996 so i can't remember much of what has been added or removed for the film's sake but man did i enjoy this movie.  the acting, as in all of the lotr films, was impeccable.  my favorite actors in this particular film were ian mckellan (gandalf the grey), martin freeman (bilbo), aidan turner (kili), and richard armitage (thorin oakenshield).  the scenery was gorgeous.  the story was fun and there was no whining frodo that you wanted to kick throughout (yeah yeah the ring made him a pain, blah blah blah).

we actually shelled out the extra cash to go see this in 3d in one of the "regal premium experience" theaters.  the 3d didn't really add all that much to this particular film and i suppose it would be just as beautiful in 2d.  whilest i didn't feel like the movie dragged or lasted three hours, several of my good friends (my brother johnathon, his girlfriend sterling, etc.) did seem to think the movie was a bit long for them.

all in all i think if you're a fantasy fan, you'll certainly enjoy this movie as long as you take the hobbit:  an unexpected journey as it is and don't expect it to be verbatim from the book.

short aside on the regal premium experience - eh...i'm not that impressed.  the seats, while comfier and will lay back a bit more than in the regular theaters, were also packed closer together and even though my seat could lean substantially i kept getting kicked by anyone who had to use the restroom during this three hour movie and was in the row behind me as well as being super close to the young lady next to me who kept playing with my keys.  nice idea but maybe regal should have taken a bit more time to think about the layout of the theater.  i didn't notice any difference with the supposed awesome sound system, new projectors, or larger screen so in my honest opinion, i feel the "premium experience" could have been better.

next up - gaming - i am still playing everquest 2 but am not in norrath as much as i'd like to be as i've got too much else going on.  sean and our friend terry from eq2 have both taken quite a liking to guild wars 2.  i'll probably do a post on gw2 in a few days when i have some more time.  i find that i prefer eq2 just due to the fact that i enjoy being a pure healer class whilest in gw2 that is not really an option.

i'll post about life after the holidays so for now - merry christmas and happy new year!

as always...enjoy the silence...

the blog is back!

wow! it has been almost a year since my last post. here's a quick update on me. my entire life has changed drastically with the addition of robert as of january 14th this year. if you read some of the previous posts then you know he was due around january 3rd but apparently decided to wait a while to make his appearance. he's a ball of fun and growing so quickly (they do that or so folks tell me). i'm still working at usc in the biology department trying to obtain the illusive phd while teaching biology 102 labs. in fact i'm working on some research right now. i'm also still part time at vista psychiatric in the billing department. sean's still working at his family's trucking business - choice trucking and things seem to be going pretty smoothly all around.

precious - 9.5/10 - i realize this movie has been out for quite some time and that i should have watched it before now as it has been sitting in our netflix queue for at least two months. anywho the movie was great! the acting and the directing were phenomenal! i actually had some empathy for the characters. for those of you that aren't familiar the film is about a girl, precious, who grows up with an absolutely horrible family life in harlem. her father rapes her, her mother beats her and is emotionally abusive, she's overweight, and illiterate. precious already has one child by her father and the story starts with her pregnant with her second child. i don't want to give too much away for those of you that haven't seen it but i found the movie to be fantastic. it is a hard film to watch but definitely worth it in the end.

in everquest 2 news they are finally recognizing the ultimate race - ratonga of course! they've introduced a new history book detailing some of the ratonga heritage (titled out of necessity) as well as a free ratonga illusion and free seeker of cheese house pet (both for a limited time in the station marketplace), and they have released the ratonga heritage armor! pyper and all her friends are thoroughly ecstatic.

well enough for now. glad to be back and hope to keep myself around. as for now, enjoy the silence!

shrek, whip it, and eq2 addition: halas reborn

alrighty so i figured i ought to get back into blogging since i've let it slide a bit but now find myself with a smidgen of time to report on my movie and random video game experiences. the movie reviews are going to be short for now but hopefully in later posts i'll have some more time to elongate later reviews.

shrek forever after - 6/10 snaps - i actually enjoyed this film a lot and think that it's great for families as the humor is somewhat adult but the kiddies seem to enjoy it too so at least rent it. i have to admit i'm not the hugest fan of the shrek series and have yet to see shrek the third. don't get me wrong, they're funny and definitely enjoyable but just not my favorite film series. the only qualm i have with this one is that it had a rather short running time (about an hour and a half). i only wish that donkey/dragon crosses were real...

whip it - 7/10 snaps - roller derby is bitchin! i like ellen page and a ton of the other actors/actresses that were in this film (drew barrymore, alia shawkat [arrested development], kristen wiig, juliette lewis, the list goes on and on). i feel that this was a nice chick coming of age story for our time and find it definitely rent worthy.

eq2: halas reborn - for a free update to the game with a new starting city that i'm just beginning to explore with my new baby wood elf illusionist i have to say that i'm enjoying the questline. my only problem thus far has been lack of mailboxes in various outposts so that i can expand my inventory. my favorite addition has been the new sets of armor. check out my beautiful illu with her kicking threads (it even makes her facial tattoos look good).


granted she's only a level 14 illusionist but i may keep this look for her for awhile. plus it's really chilly in halas with all that ice and snow.

well off to play some more everquest 2 and work on thank you cards. have a fantastic evening and enjoy the silence.

monsters vs aliens, happy 10th anniversary everquest, and the broken warden mythical /cry

happy tuesday! we went to see monsters vs. aliens in 3d at columbiana grande on wednesday of last week. 6.5/10 snaps - the movie was cute. if you've got kids i think this'd be a great one to go see with them. lots of famous actors/actresses - reese witherspoon as susan, hugh laurie as dr. cockroach, seth rogan as bob, kiefer sutherland as general monger, rainn wilson as gallaxhar, will arnett as the missing link, paul rudd as derek, and stephen colbert as the president [anyone think there was a little undertone to that ha ha?]... if you've seen the previews then you've basically got the entire plot. i do NOT recommend going to see this in 3d as there are maybe 4 scenes that actually appear to be in 3d. granted they were 4 great 3d scenes but it's not worth an extra $6 per person to tack onto an already outrageous movie ticket price and it doesn't really add much to the film. after watching it, i find myself with an urge to review all the episodes of invader zim which i am sure to do in the near future.

eq2 news. happy 10th anniversary everquest! sometime recently everquest celebrated its 10th anniversary which is rather exciting. if you play eq or eq2 you could pick up a copy of beckett massive online gamer and there is an in-game item code to celebrate. the eq2 one is pretty bitching in that it's a statue of nagafen [bad ass dragon] that gives you 1,000 rent status reduction on your housing - huzzah! i'd personally like to thank the creators of everquest because i thoroughly enjoy your products and have ever since i started playing everquest online adventures when i was in high school. all four members of my family owned their own ps2 so that we could play together. i also thoroughly enjoyed champions of norrath when it was available on the ps2 and have been playing everquest 2 on the pc almost since it was released [my poor computer at the time couldn't run the darn thing]. no matter what other mmorpgs i have tried [lotro, wow, chronicles of spellborn, d&d, swg, vanguard, etc] i always end up returning back to everquest 2 as it is just the game for me. i personally love being a ratonga and a warden [lotro is about to adopt this class but in researching it further, they don't appear to be making it a healer]. my raid force cleared veeshan's peak for the first time last night and it was an awesome feeling. the raid wasn't even full...it was just excellent. thanks for the many ways in which you manage to keep me amused almost on a daily basis everquest 2 - i look forward to many more years of fun with the many friends i've made and those that i already knew!

on another sad note on eq2 [hopefully getting fixed in the hot fix as i type] my mythical weapon was broken last tuesday when they uploaded the new x2 raid zone and lavastorm content. this was how my badass weapon used to work - it had this neato effect called nature's restoration. here's the quote on what nature's restoration does off the weapon itself 'When target castes a critical healing spell this spell has a 50% chance to cast Nature's Restoration on caster...Increases power of caster by 349-523'...what does this mean? this means that every time i critically heal someone i get a nice chunk of mana back. what is my main job? healing...how often do i currently critically heal? about 80% of the time...so i NEVER run out of power. this comes in handy all the time, for example, in groups, in really long fights where other healers are out of mana, whenever a manadrain occurs i can use my manastone then pop a coupla level 10 heals and be back up to 50% power in no time to save the day...so what happened to my weapon with the update??? well now instead of it giving ME the power after i've been trained since july of 2008 to not have to worry about power it accidentally gives the power to whoever i critically heal. this means that for a week i've been power feeding my group like i'm a troubador, dirge, illusionist, or coercer, yet barely able to keep power to continue healing myself. i actually fed more power to my group than an illusionist i was playing with the other day. this could be great for the group and main tank but it's absolutely awful for me. i didn't roll a power regen class, i rolled a healer. that happens to be the bonus to getting my epic weapon and i want to be able to reap the benefits. hopefully it's getting fixed today ALONG with tortoise shell which was also broken with the new update. i'll save trying to explain tortoise shell for another day.

anywho, i've got work to do.

invaders don't dance! errr, enjoy the silence...

huzzah i have my mythical!!!

wow a post within one week of the other. what happened you might ask? i finally got my mythical!!! to those of you not in the everquest 2 world this is the bestest weapon for my class and requires a ton of effort to obtain. i've had my fabled bite of the wolf for a while now, i'm sure i could search for the post to find when i actually obtained it but last night we finally beat all the odds and got my mythical! to make things even sweeter i was able to drag one of my dad's characters along and he got his necromancer mythical as well! what a fantastic time! one of the really neat things about getting your mythical is that it is broadcast across the entire game so everyone who is on knows when you get it. i'll post the pics i've got.

here i am in the moors of ykesha with my badass new weapon...it looks similar to the fabled version but has a lot more bells and whistles. if you look closely you might be able to tell that even my pixie on a string is impressed lol.


so here's the screenshot of my name/guild being sent across the entirety of norrath for everyone to see. there were lots of gratz! to follow but i took the screen shot as soon as i saw it for fear of it disappearing. i didn't realize my quest would update as soon as i used the item so i still had a crap ton of windows up for the screenshot lol. i guess now everyone knows my spell order heehee. the screenshot isn't nearly that grainy either, click on it and you'll see the nice quality one since it's so large.



and finally here's the pic of me in the guild hall as phinneas' [dad] name/guild is also announced across all of norrath. way to go dad! same deal with the graininess. same as before, just click on the image to get the nice quality one!

i have to say that it all feels pretty damn good. special thanks to my family, south, knights of the shadow dragon, order of the golden staff, pheonix, and the crushbone raid alliance brigade 8. i couldn't have done it without any of you. thanks so much!

have a fantastic day! enjoy the silence especially as norrath is still for a moment...

i love you man and the last house on the left

happy sunday everyone! i just got back from playing with the ponies [brushed both of them down and lunged petie for a bit] where i had a fantastic time so let's start in on the reviews from the past two weeks.

the last house on the left ~ 6/10 snaps ~ this film runs just as you imagine it to although it's a bit more graphic in nature than i thought it was going to be...spoilers per normal, here they come...so when i say graphic i was pretty sure we were going to see a lot of violence. the rape scene was a bit more than what i expected and you genuinely felt bad for the girls. the whole time i was watching the film i had this recurring memory of eye for an eye...film with kiefer sutherland and sally field in 96 where sutherland rapes and murders sally field's daughter. she proceeds to purchase a gun and finally ends up murdering the son of a bitch. granted i never saw the 1972 original for the last house on the left but i would guess everything would be somewhat similar. i do have to say that after this and the recent friday the 13th remake that apparently the anti-drug commission has their paws in on a lot of teen horror/suspense films. the girls in last house wouldn't have been in trouble if they hadn't traveled to a hotel room in order to smoke up on a really awesome bag of weed and the same for all those teens in friday the 13th who went out camping near camp crystal lake because they had heard of some magical stash of marijuana in the forest...look out kids, apparently murderers and rapists are luring you out into the woods with the promise of great weed...the movie is worth a rent. i'd say wait for rental rather than seeing it in theaters. i plan to get my hands on the original soon to see if it's better/worse...

i love you man ~ 8.5/10 snaps ~ this movie was pretty hilarious. i kinda relate to the main character 'pistol' peter played by paul rudd in that i'm in a similar boat. i'm about to get married [next year, but granted that's kind of soon] and a lot of my good friends from college have moved away. here in columbia, i have new friends, they just aren't nearly as close as those i've had before. don't get me wrong, i knew right off the bat who i was going to ask to be my maid of honor but i definitely identified with the poor guy. if you really liked forgetting sarah marshall, head to the theaters for this one...otherwise definitely worth a rent once it comes out.

in eq2 news, i'm so close to my mythical i can taste it. hopefully we'll get to that mob this week but there's no way to tell until it happens. pyper's got 3 pieces of tier 2 shard armor and is at 170 aa. can't wait to keep leveling her up.

in the world of biology, i went to two most excellent seminars this week by dr. kevin padian from uc berkeley. one on dinosaurs [i bet you're all jealous] and the other on evolution. dr. padian is most famous for being a witness in the kitzmiller vs. dover area school district trial regarding whether intelligent design should be taught in public schools as an alternative to evolution. i got to eat lunch with dr. padian and a good chunk of other grad students. it was extremely enlightening and as always incredibly interesting to hear the questions/thoughts of others on this intense topic and on dinosaurs [just because they're so damned cool]. not only were the seminars informative but also totally enjoyable because dr. padian has a great sense of humor. i suggest checking out some of his work in nature [since you can get it for free] or elsewhere if you've got access.

carpal tunnel wise, i am to wear a brace for two months then if still in pain, i am to return to the doctor for cortisone shots in my wrist [apparently they've lost their minds]. if that doesn't work i'll have to have surgery so if you see me looking like a moron with this thing on my wrist, i'm doing it as a preventative measure. be glad you don't have to wear one all the time. well for now i'm off to work on the laundry and the dishes before gaming at 3pm.

have a great day everyone and make sure to enjoy the silence...

just a scoche of time

well i have just a tiny bit of time to post. only 2 on the movie front until after this weekend [should be adding push and coraline most definitely]. we saw my bloody valentine in 3d with my parents, johnathon, and his girlfriend [quiche - i would put your entire name here but i'm not sure how to spell it and you've listed yourself as quiche on myspace...doh!]. i'll give it 4/10 snaps as i was at the least amused the entire time. per any normal hollywood scary movie [even a remake in this one's case] the characters are just moronic during most of the film but a whole bunch of them get hacked and slashed or i guess more appropriately perforated as the weapon of choice was a pickaxe. the original was just as good and probably just a tiny bit better as at least the story made a bit more sense and if you watch the remake which has a lot of added stuffs you end up with a different retelling. i do NOT suggest going to see this with your parents as there's a scene of complete frontal nudity that lasts for a good 8 to 12 minutes. the chick isn't bad looking so hey added bonus for most gentlemen and some ladies out there, but the experience was most uncomfortable sitting next to my mom.

let the right one in ~ 6.5/10 snaps ~ foreign film regarding a boy who befriends a vampire. the film is very gory in parts and not that adorable 10 year old kirsten dunst vampirism gore, this vampire is a bit frightening regardless of the 12 year old facade. i suggest reading the book BEFORE viewing the film as i spoke with my friend rhiannon who also saw the film and she was able to explain a lot that i could not figure out as i had not read the book. makes a lot more sense and i'm currently on the waiting list for the book at the richland county library. it surprises me that between the richland county and lexington county libraries there is only ONE copy of this book. oh well, i'm sixth in line. not like i have much time to read anyways. anywho back to the film...i enjoyed it. it's currently downloadable and i think still playing at the nickelodeon theater if you live in columbia, sc. it's worth a shot for anyone who is interested in something a bit off from the norm of hollywood.

so i haven't posted about actual life in a while i suppose. i'm currently busy [as always]. my list of priorities are as such: research [dengue virus], class, vista psychiatric, eq2. i'm currently picking up some veterinary transcription which will be fun i think. i'm taking a look at the preparing future faculty program but doubt that i'll step into that until the fall semester of 09 or 10 even.

sean [south] and i have set a date for the wedding. may 8th, 2010. i know that it's over a year away. i was fully aware of that fact when i decided on it and there are multiple reasons behind it. i'm getting on my wiifit almost daily trying to lose pounds so i can get back to a happy weight and i've been sticking to the 1300 calorie per day diet for almost a month now. i'm not losing tons at a time but i'm losing and that's all that matters. the wiifit says i'm doing well even though it makes my little mii fat all the time. in fact i currently have 4 stars in regular hula hoop, super hula hoop, step, and advanced step. i am super proud of the 4 stars in super hula hoop. go play the damn thing and see how long it takes you. back to the wedding i'm trying to save money at every turn. sean and i have designed and created our own invitations that we adore for about a quarter or two per invite. i'm currently looking at online flowers as we're getting married outside at the sc botanical gardens in clemson so i won't need much in the way of flowers besides some corsages and bouquets at the actual ceremony and the reception is going to be at the madren center so i've got to get together some centerpieces there but i don't see needing to hire an actual wedding florist for any of that as their prices are about $1,000 plus compared to me being able to do it myself at around $300. i had a gorgeous dress that i loved but have realized that the $4,000 price tag is just a bit much regardless of the fact that i plan on only getting married once. plus i cannot find a picture of the dress looking very becoming on an actual person. it looks fantastic on a mannequin but the pictures of the dress in ceremonies are somewhat depressing so i guess i'm going to have to go on a hunt for one myself but i don't think i'll start that until may of this year as hopefully by then i'll have lost some weight.

we're going back to disneyworld with my family again in may. we almost decided on universal but i told them i'd rather wait till hogwarts was open to head to universal again. we also thought about a cruise but we have a member who'd be alone in a room yet the cruise still charges as if it were doubly occupied so that ups the price by about $1,500.

the kids [animals] are well. we now have two gerbils and i'll throw some pics up soon.

anywho i've rambled on enough and it's time for evolutionary history. have a fantastic day everyone and a great weekend!

enjoy the silence!

hotel for dogs, gran torino, yes man, bedtime stories, and the house bunny

okay so i'm incredibly sorry that some of these are way after release date and the house bunny i just caught on dvd so i'll throw it in for fun. these will be short and sweet as i have to pick sean up from kung fu in 13 minutes so here goes.

hotel for dogs - 5/10 snaps - really great movie for kids. you can see the ending coming from before you even enter the theater but eh it was entertaining enough. i'm a little disappointed in the lack of corgis and catahoula leopard dogs. i know we own odd breeds but they're just so adorable!

gran torino - 8.5/10 snaps - awesome. lots of racial slurs but it's to be expected when you're watching an old white war veteran in the middle of a neighborhood becoming very ethnic. eh he also makes fun of himself a bit too...people actually walked out of our theater in the middle of the film so don't say i didn't warn ya. really emotional but duh, that's obvious. it's probably what you expect if you're going to see this film.

yes man - 6/10 snaps - it was funny enough. i say wait for dvd but my brother loved it and i think sean enjoyed it more than i did so maybe if you're a guy it's worth a visit to the theater. i really like zooey deschanel, but i like her acting in basically everything.

bedtime stories - 6/10 snaps - cute. another save for dvd. adam sandler is one of my favorite actors and this film was fun but not quite his normal work. most kids would enjoy this one. the guinea pig with the crazy eyes actually didn't look half as bad as i thought when i saw the preview.

the house bunny - 6.5/10 snaps - i really enjoyed this one but again it's another one you've probably figured out the ending to before even seeing the film. it's out on dvd. i vote rent it for a fun time.

in eq2 related news i have recently joined a raid alliance and got the update for the second part of my mythical. only one more part to go - huzzah! i'm having a pretty good time and feel like i'm playing my class as well as possible with the gear that i'm currently using. knights are about to ding level 64 which is pretty impressive for the number of active players in the guild. most of the levelage is due to several crafters who keep cranking out writs for us and i sure do appreciate all of you!

i really enjoy my classes this semester. i've got evolutionary biology, a grant writing course, and unix/linux fundamentals. i've really got to step up my researching soon though as i'd like to get a paper published this semester.

anywho my 13 mins is up and i've got to go grab sean. hope everyone is enjoying getting back into the swing of things after the christmas/new year break.

enjoy the silence.

madagascar 2 and more life

sorry it's been a while and as normal i'm behind on posting. i really haven't had much time to see movies lately or do much of anything to tell you the truth what with finals week and lab finals week, things were just piling up left and right.

madagascar 2 - 8/10 snaps - i enjoyed it more than the first one. very humorous. definitely worth a dvd rental if not a trip to the cinema if it's still playing anywhere...

i thought about bolt a bit more and realize that i felt like i watched toy story all over again but with animals. if you've seen it maybe you can let me know if you felt the same, not that it's really a bad thing, just i'm sure they could've made it a bit more original had disney given it a shot. i'm really looking forward to several movies that are coming out such as harry potter, monsters vs. aliens, desperaux, the spirit, marley & me [as long as they don't ruin the book too incredibly much], amusement, the unborn, star trek [even though i'm not an uber fan], x-men origins: wolverine, alice in wonderland [granted it is set to release in 2010] and even bride wars looks like a fun time...we're definitely going to have a hard time finding the actual physical time to go to these films, at least the most recent onces coming out, but i'm sure we'll work it out somehow. where there's a will there's a way right?

in other more exciting news i got my actual diamond engagement ring which is gorgeous...mad props to sean [love you :*]. and somewhere in there i turned 27. sheesh closer and closer to 30. anywho i'm still loving school although the toll school, teaching, and work is taking is a bit stressful. nevertheless hopefully i've got at least a coupla days of vacation squished into christmas break somewhere. i promised dr. presberg i'd babysit her kids sometime during the break and i don't yet have dates plus i'm holding these make-up exams for biol 301: ecology & evolution. i may or may not be teaching next semester. they're just not exactly sure what they want me to do yet. if i teach i think it will either be biol 102: general bio for science majors again or biol 460: physiology which could prove to be interesting but thoroughly time consuming. i'm taking a unix/linus comp sci course, evolutionary biology, and graduate grant writing/intro to being a phd student course.

sean and i took eros and rukia to get their shots yesterday at one of the vet mobile places and that went pretty well considering it was dark and raining at the time. rukia was a bit nervous but eros just wanted to make friends and sniff everyone's butts. fun times were had and they're both completely inoculated for a whole $28.00. i'm trying to convince sean that both i and the cats need a bunny for christmas but i doubt that's really happening as he has some sort of aversion to rabbits. not like i need a rabbit but i think it would be fun to stir up the current mix of 3 dogs versus the 3 cats.

frostfell is in full effect in eq2 which is wonderful. we completed the heroic quest last night with my mom and dad and everyone got their most excellent fighting baby dragon plushie to put in their house. i spent 25 of the frost coins on the sleeping baby dragon plushie as well. it's so freaking cute! OH I ALMOST FORGOT that i FINALLY have my unicorn mount that i worked 25 hours tradeskilling in game to achieve. he is a most fantastic mount and i've only seen one other person riding one around. i was hoping for the discovery but i did get started on the expansion tradeskilling a bit post release as school/work is of more importance. i did get the discovery on the provisioner book however which made me a happy camper. now i can make some awesome berry charms but only god knows where you find the berries to make it with as they're selling on the broker for 20 some odd plat and i'm not paying that price for 3 to make one item only for a possible server-wide disco.

i'll have to post some pics of the dragon plushies and my unicorn mount. i don't have any great ones yet but i'll work on it. anywho i need to get to editing a website that should have been fixed before now but there's been this shortage of time everywhere.

have a fantastic day/week/month and enjoy the silence...

we cleared protector's realm!

that's right ladies and gentlemen...our measly casual raid force cleared protector's realm last night! huzzah! this was the first night we were able to get past doomcoil [evil mechanical snake of doom - hence the name] and we even managed to finish off the last two encounters which was awesome because i got my first mythical update. i know this means little to nothing to those of you who don't play eq2. let's just say we've come a really long way from running courts. i'm just very excited. also in other eq2 news knights of the shadow dragon now has a guild hall. complete with giant baby dragon of course! anywho i'm off to work my arse off for a guild harvest box and to grade some more biodiversity reports. have a great day everyone.

enjoy the silence!

tropic thunder, clone wars, and pineapple express

oy vey! all this graduate school business on top of regular life is taking a large toll on my blogging. i apologize if you ended up stranded with not knowing which movie to go see recently as i haven't posted. i haven't even seen a movie this weekend yet and there were 3 large releases [the house bunny, the rocker, and death race] and a limited one [hamlet 2] that i am somewhat interested in attending on top of still not having seen mirrors [i already have a slight fear of mirrors so i'm sure i'll appreciate this a bit more than the average movie-goer] or henry poole is here [which looks fairly interesting]. time will tell if i end up being able to view any of them at all. i am also going to apologize in advance for the brevity of the reviews. we're working on borrowed time here.

tropic thunder - 8.5/10 snaps - very comical. seeing as how ben stiller was the director and one of the writers i can't see anyone being surprised by this. robert downey jr just seems to always put in a great performance. the rest of the stellar cast did well. i would not take anyone under the age of 17 to this film [eh well maybe 16, depends on the 16 year old i suppose]. a great time for any crude humored fun-loving adult.

pineapple express - 8/10 snaps - also a good humorous film. if you're anti-drugs obviously you should not go see this movie. james franco was by far my favorite character in the film and made for a hilarious stoned weed dealer. again another film i wouldn't take anyone under the age of 17 to see. if you enjoyed superbad and knocked up i think it's safe to say you'll like this one as well but superbad has in my opinion completely surpassed knocked up and pineapple express in its level of comedy and enjoyment value.

i haven't seen many bad movies recently. thank you so much george lucas for creating the load of crap known as star wars: the clone wars which i'll give 1.5/10 snaps. the only reason you're getting over .5 is because i like the clone wars illustration style [apparently most everyone else does not but i am an anime fan so maybe that's why i personally prefer it]. i really enjoyed the shorts that were released on dvd [i think they were originally on cartoon network betwixt other shows] before this film. i fell asleep in this movie at least 5 times, so in a moment where i was actually awake i tried taking a new perspective on it and thinking maybe it's just aimed at kids and i'm not getting it. then i looked around the theater and realized the majority of the kids there were also asleep. it's pretty bad when you put an 8 year old who actually adores characters like jar jar binks to sleep...i don't know if lucas has just gone mad in his old age or what has happened but i think indiana jones and the crystal skull along with this clone wars crud speak for themselves. i'm surprised he actually got actors to voice these parts in all reality. just because someone's made great films in the past doesn't mean they should be allowed to do whatever they want in the future because unfortunately for mr. lucas he's ruining his own brands. i appreciate that the top critics on rotten tomatoes gave the movie 4 out of 100%. i think mr. gleiberman from entertainment weekly says it best, "George Lucas is turning into the enemy of fun." so in my honest opinion i would suggest staying away from this tripe at all costs. do not go see it, do not rent it, do not download it, do not watch it on fox when they air it for the first time for free. you're just better off not having seen it especially if you like the star wars saga [which i do].

in other non-film related news. had a fantabulous time at the baruch marine science laboratory in georgetown with several marine science and biology majors. i drove a boat, i heard about some interesting research projects currently going on, and i climbed to the top of a very scary firetower. there are loads more to be said about the trip but time is not on my side.

graduate school has been very enjoyable thus far. i get to start teaching biology 102 labs next week. i've been to one population genetics course and we didn't really do much besides go over the syllabus but i think it will be a very fun semester. i start my bioinformatics course on monday and cannot wait!

on top of all that had a great set of guild writ raid runs on thursday night with a lot of good friends. wonderful times were had by all even though we were bugged on receiving guild status. i'm still waiting for a reply on the eq2 forums regarding whether or not it was a bug or if the rules have changed somehow.

anywho i'm off to reading, working, and possibly seeing a movie this afternoon. oh and i might be getting my christmas present early as i have need of a laptop.

enjoy the silence!

constantine and the weekend

interesting things happened this weekend. i was very busy. so let's get started.

friday. went and saw hellboy 2 which i'll give 7.5/10. stop reading now and skip to the next paragraph if you haven't seen it unless you don't plan on going to see it. i was kinda peeved at how easily they rid themselves of this damned ancient crown because if it was that easy, really that easy, then the pieces wouldn't have survived all those years and they could've prevented the two elves from perishing in the end. plus it was oh-so-obvious that the princess was going to kill herself from the beginning of the film in order to end the evil prince's reign of terror. other than that i thoroughly enjoyed the film. although apparently sean resembles ron perlman so maybe i'm a bit biased. i thought it was better than the original hellboy. i do think the idea of him [hellboy] having children, especially twins, is a bit frightening.

so friday after hellboy 2 sean has promised i can have a new kitty! so we go to pets inc to see if they have anything we like. sean finds a cute calico kitten that he likes. i'm happy with anything sean likes so we go to the desk to get the paperwork for the kitten. we fill it out. it asks about the other animals we have and then we get to the difficult questions dealing with is your current cat declawed. me being the truthful person i am put yes on the front paws only. more questions. i finally finish [it was really only two pages] and take the papers up to the front desk. the workers take my application and get this look on their faces. one of them comes around the side of the counter and tells me that we can't adopt this kitten because their number one rule at the adoption center is not to allow these cats to ever get declawed. so i say, "i understand" and so does sean and we nod as she says their managers will call us to let us know whether or not we can adopt the next morning while the whole time we both know we'll never get any call whatsoever [and we didn't] on top of me thinking shouldn't spaying and neutering be your first priority but surprise surprise they send animals home completely intact expecting you to go get it done or you forfeit your $125 deposit. we leave and i get all sad and depressed and break out into tears that i'm not good enough to adopt a kitten from pets inc which i volunteered at for years of my life when i was younger back when it was called adopt a pet and lived behind kimbrell's furniture in west columbia. so i finally come to the conclusion that we'll go get a kitten at the shop road animal shelter since it's probably an animal that needs a home more than any of the animals at pets inc and the animals at the shelter are actually healthier than those at pets inc that are being neglected as the staff is too busy being teenagers and just chatting it up and ignoring the smell of urine that pervades their facility. so i chalk it up to fate that that pets inc kitten [they called it gumdrop...ick...] would find a fantastic home and that i am destined to have another at the shelter where i've adopted before and got kairi who now resides with nick in west columbia.

so we decide to go to the animal shelter saturday morning at 9am when the shelter opens because saturday is my dad's birthday and we're going to the village at sandhills to see journey to the center of the earth in 3d and to eat lunch at 10:45am. well we get to the shelter at 8:45am and sit in the car with the windows down listening to all the dogs bark and npr as we wait for them to open. the shelter opens and they have a huge cat room to the right filled with cats running every which way. adorable kittens everywhere! there's a sign on the room that says no entry. so we ask the shelter worker [very interesting accent...we've decided she's either french canadian or german] if we are allowed to see any of them. turns out the room is full of cats passing around some nasty upper respiratory infection so none of them are available for adoption. well i know they have another room with kittens and what they also call the fat cat lounge. so we head into the kitten room and sean goes, "oooh look at the white one!" seeing as how we currently have a black cat, it would be rather cute to get the white one. well so we look at all the kittens and sean can't tear himself away from the tiny white one. he's obviously fallen in love with it. so we go to the front desk and tell them we want to adopt him. turns out he was found earlier in the week at the shell station on north main in columbia. lucky kitty. he's not completely white. the shelter has him marked as a flame point siamese which i suppose could describe his cream color with the tan points on his ears, paws and tail. he's not quite so striking as other flame point siamese colored cats that i have seen but he is gorgeous. so we fill out the paperwork and take him home. he was a whole $68, 8 weeks old, neutered, one round of shots, two ear mite treatments [i'm still working on fixing that], microchipped, negative fiv/felv test, and dewormed. so not only has he thus far turned out to be perfect for our household and fit in great with the corgis and aremis [took her a whole two days to get over the fact that we'd brought another cat home] but he was an even better buy [not that it matters because i would've paid $125 for him anyways]. so sean calls him ghost at first then learns that he's a flame point siamese [at least in color] so we decide to call him blaze. which leads sean to think of hellblazer which obviously leads to us calling him constantine. and that's his name and it shall stay that way because he already has a vet appointment for friday when aurora goes in for her shots so it's already that way in the vet's computer [plus i like the name]. here he is trying to be a keyboard [or a mouse i suppose] on sean's desk.

i know...adorable isn't he? so then we're taking him to my work so that we can leave him there in a crate in the air conditioning while we go to the village at sandhill with the family. i hear a ticking noise as i'm driving to work and ask sean if he hears it too. at first we think it's the motorcycle behind us but then the ticking gets louder and the motorcycle hasn't gotten any closer so i pull over and it turns out my tire had blown out. not just any tire but the brand new one we had to get when there was a carpenter nail that somehow managed to make a hole in my original tire that couldn't be patched because of its location. so we then can't find the jack for yoshi [my silver yaris...yes i know yoshi wasn't silver...the name just fits]. turns out it is under the driver's seat when there is a space for it in the back next to the spare with the arm for the jack as well [go figure]. sean changes the tire once we find the jack [with a helpful 15 minute call to the toyota service department to find out where it was since my user manual had been removed when i refinanced my car at half the interest i had initially several weeks before]. we make it to work just in time to drop off the kitten and head out to the sandhills. here's another picture of constantine cause he's just so cute!

oh and those eyes are currently blue but i'm guessing they're going to change as he ages. anywho journey to the center of the earth in 3d gets a 6/10. not really too much to give away here. i figure most of you have seen one of the other versions of the film or have read the novel. i was somewhat disturbed by how much i could see brendan fraser's nipples poking out in the outline of his sweater/shirt through a lot of the movie. my mother thinks he's the hottest thing ever so she loved the film. i don't know how good it would be if not in 3d because a lot of good parts were made to be much more thrilling in three dimensions. i was preoccupied enough for one and a half hours to give it more than an average of 5. on a sidenote i cannot wait to see bolt in 3d as well! "i eat danger for breakfast!"

we then headed to red robin to eat lunch. i've never eaten there before and it was a nice experience. plus my mom yelled at our waiter, joel, that it was my dad's birthday and they came over and shouted some rhyme really loudly embarrassing him as they should on your birthday. plus he got a free sundae out of the deal. the food was pretty good and i think we all enjoyed the adventure to the outskirts of camden err i think we're now calling it a portion of columbia.

saturday night brought a shard of hate raid. sean got a nice wrist item. we then helped beline, phinneas [dad], singinliz, and fuzzypawz with their epic updates in chardok. dad also won this sweet warg off the queen in chardok with some awesome mage stats on top of his epic update. we had a pretty fun time with several friends.

sunday we headed to work for a bit. sean hadn't worked on saturday so he went in on sunday to make up for it and i worked on reading my biology text, trying to awaken some of this knowledge i supposedly absorbed in high school and college. we had lunch at aunt nita and uncle ed's house in honor of dad's and amanda's [cousin] birthdays. we got dad all 3 resident evil films in blu ray, for amanda i picked out some really pretty jewelry at hand-picked [which now has a location at lexington in that strip with the new target.../cheer...], and i brought jessica [thomas' (amanda's brother, obviously another cousin) girlfriend] one of those ikea fangst closet storage dealies in blue. i have one in teal and i love it. she's moving into a dorm room and she seemed to really like the fangst once she opened it...she even knew what it was, i was somewhat impressed. her birthday was several weeks earlier, but the fangst hadn't shipped in time to make it for her party.

we finally made it home and i promptly passed out while watching tv because i'm having wonderful allergic reactions lately and the benadryl allergy formula makes me sleepy. eh it's been an awfully long post and an awfully quick weekend.

so for now, enjoy the silence.

-pyper

you want me to go where?

so in the wonderful world of everquest 2 we're working on the newly released epic weapons [newly released meaning 6 to 8 months ago plus]. i have mine ::grin::, my dad has his [in fact he's almost got his second one], and my mom has hers [which required an incredibly difficult final fight to obtain involving me yelling 3 3 3 at the top of my lungs while at my parents' house followed by my mother and i screaming and jumping up and down]. sean on the other hand does not have his yet. so these epic weapons are all nifty and you typically have to be maxxed out at level 80 to start the quest lines required to obtain your weapon. so for most epic weapons there are these series of difficult kills that requires a group of level 75-80 toons or even a coupla groups depending on mob difficulty...well...sean's starts that way and we kill the two initial mobs. not so bad, we're on our way. the next step for the brigands is a bit ridiculous. you have to obtain 4 robes. the robes drop off mobs that are currently grey to sean's character. when you kill a mob that is grey to you in everquest 2 as with many mmorpgs, you get no loot. therefore the only way to get loot in everquest 2 is to find a lower level toon who will go with you to the zones that said mobs are residing in and mentor to make yourself a lower level and allow the mob to drop loot. we find a guy who's willing to help us with the first named and get him out of the way in sos. the second robe is from a heritage quest that we complete so fantastic! robe 2 out of the way. the third and fourth mobs are in not so easy places to drag a lower level character. so looking at the quest there are alternate ways to obtain the 3rd and 4th robes by clicking two chests in some higher level zones known as karnor's castle and sebilis. so karnor's castle and sebilis are some high end group zones and we decide to hit up karnor's castle first because we've been to the area where eq2i suggests there is a chest. so we get in there and see this guy just run past all the initial mobs which are really nasty high level 73 and 74 ^^^ heroic drolvargs [imagine a werewolf that's in control of himself but extremely angry at the world and wants to kill you for no apparent reason...now you've got a drolvarg and heroic mobs are those meant for a group of six]. so we try it, like idiots, about 5 times. we die about 5 times. so then sean [fievall] realizes he has his god power that will drop all aggro from the group so we attempt the run a 6th time and make it to where the drolvargs keep their riding rhinos which don't hate us and drop all the mobs from the entrance. we then fight our way up the stairs and along the ledge on the outside of the castle slaying drolvargs as we go. we make our way to the hallway with the stairs leading down to the undead spirits that are some other inhabitants of karnors. for some reason these undead are unable to see past invisibility or stealth so fievall invises himself and i use a jaguar totem for stealth. we creep down to xalgoz's lair. he's floating there with his mistmoore emissary both of which can see through our invis. the chest is supposed to be behind xalgoz so in thinking that somehow i can rescue fievall if he is seen i remain in stealth on the stairs in front of xalgoz as fievall goes to sneak around behind him for the chest, hoping not to get close enough for xalgoz to spot him. fievall finally makes it around behind him and spots the small chest. he creeps up and waits for the other floating spirits to move away and quickly opens the chest, retrieving the robe! fievall recasts his invis and makes his way back to the stairs where i immediately cast escape and we're out of the castle with robe in hand.

next we're off to sebilis where the mobs become level 80 and 84^^^ heroic. we get pretty close to where the chest is supposed to be located and are slain several times when we finally give up. more attempts to follow this evening.

eeep! time to get back to work.

enjoy the silence.

-pyper