Look what came in the mail today!

Both Moose and Frosty approve of this purchase. Look out American Idol....I'll be aiming for you next!!!! :P

Quick review of Pan's Labyrinth

Pan's Labyrinth is one of those movies which I probably wouldn't see for myself just from watching the trailers and such, but after reading Tochi's glowing recommendation on Pan's Labyrinth, I went to the movies with David yesterday to see what this movie is all about. The story revolves around a girl Ofelia who travels with her mother to a military camp run by her mother's new husband, who happens to be the Captain and leader of the camp. World War 2 is still going on and tensions are high at the camp, but Ofelia deals with the tension by putting herself in her own fantasy world. Note that the movie is in Spanish, so you'll have to be quick with the subtitle reading sometimes so you won't miss what happens on the screen (unless of course you have some sort of background in Spanish :P). I agree with Tochi that there're a mix of emotions that go on through the movie, but I don't necessarily agree with him in feeling sorry for the Captain at the end of the story as I think the Captain got what he deserved given the events leading up to the end. But overall, it's a very well done movie! Everything about the movie feels very organic and real, and the spinkles of CG here and there make Ofelia's fantasy world come to life without feeling overly fake. And I really want a piece of magic chalk :) Although, I never figured out who Pan was....

New Years Resolutions

Grrrr....I hate evening naps (especially due to food coma from a large dinner) since it makes normal sleeping tougher -_- Anyways, to pass the time by I've posted some New Years Resolutions.

1) Graduate within the next year: I feel like I've sort of slacked off a bit going down the Ph.D. road. Granted I've never really learned anything that I'm doing in my Ph.D. while i was an undergrad, but I'm not going to make that an excuse. So time to hit the research book a bit harder.

2) Stay positive: The past couple of years have been sort of a roller coaster ride for me emotionally at times with school and other miscellaneous things. But having the extended time off at the end of December and beginning of January to get away and not worry so much gave me some time to recharge for this year.

3) Do a bit more to take care of myself: Pretty much try to make more of a conscious effort to eat better and keep the body active. The roads in my apartment complex are shaped in a giant oval, so I try to take a walk around the oval every so often to clear my head and get the heart going. My mom bought me a huge Sams Club sized bottle of vitamins, so I also keep reminding myself to take one in the evening.

4) Blog more: Last year, the cove was sort of relegated to random links and such, but I'm doing my best to keep it updated now. It's always cool to get comments, so keep those up! :)

5) Find that special someone: I'm putting this up but I don't think I'll likely follow through with this. It's been sort of tough for me to forget my ex for the past year or so since I'm probably too nice to her at times, but I'm getting over it. Ah well, maybe I'll get pleasantly surprised one day...

Random act of kindness :)

Whenever David and I can't ever decide where to go for lunch, our default option has always been Cici's Pizza Buffet, and who can't say no to unlimited pizza, soda, salad, pasta, and dessert for $5.99? We've gone there so much that practically everyone who works there recognizes us, in particular the woman cashier who usually works around lunch hours. Today when we went there, the woman cashier said "it's on me" and let both of us through to the buffet without paying although we insisted because it had been a while (maybe a week and a half or so) since we've been there. I guess some days there is a such thing as a free lunch :)

Google Maps hates New Jersey

Sorry Kabitzin. Sometimes, even Google maps can't give you proper directions in New Jersey as pointed out by the Inquirer. Who wants to make 239 U-turns? :P

Snow!

It's been a while since snow had fallen in Columbus, so I was sort of surprised but sort of elated to see snow on the ground :) Here's a picture through my apartment back window.

I also watched the first 2 episodes of American Idol this season, and boy, the two episodes from Minneapolis and Seattle were like watching train wrecks for the most part. Even Randy, who has come across as pretty kind in his criticism during the audition period, brought the hammer down on all of the bad acts. So far, I really haven't seen any real standouts that I would pick to be the winner (last year, both David and I said Taylor Hicks would win after seeing his audition :P), so hopefully, the talent in the next few upcoming cities will be a bit better.

Rawk on: Part Deux!

Last weekend (or was it this past Monday?) I used up my Best Buy certificates to pick up Guitar Hero 2 to continue on my eternal quest for Guitar Heroness. Gameplay-wise, it takes what's already a solid game in GH1 and improves upon it by making those pesky Hammer-on/Pull-offs much easier to perform. And believe me, after listening and playing through most of the songs in Medium mode so I can unlock all of them for Quickplay, I think HO/PO mastery will be key to getting through many of these songs. However, I was sort of disappointed in the song selection as there aren't that many memorable songs or good tunes as there were in the first one. But, I foresee many hours dedicated in practice mode (another new feature) to master that theme song from Pulp Fiction as I need to get rid of the constant downstrumming syndrome and utilize the upstrum more often if I'm ever going to make through that song on expert. I did manage to make it through Freebird on Hard on my first try with a 4 star rating. Oh, another sort of cool thing they do at the end of each show is give a print-out of how you did in each section of the song so you can see where you need improvement. So Catnipped, Ender, Tochi, and Velius: the gauntlet has been thrown down, and be prepared for a GH dual in the next Houston meeting!!! (or where-ever it may be :P)

In other news, Blueorca managed to finish posting her pics of our trip to Las Vegas and Death Valley, so take a peek here to see the cool things we saw :)