Xous Nom

Blog No. 73: Xous Nom

--->Blog Start 8:40 PM

XOUS NOM is a *textagram* of YOUR MOM.

'Nuff said.

--->Blog End 8:41 PM

Will be edited some other time to include a dream I had last night.

Witch Mountain

Blog 72: Witch Mountain

--->Blog Start 9:09 PM

I went to the movies today with my mom. Here's what we saw.

Movie Review: Race to Witch Mountain

What do witches, mountainous lairs, star troopers, NASCAR, and ex-pro wrestler Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson have in common? Absolutely nothing. But if you feel like a feel-good faily movie starring an ex-pro wrestler, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, then Race to Witch Mountain is your movie.

Dwayne plays an at-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time excon taxi driver, Jack Bruno, who picks up alien children that crash landed on to the Earth, looking for a way to save their planet from near death without conquering our planet. Totally makes sense. However, there's this assassin bred from their home planet's military that lands on Earth too, somehow, to wipe out the kids before they can show how to save their world. Sucks for Earth doesn't it?

It has the standards: The 3D effects, the sexy female lead, the Disney happy ending.

I do have to say something about the 3D effects of one scene. When all the government agents are shooting the four of them while they're getting on the ship, they could've made a different choice. Seth can supposedly manipulate molecular density, so when he held hands with everyone they were immune to all the bullets. However, when that scene happened, they slowed down the frames but not the audio. It wasn't even a good slo-mo either. It made my brain confused. X(

Storyline is weird. Either stuff happens to come along to give a convenient explanation and direction of plot, but then you would wonder about the little things. You would wonde about why would super powerful alien kids need the assisstance of humans anyway? Or what happened to those bounty hunters after the science convention? Or why did we need the female doctor again? 

It still had its moments. You wouldn't think of an excon taxi driver falling in love with a UFO doctorate now would you? And it just goes to show that, no matter what background, we are all capable of good things, (ie help two children aliens to go from Vegas to dessert to Vegas to Witch Mountain and almost getting killed at least ten times). If you're a sucker for this kind of storyline, then expect a wholesome, almost tearjerker in the end when you wave good bye at the movie screen.

Overall, if you feel like a Disney SciFi movie to stare at Dwayne Johnson's super buff arms, here you go.

3 out of 5 Thumbs Up---> Add more thumbs if your Disney obsession level is larger than normal.~

I don't have a BlackBerry so I can't be *BlackBuried*, but I saw one today at the Verizon Wireless store, which was next to the Men's Warehouse where I bought my tux shirt today for the Choir concerts next week.

I'm broadcasting tonight from the house if you are wondering. I asked my mom to stay over here for the weekend while my aunt and the children are spending the weekend at the beach. I will be back at the apartment on Sunday.

Hopefully I'll finish my Chemistry work before then. T_T

--->Blog End 9:54 PM

Rover II

Blog No. 71: Rover II

--->Blog Start 9:38 PM

That's right. He's back. He's black. He's "refurbished" which is BestBuy's way of saying "take this used one, your old one sucks now."

Got a new case and everything. My new task: Revamp Rover II with my old songs.

I'm so happy he's back. Staci was good and all, but she had a pink case, which does not suit my style. Now she can go back in the back of my mom's closet and not be used again once Rover II is restored. XD

Today was a good day.

Finally saw my "husband" today in Archery. JT complained a little bit because I told him tournaments started today when they were actually Tuesday... Whatever. So we practiced shooting and whatnot. Then we walked to the cafeteria, converging around the usual crowd and doing some karate and hand stands. Totally normal. And I also got my sweet, sweet revenge. In a previous blog, (Second or Third Base), I explained that he pretty much went down my shirt and molested me. So today, while he was distracted from a karate session, I pretty much "grabbed the seat of his pants" to put it nicely. He had to sit down on the ground after that. A grope for a grope. XP

Choir was a little less fun today. Tuesday, Dr. Hughes was noticeably happy. Like over the top happy. NO idea why. Today was different. The only celtic song we had was supposedly the easier song, yet we totally destroyed it, and the song we though we needed a lot of work on turned out to be pretty good. Still, he did not let us off on the first piece. Hence the wrath of Dr. Hughes. XD

During our lunch, Taka and I made penned outline drawings to use as coloring pages for Italian class. Angela did a lot of *Social Notworking* and whatnot.

Italian was super funny. Professoressa Martinelli grabbed a tema that was turned in that she remarked as one of the best ones and read it aloud to the class. She replaced the name from Thim to Debbie, but she essentially read mine. I really tried to control my laughter, seeing as she was being secretive to whose tema it was. Then, afterward, she said that this is the person really intent on learning the language and that, after the semester is over, would be able to take a trip to Italy.

Then, during one of our excercises, I volunteered to read a sentence using the word "cantare" and it went in an interesting direction. My sentence was "Anji, Thim, e io cantiamo il martedi e il giovedi" which basically means we sing tuesdays and thursdays. When she asked if we were in a choir, I instantly thought I can get some people to come and pay for tickets! so I spoke up about the two concerts next week. However, instead of just putting it out there in plain english, she made me do it in Italian. It took a second for me to think, but still it was kind of awkward. Afterward, the three of us were lolzing on Angela's notes. XP

I had to cram for Biology afterward. It was frustrating tearing through the pages of the old exams, notes, and doodles. When I actually took the test, it was pretty easy. I didn't do a discussion question, but I did all the bonus questions that should replace that in points. Other than that, it was good! A great final equals good signs ahead! I will miss Kristie though. She was blunt, but she was cool. XD

Woot! No more late Tuesdays and Thursdays! :D

--->Blog End 9:59 PM

Pumpkin Bombs and Jet Lag

Blog No. 70: Pumpkin Bombs and Jet Lag

--->Blog Start 9:39 PM

"Only the Hobgoblin throws pumpkin bombs!"

"No, I'm pretty sure both of them had pumpkin bombs."

"What do you think, Rabbiman?"

Matt and Cesar had this random conversation, much like every one of their conversations. I technically don't have any big obsessions with comics or anything to know well enough the storyline of most comics, let alone the technical details of weaponry. My initial thought was that they both had pumpkin bombs from what I know of the Goblins. I believe that when the Green Goblin died, the Hobgoblin rose for revenge for his fallen father. So, common sense led me to believe that, if the Hob were to take in Green's footsteps, they would both have the pumpkin bombs. However, other people disagreed and said only the Hob had these type of bombs, one upgrade among a few between Goblins. I got so confused that I ignored it, but it still bugged me enough to remain in my brain the next day.

So I had my crack team of investigators and an expert in Spiderman Comics to look up for me the answer to this conundrum. And by crack team of investigators and experts, I mean Isaac. He was the one that was apparently obsessed with the Spiderman Comics. I always thought he was strictly just a Disney dude. Odd. XD

Anyways, he gave me his results today. It is confirmed that BOTH the Green Goblin and Hobgoblin had pumpkin bombs. He even presented me with proof:








Isaac is very thorough.

Anyways, today was a Concert Band Concert. I was a little off today because it seemed that the day lagged an hour behind. Jet lag if you will.

First, the Weissbart had us stay behind in lab to do the data analysis for our lab reports. I sat there on the lab bench thinking, omg how the hell am I supposed to do that thing he wrote on the board? Only to figure out thirty minutes later that what he wrote on the board was ran through in the lab manual, step by step. Once I saw that, it was 12:15 PM, so I just decided to *sky up* when the Weissbart wasn't looking.

Then, I did not have the proper Piano practice time I thought I had. Since Chemistry overlapped my lunch, I ended up not practicing some licks all the way through and for that I did not do as well as I would've hoped.

Finally, during the rehearsal, there was a noticeable mistake in the clarinet section a couple of times. That noticeable mistake came mostly from me. It went like this: Bianca gave me extra music a while back from a person who dropped, and apparently I mixed his music with mine. I realized that I was playing a different part in the song from normal, AND, when I did play the assigned part, I still accidentally used his music which did not have my notes to prevent such mistakes.

Of course I had to tear through my music to see what notes I wrote and transfer them to the parts I played in the concert. There wasn't anymore awkwardness after that. One thing I like about me, I know how to pull through under immediate pressure. Something I learned from the high school days. XP

So yeah. Jet lag minus the jet.

--->Blog End 10:29 PM

Taka's and Parker's Haircut Adventure

Blog No. 69: Taka's and Parker's and Co. Grand Haircut Adventure

--->Blog Start 9:45 PM

It all started with a Facebook IM.

Taka and I were working on our collective Temas and Piccolo Ripassos for Italian through Facebook when she says, "I WUNT TO CUT MAI HURR!"

After writing down some answers and collecting *inbox rot*, I said, "Send me what hairstyle you had in mind. I must approve before a single hair is cut!" Taka's hair is quite valuble seeing as it grows out hair and silver.

She sent me a picture of a very pretty asian man with a cool, light weight, brinking-on-J-Rock kind of hair. It seemed to fit Taka, so I approved.
Next day, (Today), after Choir, Taka and I were planning the bus trip to the salon. Parker and King were walking within ear shot, and all of us guys were carrying our Choir tuxedoes. Parker suggested that he'd drive us there, and we thought OMG YES! We're lazy, don't want to walk all the way back!

So we went ahead to walk to Parker's car and drive back to pick Abril up. Well, Taka and I did not know this, but Parker did not park in the ARC parking lot. He parked more like THREE streets over. I had to walk with my tuxedo jacket with bow tie and cumberbund on a hanger, the Lomo box with a case of chalk and my camera inside, my blob of a back pack, and my jacket to Parker's car... Geez. XD

Blah and Jason were also walking along side us across the street to go to their car. Blah is apparently stalking me. Sure, she can stalk me but she can't come one day to bring me my cookies! T_T

Anyways, we went to Parker's car and I pulled out my camera to take some before photos of Taka and Lomo. Then we drove to pick up Abril at the cafeteria. Apparently, Parker carries a loaf of bread in his car. The bread was a replacement for toilet paper for vandalism in public property. He said that toilet paper was too messy. I'm so going to bread someone's house one of these days! XD

We arrived at the salon. Taka got her haircut. Parker decided to get his done. I took some pictures. Parker complained a little about his hair. Abril ate Lomo's ear. It was a good day!

Here are some photos.

Taka, Before.

Parker, Before.

Taka, After.

Parker, After.

More photos on my Myspace/Facebook.

Yep. Totally adventurous! XD

--->Blog End 10:19 PM

Random Videos on my Playlist

Blog No. 68: Random Videos

--->Blog Start 8:48 PM

Oy, I wish I could write a *flee-mail* and skip Chemistry for the rest of the semester...

Chemistry today involved boxes, arrows, and watching ice melt for three hours.

Watched Margaret Cho with Taka, again.

Piano today involved a theory quiz and final goodbyes to our souls which will be taken from us on performance day Wednesday.

Then a soupa intense Italian study session, or, fifteen minutes to strut my awesomeness and the rest of the time looking for hairstyles for a short asian chick with the search criteria "hairstyles asian men."

Speaking of Wednesday, Concert Band has a concert, apparently. 7:00-8:30 or death. I will try not to blow very hard. Inserting sexual innuendoes here is the "or death" part.

Videos:



Diet Coke and Menthos.



Gilmore Girls.



Lucia Micarelli

End Blog. XP

--->Blog End 11:13 PM

A Man's System

Blog No. 67: I Miss My Own Bed

---> Blog Start 8:37 PM

Title speaks for itself.

My living situation is a little awkward. I'm living at my mom's apartment. She moved out with my aunt and her kids while giving the house to me and my sister and my brother-in-law to live in. But at the start of term, I started to live over here at the apartment because it would be easier to get rides back and forth from school and home until I get a driver's liscense to drive myself. I would get rides from my mom. I don't want to ask John or Audrey for rides because they have a baby on the way to worry about.

With all this said, it seems that I won't be in my own bed for some time.

The first time I failed the driver's test, I was completely unaware of the merging into the bike lane rules and did not even finish the driver's test. The second time around, I got disqualified for jerky turning.

Sure, the bed I have doesn't hold up my legs and my room at the house is a complete mess, but it was my bed, my mess. I want to wake up from my own bed, complain about my *strand-up comedy* in the mornings as well as the lumpy bed and the small bathroom, and have the luxury of doing whatever I want in my room. I feel detached from my musical instruments, my video games, my books, my sketchbooks, my under-construction-dart-board-of-Zac-Efron's-face, my writings, my tablet and photoshop, and my Gilmore Girls Fridays. I had a system! You don't mess up a man's system, man!

Life here at the apartment just gets more forced. Sure I love everyone here, but I'm a guy that gets bored very easily of the same thing everyday, day by day. I can't be as free doing my homework or typing up poems or photoshopping pictures of Kaylah onto firemen without someone looking over my shoulder, curious as to what I'm doing.

I want to wake up to a possible threat of an eye gouge because of how close the bed is to the window sill. I want to draw/write/paint my walls after a very clear and memorable dream I just had just so I won't forget it. I want to wake up in a rush and pull through different combinations of clothes in my closet instead of just wearing the same ones I have available to me. I want to finally finish my new Kingdom Hearts game I have set up with my TV, and possibly pull out the N64 for funsies. I want to hang Xmas ribbons off of my cieling and attach different colored paper cranes on them, pretending I had a chandelier in the middle of my room. I want to kick out my window screen so that I can sit on the window and play my alto sax/guitar/violin at night, just to annoy the neighbors.

I wanna be that guy who can go to his own solitary room and lock the door behind him.

---> Blog End 9:11 PM (HO DANG!)

Harry Potter

Blog No. 66: Harry Potter

--->Blog Start 9:00 PM

There's a Harry Potter marathon going on, so I'm going to review the movies as a series.

Movie Review: Harry Potters 1-4

Harry Potter 1: It was very to the book. It kept the true idea of the story into the movie. You can see Harry at his early stages and how he grasps the world as the movies progress. This one he's very much just an innocent boy stuck to the model of hero Vs. villain. Everything he needed to know came to him at the perfect times, like when Hagrid messes up and accidentally says something he wasn't supposed to. After this movie though, he would be introduced to plot twists and angles. Snape supremely makes the classic villain, too bad he's not though.

Harry Potter 2: Meh. Awkward transition stage between books 1 and 2. The movie I think was better in some ways than the book. Gilderoy Lockheart is very much the same prissy wizard I imagined. And Dobby the house elf looked super creepy, I expected him to be smaller. But I just can't get over the fact that "petrification" in the movie meant people affected were as if they were frozen in time, when really true petrification is the act of getting turned into stone.

Harry Potter 3: Very visual. Great music. Stepped up, especially after swapping out Dumbledores. It got really into Harry's psyche, we see how people affect him and the movie made all that really real to compensate for keeping stuff out of the movie. Snape is still a hard bomber, only he loses that preliminary likeness for trying to save Harry in the first movie when he becomes vengeful to Lupin. It also gets very soap opera like when the infamous Sirius Black turns out to be Harry's stepfather, and Ron's rat turned out to be the traitor, not Black... Complicated. But it went into concepts of time and death.

Harry Potter 4: This was my favorite book of the Harry Potter series. I felt very critical about this movie because they left a lot out, like the different struggles during the third task, the house elves, and when Rita Skeeter got turned into a ladybug. The last game went from an awesome magic testing maze with creatures and whatnot to just a maze. It also got very awkward when Harry Potter mourned the death of Edward Cullen---I mean Cedric Diggory. The story line got very much involved and got unpredictable because of its twist with Mad-Eye Moody. But by this movie, the actual threat of evil finally exposes itself when Voldemort is ressurected... It is at this point where things get serious. Hopefully the movies after this one stays true to the book.

Ranking: 4 out of 5 Thumbs Up-Conditional.--->Great to see if you read the books.

I also think that Hermione Granger, on of my all time heroes, truly makes these movies worth seeing. XD

Urban Dictionary Blurb: I'm still trying to get people to blog. Kaylah, Dustin, Jesse... So far its not working as well. I've tried *sexsuading* them, but I'm not quite sure how that will play out... XD

--->Blog End 10:05

orQUESTra and Rover

Blog No. 65: orQUESTra and Rover

--->Blog Start 8:50

Yeah, not sure how you spell that performance title. Either way, I had serious *dejabrew* when I saw the America's Best Dance Crew Finale... only I wasn't drinking... XD

Long story short: The asians have conquered the competition.



You can see why.

It was funny when we saw the FINALE finale when they won because my mom got all hysterical and laughed super hard. She pretty much crushes on the super fast moving asians. XD

Anyways, there have been developments on my broken iPod, which I've recently named Rover. The main symptom Rover has is inability to play audio in the right ear only, regardless of head phones.

We drove to BestBuy today to see what they could do for Rover. The Geek Squad lady told us that they would have to send it in to see if Rover's fixable. So I left Rover with the Geek Squad lady, stripping him of his protective case and accessible headphones. It seems likely that I would get a new iPod of either the same generation or higher because they discontinued my generation of iPod. Rover might get upgraded. XD

If you know me, you know that I always carry Rover in my pocket everywhere. I had it when I went down the white water safari ride in Six Flags. I had it through my many trips, including Disneyland and Santa Cruz. I carried it while performing in concerts, during beach trips, during the camping trip, and during the wedding. Rover is like my gall bladder, it's survivable if its taken away from me but I won't be able to live without it. I should say that Rover is like a pair of underwear, I can go a day without anyone noticing I don't have any but it would feel awkward once someone notices its gone... So for the time being, I have Staci, my mom's iPod... It has a "breast cancer awareness" case... It doesn't have any of my KT Tunstall, Anberlin, or Dashboard songs in it... D:

...

I feel naked without my Rover...

---> Blog End 9:15 PM

Watchmen

Blog No. 64: Watchmen

--->Blog Start 3:33 AM

So far I'm brinking on 21 hours without sleep. Let's see if I can stay awake for one blog.

I *I-Peeped* over at John's iPod touch before the movie started, he was watching a podcast that started at the Comic-Con last year. He was actually there for the first podcast. XD

Movie Review: Watchmen

Preliminary warnings: If you go out to see the movie, be warned that there is intense actions scenes, violence with gore, sex, and nudity. Dr. Manhattan didn't always wear that bikini.

The movie based off of a comic book series, now where did we hear that before? Mind you, I did not read the comics before watching the movie. As I saw the movie, it got SO involved into back stories of each character while telling the story of a destructive modern America still on the brink of Cold War. As I hear from people who read the series, it did not even cover all the side story. My basic thought was "THERE WAS MORE?" My rear end is blistered over from sitting too much...

Then there was bashing and breaking. Arms got cut off. Bones shattered. Necks snapped. Many bumps to the head on edges of stone. Cleavers hacked into the head. There was a LOT of fire, too. Then there was a weird sex scene. Well two, but the first one was actually kinda funny. Point: Might've been overdone. Depends on taste.

Upsides: You learn so much about the characters and their personalities. There's a sense of appreciation to these characters when the back stories were finally told. It also used plenty of computer graphics and film edits that tells the story very well. If you wanted a giant blue man and gunshots in your face, you got that and more. The movie has strong symbolic moments that, if you miss it, you won't appreciate the movie as much, like when you finally notice the identity of Rorschach. This movie made me think on a couple of issues of how destructive humanity is and how we compare to the rest of the universe, in a nutshell.

Downsides: The point of the movie is to see how the Watchmen create peace in the destructive world amidst a world war. Two hours later, after some punching, flashbacks, and sex, the story finally develops. Secondly, it got confusing walking in. The beginning montage gave an idea of what happens, but considering the lengthy introduction of each character you would expect to know the direction of the story forwards and backwards. Third, I do not recommend watching this movie after you've just seen Planet Earth. Your faith in humanity will be sucked out of you and you'll look in the newspaper the next day looking for roommate wanted ads on the planet Mars.

Shortened Version
Upside: Great, if you don't miss anything.
Downside: You'll miss something.

My score: Three and a Quarter out of Five Thumbs Up. --->Worth to see at least once.

Finally! Time for bed.

--->Blog End 4:44 AM