'Paperman' Animated Short

Wanted to share this short with my readers. Saw this when we went to see 'Wreck it Ralph'. Amazing and heartfelt! It's a toss-up whether this was better than the feature film itself (though Ralph was pretty good too!) Enjoy!

 

Local Entertainment for Families, Part Troix

We've highlighted a number of ways to have fun locally the past few weeks here at Grant's Pad, but I've got a few more for you today!

The Traveling Carnival
Each year, several carnivals/fairs make there way within a stone's throw of where we live. These provide a relatively inexpensive way to spend a cool autumn afternoon! We took Fifi to the carnival three times a few weeks ago. At first, she was a little apprehensive and/or tired, but as usual, it didn't take her long to warm up to the good times!

Yum... Carnie Food!

This little girl volunteered to sit with Fifi to make sure she didn't fall out...

Funnel Cake

We were able to go to the fair three times for the measly price of just 20 bucks, each visit spanning about 2 hours, which is a perfect duration for traveling with a toddler.

This past weekend, we contemplated going to yet another fair (that had some shows to go along with the rides), but instead, Cherry recommended something that I'd been putting off for some time - going to the movie theater! We hadn't gone to the movie theater since before Fifi was born, and I had my concerns on Fifi's ability to sit through a full-length feature film. Granted, she did pretty well watching 30 minute shows on TV, and is actually will sit through good-sized portions of a football game, but being in a dark, loud theater was something that we hadn't done before.

The Premier Oaks theater near our house is a beautiful theater, offering stadium seating in all of the rooms, great surround sound, and 3D support in many, if not all, of the rooms. I'm not really a huge fan of 3D films, but it's good to know that it's there if I wanted it. They also run some great promotions, such as free movies during the summer for the kiddies, free popcorn days, $5 days, and, the promotion we took advantage of this time, $4 mornings. Considering the base price of a movie ticket these days is around $8 in most places, these promotions can really save your wallet from a beating!

We decided to check out the latest mega-hit from Disney, and a film which touches upon one of my favorite hobbies, "Wreck-It Ralph". This charming movie got some amazing licensing, allowing Disney to put characters from video games from developers like Capcom, Namco, Sega, and the ever-elusive Nintendo into cameo roles! That aside, it is again another example of the quality of product Disney is capable of delivering, which contributes to my confidence in their upcoming handling of the Star Wars sequels. But most importantly, it was Fifi's first day at the movie theater, and she did fantastic! She sat nice and quiet through the whole movie, snacking on raspberries. She got scared a few times during the more action-packed scenes, but she didn't fuss at all. When everyone got up at the end of the film, she got up and walked out on her own too! Asked if she liked it, she replied "Like it. Movie!"

Sitting nice and quiet with her monkey

Like it!

Looking forward to more movie dates with Fifi!

Winter Break Wrapup

My winter break is over, but I think I had enough fun and excitement over those 11 days. A few days after my family brought Wei Wei's family over for an exhausting surprise holiday dinner, we took Sofia and Cherry's mom to Brevard Zoo. The cooler weather must have been better for the animals, because I'd never seen so many of the animals come out so close to us in our previous trips to the zoo. We even saw the elusive Red Wolves up close and personal - we never see those!

The next day, my good friend and kung fu brother Kir-Wei and his girlfriend, Victoria, came to visit. He got to our house pretty late; despite leaving the Disney park at around 7:40, getting out of the parking lot added almost an hour to the expected 1 hour, 15 minute travel time that it usually takes to get from Kissimmee to Melbourne. So, they got in around 10 PM, but we hadn't seen each other in over five years, so we had lots to talk about. To save them from getting into Fort Lauderdale (their final destination before going back to med school in Boston... brr!), we invited them to stay the night, which they appreciated.


The next evening, we headed out for a little journey of our own as well. After cleaning the house, we packed up all of Sofia's stuff, including her bottle equipment, stroller, changing pad, and crib, into the trusty tC and headed down to South Florida to visit my parents and siblings. When we got there, Mom had prepared a nice multi-course meal for us - the first of many good meals we would have over our stay.

We gave Cherry's mom a brief tour of the house and I showed her some of our old photo albums. I've often lamented that I don't have any idea what Cherry looked like as a child or a baby because they don't really have any photos of her. In fact, I only have this one photo in my possession, but it's pretty special - despite being taken in the 80s, it looks like it was taken in the 50s, really highlighting how rustic China was back then:


My family, in contrast, has numerous photo albums, and the number of photos, especially in recent years, has gone up exponentially because of Ed's new camera equipment! While looking through our old albums, we identified how much Sofia looks like I did when I was a baby! What do you think?




The next day, on New Year's Eve, my family took Cherry's mom to her first American movie theater experience. It just so happened that the free movie event traditionally held by me and Melinda's orthodontist, Dr. Krumholtz (R.I.P.), was being held that day, so we had a number of options. We ended up selecting TRON: Legacy, which I thought was a good choice for Cherry's mom because you really don't need to have much understanding of the language in order to appreciate the images and sounds. To me, going to the theaters has never been about seeing the story - in fact, I tend to get a better feel for stories by watching movies at home. Rather, I usually reserve the movie theater for movies that have larger than life cinemetography - like superhero movies or films like last year's Avatar. TRON also falls into the category of a movie that is probably better served in the theater than on my 50 inch TV at home with shoddy sound!


That evening, we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Fort Lauderdale with many of my parents' friends, who got their first opportunity to see my daughter! After dinner, Cherry, Sofia, and I went home while my family took Cherry's mom with them and the rest of the party to the New Year's celebration in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

For New Year's Day, we had a special event planned. Five years ago, we went to Vizcaya mansion in Miami with Cherry and my grandparents. I even included this event in the customized calendar I made for my parents this Christmas. Vizcaya is a huge house built by John Deering, an agricultural machinery manufacturer with too much money and no heirs to spend it on, in the early 20th century. This vacation home of sorts features hundreds of pieces imported straight from Europe, including a number of curious European crafted China-inspired pieces. Cherry's mom, who grew up in a rural environment, doesn't really share my enthusiasm for nature and the great outdoors - in fact she harbors an irrational dislike of trees. However, she appreciates big cities and architecture, both of which Vizcaya, and Miami in general, have in droves.


We spent about three hours at Vizcaya before heading out to dinner at one of my parents' favorite Chinese restaurants in Miami. I have to agree - this restaurant is way better than the one we went to on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately, its name escapes me! Before dinner, we demonstrated once again the versatility of my trusty Scion tC - it seems Sofia rather enjoys feeding in the front bucket seat, and we were even able to change her diaper using the folded down front bucket as a changing table!

That night, an all-important event occurred: I had my first experience with New Super Mario Bros. Wii! On the new special-edition Red Wii with Wii Remote Plus, the new Wii Remote that has Wii Motion Plus built right in so as to not have the additional bulky attachment at the back end of the "hilt"! I wish I had Wii Remote Pluses instead now... But, back to NSMB Wii, I had experienced the excellent New Super Mario Bros. on DS way back when it came out in 2006. I did feel that it was a little on the easy side, but it was a wonderful throwback to old school gaming. New Super Mario Bros. Wii takes care of that "too easy" feeling. Plus, the co-op multiplayer aspect takes the game to a whole new level of crazy fun. My friends who have played the game before commented that they thought the multiplayer was just too crazy, since it makes it fairly easy to kill your allies. But I feel that with the right team in place, the multiplayer allows from some pretty creative strategies that make the game that much more interesting. Plus, part of what makes Nintendo games fun is the chaos anyway! See exhibits A and B: Mario Kart and Smash Bros. franchises!


Our last day in South Florida was highlighted by a trip to Kyojin buffet. Cherry hadn't had sushi since getting pregnant and had been clamoring for it for months. Plus, it was an opportunity to introduce Cherry's mom to sushi and the concept of all-you-can-eat buffet. Amusingly, one of her first reactions was coming up with the idea to bring a large container to bring food home... and that is why there aren't that many all-you-can-eat buffets in China...

That concluded Sofia and Cherry's mom's first visit to my parents' house, as well as my winter break!

Hype 1, Trying to Resist the Bandwagon 0

Today's post is being brought to you by Windows Live Writer, a neat web-publishing tool included with the ailing Windows Vista Ultimate operating system. To be honest, I never truly understood why Vista didn't turn out as good as hoped, and, having had a brief glimpse of Windows 7, I'm not sure I see all that much benefit with that either, but that's likely as much due to my lack of computer smarts as anything.

Alternatively, it's possible that my personality just tries not to buy into the hype all the time. Case in point, the film Avatar. I first saw trailers for it several months ago when Cherry and I went to see the woefully over-the-top 2012.

Much like 2012, the trailers showed a film that looked to be incredibly over-the-top, littered with special effects. In other words, it seemed to be yet another case of "All style and no substance" that is often the case not only in films, but also in other forms of expression and entertainment, including my own passions of martial arts and video games. Who hasn't seen a martial arts form that is "just for show" or played a video game that had pretty graphics but crappy gameplay and/or story?

Well, despite my efforts to stay off of the bandwagon (fortunately for us, we fared pretty well against the whole Twilight phenomenon), we finally went to see Avatar this evening. And in 3D, no less. Actually, it was Cherry's second time, since she had just watched it with her friend Anna earlier this week in Gainesville.

I'm not sure how much of it had to do with coming in with low expectations, but, all said and done, I was very impressed with the movie! Of all things, I actually think the 3D bit was the main point of complaint for me - I honestly think it would have looked even better without the muted colors and occasional floating objects. That said, the production values are simply through the roof. The environments are gorgeous, and the soundtrack top-notch.

But, of course, pretty picture and nice music make not a great film. The story was something of a cross between the classic Dances with Wolves and perhaps Star Wars or another similar science fantasy film. It sends a nice message about conservationism and respecting others' cultures (and I'm usually not much of a sucker for those tree-hugger type themes) and has a nice mix of romantic sub-plots and epic battles, all in a fictional world that is lovingly developed, not unlike that of the Star Wars saga, complete with alien languages, cultures, and flora and fauna.

I spent a good deal of effort thinking of loopholes or scientific inaccuracies, but from this engineer's mind, while there were some pretty far-reaching concepts, I actually think that, in theory, much of the science touched upon in the movie is actually possible, and the film does a great job reconciling possible loopholes.

All said and done, it was a good 2 hours and 45 minutes spent, and it has my vote for the best film of 2009! Give in to the hype and go see it!

Jay Chou's "Secret That Cannot Be Told"

Cherry and I watched a pretty good movie last night: Jay Chou's directorial debut, Secret, or 不能说的秘密 (bu neng shuo de mi mi) in the film's native Mandarin.

I was admittedly a bit skeptical at first when I learned about this film. Jay Chou, while being easily one of my favorite musical artists, simply isn't that good of an actor. Although he starred in the critically acclaimed manga adaptation, Initial D, his part, Takumi Fujiwara, was probably one of the easiest characters to portray, and Jay simply didn't have to do much of anything to get that part right... in essence, his Toyota AE86 Sprinter made up for most of his, uh, lack of acting.


The second major feature film starring Jay that I saw was all-around bad picture Curse of the Golden Flower, which was so bad that it doesn't even deserve a photo op here on Grant's Pad (a second one anyway, I believe I actually wrote a review earlier here that wasn't nearly as harsh, but that's just because I'm a nice guy).

In any case, I figured, Jay is such a crappy actor, how much better could he possibly be at directing a full length feature? Now, Jay has had quite a bit of experience putting together outstanding music videos that often have a very cinematic storyline, as shown here with one of my favorite songs of his, Faraway:



However, shooting a music video is not quite the same as doing a whole 90-minute movie. So, when I started watching Secret, I found my fears to be coming true... it was horrendously sappy and shallow. Boy comes to classy secondary school in Taiwan, meets girl, and they play piano together (they are both talented music students), go on long, romantic bike rides, and other fairly mundane "dating" activities, all the while framed by somewhat annoying Taiwanese schoolboys and schoolgirls.


About 60% into the movie, however, the film makes an awesome twist, and transforms into a genuinely touching story that had Cherry and I talking about it for nearly an hour after the movie ended, going as far as to looking it up in Wikipedia to get a recap of the spoilers (which I don't recommend that you do until you watch the movie, because it will, and I repeat, it will ruin the entire movie for you - it is this plot at the end that saves the film!) and even watching the last bit again to see what all we missed the first time! It's almost as though Jay set us up by making the first half so bad that the second half would seem that much better! =P

The movie was especially cool for those who can appreciate musical talent, as Jay, who is famous for his classical music background, female lead Kwai Lun-Mei, and some of Jay's buddies from Taiwanese band Nan Quan Ma Ma put their awesome piano skills on show. Some of you may know that I played classical piano myself for almost ten years. The piano scenes in this movie really made me kind of want to get back into it! Check out the piano duel between Jay and Nan Quan Ma Ma's Yu Hao below:



Pretty wicked. So, all in all, the movie turned out to be pretty good. At first, I thought the lead girl character, Xiao Yu (played by Kwai) was first of all, not that pretty and second of all, kind of annoying with her mysteriousness, but as I gradually understood what was happening towards the end of the film, she really grew on me and even started to get prettier to me as a result! Weird, I know. The pacing of the movie was, as mentioned previously, absolutely atrocious, but I think this can be attributed to Jay Chou's lack of directorial experience. The story, also a Jay Chou original, is not incredibly novel, but slick enough to get people talking and get a few tears to well up, which is commendable. And of course, Jay puts his musical skills on showcase, composing and performing the vast majority of the classical, Chopin-inspired soundtrack himself! So impressed was I, that I have gone ahead and featured the original soundtrack from Secret in my sidebar music player. Be sure to check it out!

If you want to check it out one step further, you can view the film here at MySoju (in 8 parts, subtitled)!

Kung Fu Movie Fans, Rejoice!

In this day and age, it's getting harder and harder to find a good kung fu movie in the vein of my favorite Jet Li movie of all time, Fist of Legend.


In my opinion, several things have contributed to the decline of kung fu movies. First is the proliferation of Hong Kong style choreography and wirework in Hollywood productions, such as Charlie's Angels, who's saving grace was the humor and star power in it, and more recently, the Underworld vampire films, which are actually also pretty good in their own right but still feature pretty bad fighting. The fact is, you cannot put pampered Hollywood actresses through just 3 months worth of "intense training" and expect the action to be nearly as clean or convincing as Jackie or Jet, who have been doing this for the better part of 40 years! Even Hong Kong studios have been guilty of this, putting actors with little to no legitimate martial arts experience in action roles, such as Cecilia Cheung and Ekin Cheng, among several others.


Perhaps most obviously, is the aging of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, the most recognized names in kung fu movies in the West outside of Bruce Lee. As they approach their 60s and 50s, respectively, the quality of their work has declined. This is not to say that their movies are poor, in fact, they're still better than 90% of the aforementioned crap being featured in martial arts action movies today. But, as good as they were, you simply cannot compare Fearless to Fist of Legend and to New Police Story to Legend of the Drunken Master.


Fortunately, Donnie Yen is here to save the day! Over the last few months, I have been very impressed with several of Donnie Yen's most recent works.


For those of you not familiar with Yen, he hails from the same Wushu team as Jet Li, only several years later. He actually starred with Jet Li in two films: as a Mandarin in the timeless Wong Fei Hung film Once Upon a Time In China II, and more recently as Sky in Hero. He has also starred opposite Jackie Chan as a villain in Shanghai Knights. However, Donnie doesn't really like playing second fiddle all the time and has starred in a number of great kung fu movies since the early 90s. In my opinion, taking into full context Jackie and Jet's current age, Donnie is by far the most athletic of the three action stars, and may well have been the most physically gifted to begin with, not to take anything, at all, away from Jet and Jackie, who's on-screen feats have yet to be matched.


Donnie's latest works include Sha Po Lang, Flashpoint, Dragon Tiger Gate, and most recently, Ip Man. Of these, Sha Po Lang and Flashpoint feature the most realistic fighting, as Donnie employs several Jujitsu-style takedowns and holds in this modern, organized crime movie. Dragon Tiger Gate was the most stylized, with Dragonball Z style super-powerful moves and otherwise very flashy acrobatics and, to top all that, bad Asian hair!


Donnie's latest film, released in Christmas of 2008, was Ip Man. It is a heavily dramatized documentary/period film featuring the life of Bruce Lee's venerated Wing Chun sifu in the 1930s, right around the time when various parts of China were being occupied by Japan. I think Ed put it best when he said that this exceptional film is something of a cross between Fist of Legend and Fearless. Not bad models for excellence, if I may say so myself! Early 20th century Chinese setting? Check! Beating down hordes of Japanese Karate masters? Check! Liberal biographical account of a famous Chinese martial artist, who fell from the upper echelon's of society into a life of hardship? Check! Casting a real, experienced martial artist as the lead role?? Check mate!

Yep, Donnie Yen is here to remind us that Kung Fu movies still kick the crap out of Western action movies any day of the week! Be sure to check out the trailer below!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2008

Nothing particularly special this weekend - just headed back to Boca for some time with the family... we hadn't gotten together since returning from China in the summer, believe it or not!

Ed and Cherrie got to our house on Wednesday evening, and we proceeded to my parents house that same night, getting in at about 10 PM, much too late to do anything besides eat a bit. The next day, Dad brought home a shiny new, Cobalt Blue two-tone DS Lite, in preparation for any future road trips we might have so we can get 4-player DS action anytime, anywhere! It's sooper sexy, featuring mica sparkles, much like my car paint... just Cobalt Blue instead of, what was it? Sizzling Crimson Mica.

After ogling the new member of our DS family (for those keeping count, there are 4 of them now, all different colors. Ed has the most unique one, the midnight Blue straight from Asia!), we headed out for our Thanksgiving meal at Super Buffet! They actually did have turkey there, and it wasn't half bad at that, so stop your sniggering!

After lunch, we stopped by the beach for about an hour before heading to Super Wal-Mart to try to get some screen protectors for the new DS Lite. We weren't able to find the coveted Hori brand screen protectors, so we postponed that effort and instead got a NERF case to protect its sexy exterior. On the way out, we stopped at one of those DVD vending machines and picked up Tropic Thunder to watch that evening.

At first, I wasn't overly excited about Tropic Thunder. But then, I found out that the black dude on the cover was actually Robert Downy Jr. of recent Iron Man fame, and that piqued my curiosity. If you haven't seen it, Downy Jr.'s performance as the "Dude playing another dude disguised as another dude" is unbelievable, and Tom Cruise's cameos are also something that you shouldn't miss if you get the chance. Basically, the movie is about a couple of high profile actors (mixed in with a hip-hop star and a comedy star) attempting to make the best Vietnam War movie ever, I won't ruin it for everyone, but go see this movie!
Black Friday is usually a day reserved for shopping to try to get kickass deals on big ticket items, but we usually sleep in too late to do anything of the sort. Instead, we took a small trip to Jungle Island in Miami, a zoo park featuring mostly parrots. I think the park used to be called Parrot Jungle, but it has since collected a variety of other more exotic animals, such as all kinds of different tigers, a 20-foot, 3000 pound "Crocasaurus", and a rare Liger, which is the hybrid offspring of a lion and a tiger. Ligers are the real kings of big cats, as they are usually about the size of their lion fathers and tiger mothers combined - a stark opposite compared with dwarf Tigons, which have tiger fathers and lion mothers. Unfortunately, we could only see the head of the Liger, which spent most of the day hiding in the shade.

That evening, we went to an awesome Chinese restaurant (one where you can actually order complete multi-dish meals to share with everyone), and then went home to see Iron Man with the rest of the family.

Saturday was a typical, slow, weekend day, with the exception of the massacre of the FSU Seminoles at the hands of Tebow and the mighty Gators in torrential rain. The Gators won 45-15, the largest point production by UF ever in Tallahassee, but Percy Harvin was injured in the rout and now considered "questionable" for this Saturday's showdown with Alabama in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. I'm hoping Harvin will be able to at least be out there as a decoy - he draws at least two defenders no matter what!

We closed Saturday night with yet another movie - this time, we watched Cold Mountain, with Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Renee Zellwegger. I've always been a fan of Civil War movies, and this one didn't disappoint. I'm not a big fan of any of the lead actors, but they did a good job with their roles, especially Zellwegger. In all, it was a great look at the South during the waning years of the American Civil War.

Some last great news before signing off this time - I got my acceptance call from the University of Florida's MBA program today! W00t!

Gerbils, Chi Sao, and the Forbidden Kingdom

We went to my parents house in South Florida this weekend. It had been a while - we hadn't been there basically since the beginning of the year. Only a few changes have occurred - most notably, my sister has only one gerbil left (down from two in January and three at some point last year). I don't think it's her fault though, those gerbils were getting pretty old, probably two years or older! I still remember when Ed brought his gerbil home and gave it to my sister. That gerbil also died even though my sister and my dad took it to the veterinarian to see if they could save it (him? her?). Shortly afterwards, my sister got three new gerbils. This paragraph will serve as my tribute to the ones that have since passed.

One of the main things I did on this particular trip home was pick up some more kung fu tips from Ed. It's quite interesting how much progress Ed has made in his kung fu since his freshman year. Back then, I still dominated our sparring matches, but today, it's a completely different story. We tried sparring a little bit, I thought I did a pretty good job (at least I was not getting hit that often!) up until the point when I jammed the fingers of my left hand blocking one of his kicks. I'm still nursing that injury!

One thing I noticed while sparring Ed was that he had developed a prowess for grabbing and locking, or chin na. I figured this was due to practicing a drill called "chi sao", or sticky hands. I've mentioned chi sao before in one of my posts, most likely the post about Wing Chun kung fu. Essentially, you maintain contact with your partner, rotating your arms in a very relaxed fashion and attempt to land strikes or effect locks on his or her arms. The drill develops sensitivity such that you should be able to feel when your partner tries to attack, allowing you to counter by shifting your body weight or locking the striking hand. After my fingers got hurt, I figured, instead of the contact stuff, it would be worthwhile to try to get some experience in chi sao for myself. Needless to say, I was completely dominated, finding myself twisted and locked up tens of times! Still, I picked up a few of the locks he used and have since taken them back to practice.

At the end of the weekend, my sister came back from her band trip and we went out to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li's The Forbidden Kingdom. It was pretty good - the fighting was par for the course but the plot was a bit of a mess. I don't think it was due to the story itself, but rather due to how the director paced the film. There isn't much sense of time in this movie - it's hard to tell how long in "real time" each scene takes, and I felt that it would have given the story a little better flow if that information were somehow conveyed. Instead, it seems like a bunch of little episodes stuck together. The story is an extension of the Chinese classic Journey to the West, in particular focusing on the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. For that, I give the film kudos since it brings one of the most beloved Chinese stories into mainstream American entertainment. Regardless of the poor flow, I still recommend this film because of the introduction to the Chinese novel, some pretty cute Chinese actresses in Li Bing Bing and the somewhat cross-eyed Liu Yifei, and of course the long awaited fight scenes between Jackie Chan and Jet Li!

Shoot 'Em Up!

I'm up in Gainesville for the Martin Luther King weekend, taking Martin Luther King day to spend it with Cherrie, who is off from school that day. The drive was fairly smooth, taking just under three hours - nothing compared to the close to five hours that I used to drive to get home.

After I got to Cherrie's apartment, I did some laundry (they get their electricity and water paid for, unlike at home, where I have to pay for it!). Then, we had a wholesome dinner consisting of NFL approved Campbells Chunky Clam Chowder and Chicken Noodle Soup!

Next, we attended an old school UF classic activity - Gator Nights. For the uninitiated, Gator Nights is an event held on most Fridays at the Reitz Union. It is designed to be a family friendly (with some exceptions, including the movie last night) event that is low cost (usually free, in fact) and keeps kids out of the bars on University Avenue (although the effectiveness of this effort remains to be assessed). First, we went to the Flying House of Cards event, held by one-time Meihua Student Association of Martial Arts member Arthur. They basically do magic tricks similar to the ones we saw Eugene, who was also a member of the Flying House of Cards troupe, apparently, do over the winter break.

The second event we participated in was the Treasure Box crafts event, where Cherrie and I started painting our treasure box with disastrous results, and Ed came to the rescue to salvage it. I've never had the patience to do this kind of thing - it's the reason I always miss spots when buffing wax off of the car!

The last event was the Gator Nights Movie, Shoot 'Em Up, with Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, and Monica Bellucci. This movie is by far the most violent movie I have ever seen. Needless to say, I was quite shocked that they would play this movie on the "family friendly" Gator Nights schedule. It is the quintessential Man movie: blood in the gallons, non-stop incredulous action (literally, there is at most three minutes in between action scenes, and that might even be a generous estimate), and nudity. Remember the anime scene in Kill Bill: Volume I, where the Yakuza kill off Lucy Liu's family? Think that, only live action and with lots more death and blood and dismemberment. Yeah, that violent. It is two straight hours of absolute insanity, and for that, I can't help but recommend it! Go see it, and become completely insensitive to blood, sex, and violence for the rest of your life!!!

Wake Up, Transformers!

My dad came up to visit this past weekend, primarily to support me in the walkthrough of my now completed house. The walkthrough went well enough, there were just a few things that needed touching up, and soon, I'll have the keys to my new house! While he was here in Melbourne, I treated him to dinner at Shells, a nice casual seafood restaurant, he treated us to lunch at the restaurant "Island Pasta Company" (thanks, Nick, for the awesome suggestion!) and we went to see the incredible Transformers movie.

A fun story - when I was little, around, oh I dunno, 8 or 9 I guess, I watched a particular episode of the old Transformers cartoon almost every day. It was the Dinobots episode, where the Autobots team up with robots that transformed into dinosaur forms. Big robots and dinosaurs - it's a kid's heaven! Anyhow, when I would want to sleep in early in the mornings, my dad would shout "Wake up, Dinobot!", just like the Autobots did in the show, and sure enough, I would get right up and face the day! I even had my own toy Tyrannosaur dinobot!

The movie didn't have Dinobots, but it was still filled with awesomeness. Bumblebee is no longer a Volkswagen beetle, but the awesome new Camaro! Plus, seeing the massive Optimus Prime (who I believe retains his original voice over actor from the old shows) is quite a rush.

It's interesting to note that almost all the vehicles throughout the film are GM vehicles, with the notable exception of the Decepticon that uses a Mustang police car as his transformation. Even as we take that exception in stride, Japanese or European cars are notably absent. I have to admit, American styling is pretty attractive, but I think it would have been pretty cool to have included some additional cars, and that brings us to the new Grant's Pad Poll: If you could transform into one vehicle, what would it be? You have one week to vote! If you don't see one you like, feel free to add your pick by commenting on this post!

P.S. For the record, the final results of the last poll are below:

Casual reading to break up an otherwise morbid weekday 0 (0%)
The jokes, videos, and/or reviews of various forms of entertainment 2 (28%)
The bangin' Chinese radio station 1 (14%)
Reading up on the life of my very good friend Grantis Mantis 2 (28%)
Grantis Mantis keeps on asking me to visit 2 (28%)

Total votes: 7... let's get this number up a bit, guys!

Bloody Pirates!

Not much to say today, just writing to fill the void.

Last weekend, when we visited my parents before their trip to Taiwan, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I haven't ever said much about Pirates, but the fact of the matter is, since Johnny Depp strapped on his sword and hopped into his pirate boots as Captain Jack Sparrow in The Curse of the Black Pearl, I've been a huge Pirates fan. My fandom is manifested on my desktop wallpaper at work and in my Facebook profile as well as my Blogger profile. Though I didn't enjoy Dead Man's Chest nearly as much as I did Black Pearl, I had to go see At World's End, if for nothing else than for closure of the series.

At World's End is actually the only movie of the Pirates series that I saw in the theater. Unfortunately for me, I decided to see it at a theater in Boca. Even with my trusty, expired student ID, my ticket was $7.50! That's not plain ol' highway robbery, that's piracy! In any case, I found At World's End to be quite good, though not as good as the first film. It was easily the largest production of the three films in the series, highlighted by the fantastic sea battles and an outstanding portrayal of Captain Hector Barbossa by Geoffrey Rush. It was also quite long, spanning nearly three hours. Apparently, its length was the source of criticism from many viewers, but I never really had much of a problem with long films - the more the merrier, right? I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't showcase more kung fu - after all, they recruited quite a cast of Hong Kong action actors, and it would have been cool to have a battle that pitted Chinese swordsmanship against Western fencing.

I think the biggest thing that I have to say about Pirates 3 is this. I don't really understand why Disney deviated from what I thought was the most enjoyable thing about the first film. The best parts of the first movie were when nothing really was going on, and they just let Captain Jack Sparrow do his awkward bumbling and sharp witted conversationing. The characters were what made it Black Pearl such a masterpiece, not the supernatural special effects, or even the sea battles (although I have to concede that the sea battles in At World's End really got my excited). However, the sea battles, the locations, and of course, closure, made the film worth seeing.

Moving right along, my house has entered the next major phase of its birth cycle. The drywall and interior is being worked on probably right as I type this. The exterior stucco has alread been put on, and the construction manager tells me that my walk-in date should be July 13. That means that the house will probably be ready for me to move into towards the end of July! Unfortunately, my lease doesn't end until the end of September, and my apartment manager won't let me get out of it early. On top of that, for some reason mortgage rates have skyrocketed over half a percent this past month alone! There's piracy everywhere!

Check out the photos of my house's progress here: House Building Photos

Return of Wednesday Movie Night

Depending on either (a) how long you've actually known me, (b) how regularly you read Grant's Pad, or (c) you don't read Grant's Pad that often but for some reason happened to read the Sophomore Fall Semester post (which has a bunch of broken photos that you can no longer see in the post but are still accessible through the photo album), you'd know what Wednesday Movie Night is. Of course, it is a pretty descriptive name all by itself, so I guess even if you are (d) none of the above, you probably still know that Wednesday Movie Night, not surprisingly, is where we watch movies on Wednesday Night.

At the time, it started mostly because I didn't have class until the afternoon on Thursdays, so we would throw a small party every Wednesday which featured one or two movies, courtesy of my Blockbuster Rewards account. As the semesters went on and we got busier, however, Wednesday Movie Nights became a thing of the past. That is, it was a thing of the past until yesterday!

To celebrate my birthday, Cherrie and I went to see 300 yesterday using the movie tickets I bought from Debbie last Friday. 300 has been proclaimed as the first major blockbuster of the year, and it's not hard to see why. We saw it at a theater that featured DLP and Dolby Digital, so the picture and sound were awesome. I might have been trying to convince myself that it was actually noticeable, but I really do think the picture was almost flawless. As for the movie itself, it featured blood in the liters, a little bit of nudity, and stylized combat - all essentials of a great action movie. The story was straightforward but seemed to emphasize corruption more than I remember reading about in historical accounts of the Battle at Thermopylae - the story itself was not really the movie's strong point, in my opinion. In fact, I think the most incredible thing about 300 is how they were able to find that many men in their 40s with perfect physiques. Amazing.

After the movie, we decided to do something that we'd joked about doing a few times - and that was jump into another theater to watch a second movie! It so happened that Music and Lyrics, with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore and her lisp, was just about to start in the very next theater! Interestingly, I found this movie to be surprisingly entertaining, albeit a little sappy at the end. But 80's style music videos are the bomb, and the music in the movie was actually quite catchy! "I didn't think I could ever fall in love again, but then 'POP', goes my heart!" Awesome.

Oh, one last thing! Thanks to all the folks who either called me, left a comment on my Facebook, or best of all, left a comment right here on Grant's Pad! I don't want to name any names, but I was pleasantly surprised by the birthday comment from my classmate of several classes in high school, Lia. Lia is apparently also an avid blogger. She runs Adventures in Lia-Land, and apparently her job and life allows her to run into big celebrities all the time, which in turn means that she probably has some pretty interesting things to say. I've added her blog to my new list of blogs (separated from non-blog links), and it appears that she updates it like clockwork, so check it out sometime!

Welcome to the Year of the Pig

Well, there you have it. The Year of the Dog, my year, is over, and the Year of the Pig has just begun. This Chinese New Year, we stayed here in Melbourne - partly so we could get some things done, and partly so we could see what kind of celebrations Melbourne had in store for Chinese New Year.

As mentioned in the previous post, our first CNY activity was a visit to BCC's King Center to see the Peking Acrobats perform. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any photos (cameras were restricted), but I can tell you that it was a great, great show. As I told my friend Eric yesterday, the show was at least on par with the acrobatics show we saw in Shanghai five years ago. Although the acrobats themselves were fairly similar in skill level, the production value of this show was much grander - with sets, multiple costumes, and smoke and lighting effects. By comparison, the show we saw in Shanghai was more or less exploitation of the athletes, featuring only the acrobats and any tools they needed. Not that that's a terrible thing, but in this day and age of Cirque du Soleil like productions, some effects and props are appreciated. Plus, you couldn't beat the student price of $12.25 if you tried!

Our next weekend activity was watching The Departed, with Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Leonardo DiCaprio. While this may not seem like a very Chinese oriented activity, some of you may know that this film is in fact a remake of a 2002 Hong Kong movie called Infernal Affairs, which starred Andy Lau, Tony Leung, and a slew of other big name Hong Kong stars. Since the original was such a hit, I did not begin watching The Departed with very high expectations, especially since Matt and Leo (not among my favorite American actors) were playing the parts of Andy and Tony (among my favorite Hong Kong actors), respectively. However, I was presently surprised and found that not only did they not slaughter the story of Infernal Affairs, they arguably did a better job with it - retaining some of the best elements (such as the rooftop scenes) and refining others that admittedly needed work. I would still recommend watching both, just so you could see how the different crews put it together, but I was very pleased with the Hollywood rendition. I can only hope that the American re-make of the my favorite Korean movie, My Sassy Girl, will be done just as well!

The latest Chinese New Year activity we attended was the Lion Dance and Kung Fu demonstration by Melbourne's Wah Lum Kung Fu School at the Hong Kong Super Buffet. Some of you may know that Gainesville had a very large Wah Lum kung fu school, at least when I was at UF. The Grandmaster of the Wah Lum system is actually located in Orlando, so around central and north Florida is largely Wah Lum territory, much like how South Florida is largely Choy Lay Fut territory. As such, there is a fairly large Wah Lum branch here in Melbourne. This year, as usual, the Wah Lum school performed literally dozens of demonstrations over the Chinese New Year weekend, so we decided to check one out. I had actually read the schedule wrong and thought that they were performing at Hong Kong Super Buffet on Saturday, so we went over there and waited for about fifteen minutes before I discovered my mistake. We went back on Sunday and watched the 40 minute demonstration in the 45 degree weather. The show was pretty good - the Lion Dance itself was not all that impressive, but they did set off the traditional red firecrackers, which was something I hadn't seen in a while. They let a bunch of beginners perform, which was nice as well, and finally towards the end, a few of the veteran students, some of whom I recognized because my Sisuk Lance told me about them. I did take a bunch of photos, but because it was so late at night, they came out kind of dark. Check them out anyway in the photo album! And, while you're at it, check out photos from Cherrie's International Leadership Conference!

The Protector

I haven't gotten around to uploading the photos Cherrie took at the First International Leadership Conference that she went to in Ocala this past weekend, otherwise I'd post one of my obligatory photo album links. However, I will say that she got me an awesome lanyard with the flags of more than 20 countries and territories to put my badge on! It must have been pretty unique, too, since two people commented at work about my new lanyard. I've been working here for more than one and a half years, and no one's ever commented about anything I've worn! Not even my new glasses, which costed several hundred dollars, drew a single peep from anyone! Leave the attention drawing to the six dollar lanyard!

So anyway, we watched The Protector, which new Thai martial arts sensation Tony Jaa, yesterday. I don't understand why the localization teams that bring foreign movies to the states insist on renaming the movies with these generic one-word names. For example, Jet Li's 中南海保膘 (Zhong Nan Hai Bao Biao), which actually had a perfectly good English name when it was released in Hong Kong (Bodyguard from Beijing), was inexplicably re-dubbed as The Defender when it was finally released to the masses in the US on video. OK, I guess you can say he was defending his client, but "the defender" could have been sacking quarterbacks, for all you could tell from the title!

It turns out that Tony Jaa's character Cam was actually protecting some elephants of his in The Protector, but he has a very hard time doing it, since he has to fight well over 100 men in the process, including the huge wrestler that was also featured in Jet Li's Fearless. Watching those fight scenes immediately reminded me of those great arcade beat-em-up games in the 90's. You know, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Final Fight, or one of my favorites, Knights of the Round. He simply plows through droves of lackeys and has no fewer than three "boss fights"! In one segment of the movie, Tony literally fights his way up a winding staircase in an upscale restaurant. Patrons are going crazy, trying to escape, and henchman get throttled by Tony. Straight up Dynasty Warriors stuff!

Although the story wasn't much to speak of (not entirely unlike Jaa's breakout film Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior), it does showcase his amazing acrobatic martial arts skills once more. Supposedly, he does all his own stunts and without any wirework, much like Jackie Chan did in his younger days. However, Jaa seems to do more flips and aerial moves, and it's really incredible that he does all of those movies without wires, though you can tell he isn't using them since he seems to lose a little balance on some of the bigger flips - something that wirework usually eliminates since, hey, the wire's got you!

In any case, I would say that, if you want to see some awesome bone crushing, flying knees, and elephant tossing (I kid you not) action, I highly recommend that you check this movie out. Just don't expect Oscar winning acting performances or storyline, and you'll be thoroughly entertained.

Big Tools, Small Airplanes, and a Weekend By Myself

Time sure flies when you're having fun! Or when you're incredibly busy too, I guess.

I spent most of my time this week working with Ron, pictured to the right with his new "filter tuning" tool. Ron is a veteran engineer (and a Vietnam veteran, as well) who came down from Cedar Rapids to work with us for the next two weeks (and possibly more). I've been a big part of one of the smaller projects he is working on, and I've been learning a lot about his favorite toy, the Time Domain Reflectometer, which he uses to make sure the cables, boards, and connections work the way they are supposed to and identify problem areas on the circuits. It's pretty expensive, too - the 20 GHz TDR module itself runs about $16,000, but you also need a high-end digital sampling oscilloscope which would set you back another $20,000 or so! A lotta dough, but it is a cool tool to be sure!

I saw Pearl Harbor for the first time on Wednesday for the first time. It was Cherrie's second time seeing the movie. Being Chinese, she gets a kick out of seeing Japan and the U.S. fight it out. But anyway, I was pretty impressed at how star-studded the cast was. It's got Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett (bleagh), and Kate Beckinsale as the leads, but how they got Alec Baldwin, Cuba Gooding Jr., that guy who always plays the big bad Asian thug in movies, John Voight and Jennifer Garner to play parts that have combined footage of about four minutes, I'll never know. And man, it was long. I don't think I've ever seen a movie that was legitimately on 2 DVDs. I mean, a lot of DVD's have the feature film on 1 DVD and the bonus features on the other. But when I saw the "Intermission" at the end of the first DVD (which lasted some two and a half hours), I couldn't believe it. Fortunately, the second DVD only contains about half an hour of actual movie and then some bonus features. But still, the feature film itself exceeded the capacity of a whole DVD! Oh, and it was pretty good, actually, despite my initial aversion to war movies. Dogfights and naval battles make war movies look really, really good.

Last but not least, I will be spending my first weekend by myself since Cherrie moved here to the States. I really don't think we've spent more than one night apart in the last two years. The only time I remember not spending the night with her is when I went to Gainesville to get the rest of our stuff with my dad when we first moved to Melbourne. Heck, even when I went to my job interview here at Rockwell, she came along to give me support! But this weekend, she is attending the first annual International Leadership Conference in a campground in Ocala, which apparently has representatives from several universities, including UF, UCF, FIU, FAU, as well as her community college and I would imagine several other community colleges. So, while she's having fun networking with other International clubs from other colleges, I'll be at home, filing for my tax return and most likely playing a lot of video games. I'll try to train a little too, I guess. If anyone is in the Melbourne area, let me know if you want to toss the football a little!

Obligatory Journal Post

I well couldn't let a whole week go by without a single post, now could I? I already know what happens when there's no new posts at Grant's Pad for a day or more - STEEP DECLINE IN VISITATION! So I'm here today to try to remedy that a little bit.

So, why haven't I written in so long? As mentioned before, I've been really productive at work lately. And by productive, I mean swamped. Not a bad thing, though, not at all. Like I've said many times in the past, it's way, way better to have a lot of work to do than to have none at all and feel like you're a waste of cubicle space and company network resources. Work is not a bad thing, and working hard and using your skills is definitely a good thing. I'm going to go out on a limb here and try to make a very forced connection here by saying that it's kind of like in the movie Cherrie and I saw last Friday, Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith. Not gonna say a whole lot about the movie though, in case you haven't seen it. But it was a good one, definitely a feel good story about one Chris Gardner who worked really hard through ups and downs (but mostly downs) to achieve his dreams and eventually became the president of his own multi-million dollar stock brokerage... If you haven't seen it, I do recommend this film over the Curse of the Golden Flower, which we saw last weekend.

Will Smith himself might be considered that kind of guy too, or at least that's what he says in his interview in the Readers Digest from last November. Driven and hardworking. But a bit weird, even snooty, to use a word used by my former real estate agent (a long story in itself). The guy supposedly had the opportunity to study at MIT, but had no interest in going to college. His kids are also home-schooled, which is not all that unusual, but he reasons that the traditional school system doesn't teach anything useful outside of grammar and arithmetic, and ignores the real important stuff, like Plato. Plato? His kid is nine years old! Now, I actually have my doubts in the current education system as well, but it's because I see kids and even grown adults spell things like "tomarrow" and "would of" constantly. It's "would've" dammit! For "would have"! I even see this in publications and news sites! With all of the bloggers like me out there these days, proper spelling and grammar are going to be a thing of the past soon. But anyway, the point is, Will Smith is a pretty good actor but his interview really made him seem a bit out there.

Well, that's all I have time for today! Got a lot of things to do, so I'll have a lot to write about soon!