Too many tempting goodies at the grocery store lately. With the large amount of time on my hands, I have the opportunity to fully consider my snacking choices. Currently, our weaknesses include:
I can feel my belly and @ss expanding as I write this.
Well, I’ve posted our wedding photos on Flickr for viewing. Here is a quick sample:
In order to view them, you will need to (1) have a Flickr account, and (2) be on my Friends or Family contact list. If you have problems signing up for Flickr, please simply email me and I can send you an invite.
Cool? Cool.
"She is startin' to damage my calm."
-- Jayne Cobb from the movie Serenity
We are constantly threatened with television shows being re-conceived and passed off as movies. Most threats are in the form of remakes, such as S.W.A.T., Bewitched, and Dukes of Hazzard, trying to get a few bucks in the name of nostalgia. There are a few attempts to extend the magic of a successful series onto the big screen. There has been talk of putting Sex and the City, The Sopranos, and even The Simpsons on the big screen.
One attempt at extending a series into movie format was the X-Files. I only watched a few episode of the X-Files, so watching it translated to film format wasn’t as an exciting prospect for me as it would be for some. To me, X-Files: The Movie didn’t work for me on a lot of levels. The main problem I had with that film was it was drew a lot from the show’s mythos, which other viewers were aware of but I was not. This left me feeling out of the inner circle. Oh well, not much of a loss in my opinion.
Now comes Serenity. The movie is based on a cancelled television show called Firefly. As I understand it, this was not any ordinary cancelled series, but one with a huge fanatic fan base. Here’s the //Netflix summary:
Picking up where his cult show "Firefly" left off, writer-director Joss Whedon's tale of galactic unrest follows Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), captain of the transport ship Serenity, and his scrappy but loyal crew. When the ship picks up two new passengers -- fugitives from the powerful coalition ruling the universe -- "Mal" and his mates find themselves at the center of a cosmic conflict, pursued by military forces and space-roaming savages.
What I liked about the movie: The movie is very well written. The characters are well rounded, dispensing smart and witty dialog in tense and quite moments, never slowing down the movie. It is a testament to Joss Whedon’s writing skills that I was able to identify with the characters, and follow the story, even though I was not a viewer of the television show. It’s clear that “Mal” is molded after Han Solo of Star Wars, but that’s forgivable. It makes it easier for the uninitiated to identify with the character quickly. The space combat scenes, even though at times they involved large amount of ships, wasn’t as disorienting as those in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. George Lucas should take note.
What I didn’t like: Acutally, I couldn’t find much fault with the movie, other than I wish it wouldn’t have ended. I would like to see where the characters can go from here. But I do not think the movie was successful enough to spawn a sequel, which is a shame. We get sequels to some pretty crappy movies (e.g. Bad Boys II), but not to well made films such as Serenity. Oh well, such is the wisdom of Hollywood.
Serenity: **** (out of 5)
The //Netflix summary for Saving Face:
Dutiful daughter Wil (Michelle Krusiec) sidesteps her mother's (Joan Chen) attempts to marry her off in Alice Wu's romantic comedy set in New York. At 28, Wil's the old maid of her traditional Chinese family, so there's no way she can tell them about her budding romance with Vivian (Lynn Chen). But there's no avoiding mom's meddling matchmaking when she shows up on Wil's doorstep looking for a place to stay.
What I liked about the movie: The acting is very well done, cast with very attractive leads in Lynn Chen, Michelle Krusiec, and Joan Chen. The story is as tight as it can be, moving at a brisk pace at 91 minutes.
What I didn’t like: I would have liked to see more character development between male and female characters, to help underscore the role of women in Chinese culture.
The Netflix summary for Rent:
Members of the original 1996 Broadway cast star in Chris Columbus's adaptation of the award-winning musical set in New York's East Village. Based on Puccini's "La Boheme," the story follows a group of bohemians through life's ups and down as they face true love, broken hearts, HIV, drug addiction … and of course, paying the rent.
What I liked about the movie: The music done by the original cast members. Chris Columbus does a fine job of adapting the play to film.
What I didn’t like: Rosario Dawson appeared to be out of her league compared to the other performers. It appears that the studio wanted a named actor or actress in one of the roles. Unfortunately, her signing is only as good as an American Idol semi-finalist.
Saving Face:*** (out of 5)
Rent: ***
I haven’t been busy, but busy enough I suppose. I’m still unemployed at the moment, with optimistic hopes on one of two positions I interviewed for this past month. Right now it’s a bit of a waiting game, so have a good thought for me.
Hail Hail
It hailed here in Sunnyvale today, around 4:30 PM-ish. It lasted a good minute or two.. Here is a photo of the results:
This almost makes me want to head up to Lake Tahoe to see the snow. But I hear chains are required and it takes about two hours just to reach the summit from the base. Now that would be a pretty long drive.
Good Eats and Other Finds
Have you ever visited //Yelp.com?
Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what’s great - and not so great - in your neighborhood and beyond. You already know that asking friends is the best way to find restaurants, dentists, hairstylists, and anything local. Now, Yelp makes it fast and easy to make and receive real reviews from real people. From San Francisco to New York City, and Madison to Mesquite, Yelp is everywhere!
Yelp doesn’t just review places to eat, but reviews on things to do and places to visit. You have to love a site that offers various views on the //Golden Gate Bridge.)
The site is similar to //Judy’s Book and //Yahoo!’s Local pages, but appears to be more active for the Bay Area than the former site, and not as spartan looking as the latter. You can see //my Yelp page here. I’ve written a few reviews on places I’ve been to in Hawaii and Oregon, providing some photos of food I’ve tasted. I hope to write a little more.
I love being able to share my viewpoint on a place, but I think I lack the appropriate words to convey the joy of going to a particular place to eat. I do use the site as a resource, looking for other places to try. But sites like Yelp - remember how active Friendster once was - might slowly die if people do not continue to contribute reviews. Yelp appears to be very active from the postings on their front page, so I’m optimistic it can survive. So consider joining Yelp, if you want to share some thoughts with others.
Wedding Photo
Farrah and I got our wedding photos! I’m slowly posting them to view, so they will soon be up on //my Flickr and //my Smugmug pages. I’ll send out an email when they are all posted.
I don’t know if other people have the same problem I have, but I sometimes get Reese Witherspoon and Kirsten Dundst mixed up. I don’t get confused when I see a photo of either of them. The mixup happens when recalling movies they may have done. I know the Reese Witherspoon has had memorable roles in Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama, Highway, and the recent Walk the Line. I know Kirsten Dundst is known for the Spider-man movies, Jumanji, and Bring It On. Come to think of it, maybe I don’t have a problem recalling what roles they have done. I think I just may have had a blonde moment or I’m not sure how to start a review for two of their movies Farrah and I just watched on DVD.
The first movie is the light romantic comedy featuring Reese W. called Just Like Heaven. The //Netflix summary is:
Shortly after David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo) moves into his new San Francisco digs, he has an unwelcome visitor on his hands: winsome Elizabeth Martinson (Reese Witherspoon), who asserts that the apartment is hers -- and promptly vanishes. When she starts appearing and disappearing at will, David thinks she's a ghost, while Elizabeth is convinced she's alive. Their quest for the truth ultimately leads to love in this spectral romantic comedy.
What I liked about the movie: Reese Witherspoon did a fine job as the career driven, yet lovable, doctor. I also liked the fact the story was set in San Francisco, though it didn’t really play any major role in the film expect some shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.
What I didn’t like: Mark Ruffalo isn’t romantic lead material. I think he’s more suited for dramatic roles. He reminds me of Vincent D’Onofrio, who isn’t romantic lead material as well, though he is a very fine actor.
The story follows the romantic comedy formula to the “t”. How can you have a romance when one of the character’s is dead? Well, you’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
For Elizabethtown, the //Netflix summary goes:
Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is fired after causing his shoe company to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. To make matters worse, he's also dumped by his girlfriend (Jessica Biel). On the verge of ending it all, Drew gets a new lease on life when he returns to his family's small Kentucky hometown after his father dies. Along the way, he meets a flight attendant (Kirsten Dunst) with whom he falls in love. Cameron Crowe directs.
What I liked about the movie: The actors are very likable, with good supporting roles for Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon. You can recognize Cameron Crowe’s words, who has a good ear for dialog, coming out of the actors’ mouths. He captures a portion of America I’ve never personally experienced, and one that Orlando Bloom’s Drew hasn’t either, and manages to make the discovery a shared experience. I enjoyed the road trip portion of the movie. The music is on par with other Crowe movies. He writes so well, though….
What I didn’t like: …some of the editing in the movie I didn’t like. I understood, as I was watching the movie, that there was more to background on why the shoe failed and was recalled. This bugged me throughout the movie, even though I understand the specific fact of why it failed wasn’t important as much as the failure itself. There also didn’t seem to be enough development in some characters, such as Jessica Biel’s as the girlfriend, and development in relationships, such as between Orlando Bloom’s Drew and his mother played by Susan Sarandon.
Just Like Heaven: ** (out of five)
Elizabethtown: ***1/2
The holiday weekend found Farrah and I not doing much out of the ordinary. On Saturday, we decided to drive up to Tiburon for a quick look around town. We then went to Salsulito for lunch at the Winship restaurant. The weather in the North Bay was very cold and wet, compared to the partly sunny - yet still cold - South Bay.
I’d never been to //Sausalito before but Farrah had been with Yen. It’s a nice quite town, reminding me of downtown Campbell but closer to the ocean. We first ate lunch because we (1) were hungry, and (2) wanted to get out of the cold and wet weather. The //Winship restaurant was the second place we saw that looked like a decent place to eat.
The restaurant had a sea theme, with a faux ship in the middle of the place and turtle shell like lighting fixtures. The menu both had seafood as well as burgers and other sandwiches. We had to try the ‘Crispy Fried Calamari" as we make it a point to try fried calamari if restaurant serves it. I was crispy, but lacked any special flavor.
I had the BBQ pork sandwich which was listed as an open face sandwich, but it didn’t come as such. They had a variety of onions on it, both chopped, diced and sliced, which I thought was strange. The sandwich tasted fine, though the BBQ sauce was neither tangy or sweet as if not to offend the taste buds. Farrah had the Waldorf Chicken Salad Sandwich which she enjoyed.
After lunch, we walked around downtown. We stopped by a candy store called Munchies, which offered a variety of salt water taffy. The owner of the place was very friendly, offering customers the option of trying anything in the store. We proceeded to load up a small bucket with a variety of flavors, choosing not to try anything beforehand. We then headed to the local Starbucks for some coffee and conversation.
The Starbucks there has a nice view of one of the major intersections in town. Farrah and I sat in tall barstool like chairs facing the window looking outside. We watched the rain come down on people passing by, some coming in for a cup of coffee, others trying to make it to other stores on the strip. We tried to come up with places to go to next, but decided to head back home as the weather appeared to be getting worse, and Farrah’s migraine, which started before lunchtime, was also becoming more discomforting.
Later that evening we went to Farrah’s parents’ house for dinner. We had chicken, steak (ummm…steak) and leftover sushi rice Farrah had made the night before. Afterward, we called it a day and headed home to watch some TV.
On Sunday, we decided to stay in and catch up on TV and movies. We watched Elizabethtown (review forthcoming) and Farrah watched her other TV shows that I have a passing knowledge of (such as McCleod’s Daughters and Footballers Wive$)
Today we had lunch at the Boardwalk in Mountain View. Farrah said the place was similar to St. John’s in Sunnyvale, a dark pub-like atmosphere where burgers, cheesesteaks, sausages, and beers are served. I had the Louisiana Hot Sausage which was very very good. The spiciness of the links didn’t registered until well after you started chewing on it. Very nice. We also had a basket of spicy curly fries which makes for a nice side order. Farrah had the “Lo C” meal which consisted of two hamburger patties, cheese, salad and dressing. She’s had this dish the few times she’s been there. Afterward, we headed to the mall for a couple of hours of window shopping.
If you are reading this on //Janella.com then you know there have been some navigational and layout changes – again! Well, I’ve listened to feedback I’ve received and readers have had a problem reading and navigating through the Hemingway theme I used for //Wordpress. I’ve decided to go with a cleaner, meaner, and leaner theme. With the implementation of the new theme, I’ve also decided to incorporate my photoblog which previously resided on soulsofourfeet.com. The photoblog now servers as the front page – a little like a splash page – for the website.
On the top of the front page you should see this element:
From there you should be able to access other photos on the photoblog, go directly to the main blog, or simply go to one of the photo galleries on Flickr or Smugmug.
You can also click on the comment link. This will give you a description of the photo you are looking at and the opportunity to comment on the image. I plan to post photos that either Farrah or I have taken, where I happen to like the result of what we have captured. I would hope people would comment on whether they like the photo or not.
On the footer of each page you should see this element:
From the footer you can access other family and friends’ photo pages. The same links are available through the main blog.
If you have any feedback you’d like to give on the new layout, please write to me or talk to me. I’m open to any comment to make the site easier to use.
I’ve injured my left eye again. It seems the scratch I endured //last October did not fully heal. I had felt some discomfort earlier this week, which resulted in a nice two-day headache. On Wednesday I thought the pain had passed, but Thursday night I was in discomfort slash complaining mode. By Friday morning my left eye had swollen.
I made an appointed to be seen that morning. I had an appointment with an Ophthalmologist. This first Ophthalmologist confirmed there was a new scratch, but needed to refer me to someone of more experience on treatment. The treatment was to patch my left eye, but first she needed to scrap a layer of skin away from the eye. Doing this would hopefully yield even healing on the eye. She numbed my eye during the procedure, but after the medication wore off, my eye felt beat up. I needed to take Tylenol for the next two days.
Farrah took me to see the Ophthalmologist on Sunday morning for a follow-up. Good news! She said the eye healed a 100%, meaning the layer she scraped away has grown back to cover they eye. But treatment needs to continue in order to ensure the layer stays intact. So it looks like I’ll be using certain eye drops and lubricants for the next several months so this does not happen again. And believe me, I don’t want it to happen again.
When I post my photos online, my main goal is to share them with family and friends. Most of the photos are private, but some that I truly like and think are very nice shots, I leave for public viewing and comment. I would never think that they would be used for anything.
When I was trying //Zoto.com, I posted several photos that I had public in my //Flickr account. I then forgot about Zoto.com. Well, yesterday I logged into my account on Zoto.com and I looked at the featured photos page and there was one of my photos! It’s a photo of Tiana, which I like very much, and thought it was cool. Then today I go to Zoto.com’s home page and see:
It’s cool and unsettling to see a photo you took on the front page. They do give me photo credit (my username in the lower left-hand corner) and the photo is used within all legal guidelines according to their Terms of Service (TOS). So I just need to be fine with it, since I did sign up for their service.
The lesson here? Just know that any photo you post on the Internet, whether public or private, has the potential of being used. You should know your rights if someone is using your photos elsewhere. And last but not least, read the TOS before signing up with a service.
Believe me, I like the photo. I like it being used - in a way. I just feel a little awkward about it all.
We checked into the condo on our tour of Hawaii. More in a bit.
The morning found us having Kim Chee Fried Rice with two eggs over easy for breakfast. We knew today we had two important meetings, so it required a special breakfast.
The first meeting was at Ihiliani with Terri at Ihilani to work out some final details. This went by without any major concerns. We then had a lunchtime meeting with (Pastor) Curtis Fong, who will be performing the wedding ceremony. He was very informative and brought along years of experience to share with us on how we should conduct ourselves before, during and after the ceremony.
I also had a chance to post more photos from yesterday when we went to go get our Marriage License.
There were a couple of photos of us taken by the lady who took our application, but they didn’t turn out. It seems I didn’t have the Nikon on full automatic, so the photos turned out blurry. Oh well.
