real life unfolds...

Went to watch a movie tonight with my housemates... we were originally supposed to watch Spiderman 2 but we changed our minds and watched Catwoman instead. We like Halle Berry plus we were in the mood for a female empowerment type of movie. We knew about the mixed reviews before going in so we tried to not expect much...and the movie pretty much lived up to those expectations. It was okay - not horrible but not great. We all admitted though that Halle Berry looked really good in this movie.. The leather, the whip and the walk - all together make up one very hot Catwoman...

Why is it though, that the last ultimate fight sequence in every action film is so predictable.  It's practically become formulaic! That is, the big bad and the hero always have this great fight at the very end of the movie to which the whole storyline has been building up. Closer to end of this fight sequence, there always comes this point where it seems like the hero is going to lose, where he/she is going to die and the big bad is going to win, but then out of nowhere the hero gets one last surge of adrenaline or willpower or empowerment, whatever, and they bounce back out of nowhere to become almost more powerful than they were at the beginning of the fight sequence. And inevitably, of course, as all good action films go, they triumph over the big bad.  Is it that the powers that be have to make the hero reach the absolute bottom of the barrel so that his/her triumph seems all the more heroic? Daredevil, Catwoman, pick any action film and you can see this formula play out. Someone find me one action flick that doesn't use this formula....

posted by: amh at 21:43 | link | comments (1) |

Wow... been a while since I really posted ... school year has been wrapping up so it's been crazy busy catching up with all of the work I procrastinated and then trying to study for finals by cramming in the past 6-12 weeks worth of information.... it's been quite fun overall at the house though... As promised way way back before the term, I made sushi last night for my house (Toby came over too)....We had california roll, unagi roll (bbq eel), avocado roll, cucumber roll, no salmon roll (no time to go and buy some edible raw salmon).. and we made some new rolls too... there was the Ivan roll (cucumber and wasabi rolled up) and the Melissa roll (everything - cucumber, avocado, crab, Japanese radish, roe, unagi and a good dose of wasabi - all rolled up).. these two were pretty good, unless you got one piece that had a big glob of wasabi in the middle then you risked crying... which a couple ppl did yesterday...

Then for dessert, CaptB and I decided to experiment and we made our own homemade berry-mango sorbet..... mmmmmm....so good... We kept experimenting when we made today's lunch and came up with our own steak (beef short ribs to be exact) avocado sandwich... may not sound that good but tasted mmmmm...wowee... just noticed that I talk about food way too much here on this page.. must stop...

exams end in less than one week and my institutional educational career will be over... so weird to think that I'll never be going to any classes again, pulling anymore all nighters to finish papers... and I'll be starting the "adult" chapter of my life... commuting to work, buying work clothes...kinda surreal at the moment...but the shopping part sounds fun

another kinda weird thing.. was rewatching the 1995 movie Hackers and it was so funny to watch them "hack", to see them admire their clunkly laptops and to gush about their ultra fast 28.8 modems.. haha.. so weird to look back and see how technology has evolved so quickly...I still remember it being the coolest thing when my mom let me type stuff on her typewriter or play that pingpong style game on our computer with the orange and black monitor...the good ol' days

Two more things before I sign off for today:

1. Looking forward to a new meet and greet session for my Sweet8 girls....

2. Not looking forward to leaving my Loo family... Gonna miss living with my girls... sigh...

posted by: amh at 15:35 | link | comments |

Sorry... no time to post a real message... have basically been hanging out with housemates, recovering after being exhausted by finishing my term papers/assignments (my procrastination finally caught up with me and I had to pull 2 all nighters...not consecutively but separated by 3 days of little sleep) and studying for finals...

Just wanted to leave a message for an "anonymous friend" though.... Your favourite worship letter at CFC, what's her name again? Cuz if she's who I think she is, she's leaving to become the new worship leader or whatever for a new church....

K,that's all... gotta go study before housemates (JH or MY) yell at me, back to studying my favourite subject, more affectionately known as corporate tax...only 3 more exams until no more school again ever!

well until i decide to do another degree that is...

posted by: amh at 20:47 | link | comments |

So exhausted...My trip started with a family dinner with all my relatives on my paternal side and ended with a family dinner with the same relatives in the same restauarant...But in between those two family dinners, it feels like a whole lifetime has passed by in between...

My cousin's wedding was a beautiful outside wedding (a little humid but still beautiful)... My sister and I got a little teary-eyed but that's to be expected . Of course, the family was great, the food and drinks delicious, the decorations gorgeous, the groom handsome and the bride stunningly glowing, but I think the best part was just knowing that they had the right starting point. It's so humbling yet heart-warming to be a witness to the culmination of a relationship that God simply radiates through and through.

The wedding was the primary purpose of the four day trip but somehow we got to still witness a lot of what the United States of America was all about, everything from humongous portions of food, to great shopping to gun violence. (Yes, I said gun violence). I still have to unpack then repack to go back to the Loo but let's see how fast I can type out some of the most exciting highlights of the trip.

1. We got there late at the airport for our flight (half hour late), there was a humongous line for checking in (half hour waiting) and another larger one for customs (one hour waiting). I've never had to run to make it onto a flight and I've never had a plane delayed because of just me (well my family and a few other ppl who were stuck in customs too. In fact there were a lot of ppl late for their flights -various different ones leaving around the same time as ours - because of customs.) So that was a great beginning.

2. The car rental agency couldn't find our reservation so instead of a nice Ford windstar we ended up with this monstrosity of a van. It was more like a U-haul moving van with wheels...but we were grateful for the transportation.

3. My uncle's plane was delayed so we waited another 3 hours at the airport for him.

4. Traffic was a pain between SF and Sacramento so a typical 1.5 hour trip somehow ended up being a 4 hour drive.

5. The wedding was beautiful. The reception tons of fun, despite the lack of dancing by my family.

6. The shopping was great. We dropped a whole ton of cash at the local mall, well mostly at Bath and Body Works. And even more at the outlet mall. We were at the outlet mall for 3 hours and we only barely covered half the mall. (We walked the West plaza, but there was the East plaza too)

7. We walked around Japantown in SF but strangely everything seemed to be "Made in China" which was a little humourous...

8. We had a great family dinner catching up with all my relatives on my maternal side in SF. My sister fell in love with the multi-coloured neighbourhoods in SF - though where we were nothing looked like the neighbourhoods of Full House or Charmed.

9. We watched 13 Going On 30 the first night of our stay in Cali and watched Man on Fire our last night. Both were excellent movies.

10. The last day of our trip was our most eventful. Firecrackers turned out to be gun shots being fired by rival high school students right outside our hotel (There was police tape, blood-splattered pavement, everything...). A humongous accident on the freeway made us take a detour to the other side of the peninsula on our way to the airport. Our connecting flight was delayed because of construction and traffic problems back home by two hours. Then when we got back, our plane wasn't allowed to pull up to the gate so we sat around 100 feet away from the gate for about a half-hour to an hour (? - I slept so I'm not totally sure on the timing here). Supposedly this delay was because lightening was spotted and no one was allowed on the tarmac to help the plane pull up to the gate. Then when we finally get into the airport and through customs (quite speedily thanks to a certain 2D friend with the customs dept) our luggage can't be unloaded from the plane cuz of the lightening again. Apparently there was a lot of lightening or something so once again no one was allowed onto the tarmac to unload the luggage. We were waiting by the carousel for over an hour. It was crazy nuts! When we pulled out of the airport parking lot, my whole family cheered. I'm exhausted now and starting to get stressed out about all of the homework I have to catch up on (the readings, the assignments, the 3 term papers due next week) but I wouldn't have traded in this trip for anything. I still love travelling but I've discovered I'm not such a great fan of airports.

Oh, a few more last things. Things I've learned:

-city planning is such an interesting thing to observe when you're looking at it from thousands of miles above the ground

-the sky is so beautiful when you're flying above, between and through the pure white fluffy clouds

-turbulence isn't that bad as long as you think of it as just another ride at an amusement park, and if you're not sitting beside my sister.

-the shopping styles of north american girls and singaporean girls is quite different.

-there's still some more but my brain is shot. Gotta sleep.

posted by: amh at 23:46 | link | comments |

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