Tag: life

“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”: A Movie Review

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Hey everyone,

So the advanced screening of the new Hobbit movie was a joy! One of the actors from the movie came to watch the movie with us: Manu Bennett (who plays the leader of the Orcs). He’s from New Zealand and it was pretty cool that he joined us. He talked a bit about how he got cast and how filming was for him.

Manu Bennett: credits to Empireonline.com

Manu Bennett: credits to Empireonline.com

Without further ado, here are my two cents on the movie!

We begin where we left off in the last film, and Thorin and his crew must continue on their way to reclaim the dwarves’ homeland. Early on in the movie, Gandalf leaves the dwarves to go on a short quest of his own. The dwarves brave many obstacles to reach Erebor, and they must also figure out what to do with the dragon that sleeps amidst it.

We get to see Orlando bloom from the original LOTR movies again! Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice is amazing as Smaug. His voice as the necromancer sounds nothing like him, whereas you can really hear his voice in Smaug.

If you’ve read the books (NO SPOILERS SO KEEP READING), I can tell you that that certain plot points were changed. For one, Kili (the hot dwarf) and Tauriel the elf has a romantic subplot. There are others, but I would be spoiling if I said anything more. However, I am super excited for the ending now because I had some issues with how the books ended. Praying to God that things go the way I want with the rest of the movie!

I thought that they cut of the first movie wonderfully. The story arc of escaping from the orcs ended and although we know the movie doesn’t end, we are contented that some sort of conclusion was reached. The Desolation of Smaug’s ending was very unsatisfying. It may have to do with the fact that this movie branched off into a lot of subplots, so there was no good way to sum them up. If that is going to be an issue with you, maybe wait till the last movie comes out?

My final verdict? Great movie, glad they changed stuff from the book, but very unsatisfying in the end.

The movie opens on the 13th of December in Canada! Let me know what you think!

-Karen

Too old for Halloween

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Hey everyone,

So Halloween just ended (you may have noticed from the sudden flood of Christmas products today), and it really made me miss the old days when I used to go trick or treating.

If you know my backstory, you’ll know that I was in Hong Kong for five of my teenage years, which meant I missed out on five years of free candy since trick or treating was not recognized in HK. If you knocked on someone’s door on October 31st there, pestering them for candy, you may get rewarded with your very own restraining order.

It’s not just the candy that I miss. I have always loved dressing up as someone/something else. I remember one of my first costumes was Sailor Moon. After that, I kept finding excuses to wear costumes. I discovered cosplaying, which was an outlet, but what’s so special about Halloween is that everyone can be in costume! Every year, I get my mom to make me a costume (she loves designing them), but sadly, I don’t have much reason to wear them. Unless I choose to go to a party.

A quick picture I snapped with my friend before the party. I was Mulan for the night!

A quick picture I snapped with my friend before the party. I was Mulan for the night!

Parties aren’t always my thing, but it’s one of the few ways someone my age can wear a costume. Last year, I chose not to go, so I missed out on dressing up. I chose to party this year, and while I didn’t really enjoy the partying bit, I was in costume. I guess you win some, and you lose some.

But what I’ve noticed is that at parties and on campus, very few people actually care about their costumes. Put on a pair of bunny or cat ears, and voila, costume completed. On Halloween day, I didn’t have the guts to wear a costume to school. I did in my first year, but it was quite embarrassing since no one else dressed up. But I saw a few people walking around with costumes this year, and it made me super happy. Huge props to them for being brave and throwing on a costume! It really takes more guts than you would think. I sincerely hope that they had a wonderful time being someone else for a day, and I could only wish that I had their courage. My blog gets a lot less traffic than UBC Compliments’ Facebook page, so I also posted something similar to what I said above there. Hopefully, my message reaches the people who dressed up!

So how was your Halloween?

– Karen

You wanted a seat? Have knee pains instead.

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Hey everyone,

If you live in Vancouver, you must know TransLink— our trusty public transit provider. And by trusty, I mean that if you happen to leave your house early, the bus will come early, but if you leave late and just missed the previous bus, the next one will come as late as possible.

I know, I know, it’s not exactly the bus or bus driver’s fault when buses run behind schedule. That’s why I’m not here to complain about that today. I have something else to rant about, and it’s how seats are positioned in the bus.

I actually really like how Vancouver buses have the first section of the bus designated for people who need priority seating (e.g. wheelchairs, strollers, and the elderly), because in Hong Kong, it’s not uncommon to see youngster snagging a seat while the older folks are forced to hang on to the poles. However, if you make your way towards the back of some of our buses, you get a cool area of seats that are arranged so:

20131022-015337.jpgIf you end up sitting in one of these seats, and there’s someone in the seat across from you, you most likely will run into one of these scenarios:

– leg between leg between leg between leg

Bird's eye view of how this looks

Bird’s eye view of how this looks

– awkward keencap to kneecap

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The kneecap to kneecap is usually accompanied by abrupt braking from the driver

– both forced to sit like Mia Thermopolis, making sure to do so in opposite ways

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Seriously, these are the worst seats in the house. They definitely did not consider two normal sized human beings sitting across from one another. But I guess it does beat standing if your commute is long.

Thankfully, I saw the new buses that TransLink has rolling out, and they’ve fixed their seating plan. I’ve actually been on one and they look very nice– but that may be due to it being shiny and new. Sadly, there are quite a lot of these old buses that’ll most likely still be in service for the entirety of my lifetime.

– Karen

Being grandparent-less

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Hey all,

So I was going through some pictures from my recent trip back to Hong Kong and the strangest realization struck me. To be honest, this wasn’t the first time this happened to  me. I came across a picture of my cousins and I with my grandma. And I sit there thinking “Aw, that was nice, I really have to meet up with my grams more frequently next time I go back to HK.” But then I suddenly realized that she passed away last month.

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It’s felt surreal, and it still seems like she never died. The same thing happened to me in HK when I walked into my cousin’s apartment. I saw the black and white photographs on the red Chinese offering altar of my grandparents (on my mom’s side), as well as one of my aunts, and realized that all these people were no longer with us. Standing there, I felt sadness wash over me again. I couldn’t help but relive the moments of when I first found out they had passed away.

It may have to do with the fact that I’m all the way on the other side of the world, but you would think that one would remember that they are now grandparent-less. However, I think it’s amazing that I have managed to forget about their passing. My interactions with them in the past, and how unique they are help me to keep them alive in memory. I guess with time, their image will fade, but in the meantime, I just wish that this could happen without getting me all depressed.

While we’re on the subject of my grandma’s death, I really must bring up how my dad said goodbye to her. He couldn’t make it back to Hong Kong in time, so instead, his brothers and sisters set up a Skype call for the two of them in her dying moments. Now I’m not saying that a Skype call is at all the equivalent of being there, but it was because of the technology that we have now that he was able to say goodbye.  My dad actually saw her heart monitor stopping, and was able to mourn with the rest of his siblings. Although I’m a digital native, I sometimes have a fear of technology, but when I see something like this happen, it makes me rethink my standing on the topic.

– Karen

Moving adventures– yeah, it was pretty touching.

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Hey all!

So my family and I recently moved into a new house. And that’s when I realized something: moving is an awesome family bonding experience.

My dad insists on doing the move ourselves instead of hiring movers. I was alright with the plan until I realized that “ourselves” meant him and I, because really, my sister can barely lift her own backpack and my mom is the kind that would want to help, but is usually told to sit down two minutes later.

We started off in the afternoon, and went into the night. And by night, I mean 5:00 AM. My dad and I would load and unload the rented U-haul truck, and then my mom and sister were assigned to cleaning up the house itself. There was a lot of “HEY! OPEN THE DOOR! THIS IS REALLY REALLY HEAVY.” and other frustrated complaints. But then you get to around 2 in the morning, and you’re ridiculously grateful when your sister or mom grabs a heavy box from you to lend a hand. And then the family sits down for food at 3AM, consisting of a bag of bacon, microwaved corn and spring onion pancakes. I haven’t seen my parents eat bacon in years, so watching my dad gobble up a bowl was eye opening.

Now, my family isn’t the closest of families. I mean, yeah, we eat together, we watch TV together sometimes, but when it comes to getting out of the house and actually doing something together, that’s rare. And the move forced us to physically work with one another, and it was sort of beautiful to see. We really were pushed to our limits, and ached for days afterwards. But we did it.

A portion of the living room turned into a storage area

A portion of the living room turned into a temporary storage area.

It’s been a little more than a month since we’ve moved, but there’s been a lot of improvising. I’m taking the basement, which needs a complete renovation, and my parents told me to take their room for now. Which means they moved their bed to the living room. It’s actually amazing having a bed in the living room, and more often than not, I end up watching TV on the bed instead of the couches.

Since I’ll be getting the basement mostly to myself, I also get to decide on how I want to decorate my living room! I’m thinking of making it into a woman cave, but I’m still trying to get ideas on how I want it to look. But I get a blank canvas to work with and I can’t wait!

So if you’re looking for a good bonding experience, I’d suggest moving. But then again, it could have gone the other way and ended in disaster. So maybe everyone should stick to laser tagging.

– Karen