Goodbye, summer.
My summer is almost over as I start back to school on Wednesday. I only have one class at 4:00 and then I work after that for 2 hours. Ugh, I don't want to go. Anyways, I'll probably post in a week-ish bitching about it all lol.
My mom made German Chocolate Cake today 8D Mmmmm, so good. I'm not a cake fan; the only kinds I eat are the Dairy Queen ice cream cake and ones you make out of a box. I hate the kind you buy in stores because of the disgusting icing, bleh.
I watched/finished watching some movies, so now I'm going to babble about 'em:
Wild China
Documentary about China's wildlife, nature and people. I didn't know when I bought it, but this was actually a 6 week TV special in 2008, when there were lots of TV specials about China because Beijing was hosting the Olympics. So, I had seen some of this when it aired, but thankfully didn't remember much. There's 6 different titles about a hour long each, plus a little making-of. Each episode talks about a different area of the country. Overall, it was a great buy. They captured absolutely stunning landscapes and equally interesting creatures, while talking about how people interact with both.
Opening from 1st episode.
Mongolian Ping Pong
'Tis a film about a nomadic Mongolian boy named Bilike in Inner Mongolia who finds a ping pong ball floating in a river. Nobody knows what it is, until they ask a guy who was showing a movie and he tells them that it's a ping pong ball, but they still have no clue what that is. Later on, the family tries to get TV reception and they happen to catch something about the ping pong ball being the "national ball" and decide to go to Beijing to return it. They're found by police who tell them they were actually headed toward Russia instead. The ball ends up causing quite a bit of trouble for the boys and eventually a solution is found of what to do with it. It's not the most exciting movie ever, but the scenery is beautiful, the kids were great and had me laughing and I really liked the end, which also made me laugh. I thought it was a pretty good way to end it. It was a good movie :)
Trailer
Khadak
I really don't know what to say about this movie. I really wanted to see it, but nothing exciting happened for nearly an hour. Basically, a nomadic family in Mongolia are moved into the city because of an animal plague and a boy named Bagi has seizures. He originally sees a shamaness about it, but they don't stop. He then saves a girl and keeps having seizures and everything's really weird. I don't think this is a movie you can watch just once. Altan Urag contributed Ijii Mongol to this film, that was cool, but... There seems to be a lot of symbolism in the movie and a lot to interpret and there's stuff dealing with shamanism and spirits. It gets really weird toward the end, where time stops and different 'presents' are shown. Makes you wonder what is actually in the present, or if stuff is actually happening. What was all the counting about? Why all the khadag? Was there a single present-time shown? It's a really drab looking film, though. Everything's snow covered, whether they're in the grassland or in a city full of communist-era looking buildings. Either way, I thought the acting was good and while not thrilling, I wouldn't say it was boring. I was so confused for most of the movie, I'll probably re-watch it next weekend.
Trailer
Across the Universe
My sister is obsessed with The Beatles, so obviously she needed to watch this. It's a story told through Beatles' songs. The acting was good and most of the songs were so well done in the movie. Like, I can't even listen to the original of Helter Skelter now, because it was incredible in the film. I only was able to sit through half-ish though, because the story line didn't really do anything for me, I was just waiting for another song to come up.
Ah, I really like this song. I think the video footage might be from the July rioting. I like this sound for them.
Oh, do any of you guys have a Goodreads account? Pretty cool site that lets you keep track of the books you've read, or are waiting to read, rate them and review them. Here is my page. I can't remember all the books I've read though lol.
I'm reading The Bloody White Baron right now and it's increasingly getting better, but I can't stop thinking about Wolf Totem, which I rambled about in my last post. That book moved me. I might even say it was the best fictional book I've read.
My mom made German Chocolate Cake today 8D Mmmmm, so good. I'm not a cake fan; the only kinds I eat are the Dairy Queen ice cream cake and ones you make out of a box. I hate the kind you buy in stores because of the disgusting icing, bleh.
I watched/finished watching some movies, so now I'm going to babble about 'em:
Wild China
Documentary about China's wildlife, nature and people. I didn't know when I bought it, but this was actually a 6 week TV special in 2008, when there were lots of TV specials about China because Beijing was hosting the Olympics. So, I had seen some of this when it aired, but thankfully didn't remember much. There's 6 different titles about a hour long each, plus a little making-of. Each episode talks about a different area of the country. Overall, it was a great buy. They captured absolutely stunning landscapes and equally interesting creatures, while talking about how people interact with both.
Click to viewOpening from 1st episode.
Mongolian Ping Pong
'Tis a film about a nomadic Mongolian boy named Bilike in Inner Mongolia who finds a ping pong ball floating in a river. Nobody knows what it is, until they ask a guy who was showing a movie and he tells them that it's a ping pong ball, but they still have no clue what that is. Later on, the family tries to get TV reception and they happen to catch something about the ping pong ball being the "national ball" and decide to go to Beijing to return it. They're found by police who tell them they were actually headed toward Russia instead. The ball ends up causing quite a bit of trouble for the boys and eventually a solution is found of what to do with it. It's not the most exciting movie ever, but the scenery is beautiful, the kids were great and had me laughing and I really liked the end, which also made me laugh. I thought it was a pretty good way to end it. It was a good movie :)
Trailer
Khadak
I really don't know what to say about this movie. I really wanted to see it, but nothing exciting happened for nearly an hour. Basically, a nomadic family in Mongolia are moved into the city because of an animal plague and a boy named Bagi has seizures. He originally sees a shamaness about it, but they don't stop. He then saves a girl and keeps having seizures and everything's really weird. I don't think this is a movie you can watch just once. Altan Urag contributed Ijii Mongol to this film, that was cool, but... There seems to be a lot of symbolism in the movie and a lot to interpret and there's stuff dealing with shamanism and spirits. It gets really weird toward the end, where time stops and different 'presents' are shown. Makes you wonder what is actually in the present, or if stuff is actually happening. What was all the counting about? Why all the khadag? Was there a single present-time shown? It's a really drab looking film, though. Everything's snow covered, whether they're in the grassland or in a city full of communist-era looking buildings. Either way, I thought the acting was good and while not thrilling, I wouldn't say it was boring. I was so confused for most of the movie, I'll probably re-watch it next weekend.
Trailer
Across the Universe
My sister is obsessed with The Beatles, so obviously she needed to watch this. It's a story told through Beatles' songs. The acting was good and most of the songs were so well done in the movie. Like, I can't even listen to the original of Helter Skelter now, because it was incredible in the film. I only was able to sit through half-ish though, because the story line didn't really do anything for me, I was just waiting for another song to come up.
Ah, I really like this song. I think the video footage might be from the July rioting. I like this sound for them.
Oh, do any of you guys have a Goodreads account? Pretty cool site that lets you keep track of the books you've read, or are waiting to read, rate them and review them. Here is my page. I can't remember all the books I've read though lol.
I'm reading The Bloody White Baron right now and it's increasingly getting better, but I can't stop thinking about Wolf Totem, which I rambled about in my last post. That book moved me. I might even say it was the best fictional book I've read.