Monday, July 21, 2008

Wall-e

Did a review for Wall-e, the new pixar film. Decided I might as well post it here.

I've been meaning to do this for forever and a day now, and seeing as I'm avoiding anything about The Dark Night till I see it this weekend (hopefully), I finally decided to sit down and do this one.

Spoilers ahead fyi, though I'll try to not give too much away

First off, Animation=drooltastic. Like, hoooooly crap. Lighting was done extraordinarily well, and the amount/detail in textures blew my mind. My favorite part was probably when they were showing the captains of the ship, how they went frm real humans to the cartoony ones we see in the movie. I don't know much else when it comes to 3D animation, but I do know this is some of the best I've seen in a while (YAY PIXAR)

The story itself is adorable and how they conveyed human emotion through the robots was moving. It's one of the things I love about animation and why I considered it for so long as my career; the abilty to make none living things seem human, to allow the audience a connection with the character on an emotional level. There are times in this movie when you really feel for Wall-e or Eeve. While yes, this story does have a lesson and there are no undertones about it (PIXAR slaps you in the face with it from the beginning), it's done in such a way that it isn't like a little kids show where they recap it at the end
Kids show host: So kids, we all know how important recyling is now, right?
Kids: YEAH!
Kids show host: Then lets all recycle now, YAY!

If you're a normal kid, chances are you wont catch the undertone, but teens and up will definently see it.

Now onto my favorite part, THE ENDING. No, not the actual end, THE CREDITS! Being an art student, I was required to take Art History I and II. Art History I went from cave painting to medeivel times, just before the renaissance. Art History II went from Renaissance to the 1970's ( I forget the name of that art time XD) If you wanted to learn anything beyond that, a Modern art class it what you needed. Wall-e's ending credits takes a particular style from each Art time, and uses it in the credits, going from cave painting, to pointilism (pointilism is THE DEVIL BITCH to do, too much color theory involved for my liking) to impressionistic and ending in the digital age (pixels), the only reason I believe they went no further than that is because the movie was done in the next big step, 3D animation. The credits made me giddy like a little girl, just ask Salerek or Skwerly.

Overall, anyone and everyone will enjoy this movie. Go see it on the big screen before it comes to DVD. The DVD is sure to be on my wishlist.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Memories...

ALL ALONE IN THE MOOOOOOONLIIIIIIGHT

I'm such a dork.

Anyway, so I was thinking back to my childhood for some reason the other day and remembering the silly things we used to do (by we I mean my family and friends). Since you who are included in the 'we' read this, I thought some of you might get a kick out of these and see if you remember them.

1)Disney adventures:
My dad worked at Disney up until I was about 15 I think and even today he works there in the winter, around Christmas time. Anyway, having a dad who can get you into Disney anytime made for a fun childhood and many trips to the castle of a huge frickin Rat. One time, I think I was about 13 or so, I can't remember, but it was just me, my brother and my dad. We were taking back roads home as usual. The day was fun and we were all tired. I was riding shotgun and PJ was in the back. We had just gone by one of the spots that the fireworks are shot up from
when we went over a speed bump. I don't know WHAT I was thinking, but as we went over, I completely spazzed out screaming "OHMAHGAWD WE'RE GOING OVER A SPEED BUMP!" and returning to being calm when the speed bump was gone. It was one of the first times I remember my brother laughing so hard at something I did that he looked like he was about to pee. We did it a couple more times together before or dad was too freaked out by it (or just tired of us doing it) that we stopped.

Another time, it was me, PJ (brother) and Heidi (sister) at Rat-world and our dad had just finished a show that we were watching. After PJ and I had been doing the drum beats together with the closing song of the show, we got to meet some of the musicians and dancers. A preface to this is that growing up, if our mom wanted to get our attention, she would do this LOUD whistle, which always caught our attention. Anyway, we are sitting there, talking to our dad when PJ and I hear this whistle. Now, logically, we know our mom isn't at Disney. But sure enough, when we heard it, both our heads popped up like ground dogs looking out a hole in the ground, just looking for our mom. Our dad couldn't figure out what we were doing, but when we explained it to him, he just laughed. We are now our mother's Pavlov dogs.

There were many other funny things that happened at Disney, but I can't remember them all and there isn't enough space for them.

2) Heidi is funny:
I swear, I have the funniest family ever. PJ can always make me laugh, My mom is clever and I'm sarcastic (shuddup, it's funny, not obnoxious) and Heidi has her moments. She is probably one of the funniest. Firstly, seeing her now, she reminds me of how I act up in front of my friends.

Once, while PJ was driving us along with his ex and her sister to a theme park or our moms job (I don't remember) and we passed by a building where white smoke was coming out of a pipe. The car had been quiet for a bit and suddenly we hear Heidi exclaim "WE HAVE A NEW POPE!" and it took a moment for all of us to get it, but we were all busting up laughing from it.

Another time, I was getting my oil changed and Heidi was with me. I also decided to get a new air filter that day so they had to call out the number for someone to get it.
"I need a 2-93485" and before he could say air filter, Heidi exclaimed "HIKE!" and I couldn't stop laughing.

There are many more times with her, but again, not enough time for all them.

Anyway, if there are any funny times you remember, comment with them. I wanna hear them!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Oh internets...

I knew thee well...

I haven't had internet at home for a while, so I'm finally at work and able to check things, get things and watch things (Vague much?). Getting things together for school, as usual. Talking to people at both AIF and UCF trying to get things done, as well as moving back to Orlando, little by little I'll be bringing my stuff back into my moms house.

Almost done with VCC (thank god!) and just making more pottery everyday.

Heidi spent the past week with me which was tons of fun, and I'm glad she had fun too. Joe, my roomie, took the whole house out for seafood last night (her final night in Titusville with us). Lobster and rock shrimp for me, Heidi had Scallops and Crab legs. All over it was a fun and busy week. That and I'm starting my Diet....okay, not a diet, it's a lifestyle change, but diet is such an easier (and smaller) word, lol. Am I lazy or what?


Photobucket

I was bored while waiting in the Campisi health center loby, so I decided to see how many muscles I could remember correctly...um....I don't think I technically got any of them right, lol, but it looks good!!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

I can't be trusted alone in pet stores...

Especially the ones that sell pets.

As you read in my last journal, I had to go to the pet store to get a rolley ball and bedding for Dulce my mouse and litter for Holiday my cat. Well, when I got Dulce (pronounced Dool-say) she had recently been with a cage mate, who died about 2-3 months before I got Dulce. She originally belonged to a friend who no longer wanted her, so I took Dulce. Mice are typically social creatures and get attached to their cage mates. I noticed that Dulce had been eating more (she's a fat little mouse now) and not running in her wheel as much and it really worried me a bit. So whilst at the store getting bedding for her cage, I saw them. The BUCKET of mice! Okay...not really a bucket, but it was a fish tank FULL of mice. Jeezy Chreezy! SO MANY MICE!!!!
Anyway, I stood there watching the mice, running around (with each other) sleeping (with each other) and eating (with each other) and I really started to feel bad for Dulce. Here she was, all alone in a cage, getting fatter by the minute and seemingly depressed as hell when at my disposal are 10 unbudgeted dollars (it was orignally 20, but half went into savings)Mice are 2.50 a pop. I could get her another mousey friend and STILL have money left over...heck, I could have gotten her THREE more cage mates and still had money left over for like...a soda or something. Long story short (too late) I got two more mice, for Dulce...yeah, it's ALL for Dulce, I get no pleasure from more pets WHATSOEVER.

Their names are Copa and Cabana (girls of course, I don't want any breeding going on, that's the LAST thing I need...two more mice were probably the last thing I needed a couple of days ago but NO MATTER, moving on!)

Copa is a black and white mouse and very adventurous. She was the first out of the two to go down the tube from the 'loft' of the cage to the main compartment where food and the running wheel are kept.

Cabana is all orange with a small white spot on her forehead and red eyes. She is my siesta mouse, you can handle her all you want and she doesn't fidget about nearly as much as Dulce. She also likes to nestle in small nooks (i.e. the inside of your elbow) and she falls asleep. She reminds me of Flower from Bambi, how they are constantly sleeping and barely move when you wake them up.

Dulce is orange and white, kinda like a creamsicle. Ducle means "sweets" in spanish, so I thought it was cute. Dulce is very....jittery, to say the least. She will run away from your hand if you try to pick her up, but once you have her, she doesn't really run away, she just explores.

Copa & Cabana have adjusted well to their new surroundings and I find them sleeping together all the time. Dulce is close by, normally only a few inches away, sleeping by herself, though I have seen her with C&C recently. Oh, and they eat from each others mouths too. And Dulce is using the running wheel again!

In all, I'm glad I got them, cause I know Dulce is happy now.

Holiday on the other hand...he doesn't mind them, he just hates that they are getting more attention than him. For the most part, they crawl on or over him, Holiday ignores it for about 5 minutes, before moving away and lying back down, then the mice find him, he gets aanoyed and moves, the mice follow. It's a different kind of "cat and mouse" game.

I love my pets :D