Friday, July 8, 2011

Transformers 3 in 3D!

If you haven't come to realised that 3D is the new in-thing with the movie industry, you've clearly been living under the ocean. Just about a week ago, our more popular movie theatre finally invested in 3D. The first official movie to show in that theatre: Transformers 3.

Firstly, what happened to Megan Fox? Secondly, even if she's gone, what need does this boy, Sam, have with having a pretty face by his side running through the dangers with him? Thirdly, I get excited when I hear Leonard Nimoy's voiceover in a sci-fi film, I have no idea why...he's just...groovy. Ha.

The movie itself was pretty decent but it's not something that I'll turn around and watch again anytime soon. I guess I liked the first two better but it's difficult to say when I can't really recall them in much detail. At 155 minutes, it's a fairly long movie but enjoyable enough to not feel the length. I have to admit, I got a little emotional in one scene >.<

Oh yes, most importantly, this is the first time I've ever watched a full movie in 3D. My only other exposures were 4D at Disneyland and Universal Studios. It wasn't too bad really. All I hear from half the people I know is that 3D is overrated. And that's fine and dandy but I think the quality of the dimensions is dependent on a number of factors, particularly the directing and special effects editing for the movie. It hardly matters to me though.

It's highly upsetting how selfish Barbadians are with the startup of the 3D phenomena here. People are arriving at 10 AM (box office opens at 10:30)  to purchase tickets for their friends at 10 PM that night. This morning, I went to see the 11 AM showing and, arriving there at 10:20, I had to join a lengthy queue. Not to mention, by the time I reached the counter, the 10 PM show had already been sold out. Crazy much? People don't have a chance at all! But the fact that people are actually allowed to buy 20 or more tickets is unfathomable. How is that something that's so easily looked over? Like, really? No, seriously? There should be a limit to how many tickets an individual can purchase. People need to have a chance! Geez.

I know this frenzy is going to be a couple notches worse when Harry Potter starts showing here on July 20th. All hell will break loose as people can't get tickets and I hear all sorts of madness like people purchasing 20 tickets for the movie the day before instead. If the Olympus Theatres continues to allow persons to purchase >5 tickets at once, I'll be sorely disappointed in the way they handle their service. SO many people have been complaining about this problem.

Well, regardless, since people work and sleep at 11 AM, I smartly chose to watch the movie at that time (despite having to wait in such a ridiculous line) and enjoyed myself.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Watching My Own Videos...

You know how actors may be asked in an interview what they thought of their movie? And then they respond with "Oh, I haven't seen it. I hate watching myself." Yeah, I'm like that too.

Sure, I may not have a big movie to be shown on the big screen, but I actually really really really really don't like watching my own videos on YouTube. I can record, edit and then watch it in full before I upload to YouTube and feel okay about it, yet, it irks me to watch the video on YouTube! I have no idea what it is that's so different...maybe because I know that other people are watching it and judging it and judging me and I don't want to add to that...somehow. I'm really not sure. It's just one of those mind-boggling things that no one will be able to give me an answer for.

I just don't like watching myself.

But on that note, I'll leave you with my latest upload...the first in 6 months! I got henna (for the first time) so I thought I'd share it with you guys. It was quite beautifully done by Faheema Patel at Junoon Designs.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The Waiting Game

Monday morning I opened up my email and saw what I was waiting 4-5 days to see: Package Delivered & Signed for by ___. Score!

Do you know what this means?? It means my package was delivered, of course. What package, you ask? Oh, well, it's just my application to do my fourth year elective in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care at The Chinese University of Hong Kong next January...no big deal. =)

Now, I'm just sitting around waiting for them to process my application and give me a response: accept | decline. I vote they tell me the former. But I'm so excited about my application arriving there quickly and safely because I made it just in time for my deadline! It could've been there much much sooner if the ridiculously slow-working university I attend didn't take 3 months to release my grades to update my transcripts which, by some miracle, I obtained in a week (apparently, the norm is about 4 weeks for a few sheets of paper).

Regardless, everything so far has worked out in my favour. All I need is an acceptance and I'll be booking a ticket for 4 weeks in Hong Kong. That's right. Four weeks. Four. 4. Four weeks. A whole month. In Hong Kong. My favourite place in the whole wide world. Doing something that I know I'll enjoy: Anaesthesia & Intensive Care. I'm actually still relatively surprised that I like it so much.

Ohhhhhhh...I hope they get in touch soon!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Kon - Day Two

Described in one word: epic. I'm posting this a bit late because I've been so exhausted from the epicness of the weekend that it took time to recover.

The events held on Sunday were certainly more interesting than those of Saturday! I noticed that a few people complained about this on Saturday when they saw the events list for Sunday. I thought it was a strategic move to get people to come out on Sunday. For some reason, the culture here in Barbados is to stay home, kick back and relax on Sundays. And, while that's all nice and well, it shouldn't be the thing that keeps you home from a really cool event. Regardless, due to this fact of Barbadian life, Sunday's numbers, good as they were, didn't seem to be as large as Saturday's. Regardless, Sunday was indeed an excellent day!

There were fewer movies shown and more panel discussions/workshops held with featured speakers like Marshall Candland, a technical director at Industrial Light & Magic who worked on movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, Iron Man and Aliens and Cowboys, as well as some guys from DC Comics! Marshall showed a short presentation of how they created the effects in movies like Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean. I missed out on the panel discussions/workshops with DC unfortunately but I heard they showed some previews of upcoming works. Very cool stuff.

The Kosplay Kompetition was a hit this year! Last year it didn't come off for whatever reason and I was sorely disappointed but this year it happened! I kinda wish I had entered the competition now...but anyway! The winner was a guy cosplaying Cloud, second place went to Lara Croft and third went to Tifa. The only big problem I had with AnimeKon this year was the judging for the cosplay competition! There was a girl who portrayed L from Death Note extremely well and did not get into the top three. As they were using crowd cheers to judge the top 3 and then again for the placement of the top 3, L received louder cheers than Tifa did...by far! Maybe if the competition is to be judged by crowd reaction and cheers, a decibel reader should be used...it's the most fair and accurate way to judge, don't you think?

Then the night ended with a BANG! with an outstanding performance by Standing Penance, a local band who blew the roof off that night! It was a massively high-energy performance that completely blew me away. Loved it. It was what AnimeKon needed to end the entire event...with an EPIC performance.

Huge Thank You's to Melissa and Omar at AnimeKon! You guys really outdid yourselves this year with an impressive comeback from last year's disappointments. All the hard work throughout the past year was certainly not in vain. Of course, there's always room for improvement and so I look forward to next year being bigger and better than this! (No pressure!) But don't worry, after this year, there'll be lots of buzz and hype when next year rolls around.

I've had some amazing times this year but this was, by far, the best weekend of 2011!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

The Kon - Day One

Described in one word: impressive. And I use the word impressive because I'm impressed with the degree of improvements I saw this year!
  • larger floor space with adequate room between booths. Last year, all the booths were packed into one room. This year, they've expanded the area and nice placed people apart, with artists in one section and gamers and anime lovers in another section.
  • more anime and even some manga!
    • AnimeSpot was there showcasing some manga, 
    • The theatre showed all anime films like Spirited Away, Appleseed and Akira
    •  Anime music video displays by local editors like the amazing soulvws and JMRE09
    • I even got to watch a random episode of Bleach. Lovely! I'm not sure if other random episodes from other series showed since I moved around a lot. 
  • more events spanning 2 days. Yay! I've seen a lot more fun stuff this year compared to last year.
  • amazing green screen room to live out your wildest anime fantasies. Except, it didn't seem like a lot of people utilized it unfortunately. It looks like such an amazing concept...I haven't done it myself lol but I might on Day Two!

I cosplayed as Osaki Nana from NANA this year...my first real attempt at cosplay. Turns out that I did pretty well...it seemed to have been a hit with people. I got a lot of stares and lots of requests for pictures either of or with me. I was feeling quite like a celebrity! I even had a little photoshoot and all (compliments soulvws). Apparently I looked epic. Many people suggested I do it again for day two...I wasn't planning to but I started reconsidering and after telling my mom about my outfit's success, she insisted in a repeat for day 2. And so it will be (because now I have no choice haha).


I met a lot of people (thanks to my eye-catching look) and I got to be very social and friendly. Not something I'm used to...like the mass attention I got. But it was nice being different. I'm not used to getting anyone's attention but it's grown on me and, admittedly, I started to like it. I saw a few others dressed up, though not as impressively if I do say so myself. I was also told that I'm one of the few who looks awesome (talk about ego booster). Ah, my self esteem shot up like a rocket. Oh! I saw a girl cosplay Chun Li. It was nice and it made me decide that I should probably l go for that if I cosplay again. :) We'll see how that goes because I'm not so sure I'll be able to make it to AnimeKon next year and definitely not the year after...or maybe. Medical school is gonna get tougher and I'll be working 7-days a week but who knows!