Chocolate: Thai female martial arts kickassedness

I have never EVER gotten tired of this movie! The movie plot doesn't even really matter (Even if the plot is also okay, pretty typical and romeo julietesque) its just the background for all the kickass scenes that happen afterwards!

I don't know what I like best, having this tiny cute adorable slip of a girl kicking all these people's asses or the fight scenes themselves which are epic! Its about a young autistic daughter that tries to collect the money owed to her mother so that she can help pay for her moms medicine. Of course throw in a Thai gang boss in there as well... but that's beside the point, you'll just have to watch it. The point is that this is on par (for me) to Ong Bak's fight scenes which makes sense since its the same director lol :) At the ending they show outtakes of all the scenes in which people got hurt doing the fight scenes. I've watched it, maybe 8 times (or more), and I am still engrossed in it like it's my first time watching it and can't be distracted worth a damn. :) I definitely recommend this movie to anyone and everyone that loves martial art movies!!



Courage first; power second; technique third.
~ Author unknown

~Gray's Matter

True Grit... ness.

So I've just come back from watching True Grit! I braved the cold (32 degrees is freaking cold in Washington state people) to watch this instead of Tron, which I will watch next week, at the insistence of my dad who paid for the movie and food. :) In all honesty I didn't REALLY want to watch this movie... at all. But the female lead, Hailee Steinfeld, made the movie pretty worthwhile! She was witty and gutsy and... a little unbelievable. Not the actor herself but the character. I mean... I gleamed that she was a headstrong, self educated young lady from a cotton farm or ranch of some kind so how can she not even balk at seeing a pretty violent murder? I'm not talking hangings, I'm talking about a freaking point blank shot to the head in close quarters... but like everyone else I just got caught in her character so I didn't really question the authenticity of someone not batting an eyelash to some of the scenes in the movie. I truly think that this movie is something that is more worthwhile if you read it. I'm sure in the book, though her outward appearance may show that she is unaffected, she is anything but on the inside. And the insistence of avenging her father? I get it in the movie but I think I'll REALLY get it in the book. I mean this girl goes through a hell of a lot of trouble to see to it her father is avenged. This whole movie pretty much revolves around Hailee actually. It's her characters comments that made me laugh and smile and her determination and love that pulled my heart in.

Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges were pretty awesome too but I think Hailee stole the show! :) Agree or disagree?

On a sidenote I thought the ending was... odd. I don't know why though... Maybe because most movie endings are so ambiguous? If I could say one thing about how the movie imitates the book I would say that the ending was very bookish. A quick one or two page epilogue after a suspenseful last chapter...

~Gray's Matter

“If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.”
Win Borden quotes

The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon

This is a collection of one sentence lines that head a paragraph relating to the sentence. The sentences make good writing exercises! One of the sentences is "16. Things that make the heart beats faster."

Here's an exert of the response to it.

"Sparrows feeding their young. To pass where babies are playing. ... It is night and one is expecting a visitor"(51)

I really liked the exercise so I decided that I'd try to do these as a blog entry... whenever I can. :) It was really interesting coming up with things that were not superficial. It should be fun!

~Netta

"I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all." ~Richard Wright, American Hunger, 1977

ice age 3 in 3d

Yeah...

What to say about Ice Age 3 whatever the rest of the title is? Uuuummm... did not like it that much. And neither did my 11 year old sister. Even the lure of 3d and having things pop up from the screen occasionally didn't REALLY help any. There were some laugh out loud parts... okay there was one for me, but honestly the jokes kinda fell flat though the story line wasn't sooo bad. it wasn't really heart tugging, it was kind of cute, and it was a little funny. All in all I say wait for it to come out in DVD/blueray and do NOT watch it in 3d...

I couldn't find a quote that expressed it so I'm just gonna quote myself

"What the hell. That movie sucked"
Lynetta Gray quote lol

Wow I haven't posted anything in a long time lol

I just realized that I haven't posted anything in a REALLY long time! lol

Well, that's it... just kidding! lol

Well I'm now officially a Senator at UWT! Why you might ask, since I had never been in student government before? You know, I volunteered in the Student Technology Fee Committee approving and denying technology for students on campus, and while it was a lot of hard work and a LOT of time (it came down to 3 hour meetings every Friday and one Friday meeting that took 5...6?..7?...its blurry lol) it was very rewarding. I love knowing more about the school, I love knowing that the free print stations were funded by the students and I contributed to that continuing on for another school year. I loved knowing that I wasn't just going to class, doing homework, that I was doing something productive with my time. Hopefully I can make a difference in the one year that I'll be Senator, keep my A and B average, keep my GPA firmly at 3.6 and above, be able to still be in Hip Hop Dance Crew and GreyHat, keep up with Chinese (hopefully that's not a losing battle, I love the language so much!), and study study study. Oh and lets not forget internships and the like, GAH! (I almost forgot lol) But you know, I think learning to juggle all of my hopes, wants, desires, dreams, disappointments, is what being in college is all about.

Wow. I missed blogging! lol Oh, and ASUWT (my student government) wants me, the only Computer Software Systems Senator of the bunch to start a Wordpress for... actually I'm not sure why they want a blogging server... hmmm. lol That should be fun because I've never done ANYTHING with MYSQL (except in Java and that was... educational), APACHE, or PHP. But hey! I work at a library and I've learned that there are so many resources out there if people would only LOOK that can help you in any endeavor so... I ordered some books :)

“I saw a star, I reached for it, and I missed. So I accepted the sky.”
Scott Fortini



~Lynetta

UW library scholarship winner 2007

So yeah, totally not, blatantly posting a recent blog because its been months and months and months since my last one lol. Anyway I kind of just wanted to post an essay I wrote that won a library scholarship! I was really happy because I really didn't think it would win. I had to read it at the UW Seattle campus and I was shaking like a leaf! lol.

The essay asked how has the library affected/changed you...

"People handle being a child in a military family in different ways. Some embrace it and find the new cultures and the constant stream of new faces and places exciting. Some are resigned to it and withdraw into a shell of shyness that is difficult to crack. Though these examples may be extremes in a kaleidoscope of reactions, I do think one thing holds true:

We have no roots.

I have always felt this way, that my life was missing that one essential something prominent in a normal person’s life. I broke away from the loneliness constantly moving can cause and began to love the places and the people that flew through my life. And yet, I longed to be connected, attached, I yearned to belong to a place. A place with memories that have become ingrained in the very ground walked upon by growing feet, where ghostly shadows of past remembrances would linger in the neighborhood, a home with a room that could have forever been mine:

I have no roots.

I lived in Japan for the first 13 years of my life, and I love it and will visit it one day. But return? My memories and my childhood, those roots that I have so long wished for, are scattered across its land as if carried away by the typhoons that rattled windows and gripped trees:

I had thought I would never grow roots.

But now I think I can feel them, tiny as they are, reaching into this land that bewilders and enraptures me in turns. I am not just a student. I am a part of this campus and I hope, wish, believe that roots are digging into this campus each day I work and love and help. I can feel them digging deeper each time I find myself trailing my hands across the mixture of old and new books and walls, each time I see a thankful smile of a fellow student turned patron that I have helped, each time laughter echoes and rings through the circulation room. Though these roots are small, they are far from feeble, and they will grow and spread and thicken. I will never forget and will never stop thanking the library that has been the tilled ground in which my roots have finally, desperately, begun to dig through. I can finally say:

I have roots at last. "

Yeah, I got pretty personal...

“There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: One is roots, the other is wings.”

~Hodding Carter



~netta

Movie Preview scared me: Teeth and Ginger snaps

I'm a wimp. Yes, I am a humongous baby. lol. I saw the preview for this movie and the first thing that went through my mind was 'No way in hell'. lol. Okay basically its about a girl who is a virgin who has teeth in her vagina. I guess she goes on a sexual rampage after the trauma with her gynecologist but I have no idea. Some people think the idea is stupid but I think its crazy (in a good way)! XD And I mean isn't that why we watch movies? Because it wouldn't happen anywhere else? I bet the blob seemed stupid to some people, or the invasion of the body snatchers, but there still good movies! Anyway here's the trailer, or one of the trailers *shrugs*

Teeth



There's another cool movie that I actually DID watch named Ginger Snaps. Its about two sisters that our outcasts until one gets bitten by a werewolf. The older sis gets bitten (I think) and starts to change and we get to tag along for the ride! Its funny and gruesome at the same time because her changes are chalked up to growing up to the people who don't know she's a werewolf and I thought it was a not so subtle comparison of womanhood and being a maneating werewolf. But maybe that's just what I see? lol. Yeah I know it sounds lame but it was actually really original, I even watched Ginger Snaps II which was also good. But anyway here's the trailer to show why there good instead of my bumbled description lol.

Ginger Snaps I



If you like Ginger Snaps I you'll like Ginger Snaps II, especially if you want to know what happens after the movie! XD

“Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile...initially scared me to death.”

Better Bender

~netta

First Freshman class of UWT (TCORE101)

Well, I just realized that maybe I should have chronicled the momentous event of being part of the first UWT freshman class... okay you got me, I was bored. XD For those who don't know UWT is the University of Washington in Tacoma. Its a relatively small campus that, I think, will only get larger. Pros of the campus: The teachers that I've had so far are awesome! Always willing to help, i.e. "E-mail me if you have problems, stop by my office anytime here are my office hours". The classes are small so the teacher knows your name (which is a double edged sword most of the time)! Now that I've experienced smaller classes I can't imagine my college experience being any other way. The library is awesome (Not just saying that because I work there... lol), and there are so many things to help you succeed. I mean, this place REALLY wants you to do well. O_O Cons: Well I can see that parking will become an issue sooner or later, I mean the Tacoma dome can only handle so much! There's no dormitories (though I heard we might get some) so its mostly a commuter campus. But otherwise I am sincerely grateful that I've gotten into this school! It was mostly a fluke, I just searched for a college closest to my house and applied to it. lol. (There's probably more pros and cons but... what can I say? I'm lazy. *shrugs*)

Anyway my first core class was TCORE101. It was a humanities and writing course with an overall theme of self and landscape. Yeah, I know, mass confusion. But it was definitely a different experience. I guess I see it as high school being about the books with no self reflection, and college applying what your learning to yourself. This class was a joint writing and art class. The writing was okay, nothing new for me or anyone who took AP English classes. Analyzing literature and whatnot. The only really new assignment would be when we had to write a paper analyzing a passage against a picture. That was something I had NEVER done before in writing. But the art! OMG the ART!! lol. I have never had to take an art class like that. Instead of 'hey draw this' the professor was like 'draw something that represents you'. And it wasn't just drawing, it could be painting, performing, anything that was considered art. I even made a miniature carving of my furniture (too long of a story to explain here but I got a good grade!). I consider that class to be my first 'real' art class.
Anyway that was my first core class, though they probably tweaked the core classes since the first freshman class were the poor unsuspecting guinea pigs...

Oh, funny thing. First day of core class we had to make big white kindergarten looking name tags to wear. Yeah, embarrassing. Like a humongous sign saying 'WE'RE THE FIRST FRESHMAN OF UWT AND CAN'T REMEMBER EACH OTHERS NAMES!!'. Didn't really help me feel like a mature college student.

It is not easy to be a pioneer - but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.
Elizabeth Blackwell



~Lynetta

love/hate Cloverfield

Okay, I thought I would absolutely HATE Cloverfield. I thought it would be another gay ending like Stephen King's the Mist (which ruined the entire movie for me), but I actually REALLY liked Cloverfield. It wasn't as jerky as I thought it would be because God knows I suck with keeping a camera steady. I liked how it seemed like a real video they found instead of the movie it was. There was zoomin, cuts from one time to another (because who really leaves the camera on the whole time), etc that just added to the overall style of filming. The confusion with the camera in intense moments just made me want to pay really close attention so I wouldn't miss anything. I loved the person carrying the camera, I think he added humor and realness to the 'documentary'. I heard one of the actors before I saw the movie on the radio answering a question about whether or not we would like the ending or would they leave us hanging and his answer was (not word for word guys I mean this was like 3 weeks ago...) 'this is the kind of movie that no matter what the ending was you'll come out of the theater liking it because of the jam packed (ok maybe he didn't use that word but I couldn't think of anything else) suspense that we put in the movie.' And you know what... he was right! lol. I didn't even care about the ending... okay I cared, but it didn't affect what I had watched before it, it didn't leave me disappointed and wanting more. I was thoroughly satisfied by what I had already experienced.... :D So if your thinking of watching it and don't mind a shaky camera then I really recommend it!

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it.”

Margaret Thatcher



~netta

One missed call

Maybe it should of been called missed, as in ... okay that insult was going nowhere. lol. Maybe I'll just be straightforward and say... it sucked. I don't know if it was because I already knew the outline of what would happen, or if it is because originals just own harder than copies but I was majorly disappointed in the American one missed call. For those who don't know one missed call is basically the ring meets the modern era. The foundation of the movie is that for some reason these people are getting phone calls on their cell phone from *DUH DUH DUH DUHHHH!!!* the future, where they hear their last dying moments. I know, it sounds like a lame same old same old rip off. Well, that's true for the American movie but the original japanese movie "Chakushin ari" was actually pretty freakin scary (and I'm not just saying that because I'm a wimp with scary movies). The ring tone for their phone is so... haunting and creepy that when I got it for my cell phone my heart skipped a beat when it rang for the 1st time.

If you want it you can get it for your phone too!!! (this is just a link to a site that has it)
One missed call (japanese version) ringtone

Anyway why is this NOT a rip off? Well.... good question. I guess its one of those inexplainable phenomenon? -_-; By the way the "Chakushin ari" movie is actually a trilogy (which I haven't finished *sobs*).

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
Herman Melville



~netta

Harry Potter and the muggle alliance activist group

Yes, I know. The name suggests something ridiculous! At first my reaction was "this has to be some kind of joke" and then my next reaction was "okay I'm going to read this for laughs" but this is a legit activist group that is trying to make the world a better place ( I know I'm corny -_-;...). Their rallying point? Harry Potter. I still can't type that with a straight face. It just seems a little... absurd... to rally behind a children's book, but whatever helps save the world right? But I really do applaud the people in the group for actually standing up for what they believe in. I just wonder sometimes if they ever get negative reactions because of their name? I mean, Harry Potter is not associated with social activism and world problems... What I thought was REALLY cool, is that this whole thing started online (at least thats what I gleamed from the article...). (Another example of an online community professor fry!) And it is continued online. But I'll let you decide for yourself what you think of this new group...



Muggle Alliance

Official alliance site... (I think lol)

Another perspective and background on alliance and creator

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. -- Elie Wiesel



~netta

Customer service for my Dell... XD

Okay, I kind of feel obligated to write this blog after all the help I've gotten from Dell. On May 22nd 2007, I blogged about the problems I had with my Dell laptop, and apparently having you laptop's battery capacity cut in half in less than a year is NOT a normal thing to happen. And then on top of that my keyboard started to fall apart! My F key came off and no matter what I did it wouldn't be cajoled into going back, then my shift key came off too! Normally I probably wouldn't have panicked as much as I did, but my laptop is where I keep all my school stuff and what I use for anything related to the Internet. So I was really happy when I contacted Larry, a Dell customer representative (John went on vacation lol). Usually I have a really big problem with customer service because doing things like getting new parts is a REAL pain in the but and talking on the phone or online chatting is really tedious. But I did my stuff over e-mail! OMG, it was like major easy. I asked him what info he needed, he told me, I sent it and any questions I had, and BAM! my stuff came in the mail 2 days later! So I just wanted to say that even though I had problems with my Dell laptop and my love for Dell took a really big hit, it has recovered nicely with the ease and quickness of their service... Plus its like having a brand new laptop! XD

"Satisfaction can be achieved, not from the things that happen to us, but from the things we do ourselves" Anonymous



~Lynetta Gray

Surf's up review

I really liked Surf's up. It was a really cute movie. Most of the funny parts were already shown in the previews but the movie had a certain charm to it, a certain poignancy that made me smile as I watched. It wasn't a blockbuster like Shrek was but it was good. The voices totally matched the characters, I loved the visuals and the story line (cuz I'm a sucker for happy ending movies), and I just generally liked the whole big screen movie experience. So I would recommend this movie for families to go see because I think its something that mom, dad, sis, bro would all have fun watching.

~Lynetta Gray

Evan almighty

Well, I want to watch this movie. But not because it looks really really funny, but because I want to know what possible reason they came up with to explain why God would want to flood the world. I mean, I'm not some hardcore religious person but I'm pretty sure that the first flood wasn't some picnic where you drink lemonade with monkeys. Wasn't it like punishment because humanity was sinning or bad or whatever? Don't bash on my religious ignorance, I believe in God and that's all anyone needs to know. Beyond the fact that animals are following the main character (I wonder how much they'll play that up?) God makes Evan lose his job and question his sanity. And sure I'll laugh at that but in reality... thats kind of messed up. lol. Anyway, it looks like a hilarious movie, I just wonder if the underlying message is that the world needs to change its ways?

~Lynetta Gray

Cool youtube thingy

Okay, I didn't even notice this but now I must shout it to the world! .... The youtube thingies have the cool scrolly bar now! It's so cute, and... well cute! Its also very convenient because when I look at clips I like to see everything related to it. It's very... ipodesh, lol. I'm just thinking of the ipod smartphone or the microsoft surface when I see the scrolling style. Newayz just had to post that its cool looking even though I haven't test driven them yet.

~Lynetta Gray

Surf's up vs. Hostel part deux

Well, surf's up and hostel two open this friday. Which one will I watch? Surf's up no doubt. Why? I still get queasy just remembering what Hostel one showed me. No doubt Hostel was a completely creepy movie that scared the crap out of me but the gore.... THE GORE!!!! It was just too much. So, yes, I'm a wimp/chicken/watever unsavory names you can think up, but honestly I'm thinking Surf's up might be fun. And maybe I'll watch Hostel part deux on DVD so I can fast forward at the 'I think I'm going to throw up this very second but I'm still going to race for the toilet' parts.

surf's up trailer




hostel II trailer

Warning... for whatever people find offensive on these clips cuz I don't know how the hell people react to things...





~Lynetta Gray

The abandoned

Well... hmmm. What can I say about this movie? Well, first off the background. This movie is about a movie producer/director (watever) that goes to Russia to find out information on her birth parents (she's adopted if you didn't get that yet) and finds out that there's a creepy house that has been left to her on an island surrounded by water. First mistake, she goes to the hella creepy house. And then more creepiness ensues. Shes basically stuck on the island (one of those 'your running in circles stupid' things) there's creepy figures in the house, etc etc. This is one of those tension thriller/horror movies and while it doesn't have alot of gore until the ending... well there's some gore but not OMG THATS SO NASTY I HAVE TO COVER MY EYES gore or... -_- you be the judge ... just trying to figure out what the hell is going on might make you keep watching. I don't want to ruin it for the people who are intrigued by my description (yeah right, like my description is really THAT captivating...) but it isn't a normal haunted house type storyline and the ending might surprise you. Hell, I'm still trying to figure out what the hell happened, I mean I have a vague idea but... yeah. So, I give it a 3 and a half I guess and recommend watching it... kinda. But hey, maybe you'll love it?

Here's a picture of the movie...





“If you can't be kind, at least be vague”

Judith S. Marin



~Lynetta Gray

Knocked up movie

Okay, so... I got to watch knocked up and it was hella funny. The one problem, i'm probably the only one that has this problem, is that I'm horrible with names or... well yeah names in general. And I don't really keep up with movies/stars/watever until recently. So i'm probably really really stupid for saying this but some of their jokes went way over my head. The movie was funny without knowing who the hell they were talking about because there's parts of just laughing out loud before you realize your laughing. I'm the type of person though, that never knows names. I always address the actors by watever part they've played. Like, "oh, thats spiderman/batman/buffy/that fighting dude/etc." So when they were all "that's like 'so and so' doing 'this and that'" I was all... what? But besides that I definitely recommend this movie for maximum funniness. Even though its a romantic comedy there is definitely more comedy (i think) than romance. Warning though, they show some of the birth scene which was a real surprise. It was all 'she's having a baby' to BAM why am I looking at the baby coming out of her? and it's like a split second... okay a few seconds but OMG it was surprising. Newayz, hilarious movie, the kind you buy so you can watch it again. lol.

“A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is-full of surprises.”

Isaac Bashevis

Random icon...



~Lynetta Gray

Microsoft surface OMG titeness

Okay, OMG OMG OMG! lol. I am so excited about this microsoft surface thing though I can't have one even when it comes out because its like 5 grand. Its a top secret microsoft project... or so they say... that has multitouch technology! Well, the following youtube video will probably explain it better than I ever could. Watch it! You'll be so amazed!

Background Info on the surface



Interaction with the surface



Drawing with the surface :D



And here's (I guess) a future commercial of it.



The weird thing is that when it mentions using infared lights and stuff to power it or whatever I remember talking about this with my Cisco instructor in 2004. He told our class that they found a way to transmit information with infared or lasers or something they just haven't found a processor to process the speed of information going through. Or something like that... lol. And this just reminded me of that.

Anyway I recommend youtubing it because its just so fun to watch! I wish I could have one! *sniffs*

“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.”

John Richardson Jr.

Random Icon...



~Lynetta Gray

Shrek the Third

Well... I was massively disappointed by it. I (naively) expected something more. I mean don't get me wrong, it was okay and my little sister loved it, but... it just didn't cut it. It was kind of funny but what you see in the previews is basically the funny parts of the movie lol. Only some of the funny parts were not already shown in previews. Mostly it just wasn't special. Sadly.

Random icon...



~Lynetta