Halloween Pics, con't.

Here's these amazing pictures that Crystal took of me during Halloween. I cropped and edited them for color, density, and a more artsy appeal. :) [click to enlarge an image]

Movie Review: Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (3/5 stars)

This documentary definitely made me depressed; I already hated Wal-Mart before renting it, and now I hate them even more, if possible. There was a lot of good facts and information given, along with un-scripted testimony by former employees, managers, and general victims of Wal-Mart's reign. But as far as documentaries go, I thought this one was directed very poorly. The camera movements were inappropriately shaky and the people being interviewed were sometimes cut out of the shot entirely. This might be viewed as artistic or more 'realistic' in the documentary world, but to the viewer, it's just annoying.

Normally in documentary films, the director will offer other points of view, or at least some positives to outweigh the negatives. Even if the positives are crushed moments later by negative truths, at least they're there - but in this film, it was all negative. (Don’t get me wrong - I'm happy there's nothing positive to say about Wal-Mart, but I am still disappointed that the director didn't provide both sides to a debate.) The director also commissioned a handful of fake commercials, mocking Wal-Mart's advertisements from a few years back. Shown once in the film, with the rest in the Special Features section, each cut humorously shoved Wal-Mart's hypocritical treatment of their employees in your face, with quick, witty scripting. Three of these ads had two famous actors involved, playing a couple who live next door to a recently built Wal-Mart store.

This film was also edited very poorly, with overlapping segments not quite balancing each other out and the audio levels were all over the place, so I had to keep my remote control nearby to constantly adjust the volume level. The only aspect about the editing I found to be well-done, was cutting bits of the CEO's "Wal-Mart is Amazing" speech, then showing you the truth behind the comment he just made. The interviews were also improperly balanced, with some peoples' stories getting drawn-out for large chunks of the movie, and others getting just a few minutes of screen time. But only running at an hour and a half, the film didn't seem overly long or boring.

Overall, I give this film three out of five stars. The negative information was very upsetting and appalling, but the documentary itself falls just short of a good, sturdy film. Worth seeing, but I'll never watch it again.

Potato Bites of Death!

Okay, maybe not death, but holy crap, my body is unable to handle greasy food less and less each day. The lunch venture today consisted of Taco John's. I rarely eat fast-food anymore, and just a few months ago, I was able to say I DON'T eat fast-food at all; but lately I've been feeling like it's okay to indulge... a lot. Once you dive off the wagon for just one day, it's all down-hill from there. I wasn't even going to get the potato bites, but while standing at the cashier, ordering my rice-in-place-of-meat soft taco's, the words "small potato's with a side of cheese" just flew out of my mouth! Two taco's just didn't seem like enough food, and actually, I could have ordered just one taco... or just the potato's! Now I'm feeling the wrath of deep-fried, over-salted, dehydrating grease-bites soaked in ingredients-unknown nacho cheese... and it hurts. :P

The rest of the lunch crew ordered soda - appalled to find that a small soda is what used to be a medium, and you can assume what a medium soda looks like! My only comment to this observation was "no wonder we're all fat", as I chowed down my potato’s...

Whenever I eat extremely well, even for a few days, I feel SO good! I feel good all-around - digestion-wise, mentally, physically, etc. But when there are treats-galore at work, I just can't stop myself... but who can resist free food? It's literally a cold-turkey quitting situation, with me and chocolate or treats. Once I get past a week without any of it, I'm okay, and the cravings are gone. Luckily my body bounces back quickly.

Now, I’m off to the bathroom...

Halloween Pics

Here they are! (click on the images for a larger view)

I'm goth... my usual last-minute costume. Actually, I recently bought that shirt at Khol's for $15! It worked perfectly though... I do love purple and black together. :)


Here's Margaret's costume... hand-made, and so awesome! For those of you who don't know who she is, she's Princess Mononoke (it's a movie you must see!). Thanks to Don for sculpting the mask.


Margaret and Otto (Auto?).


I loved this pic... what a great look/angle! :)

Halloween!

This is by far my most favorite holiday. Bear with me this a.m., as I'm only running on 5.5 hours of sleep. My best bud Margaret hosted a wonderful party last night, and I had meant to take work off this morning as I knew I'd be out late, but my boss scheduled a team breakfast for 8:30, and there was no way I was going to miss out on FREE breakfast! I did contemplate calling in sick, too, being mindful to apologize for not being able to attend the breakfast, but I always seem to wake up more easily on less sleep. Does that make sense? The body is weird... it's like when I get up to use the bathroom at 2 a.m., I usually have a little trouble falling back to sleep.

Anyway, I dressed up goth. It's my last-minute costume always, since I own goth-type clothing and a small amount of makeup. I also never wear makeup usually, so I must admit, it's fun to put on sometimes... it's amazing how different it makes people look. Just a little eye-shadow, eye-liner, and lipstick make a WORLD of difference! Since I got home so late last night (1 a.m.), I don't have any photos to put up yet. I'll bring them tomorrow though, or just the ones I took. Margaret's roommie Crystal is going to school for photography. She has this wonderful SLR digital cam with multiple lenses and flashes. I never got into the flash experimentation, but it's so great that she's so excited about it all. Her and I ended up doing a mini photo-shoot last night for about an hour! It started by her wanting some striking lighting effects, and eventually I had some props and a samurai sword! It was a lot of fun. I love doing both the shooting and modeling, I've realized. Shooting is wonderful because of the experimentation and creation of artwork; but modeling is also fun, as it means you'll have some beautiful photos of yourself, plus it does make one feel really gorgeous. Crystal gave me so many compliments! Her frequently used one was that my eyes were 'so striking'. I've heard that once before, from Don, so I guess perhaps it's true. :)

Well, however fun the shoot was, the highlight of the evening was playing Catch Phrase ALL night! Omigod it was a blast... my throat is SO sore today from all the yelling! That game gets my adrenaline going so quickly... plus the beeper/timer makes things 100 times more excitable. We weren't even keeping score or doing teams, but it was still fun to get super worked-up about timing and not getting stuck with the buzzer on your turn. But I must brag - I am DAMN good at that game! I kept whipping out answers left and right, and one time, I didn't even need the person to speak, and I got the answer from one simple hand-gesture! LOL. I don't think gesturing is legal, but we didn't care. Progressively throughout the evening, the game became more dirty as we went on - naturally. I said something about "I invite people over to my house to 'blank' them" ('blank' being the word they needed to fill in). Everybody cracked up! It's funny because you don't even realize you're being dirty, or potentially dirty. Then much later, Cathy said something incredibly dirty and she couldn't stop laughing! I can't remember what it was... but it involved the 'blank' word. That became a running joke the rest of the evening, of course. “No more blanking. We’re not blanking right now. The blanking is done.” Etc. :)

Anyway, back to my costume... as a treat to myself last weekend, I bought a shirt at Khol's from their 'Candy' section. It's this purple tank top with built-in bra, sort of corssette-looking (and only $15!). Sewn in all over it, is this silver flourish which gives the shirt a nice shine, yet dark- and mysterious-style. I didn't even buy it for my 'costume' originally, but it just worked out! I also wore my black above-the-knee skirt I got from Hot Topic ages ago. It's flat black underneath, with a spider-webby, transparent layer on the top. A classic. And of course to complete the look, I wore my knee-high lace-up black boots with fishnet stockings. Those fishnets look so great, but are not very comfortable or practical. They kept sliding down all night, so the crotch ends up half-way down your thighs! It's not something you can feel though, or even that bothersome, but it's just annoying. All for fashion, eh? :)

Again, I'll post pics tomorrow... I won't be getting copies of Crystal’s until next Wednesday, but I'll be sure to post them asap! I can't wait to study them more... just as thumbnails on her camera display, there were a few we both said 'omigod' to, because of the lighting, and sometimes how awesome and dark I looked. I can't wait to show people!

Movie Review: Flightplan

Flightplan (3/5 stars)
I'm apathetic to this film... it wasn't really good or bad, it's just something that exists. Jodie Foster plays her more recent typecast role yet again - recently widowed woman in peril who's forced to become a hero. She is fun to watch, however unrealistic these events are. In the first part of the film, she shows us her acting strengths of playing a character who is pushed to the limit emotionally, having to question reality and her own mind. You as the viewer even start to question the reality of the situation and whom to trust, gathering evidence together to make a decision. But before you can make a distinction of good and bad, the film snowballs into action after a very predictable twist. It's now a race against time to stop the professional criminals, save many lives unbeknownst to them, and save yourself. Luckily, Foster's character has intimate knowledge of plane engines (she's an engineer, afterall), which somehow means she also knows the plane's skeletal structure, too. (This reminded me of Panic Room, where she ends up sneaking around the house, timing her steps to avoid the bad guys at just the right moments, giving herself tactical advantage.) Her expertise gives her full-advantage over the antagonist, when dealing with the peak of her dilemma.

Sean Bean, although only a small role, does a fine job portraying a character whom you don't know if you can trust or not. The entire movie, every time he enters a new scene, you're questioning his loyalty. The same goes for flight attendant in-training, Erika Christensen (who looks like Julia Stiles). Once the entire plane gets involved in her child's disappearance, the film presents alternate pathways in which the story could go - from terrorism to conspiracies to cover-ups. Unfortunately, large portions of the story's detail was conveniently left out, leaving us to question how certain events took place to bring everyone together. Even though the movie will keep you guessing most of the way through, there are large chunks of it that are painfully predictable. About the only thing that held my interest was the sheer size and overall design of the plane. Nearly all of this film takes place inside this huge aircraft, but you never feel claustrophobic. I felt myself itching for the moment when someone would venture down into the bowels of the jetliner, just so I could see what the off-limits area looks like.

Overall: very original story, intricate set design, predictable at times, cheesy but fulfilling ending, and satisfactory script. Not something I'll ever watch/rent again.

Movie Review: Man on Fire

Man on Fire (3/5 stars)
I must admit, this film was a lot different than I imagined it would be. It takes place in Mexico City, and involves an underground kidnapping-for-ransom problem (children and adults). With an R rating, this film was violent in spurts, all revenge-related, but nothing a desensitized mind can't handle. The director, Tony Scott (Deja Vu, Enemy of the State), uses his typical sharp/jumpy editing and rack-focus camera work throughout the entire film, which means I think it's over-done. Although, aside from that, I thought the cinematography was very beautiful, with strong color contrasts and monochromatic schemes, appropriate to the scene mood. At over two hours long, it doesn't feel lengthy by any means, but a lot of the film time was taken up by character development, which might be disappointing to people who are expecting an in-your-face action film.

Denzel Washington did a great job, of course, adhering to his typical forced-heroism role. Contrast to that, there is a scene in which his character portrays a moment of ultimate defeat, attempting the 'only-way-out'. Dakota Fanning is only in about half the movie (you can probably guess why from the premise), but as far as young actors go, I think she's fairly decent. She's a fast, articulate talker in everything I've seen her in, which to me screams intelligence hidden by a harmlessly cute facade. There are some very tender and cute moments of bonding between these two characters, thankfully not over-done by either actor or script direction. Rhada Mitchell plays the mother, and I always love her in anything, however similar she plays her characters in any genre. She gets one explosive scene in the whole movie, which was like a time-bomb, so much that it gives you a little jolt and a moment of panic.

Overall: good acting, beautiful cinematography, standard script, typical storyline but with a few twists, and decent ending. But because I gave it 3/5 stars, that means it's not something I'd ever watch or rent again.