Tag: english

Battle LA

June 30, 2011
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I think i’ve seen the trailer of this movie once quite long ago, not sure where, might’ve been on a flight back/to Japan, anyway, i decided i should check this out. I liked the old Independence Day movie, and this seemed just the same.

It is.

“World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles” is its full title, and the movie is just as original as its title shows (no matter the Original Film logo at the beginning). In the very first scenes an army guy uses the phrase “textbook military invasion”. Well, this movie is a “textbook military movie”.

There are invading aliens, there are the heroic marines who fight them, there are the poor civilians caught up inbetween (and of course the marines are trying to save them), there’s even the standard flashback to the day before the action starts so that the viewers will get attached to the characters (not happened), there’s the usual officer with a failure in his past that cost many lives…

It’s really a textbook military movie, but at least it doesn’t claim anything else. It was good enough.

Alice (the 2009 one)

June 30, 2011
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I checked the 2009 Alice movie, because why not, but after watching it i can tell you why not: it’s bad. Sad but true. It looks cool, but the only characters who had any kind of character to them were the (Mad) Hatter and the Knight, everyone else was either annoying, plain and/or stupid.

The movie’s a Hollywood touch on the Alice in Wonderland theme, set god knows how long after the “Alice of legends” set foot in Wonderland and stirred some trouble. Most characters show up again, but only in name, so even if there’s a Caterpillar, even if there’s a cat with the grin, they don’t play any role and are there just for being there.

The story is dumb, all the running around and trying to do something totally different every ten minutes doesn’t help either. It’s just the C-grade Hollywood stock and of course there’s a kissing scene too, telling the world again that the ideal American girl is a slut.

You shouldn’t watch this movie unless you have your girl (replace as fitting for your sexual preferences) beside you and you wouldn’t be watching the movie anyway.

Hardcover vs paperback

June 29, 2011
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I bought the first four volumes of the Song of Ice and Fire (you know, the Game of Thrones books) a while ago, and as i just started with the fourth, i checked out Amazon to get the fifth one. I know it’s not published yet, but it’d be nice to get my hands on it as soon as it is (though it might not have the best effects on my grades, released a week before my exams start), so i looked around for a paperback edition to match the other four. I found one, from some third party merchant who didn’t even bother to upload a cover picture and not to mention claims that it will be released a year from now. That wouldn’t be nice for sure, i’ll want to read it as soon as possible, but i’d prefer paperback.

First, the other four are paperback. Also, i like how paperback books show that they are used. They get worn much easier, but when it comes to my bag, so do hardcover books, and hardcover books look much worse when the binding’s edges get worn.

True, hardcover books are indeed stronger and probably last longer. But they don’t show use near as much as paperbacks and feel much less personal because of that. And they are heavier.

Either way, i’ll just get the hardcover anyway if i can’t get the paperback soon.

Shorts

June 22, 2011
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I’ll gotta go buy myself some shorts. I have three as of now, one decommissioned by the earlier accident with the lemonade bottle, one that’s both long and warm, so not really fit for a purpose, and one that is exactly the same color as the shirt i’m wearing today (green), so if i’d put that on i’d look like a humanoid spinach. Conclusion: i’ve to go buy some shorts.

Plans ruined

June 9, 2011
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I was planning to go to the gym in the second period today, then run a few miles on the grounds, but it was not meant to be. Even though i woke up in time, made myself a porridge (it’s been a while since i last done that) to fuel up, the gym was taken by a class, and thus my plans are ruined. This leaves me no choice but to either go in the fourth period or after classes. (And i’d prefer the latter then.) Damn.

Starbucks Caffe Verona

June 2, 2011
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After two years, i bought Verona again. Actually this was probably the first coffee i ever bought in a Starbucks, and until i tried Italian roast, definitely my favorite (not so definitely after that). I found a few beans in one piece in the ground package, and crunched them for the taste, and it was amazing. It’s roasted black, but it doesn’t have a hint of the dark charcoal taste typical of such roasts. It’s fresh, surely dark, but in a colorful way, something like watching colorful birds fly at dusk through a forest’s canopy. The espresso’s foam is darker than anything i’ve ever seen, and it emphasizes the dark, thick, somewhat chocolate-ish taste of the brew. The aroma itself reminds me of some sweetish cocktail that nevertheless kicks in so hard a few minutes later that you find yourself partying hard. It’s not as bitter as i’d have expected from such a dark roast. I definitely favor this over the bitter smokiness of Italian roast.

Summer

May 25, 2011
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Stuff that i’d translate: Kamisama Dolls, Blood-C, No. 6, Dantalian no Shoka, R-15. If they are not simulcasted, then it’s only a matter of which group will let me do it. R-15 would be on WhyNot, that’s for sure.

Stuff that could even end up good: Usagi Drop, Mayo Chiki, Nekogami Yaoyorozu, Nyanpire the animation, Sacred Seven. We’ll see.

That butterfly

May 23, 2011
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A small change can change a lot. For example, i had no stream for C thursday night, so i couldn’t start translating right away. I started Denpa Onna, and i could only do C after i was done with that. This meant that it was after nine in the morning that i was finished with my work – work that i usually finish before seven. And this way i couldn’t go to sleep, except for a few hours’ nap in the afternoon, which resulted in that i was totally worn out. Then in the night came the usual Hen Zemi shift, which by chance was full of crappy philosophical blogging, so it took ages to translate, and again it was damned late (or early, depending on perspective) by the time i got to bed. So i was again unusable all saturday, i couldn’t get Denpa translated again (yeah, i was stupid enough to pick it up for english to hungarian translation too). Sunday got even busier, with Ano Hana and Deadman Wonderland translations piling up on my drive for edit, not to mention the weekly Xros Wars and Exorcist fun. And now it’s late again, and i still have plenty to do. Stuff i should’ve done on saturday. If i weren’t half-dead then because of friday. And thus back to that C workraw. See, someone should’ve just killed that butterfly, before it swung its wings and created a hurricane in the mid-west.

Changes

May 22, 2011
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There’s a Neil Gaiman short story titled Changes in the book Smoke and Mirrors. It’s about a pill that lets people change their gender pretty much instantly. It’s such an interesting concept. Guys can switch to girl mode anytime, since we luckily have no periods nor can we get pregnant. But would it be possible for girls to evade their most hated few days of the month by changing into a guy? Or what would happen if a pregnant woman tried to change into male?

I know, it’s fantasy and so on, but just because it’s fantasy it doesn’t mean it’s illogical. Fantasy becomes fantasy from taking an axiom that our everyday world doesn’t have. For example, that someone has invented such a pill. Or that norse gods are still treading this earth. From there it’s all supposed to be perfectly logical.

Well, you could decide that the world is strictly illogical, but let’s say, that would be a bit too much brain-straining for entertainment.

Not fair

May 18, 2011
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Been watching Doctor Who (from the 2005 season) for a while now and it’s disturbing how inconsistent they can be at times with the rules of time travel in a series centered around time travel.

If a human goes back in time and saves someone who died, that creates a time paradox, with strange creatures appearing, the TARDIS becoming an ordinary wooden box and so on (cf. episode 1×08 Father’s Day). But if a time lord goes back in time, and saves people whose death had a significant impact on history, then nothing happens, except for a few words changing in future newspaper articles (cf. episode 4×16 Waters of Mars). Decide if changing the past creates a time paradox or just changes the future.

Also, why is the Doctor surprised at every single alien appearing in town, claiming “this shouldn’t be happening” or something along those lines, when he’s seen the future (damn, he was remembering the articles about the Mars expedition in the aforementioned episode), he strangely doesn’t know anything about events that concern him.