Toy Story 3

certainly does not fail to entertain. Plus there's a little Spanish number to spice things up.

And at the end of it all, it makes you wanna go home and give your toys a pat on the heads, your teddies a hug and a squeeze, your barbie(s) a stroke or 2 of her long silky hair...

Oh, but wait. 

You recall most if not all of them are already in the incinerator...

C'est la vie.

My Rating:

Byousoku 5 centimeter

"It's the speed cherry blossom petals fall at. They fall at five centimeters per second.  

Rain falls at five centimeters per second. Clouds fall at one centimeter per second."

One of the best anime movie I have ever seen. A favorite.

Some doors are not meant to be opened

Watched Coraline over the weekend and I loved it!

It's a stop-motion horror-fantasy film based on Neil Gaiman's novel. I can't recall where I first read about it but I knew right away I wanted to watch it. I even had the urge to buy the book beforehand but refrained myself as it was a pretty slim book but not with a "slim" price tag.

(Did I mention I'm quite a fan of Neil Gaiman's works and already own 4 of his books? I've also read the 1st volume of his famous Sandman series and would love to read more. No to forget liking his novel-turned-movie aka Stardust too.)

At first I thought Coraline would be somewhat the imagination of Coraline herself ala Pan's Labyrinth (which I also find very interesting) as they both shared similar secret-door-plots. Turned out it was all very real for Coraline. Refreshing indeed.

The stop-motion work looked super complicated but the outcome awesome; so much so that Coraline was a nominee of the Best Animated Feature in the 2009 Oscar. The story is well woven and you can totally feel the excitement, the awe, the funnies, and definitely the creepiness. I don't think I can look at rag dolls with buttons for eyes the same way again!

They even made the film in 3D but too bad I don't remember where I chucked my cardboard 3D glasses from  some Bug-Magazine heydays (Can anyone remember what the magazine was called? Came with pieces of fluorescent spider parts with each volume and you'd build yourself a giant fluorescent spider...) Anyways, what I wanted to say was I wouldn't mind re-watching it in 3D ☺

Lastly may this film be a warning to all; don't go opening secret, sealed doors -- if there were nothing to hide, they wouldn't have been sealed off in the first place!

And here's the trailer for you:

My Rating:

Thanks For The Tip

We've all heard of horror stories of what might go into your food - or where your food might have been to before ending on your table - if you so much as irked the person who served you...

Let me tell you; they are TRUE! 

So don't ever be nasty to them, just sit at the designated tables rather than insisting on some "feng-shui" table with a big RESERVED sign on it already.

I've never worked in the service line but apparently according to Dublanica, each server even the kitchen staff have their life-stories. No one in their mind would have imagined themselves working as a permanent waiter/waitress in their late-thirties to begin with.

Even the customers have theirs too. Don't think for a second there's no one else hearing in on your conversations in a restaurant. Of course, they're probably unintentional. Still don't be mentioning about killing someone either *winks

Oh, if you think you have some tricks up your sleeves to earn a free meal or some compensations by feigning food poisoning, think again. 

If you're sure you're not being ripped off during special occasions like Valentine's Day, then just recall if you'd ever had a special Valentine's Day meal that tasted superbly delicious? No? Then you'd been ripped off!

The food many kitchens prepare on that holiday are often items they make only a couple of times a year. If your chef hasn't had the practice of making the same dish day in and day out, your entree's probably going to taste like...

And the biggest myth of all; you know how we always joked that we'll just wash the dishes if we do not have money to pay the bill, haha it will never happen!

P/S: The book comes with  tips on how to be a good customer, ways to tell if you're working in a good restaurant, details to spot to raise an alarm about the cleanliness of a restaurant, and etc.

My Rating:

1 day to Eat, 3 days to Pray, 5 days to Love

That's the time I took to finish reading each part. It started out really exciting with lot's of fun and humor but somehow it ended sounding a tad too good to be true and too "self-help-y" (hence the slowed down in the page turning rate)

I loved her days spent in Italy without a care and just enjoying the moments, eating good food and discovering the place. The descriptions of Piazza Barberini (been there), the passionate albeit cursing crowd at a football match (done that - twice), the beauty of Italian language and the humor she injected in her sentences made life sounded so wonderful that anyone would want to pack their bags and fly off immediately to join her (provided they have the $$ of course).

Okay, I might be a little over-excited since I'd been to Rome and absolutely loved the place. So it's not wonder I gobbled up the pages in a day. Perhaps the expectation was what caused the downfall.

Off she flew to India next where she spent her days meditating and practicing yoga. All the peace and quiet and serenity went down well with me though somehow it was not as gripping. Call me cynical but I wonder if one can really encounter all the goodness of being found, of feeling nirvana and achieving enlightenment in a short span of 3-4 months. And the way she told it, seemed like she was the chosen one to begin with. 

Her days in Bali were kinda draggy, living the high life similar to an expat retiree. Yet something was missing. Everything in life was just falling perfectly in place for her. Too perfect. And yes, she found love....

Still it's a pretty decent read. Who doesn't want to imagine taking a year off just for self-discovery, right? If you can't do it, then read about it. It has also been made into a movie, starring Julia Roberts...

*detours to check out trailer

Looks interesting - which trailer doesn't - but even though I started out looking forward to watching it the cinema, I guess I will have to see what happens when it happens ☺

My Rating: