Try to remember the last time a children's movie made you cry

That's how I felt when I saw the new Pixar film, Brave. As of now, Brave is by far what I'd like to call a masterpiece by Pixar Animation Studios. The animation: Stunning and beautiful. Story: Amazing, touching, dramatic, and comedic at the same time. Characters: Also amazing and at a lot of times, hilarious.

Brave focuses on Pixar's first princess, Merida. She's a wild Scottish teenage girl who loves nothing more than just to be the free spirit that she is. Yet she's constantly pushed by her mother to be a proper princess. It doesn't exactly help that she's now pressured to pick a prince from three other clans to take her hand in marriage. Obviously, Merida wants absolutely nothing to do with marriage and just wants to be free. So she runs off to find some way to change her fate, yet little does she know that her desire for freedom could put her family in danger.

Now I won't give too much of the plot away, but trust me when I say it's nothing like I've ever seen in a kids' film before. It has the best visuals Pixar's had in its movies yet and a story that brought me to tears at the end. And I can't remember the last time a movie for kids made me do that. Of course it has a lot of humor that kids will enjoy too (Now if only parents would learn to keep them quiet in movie theaters..).

And of course with a new Pixar film there is a new Pixar short. This one is the best I've ever seen. It's titled La Luna and it follows a trio of (stereotypical) Italians on a boat ride in the middle of an ocean. The trio is a little boy with his father and grandfather, and they ascend up to the moon to sweep the stars that have fallen on the moon that gives off its light. Again, won't say how it ends but trust me when I say it's beautifully done and really cute.

So if you haven't seen it yet, go see Brave!

I'm Baman. I'm Piderman!

I just saw The Amazing Spider-man last night. AND IT WAS WORTH BEING UP UNTIL ONE IN THE MORNING!

It is truly better than the original by a thousand times and that's no exaggeration. Everything about it was great. A fantastic mix of comedy, drama and action along with probably the best imagery I've seen in a film so far. It follows the original comics with a fantastic story line that makes you laugh but also brings so much emotion and suspense when it needs to be serious. Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-man was, of course, amazing and better than Tobey Maguire could ever do. I usually don't like Emma Stone with some of the roles she's picked in movies, but Gwen Stacy was perfect for her. She could totally use more serious roles like that and she looks so much better as a blonde. Oh, and The Amazing Spider-man has the best Stan Lee cameo ever. I won't spoil it but trust me when I say that it's freaking hilarious. Overall, one of the best films of 2012 and I can't wait to see it come out on DVD. Oh, and avoid 3D if at all possible. We had to change shows cause it was really hurting our eyes.

For the next big movie to come out is of course, Dark Knight Rising. Our movie theater is doing an event the night it opens where you see (in order) Batman Begins, Dark Knight and finally, Dark Knight Rising. Three two-hour movies for twenty dollars is actually a good deal. Now if only I could have the stamina to endure 6 hours of Batman. I know my sister's gonna attempt that so... lol. I still haven't seen Batman Begins and I feel slightly ashamed of myself because I've seen Dark Knight a million times.

God, superheroes are just the obsession right now in my household lol

So in celebration of the new Spider-man movie, one episode of a series of flash videos called Baman Piderman. It's about... I really don't know how to explain but it's freaking hilarious. Just watch.

Well Hello There~

So my summer's going by kinda slow-ish since we got back from Maui and I really don't have much going on since Maui was just the big vacation we got out of the way. Next week our parents want to fly out to Yosemite for the weekend. Yes, fly. My step dad has a pilot's license and can fly one of those small planes. God this is gonna be painful. Yes it's nice not to spend four hours driving and swerving through mountains. It's not nice to be in a tiny cramped plane for a long time and I slowly become extremely claustrophobic. Not like to the extent where I need a hospital or anything. I just get really uncomfortable being in a tiny space. Whatever, beats being on the road for four hours going through the mountains.

So recently it's just been watching assorted crap on Netflix and summer homework which is slowly but surely being accomplished. I finally understand what to do for a "response log" and I can actually do it for once.

Kay so I think I need something to "spice up" this blog. Something to make it interesting. Any suggestions? Maybe I could start sharing awesome videos of stuff like music and what not. Y'know what? I'm gonna do that.

This is from an anime I watched called Elfen Lied and it's the opening song in its music box version. Enjoy. <3

Sunset from our condo

Yep. Been home for a couple days from Maui and now I'm getting around to blogging about it and sharing some pics.

I gotta tell you. Five hours on a plane is crazy. I was so exhausted and hungry. Doesn't help that the complimentary meal was a dry turkey sandwich. Oh well. Just landing in Hawaii you can feel the humidity; something I really didn't miss leaving the Midwest.

For the week, we rented a condo at Wailea on the island of Maui. Which by the way, I totally recommend Wailea for anyone to vacation to when going to Hawaii. Lots of beaches and other places around the island of Maui. It's really beautiful. Plus the condo we got was awesome. Great view of the sunset for us photographer junkies and it had a kitchen for nights when we didn't want to leave and go some place fancy to eat. Speaking of, that night we went to a restaurant called The MonkeyPod for dinner our first night. I was half dead until I realized I ordered a burger with a lot of mushrooms on it but it was total bliss.

For a surfer who died

Next day was our first exploring around the area for beaches and other areas. We first went to a beach near some hotels, and then a more remote beach with a lot of rocks and crazy waves that wasn't really suit for swimming that much. But it was good for exploring and taking photographs. We actually saw wild goats which were cute and on the right is one of the two crosses we found. You see them a lot driving by beaches so I guess it's a warning to know where it's safe to surf and when. The last beach we went to had extremely large waves so we just did some sun bathing and shell collecting. Unfortunately I got my shoulders burned in the process and it stung so much. Luckily aloe vera works wonders so now it's gone.

By a body of water..

After that, we decided the next day to go on a trip to a little place called "the road to Hana". For anyone not knowing what I'm talking about, I'm talking about a road swerving through the mountains of Maui to a small town called Hana on the other side of the island. It's like driving through Costa Rica except slightly safer: lots of mountains, lots of swerving and turns, and being practically in the middle of nowhere for hours. We got to the black sand beach, yet just as we began relaxing, it started to rain. Talk about bad luck, huh?! As we hurried back to the car, Marina noticed her big toe hurting a lot and swelling. It wasn't until we got to a park a small drive away from the beach that we found out that it was from a honeybee sting... How that works? Well, bees in Maui are huge and black. And when I say huge, I mean stupidly huge. No joke. So as it turns out, my sister is now allergic to bees.
After turning back to get Benadryll, we decided to call it a day and drive back to Wailea before it got dark... That is of course after some brief stops by some beaches for more photos. Hence the picture of the sign with the foul language. Haha!

And let's see... More going to beach, going around the mall nearby, looking through art galleries, got a pretty Hawaiian dress...

And once again we decided to go through the mountains to see a big crater created by volcanoes, but sadly we weren't informed that high up in the mountains meant extremely cold weather and it didn't help that we were in shorts and T's. So we took pictures from an observatory and got the heck outta there. It wasn't a total loss though because we came across a garden on the drive back and decided to take a peek, and it was totally worth it. To the right, of course, is one of the tikis from that garden. There were so many flowers that I probably have a hundred photos of. There was even a cage of doves and lovebirds and a pond of koi fish. I'd put all of those pics in this post but I have so many. Perhaps I'll do a different post and share some of those pics. Oh and for dinner we went to a place called Cheeseburger: Island Style in Wailea which serves awesome burgers. Oh, and below is something I came across the menu that I just had to take a picture of. And yes, I'm talking about the Cheeseburger Challenge.

Anyone care for a 30 dollar heart attack? :D

And the day before we went back to San Jose, we drove out to a placed called Lahaina for more exploring, shopping and viewing art galleries. We went to a place called Maui Swiss Cafe for a small bite to eat and me and my sister shared a crepe filled with Nutella and bananas, and it was pure bliss. It was really cute because the owner of the restaurant had a dog named Mahina who knew she's not allowed in so she was just literally millimeters away from the tile floor. Lahaina is another tourist destination filled with shops and people. It's even home to the third largest tree in the world which we heard from a local that parts of it had to be chopped down or else all of Lahaina would've been just a giant tree. It truly is amazing.

And of course, the next day we went home to California and the best part is it was raining and we saw a rainbow before we had to leave.

Overall, it was an amazing trip and I really want to go back to Hawaii again sometime in the future. Aloha.

Best weekend with my dad. Seeing him in person for the first time in two years is probably the best feeling I've ever had. If I could do it again, I would. What's even better is that he told us he gets 3 weeks of vacation, so he can come out and visit again. I'd really love to see him again.

The first day he was here, we went to Denny's for lunch where I had this grilled cheese sandwich with cheese sticks in it... By far the most disgustingly delicious sandwich in the universe. Hahaha! So when Marina had to go do graduation practice, I stayed with Dad at the hotel and watched Ninja Warrior. Best show ever made by the Japanese. It's basically Wipe Out but super serious and extremely challenging. It actually requires intense strength.

Later that night, we went out to a small sushi restaurant called Sushi Ichiban. I'm surprised I was able to have room for desert after all that sushi. It was so yummy~! For dessert we ordered ice cream mochi and this ice cream cone fish with vanilla ice cream and red bean paste inside with whipped cream.

Food porn. Haha!

After my last final on Friday, summer officially began. I just spent the afternoon with my dad, got Mickey D's, roamed WalMart, and Dad got two cups of coffee along the way.

Later we went to Marina's graduation, which was really brief and to be honest, I only got interested when Marina's name was called for her to get her diploma. There were a lot of people there so we had to sit in the very back and we could barely hear any of the speeches. Most I remember is something about fruit and trout... Don't ask. We all went out to California Pizza Kitchen (NOT CHICKEN!) but by then we were all tired and close to passing out. So I spent the night at my dad's hotel room.

Next morning I went out with my dad and his awesome friend, who helped bring him out to California, to breakfast and spent the morning with them. At noon, we went back to the house for Marina's graduation party. My mom outdid herself once again cooking a mass amount of food that was all good. For some reason, we started watching Bollywood films via Netflix. Not that that's a bad thing but.. yeah. Bollywood.

After the party, me and Marina spent the rest of the night with Dad before he had to go to bed because his shuttle was going to pick him up at four in the morning. Disney movies and Dad trying In-n-Out for the first time since before we were born. He arrived back in Florida a while ago so it's great to hear that he got home safe.

So summer time.. Wee. Hopefully I can be able to put behind the tragic school year behind and look ahead to my junior year. Unfortunately, it's kinda difficult with a new burden on a lot of people's shoulders now. On Friday, we lost another student. A junior (became senior) named Orlando Hernandez committed suicide. Why? No one knows and I'm scared if anyone does find out why he did it. Now I'm just freaking upset that not only is this the fourth tragedy to happen at this school, but because he took away his own life. And only Orlando and God know why he did what he did.

Ugh, I just wanna stop thinking about it so I don't depress myself..

Anyway back to happy stuff.

Going to Hawaii on Tuesday with the family. Spending a week there and gonna enjoy it and take tons of pictures.

Cause once it ends, SUMMER VACATION STARTS!!!

On Thursday, my dad and his friend are going to be flying in to see Marina's graduation, and I'm really ecstatic. I haven't seen my dad in two summers which was about when I started this blog and it's gonna be great to see him again. This Saturday, we're having a huge graduation party. I know my mom's gonna have her work cut out for her to cook a lot. Thank God she loves barbecuing.

After that, we're gonna spend the rest of the weekend with Dad until he goes back to Florida and two days or so after that, we go to Hawaii!! We're going to the island of Maui and getting a condo for a week while we just enjoy the start of summer vacation in the Pacific.

And after that... Well I don't think we have much else to do besides that. I know I'm going to be pretty loaded with summer homework for my AP classes, so better to get to it sooner than later cause it's all tedious work.

Oh! And I know I want to see some movies this summer like Snow White and the Huntsman and The Amazing Spider-Man. And maybe I'll finally catch up on some anime that I've been lacking to do in months and update my anime review blog ^^;.... Yeah..

Now I'm Sad...

So school's gonna end in a week, and as the year's coming to a close, I look back and see all the ups and downs... And then lunch hit today and now the 2011-2012 school year has just had it's purely crappy moments. First, we lost Tara Romero in a drive-by shooting. Then, Sierra LaMar goes missing and is still missing and a suspect in her case is being charged for murder and kidnapping with the death penalty in his face. And now we just lost another teen this morning from heart failure.


His name was Adnan Khairullah. I wasn't friends with him but I always saw him most every day. He was just a sophomore. A nice looking Indian kid who was always in a wheelchair and smiling. I just saw him as a kid with special needs... But God if only I knew.. And he was just at school yesterday too. As if that isn't painful enough.


I heard from other kids who went to middle school with him that even then they knew he had heart disease and probably didn't have enough time to live. Yet, all I remember is him smiling. I never knew he was hiding that pain. At least he looked like he lived a happy life despite what was happening with his body. And now at least he doesn't have to go through that crap anymore. I know God has him in a safe place where he can be happy for all eternity.


R.I.P Adnan Khairullah <3