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Hello. I was sitting at my local big box coffee shop again when I had the idea to write this post. These are more random thoughts & various things that I wanted to write about.
- I was casually & very conspicuously staring at the FedEx deliveryman who was wearing a pair of unflattering FedEx uniform shorts. I was thinking to myself, as I was so obviously gawking at this harmless gentleman, that thank goodness it’s sunny outside because this guy needs to get some color on his pale legs. I also fleetingly thought he had a generic pair of typical men’s legs, very average. Please don’t ask me why I was staring at this guy specifically. I was sitting at the counter right next to the drinks drop-off area & was just casually observing all the people passing through the coffee shop.
- An older adult gentleman sat down in the seat next to me after picking up his mail from the post office next door. You can probably guess what happened next. Yes, I had to stick my nose in this guy’s private business & snoop at what he got in the post. I know it’s controversial (in some societal, moral, mannerly way) to be so blatantly staring at other people & their private business, but I am an observer. I like to observe the things & people around me. Some people call it “openly staring in a creepy way”. Other people call it “an invasion of privacy”. I call it “being aware of my surroundings”. I wasn’t purposely trying to look at this man’s mail, but he was practically flaunting it by putting it right inbetween us on the counter in plain view of us both. The packages & post were just begging to be ogled at by all eyes.
Illustration Credit: Rebecca Mock; Photo Credit: Pinterest & rebeccamock.blogspot.com
Illustration Credit: Scott Campbell; Photo Credit: Google Images & designtaxi.com
- As I’m typing this blog post, I’m listening to both the Midnight in Paris movie soundtrack & the Funny Face movie soundtrack (a.k.a. original motion picture soundtrack), both on Spotify. I’ve been listening to both soundtracks on repeat for the past couple of weeks. You should know me by now. Once I find something I like, I will stick to it until the very end of my days. So far I have two standout favorite songs, one from each soundtrack. On the Funny Face movie soundtrack, I love all of the songs, & can sing almost all of the songs by now, but my standalone favorite is “On How To Be Lovely”. On the Midnight in Paris movie soundtrack my favorite is “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)” the cover of the famous Cole Porter song.
- Last week I watched a highly anticipated movie. Based on my above mentioned icon, you can obviously guess which movie I’m talking about. Since I’ve been a long-time devoted fan of the original source material for this movie, I went into the theater with a lot of unrealistic expectations…meaning, I went to watch the movie with the mindset of comparing the movie adaptation of the original source material. That was a stupid thing for me to do. I should’ve just checked my over-zealous fangirl mentality at the door & enjoyed the movie for what it was, pure entertainment through & through. After watching said movie, I went through the initial period of picking apart the movie & comparing it nearly word-for-word to the source material. Once I got over all of those trival quips & squabbles, I was able to appreciate the movie for its own qualities. I enjoyed the movie so much so that I already pre-ordered the digital download on iTunes. Yeah, I enjoyed the movie that much. Also, I highly admire the creativity & talent of the source material’s creator & actors. I wanted those people to make money off of me & help their success grow, plain & simple.
- Adding on from the last bullet point, because I was so enamored with the movie I watched last week, I went back to re-examine the original source material the movie was based on. I’ve gained a new perspective from re-examining the source material, & it has made me fall in love even more than I already am. Re-reading the source material again (for the **th time) has had me re-thinking about various scenes & pick up small details that were previously misinterpreted &/or overlooked. I am now appreciating the source material in a whole new way.
- For the past few weeks I have been on a tortilla eating binge. We’ve been stocking our kitchen pantry with loads of soft, medium-sized tortillas & eating them like crazy, especially for lunch. I enjoy making sandwich wraps & mini lunch burritos with the tortillas, & on ocassion (like on the weekends) I like to make quesadillas. Lately, my favorite lunchtime meal has been making veggie wraps/burritos using either pre-packaged mixed salad greens or baby arugula, sliced white onions, & thinly sliced tomatoes. Sometime’s I’ll add some sort of salad dressing, but I mostly eat it plain (a.k.a. sans dressing/sauce). It’s like I’m making a mozzarella-less caprese salad wrap/burrito. This wrap is so extremely quick & easy to make (as well as eat), & I LOVE no-fuss recipes/meals. Any recipe that takes less than 10 minutes to prep & eat is a winner in my book, & this wrap is the best. I’ve been eating this salad-y wrap for lunch for the past two weeks & I’m still not tired of it. Sometimes I’ll add a slice or two of deli sandwich meat, but I mostly eat it plain, just veggies. I am by NO MEANS
a vegitarian. God knows I love a good slab of medium-rare steak (& other delicious meats), but this no-meat wrap is sooo tasty too.
Well, this concludes my random blog ramblings. Until next time, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
This inspiration hit me like a ton of bricks the other day, right after I took a shower to wash my hair. I was feeling so incredibly refreshed after washing my hair that I decided to write a post about it, but I couldn’t just write a bland post about hair washing, so I decided to include other things that made my heart flutter 『ドキドキ』 recently. Here is my shortlist.
Photo Credit: Pinterest
- That feeling you get after washing your really dingy, greasy hair. You know how there are times when you’ll wait a couple of days to wash your hair, to really build up the grunge? You know those times when you’re trying not to over-wash your hair & strip it of its natural oils, & then it’s the moment of truth, hair washing day. You really slather on the shampoo & really work up a good, thick lather. You massage your scalp & thoroughly rinse all the suds from your glorious mane. Then apply a fresh coat of conditioner. It’s that really squeaky clean, refreshed, weight-off-your-shoulders, relieved feeling you get after finally washing your hair once & for all.That’s the feeling I got a few days ago after washing my own hair. For some unknown reason, my hair was especially greasy & stringy that day. I had been trying to stretch out the days between hair washes because I don’t want to strip my hair of its natural oils & nutrients. I guess I probably applied too much anti-frizz oil from my previous hair styling, so it really built up greasiness on my scalp & hair. Oh man, I gotta tell you that I felt so extremely refreshed after washing my hair that day. It made me feel so incredibly overjoyed that it compelled me to write about it. My hair felt like I had just gone to the hair salon & had a professional stylist spruce it up for me. I felt like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders, & the semi-germophobe/neat freak inside of me was screaming with happiness that I was clean from head-to-toe once again.
- I got a new fragrance from BYREDO for Christmas from Jian. I’ve been wanting to try this Sunday Cologne scent for a very long time but always end up going back to my two favorite scents: Flowerhead & Black Saffron. Jian was generous to splurge on this fragrance for my Christmas gift, & I was so happy to be able to try it. This has been my go-to fragrance for this month. I love the gentle floral & slightly herbal notes of this fragrance. This fragrance provides a nice break between my other BYREDO fragrances, which are more strong on the sweet & floral notes. This fragrance makes me feel so light & happy. Also, the best part about this BYREDO fragrance, all of their fragrances, is they don’t give me any allergies. I am highly allergic to anything with a perfume smell & generic perfume in generall, so being able to find perfumes & colognes that don’t make me sneeze or make my skin itch is a win for me.
Took me 8+ hours (over a span of 4 days) to finish this set. It’s a little smaller than a typical LEGO set.
3. I’ve probably never mentioned this on my blog before, but I love collecting LEGO modular creator sets & building them. So far I have nine city building sets (Café Corner, Green Grocer, Grand Emporium, Pet Shop, Town Hall, Palace Cinema, Parisian Restaurant, Ace Brickman’s Detective Office, & Brick Bank), & currently Jian is building the newest addition to our collection, the 10th Anniversary Assembly Square. I’ve also got 3 world landmark sets including the one pictured above (India’s Taj Mahal, London’s Tower Bridge, & London’s Big ben).
This Big Ben modular set was one my all-time favorite sets to build so far. Pardon my language here, but this was a real bitch to build. There were quite a few custom brick pieces, & a lot of the bricks & tiles had to be placed diagonally. You know the neat-freak/compulsive organizer iniside of me had to make sure every diagonal section matched up perfectly. That made the building process a real pain in the ass. On top of that, there were so many repetitive sections to build that I was getting frustrated in the middle of building this set. However, once I completed building the set I felt so accomplished, & it was so rewarding. Surprisingly, my most favorite part to build of this entire set was the lone tree, not even the clock mechanism in the main tower. Also, building this set really ramped up my desire to visit England. I’ve been extremely wanting to visit London for many years, but building this set (as well as the Tower Bridge set) made me want to visit that city even more!
Photo Credit: Minimal Movie Posters
4. A couple of weeks ago I re-watched the movie Midnight in Paris again. I started watching the movie while I was taking a shower. Ok, so I didn’t exactly watch it when I was in the shower. I just proped up my tablet on the bathroom counter as close to my shower as possible & just let the movie play in the background while I was showering. I continued to watch the rest of the movie after I got out of the shower. I think I’ve probably watched this movie 7 or 8 times already, & I’m still not sick of it yet. I love all of the famous characters portrayed in this movie, & I especially love the aspect of traveling back in time to one’s favorite era.
If I could travel back in time, I would travel back to the 1950s-60s, but only if I would be spared the racial discrimination for being Asian…or, like if I slipped back in time to a place like the one portrayed in the movie Flower Drum Song. I wish I knew a guy like the movie’s character Gil Pender. I would love to explore Paris with him, & like he says in the movie, walk along the river with a baguette under my arm & sit at a café while scribbling away on a novel. That would be…lovely.
5. I’ve said in my previous post that I recently subscribed to a premium account on Spotify. I’ve talked on-and-on about how much I love the wide music selection on Spotify & the menu options & such. I just discovered the entire Midnight in Paris original motion picture soundtrack on Spotify, & it has made me so happy. Ever since I first saw this movie I had wanted to download the entire soundtrack on iTunes, but I never actually did it. Then, when I found out the entire soundtrack was available to listen on Spotify, I was over-the-moon with joy. I’ve probably listened to all the songs 20 times each since my Spotify discovery. I even listened to this soundtrack on repeat throughout the duration of my LEGO Big Ben build.Yes, I know it sounds weird to be listening to French classical music while I’m in the process of building a British historical landmark. I should’ve been listening to some Brit-Pop music like The Clash or the Arctic Monkeys instead, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m a creature of habit, as I’ve stated many times before, & I also love all of the songs from this movie. The music from this movie just puts me in a good mood, just like the music from the animated Pixar movie Ratatouille, which is also French in theme. (I am so envious that my mom got to visit Paris, France last year, even though I want to vist London, England more than any other place in the world.) Don’t laugh at me, but I’m listening to the Midnight in Paris soundtrack on Spotify right now, exactly as I’m typing this paragraph. I am currently listening to Can-Can From “Orpheus in the Underworld” as performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra on my Spotify app. See? I love this app. I’m using everyday to listen to all of my favorite music. I’ve hardly touched my iTunes app in the past month. All I can say now is that I am so happy I subscribed to Spotify.
Well, that’s all I have to say about that. I can’t believe that January just flew by like a crazy bat out of hell. I hope February doesn’t slip by so quickly. Until then, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
As you may or may not know, lately I’ve been taking more frequent baths. I truly enjoy my sacred bath time. I take my time to set-up the bathroom for a high level of relaxation & fun. I always place my bath towel in the exact same spot (even when I take my showers); I put out my soaps & hair care products in strategic places around the bathtub, so I won’t have to get up every five minutes to grab something. I also bring in my plastic stool to prop up my tablet for optimum movie watching. Which brings me to the next topic because I almost always watch a movie, TV show, or some sort of video while I’m taking a bath.
I am an absolute creature of habit. Sometimes, I’ll venture out & watch a movie I’ve never seen (& often have never heard of) before. The most recent “new” movie I watched was one on Netflix called “Final Girl“. The movie features: Abigail Breslin (Scream Queens), Wes Bentley (American Horror Story), Alexander Ludwig (The Hunger Games), & Francesca Eastwood (yes, Clint Eastwood’s daughter). I most certainly am not a fan of slasher-thriller type movies; I especially despise movies that involve a crazed madman chasing a woman through the woods. However, this movie was actually surprisingly entertaining to watch. I enjoyed the chemistry & the relationship between Abigail & Wes’ characters. That’s probably one of the few movies I’ve watched outside of my self-prescribed rotating list of movies I like to watch while I’m taking a bath.
Another movie (not on my list) that I’ve watched recently is “Rust and Bone“, starring: Marion Cotillard (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Midnight in Paris) & Matthias Schoenaerts (Far From The Madding Crowd, The Drop, Bullhead). I absolutely loved this movie & am considering buying the digital download for my movie collection. The slow-building romance between the two main characters is so achingly beautiful, painful & raw at the same time. I truly & completely loved the ending of the movie. It was because of the ending scenes that made me swoon over Matthias Schoenaerts’ character. I’m not going to give away too much of the movie & let you watch it for yourself. I will just add at the last minute that Marion Cotillard is one of my favorite actresses, & that is all.
I have no problems whatsoever with watching a movie multiple times, especially if it’s a movie I thoroughly enjoy. I think I can get quite picky borderline annoying regarding the movies I choose to watch, but when I find one I truly like &/or love, I can watch that movie over & over again without getting sick of it. There are just some movies that stick with me for a long time, & I will have no problem watching that movie several times (consecutively, sometimes). Jian often does not share my taste in movie genres or story lines, so we often watch our movies separately. We enjoy watching current box office movies together, & on that regard, we do enjoy the same now-in-theaters movies. However, when it comes to movie rentals or On Demand cable TV movies, we can never agree on much.
I end up watching most of my movies while I’m taking a bath. That’s the perfect time to squeeze in one of my movies on my tablet, while Jian is occupying the home TV to play video games or watch his silly Comedy Central TV shows. I have noticed, during my most recent bath sessions, that I’ve been frequently cycling through the same few movies over and over. Jian often teases me mercilessly over my movie choices. He sometimes wonders aloud why I am watching that movie again. I have a difficult time explaining to him why I enjoy watching the same movies multiple times without him teasing me for being so predictable & routine. Therefore, I watch my movies in secret; often times when he’s at work, or other times when I’m taking my baths. I’m not ashamed of watching the same movies over & over again. I just don’t like listening to Jian openly tease me about it, or listen to him complain that I’m controlling the TV with things that only I want to watch.
So I’ve made up a list of movies that I call my guilty pleasures movies, even though I don’t feel guilty about them at all. I will say one thing, please excuse my selection of movies. My taste in movie genres, like my musical taste, runs all over the map. So forgive me if the list bounces around & possibly gives you an eye strain. Cheers.
1. Midnight in Paris: I have seen this movie at least twice in the past month. I just love the plot to this movie. Hopping into a time-traveling taxi & hob-knobbing with the notable celebrities of one’s favorite “golden age” era. Falling in love in the rain in the middle of Paris with the Eiffel Tower twinkling in the background. How romantic is that? This movie makes me wish I could take a vintage taxi & travel back in time to my favorite time in history & just soak up the atmosphere for a little while before slipping back into the harsh, gritty reality of the present.
image credits belong to: Minimal Movie Posters at www.minimalmovieposters.tumblr.com
2. You’ve Got Mail: I have watched this movie several times on TV, & I find it endearing each time I watch it. It breaks my heart when Meg Ryan’s character has to close her quaint little bookshop, but it also brightens my heart when she develops a friendship with Tom Hanks’ character that evolves into love. I enjoy the simplicity of emails & instant messaging…long before the days of SnapChat & texting/sexting. I can see how this movie can feel so out-dated when you see the main characters using big, chunky IBM laptops with a dial-up modem, & they still have to log-on to AOL. However, I find that aspect charming, & it hits close to home, as I’ve done such things (like instant messaging & chatroom conversations) with ex-boyfriends past. This is overall a “cute” movie that I wouldn’t turn away from if it aired on TV again.
image credits belong to: Minimal Movie Posters at www.minimalmovieposters.tumblr.com
3.The Boat That Rocked (a.k.a. Pirate Radio): This movie renewed my interest (& semi-passion) in music from the 1950s & 60s. I grew up listening to my local “oldies” radio station all throughout my Elementary school years. A girl, who was my best friend at the time, & her mother both got me into music from that era. The girl’s mother had a vintage record player & would let us listen to all of her vintage (& original) Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, & The Association vinyl records. I fell in love with the music & started listening to my local “oldies/classic” radio station on my walkman at night. Of course when I got into Junior High School & High School, it was uncool to listen to anything but the Top 40 hits, so I quickly started listening to whatever was popular on the radio station to fit in with the rest of the kids at school. After watching this movie, it just reaffirmed my love of the music from the 1950s & 60s. While watching this movie, I was surprised that I could actually sing along to some of the songs played throughout the movie. Needless to say, I downloaded the soundtrack almost immediately after watching the movie. This movie also reminded me of a time when I wanted to become a radio station deejay. I enjoy watching this movie because it lets me live vicariously through the rebel deejays during the musical revolution of the 1960s in the UK.
image credits belong to: Minimal Movie Posters at www.minimalmovieposters.tumblr.com
4.Secretary: I can attest that I am not a masochist, nor am I a submissive to anyone’s domination. However, I don’t mind a little kinky fuckery every now and again. This movie will always be at the top of my “Top 10 Movies” list. Hands down. I love this movie so much, yet I can’t find the apt words to describe how I feel about it. Sometimes, I feel lost in life like Maggie Gyllenhal‘s character from this movie, but I most certainly do not feel the need to cut or burn myself just to feel any emotion at all. I am often intrigued by the mysterious, dominating, intimidating, powerful, sexual types like James Spader’s character from this movie. How would I react if I had an employer who acted that way around me? Would I be fearful & afraid? Or would I be turned on & motivated just like the main character in this movie? The slow-burning, highly erotic romance that develops between the two main characters in this movie turn me on. I’d love to be in an all-consuming, passionate to the point of heartbreaking, relationship just like the two main characters. Two people who know how & when to push each others buttons, but only to bring pleasure, not to cause harm…& to help one another not only grow within themselves, but grow to love the other unselfishly & unconditionally. Plus, the spanking’s hot too.
image credits belong to: Minimal Movie Posters at www.minimalmovieposters.tumblr.com
5.Music And Lyrics: The first time I watched this movie was on a flight to Japan. I was skeptical to watch this movie at first because I am not a big fan of movies with Drew Barrymore. However, I ended up thoroughly enjoying this movie. Recently, during one of my bath sessions, I re-watched this movie & grew to like it even more. What’s more is that I can’t get the Pop song from the movie out of my head, & I’ve been humming the song to myself on & off a lot lately…you know that song: “Pop Goes My Heart” by the fictional Pop group POP! from this very movie. I remember once, when I was a teenager, trying to write my own song lyrics. I had no clue on where to start. Do I create a background melody first? Or do I write the words first? My attention span at that age was so short, I gave up before I even put pen to paper. I will say that watching this movie makes song lyrics writing look fun (stressful, yet fun). Also, I found Hugh Grant’s character to be funny, cute & a little charming. I love how his character can easily make fun of himself & his past career as a cheesy 80s Pop idol. This movie is both cute & fun to watch, just to pass the time, for a good laugh, or if you’re stuck on a boring plane ride.
image credits belong to: Jon Glanville on Flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/27980022@N04/
6. Battle Royale (a.k.a. BR I): I said earlier on in this blog post that I dislike slasher movies, however, this movie was so beautifully done that it has become one of my all-time favorite movies. Director Kinji Fukasaku unfortunately passed away before the completion of filming the sequel Battle Royale II: Requiem, but his memory plays on through this iconic film. This is surely a tale of love & survival. If you thought The Hunger Games was cruel & unusual punishment, then you haven’t seen this movie. Battle Royale puts the Hunger Games to shame, even though they share similar traits in how these “games” are set-up. Both games are set up as follows: 1. Game contestants are selected at random. However, in BR, instead of selecting competitors by ‘district’, each group of contestants are young students who are selected by school, grade level & classroom, & they are stranded on a deserted island. 2. Whomever is the last person standing is the victor of the games. 3. Use any means &/or weapon necessary to become the last person standing at the end of the games. However, unlike The Hunger Games, in BR, you already start with your own survival pack complete with a weapon, a map, a compass, food rations, & a bottle of water. Also, you have a tracking collar locked around your neck, & at different intervals throughout the day, different spots on the island become hot zones which will cause anyone within that hot zone to detonate the explosives within the collar.
Like in The Hunger Games, there is a romantic couple that arises, who become each others’ allies & help each other survive the game. Yes, these two young characters witness some of their closest friends die right before their eyes, but that only hardens their resolve to stay alive. These two star-crossed lovers vow to protect each other & stay by each other’s side no matter what. They vow to fight together against the jaded, corrupt adults who created this game to rid Japan of its troubled, lazy, & unmotivated youth. From the moment that I first saw this movie, I fell in love with actor Tatsuya Fujiwara & his acting. Tatsuya is brilliant in this movie (as well as in his other movie roles), but alongside actress Ai Maeda, & the pair make a heartbreaking hero-heroine couple. Just to warn you, this movie is extremely graphic, violent, gory (& vulgar in some areas). The most iconic scene in the movie is when Chiyaki Kuriyama’s character stabs another boy in the crotch with an ice pick, crying out that he will never get to touch her. It was because of Chiyaki’s character in this movie that prompted director Quentin Tarantino to specifically create the character GoGo Yubari in the movie Kill Bill Vol. 1 just for Chiyaki…& also as an homage to her BR character. I couldn’t end this without mentioning the perpetually depressed & angry Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takeshi). When I first saw him in this movie, I thought he was so cold-hearted, unfeeling, & cruel; yet, the more I watched him, the more I wanted to reach out & hug him…to show him some sort of affection his daughter (the ones both on & off screen) never gave him. It is so heart-wrenching to see a man fall to his knees, desperately searching for a young daughter’s affection & attention, & the one who showed him any compassion at all ended up being the one who ended him.
image credits belong to: Minimal Movie Posters at http://www.minimalmovieposters.tumblr.com
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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