a short year-end note

hmm…

we all know that 2009 has been a tough year in many ways (obituaries, stomach-turning news, calamities, economic downturn, gloomy projections, etc.). and like always, we steel ourselves for rough times, being fully aware that it won’t be the first nor the last time things have turned/will turn sour on us. 

so i was rather gloomy as the december rolled in. basically i have no high expectations; i just want to go through this holiday season with my equilibrium intact, and maybe just enough dough to buy something interesting to mark the occasion.

i suppose being ready for bad news ready does work wonders for your peace of mind. when something bad happens, you can always write it down under the heading of “Expected Misfortunes“, then shrug it off and muddle your way through the rest of year. and when something unexpected good happens, it lights up your life like a 10,000-KW beacon!

i wish i could say that something reaaaallly good had happened to me — like winning the lottery or winning something significant in our office chirstmas raffle for a change (fat chance!). naahh, stuff like that never happens to me.

and yet, for some unknown reason, a few things actually turned out better than i had expected, and i am quite grateful for that. and there’s also a feeling of gratification that you made somebody’s day because you were able to give him/her something.

also, i did manage to buy something nice for myself (a 32gb Ipod Touch, yay!) after going through my budget with a fine-toothed comb. it was touch and go there for a while, but i was able to able scrape through.

ok. i know i said this was gonna be short, but i still have one thing to add:

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone, and HAVE a GREAT NEW YEAR ahead!

wanna go see "Where the Wild Things Are"?

i’m hearing a lot of good things about Where the Wild Things Are, which is based on a popular children’s book (1963) by Maurice Sendak (though i must admit, i haven’t read this one). so, depending on my schedule and the weather, i might just watch this cute feature film this weekend

This animated/live action/CGI movie features features the voices of max records (Max), catherine keener (connie, his mom), james gandolfini (carol), catherine o’hara (judith), mark ruffalo (connie’s boyfriend), forest whitaker (ira), chris cooper (douglas).

Where the Wild Things Are, which is directed by Spike Jonze, is currentlydoing well in the box office and has garnered mostly good reviews from critics.

another day, another year…

and so another cycle begins…

so what else is there to say about a year that has had too much exclamation points in it to qualify for convenient labels? nothing much — except maybe to wait  for something more earth-shattering to happen that will make the preceding year pale in comparison.

ah well… let the madness begin (again).

zac e. is 17 again!

catching a weekend movie has always been a convenient way for me to unwind after topsy-turvy week, and this weekend was no different than the hundreds of weekends that came before. this time, however,i decided to go with the flow and watched 17 Again (i just couldn’t convince myself to watch Friday the 13th, and i had already seen Fast and Furious.)

ok. bottomline, 17 Again is not as bad as i had initially feared it would be. in fact, there were moments when i actually thoroughly enjoyed myself — due largely to the hilarious antics of the support characters, particularly thomas lennon, who plays mike mcdonnell’s (zac efron, who else?) rich, nerdy friend, and melora hardin, who plays his love interest.

this is not to say that zac efron is a total  waste. actually, i was kind of pleasantly surprised at how seemingly easy it was for him to carry this movie. this time, he shows a bit more range — not that i’d seen any of his movies (High School Musical trilogy, Hairspray), except maybe for those vid snippets that clog Youtube. the kid’s definitely got that X factor, which should serve him well in this business if he plays his cards right.

notwitstanding the screaming girls (and they can get pretty loud), the story is snappy and engaging enough — it’s the latest entry in a long list of body swap/time travel movies (Big, Back to the Future, 13 Going 30, etc.) — and zac efron does well enough to hold your interest when he’s onscreen. and there’s even a funny subplot to keep you chuckling like a loon in spite of the film’s predictable inanities.

aside from thomas lennon and melora hardin,17 Again’s support cast also includes matthew perry (as the older mike mcdonnell), leslie mann, and michelle trachtenberg. this film should keep the ‘tweens and teenagers hopping. and for sci-fi/fantasy fans… well, let’s just say, you’ll find something here that you’re going to connect with

in these hard times…

earlier this evening, i was idly scanning news headlines to pass the time, but this bold banner made me do a double take.

“13-Year-Old Boy Accused of Robbing Illinois Bank” (Reuters)

i was like — whoah! surely, this must be a joke(?). as in really? a 13-year-old could plan this, and actually do it? that kid sure has balls.

wow. either this boy is some precocious, felon-in-the-making or just a misguided youth hoping to find a short cut to his problems (hopefully, it’s the latter). or this could be hard proof that we’re really living in desperate times these days — even a pubescent takes to crime as easily as he might have watched a concert or planned an outing or something. one wonders what he’ll do next when he’s older and begins to encounter tougher problems.

*sigh*