Movie Review

The Relic
Summary

• At Chicago's Natural History Museum, a bunch of crates arrive from South America, containing some findings from one of the researchers at the museum. The crates arrive with very little inside, and that is deemed suspicious. On the cargo ship that brought the crates, there were 2 murders that took place and a murder inside the museum. Investigating the case is Lt. Vincent D'Agosta, who's a lieutenant with the Chicago Police Dept, and helping him is Dr. Margo Green, who is a researcher at the museum. And somehow, there is a large, massive, gruesome creature lurking in the museum on the eve of a benefit gala the mayor is due to attend. I give this movie a 5 out of 5 star rating, it was totally awesome!

Cast

• Penelope Ann Miller: Dr. Margo Green
• Tom Sizemore: Lt. Vincent D'Agosta
• Linda Hunt: Dr. Ann Cuthbert
• James Whitmore: Dr. Albert Frock
• Chi Muoi Lee: Dr. Greg Lee
• Robert Lesser: Mayer Robert Owen
• Diane Robin: The Mayor's Wife

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120004/plotsummary

Pictures from the movie

Tom Sizemore as Lt. Vincent D'Agosta

The creature

The exhibit in the Chicago Natural History Museum, titled Superstition

Close-up of Tom Sizemore as Lt. Vincent D'Agosta. In the books, he's supposed to be a Lieutenant with the NYPD, not the Chicago Police Dept.

Book Review

Right now, I'm currently reading a book called Still Life with Crows. It's one of a series of books by authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  In most of the stories these guys write, they feature an eccentric FBI agent named Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast.

The novel Still Life with Crows is about a series of murders in a small Kansas town called Medicine Creek. The townspeople believe it may be what they call the Curse of the 45s. According to the story, in the town there was a brutal massacre of Indians and soldiers and one of the soldiers had his feet cut off and was scalped. So now there are murders and the FBI has been brought in and the townspeople don't like the knowledge of an FBI agent poking around making accusations that the killer may be one of them.

The rating for this is 5 out of 5 stars. It's a little slow in the beginning, but give it time to get good, I haven't finished it yet, but so far what I've read, I love it!




Cabinet of Curiosities
This book has, once again, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast is in it. In this novel, he is working with a New York History Museum employee named Nora Kelly to investigate a series of murders going back 130 years. The story has it that in the late 1900s there was a scientist who believed that a large group of nerves attached to the spinal cord could extend human life, so he decided to start kidnapping people and removing their spines to get at this special group of nerves in a selfish attempt at extending his own life. In the end, Nora Kelly's fiancee, a reporter named William Smithback, is kidnapped and his spine is almost removed but Nora is able to get him out with the help of the eccentric FBI agent.

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars, it's sort of boring.

The Book of the Dead.
In this book, Special Agent Pendergast is mistaken for his criminal brother Diogenes and is mistakenly put into the maximum security ward at a federal prison. To break him out, his friend and colleague, NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta must go undercover to break him out. This story revolves around a tomb found in the New York Museum of Natural History and the supposed "curse" surrounding it. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars, it's interesting, and like most books, it can be boring sometimes and starts out boring, but I assure you it's very good. This book is one of a series of books featuring the strange FBI agent.

The Wheel of Darkness
In this book, Special Agent Pendergast and his ward Constance Greene are studying with Buddhist monks in Tibet. The monks talk of an artifact that has been stolen from them, something called a mandala, which is a Buddhist piece of art. The pursuit of this item takes him through China, London and Rome, and then finds him and his ward on a cruise ship called The Brittania which is headed for New York. Since the mandala has evil powers, whoever comes in to contact with it suddenly changes. The special agent comes into contact with it by mistake and suddenly is different, he only cares about himself and thinks humans are pathetic and should be wiped off the face of the planet. I give this book 4 out 5 stars, it's interesting, it has it's boring parts, but the action in the story compensates for it.

Cemetery Dance
In this story, New York History Museum archaeologist and her boyfriend, reporter William Smithback are celebrating their first anniversary. She goes out to get a cake to celebrate only to return home and find her boyfriend slashed to death. The police are called in and are convinced it's some  psycho nut out there, and as the story goes, the Special Agent and her work together and discover it's voodoo at work here, especially in the neighborhood of Inwood and Inwood Hill Park


I give this one 3 out of 5 stars, it has its interesting parts, but was not overly interesting

Fever Dream
This is yet another story involving the strange agent, figuratively. He thinks back on the time he and his wife were big game hunting in Africa. While there, his wife Helen is dragged away by a lion and mauled to death. Years later, Pendergast in convinced his wife's death was no accident. His little investigation takes him to the areas of the Mason Dixon Line, down in the south. You also find out that before he was an FBI agent, he worked for the New Orleans Police Dept. His late wife Helen was trying to discover a cure for neurological diseases, with her brother and a team of pharmaceuticals were trying to discover how to stop it and when the assignment began going downhill, she was going to expose the project but was killed to be silenced.

I give this one 5 out of stars, I love it, it was a little boring in the beginning but the action compensates for it.

Book Review

Memoirs of a Geisha

This book was written by Arthur Golden, and is about these 2 sisters, named Chiyo and Satsu who live in the village of Yoroido in rural Japan. One day they are approached by someone they know as 'Mr. Tanaka', and he talks to their parents about adopting them and taking them to what they think is a better life because their father is a lowly fisherman and their mother is rapidly dying from cancer. Only the place that Chiyo and Satsu are taken to is an okiya(Japanese term for Geisha house). They are basically sold in to slavery and they become geisha girls. The geisha house that Chiyo is sent to has a resident problem, in the form of a vindictive, manipulative Geisha named Hatsumomo, who's bound and determined to make life for Chiyo a living hell. But through out the book, Chiyo, who becomes known as Sayuri(her geisha name) befriends another okiya owner named Mameha(a kindly woman who runs another okiya). The 2 develop a friendship and Mameha starts coming up with ways to knock the vindictive Hatsumomo down a bunch of pegs because she is not a nice person. The book is really good, but you have to stay with it, it's a tad bit slow in the beginning, but gets good in the middle. They even turned it into a movie, I'll put some pictures from the movie to show you.

Ziyi Zhang as Chiyo and Ken Watanabe as The Chairman. Hmm, Ken Watanabe is pretty cute!

Michelle Yeoh as Mameha, Ziyi Zhang as Chiyo and Gong Li as Hatsumomo

Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang as Mameha and Chiyo

Shanghai Girls

Now this book has not been turned into a movie, I'm currently reading it and I have to admit that I'm loving every second of this book, I'm even learning a few words in Chinese, and Mandarin, like Jie Jie means elder sister in Mandarin and Mei Mei means little sister in Mandarin. Any way, this book about 2 sisters named May and Pearl Chin. Their father has gambled away all their money and in order to pay off a local gangster named Pockmark Huang, their father, Baba, has arranged a marriage for them, he has arranged for them to marry the 2 sons of a friend of his, named Old Man Louie. They are to go to Los Angeles and live there so he can pay off their debt. Meanwhile all this is taking place during WWII, when the Japanese were invading China. While the 2 sisters are on their way to the ship, Pearl and May stay with a village woman and during the night, Pearl and May find their mother splayed on the floor of the cabin while Japanese soldiers are raping her. Then the soldiers end up raping Pearl and she wakes up in the hospital to find out from the doctors she may be unable to have children, and when the 2 finally reach America, they go to the Angel Island Immigration Center and Pearl finds out that May is pregnant. The story so far is pretty good and I don't think I've ever read a story so good! In the story, you might keep hearing things like dwarf bandits and monkey people, obviously that's what Pearl and May keep calling the Japanese. It's apparent in this story that the Chinese and Japanese do not get along!

Favorite books

This is the book Farewell to Manzanar. For those who may have never read it or even heard of it for that matter, it's a memoir. It was written by a girl named Jeanne Wakatsuki, it's a memoir about how her and her family lived in California during WWII and how her family were sent to Manzanar Internment camp along with all the other Japanese citizens for being suspected spies. It's a very good book. I thouroughly enjoyed reading it in high school and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it a second time, so if you like memoirs, you may like this one. In the book, at the beginning it has a glossary of terms because there are words mentioned in here people amy not know the meaning of.

Exploring Your Vision

Weird name, huh? Well, I have an Introduction to Art class here at Gateway and we recently had to do a collage. The teacher says that whatever we put on it, this collage is supposed to draw that towards us. I know it sounds weird, but the collage was fun. If you know me like my family does, you can probably imagine that there were quite a few pics here and there of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.  And there eneded up being almost a million pictures of all things 1960s, and apparently in the eyes of the teacher, with the pictures of Jet Li and Lucy Liu I put on there, I desire strength, and also freedom because I happened to have mentioned that my dad and sister aren't exactly the biggest fans of The Beatles, sometimes known as the Fab Four or The Rolling Stones. And along with other pictures, I definitely ended up putting at least 2 or 3 pictures of Mick Jagger on it, 2 when he was younger, 1of him from 2006 on stage, sorry but this guy totally kicks butt on stage compared to Roger Daltrey of The Who. Nothing against any possible fans of The Who out there, but Mick Jagger doesn't do anything dangerous compared to Roger swinging his mic stand around Tarzan-style. Any way, I put all kinds of stuff on it, and prior to this we ahd to do a worksheet to help us figure out what was going on it, me being the moron I sometimes am, the posterboard that was needed for it, I brought the wrong size and another girl had to give me a piece, it was bright green, love that color. Anyway, here are some of the questions that were asked on that worksheet:


My favorite childhood game was: Candyland, Trouble, Chutes and Ladders
My favorite childhood toy was: Legos(still love Legos, I mean, who doesn't?), Barbie
If I had the perfect childhood, I would now: be no different, I'd probably be the same as I am now.
My favorite thing to read is: The Lovely Bones, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Night, All the Alex Cross stories
The music that makes me most happy is: The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, The Beatles, Shakira, Enrique Iglesias, Paul McCartney
My favorite movie of all time is: Kiss of the Dragon, Freejack, Ned Kelly, Rocky IV, The Full Monty
My favorite costume was: Geisha Girl. Last year Geisha Girl was my Halloween costume. I didn't go trick or treating, way too old, I just love the thrill of dressing up. I live for it!
If I could travel anywhere, it would be to: China, Japan, England, Italy, Germany, Russia, Australia
If I could live anywhere, it would be: Australia, England, China, Japan, Italy
Sometimes I'm afraid that if I pursue exactly what I want: I'd get made fun of. I'd be the only one with goals like that, and there'd be obstacles in my way.
If I had been encouraged to follow my dreams, I would: Probably have followed them, but like all things, there would be obstacles in the way
While I love to learn foreign languages, I rarely find the time to do it
My ideal of home is:

• London, England: it's culturally interesting, the only obstacle I'd face is the currency issue, dollars aren't the currency in England like it is here in the US, quid, pounds, etc is in England. But I'd have a whole bunch of fun learning how to adjust.
• Australia: It would have to be 1 of 3 places along the coast: Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney.The reason I'd love to live here is because it has this Wild West feel to, it feels far away and exotic, but feels like a good place to live
• China(Beijing, Hong Kong): The culture is so endlessly fascinating to me, the history, customs, traditions, etc, are all so interesting to me.
• Japan(Tokyo, Okinawa, Osaka, Kyoto): The reason is the same as China. Japanese history, customs, traditions, etc are so interestnig to me.
• Italy(Rome,Venice, Naples, Palermo): The countryside is so beautiful and Italy is an overall beautiful place. Anywhere in Italy is good for me.

My ideal of a partner is: If partner means someone you date, my ideal of a partner would be a guy who is nice, caring, considerate of others, treats people nice, has a romantic side, and a funny side, can definitely cook, with a taste for adventure, loves to have fun. Looks don't matter!
Name five careers that you would love:

• Artist
• Dancer
• Teacher
• Tattoo Artist
• Bartender
• Jewelry Designer
• Video Game Designer
• Interior Designer
• CD Cover Designer(a role model for me for this one career is Peter Corriston, who designed alot of the Rolling Stones CD covers, including the one for Some Girls and the one for Tattoo You)
• Cook/Chef
• Writer
• Traveler
• Interpreter for foreign languages

What do you find inspiring or uplifing to your spirit:

• I'm not sure
• I guess listening to music
• Drawing, painting, anything creative
• Putting together puzzles
• Being alone, doing what I want
• Dancing to the beat of music, doing ballet
• Working on the computer
• Being in my Art 100(Intro. to Art) class
• Reading books

If money was no objection and you were free from all obstructions, what would you do:

• Go to a Rolling Stones concert
• Learn to read, write, and speak Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian
• Go to an Aerosmith concert
• See China, Japan, Italy, Russia, Australia, England
• Live in China, Japan, Italy, Australia or England
• Go mining for opals in Lightning Ridge in Australia
• Become a better dancer
• Learn to play soccer better
• Take my dad to a Broadway play in NYC
• Meet someone famous
• See the world
• Go rock climbing
• Get a tattoo
• Make a change in someone's life
• Be a bartender
• Paint better
• Meet the Rolling Stones
• Meet Aerosmith
• Take my sister to a New York Yankees baseball game
• Live every day like it was my last
• Go to a concert
• As a hobby, do bartending
• Design jewelry as a hobby
• Meet someone new
• Fall in love
• Have enough money to take care of the real important stuff

Libros

For those Spanish speakers out there, this means books in Spanish, but if you know Spanish, you probably already knew that. :)


I have too many favorite books to count. But here's one of my most favorites.

This book is about a 14 year old girl named Susie Salmon. She's your typical high schooler, she just happens to live in what I think may be one of the coolest decades ever, the 1970s. She's your typical high schooler, she has a crush on a fellow schoolmate, an British-born Indian male named Ray Singh. But one day when she takes her normal route through a cornfield to get home, she's approached by her creepy neighbor George Harvey, who lives alone in a green house near the Salmon residence. He builds dollhouses for a living, and unbeknownst to anyone, is also a killer. He takes Susie to this underground shelter he built and that's where he kills her. In the story, it's said he also rapes and murders her. Meanwhile, her family is convinced she's late coming home from school, and when her elbow is found by a neighbor's dog, only then is the family convinced that Susie Salmon is dead. This almost tears the family apart, and the grandma in the family, Grandma Lynn comes to stay. The mother, Abigail, goes to California because she has to get away. And the detective investigating the case, Len Fenerman, starts to fall for the mother Abigail.

Meanwhile, up in the world above, Susie's spirit tries to point here family in the direction of the eerie neighbor in the nearby green house. Up in the in-between, which is what her brother Buckley calls it, she befriends a pretty Asian girl named Holly Golightly, after the Breakfast at Tiffany's character. The story reveals that George Harvey killed her while she was waiting for her father to close up their restaurant. At the time this story was supposed to take place, no one ever heard of missing kids, and even when they did go missing, they all looked the same-white girls with mousy brown hair if not brown hair, mousy hair and white girls.

Hola!

Hola! How would one advertise themselves? Most would say that advertising is trying to get people to take notice of something, like a product. Well, these blogs are here to advertise the people behind the blogs. So if I were to advertise myself, you'd probably find me doing an ad for some retro-vintage store wearing granny glasses, tie-dye, and bell-bottoms. That's who I am, I'm your average, every day, modern hippie beat-nik. I wear retro clothes, and I like older music. To tell you a little about me, I have a somewhat large family, most of them living in central Kentucky. I have a dad named Steve, a little sis named Jessica, but we call her Jessie, a mom named Brenda, and a step-dad named Greg.

I'm 19 and I'm a college student. This is my 2nd year at Gateway Community and Technical College. I'm going for an Associates Degree in Graphic Design. I enjoy listening to music and reading books in my off time, I love all kinds of music, like R&B, jazz, British Invasion-era, rock, Latin, club/techno(Rihanna), new wave, like U2 and Coldplay. I enjoy reading alot, my favorite books are The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, and I enjoy reading books about people because I enjoy learning new things about people I never knew before. My dad owns alot of biographies on people I have no idea who they are, mainly just British actors and comedians he likes. I only own 3, 2 are on actors, 1 is on a band I like. But when I'm not doing homework for school, I usually have my head stuck in a book or are listening to music. It's one of the simple pleasures I have. On Friday it's my birthday and I'm getting Chinese food for dinner.

I'm turning 20 and I could care less.Anymore, birthdays are like just another day to me. Some of the goals I have for the near future is to simply graduate, nothing too hard. And for the far future, I want to travel the world, see some of the beautiful places in the world, like China, Japan, Italy, Australia. I enjoy traveling everywhere. The teachers here at Gateway are totally awesome. They're always here to help and that is good. I'm enjoying every second of school I can, because soon I'll graduate and I'll be in the working world. Some think it's scary, but I'm looking forward to it. My dad tries to say it's hard, and for all I know, he might be right, but I'll just have to wait and see. My dad says I'll be one of those super, peppy, happy, cheery people in the morning who greets everyone with a million dollar smile. I'm not going to be like that in the morning, but I will enjoy my job.

Because if you see me in the morning, I'm not peppy, happy, cheery. I need my coffee to do that. I'm not a morning person unless I have my coffee! But I'm basically the kind of person that treats everyone with the kindness and respect I think they deserve. I'm hoping to go into a job like advertising or any job that involves CD cover design. Because in one of my classes here, my final project for this one class of mine, 2D design, was to create a CD cover for a band/artist we like, I did Aerosmith for my CD cover. It was a little blurry when it came out maybe because of the printer or something, but I'm proud of it. If I can land a job doing advertising or CD cover design, you'd think you bought me the world I'd be so happy.

I'm also the type of person that, when given the chance to do something, I go at it full force. I enjoy my work, and I'm not sure if that's a problem, but I enjoy doing graphic design, it's what interests me. Out of all the classes I've had here at Gateway, I'd have to say that my most favorite classes are the Intro to Computers, Fundamentals of Drawing, Computer Page Layout, 2D Design, my Macromedia Flash class, Corporate Identity. Those are my favorite classes because they are fun.