(Warning: The first part of this entry is a rant. If you would like to skip the negativity, head on over to the next paragraph.)
I just came home from watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the second time. I refuse to count the first time I watched it in Newport Cinema because the movie goers there had absolutely no theater etiquette. Every rule in the book was broken! There were ringing cellphones left and right! The guy beside me talked on his phone for a whole scene (I mean, if you wanted to chat, you could at least have the decency to step out of the movie house)! There were a couple of babies making all kinds of noise, which would've been cute in another situation but absolutely irritating in a movie house. I don't know why their mothers did not have the good sense to not bring their babies into a screening of the DEATHLY HALLOWS. I know it's Harry Potter and all, but it's not exactly a children's movie anymore. And it's definitely not a baby's! The worst of them all was this guy sitting 2 rows behind us who was the text book definition of the most horrible kind of movie goer. He talked during the WHOLE movie. He'd announce when a scene is coming up, squeal and make incredibly jologs comments whenever an exciting scene comes up and he'd mention all the proper names and terms from the book out loud as if to show off the breadth of his Harry Potter knowledge. I hated him very much. I wanted to throw curses of the magical and crass kind at him. Sad to say, I was not able to properly appreciate THE FINAL Harry Potter movie because of all these inconsiderate people. Plus, the movie house was not even HD!
Okay. Rant over.
I watched Harry Potter (in 3D this time) again today with my family. We stuck to good ole reliable Greenbelt 3, thank goodness. Anyway, I think I am still in a bit of denial. It still hasn't sunk in that this is the end. Obviously, I thought the movie was amazing. Of course, like any other reader of the books, there's always one part or another that you just imagined differently in your head and it was infinitely more mind blowing and exciting. You're always slightly disappointed or spewing out ideas and opinions on how a certain scene could've been done. Of course, I've accepted long ago that the movies can never quite capture the books. The individual imagination of the millions of Harry Potter readers combined is just too immense to capture in a 2.5 hour movie. In the course of this decade, everyone, including myself, seems to have learned to accept and appreciate every movie on its own. After all, what the movies have been able to capture far and immensely outweigh those that it didn't. In fact, it might be almost be held negligible. Also, I think we have all come to love everything that has to do with the Harry Potter series so long as they stay true to the essence of the story. And, undoubtedly, this series has. This final movie is no different. It was a fitting end. I was thankful for that beautiful moment they allowed Snape to have in the last film. He deserved it really. His undying love deserved it. I don't think I should even begin to mention Alan Rickman and his heart wrenching performance, or I might also have to get into Helena Bonham Carter's portrayal of Hermione trying to act like Bellatrix, and Ralph Fiennes' mad desperation as Voldemort, and Jason Isaac's emasculated Lucius, and Michael Gambon's ethereal but incredibly human Dumbledore, and Matthew Lewis' badass freedom fighting Neville, and Tom Felton's broken and confused Draco... and Dan, Emma, Rupert (I feel like I grew up with you guys)... and and... everyone! I love all the moments each character had! They all had a chance to shine and bid a proper farewell to us! Everyone has just done such an absolutely amazing job bringing this story to life! That includes all those amazing set designers whose work had to be bulldozed in the end, the costumes, props, special effects, music... everything! They all just fit into a perfect whole! I am so grateful! This past decade of Harry Potter was an intensely personal experience for me, I think. I felt like each and everyone of these people were working towards bringing the story to life... for me! That's how amazing their work has been because I sincerely think every Potter fan felt the same.
I am quite sad that this chapter of my life has come to a close. Indeed, Harry Potter was a part of my life, just like he was a part of so many other's. I am one with everyone who feels like the end of their childhood (or any chapter of their lives for that matter) was somehow marked by this particular ending. We have all, indeed, stuck with Harry until the very end.
I actually regret beginning this entry with a rant now because everything about this series has been nothing but wonderful and exciting! And, in hindsight, I realize that nothing could possibly ruin Harry Potter for me. Not even a theater full of inconsiderate theater goers. Harry Potter is too great a story and too deeply entrenched in my heart for me to ever really associate anything negative with it. So, Newport Cinema 4 people, I forgive you. I fully intend to watch the movie again anyway. I don't think I'm ready to let it go.
For now, let my final words be a resounding THANK YOU to JK Rowling for enriching my childhood with this beautiful story. I will definitely miss Harry, Ron and Hermione and I fully intend to introduce my kids to these old friends someday.
I will also be forever waiting for my owl.
Love, Oli :)
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Grown Up Timezone
I am back and blogging again after quite a long bout of lazybee syndrome because today was a pretty interesting day for Ryan and I.
For the past few days, we've been mostly sitting on my couch at home, eating take out, and marathoning Harry Potter and The Last Airbender series. Today, we finally got our butts off the couch to go watch the last Harry Potter movie (huhuhu). It was a bit of a struggle, at first, with the traffic and the broken car aircon and all but we finally got ourselves to Resorts World and lined up for a good 15 minutes to buy tickets. It was 2:30pm and the movie was at 6:55 so we had around 4 hours to kill. So we ate at a new restaurant (because we usually just eat in our favorite restaurants... we like to make sure we're eating good food eh) called Johnny Chow (i think). Food was surprisingly good and they served us a hot pot of house tea which was a plus! Afterwards, we walked around the mall and found that... well... there's really not a lot to see. We've been toying with the idea of going into the Casino but we felt very uncomfortable and shy. We're very young at heart so we kinda forgot that there really is nothing to be afraid of seeing as how we were well beyond the legal gambling age (which, I assume, is 21). So when we were finally out of stuff to do, we decided to trudge on in to the Casino. We must've looked like a couple of mischievous 16 year olds because the guard stopped us. Ryan very defensively said that we were both 23 years old but the guard nonetheless asked for my ID (I assume he didn't ask for Ryan's because he's... well... an obviously grown man)!
We walked around for a bit. Twas a lot like the casinos in Vegas, only much smaller and less... Vegas-y. The usuals were there anyway... slot machines and old people on the slot machines. What was very interesting was how some of the "manual" games were digital already... like the roulette and some card games. But there was an area for the high rollers, of course. And those had real dealers (sexy ones)... and well... more old people. I never would've guessed that gambling was big here!
So anyway, Ryan and I walked around and observed people like a couple of ignorant teenagers trying to figure out how we can waste some money on a poker slot machine game. Before started to think that we were up to no good, we decided to line up at the counter where people were cashing out their chips. Let me tell ya... walang barya barya in that counter! People were cashing out a serious amount of money. This woman in front of us, for example, looked like she was cashing out about 50,000 pesosesoses! It was crazy! I've never seen that many thousand bills piled up on top of each other! Crazy crazy crazy! I felt like I was in a bank heist! I felt like robbers were gonna come out with their guns and sacks of money! That didnt happen, of course. I had to remind myself I'm not in CSI Las Vegas.
Anyway, Ryan and I felt ridiculous amongst those filthy rich people so we just asked an attendant to show us how to play some poker on the slot machine. Turns out you just slide your money into a slot in the machine (doink!) and you're good to go! So we started with a hundred bucks. Obviously, we were not high rollers. We just bet 1 for the first few rounds which was just 10 bucks per deal. Twas fun. You win some, you lose some! We lost the 100 ofcourse. So... we bet a hundred more. HAHA! Our limit was 300, which we justified by the fact that we usually spend that much on a Timezone game day anyway. The casino could be a kind of... grown up Timezone! So anyway, on our 3rd 100pesos, we ended up winning P850 on a straight flush! Since, for us small timers, that was pretty huge already, we decided to payout. I thought money was gonna come spilling out of the machine... but no. It was pretty boring. The machine asked us to get an attendant, who then gave us a receipt to present at the counter to claim our winnings. That's more practical than money spilling out of the machine, I guess.
We didn't stop there though. Ryan was having so much fun, and I must admit, I was having fun too. At home, Ryan and I would often play this 5 card poker game, a slightly modified version of the original that he made up. We'd bet tickles instead of chips. It was fun. But the slot machine was fun too since we were winning actual money. Anyway, we decided to bet just a hundred more, and won 750 on a straight (or two pairs or a flush or a trio... cant remember)! How about that huh? We had a bit more time to waste before the movie so we went on and decided to stop at 500 and we did! We felt a little silly cashing out an 800 and 500 peso receipt while people around us were cashing out thousands and thousands of bucks. Even then, I must say, we were the happiest and most excited looking people in that crowd. I mean, a thousand bucks out of a quick fun game of slot machine poker? Not bad! (It was definitely much better than the 20 tickets we won in Timezone the last time. We couldn't even get candy with it!)
In the end, Ryan and I concluded that it was extremely fun but quite dangerous to gamble (not that this is a new realization or anything). We finally understood how people could get addicted to it. You lose some but then you win some as well... and that can get pretty exciting and blinding. It's important to keep it at a minimum and set limits for yourself so you dont end up burning a lot of money in the hopes of winning more. You have to have the will power to stop while you're on top...
... Unless you're filthy rich and you really have that much extra money to just gamble away. In which case, you should really be thinking about better ways you could be spending your life and money. But that's just me.
Love, Oli :)
For the past few days, we've been mostly sitting on my couch at home, eating take out, and marathoning Harry Potter and The Last Airbender series. Today, we finally got our butts off the couch to go watch the last Harry Potter movie (huhuhu). It was a bit of a struggle, at first, with the traffic and the broken car aircon and all but we finally got ourselves to Resorts World and lined up for a good 15 minutes to buy tickets. It was 2:30pm and the movie was at 6:55 so we had around 4 hours to kill. So we ate at a new restaurant (because we usually just eat in our favorite restaurants... we like to make sure we're eating good food eh) called Johnny Chow (i think). Food was surprisingly good and they served us a hot pot of house tea which was a plus! Afterwards, we walked around the mall and found that... well... there's really not a lot to see. We've been toying with the idea of going into the Casino but we felt very uncomfortable and shy. We're very young at heart so we kinda forgot that there really is nothing to be afraid of seeing as how we were well beyond the legal gambling age (which, I assume, is 21). So when we were finally out of stuff to do, we decided to trudge on in to the Casino. We must've looked like a couple of mischievous 16 year olds because the guard stopped us. Ryan very defensively said that we were both 23 years old but the guard nonetheless asked for my ID (I assume he didn't ask for Ryan's because he's... well... an obviously grown man)!
We walked around for a bit. Twas a lot like the casinos in Vegas, only much smaller and less... Vegas-y. The usuals were there anyway... slot machines and old people on the slot machines. What was very interesting was how some of the "manual" games were digital already... like the roulette and some card games. But there was an area for the high rollers, of course. And those had real dealers (sexy ones)... and well... more old people. I never would've guessed that gambling was big here!
So anyway, Ryan and I walked around and observed people like a couple of ignorant teenagers trying to figure out how we can waste some money on a poker slot machine game. Before started to think that we were up to no good, we decided to line up at the counter where people were cashing out their chips. Let me tell ya... walang barya barya in that counter! People were cashing out a serious amount of money. This woman in front of us, for example, looked like she was cashing out about 50,000 pesosesoses! It was crazy! I've never seen that many thousand bills piled up on top of each other! Crazy crazy crazy! I felt like I was in a bank heist! I felt like robbers were gonna come out with their guns and sacks of money! That didnt happen, of course. I had to remind myself I'm not in CSI Las Vegas.
Anyway, Ryan and I felt ridiculous amongst those filthy rich people so we just asked an attendant to show us how to play some poker on the slot machine. Turns out you just slide your money into a slot in the machine (doink!) and you're good to go! So we started with a hundred bucks. Obviously, we were not high rollers. We just bet 1 for the first few rounds which was just 10 bucks per deal. Twas fun. You win some, you lose some! We lost the 100 ofcourse. So... we bet a hundred more. HAHA! Our limit was 300, which we justified by the fact that we usually spend that much on a Timezone game day anyway. The casino could be a kind of... grown up Timezone! So anyway, on our 3rd 100pesos, we ended up winning P850 on a straight flush! Since, for us small timers, that was pretty huge already, we decided to payout. I thought money was gonna come spilling out of the machine... but no. It was pretty boring. The machine asked us to get an attendant, who then gave us a receipt to present at the counter to claim our winnings. That's more practical than money spilling out of the machine, I guess.
We didn't stop there though. Ryan was having so much fun, and I must admit, I was having fun too. At home, Ryan and I would often play this 5 card poker game, a slightly modified version of the original that he made up. We'd bet tickles instead of chips. It was fun. But the slot machine was fun too since we were winning actual money. Anyway, we decided to bet just a hundred more, and won 750 on a straight (or two pairs or a flush or a trio... cant remember)! How about that huh? We had a bit more time to waste before the movie so we went on and decided to stop at 500 and we did! We felt a little silly cashing out an 800 and 500 peso receipt while people around us were cashing out thousands and thousands of bucks. Even then, I must say, we were the happiest and most excited looking people in that crowd. I mean, a thousand bucks out of a quick fun game of slot machine poker? Not bad! (It was definitely much better than the 20 tickets we won in Timezone the last time. We couldn't even get candy with it!)
In the end, Ryan and I concluded that it was extremely fun but quite dangerous to gamble (not that this is a new realization or anything). We finally understood how people could get addicted to it. You lose some but then you win some as well... and that can get pretty exciting and blinding. It's important to keep it at a minimum and set limits for yourself so you dont end up burning a lot of money in the hopes of winning more. You have to have the will power to stop while you're on top...
... Unless you're filthy rich and you really have that much extra money to just gamble away. In which case, you should really be thinking about better ways you could be spending your life and money. But that's just me.
Love, Oli :)
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