Best Mad Libs story ever!

If you’ve never heard of Mad Libs, it’s basically a kind of kids’ activity book that helps you create silly stories. The booklet asks for examples of different kinds of words (parts of speech like “adjective” or more specific kinds of words like “color”). The words will be used in a specially written story, but you don’t know exactly how they will be used. After all the words have been written down, you copy them into the story and read it aloud to see how it sounds.

Every once in a while, I tell someone the story of the time my mom and I did a Mad Libs story that made us laugh like crazy. In fact, there’s already a blog post about it. See below for more on that story, which I rediscovered on my recent trip to Atlanta.

Continue reading Best Mad Libs story ever!

Passengers (2016)

My dad no doubt wished my mom and brother and I had chosen something different from Redbox, though I somewhat doubt the whole catalog had anything all four of us would have liked.

Passengers was kinda like Wall-E: a slow, lonely, quiet, sci-fi/romance movie with approximately two characters, and an embedded message that plants are more important than technology. It was also kinda like Titanic: a rich girl falls for a poor boy on a damaged ship.

My dad kept hoping aliens would show up. I don’t blame him; I think the main character’s major choice early on in the story was pretty unforgivable, and the ending would have been better off going in a different direction altogether.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/passengers-2016/id1179581806

Small little bowls from years past

In Singapore I have a large collection of small little bowls purchased during my travels. However, the collection began before I moved away from home for good. Here are some of the small little bowls that reside at my parents’ house, which all probably entered the collection before 2003. Sadly, I don’t know where they’re all from. See below for details on these and several others I found during my visit to Atlanta.

Continue reading Small little bowls from years past

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

Okay, so this fantasy movie has to do with World War II and displaced children, but all resemblance to The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe ends there, because Tim Burton went and made it creepy. Or maybe the book was already creepy, and the movie is just true to the source material. I guess I was hoping for something more like Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters from The X-Men.

I am not sure just how creepy the movie was or wasn’t, because the plane landed and I didn’t see the whole thing. None of the subsequent planes had it in the catalog! I’m curious to see the end, but I’m not in any particular rush.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/miss-peregrines-home-for-peculiar-children/id1151555161

Mohenjo Daro (2016)

I had never heard of this ancient city, which is a real place, an archaeological site in what is now Pakistan. Since the movie is about a real place about which little is known, there’s a disclaimer reminding viewers that the movie makers made use of artistic license—they’re just telling an interesting story about the place, not trying to tell the true history of it.

“This film does not support or promote any specific interpretations of the Origin, Character or Decline of the Ancient Indus Civilization. Archaeologists and Historians have many different opinions and interpretations that remain to be confirmed through further studies. The Sindhu script is still undeciphered and no one knows the names of the cities at that time. So we have used the popular name – Mohenjo Daro!”

The sets and costumes were interesting, but the plot seemed forced. The country-boy hero has a secret destiny, goes off to the city, falls in love with the princess/priestess, discovers his true identity, saves the day, blah blah blah. There was a lot of telling rather than showing.

“2hr 6min: In 2016 BC, a farmer travels to Mohenjo Daro to trade. Whilst there he soon falls in love, however she is due to marry the city’s ruler’s son. (This is a Hindi film shown with English subtitles and has been edited for content)”

The Boss Baby (2017)

I was expecting a terrible comedy, but this Dreamworks cartoon explores some emotional family themes and has a fantasy premise that is inventive yet strangely logical: the corporation in charge of sending babies to Earth is concerned that humans are starting to prefer puppies to babies, so they send down the Boss Baby as an undercover agent, with the result that the baby’s older brother gets jealous, discovers that the Boss Baby isn’t really a baby, and then has to help save the world from indifference to newborns.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-boss-baby/id1216954198

La La Land (2016)

Hollywood has made yet another movie about Hollywood! It’s also about compromises, almosts, and might-have-beens; strangely, this Hollywood movie doesn’t quite have a happy Hollywood ending. Worth watching unless you’re one of those people who can’t abide musicals.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/la-la-land/id1179249419

Your Name (2016)

How many body-swapping movies have you seen?

I’ve seen…

  • Freaky Friday (1976) – mother/daughter
  • Big (1988) – boy/older self
  • Freaky Friday (2003) – mother/daughter
  • 13 Going on 30 (2004) – girl/older self
  • Just Follow Law (2007) – male/female co-workers

…but there are lots more I’d never even heard of.

This one’s different. It made a ton of money and earned praise from critics. I’d say it’s worth watching even if you’re not a teen or an anime fan. The story is deeply emotional and surprisingly complex.