Puzzle Quest = Crack

NOW the reason I haven't been writing is because of a little teensy weensy DS (or PSP) game called Puzzle Quest. I've always played video games but there hasn't been a game that's captivated me this badly in awhile. You basically choose to be either a Druid, Knight, Warrior, or Wizard, and "fight" undead and various other creatures that are taking over your land. However by "fighting" them, you actually play a game that is very much like Jewel Quest and each row that you take out gets you either money, experience points, or points to be used toward an attack/spell. If you know video games, it's pretty much an RPG with puzzles. And it's addicting as hell. Okay I'm done with that.

In other news, I had a spectacurific birthday last week, courtesy of a million other things going on like my brother's birthday, my dad coming to have lunch with me, Mike's birthday, my friends coming up to party, and Easter.

My birthday is the 4th and Mike's is the 5th so we tried to combine as best we could. We had an amazing sushi dinner (as sushi is my new favorite food) and he got me Rashomon (great Kurosawa flick) and City on Fire (great Chow Yun Fat flick) and a Bruce Campbell autobiography which I will begin reading after I'm caught up on all my other shite. I got him a Wii-mote and Nunchuck for his Wii and I got him The Dark Tower comics that have just come out. It was a shot in the dark on the comics, but he ended up loving them so hurray!

Then later in the week Joe and Sue came up with Santina (or Sanjaya as we drunkenly called her) to Gabe and Justin's to kind of celebrate my birthday but more to drink and have fun. I had a great time there, I hadn't seen Big Poppa and Beener Neener in awhile, but Mike and I had to leave "early" (2:30am) because we were exhausted and I had to drive to Geneva for dinner the next day.

Oh PS Sue: I wore both of the shirts you bought me to work in one week. (everyone loved the "I heart me" shirt but kept saying "you're so narcissistic today Erica")

Then there was Easter, which was fun in a family fun kinda way, but I really don't have anything interesting to write about it here. It was a good week though.

Today was interesting because Mike and I bought a dining room table for 30 dollars. Now you would think it would have been a card table, but it was a real wood (heavy) table, with 2 leaves and 4 chairs. It can seat about 8 if we put everything together. Some super-thick accented Asian man and his daughter were selling their stuff and Mike and I couldn't really figure out why it was so cheap but we have a dining room table for our new place now!!

Other than that stuff, nothing much has been going on lately. I'm kinda sick, which I've been trying to stave off, but it's come on anyway. Every time the weather shifts dramatically my body threatens me with coughs and colds, so once the weather straightens out I should be fine again.

One last thing...I wrote a few film reviews about a week ago, and Mike read them and thought they weren't enthusiastic enough, or bombastic enough, or something. I think he meant that I wasn't being mean enough maybe? Anyway I'll post one of them here, feel free to give me any criticism that you like. I was really tired when I wrote them, and had seen the films like a week earlier, so they definitely could be better. I'll post the other one in a subsequent blog if I get any feedback on this one. Here ya go:

300: Visual Effects to Die For

After seeing Frank Miller’s Sin City and now 300, I can’t wait to see the next film attached to this man. 300 is about the 300-man Spartan battle with conquering Persia, two hubris-filled nations duking it out, David and Goliath style, for glory.

As with Sin City, 300’s visual effects are a stunning combination of starkness and brilliance. A simple snowy mountain captivates us, and the slow motion violence of a mere kick into a pit seems almost like a work of art unto itself. The decoration of Persian leader Xerxes (an almost unrecognizable Rodrigo Santoro) makes him look like a golden Christmas tree, but it fits because of the over-the-top theme of the film.

The actual storyline of the film, on the other hand, leaves more to be desired. The concept is an old one but a good one: one evil giant country tries to infringe on a small but proud nation, with the viewer rooting for the underdog. That being said, I was hoping for a few twists to keep the story fresh, but it didn’t happen. Everything that did happen was highly predictable, and some aspects of the plot (the grotesque being following from afar, the giant elephants) were reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I will, however, give kudos to Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera) for making King Leonidas’ extremely corny lines (“Tonight we dine….in hell!”) actually believable.

Some blast this film for supposedly having heavy political undertones, but realistically, it is about a war. Wars are fought again and again for the same reasons, and there are going to be similarities between 300 and more current wars if you are watching for them. But I would advise the viewer to put current politics out of his/her mind while watching this film, and focus on the wonderful cinematography. Sometimes violence can be beautiful, after all.