I saw a bunch of advertisements for this movie, but I didn’t want to watch since it is a horror movie. However, I ended up watching it after one of my coworkers mentioned that they liked the movie.
I thought that the movie was pretty interesting. I think a bunch of the information related to religions and traditions in the past was accurate or at least realistic sounding. There were scary parts, like I got spooked by a spider. Not as scary as I thought it would be, so maybe I would consider it more of a thriller than a horror movie. I thought that the girl main characters were pretty strong characters and had a good fight against the main guy villain. They were pretty clever to figure out the “true” religion and the end of the movie was left a bit ambiguous so we’ll never know what actually happens.
Background: I went to Vancouver for a friend’s wedding.
Woke up around 4 am. Took a shower, ate some toast that turned cold and a banana, rested a bit more, finished packing, called an Uber, rode in the Uber while the driver listened to people on YouTube talking in Spanish. Arrived at the airport and was able to go through security pretty quick. Hung out at the Capital One lounge for a bit before heading to the gate. Flight was a bit delayed but that didn’t stop people from standing in line and waiting. Got on the plane, took a nap, watched a couple movies, Heretic and Moana 2, did some work, tried a tower defense game, but lost pretty early. Left the plane, immigration was super quick, went on a skytrain to Vancouver. The train was really clean and smooth, but not much seating. Walked to the office and worked for a few hours before heading to the hotel. The walk was about 30-40 minutes, but the buildings and scenery along the way were nice. Got asked if I wanted to donate to a high school basketball team, I declined, but maybe I just met a future NBA star. Went to the hotel and didn’t see any staff. Got hungry and left to get some food. Ordered takeout at a Vietnamese place and waited for a bit. Got a complimentary iced tea and glass of water for my wait time and then left to eat along the beach. Took pictures with some happy statues and then ate on a bench. There were so many geese and ducks walking around and pooping. The Bahn mi was ok, but I think the pork could’ve been better. Walked around the beach and Stanley park. Saw some people climbing rope and then they challenged me to do it. I was able to touch the top as well. Found a golf course and heard some people frustrated about their performance. Walked around in a garden and then a lagoon. Some ducks flew towards me and their feet were gliding on the water as they landed. They started looking at me and walking towards me. Found a huge tree that fell over and then encountered a raccoon trying to get to its spot. Found a bunch of tennis courts and lots of tennis players and thought that maybe pickleball hasn’t taken over Canada. Walked around some neighborhoods and saw a lot of nice flowers grown by the community. Eventually headed back and bought some eggs and yogurt. Pretty eventful day in the city and a lot of walking.
I don’t remember all the details about the original Moana, so this review might not be that informed. However, I thought that Moana had a very easy time finding the lost island and accomplish the goal of connecting the islands again. Maybe it was because she brought an allstar crew or maybe because she is the chosen one, but I feel like she just needed to believe in herself and her friends and think outside the box in order to accomplish her goal. After they defeated the vengeful god and found the island, she didn’t even need to find the people from the other islands – they just happened to appear. She didn’t need to think creatively – she just let her crewmate modify her ship. And then, when she had her moment to think about how to reach the island, she just decides to swim to the island. Like that’s super obvious. I don’t know. Besides the fact that I think the plot was too easy for Moana, the new characters were fun, such as her little sister. I enjoyed the movie in general, but maybe they should’ve made the adventure tougher.
I’m not sure if it’s me or what, but I didn’t find this season as enjoyable as the other seasons. It might be the fact that I’m consuming less Korean drama and reality TV dating show content 🤷♀️. The game changers didn’t seem to change the game too much. Some of the characters didn’t have much of a storyline, and the focus was mainly on Si-an, Jun-seo, and Jeong-su for the whole show. I’m not sure what I would have wanted to be different, but I think I’ll probably refrain from watching the next season. It took me a really long time to finish this season and by the end of it, I was just watching for the sake of finishing.
I frequently eat protein bars after working out and I prefer to eat chocolate flavored protein bars. For Valentine’s day, my girlfriend gifted me a bunch of chocolate protein bars that I hadn’t tried before.
I think that the NuGo protein bar was the best tasting because of the high sugar content. I was also surprised by the grainy texture of the no cow protein bar until I realized it used pea protein. If I were to choose my favorite protein bar with taste and nutrition in consideration, I would choose the think! brownie crunch protein bar
In general, I favor really chocolatey protein bars and a smooth-ish texture. I don’t want my mouth to feel dry when eating. If there are chocolate bits, then that helps add excitement to each bite.
I finished my 100th class a few days ago and wanted to provide an update. I continue to go to the class once a week. I’m pretty comfortable during the class, but I’m still learning new techniques and practicing old techniques in each class. The school that I go to doesn’t have too many members, but they all have been pretty friendly and respectful. I did a belt test a few months ago and am now a yellow belt. Despite this, I think that in a real fight, I would still be pretty frightened and attempt to disengage.
Taking these classes has helped improve my confidence and has given me more things to talk about in social settings. I was not interested in viewing any fighting sports growing up, apart from movies, but I watch these types of videos on YouTube.
One thing I still haven’t figured out is how much strength I should use when sparring. When I’m sparring, I feel like I’m not putting in that much strength. However, it always seems like my sparring partner is using a lot of strength. Maybe their 50% is much stronger than my 50% – I’m not sure.
I traveled to Hangzhou for vacation and I noticed that there are some aspects of the society that are neat.
The subway is clean
The subway does not have trash lying around
The maps / navigation apps in China have some cool features
One of the coolest features was the ability to tell you how long the light will stay red and green.
There are a ton of cameras
I believe this is for public safety purposes. I’m curious to know how the video and images are stored. Capturing all of this content every day would take a lot of storage space on the local, state, and country level. Even if the content is deleted after a week or two, the content would still need to be stored and be queriable in order for it to be useful.
The to-go / takeout culture is popular
I passed by a to-go bubble tea shop and the workers were working like crazy. All of them were busy fulfilling orders and the orders kept piling in. When I saw the television, they had like 45 orders fulfilled out of 115. When attempting to order online, the app said that the wait for a drink would be 90 minutes 😬. This job seemed like one of the eternal punishments in Greek mythology
The people are pretty sociable and like to play cards and mahjong
This may be a biased observation
It doesn’t seem like people are concerned about micro plastics
To me, I think that they prioritize the convenience of plastic over the health consequences
The cost of living is lower than the States and other cities in China, such as Shanghai
Food, transportation, movies, spa, haircuts, basically everything I saw was more affordable. However, this could also be biased due to the strength of the US dollar
I went to a foot spa before the end of the year. The foot spa was in an office / hotel type of building in China. The service was pretty good – got slippers and clothes to wear, got a reclining chair and movies to watch, got a person to massage my feet and back, and got some tasty fruit and snacks. I don’t usually go to spas so I am unfamiliar with the typical experience, but it seemed like a VIP movie theater. Like after the massage, we could stay until the place closed, which is at 1 AM. The masseuse was a bit too strong at times so I told them to put less strength. One of the back massaging techniques involved the masseuse sitting behind me and putting his feet on my lower back. I was instructed to lean back over his feet and then he would move his feet to rub my lower back. Not only was it uncomfortable to lean back over his feet, it was really ticklish and painful, so I asked them to stop after a few seconds. But other than that, I thought that the masseuse was good. My feet felt smoother and didn’t stink as much as before I went to the spa.
I recently ate at a restaurant in Washington DC called Amazonia and it was a fancy restaurant. This restaurant is combined with 2 restaurants, so on Google Maps it is called “Causa/ Amazonia”. This Peruvian restaurant had a lot of nice seafood and meat dishes as well as tasty drinks. A bit pricey, so I would not go very frequently, but good enough to be happy to go again. The streets were a bit dark on the walk from the metro to the restaurant and it didn’t seem like there were anything in the area when we first got there. When we left, we realized that the next street over had other restaurants so we had simply taken an alley instead of the main street to the restaurant. They even had an option where you could choose what fish you wanted and how it is prepared and the chef would cook the fish for you. However, if I remember correctly, this cost anywhere from $70 to $200+ depending on the fish, and the fish were just 1 – 2 lbs. To me that didn’t seem worth it, but the table next to us got that among a bunch of other dishes, so maybe it is really good.
La Florecita and Pisco SourPeruvian Bay Scallops and skewers of duck tongue and salmon bellyCebiche Amazonia or Cebiche Clasico Pulpo al Josper – Octopus dishPasta of the day with beef cheek Chazuta – Macambo, passion fruit, and green tea dessert
This past weekend, I was hanging out with some friends playing some card games. One of the people was really lucky at the games, so after dinner we decided to go and buy some lottery tickets. Most of us didn’t have cash, but I had some money, so I let them use it to buy some tickets. We bought the Powerball and Mega Millions since those had the highest payouts. For some reason, we had the belief that we would actually win and were imagining how we would split the money and whether we could retire off the lump sum. The energy and the excitement was high. The number drawing for Powerball just happened to be in a few hours, so we hung out until the drawing happened. I had my phone out so I could see the countdown to when the numbers would be drawn and eagerly waited for my life to change before my eyes.
At 11 pm, we tuned into the livestream and ended up not getting anything. Not a single number matched. What a letdown. Obviously most people do not win the lottery, but I really thought that this person had some super lucky powers. We’ll see if we win the Mega Millions tomorrow, but I do not have my hopes up. If we do win a prize, I think that I’d probably still work a job. Perhaps I’ll find something in a different field that I’ve been curious about. Or maybe I’ll keep the same job that I currently have. But, I don’t think that it would make sense for me to completely change my lifestyle if I won the lottery.
Jeffrey's Thoughts 