Not Quite Morimoto

So I really don't have a knack for cooking. Tony is a vegetarian, and does the cooking, and I clean up the house. As fair as this non-nuclear arrangement seems, I wanted to break the mold. My original plans were to cook my way through an entire vegetarian cookbook like Julie and Julia, but things have gotten in the way.

Excessive overtime, physicals and paperwork to get into nursing school have officially made this the busiest summer since AIT. I feel like I haven't had time to sit down since school let out, and it's only going to get worse! But today, after running around town and paying my bills, I decided to make a mushroom appetizer. I had bought the ingredients the week before and knew what I had to do, I just had to find the damned time.

And here it is:

Juicy mushrooms that I enjoyed with a garlic mayonnaise. I gave this plate to Tony and he ate all of them. He said they tasted good, even after I asked for the absolute truth. Even though I am starting small, I want to start off right. I think I am going to be okay.

The Book of Eli

All I can say is WOW. This movie seems a realistic depiction of what could happen to the inhabitants of a post-apocalyptic world. Killing people for touching their cats, a sip of water, or even the meat on their bones are everyday obstacles one could face in this world.

Washington plays Eli, a walker who carries a precious book that the villainous Carnegie seeks. Few people in this world are as old as they are, and even fewer know how to read. The book Eli carries is the Holy Bible, and Carnegie kills and manipulates to get it into his own hands. His reasons behind it are the most shocking part of the whole plot. He says that if he speaks the words from the book, people will come from all over the world and do what he tells them to do. He claims that if he has the book, he can conquer more cities and eventually rule the world. He says that it has been done before, and he can do it again.

Besides the lack of ethics of the characters in this barren world, Eli keeps the faith. He is prepared to take this book to the West because a voice inside of him told him to do so. He reads the Bible every day and tries to live by it as much as he can.  That doesn't mean he won't cut off your hand if he has to, though. A man has to do what a man has to do, right?

The film ends in such an amazing way. Every scene has something deep and beautiful about it, and the conclusion is no different. I thought I was done with spiritual and heartwrenching media after LOST was over, but I guess I was wrong. The Book of Eli is definitely worth a watch.

Cinematic Immaturity

Vs.

While babysitting my 10 year-old nephew a few weeks ago, he and his friend presented me a question. Without any prompts, they asked me which was a better movie: The Mummy or Jurassic Park. I immediately thought to myself "How can I compare? They are both equally awesome!" When I told them that, they quickly corrected me and said that Jurassic Park was better. Ha. What did I know?

The sad thing about this conversation was the realization that I have the same taste in movies as a ten year-old boy. It's not that it was just my nephew who I could have passed traits onto, but his friend as well.  I have a very immature love of campy adventure flicks, and this experience only further proves that point. I was always made fun of for liking movies like that when I was a RottenTomatoes poster, but now I don't really care. I can put Jurassic Park or The Mummy on whenever I am feeling down, and they will always lift my spirits. I guess you could say I am just young at heart. And I think that's a good thing.

The Movie Better Be Awesome

So in lieu of my failed attempt to retrieve childhood memories through Orpheo's Curse, I decided to buy a new computer game. I am on summer break right now and am waiting for the Nursing Program to start in the fall. I figured I could use a good challenge.

I drove over to Best Buy a few days after classes got out, and looked through the selection of games for PCs. There were Jonas Brothers Camp Rock games that I clearly wanted to save for later, stupid strategy games my dad plays, and other game styles that clearly didn't interest me. I wanted a point-and-click adventure game with puzzles and an intriguing storyline. I wanted something to keep me busy and haunt my dreams for the entire summer while I tried to navigate around a scary atmosphere and talk to strange characters.

I stumbled upon the game Shutter Island for MAC and PC. I hadn't seen the movie, and always like the feeling of elitism when I watch a movie like "I've been there before", or "this is different than the game". The previews were good enough. It had a creepy and beautiful visual quality to it, so I gave it a chance. It was rated T and up. The rating is important, because I figure that it would be a little more difficult if it was for both teenagers and adults. Ha.

I installed the game while Tony was in class, and started playing it. The imagery is very spooky, but you have to spend all of your time finding objects hidden inside other weird objects before you can do anything else. You are playing as Leonardo DiCaprio's Detective character, and your interactions with the other people are less than satisfactory. I mean, even old shitty games I played when I was younger had animated characters talking to you. In this game they just have a picture of a character and script next to them. They don't even have voice-overs! What the hell? Why put up a picture of Ben Kingsly if we can't even.... ugh.


When you aren't talking to mute pictures of people, you have to run around the asylum and look for things. You get to fix a generator and solve a few mini-games (which I enjoyed), but it all seemed too easy. Instead of letting you run around aimlessly to find things, you only had one or two options as to where you could go. It was like they were holding my hand the entire time, telling me which way to go. I ended up beating this game in two days. TWO DAYS! And I am no gamer.

I'd like to think of myself as an intelligent person, but I think this game was a little too easy. I think they could have put a lot more effort into the characters and layout of the island, and put up a few more road blocks. I understand they don't want to give away too much of the plot so they can plug the movie, but come on.

All in all, this game did what it aimed to do.... made me want to watch the movie. It teased me enough to get me spooked and intrigued in the character and storyline. I just saw a preview for the movie coming out on DVD this week and I just might buy it. That being said, it would be nice to have a little more challenging "adventure" game.