Just finished watching "How to Train Your Dragon"!

Loved it! I expected it to be a comedy and for some reason I thought the dragon would be able to talk.
I truly enjoy the plot and everything and even even the mildly realistic ending.
Ah, these 3-D animated movies just keep on getting better! (3-D not like with the goggles, but 3D as in compared to "flat"  traditiona; 2-D like "Secret of NIMH").

Anyway, on to lists:
Why I thought it would be a comedy:

• A skinny guy who seems like a bit of an outcast finds (what I assumed to be) a talking dragon
• On that tangent, I thought this dragon would be of the witty sort that makes a lot of wise cracks
• The girl looked tough, so I guessed that some stereotypical gender-role swap would take place
• (like she would be the tough one kind of being the dominant one in the relationship)
• The dragon had a bright-eyed, "cute", lizard-ish kind of look. Looked waaaaay different in the movie if you ask me. I was like jet-black and quite majestic. I think a lot of the movie posters made it seem as though it was dark blue with light- blue eyes. (compare the picture above with the image below)

• The title: "How to Train Your Dragon"; sounds like a light-hearted fun children's movie - right? Right?

Boy oh boy do these animated films nowadays go above and beyond my expectations. First Pixar's Up and now Dreamwork's How to Train Your Dragon. If studios keep "stuff like this" up I might actually stop waiting for the DVDs to come out and see them in theaters!

What to I mean by "stuff like this"?

• Family friendly - no cursing, no unnecessary violence or nudity
• (I'll make another blog post sometime with what I define as "family friendly" ;) )
• Deeper meanings that aren't spoon fed to the viewer - enough said
• (I thought How to Train Your Dragon was going to be like that - boy way I surprised!)
• Can be watched by all ages
• Kids can watch it now, clap and have fun, and then watch it again when they're older and go "Oh my goodness! All that was in there?! Who knew the plot was this deep?"
• Yeah, I love films like that too
• Parents can watch it right now and actually care enough to go "Shhhh, kiddo! I'm watching the film!"

I'll most likely edit this post later. Ciao :)

Craving Music

I'm really looking for a new mp3 player now. I don't want to buy anything from an online site even though they have good deals because I don't want to go through all the hassle of shipping it back to the vendor if something does wrong with the device. Instead, I'm looking through stores that I can actually visit.
The three main places I've looked at are:

• Wal-Mart
• Target
• and K-Mart

I haven't actually visitied the stores, but I look at their respective websites. The reason why I chose these stores are because of:

• Low prices (except for Target of course, but it's still...)
• Accessibility to their stores
• Easy to view reviews on their websites (I can clearly see what other people think about their products and I like how Wal-Mart allows you to post videos/pictures in reviews)

The last mp3 player/PMP (personal media player) I owned was a Nextar K40. I got it for my 16th borthday from one of my mom's friends. It's great, and I love all the features it had.It:

• has an FM Player
• has a relatively large screen (about 3-4 inches diagonally)
• plays videos and had a picture viewer with excellent quality
• I could read eBooks on it
• music quality was good and had a functional equalizer
• fit well in my hand
• memory slot! even though it didn't have any built in memory, the SD card slot was a solid plus (benefit). On the go, I had the possibility of bringing a ton (or a few, haha :) ) of SD cards and just switching them

All in all, it was a GREAT PMP, and it only cost about $40 dollars (excluding the SD card and the express shipping my mom's friend paid to have it delivered before my birthday came around).
Sure, it had a few quirks, but that was okay. They were minor things like the so-so text quality for eBooks and the lack of line breaks (might have been another way I could have went around that, but the eBook feature was a plus either way). And on menus, "No" meant "Yes" and "Yes" meant "No" (took me a while to figure out that when deleting things, lol).
BUT after a while certain "issues" started showing up, like it kept on deleting the files on my SD card and pretty soon it just wouldn't turn on at all.

The Nextar warranty covers product replacement for a full year, but I have to mail it to them myself. That's the one thing that's just "blah" :P But I'll send it before the end of the next week! That's my new personal deadline, so yeah! I'll tell you how it goes guys, and if push comes to shove I'll tell you what I'm looking for in a personal media player and which products catch my eye on one of the websites I listed :)

Listening to: Konna ni Chikaku de




I love the lyrics so much and Crystal Kay's voice is beautiful!

More fluids!

I spoke with my grandma today, which made me real happy :) Ever since I was little I've gotten along well with her and when I talk with her we can truly relate. She's the only person who knows my mother as well as I do, and we both love her so she's especially great to talk to.

I told her about my plans to go to Japan so she's going to pray for me and she fasts every Monday. Thank God! Nothing happens without a reason :) Timing was perfect because today, the same day she called!, I found blogs from students taking part in the program I want to attend. I'm so excited and I truly enjoy reading what they have to write. So many emotions and it feels as though I'm actually getting to see them as the people behind the keyboards :) I'm searching for more right now.

Anyway, I've decided to drink more water lately. I'm actually going to stick with it this time too :) Just need to find a water bottle, haha :P

Still looking for a job. I'm great with computers (including formal classes in Microsoft Office and the Adobe Creative Suite of products) Or rather, I'm praying for an awesome money-making idea. I think I'll wear a cute outfit on Friday or maybe sometime earlier this week and look for a job at Hollister or another store in the mall. What I'm really hoping for is a tutoring job though. Maybe I'll find something *really* good, maybe charging like $10 per hour.

Well, going to finish homework and study some Japanese. Oh, and looking for a low-cost, good MP3 player so I can listen to my Japanese CDs I've had for a while now. E-mail me or comment with recommendations.

xxxo,
K. Nu

Current favorite shows:

• The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog 
• Bravestarr
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Yep, I'm enjoying Qubo :) Watched Secret of NIMH this morning on This. Well, about half of its duration really. But that reminded me to make of "Movies I'm Going to Watch Online" list.

Sigh... I'll do homework tomorrow. Good night and I'll write more tomorrow :)

Batman's voice

Watching "Batman" now - that movie from about 10 or 20 years ago starring Jack Nicholson. The whole entire scene with Vicki Vale and Batman after the joker scares her... it makes me wonder "Why doesn't she recognize Bruce Wayne's voice?"

I think about my crush (my crush, mind you, not even boyfriend or anything like that) and I think if I met him in his hypothetical super-hero mode, I'd recognize his voice. I mean, if he's not using voice-altering softeware or something like that, why wouldn't you?

Same thing with those masks that cover only the eyes or the top of the hero/villain's face - is it really that hard to recognize people?

Pfft, now the movie's at that part where Bruce is trying to explain to her that he's Batman. C'mon, man! If she hasn't realized it by now, just leave well-enough alone.

-ignores all the arguments about love and what-not-

Planning and Praying

Wow, a month without posts...how disappointing :(

But I shall continue!

Updates:

• Moved into a new apartment; better neighborhood and no more carpet, yay!
• Picked classes for next semester - to be honest, I chose 3 classes instead of 4 because (next point)
• Going to study abroad in Japan next year!
• This is what I'm praying about A LOT. I feel nervous, but it's the opportunity of a lifetime, isn't it? I already have one year of college credits towards a bachelor's/associate's degree and all I need for high school graduation is American Government ( a one semester course/.5 credit). 
• I haven't told my mom yet, and I'm trying to get a job so I can get the $50 application fee :< I'm great with computers and I'm highly adaptable, so all I really need is favor.
• So my 2 options are:
• stay and get an associate's degree when I graduate
• or go and spend my senior year in Japan
• I thought about it, and my mom and I... it's... burdensome a lot of the time, so if I'm not truly happy here, then I might as well go. A year's worth of college credit is more than what most high school students have and in addition to that I'm an AP scholar - isn't that great? I'm proud of myself, and I've wanted to "break free" and be independent and I've loved other cultures for such a long time (particularly Japan) so why shouldn't I go? I prayed and cried, and I'm almost 100% sure God gave me peace about it - it's just the typical sense of uncertainty that makes me think more than I have to at times.
• Prom: Either way, at my current school, prom seems to "flop" a lot, so I think I might go with someone from my old school this year to get it over with.
• In short, I'm happy and positively pensive. I found a great new friend, but again, God had granted me wisdom.

xoxo,

K. Nu