Life's crazyness wrapped in a wall of text

Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight; The Prestige) pulled it off again.

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Spoilers up ahead, be warned.

So yeah, I was pretty psyched about Transformers 2. People pretty much knew what they were expecting: eye candy and a bad storyline. They were right. There were a few points I didn’t like:

1. The whole Megan Fox thingy and all the teenager jokes that came with it was stupid. I’m sure you realise she might look hot to most guys, Michael Bay, but stop abusing it and risk screwing the whole movie (not that you didn’t screw up some parts of the movie).
2. The twin autobots were unbelievably annoying and cheap. I’m not a hardcore Transformers fan so I didn’t know that they actually don’t exist in the Transformers franchise. What a big mistake.
3. Optimus Prime talking trash to the decepticons! He’s supposed to be a peaceful autobot.
4. I was expecting a great fight between Prime and a huge decepticon judging from the trailer. I was a bit disappointed because it was just some random decepticon that was used to make a point: the fact that the US army was working together with the autobots, ninja style.

These were the things that bugged me a bit during the movie, but don’t get me wrong, I loved Transformers 2. The visuals are AMAZING. Hands-on the best graphics I’ve ever seen on the big screen. Oh and Peter Cullen’s voice as Optimus Prime, let’s not forget that. The action was good, although a bit messy at times.

Optimus Prime

It’s been a while since I wrote a blogpost and it’s partly because of the exams and deadline projects for school (the other part is me being too lazy to write, haha). Here’s an update of what I’ve been up to lately:

Watching Leverage

A friend of mine recommended me to watch TNT’s Leverage. The show’s about four (solo working) thieves who each have their own specialty and an ex-insurance investigator who knows how to combine each specialty into one team that gives ‘leverage’ for those that need it. Each character has a distinct and interesting personality which, combined with some witty humor and clever plots for each episode, makes the show worth the watch. I’ll definately be looking out for season 2, that is going to air this summer in USA.

Enjoying with friends after our exam and before our practical test

Photos of that day can be found here: dukath.fab4.be/wendy. I haven’t selected any pictures yet to upload them on my own album. Basically, this day was planned because we had mad fun the first time we did it and it was meant for us to relax a bit after a busy period which actually wasn’t over yet due to the practical test that was planned for next week. It was a succes nevertheless. (Don’t mind me hula hooping on the Wii Fit…)

To the cinema with my sisters

In the same week before the practical test, my two big sisters came to visit us and decided we should do something nice. Apart from all the physical examinations I did to practice (thanks!), we also wanted to go to the cinema. It was “He’s Just Not That Into You” vs. “X-men Origins: Wolverine”. With my exceptional convincing power ( :whistle: ), I managed to drag my lil sis (my big sisters didn’t mind) to X-men Origins and eventually she actually wanted to watch more Hugh Jackman (X-Men Trilogy, Australia). I can’t blame her.

I had big hopes for X-men Origins (I get that feeling each time a (famous) superhero movie is being released, though). My hope started to sink a bit in the beginning because the story progressed very, very slow. Luckily after the break, the pace fastened and it ended up being a decent movie that was worth the money spent. Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed (Sabretooth) definately stood out while Taylor Kitsch’s role as Remy LeBeau (Gambit) was disappointing at best.

Practical test

The practical test is where your med skills are tested through various (little) tests that are observed and graded. This is probably the stress moment of the year for most first year med students. Luckily, I had a few friends who were willing to undergo some horrid examinations (thanks ). Things I had to do were a neurologic examination, put a bandage on a hand (which didn’t really go to well ), heart examination, abdominal examination and venapunction. Just like most students, I was friggin’ nervous about the test but things went smoothly.

Two new X-box 360 games: Dead Space and Infinite Undiscovery

I’m still playing Resident Evil 5 but I managed to get two games that I really wanted for a while now. They were cheap too, Dead Space being a bestseller and Infinite Undiscovery doesn’t go for more than $10 in the US now. Dead Space is one of the scariest third person shooters I’ve ever played. After playing Dead Space, I might understand why people were a bit disappointed with the scareness level of Resident Evil 5 (Resident Evil being the mother of survival horror games). Resident Evil 5 pretty much wasn’t scary at all. Both games are awesome nevertheless and I definately do not regret buying Dead Space. I have mixed feelings about Infinite Undiscovery (something you wouldn’t expect from a Tri Ace and Square Enix game). The game looks great, has a very fun combat system but there are a few things that are really nagging me. First of all, lip syncing is totally off, the dialogues (sometimes) are SO cheesy and sometimes the voice overs are missing (only subtitles are being displayed)! And secondly, the game isn’t always as clear as you’d like when it comes to objectives; so unless you’re playing with a guide, you’ll be stuck running around hoping you’ll find the way. The combat system is Infinite Undiscovery’s best aspect and I’ll continue to play the game because of that.

Playing as a photographer at a 25 year marriage party

I was invited to a party by a friend because his parents needed a photographer. I’m not (by a long shot) a professional photographer, but I do enjoy making photos and was very glad they asked me to do it (they didn’t necessarily wanted a professional photographer). I took the oppertunity to practice my skills and shot a bit less than 300 photos. That’s probably the biggest photoshoot I’ve done so far. Alas, bigger isn’t always better but the photos came out pretty nice and I hope they like them too (I’m still awaiting opinions as of now ).

Upcoming events

Right now, I have two more deadline projects to finish in the upcoming month and one more course to go before the summer break.

You might have noticed a “today’s events” and “upcoming events” header on the right side. That’s a new plugin called calendar in which I’ll put stuff that interest me (such as series/movies/games release dates and the like).

I’m anxiously waiting for:

Montyoum’s Dead Fantasy III and IV (May 20)
Resident Evil 5 Formula Setting Artbook (May 25)
Star Ocean 4 (May 28)
Terminator Salvation (June 3)
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (June 24)

Wow.

Joss Whedon is a GENIUS! Creator of the immense popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel series and whoop, he creates Firefly, one of the greatest (sci fi, if you’d like) series ever. I mean, who puts NINE main characters in one spaceship and manages to display each character so detailed throughout the course that you’ll get attached to each of them? Especially Captain ‘Mal’ Malcolm Reynolds, he has to be one of the best characters ever created, played by Nathan Fillion. You’ll see once if you’ve watched the series. Did I mention he was quite handsome? Err, I’m getting out of my line again, aren’t I? :mrgreen: Oh and that’s not the only thing why it makes the series so great. It’s the witty humor that pays a big, big part of this.  I laughed several times EACH episode but then again, I sometimes have a strange sense of humor ;).

If you want to watch the series and you don’t have the download capabilities, you could try Youtube (so I’ve heard) and Hulu.com, a collaboration of NBC, Fox (What were you THINKING by CANCELLING Firefly?!) and many other studios for streaming videos. If you’re not an USA resident, use Hotspot Shield to watch episodes on Hulu. (Don’t install their sponsor bar, bad stuff) Ofcourse, you could also buy the series as it has just been released on Bluray; heck, this series is so worth the buy.

That’s right, Firefly got cancelled by Fox due to low ratings. They cancelled their best show. Seriously, what were they THINKING! Anyway, in a response to this, Joss Whedon created a movie version of it, Serenity. An excellent stand alone movie but probably more enjoyable once you’ve watched the Firefly series; that’s for me to find out, I need to watch Serenity again. May Firefly be resurrected again in any way, but I fear that won’t happen.

Now what are you waiting for? Go watch Firefly already!