I saw Inception today. Then I talked to Mike about it, because he (along with many others) loved it, and said it already made his top 5. He asked me to rate it 1 to 10. As I did this and was pondering my scale and comparing it to other movies that I loved I realized something. Emotional movies really get me. Those are the one that have a lasting impact on me.

Here some of the movies in my top 10.

#1 (currently)

12 Angry Men (1957) - starred Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb. I had no idea what to expect going in. And isn't that always the best way to go in sometimes (that was how I went into Huckleberry Finn, 1984, and Predators)? The movie cover looked boring in my opinion. However, I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the movie paced itself, keeping the drama tense, intriguing, and best of all, personal. The story is about 12 jurors who must decide if a young man is innocent of the murder of his father. The interesting part is that you don't get to hear the trial: the movie starts as the jurors are deciding. All except one vote the young man guilty.

Execution wise it was excellent. The majority of the movie (probably 85%) of it was done in one single room. Now that tells you something of about how well the movie is done to keep your attention.

Most of all I love how intensely human the movie is. It has layers. Its deep. Its philosophical, psychological, and human management behavior 320. The movie climaxes surprisingly well.

#2 (and number one chic flic in my opinion)

It Happened One Night (1934) - Not a typical chic flic in my mind. For one, I don't find the female lead to be all that attractive. Its also very old. But I guess that doesn't have anything to do with anything. So how did I end up watching a chic flic? It was a class assignment. That's how. But I'm glad I did that assignment.

The story is kinda typical. Rotten daughter of a rich man runs away from home because she dislikes her marriage. She runs into a man who finds out who she is and wants to help her get home. Turns out the man is actually a reporter and threatens to return her to her father unless he gets the rights to her story. Anyway, this is a chic flic so you can guess what happens next.

Its not so much the plot that I liked, but what happens in between. Note. I gotta watch this one again. One of the reasons I liked it so much is because it was a chic flic that I actually enjoyed. And that's gotta be worth something. Something like #2 on my list.

Those two movies are, from what I can think of off the top of my head, sit atop my list of favorites. I would rank these 9+ out of 10 in my mind (and yeah, my scaling is skewed). After these two there is a sharp drop off as my next favorite movies are

Cloverfield, War of the Worlds, Transformers, and Cars.

So what to I think of Inception?

It was the best thing I've seen in a long time. I'm always up for sci-fi (as you can tell by above list). The execution was amazing, the dream idea is crazy, and I'm floored at what it was able to do with that concept (all the action scenes were made just that much more intense). The characters were believable, and most surprising of all, it was personally touching in several scenes. There were multiple layers to the movie in plot (and several in idea, but not as deep as Munich ). I liked it a lot. But I can't say that I love it yet. It didn't blow me away the way it did for Mike. i left the movie as excited about it as I was about Predators. It didn't leave a deep impact. Maybe it was because I couldn't understand what they were saying half the time. I do need to watch it again because some areas were deep thinkers.

Again, creatively, it blew away EVERYTHING else. It smashes Dark Knight to pieces. But interestingly enough, the Dark Knight made me think a lot more than Inception did.

8 out of 10 for now.

There are movies that make me depressed for days (King Kong, Star Wars Episode III) because of its tone and gravity and its parallels to real life. There are movies that leave me thinking (Dark Knight, Star Trek) either because of its great story or because of how it impacts real life. And then there are movies that make me want to tell everyone to go see it and it stays on my mind or even effects my reality. Or at least recommend it to them when they ask. Inception is definitely in the second category. I'll have to see it again before I can say it goes in the third.

Disney World was awesome. Loved it. It was crazy, hot, high-powered, intense, humid, crowded, but fun. I don't know how to describe it. The hotel was fun, and swimming was great. The crowds were rude though. If the basic instinct of people can be exposed just by waiting in lines and trying to grab seats or fit through a door, I'm afraid what would happen in a catastrophe like Katrina.

Other than that though, the people were great because they loved the magic and delight that comes with Disney. Orlando has a very strong vacation and laid back feel to it.

Some interesting differences between Disney and Universal though. I thought these were interesting.

Dress - negative points for Disney on this one. I was surprised that the kids at Universal studios were much more modestly dressed and covered up. I mean dang, freakin teen girls running around in bikinis all over the place at Disney or just very skimpily dressed. They took the California Gurl song to heart and actually wore daisy dukes with bikinis on top.

People - the Brazilian groups at Disney CROWDED the crap out of it. There were millions of them. They also had weird chants going on and would randomly burst out in clapping. Oddly they were probably 80% girls. Cheer camp? Dunno, but there were few guys. The crowd at Universal felt slightly older. More families at Disney it seemed. Also, EVERYONE'S SO freakin tan. I have actually fell in love with that. Helps that Jim's love interest in the Office in the season where I'm at is also a tan cutie.

Environment/Presentation - Universal Studios definitely has a different feel than Disney. Disney entrance - greeted by a fun, springy Disney-ish song and the Disney characters. Universal Studios entrance - Toxic by Britney Spears. yep. It also seemed like the park people generally seemed less cheery than the Disney workers. i don't know what it is. Maybe its the water. Which brings me to my next point.

Water - the water in Florida tastes like it all comes from the pool. Ewgh. On another interesting note, Universal Studios actually has cold water, unlike Disney.

Cooling - Universal Studios air conditioning sucks.

Cleanliness - Universal Studios was less clean than Disney. Maybe that's what was irking the workers. The bathrooms were less cleanly kept (i only know about the men's restrooms, nothing about the girls), toilet paper rolls were either messy or not even in the dispenser thingies.

Highlights

- my dad almost getting into a fight with this one guy about bus seating with me trying to hold them both back. I mean, this guy was stocky, not big, but wide, and easily over 200 lbs. not a lot, but keep in mind that between me and him there is at least a 60 lb weight difference. I think I could have still taken care of him. ... if he wasn't standing so close to me....and if he didn't have his buddy behind him....and if I was Chuck Norris. Good thing nothing happened, cooler heads prevailed. But the bus ride home will be remembered as one of the most tense, awkward, and embarrassing moments in my life. However, I am glad to say that I learned from this sad experience: that under this high intensity situation I remained calm and did not panic, I actually tried to stop things from getting out of hand, and I was able to actually think pretty clearly.

- Having 8 rides delayed on us, 4 by my own dad. *facepalm*

- Hollywood Rip Ride Coaster, the Hulk coaster, the Rock N' Roller, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Finding Nemo musical, Fear Factor Live, the stunt racing, the Yeti ride in Animal Kingdom, the scarier than I thought Dinosaur ride, the Mummy ride,

- being owned constantly by wave after wave of brazilian crazies, jam-packing every ride. They actually visually increased the waiting time of the Shrek 4D line by 10 minutes. They were young, loud, and everywhere. I have never seen so many blonde brazilians in my life, nor so intimidated (you can't avoid eye contact when you're the same height as them. I hate that), nor so excited because they were so excited.

- spending the most time at a japanese store in Epcot. Who knew they had so much asian merchandise? and who knew we would fly several thousand miles east to spend time at an asian store?

- making tons of jokes about dying and the ways one could die on a roller coaster when the hollywood rip ride coaster was delayed by 30 minutes. My personal favorite; having the roller coaster abruptly stop at the top of a fast ascent as the safety bar flings up, hurtling the rider upward into the sky where he breaks in the window of an airplane as the airplane crash lands into an airport a la Saint Barthélemy Airport style.

Overall I enjoyed Disneyworld slightly more than Universal Studios. I already miss both places. As a result, I now want an internship in Florida. Or Brazil. haha.

What have I been doing since I've been home? That's a very good question. Wait. What was that? You didn't ask that question? Well, who cares, I'm going to answer that one.

Not much. That's the short and sweet answer. I've taken up some hobbies like painting and doing P90X (yes, the exercise routine that has hurt me in places I didn't even know could hurt). I've actually started writing a short story. I also have a Church calling, and I want to finish my Duty to God thing. On the weekends I like to take long walks on the beach and have romantic dinners. Not really. Though a beach is nearby now and amazingly awesome. I've also made a few videos (one of Lights, one for LightsArmy, and one for k.A. Applegate as part of their presentation to show to Scholastic in August about Animorphs. in case you did not know, scholastic is planning to re-release Animorphs next spring/summer. yay, another childhood obsession resurrected from the dust!).

The biggest thing I've done is catch up on tv series. Heroes (LOVE LOVE. really really like Hayden Panettierre, haha. Peter Petrelli is pretty kewl too. I hate that schizo girl, she scares me. Sylar is really kewl too for a bad guy. I hate mohinder. and Hiro is hilarious.), Avatar (I ended up really liking the series. Its got some deep stuff in there relating to human relationships), and the Guild (Felicia Day is my heroine). But one of the best ones is the Office.

I had only caught a few episodes here and there before and loved it, but now, with the power that is Netflix, I can watch everything. And from watching the Office, I've learned a few valuable lessons about life.

1. Its not about salary or pay. Its about the people you work with. I would love to work with michael scott, even if he is a bully or a jerk. I would love even more to work with Josh and play CoD all day. The Office has helped me to understand that a job can be fun, full of pranks, jokes, and awkward moments. Emphasis on awkward moments.

2. Office life is going to be full of interesting and weird people. If Dwight was my desk buddy I would be both intimidated, and curious. The Office has also taught me that everybody can be more interesting if you have a camera following them around all the time. :)

3. Most importantly, Jim has taught me something special. See, I've been getting something wrong all this time. You don't pull pranks on your friends. You pull pranks with your friends. Your friendships only go so far when your friend is on the receiving end. The right way to do it is to find a common enemy and pull pranks on them together, thus ensuring that your friendships are strengthened and become endearing through the bonding feeling of owning someone; together. Then later, you can cherish those memories by giving them a present at Christmas full of inside jokes and pranks. Thank you Jim for helping me see the light of day. And for giving me loads of ideas. haha

See, now if I only I had known this back in Chinese class..... hmmm.....

Anyway. TV is great.

You Would not Believe your Eyes.

semi-finished. Still gotta swap a few pictures around, play with the effects a bit more, call it something. big thanks and kudos to my friends who contributed photos including my sister.

Spring Night

" Destiny is what we make it,

choice is ours, so don't delay it,

fate is nice, but unrelated"

" I can wait a thousand hours,

stay the same in sun and showers,

pick apart a thousand flowers..."