The Warcraft Movie

I recently went and saw the new Warcraft movie and I have to say, I was surprised that I liked it.

A little background on my Warcraft knowledge… I don’t really have any.  I will admit to having played the game a total of maybe 5 minutes. At a party no less. After one of my best guy friends packed in his computer, tower and all, and set up shop in the living room. So my knowledge is really about the obsessive players who love it.  Suffice it to say, I am not a fan of the Warcraft game franchise. I knew nothing about the story line going into the theater. I did know that my boyfriend loves the games and has told me many times that he appreciates them primarily for the story arch.  Most importantly I trusted his judgement. I’m glad I did. From what I’ve seen of the reviews for this movie, I am in a small minority of American viewers who apparently enjoyed this movie. Let me tell you why.

I love fantasy stories. I always have.  There are few fantasy stories that create a vast unique world that is so immersive you believe every moment and hang on to the adventure unwilling for it to end.  Aside from Lord of the Ring, the only other world I’ve been so immersed in was the Wheel of Time.  Which, although I’ve been waiting 15 or more years, Hollywood won’t make a movie about the Wheel of Time.  Immediately the Warcraft movie brings you into an unfamiliar world and makes it familiar. You have your usual landscapes that we’ve all seen but they are new.  I love this kind of thing and I crave it in a movie going experience.

These are not your usual orcs. I’m sure you’ve heard, or know, that this is a movie with epic humans vs. orcs kind of warfare.  Which we’ve all seen in Lord of the Rings.  This time it’s different.  This time the orcs are people too. They have a legitimate reason to be fighting, they have legitimate feelings and more importantly they have really really good characters. You can be torn between the two sides and that’s ok. I found myself a little unsure on who I was wanting to cheer for at some points.  In many respects I found the orcs more intriguing.  Rather than being the face of sheer evil, clearly giving you an enemy that has to be defeated, this story creates a true struggle.

There are strong female characters. Mostly on the orc side… which was a constant throughout. One major female orc character, Draka, is shown quite capable of battle and protecting herself and her family on a few occasions.  Towards the end of the film she becomes her best mother bear at all cost.  There is also Garona, a fierce orc hybrid (not sure what with) who is shown in almost every battle as perfectly capable of defending herself. In fact I found her character most interestingly portrayed.  She’s calculating, capable, honorable and courageous without having to abandon feminine traits such as emotion and vulnerability.  That’s really, really, really rare in Hollywood and particularly fantasy characters.

Romance was not the usual cliche.  Every story has romance and that in and of itself is cliche. Overall, if you’ve read some of the critics you might glean that the relationship acting throughout is sub-par. And it is… pretty much entirely on the human side of things.  Where humans were concerned, primarily the King and Queen, the relationship was awkward and rather unbelievable.  With the orc Durotan and his wife Draka there was clearly a bond and I would argue it was the most realistic relationship the whole time.  Then there was the inter-species relationship that I spent a good 30 minutes feeling really uncomfortable with.  Towards the end that one even won me over.  And then it smashed my expectations apart.  In the end, none of the relations had a happy ending. I give points for this. Being brave enough to break every union up after spending all that time making us invest is rather unique these days.  The hero doesn’t always get his or her partner.

It kept me guessing. I had to go home and wikipedia things to fill in the blanks of my knowledge because the director left out all of the informational backup in the story. Some see this as a weakness, I’m glad I wasn’t there with an extra hour of film thrown in throughout to tutor me along. I figured enough out to enjoy it without getting distracted. That could be because I love fantasy so much I’m not at all unfamiliar with all the character troupes reiterated there.  You can tell who has magic, what magic is bad, what is good and the creatures are all very repetitious.  Critics arguing about how little background there is are missing the point.  Too much background would kill this movie. Let the viewership puzzle it together as it goes along. I quite enjoy being made to think during the movie rather than having everything served to me.  It made me that much more involved with the story line.  Good story telling leaves pieces of the narrative so the viewer can puzzle it together themselves.  It’s something our brains enjoy doing and if done right we don’t even notice we are doing it.

The action, CGI and atmosphere is beautifully done. Maybe not everyone agrees there… I don’t really care.  If you take into account how comparatively small this budget was, the delivery was very well done.

So in the end, I did not regret going. That’s more than I can say for the Jungle Book which received rave reviews. Half the time I wonder if critics are even watching the same movies because that movie was like pulling teeth the entire time.  So go see the movie, keep an open mind and don’t let bad reviews keeping you from a potentially good time.

Ice Cream Cravings

It’s that time again… the heat is on! We all start getting warmed up and craving ice cream. Unless you are like me and crave ice cream regardless of the weather.  Either way, there are times you crave ice cream and that can be very tough when you are trying to eat healthy.

I’m not saying don’t indulge in ice cream on occasion.  I never say to cut out indulgences 100%. I will say that there are times to have these heavy-duty, high calorie, sugar laden desserts… like birthdays, weddings, family reunions, etc.  The problem I see is when you have these delicious melt-in-your-mouth treats multiple times a week.  If you are like me, this is a true problem. I crave ice cream constantly in the summer heat.  Winter time I’m all about the hot chocolate, fall is for pumpkin lattes, spring and summer are times for ice cream.

Post-run frozen treat? Yes, please!

I’ve recently turned to fro-yo shops to help me curb my cravings.  It’s not the best option but I do like how I can control the portions.  It’s also theoretically better for you. Theoretically. I haven’t done a lot of research on that fact so I won’t defend it.  I do think it’s lighter on the stomach than ice cream and you can easily control your toppings.  For someone watching their food, it’s helpful.

My personal choice…

Here’s a new trick I’m trying out.  Last summer I tried making my own homemade fro-yo… with mixed results. It also took more effort than going to a fro-yo shop.  When you need to curb a craving with a better option, you have to make that option equally convenient.  If you don’t, let’s be honest, you will go with the convenient craving you are trying to curb.

So here it is… freeze yogurts.  Go pick up some delicious flavors of greek yogurt cups and stock up your freezer. I’ve just tried one and it curbed my craving.  It’s frosty, creamy, delicious and healthy!  You’ll have a serving size determined for you and it’ll even last longer than a soft serve fro-yo.  Better yet, it’ll add much needed protein to your diet!  You can always add some toppings if you’d like. Maybe some fruit or granola?

Enjoy your summer and don’t feel guilty about your pleasures!

Perfect!

Five Simple Rules for Weightloss

Let’s be honest with each other here… five years ago I was 250 pounds and had no idea how where I had gone wrong.  I’m sure that’s not a unique feeling. I also had no idea what to change.  The good news was I didn’t have to start changing much, I just had to start changing something.

Over the past five years I’ve lost weight and kept it off. I’ve fluctuated 5 or 10 pounds when I got lax and didn’t want to do what I knew I needed to keep doing. I think this happens to everyone.  That’s when you need to step back and develop some simple rules you can live by and that will help you get where you need to go.

2015 me on the left and 2011 me on the right.  I look a bit different one might say.

So here’s my 5 Simple Rules for Weightloss (or weight maintenance).

1. Every time you want pasta, have a vegetable.  That could mean having a snack of vegetables to pass a craving or substituting vegetables into your dish to replace pasta.  Either way you are getting more healthy fiber and minerals and nixing at least some of the low quality carbs that plague most peoples diets.
2. Never add sugar or salt to your meal. This may be controversial. If you baked bread or something, that’s different. Do not season or flavor anything with sugar. For starters, you are already getting enough in your normal food. In the case of sugar, you probably get too much already. So if you drink coffee, stop adding sugar to it. If you make eggs, do not salt them.  There are plenty of other spices and seasonings with more flavor and less unpleasant side effects to your health.
3. Make 7-8 hours of sleep a priority.  I know life is busy and sometimes we can get too caught up to pull ourselves away to get a decent amount of sleep every night.  The problem is I know you have time to sleep. I know you can prioritize your life and activities to fit in enough sleep, I’ve done it myself.  You have to make sacrifices and stop going to late movies or playing video games till 3 am. That’s the thing, you HAVE to. Don’t make it something you know you should do because you honestly HAVE to.  Not getting enough sleep actually heightens your stress hormones and makes you hold onto weight.
4. Always choose water.  At one point I didn’t much like the taste of water and guess what? I got over it.  Every time I go out to eat I don’t even look at the beverage list. I’m having water. It saves money and calories!  I may have a coffee if I really need it and that’s rare.  I carry water bottles with me everywhere so I do not get thirsty and go for vending machines.  The bottom shelf on the door of my fridge is reserved for water bottles so I always have one ready. Before I go to bed there is a bottle on my nightstand AND one on my bathroom sink.  The goal is to avoid getting thirsty and to always have water.
5. Cook 95% of your meals at home from real ingredients.  I’m not talking soup out of a can or hamburger helper.  5% is reserved for special occasions, dates, meetings, etc.  The rest of your meals should be made by you with ingredients you know are real.  Just cooking at home makes you more mindful of what you are eating.  If you are busy, hard boil a dozen eggs on the weekend and put them on salads on weeknights.  Have oatmeal when you are in a real rush.  When you are not rushed make my turkey fried brown rice meal I posted last year. It’s not as hard as we make it out to be.

The reality of these rules is that you simply have to make yourself do them.  It’s not hard to make meals at home and they do not have to be fancy at all. In fact the less fancy they are can make them way better.  It takes more work to drink soda (buying it, carrying it, disposing of the bottle, etc) than it does to drink water.  And water really isn’t disgusting. I cannot believe I used to hate the taste… who the hell doesn’t like the taste of water!? That’s literally what the rest of the animal world drinks all the time.  It’s more than a little weird that so many people don’t anymore.

These are the basic guidelines that helped me lose weight and keep it off. And trust me when I say these took some time to get down.  About five years to be exact.  It takes patience, devotion and some sacrifice.  I almost don’t miss Sonic’s cheddar peppers anymore… almost.

 

How I lost 4 pounds with peanut butter

It’s a thing of beauty!

My mother was visiting last weekend.  Among all the fun things that go along with having ones mother visit, there are dietary issues to account for.  Usually it’s intolerance’s, diabetes, allergies, etc. My mother has decided to be on a bikini fitness model diet, one which she has received from my brother’s wife.  Now you see, my brother’s wife used to be a bikini fitness model/competitor so at least this time around my mother has an actual expert helping her make dietary choices. This is fantastic since my mom has been borderline anorexic for years now. So to see her eat anything is great.

For those who don’t know, this kind of diet requires a lot of spinach, egg whites, chicken and blueberries.  It’s nutritious, high in protein, low in fats and sugars and is repetitive. You eat the same thing day in and day out.  My mother has been doing a fantastic job in sticking to the plan and has lost 30 pounds in 6 months while eating 3x as much food!

This takes more work than a lot of people realize.

So my mother visited and like all visits, she judged everything.  This time she judged my food choices in a different way. Before I was eating too much, now I eat the wrong things.  I, too am eating high protein. This is not a diet, this is a lifestyle change. I eat what I eat to build muscles, not lose weight, so I eat fat as well. Because it’s delicious and replaces sugar… which is where I reached an issue when I started.

Cookies are my weakness. They are delicious, require no silverware/plates/prep and are the perfect grab’n’go guilty pleasure.  I have had to replace my cookie cravings with something better.  Earlier I shared my protein balls. This time, I will share my latest trick on my brain.

The banana-peanut butter snack.  Many, many people already know this amazing snack.  You take a pealed banana, smother it in peanut butter and snack away!  Peanut butter is actually one of the nut butters with the highest protein per serving. A serving of peanut butter packs around 7 grams of protein. It also has fat, thus my mother judged.  Keep it within serving sizes and I think you’re safe. Look for a brand that limits the ingredients. I prefer the organic brands and I always read the labels.  You can find delicious versions with nothing but peanuts and salt. Less is more on this one.

I have been working out (running, lifting, yoga & Muay Thai) 6 days a week for months now and held strong at 200 pounds the entire time.  I changed to a higher protein lifestyle, I eat 5-6 times a day and I’ve lost 4 pounds in the last month.  While eating peanut butter daily. My point? Do not deny yourself for weight loss, just make smarter plans to include your treats.  Eat the right foods, the right portions, workout and your body will follow.  Sure, some people are motivated individuals who can hold to restrictive diets with superhuman strength. I believe these people are the exception of the rule. The rule is the more you deny yourself, the more likely you are to fail.  Life is short, be happy and stay healthy.

You have a lifetime to be healthy and happy.  Losing 10 pounds in 10 days means nothing, this isn’t a race. Keep on your path and have faith in the right methods.

Shin Conditioning

So you want to start training in Muay Thai?  I have one word for you: Conditioning.

I’m on my 6th month of training in Muay Thai and I can tell you one thing for certain. I do not know if my shins will ever be conditioned enough.  At this point I’ve heard it and felt it almost every week since I’ve started. I have noticed some improvement. I’m probably at 20% in my journey for strong shins… and it’s going to be a long one.

Yes… this is my leg.

As I write this, both of my shins are so swollen I can feel the impact of walking vibrate up them. If you have no idea what I mean, you probably have not taken a Muay Thai class.  You see, in Muay Thai, every day is leg day and every day after leg day is recovery-from-hell day.  If you are training to fight or just taking Muay Thai for kicks I can offer some advice for surviving the swollen limbs.

1. Do not stop in your training. Do not get discouraged.  Do not stop during sparring, continue the fight.  If you are going to fight competitively you damn well better be ready to fight through the pain.
2. Elevate your legs. As soon as you get home, cleaned up and fed… get on your couch.  Get your legs up on the back of the couch far above your heart level and grab a nice book. Or watch TV. Or read blogs about Muay Thai advice.  Give yourself a night off and rest up before bedtime to help get the swelling out of your legs.
3. Ice. Ice those legs while you elevate. Ice them at work while you are stuck at a desk. Ice them when you can.  Ice will help increase blood flow to the area (in your bodies effort to warm you) and this will help break down the swelling.
4. Vitamin D. Take a daily vitamin D pill with at least 5,000 units.  Vitamin D helps with calcium absorption, which guess what? Helps rebuild bones.  Since your shins are getting microfractured every time you ‘condition’ them, you need to rebuild them. Vitamin D also helps with bruising and swelling, which is a bonus since it’s going to feel like that’s how your live your life anymore.
5. Get enough sleep.  The average adult requires between 7 or 8 hours of sleep per night. Sleep is imperative every night in order to keep your body functioning at it’s best. Sleep is also when your body has the most time to work on your aches, pains and bruises to heal you.  Sleep is the best weapon you have to keep you training and walking and is the most underappreciated time we spend on ourselves.

So there’s my recovery advice although to be honest some bruises seem to never recover. These are the deep tissue, a.k.a. ‘bone bruises’ that are common in Muay Thai. These hurt and they can last for months. I have one myself, on my right shin and I might as well name it at this point.  Just keep kicking, wince if you have to, and get through it. As they say; No Pain, No Gain.

Peanut Butter Protein Cookies

It’s Valentine’s Day, which means we are once again bombarded by sweets.  Every holiday seems to be a day to indulge in sweets.  I’m not one to say we shouldn’t, either.  Sweets every once in awhile, among the many days of healthy eating you stick to, can actually be good for the longevity of your new healthy eating lifestyle.  For one, it’s a lifestyle not a diet and there is almost no humanly way to avoid sweets the rest of your life.

So you want to have sweets without feeling guilty or like you fell off the wagon so hard you might as well light it on fire.  Here is my solution.  Make these peanut butter protein cookies.  For one, they have protein so at least you are getting something out of it and not just junk.  Also, (depending on the protein powder and peanut butter you use) they qualify as clean eating.  What is clean eating?  Well to put it simply, it’s where you eat the food around the store and not in the processed middle aisles.  It’s food you can identify and know where it comes from.  No hidden chemical shit-storm, just real food.

Here’s the best part… these are ridiculously easy to make.

1. Mix together: 1 cup peanut butter, 1 egg, 1 cup sugar and 1 scoop protein powder.
2. Take dough and roll balls about an inch thick in your hands.  Place on cookie sheet and press them flat with a fork.
3. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 7 minutes.  Take out, let cool and enjoy!

To be honest, these come out to about 223 each small cookie.  They have about 8 grams of protein in each of them and 13 grams of carbs.  So these are not carb free or low calorie… in my opinion, though, if I was about to eat a chocolate cake at least these have protein and are portion controlled.

Life is what you make it and the holidays are too.  If you want the sweets, eat the damn sweets! You deserve it if you live most days of the year eating clean/healthy as possible.  If a small peanut butter cookie can keep you from inhaling a box of Dove chocolates and you’ll feel better about it in the end of the day, they I suggest you do it.

The Scrambler

It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about food. Which is a shame. Because I love food.

Actual photo of my desk… my coworkers are cruel

To be honest, I love carbs.  Not the healthy whole grains and vegetables but the donuts and pasta.  Low quality carbs are my Achilles heel.  So I’ve recently (New Years Resolution in coming) decided to actively attempt to cut back on carbs. I’m not cutting them out completely. Carbs are good, they fuel your body and a runner depends on them.  I’m cutting out the junk carbs and ramping up my vegetables mostly.  And with that plan came a problem with my meal planning. You see a lot of my meals revolve around sandwiches.  Sandwiches are not bad, but I could do better than fill myself with supermarket bread.  So I invented my scrambler.

It happened quite by accident.  I had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge, had a cold and was craving eggs.  Quite a strange mix of circumstances, I know.  Anyways, I decided to scramble up some eggs with the chicken and that gave me an idea.  What if I take my normal salmon-avocado sandwich… and put it in a scrambled egg.  If you don’t like salmon or the smell of fish this is not for you.  My poor roommate has to live with a house that smells like salmon.  I think it’s lovely myself.

Here’s the recipe, the serving size is for one person:

Ingredients:

2 eggs, whipped up with almond milk
Frozen pepper/onion blend vegetables
Mrs. Dash Chipotle seasoning (no salt!)
Pink Salmon (canned, bagged or cooked and flaked if you have it!)
Avocado (half of a large avocado)
Optional:  Sharp cheddar

Steps:

1. Whip up the eggs with the almond milk and pour mixture into skillet over medium heat.
2. Season eggs in skillet.  Toss in some peppers/onions, as much as desired.  Stir occasionally while it cooks.
3. Put salmon is skillet with eggs, preferably while it’s still uncooked so you get an egg coating.  I use about 4 oz. salmon.
4. Cut up or smash (whichever way you prefer) your avocado and place on a plate.
5. When eggs are finished cooking, toss in some cheese if you’d like and melt in.
6. Place scrambled eggs on avocado and enjoy!

I wish I had a picture to share! This is a very tasty, very filling meal I have for most lunches.  It will keep you full for hours, thanks to all the protein.  It can make a fabulous breakfast if you have time before running out the door.  I prefer a parfait myself to start fresh!

I should try adding tomatoes… that sounds amazing too!

Try it out and customize it to make it your own! I’d love to hear your variations, variety is good!

What happens when you leave Facebook.

I don’t have a Facebook, which should be obvious after reading my title.  I’m not the only person to leave Facebook either. I read back in 2013 that there was a trend for people leaving Facebook… I can’t remember the article besides that part that it’s a ‘trend’.  About a year ago, I truly can’t remember how long its been, I elected to join the shrinking population of non-Facebook people of the world for what I think are pretty good reasons.

Let’s get my reasons out of the way.  For one, I did not appreciate what it was doing to my social life.  Social networking online does not fulfill my social needs.  My friends and family members appear to do just fine with it and I noticed my face-to-face or phone-call contact with people was shrinking.  No one calls to ask how I’m doing anymore or even have a conversation. Instead they searched my feed, if they even cared to know what I was doing, and ‘like’ my statuses.  That’s not socializing.  Secondly, towards the end I only used Facebook as a time-waster to play casual games… which is a dumb reason to have my life on record and available to everyone with access to the Facebook worldwide web.  Thirdly, I didn’t really appreciate where Mark Zuckerberg was taking the privacy settings and letting his minions run social experiments untethered.  And lastly, do you know how psychotic you sound when you get mad at your boyfriend because he hasn’t accepted your friend request?  I do… and when I realized it, I knew I had to leave Facebook.

So what exactly happens when you decide to delete your Facebook.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t think many people would notice and I figured I’d be hard pressed not to get right back on.  Here’s what actually happened:

•  Everyone thinks you deleted them. Oh yeah they do. And they become very, very awkward about it.  One of my friends called me to ask why I deleted her. My mother confronted me at her house asking why I deleted the family and for what reason.  I think half of my Facebook friends called, texted, emailed or ran into me in person and it was one of their first questions every time. It actually increased my social experiences for a week.  The strange thing to me is that none of them figured out I deleted myself. It was like a forgone conclusion that if I wasn’t in their friends then I’d deleted them.
• No one understands why. I don’t know how many people I’ve explained myself to now.  At first it was my friends but now it’s just constantly.  So many things happen on Facebook and only on Facebook so I’m bombarded by things that end with me having to say “Oh, never mind I don’t have a Facebook”.  And then I get the stare. It’s this blank, confused stare as if I just said I like to kick babies.  The kind of stare that goes with a sad child’s “but why!?” cry.  Once I see the face, I know I’m about to have a 15 minute conversation where I come off as the crazy person on a soap box screaming in the park.  Because how could anyone delete their Facebook, right?
• I really don’t miss it.  I’m not saying that to convince you.  I don’t care, I already know you think it’s crazy (see the last bullet point).  I really thought that I’d have a hard time unplugging. Not knowing what people do all the time or being able to get invited to events… I thought that’d make me want to go back.  The truth is the Facebook addiction/habit is so easy to break I was over it in a week.  It helped that I didn’t get on for any real good reason for the last year anyways.  All I had to do was delete the app on my phone and go about things. I am busy enough to hardly notice.  Facebook even gives you a month to make sure you are serious. They keep your Facebook page available but offline in case you change your mind. From what I’ve been told pretty much everyone caves and goes back.  I didn’t even know when my month was up.
• You will no longer have any idea what’s going on in your friend group.  Seriously. I deleted myself and it was like committing social suicide.  People forget you weren’t one of the names in their friends when they created an event and you don’t get to go to the event.  Or you get last minute invites with “I’m sorry I forgot you weren’t on Facebook!”.  I’m not sure how you forget when you didn’t click on my name but at least they thought of me later.  At first I literally got calls from parties going “Hey why aren’t you here?!” and then slowly people adapted.  Do you have any idea how weird this is? Facebook has replaced the normal social interactions I took for granted my whole life.  What the hell happened to cards and phone calls?
• People will ask “How will I know what you are doing?”.  Number one most awkward question I’ve ever heard and I’ve heard if quite a bit now.  The answer is pretty simple… it’s called a cellphone.  You don’t even have to call me, these days you can text short sentences or even just emoticon pictures. It’s amazing where technology has taken us and how quick we are to forget.  Do you know when I was in Middle School I had to wait till I walked all the way home from school to call my best friend or ask my parents if I could go for a bike ride? And yet now, without a Facebook, how the hell are people going to know what I’m doing. God forbid they ask.

What I’ve come to realize is Facebook is only useful for stalking people.  That’s what your doing. Essentially Facebook is a collection of people shouting in a room hoping some other people in that massive room care enough to overhear them. And then the person waits to see a bunch of thumbs up.  I don’t even want to go to any of my High School reunions anymore because Facebook pretty much ruined it.  Think about it, if I want to know where everyone’s gotten in life or brag about myself I can just find them and like them and stalk them. Or skip the middle part and be a Facebook creeper.  Instead of moving on from a breakup, you could instead stalk your ex and see everything they are doing via Facebook.  Why?  What the hell is the purpose?  Unless you have a business and need the networking I’m a little confused on the point of Facebook anymore.  Thus I deleted it and conducted my own social experiment.  I urge you to try it yourself if you’ve thought about it. Give it a month, it will surprise you.

My Thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens

It’s been awhile since I’ve written an opinion piece. I’ve been wanting to steer clear of reviews on this blog for a bit and then I saw the latest Star Wars.

Now, to be upfront and honest from the beginning, I am a big fan of Star Wars. I have the tattoos, I have a dog with “Jedi” in his name, I have a boyfriend with a lightsaber, etc.  There are many different levels of Star Wars fans from what I’ve come to realize. I am a fan of the original trilogy, what I will always refer to as the first 3.  George Lucas produced them with vision, creativity and they revolutionized the film industry. I grew up with these movies and watched them like most girls watch the Disney princess movies. I love them and that’s why it makes the new movie so hard for me to review.

So let’s dive right in… I have lots of feelings about this movie and I’ll break them down to the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

THE GOOD

“Chewy… let’s join the cast in quoting our original characters!”

1. Abrams went back to the original look and feel of the Star Wars universe. Turns out people don’t like different looking worlds (one gripe about the prequel trilogy) or even different looking bad guys.  It’s all very familiar and cozy.
2. The casting seems pretty good. No big stars, just fresh faced young actors who can actually act.
3. The space battle sequences are exciting! Then again, it is Abrams.

Hmmm… where have I seen this before?

THE BAD

1. Why is this movie so familiar? Oh right… it’s the plot. I have seen this movie twice now and I’m positive about 40% of the scenes are duplications of the originals. This isn’t inspired by Star Wars… this is literally repetitive Star Wars.  Congratulations, you’ve made my favorite movie into a troupe. Thanks for that.
2. Where are the older, respected evil leaders?  Besides the holographic mystery Sith guru, everyone is in their 20s or 30s.  Seriously? Grand Moff Tarkin had to earn his rank… apparently the New Order gives them away in Cracker Jack boxes!
3. The plot holes… some people are grasping at straws coming up with theories to answer the questions which is admirable. I left the theater with too many questions and an unwillingness to even care about the answers.  “How does a spherical droid roll uphill? Or go up stairs… how does his head even stay on?” or how about “Why does Kylo Ren only have his father standing between him and the dark side… what is Leia, chopped liver!?”. Oh, I have another… “How are Han and Luke mythical when it’s been only 30 years since they defeated the Empire?” There’s more but I don’t time and that could be a totally separate post.

What a coincidence, I’m a orphan desert slave and you’re a rebel droid with an important file running from the bad guys! I’ve never seen that before

THE UGLY

1. Kylo Ren is the most pathetic bad guys I’ve seen.  Ever.  His temper tantrums, while some say display how he’s been consumed by the dark side, are just irritating.  He acts like an 7 year old who’s the bully on a playground.  I think he’s only scary because he is seemingly the only people able to weld the force. The first competition he gets from an untrained force welding good girl and he crumbles.  Don’t even get me started on the teenage family angst. I just can’t buy the characterization here.

Is it a machine they terraformed or a planet they hollowed out?

1. The scary weapon this time around is the Star Killer… which is a planet sized Death Star. This time around it actually sucks in the energy of the Sun… which is a star. I see what you did there. Problem: wouldn’t displacing a sun alter the ecology on all planets in the galaxy there? Plot hole number 32 located! And why didn’t they figure their engineering issues from the first death/killer/star/whatever technology?  You’d think they’d bury the weak spots within the planet at this point, since they apparently cored the inside of one out. Presumably. I have to make presumptions to explain what the movie won’t.
2. It’s fan fiction.  Without Lucas, this movie will never be enough to be honest. It’s not fresh (didn’t try hard to be either) and it’s certainly not going to define a genre for generations. Instead this movie amounts to fan fiction, produced with too much fan service and it’s forgettable.  After watching The Force Awakens, I’m thinking I’ll finally go back and rewatch the prequels. I’ve decided they received too harsh of criticism.  At least with the prequels you have a deep plot, with completely new characters and a really good bad guy.

At least he LOOKS the part.

I actually have more bad points I could put on this. Such as the lack of an alien main character. Having the central, core evil elite and freedom-fighting gang be predominately human is old.  All you have it Chewy to change up things, and he’s from the originals so I’m not counting it.  You’re telling me out of all these alien species displayed in the ‘new’ bar scene, not one of them has the force or is the best pilot or anything? How boring.  The best this movie offers is Fin, the Stormtrooper with a conscious who falls for the girl and gets a bromance the moment he steps of his ship. I’ll let it go, I’d probably be desperate if I grew up a Stormtrooper, too.

When I saw this movie the first time… I walked out of the theater thinking “Well it was better than the prequels”.  And then I thought about it… and then I went again… and now I know that it’s a mixed bag.  It’s certainly more entertaining than 1-3… but it’s so superficial and forced that it’s not truly better.  This movie will appeal to the fans because the fans want so badly to relive the original magic. The reality is that the bar is too high and not even Abrams can reach it.

 

How to make a New Years Resolution

It’s that time of year again and we’ve all been there. The time where you set out on a new year, a new you, a new path!  You may be hung-over right now, you may be taking down your holiday decorations and you may even be traveling to see family to congratulate each other for living to see the new year happen.  All the while you are probably thinking about making New Years Resolutions.

I am positive you’ve made many, many resolutions in your life. And I am positive you’ve ‘broken’ about 90% over the year you made them.  It’s so normal that this happens that we all see the pop-culture references about it constantly at this time. We’ll all see our gym overflow with new enthusiastic members and then come March it’ll be back to the usual group.  It doesn’t have to be that way and it’s actually really, really easy to keep your resolutions.  You just need to know the secret formula.

One part: The Right Motivation. We all have motivation to lose weight, eat right, etc.  You need the right motivation. If your major reason for wanting to lose weight, generally made obvious by the fact you want to try a “diet” and not a lifestyle change, is to look good in your swimsuit… then you do not have the right motivation. Superficial motivation built on seeking to have what others have will not give you the fortitude to stick with it. It can be PART of the reason but you will need more.

Factor in: The Right Goal. Obviously your resolution is a fancy term for a 365 day long goal. And that’s a very long term goal, so it’s best to make it reasonable and achievable.  Let’s say you want to lose weight, I have been there.  You usually make a resolution to the tune of “I will no longer drink beer, eat fries or have any sweets!” and do you know what happens? You fail, usually record fast.  Why is that? Simply put, you are focusing restrictions and they are unrealistic. Instead make resolutions on achievements you can DO. For instance “I will try to have a serving of vegetables at every meal” or “I will order water every time we go to a restaurant”.    Yes, these sound like small ideals but they will have a bigger impact on your waistline and you’ll be able to keep them easier. They may also influence your choices on other things.

Add a pinch of: Realism. Now you have your goal and a good motivation, What you need is a level head on your expectations. You are not going to drop 10 pounds in a week, or at least you shouldn’t if you are doing it right (and it’s more likely to stay off if you are doing it right).  If and when you do lose weight or stop feeling sore at the gym or drink 10 glasses of water a day, etc… you probably won’t see that much change in your looks. This is where the right motivation should kick in.

Finish off with: Measurable Achievements. If your goal is overall health, you will be able to measure these effects easier. Your looks are not measurable and the truth is you’ll probably never be 100% happy with it every day of your life. It’s a fact of living in a looks conscious world and you just need to move past it. Find a sport you want to get good at. Guess what, if your resolution is to be able to run a 5k by the end of the year then you’ll know when you succeed. Then you can bask in the success. You’ll have a clear end line to shoot for and that will help with your motivation.  If you want to get back into your high school jeans that’s great too. Let me tell you though, that was my goal for a long time.  When I finally got there I wondered why the hell I even wanted to get back into them.  At least in the weight goal it’s measurable and you’ll know when you get there. Don’t make a resolution like “I am going to work to get a body like Kim Kardashian” because I have news for you. You are not her, probably not related to her and so will probably never get there without huge plastic surgery bills. A better goal would be “I’m going to build a better me” or maybe even “I’m going to fall in love with my body”. I’ll support that vanity goal, I’ve done it myself.

Those are my tips and I hope they help you make resolutions you can keep and brag about.  I’ve made mine, I usually try to keep the list short so I can remember them.

Good Luck in 2016