Four months later...

"Four Months Later..." is the title of the first episode of Heroes's second season, but that's almost the time it took me to start watching Heroes again :) But there I was, lazy Sunday afternoon, fairly excited about finding out what would happen to Peter, Niki and the gang after the exciting events of the season 1 finale. In fact, I was even planning on watching 2 episodes in a row, which is something I never do!

Well, I only watched one episode in the end, and why was that? To be honest, I was bored... Seriously bored. On shows like Lost or Alias, which usually end a season on a huge cliffhanger, the first episode of a new season is usually one of the best episodes. This one? A big, fat "meh".

First off all, where are Niki and Micah, arguably two of the coolest characters on the show? They'd better be back or there will be blood!

And don't even get me started on those 2 latin brothers... Yes, the girl may have awesome powers (seems like she fries people's brains), but at least for now they seem to fall into those horribly cliched poor latin-american stereotype of the God-fearing loving brothers, facing all kinds of adversities and people with all sorts of bad intentions, but still manage to remain pure-hearted... I really hope one of them dies.

Another ridiculous scene was with Claire, now hiding out in a Southern California high school. She has to face off with a gang of cheerleaders and let's face it, Mean Girls this isn't... Also, literally the first person Claire meets at her new high school also has superpowers... Yeah right... And that little girl Molly, how annoying is she??

The only thing that got me excited was the new character Takezo Kensei, played by the delightful David Anders. Well, to be honest, it wasn't the character per se, but more David Anders. As some of you might know, he played the wonderfully sinister and sexy Julian Sark in ALIAS.

He was definitely one of the coolest characters in ALIAS and I used to have a really big crush on him... Time will tell if it was more his character than the actor, but still he was always so evil and stylishly dressed while doing his bad deeds.... And he had the sexiest accent! Let's have a moment here and revisit Sark:

Also on the bright side, there's still Veronica Mars to look forward to. Maybe I'm being to harsh on Heroes, but I sincerely expected a lot more. And if what I'm most excited about are Sark and Veronica, maybe I should just watch ALIAS and Veronica Mars :) I hope you win me back soon, Heroes!

"Help me, Mars-won Kenobe. You're my only hope."

Every puzzle has an answer...

You can all put your thinking caps to rest now, the time has come to reveal the answer to the "1,000 times" puzzle. The puzzle was:

"The following is written on a piece of paper you picked up:
"_ is 1,000 times _ _" To turn this strange message into a proper sentence, all you need to do is fill in the three "_ " with a single letter of the alphabet. But what could the letter be? You'll need to use the same letter for all three _s."

What on earth can that mean? Well, think distances and abbreviations we use to represent said distances.... Km?? No, that's a "k" and an "m"... Figured it out already?

And the missing letter is....

Yes, "m is 1,000 times mm"!! "m" for meter and "mm" for millimeter :) Pretty obvious now, huh?

Sara was the one to get it right (I withheld her comment with the answer until now). Congratulations Sara, eternal glory is yours (or something like that). Enjoy the moment!

Tulibu dibu douchoo...

What title is that? Nope, I'm not drunk... And although that might look straight out of a text message I'd send after taking a sleeping pill, it's not that either. What is that?? Maybe another puzzle? Nope, that actually is the lyrics to Mariah's 1993 hit song "Ken Leee". Never heard of it? Are you sure? Take a look at this:

Oh, this just made me laugh so much! "Don't you mean Without You?" "No, it's Ken Leee" (awesome!!) I love these new lyrics to Without You:

Ken leee
Tulibu dibu douchoo - (bless you)
Ken leeeeee
Ken lee meju more...


English is so boring compared to this...

By the way, for those of you who haven't googled it (I'm looking at you Ligia...) here's a clue for yesterday's puzzle (answer coming tomorrow):

Hmm, what can that be? Hmm indeed! (lol, I can't keep a secret...)

A 1,000 times

I love puzzles and riddles and I hate puzzles and riddles. Let me explain: I love trying to solve the puzzles but the ones I get stuck on really make me furious and makes me wanna break things and I can't stop thinking about them until I manage to solve them. Even though I was aware of the risks I started playing this Nintendo DS game called "Professor Layton and The Curious Village" ( Note: Mr. Nintendo could you pleeeaese name the sequel Professor Layton and The Bi-Curious Village? kthanxbai).

Professor Layton (which I keep calling Clayton, don't know why as the only Clayton I "know" was Blanche's gay brother on The Golden Girls - such a great show that was, and to include a middle-aged non-stereotypical gay in a sitcom during the late 80s was really ahead of its time, but I digress) is a top-hat-wearing fellow who loves puzzle-solving. He has heard word about a mysterious village containing a special puzzle revolving around an object called The Golden Apple. Travelling with his young companion, Luke, he enters the curious village to discover a town populated by people obsessed with puzzles, and a lot of peculiar secrets.




You have this morbid and sweet story, involving murders, kidnappings, evil characters, mysterious towers and hidden treasures, as a framework for a collection of superb brainteasers and puzzles. I'm really addicted to this game (although sometime it makes me wanna smash my DS) and after showing it around in the office today, I thought "Why don't I share one of this puzzles on my blog?". So here it is! This puzzle is everything a puzzle should be: clever yet slightly frustrating, with a seemingly impossible answer that when you finally get it is just seems so obvious:

"The following is written on a piece of paper you picked up:

"_ is 1,000 times _ _"

To turn this strange message into a proper sentence, all you need to do is fill in the three "_ " with a single letter of the alphabet. But what could the letter be? You'll need to use the same letter for all three _s."

Any thoughts?? Feel free to send your answers/questions using the comments. I'll reveal the answer to this riddle in a couple of days. And remember what Professor Layton always says (with a posh british accent): Critical thinking is the key to success. (Of course one could also say "Google is the key to success" but where's the fun in that?)

The Earth, the Stars and... The Moon

No, this post will not have anything to do with astronomy or even with a Calvin Klein perfume ad. February is gone, and March is here already. Should I be looking forward for this new month? Well according to Maya not really, as my card for March is The Moon... Should I be paying attention to what she has to say? Let's look at what Maya said for February and what actually happened:



Love
Maya said: Recent relationships tend to evolve in a very favourable way, although it is advisable to not create expectations. Take things slowly and be patient. Everything happens for a reason.

I say: Don't know about this one... It was at the very beginning of February that I met G1, and for a few days, things did evolve quite nicely, until I was dismissed! Maybe she was right and I expected too much out of him, when clearly we weren't on the same page (and I wasn't patient at all...). I'll give this one to Maya, I guess she was right.

Money and finances:
Maya said: There won't be any complications in this sector, everything will be under your control.

I say: 100% wrong on this one. As of now, because of all those complications with my phone and the change of address, I am blacklisted, so I won't be able to buy anything on credit and things of that nature until I resolve everything with Orange... Yep, the bastards have now officially told me that to them I am committing fraud and that there are very suspicious things about me and this whole process. Yesterday I went to the shop where I got the phone, was given a new number to call, but have to wait until tomorrow. So Maya, nothing is under my control.

Overall:
Maya said: February will be a very happy, auspicious and dynamic month!

I say: 70% wrong. Yes, the first week or so seemed to bode well, it was really was a happy period: lots of things going on, was having fun (with and without G1), had my review at work and got a nice pay rise! But from then on, everything went spiralling down.

So my dear Maya, on last month you were:

I sincerely hope she'll be wrong for March too. As I've told you, my Tarot card for the month is The Moon, not good at all. Here are a few highlights:

Overall:

The month of Gemini is strong on emotions. Gemini is very sensitive in March, which will make some situations and events meddle with his heart and sensitivity. Because of that, Gemini will have difficulty in analysing the events that surround him.

Love:

Your life is now under evaluation, whether this situation is created by you or by whom he is close. In situations of duality, unknowns or dissatisfaction, it is absolutely necessary to take a firm position: either yes or no.

Work:

Try to remain vigilant and disciplined, as the cyclical influence of card XVIII of Tarot, the Moon, is disturbing, leading to dispersal, distraction and risks of errors or imperfection.

Health:

In his health nervous system presents some instability, which is not surprising due to the emotional instability of the month.

Oh dear, things will definitely not be easy this month... Maybe this is all a bunch of crap (after all she was mostly wrong in February) but as crazy as it may sound, she usually gets things right. Anyway, whatever happens, I'll keep you all updated (unless of course I get arrested for fraud...):

Touch My Body (again)

Oh, these are exciting times, Mariah's new video is out!! (There isn't too much going on in my life right now, so just be happy for me, ok?).


Here's the video:

I'm loving this video! So funny and silly! Mariah's acting is hilarious as usual (but probably not the way she intended) but her body is looking hot (and the old-lady panties shot just made me laugh)! The funny guy is Jack McBrayer, who stars in 30 Rock, a show I mentioned a few weeks ago. He's so good at playing the nerdy guy, perfect choice for the video! And as my friend Andre would say "nerd is the new cool"™!

All the usual suspects are present on this video: the slow motion posing, a wind machine, a million skimpy outfits, Mariah's 2 "greatest hits" in all their bouncing glory... Now if only somehow there was an unicorn in it.. oh, wait, there is a unicorn inthe video!

Seriously, I think this is a fun video which matches the spirit of the song perfectly. And it's really cool that Mariah isn't afraid of playing with her own (crazy) image. You go girl!! I love how she says her last line "The download speed was killing me, please tell me you updated to 802.11N". She's so rushing through that sentence, obviously she has no idea what she's talking about! :)


Bit of trivia for you: this video was directed by Brett Rattner, who besides also doing other videos for Mariah (including Heartbreaker and We Belong Together) he also directed a little movie called X-Men 3: The Last Stand. How come this guy gets to be so involved with 2 of my greatest obsessions? So not fair....


And before you start leaving comments or thinking "She's fat, the video is awful", answer this question: do you like this guy??



You do? I thought so...(I do too, although Prison Break is boring...). If it wasn't for this video or this one here, you probably wouldn't know him. You see, those two videos, besides being very popular, were also direct by Brett Rattner, who happened to be the producer of Prison Break. The popularity gained from those videos plus meeting made Brett was a ticket to stardom for Wentworth. So, next time you're watching Prison Break, take a moment and thank Mariah, ok? ;)


To keep the Mariah-fest going on here, here's another treat for you: a great remix of Touch My Body! While the David Morales' mixes aren't released, this will have to do for now to make me dance! So uplifting and festive!! Wiiii! DOWNLOAD HERE!

Rotten Orange

A word of caution for those living or coming to the UK: when deciding on which mobile network to go for, do not choose ORANGE! Recently I finally decided to go from a top-up card to a pay monthly plan. Everything was great, got a nice deal, a lovely new phone, everything was going well.

So why am I complaining? Well, I recently changed my address at the bank, but still hadn't gotten around changing the address with Orange. So, they sent a welcome letter to my old address and my evil fat ex-housemate sends it back to Orange. They got the letter and what did they do? They barred my phone.

Ok, fair enough. But is it too much to expect the company who contacts you several times a month about new deals and other shit like that to at least inform you that they’ve barred your phone? Sure, I wasn’t expecting them to come to my house and make me a cup of tea or rub my feet while telling me the news, but a simple text message warning me or letting me know that my phone was barred? I had no idea this was happening until someone emailed me saying he could not send me a text message. F*ckin bastards! And don't get me started on their customer service (appalling would be the word), but even worse having to listen for dozens of spoken menus (more on that below) to get to talk to someone.

I must admit that not everything about Orange is bad though. I certainly praise them from their Equal Opportunities Policy. After all, they apparently hired this woman to be their Orange Answerphone Woman:



You may not recognize her, but this is Mab, the Queen of Magic. Yes, she may have done her share of evil deeds in the past, killed a few people, plotted against human kind but that did not stop Orange for giving her another opportunity. Don't know what she sounds like? Take a look at this video (note: she's the one NOT in white).

No, seriously, I would have preferred a million times if they were actually using Mab for the voice. She was evil, but very cool while the woman they use is soooo annoying. Whenever I try to make a phone call, there she comes, saying "Sorry, calls from this phone have been barred". She says this with such pleasure and malice that I'm sure that they had to cut off the evil laughter at the end of the sentence. In all her recorded messages she sounds like she's doing you a favour, sounding patronising in everything she says. Why Orange would you hire this woman? Who did she have to sleep with?

Surprisingly, I'm not alone on this. Check this news here, where it says "Subscribers have telephoned to complain about the new spoken menu they hear when picking up their voicemail messages". There was even a petition online to ditch the Voice From Hell. Needless to say, I've signed it already!

Welcome to Hollywood, mon ami!

In case you didn't know there's a new X-movie coming out next year and it's called X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Although I've known about this new movie for quite sometime now, it always failed to generate the kind of excitement I would normally get from the other X-movies or even the new Batman.

There's something about Wolverine that I just find very boring and a bit annoying... It's not his character per se, but how he always gets the spotlight, how he's always everyone's favourite. You could have called the previous X-movies "Wolverine and friends" that nobody would have complained. Well. some news emerged this week that made me really excited about this film: Gambit has arrived!

For those of you who don't know who he is, he's one of the coolest X-Men ever. Gambit (whose real name is Remy LeBeau) possesses the ability to manipulate kinetic energy. He is also skilled in card throwing (when they're charged with kinetic energy), hand-to-hand combat, and the use of a Bo (which is basically a big stick, think Donatello in TMNT). Personality-wise, Gambit reminds me a lot of Sawyer from LOST ( or maybe I should say Sawyer reminds me of Gambit...). They both share misterious past full of evil deeds, the witty remarks, the seductive way with women... And speaking of women, they both also seem to only show a more vulnerable side of themselves with their ladies (Rogue and Kate respectively). There were rumours about Gambit being in X3 and played by Josh Holloway, but unfortunately that didn't work... He would have been the perfect Gambit (sigh...):




But now Gambit is confirmed to the in Wolverine, and the chosen actor is Friday Night Lights actor Taylor Kitsch. I've never watched that show, so I have no idea who this guy is. I just hope he does Gambit justice.



I'm also curious on how Gambit's costume will look like. His costume was always one of my favourite in the comics, but I don't know if it will work in "real life". They'll probably go the same way as the X-movies and ditch the original costume for something a bit more realistic. I just hope they keep the red and black eyes, that has to be there.

Other notable announcements in terms of characters and casting? Well, the one I'm more excited about is Deadpool. Major-hottie Ryan Reynolds will be playing Deadpool, which in the comics always wears a mask. As cool as the mask is, I hope that they don't cover Ryan's face the whole time, eheh:




Also announced was that Liev "Cotton" Schreiber landed the part of Victor Creed, a.k.a. Sabretooth. Fingers crossed that the new Sabretooth will be an improvement over their last attempt in X-Men 1, it was a bit lame there...




To finish things off, there's also Dominic Monaghan playing Barnell, (also known as Beak), a mutant with bird-like physiology (in some versions of the comic) and with the power to manipulate energy and electricity, and Danny Huston, playing William Stryker. Stryker was the bad guy in X2, played by Brian Cox. To be honest these two leave quite indifferent, probably I don't really know a lot/care much about their characters...




The last announced character is John Wraith, a.k.a. Kestrel. To be honest I'd never heard of this one before, and according to wikipedia, "he was part of Team X along with Wolverine, Sabretooth, Maverick, Mastodon, and Silver Fox. Wraith was a powerful teleporter, capable of getting the team out of sticky situations after their job was finished." What's suprising about this one is the "actor" they chose to play it, none other than Will.i.am! Yes, he's the guy from the Black Eyed Peas, I never even knew he could act, let alone be a powerful mutant! Well, I guess if things get rough I suppose he can always try singing "My humps"...

And that's all we know for now. Silver Fox is also going to be a character in the movie, but still no word (besides rumours) on who's going to play her. What do you all think, excited about X-Men Origins? Will that guy be able to be Gambit? I'm fairly excited now with all these announcements. Will it be any good? Only time will tell...

The Top 3 *PROPER*

Well, the Top 3 won't be a surprise to most of you anymore as it was already revealed a few days ago. But such excellent movies (in which I cry a lot) deserve a lot more than a quick mention, so here we are again for The Top 3: Tearjerker Moments, take 2! I should stress that this list was not a countdown of my favourite movies, but the following 3 are definitely on my top favourite movies of all time.

Number 3: The Colour Purple

The Colour Purple is one of those movies that I had decided it was boring without having even watched it. But one day unintentionally I caught it on TV and just couldn't stop watching it. It's about a black woman called Celie, striving to escape a destiny of abuse, oppression and poverty. There is abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, pain that no one should have to go through but she manages to survive.
Celie was separated early on from loved ones (her sister and her children) and thrown into a loveless, unfaithful and abusive marriage. It is a painful story but at the same time a very hopeful one too.

All the performances on this movie are just wonderful. There's Whoopi Goldberg in her breakthrough role (and quite different from the comedy roles she would become famous for) and also a little someone called Oprah Winfrey (with a few extras pounds).

And what moments make The Colour Purple worthy of being at number 3? There are several in fact. One is when Celie helps Sophia (Oprah) at the grocery store, without even saying a word and you can just feel how Sophia is grateful, with such kind help, something she was no longer used to. Then there's that scene at the church where Shug Avery reunites with her father. The "winner" is definitely the ending scene: after many, many years Celie is (finally) reunited with her sister and her children. She sees them from afar, coming to her house, their colorful vests flailing in the wind. It's such a good feeling to witness how this woman finally gets what she always hoped for, never losing hope, always ready to help others and with courage to fight against her own fears and shortcomings. Inspirational to say the least.


Number 2: Requiem for a Dream

Requiem for a Dream was a movie I stumbled upon almost by accident. When this trailer for LOTR: The Two Towers was released, I fell in love with the soundtrack they used. It was so powerful and moving that I decided to do some googling on it. I eventually discovered it was a rearranged version of a composition by Clint Mansell, originally made for a movie called Requiem for a Dream. I downloaded the movie, knowing nothing about it (somehow I imagined it to be a modern version of A Midsummer Night's Dream) and decided to watch it. And WOW!! I was not ready for what that, such a powerful, shocking, moving and tragic movie (or more than a movie, an experience).

But I digress (I have to do an Top 11 Movies...). It cried in way on this movie that to this day as never happened again. I started towards the end with when Sara's friends (Sara is the old lady) visit her at the hospital, and then there's this (beautiful) shot of them sitting on a bench outside crying, so disturbed by what their friend had become. I usually can tell when I'm going to start crying in a movie. I mean, maybe someone dies, and the soundtrack gets really sad, and you just know that tears will start rolling down your face soon. But on this one nothing like that happened. I started crying without even realizing it, only noticed it a few moments later. It's really difficult to explain. And from that moment on, it's just like a rollercoaster ride of tragic and shocking events that happen to all the characters. I cried until well after the credits rolled...

Note to all of you: you MUST watch this movie. It's painful to experience it, but you have to do it. And how Ellen Burstyn (she played Sarah) lost the Oscar that year for Julia Roberts I'll never understand...

Number 1: Gorillas in the Mist

It was a real strugle for me to choose between this and Requiem for a Dream, but I've watched this so many times now and always cry a lot, that this had to be my number 1.

For those of you who don't know this movie, it tells the true story of anthropologist Dian Fossey (who is played by Signourey Weaver) as she cares for gorillas in the misty mountains of Kenya.

She manages to get really close to the gorillas, especially their leader, which she names Digit. Eventually (and that's one of the saddest moments in the movie) Digit is brutally murdered by hunters, who cut off his head and hands to make ashtrays. At some point Dian also has to take care of Digit's little baby gorilla, before evil people send him out to a zoo. The scene where she is saying goodbye to this baby gorilla it's also one of those moments where I can't help but cry... Dian was misteriously murdered (it remains unsolved to this day) while protecting "her mountain" and "her gorillas" as she would to call it. She was buried next to Digit, on her mountain, and her faithful friend unites their souls forever joining the circle of pebbles on their grave into one...

This one has it all I suppose: animals, strong female character with an emotional breakdown, goodbyes, death, sacrifice. It pushes all the right buttons for me, in making me cry! Again, how Sigourney Weaver didn't won the Oscar she was nominated for her performance still baffles me... And I just realized that she was on both my Top 3 now (as Ripley in the Kick-ass Girls). Even Sydney didn't manage that :)

Touch My Body

During my (admittedly short) hiatus on my blogging activities, something big happened: Mariah's new single - Touch My Body - premiered exactly one week ago! It's been 3 years already since her last album, so everyone with even a mild interest in good music was excited. So, is it any good??

The short answer is 'yes'. When I first heard it I was a bit underwhelmed by it, was expecting something with a bit more edgy and fierce, as we knew it was co-produced (along with Mariah) by the guys who did Umbrella. So, at first I must admit I was not impressed. But then, the chorus was stuck in my head, and heard it a few more times, and then a few more, and then I loved it! I guess this song is a grower, not a shower, a song that doesn't immediately strikes you, but one that you wont mind listening on the radio many times.

The song is also quite sexy if you listen closely to the lyrics:

Touch my body

Put me on the floor

Wrestle me around

Play with me some more

Touch my body

Throw me on the bed

I just wanna make you feel

Like you never did

Touch my body

Let me wrap my thighs

All around your waist

Just a little taste

Touch my body

Know you love my curves

Come on and give me what I deserve

And touch my body

Wrestle me around? Throw me on the bed? I think Mariah likes it rough, haha. Who can blame her? :) And would say it would be a nice song for those "special moments" but in light of recent events, I think I'll pass on that one...

Click below to listen to the song:

And this Touch My Umbrella, an awesome (unnoficial) mix of the of the song with Rihanna's Umbrella! It's a really good mash-up:

And a funny thing happened with this song. I was listening to it on my headphones at work last week. I obviously didn't know the lyrics (yet), but a loud and luscious "Touch my body" escaped from my vocal chords.... My boss, who sits just across my desk boss, turns to me and says with a very surprised face "You said that out loud" and I was like 'what?' and she said "you just said touch my body.... Are you listening to Madonna??". Oops indeed!

For the next 5 minutes she was looking at me like this: