Happy Belated New Year's!

I didn't do much of anything for New Year's, but that's okay with me. I'm not a big New Year's person to begin with, and the crowds and the money and all that...meh.

Let's see. I went to Disneyland on the 30th! It's tiny compared to the Disneys in the States, but that was okay because I was able to get around the park in a day. Stayed until the the sun set, and then the castle at the entry to Fantasyland lit up in a dazzling array of glitter and lights. Saw Disney characters (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Mulan, etc) but sadly no Stitch. There was a 'ride' that had about an hour line for Stitch Encounter. We had no idea what it was, but as a fan of the Stitch, we waited. It turned out to be an interactive Stitch ride, where they must have had several cameras hooked up so that the 'actor' who was voicing Stitch could talk to the audience and respond to what they said. It was pretty hilarious. Then there was a ride on a 'river' complete with fake animals that sprayed water or popped out of the river, dolls that 'shot' at you as you passed, a fire breathing um cave, and garbled narration.

I finally went to one of the markets, in Mong Kok. I bought some presents, including a pair of sunglasses for me. Merry Christmas me! It's funny, you walk down this long street with a lot of people and stalls on either side, and you come across several places selling the exact same things...the beaded bracelets, the jade keychains/cell phone charms, the embroidered bead bracelets for lack of a better way to describe them, really nice jade and wood figurines, fans, etc. And tons of Gucci bags. I kinda want one, although I'm totally not the type who goes for namebrand prominently displayed all over something. Had good dim sum that day too. :)

I saw the Golden Compass!!! *Spoiler alert/if you don't want to hear me go into the details about book-to-movie things you should skip the next two sections*
All right, so let me preface this with two things: 1) I read His Dark Materials Trilogy (Golden Compass, Subtle Knife, and Amber Spyglass) a long time ago...I remember waiting for the third book to come out with the same fervor that some people awaited HP7. I have reread Golden Compass more times than I care to count, judging by its broken spine, the evidence on its pages that I read it while waiting for bloody noses to subside, the softening pages from constant handling, etc. And I really really like those three books. 2) I think that some book to movie endeavors work really well. HP, for example, I think works. I'm not sure about LotR because I never actually finished one of the books, but they were still good movies.

With that said, it was a highly disappointing and unexpectedly so movie. Lyra was all right..she wasn't like I pictured her, but that's to be expected. I liked the character of Roger. The daemons were amazing. And I want one. How the daemons die I thought was well done. Nicole Kidman, although I do not really like her as an actress, was amazing as Mrs. Coulter. The sets were interesting, and I think they did a decent job of trying to create a world like ours but not. The way they did the reading of the Golden Compass was interesting...confusing but interesting. The plot! The dialogue! My goodness! What were they thinking? Putting aside the book, the movie plot was terrible. It didn't make sense. The transitions from Svalbard to Bolvangar...that makes absolutely no sense. The character of Iorek was contradictory and ended up just being wishy washy. He's a warrior by trade and personality, yet rather than being a compassionate warrior and caring for Lyra, he becomes some sort of overly parental overly worried character. And the way he delivered his lines, and admittedly he had some ah interestingly worded lines and by that I mean just terrible lines (an example? "Do you wish to ride me? We will go faster without armor."), just made everything more cheesy. And the movie was just one big lead up to a climax that never really came. It kept you worried and for me on the edge of my seat because it was quite suspenseful, but it seemed to be only that. It was event after event, with no down time...I was constantly worried about what would come next...and I even pretty much knew what was coming. And back to the book version, they didn't end the movie!!! Spoiler! You have to kill one of the characters off and rip open a gateway to another world at the end of this movie, or else there's no way to start the second movie! Yes, while it made the book unbearably sad because of it, it has to happen! Oh, and the whole dance around the "Authority/Magisterium" thing...fffft! Did not work. Oh well. Oh! But the way they construed the process of intercision was creepy and scary and hearbreaking.

All right, I'm through ranting. I just hope The Other Boleyn Girl is less disappointing. If nothing else, I'm sure the costumes will make up for it. :)

Wow, I'm listening to Jay Chou, and this song sounds like a song by Manau, who are French. Or is Manou? I forget...I lost the CD. *tears*