Tag Archives: Adventures

Adventures & What’s Up – May 2023

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ADVENTURES

Baby Update

As we approach Triple V’s first birthday next month, its truly amazing how fast time flies considering as I write this, I’m monetarily done with my maternity leave even though I did take an extra month to sort out some 12 month appointments next month. Triple V’s been growing height-wise quite a bit but not so much weight wise, something that we will probably need to mention at the next follow-up. With weather being better, we’ve been outside a little more and he’s touched the curious green stuff on the ground that he seems to like. He is crawling around like a champ and using everything to climb to standing position to touch whatever he can (including a few orchid tumbles which I wasn’t particularly a huge fan of cleaning) reminding us everyday of something else to babyproof that has slipped out minds. He loves crawling after me wherever I go and we’ve been starting to play around with fluctuating his routine a little here and there and seeing how much we can push the times for certain things. He can eat all by himself except when its something that requires a spoon. Its pretty great to think about how it was just last year we were waiting for him to arrive and in a blink of an eye, he’s already almost walking.

First Mother’s Day

Triple V was born right in time for Father’s Day and this month was his first Mother’s Day or well, my first Mother’s Day. I can’t say I feel very different from usual since my daily routine didn’t change much so we went and made a big deal by buying flowers for the grandmothers instead. We had a big feast with my mom, marking a little lobster tasting for Triple V and we ordered in food with my in-laws.

Gardening Update

Much like the past years, the week of Victoria Day means a greenhouse visit and gardening. We decided to pick the hottest week to work on the garden. We’ve swapped things around quite a bit this year with the vegetable patch moving the green peppers, cucumbers changing places but two assortment of tomatoes going in ground instead of in containers. The containers now have eggplants, 4 other peppers (orange, red, sweet red, yellow) and all the zucchinis. We’re still working through the flowers as I’m still finding little time here and there to clean up the flower patch.

WHAT’S UP

Books

  • The BFG
  • The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
  • Esio Trot
  • The Magic Finger
  • Fantastic Mr. Fox
  • Billy and the Minpins
  • The Twits

Full steam ahead with bedtime reading of Roald Dahl book collection. So far, there’s a few that actually feel pretty familiar, some of them feel like tongue twisters and some are just a fun ride. I will be putting up some kind of review for them eventually. I’m not sure why but The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me was probably one of the most fun to read.

Movies

  • Nightmare Alley (2019 rewatch)
  • Veronica Mars (2014 rewatch, Review)
  • Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
  • Black Widow (2021)
  • Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
  • Love and Leashes (2022 rewatch, Review)
  • Too Cool To Kill (2022)
  • On The Rocks (2020)
  • Herstory (2018)

There was a nice selection. A few for Movies and Tea production, some are rewatches, some Disney Plus and then some screeners which you will be seeing the reviews pop up very soon. If there are some definite recommendations, it would probably be surprisingly the Marvel films since both films were pretty fun but Black Widow was a great back story. The screeners also delivered some great stories, Too Cool to Kill was a good comedy for the most part and Herstory was an eye-opening look at comfort women from Korean in Japan in WWII who are fighting for compensation and apology from the Japanese government.

TV

  • Sex/Life (Season 2, 2023)
  • Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Mini-Series, 2023 Review)
  • Veronica Mars (2019)
  • Queer Eye (Season 7, 2023)
  • Business Proposal (2022 Review)
  • XO, Kitty (Season 1, 2023)
  • Beef (Season 1, 2023)
  • How To Build A Sex Room (Season 1, 2022)
  • Black Knight (Season 1, 2023)

Currently binging: Who’s The Murderer S8, Light the Wild, 1899, Youth Pi Plan, Barbecue Showdown S2, Wonderland S3

As I look back at this year, I have so many TV binges in the works right now. Netflix came back pretty strong this month and released a bunch of stuff that I was interested in. If you noticed that the Reality TV roundup was missing last month, the main reason is that it will be grouped into this month’s since that will have a lot more to talk about. I actually had fun with a lot of these series, making Sex/Life Season 2 the one that I wasn’t a huge fan of, which isn’t shocking considering I didn’t really like the first season a lot either. XO, Kitty was not horrible but it was disappointing since it didn’t seem to do the character of Kitty justice or the promise of the whole South Korean exploration. As for 1899, we started it up on the dub version which affected my interest but I later realized there is an original audio version which I will probably restart in this version.

If I had to choose highlights of the month, It would probably be Queer Eye and Black Knight.

Games

Currently playing: G30, Coffee Talk Episode 2: Butterfly and Hibiscus

I’m about halfway through Coffee Talk Episode 2 right now and its still such a joy to play and an incredibly relaxing experience. I finally decided that I’d go with an annual plan for Google Play Pass since I do enjoy gaming on the phone a little here and there and there’s still some game that I wanted to check out. With that said, it brings us to G30 which is a puzzle game which is pretty entertaining so far. I’m not sure how many levels there are to the game but it does feel like it will end at some point

That’s it for this Adventures and What’s Up for May 2023!
What have you been up to?

What’s Up & Adventures – April 2023

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

Its time for this month’s What’s Up & Adventures! Yet again, not a whole lot of adventures per se as its all pretty normal life stuff and I’m even talking normal as per the pre-pandemic life like actually going to a restaurant to hang out with friends without masks the entire time. Its a big step for me since I’ve been pretty much keeping things fairly protective especially with a baby at home. Our biggest adventure as a family which I’m not going to write an entire section about: our first power outage. I mean a legit one where it took 8 hours to get back the electricity and we all had to bundle up at home to stay warm.

ADVENTURES

Baby Update

Triple V has gone through some big developments this month. Over the course of the month, he’s been still practicing how to work and after a lot of guidance and motivation, he has started to crawl recently. He’s also able to eat his own finger foods and starting to get curious about how the spoon works whenever we use it for the puree. The baby gates have finally been unboxed. As of very recent like this morning, he’s also starting to learn to go down the stairs on his own with his butt. The crib has finally been dropped to the lowest level since he’s been able to stand up on his own in there and being a tall baby also stands pretty tall over the edge. We’re at the 10 1/2 months now and its been lots of first times and memories. Its also great that we had our first playdate after a few stroll dates with my best friend and her baby.

Brunch With Friends

After trying to get together repeatedly since last fall until now, the gettogether with my friends finally happened. My husband relieved me of the baby duties for a few hours so that I could go out for a brunch. It was a lot of fun to go out although after 10 months of being 24/7 with my baby, it did feel a little weird to be out. With that said, the restaurant’s service was rather poor although I think that it had to do mostly with lack of staff which is an issue with most restaurants nowadays. However, the chat was my friends were great as we caught up with everything between brunch and some window shopping and bubble tea at Real Fruit where I got a Jasmine Green Tea Light Sugar with grass jelly and mango jelly. Its the first time I’ve had Real Fruit Bubble Tea. Their Jasmine Green Tea is pretty good and I’m glad that I got light sugar since the mango jelly was surprisingly sweet so it balanced out the drink.

Building Blocks Puzzles

While I probably should be writing and reading more, I find that building blocks really help clear the mind with the sheer concentration it takes to dig through these tiny pieces and put this together. With that said, they are looking gorgeous on top of my bookshelf so I decided to grab the set of the zodiac and take my time to put them together.

WHAT’S UP

Books

  • My Illustrated Classics Collection

Currently reading: The BFG

I’m still spending most of my time reading books to my little man. While I’m sure he doesn’t quite understand any of it and just likes it as a means of soothing him to sleep, I’m starting to go through some books that I’ve bought for when he gets older and using this time to read through them and see when is suitable for him. We just started the Roald Dahl boxset (bought from Costco) and going through them all. I’ve read a few of them when I was a kid but its good to revisit as well as check out the ones I haven’t read before. Book reviews should be popping back soon.

Movies

  • The Witch Part 2: The Other One (2022 Review)
  • Monster Hunter (2020 rewatch, Review)
  • A Short Story (2022 short)
  • Saint Maud (2019)
  • Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018)
  • The Menu (2022)
  • Ride On (龙马精神, 2023 Review)
  • Saludos Amigos (1942)
  • Fresh (2022)
  • Anita: Director’s Cut (2022)
  • Disenchanted (2022)

Due to upcoming Movies and Tea season preparation, I ended up getting a month of Disney Plus so a lot of films this time are from there as I try to make the most of the month (with not a whole of success) but still managing to catch some decent titles. As I work through the titles I haven’t seen from animated films and watched Saludos Amigos which was pretty average with one or two more charming shorts, I also caught mostly Searchlight films catching some newer films like The Menu and Fresh. I’m working on those reviews so they should be posted in a few days. Disney Plus also acquired Anita but the Director’s Cut version, a film that I’ve been meaning to watch so I settled for this version and still trying to figure out where to find the theatrical version and see where the differences are. Much like the end of my MUBI subscription made me finally be able to catch Long Day’s Journey Into Night which I’ve heard great things when I was chatting up with other reviewers back when I was doing press during film festivals.

TV

  • Veronica Mars (Season 2 rewatch, Review)
  • A Love So Beautiful (rewatch, Review)
  • Come Sing With Me我想和你唱 (Season 4)
  • Veronica Mars (Season 3 rewatch, Review)

Currently watching: Light The Wild, Who’s The Murderer S8

As you can see, everything got affected. I decided to rewatch A Love So Beautiful before it left Netflix, a series that still holds up and is a lot of fun. Of course, you can still catch the Korean version of it which I have yet to watch. I’m mostly focusing on rewatching Veronica Mars with my husband who is watching it for the first time. We caught up to everything for the original series so that we can experience the first watch of the “Season 4”. I’m basically trying to catch up and finish all the stuff I’ve started so first up is Chinese variety show, Who’s The Murderer Season 8.

Games

Currently playing: Coffee Talk Episode 2

I had tons of intentions of what to play this past month but a few things occupied my evenings so only recently I’ve been able to start playing Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly. While its not for everyone, I loved Coffee Talk (review) since it was such a fun little experience set in an alternate Seattle and the only thing to do was just making coffee for the clients who dropped by for a chat and share their stories. The second Coffee Talk happens after the first one and I just started so just met two new characters. So far, its still really fun and I’m looking forward to mixing and discovering some new drink mixes.

That’s it for this month’s Adventures/Updates and What’s Up!
What have you been up to?

Adventures & What’s Up – March 2023

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

ADVENTURES

BABY UPDATE

Triple V is 9.5 months old now. This month did see a lot of fun times and some rough ones. Teething being a big one since he got his upper front teeth which felt like it took eons to actually erupt so the fussing and sleeplessness was pretty sporadic. He also is obsessed with walking about with support and sits with really good balance and has become much more creative in his mobility to pivot, army crawl and roll himself to wherever he needs to go. Plus, baby babble is in full power when he feels like it. The weather warming up also means daily strolls as long as the weather is decent. The exercise is doing good for both me and him. We did just have the 9 months follow-up, it was a pretty good time as he sticks to the higher percentiles in height but a more moderate one for his weight. Apparently, he’s still sticking to his curve so all’s good.

HYDROPONIC & INDOOR PLANTS

37

With the end of March means my birthday just swung by and I hit the lovely 37 years old. Honestly, I stopped counting a while back. Especially with a baby nowadays, my days all just kind of blend together in some kind of routine of feeding, changing diapers and play time. Not exactly the most exciting birthday since I started it bright and early at the clinic for Triple V’s routine check-up and treated myself to some lovely delivery of soup noodles. I do feel the age a lot but then it might just be the postpartum weight still sticking around that makes me feel not quite as active. Luckily the weather is getting warmer so we do have plans to get back to hiking when the trails open up and doing more daily walks, who knows, maybe I’ll even get some weights going to build up some muscle mass although carrying a 20lbs baby everyday is quite the exercise. Probably should look into some yoga instead.

WHAT’S UP

Books

  • Stephanie’s Ponytail
  • Paper Bag Princess
  • The Adventures of the Get Along Gang

Currently reading: My Illustrated Classics Collection

With the sporadic sleep schedule for a little while in March, my reading included mostly nighttime reading for Triple V. I didn’t bother to write the rereads since we cycle through his books on regular basis but just shared the ones that I hadn’t read or revisited until the past month. We are reading through a book I picked up during Boxing Day called My Illustrated Classics Collection and we’re going through some of the abridged classics like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island and The Wind in the Willows. Its a pretty fun read for myself since Triple V doesn’t really know what I’m reading, he just likes the reading to mellow him out for bedtime.

Movies

  • The Witch: Part 1 The Subversion (2018)
  • Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
  • Scream 4 (2011 rewatch, Review)
  • Scream (2022)
  • White Snake (2019 rewatch, Review)
  • Green Snake (2021)
  • Enola Holmes 2 (2022 rewatch, Review)
  • It Comes At Night (2017)
  • I See You (2019)

Suffice to say that I have a lot of writing to catch up on. Lacking movie review writing inspiration can do that to a person. Luckily, it seems to be coming back a little more since I pivoted to working on game reviews which you can check out below.

I do have a really fun themed month coming up that will clear out some of these titles which is another reason why they haven’t been released yet. I might do a few of these rough guidelines to just do a certain number of a certain theme of films since writing everyday isn’t exactly feasible right now. I do choose sleep over writing nowadays.

Highlights of this month definitely goes to The Witch Part 1: The Subversion which was a pretty crazy ride of a film and Scream (2022 aka Scream 5). I’d say even Green Snake is a fun animated film. I See You also was pretty well executed which helped with delivering a shocking reveal.

TV

  • Gilmore Girls (Season 5 rewatch, Review)
  • Next in Fashion (Season 2, 2023)
  • Gilmore Girls (Season 6 rewatch, Review)
  • MH370: The Plane That Disappeared (Limited Series 2023)
  • Gilmore Girls (Season 7 rewatch, Review)
  • The Last Of Us (Season 1, 2023)
  • Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life (Limited Series Rewatch, 2016)
  • Cheat (Season 1, 2023)
  • The Glory (Season 1, 2023 Review)
  • Veronica Mars (Season 1 rewatch, Review)

Currently binging: Come Sing With Me S4, The Forbidden Flower, Infinity and Beyond: Bao Dao Ji,

Seeing as I’ve already mentioned my lack of writing inspiration, I continued on to rewatch the rest of Gilmore Girls. I can’t say it helped with the writing but it did make me very relaxed and happy. Its just so much fun to watch and I always notice something different, plus I’m listening slowly through Scott Patterson’s podcast I’m All In which talks about a lot of the little details about the show and its production which makes it all the more intriguing.

Its a no brainer than Gilmore Girls will always be a recommendation from me, I did finish some fun shows. The Last of Us is a pretty good video game adaptation. The few success ones that happen probably. I did think the ending of the season was a tad abrupt but it did leave some space to ponder I suppose. Review for that is in the works as we speak. I did want to get it done before this post went up but obviously that didn’t happen. What did happen was that I did get The Glory’s review out and also a big recommendation. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first few episodes and thought it was a little too heavy handed but it justifies itself really well the further the story dives. You can check out my pretty extensive review with probably some mild spoilers but mostly spoiler-free. I’ve also moved on to rewatching Veronica Mars from the beginning and that’s because the out of date person that I am didn’t realize that there was a revival season in 2019 so we’re working ourselves back there, plus I wanted to see whether it still held up which it definitely does.

Games

  • Far: Lone Sails
  • Paradise Killer (incomplete)
  • Guardians of the Galaxy (incomplete)
  • Chinatown Detective Agency (Review)

Currently playing: Norco

As mentioned above, other than TV, I did try to put some time into gaming. I played Far: Lone Sails which is a lovely little game. I won’t talk too much about it here but we recorded the discussion over on Game Warp. It will come out eventually. You can follow out podcast or the blog and you will be able to listen to it when it comes out, if you’re interested.

I did give Paradise Killer and Guardians of the Galaxy a test run before it left Game Pass. Both of them were pretty fun. I had a little health scare issue in the middle of that so the first person gave me some motion sickness for Paradise Killer. Love the game but I just had to stop and by the time I was feeling better, the game had already left Game Pass so I have my eyes peeled on a discounted copy probably after I get through some of the game backlog. I’ve started a few games that need to be finished as well so, not really a top priority. I do think the concept is pretty fresh and fun.

I did get the review for Chinatown Detective Agency out which I’d recommend to Carmen Sandiego fans like myself. Its a tad buggy which is its main flaw because everything else is pretty well executed. You can check out the in-depth review over on Game Warp.

I just started up Norco even if I should be finishing The Gunk but you know, the awards shows just went by and I wanted to check out Norco which I feel like I’ve only heard a lot of good things. As this post goes up late, the next batch of games leaving Game Pass is already here so I’m going to be wrapping up Life is Strange: True Colors before it leaves mid-April!

That’s it for this Adventures/Updates and What’s Up for the past month!
What have you been up to?

Adventures & What’s Up – January 2023

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

Hello everyone! The first adventures & What’s Up of 2023 is here as I wrap up a bunch of small things. Not a whole lot going on in terms of adventures since its winter and our little baby isn’t vaccinated so yet again, mostly updates on a few things.

If you missed my Upcoming Plans for 2023, you can check that out HERE.

ADVENTURES

Baby Update

7 months old now! We had our “supposed to be 6 month but because of previous postponed” 7 months checkup. Triple V remains high on the baby curve as a bigger baby and everything is developmentally on track. He has a little bit of cradle cap or dandruff or something along those lines but not a big concern so far. Triple V is also eating an assortment of purees now which is really fun to see his reaction to the different flavors. He even had his first snow picture and since January was rather snowy, we’ve had a few uses for his snowsuit. He’s definitely getting stronger day by day and its so nice to see him grow a little more and learn more things. One of the big recent successes after the doctor’s follow-up appointment and her pointer which he took the change like a champ is that he is officially able to sleep through the nights and has a decent sleeping and wake-up schedule. He even got his first teeth. Last development goal that he reached is recently responding to his own name.

Letterboxd Year in Review

Letterboxd Year in Review always is a bit late and its pretty self-explanatory so here’s a quick look at that.

Avenue of Daydreams – 365 Challenge

I’m working on reviving the Avenue of Daydreams this year with a 365 Photo Challenge. I’ve been sharing it on a weekly basis on Instagram as well. Here are the weeks in January. I fall behind every once in a while but its been really fun to try to get a little more creative and push myself to explore the pro feature on the camera on my phone.

Hydroponic System

After a good bit of research and a final failed attempt at planting basil in our no sunlight house (or at least rarely sunlight comes in), we decided to get a hydroponic system. We got the Yoocaa 12 Pods Hydroponics Growing System and decided to give the first whirl to a herb garden. As we speak now, the mustard has germinated first and its only been about 4 days or so since we set it up. Fingers crossed it’ll work out. I’ll probably keep you all up to date with that here (and also acts as a notes for myself since I have horrible memory now).

February Romance Month

Normally, February is our Romance month. I have to admit that I’ve been pretty bad at keeping up with the marathons but I will try to get some reviews up for this one. No guarantees on how many movies but I do have a decent list compiled even if I’m pretty sure I won’t get through all of it and review them all before Valentine’s comes around. Maybe I will just do it for a month-long event and get some romance instead of the overabundance of crime, suspense and horror that I keep watching.

WHAT’S UP

Books

  • Mr. Nosey
  • Mr. Topsy-Turvy
  • Mr. Bump
  • The Queen Who Stole The Sky
  • Mr. Messy
  • The Berenstain Bears’ Moving Day
  • Love You Forever

Another month of children’s books despite really wanting to start an actual book. Good thing is that as I’m writing up this post, my Kindle is on charge plus after watching a TV series for a book I read last year, it changed my mind and I bought the remaining two books of that trilogy which I plan to start after a book review commitment. Its actually really fun re-reading books from my childhood that I’m passing on to my little guy now. He might not understand any of it but he’s starting to look at me when I read especially when I make weird sound effects for some of the things within my limited ability.

Movies

  • Roadgames (1981)
  • Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022 Review)
  • Perfect Blue (1997 Review)
  • Jimmy O. Yang: Good Deal (2020)
  • Freaky (2020)
  • Kairo (2001 rewatch, Review)
  • To All The Boys I’ve Love Before (2018 rewatch, Review)
  • Project Wolf Hunting (2022, Review)
  • Fall (2022)
  • A Cinderella Story (2004 rewatch)
  • Russell Peters: Deported (2020)
  • Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
  • The Wandering Earth 2 (2023, Review)
  • Ponyo (2008 rewatch)

Its been a pretty fun month in terms of movie watching with quite a bit of variety. To be fair, I didn’t watch a lot of movies since I was absolutely obsessed with Matilda the Musical so had it in the background constantly. I did catch up on a lot of films that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while like Perfect Blue and rewatched Kairo with the husband and taking advantage of the wonderful MUBI deal I got. I did get a couple of screeners, one was a lot better than the other. I did manage to catch Everything Everywhere All At Once after multiple recommendations especially co-host listing it as his top first time watch of last year, much like Roadgames which also made it on his Top 10. If you haven’t listened to that episode on Movies and Tea, you can check it out HERE.

Basically, January is always a bit like this every year where I want to sort out what to review in the backlog while working out the upcoming year so working through a lot more TV or rewatches instead of starting something new.

TV

  • Pressure Cooker (Season 1, 2023)
  • Wonderland Junior (Season 1, 2022)
  • Line Walker 2: The Prelude (2017)
  • The Circle (Season 5)
  • Bake Squad ( Season 2)
  • The Summer I Turned Pretty (Season 1, 2022)
  • Line Walker 3: Bull Fight (2020)

Currently binging: Night on the Greater Bay S2, Physical:100, Drunken to Love You, Lockwood & Co., The Last Of Us

I’ve been catching a lot of reality shows on Netflix. The beginning of the year has been pretty packed with a lot of these shows from Pressure Cooker to Bake Squad and the latest season of The Circle. I also signed up for the Amazon Prime trial so caught up with The Summer I Turned Pretty which I had reviewed the book (Review) last year and as mentioned in the “Books” section above, I ended up buying the sequels and it kind of changed my mind a little on the story. Its rare that the adaptation is what changes my mind but somehow it did in this case especially since it was renewed for Season 2. The big triumph and focus was to finish the second and third season of Line Walker and boy, it was a crazy ride. Line Walker 2 and 3 aren’t nearly as great as the first one but it still has some great moments and such a solid central cast.

Games

  • Doors: Origins
  • Doors: Paradox

Currently playing: The Gunk, Alt-Frequencies

I believe I mentioned last month that I picked up the Google Play Pass for peanuts so I’ve been focusing on that mostly. I ended up finishing the Doors: Origins and Doors: Paradox which is so creative. Its a mobile game but I had a ton of fun figuring out the puzzles and such. I’ve moved on to Alt-Frequencies on my phone which is one that I’m definitely going to talk more about when I’m done as the game mechanics, premise and concept are all very creative and a very unique gaming mechanic and experience. Aside from that, I’m still waiting to get back to finish The Gunk but January has been a wild month so didn’t have time to get back to Game Pass just yet.

That’s it for this month’s adventures and What’s Up!
What have you been up to?

Adventures & What’s Up – October 2022

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

ADVENTURES

Hiking: Parc National du Mont Saint Bruno – Seigneurial Trail

Baby Update

Triple V is moving along quite nicely. He likes to remind us in his own ways that he will always keep us on our toes when he gives us false belief that he is falling into a routine and then changes it up right when we think we got it down. As I’m typing up this post, his favorite activity at night is rolling over from his back to sleep on his tummy and doesn’t realize that he got it all backwards and apparently most babies learn how to roll from tummy to back first but he haven’t quite mastered this 100%, more like 10%. 1 out of 10 times during tummy time, he will do it once and then forget how he did it or maybe it was all a coincidence of the right motions. Who knows, right? I’d wager that he probably doesn’t even know.

4 months vaccinations also came around and while he reacted much more this time, he was a pretty decent champ about it and settled down fairly quickly. No side effects and was overall pretty good afterwards other than some sporadic fussiness.

Our 4 months checkup got postponed for some unknown reason the morning we were supposed to go after confirming the day before. Very bizarre. We have some questions for the doc this time as we’re starting to wonder whether he’s ready for solids soon among other things.

We did a fun little Halloween photoshoot at home with a little fluffy pumpkin outfit. I’m not going to share it here but it turned out pretty nice.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2022

Toronto After Dark Film Festival was an extremely last minute decision that I signed up to give it a go as my first film festival coverage after having the baby. Its only a few days long and it offers the remote coverage option which I do love. They had some great feature films and short films this year. All my coverage is already up other than one that was requested for the review to go up a little later so you should see it soon. You can head over to my Toronto After Dark Archives to find it if you missed it.

COVID-19 Self-Isolation

As we are typing this up, my husband finally got COVID positive. I’m negative so I can still take care of Triple V. However, we have him quarantined in his so-called man cave so at least among all the sickness, other than having a crappy sofa to sleep on, he has all the entertainment he needs. Its been kind of a one woman show at our house. Luckily, its at the tail end of it now and we’re almost out of the self-quarantine for him and self-isolation for us.

Halloween Marathon Wrap-Up

Finally, October ends with the Halloween Marathon wrap-up! The very very sad turnout of this year really came down to just lacking motivation to write up some of the reviews because of fatigue and dealing with an inconsistent baby. I figured it wouldn’t look too huge of a catalogue even if I started early. While the marathon has ended, I will be getting those last few horror films reviewed and finish up those TV shows I had planned to watch. You will see which ones in the What’s Up section below!

WHAT’S UP

Books

I’m not going to lie, the only books I’m reading are board books and children’s books right now. I’ve gone through this Little Critters Collection that my husband’s coworker gifted to Triple V. We’re reading some early readers board books from Dr. Seuss and also my Dr. Seuss Favorites: Baker’s Dozen. That’s the general name of the collection and we’ve gone through quite a few stories since we have a little reading slot in the afternoon usually. Also, The Monster At The End of the Book and this French one that I got from some Easter thing when I was young called L’ami de Pan-Pan, I think. Triple V understands none of it but he does like to look at the pictures, some more than others.

Movies

  • Hocus Pocus 2 (2022, Review)
  • Avengers: Endgame (2019)
  • Home Again (2017)
  • The Night House (2020)
  • Patti Cake$ (2017, Review)
  • Mary Poppins (1964 rewatch)
  • Nightmare Alley (2021)
  • Mulan (2020)
  • Prey (2022)
  • The Good Dinosaur (2015)
  • Big Ass Spider (2013)
  • Sing (2016)
  • The Lair (2022, Review)
  • Day Zero (2022, Review)
  • Canadian Shorts After Dark (Review)
  • International Shorts After Dark (Review)
  • Pre-Feature Shorts (Review)
  • The Secret Life of Pets (2016)
  • MexZombies (2022, Review)
  • Evil Eye (2022, Review)

Man, it was a busy month in movies. I actually spent a lot of time catching up on Disney Plus. The mad dash until the monthly subscription ended. I managed to catch up on the Phase 3 of Marvel Cinematic Universe with only Spider-Man: Far From Home left which is miraculously still on Netflix so will get around to wrap that up ASAP. However, surprisingly enjoyed Avengers: Endgame. Nightmare Alley was a little unexpected in a not so good way while Night House was a fantastic horror film that I’m halfway through the review. Live-action Mulan was also better than I expected much The Good Dinosaur which is a pretty underrated Pixar film in my opinion. I already talked about the Toronto After Dark stuff in the Adventures section above.

TV

  • The Floor Is Lava (Season 3, 2022)
  • Nailed It! Halloween (Season 7, 2022)
  • Great Escape 密室大逃脫 (Season 4, 2022)
  • Beautiful Youth (2019 rewatch)
  • Easy-Bake Battle: The Home Cooking Competition (Season 1, 2022)
  • Mr. Bad 我的反派男友
  • Dahmer (Incomplete, 2022)
  • Drink Masters (Season 1, 2022)

Currently binging: 101 Scariest Movie Moments of All Time, Singing With Legends我們的歌 S5, Heart Signal 心動的信號S4, Rock & Roast 脫口秀大會S5, Hello Summer Relationship 相遇的夏天S4, Love Between Fairy and Devil 蒼蘭決, Unsolved Mysteries Volume 3, The Watcher, Call Me By Fire 披荊斬棘的哥哥 S2

Suffice to say that it sure looks like I’m knee deep in TV but to be honest, a lot of these are heading into their final episode this or next week. The main highlights worth talking about is probably the new Netflix shows. I always love watching Nailed It and their latest season is kind of a cross platform promotion using Halloween as their basis for some more Halloween outfit worthy shows like The Witcher and Cobra Kai. Its a pretty short season but still very enjoyable. The Floor is Lava is always fun to watch. Its kind of the next best thing since they stopped doing Ultimate Beastmaster. Next is the latest competition show around mixology Drink Masters which was a super fun competition. I mean, the creativity and the technique was not just competitive but learned a lot about the mixology terms and spirits, etc. I’m a big fan of Antoni on Queer Eye so it was enough for me to love Easy-Bake Battle which I think was a pretty creative one since it focused around cooking hacks and was all about homecooking. Finally a cooking show which is useful in my everyday life!

After all that, I guess I should address two shows on the list. The first being Dahmer which I watched about 2 episodes and decided that I’m not going to finish it. Its a rare choice for myself but call me sensitive after having a baby but it disturbed me quite a bit plus I also find the whole concept of making a show based on these events rather distasteful. I can watch these things as documentaries but making a show about it just seems wrong. You can tell me I’m wrong but hey, my husband finished watching it and also found it unnecessary and wasn’t quite as spectacular as everyone that recommended us to watch it says it is.

On a happier note, I binge watched Mr. Bad on iQiYi. Its the perfect formula of what I love in TV dramas since the main leads are two of my favorite actors and actresses in the Chinese drama world plus the show has a nice premise and a decent twist. A pretty positive show and a positive look at relationships. I’m always about those and not the lack of communication and creating drama where there normally isn’t. This one is just sweet romance with their own hurdles because of their situation.

Games

Currently playing: Life is Strange: True Colors, Madison

I’m not exactly gaming as much as I should but I’m slowly playing a little when I get the chance. My main thing right now is finishing Life is Strange: True Colors which I finished the first episode. So far, there’s some nice ideas to it but you can still see how the developer change comes into play. Its just one chapter so I’m waiting for the next few episodes to see how it goes before making any opinions on it.

As for Madison, I am currently streaming this with my friend BrandelSavage on his Twitch channel. I’m really there to just hangout and help out and give some moral support when he gets scared. We already did 2 streams and due to the above situations that happened in adventures, the Halloween weekend stream got postponed. It should be coming up soon. So far, its an interesting horror game, we’re at a plot point that is a bit of a headscratcher so hopefully the game justifies it by the end.

That’s it for this Adventures and What’s Up for October 2022!
What have you been up to?

What’s Up & Adventures – September 2022

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

ADVENTURES

Halloween Marathon

Its the time of year again, even if I think its a bit hard to believe we’re already here. I’m going to admit right now that this may go very bad with very little output as mostly my sporadic lack of sleep does affect my writing efficiency. However, Halloween Marathon is something that I truly enjoy and with some changes in circumstances, via a one-month sub of a streaming service that I will talk about in the Movies section, I have some great choices to add to the line-up plus Netflix and Shudder has some nice stuff to watch as well. If you follow me on Letterboxd, you know what I’ve been watching and what reviews will be coming up. With that said, the first post for the marathon starts tomorrow. Expect TV binges and Double Features in the line-up.

Baby Update

Triple V has been quite a bundle this week as he passes his 3 months. For Chinese people, we like to celebrate 100 days so my mom got him some little gifts. On top of that, his 100 days also signified a change because he’s a whopping 15lbs now which means he can’t sleep in his bassinet anymore and had to be moved to the crib. The transition was the biggest highlight since we had just mastered some great sleeping habits in the bassinet to find that the transition to the crib felt almost like it was starting all over again, which was a little deflating on our already lack of sleep and slowly gaining back sleep stage. However, as I write this post, it was really only the first few nights with the first where Triple V decided he wanted to explore the ENTIRE space and started going in circles and then getting himself stuck and woke up and cried. A few days later, he is still doing it but all the trying to flip over and the getting stuck and waking up is done. He now wakes up mostly in desperate hunger and some weird need for attention in the early mornings but mostly he can go back to sleep fairly well or get himself out of the corner on his own. Slowly we will get there…

Exercise Update

Its been over 3 months so I’ve been taking longer walks now. I’m not jumping into intense exercising (not that I’ve done that in a long while) so its mostly morning and evening strolls with Triple V and they are gradually getting a bit longer. While I can’t remember to track everything, I still try to get one to two strolls a day nearby.

Broadwalk “Hiking” – Marais de la Rivieres aux Cerises

Marais de la Rivieres des Cerises

With the whole exercise chat, we decided that we would go for a little fall foliage since we seem to always miss it when we go during Thanksgiving. However, this year it seems everything is a little delayed so we were a tad early. There were some areas with a lot of trees that had changed colors but a lot of places that didn’t really have it yet. It was nice to take a little easy hike even we had already been here before (probably about a decade ago) but this time it was a little first road trip adventure with Triple V.

WHAT’S UP

Books

  • The Summer I Turned Pretty (Review)

Currently reading: Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3), Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle

Look at me and reading. I can’t really recommend The Summer I Turned Pretty and you can read all about it in the review. In terms of YA novel content, The Lunar Chronicles does a better job as Cinder is a stellar book and its sequel is passable so I decided to start that one up but then got attracted to my new purchases of Kiki’s Delivery Service (which I never read the source material before) and Howl’s Moving Castle (which I have but wanted to re-read). I should finish a part of that list during October, let’s hope.

Movies

  • Spirited Away (2001 rewatch)
  • The Reef: Stalked (2022)
  • Howl’s Moving Castle (2004 rewatch)
  • The Little Mermaid Live (2019)
  • Waitress (2007)
  • Hocus Pocus (1993 rewatch)
  • Mary Poppins Returns (2018 rewatch, review)
  • Sheng Wang: Sweet and Juicy (2022)
  • Death On The Nile (2022)
  • Turning Red (2022)
  • The Maze Runner (2014 rewatch, review)
  • Do Revenge (2022)
  • Monsters University (2013)
  • Incredibles 2 (2018)
  • Jennifer’s Body (2009)
  • Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
  • Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015, Review)
  • Underwater (2020)
  • Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018, Review)
  • Antlers (2021)
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
  • Captain Marvel (2019)

Currently watching: Nightmare Alley

As I mentioned before, I got a one month subscription to Disney Plus for the Disney Day deal for $1.99. Last year I got it, I forgot that it existed and didn’t really make use of it too much so we’re making back for it this year. There’s quite the catalogue even outside of the Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars content so it was pretty good. There’s still a little less than half a month left so you will probably still see some more of this service’s titles pop up in the next month.

With that said, its been a very low amount of reviews written mostly because a lot of this is prep work for the Halloween Marathon or for Movies and Tea podcast. If its not, you should see those soon, probably after October’s marathon month. I do have an ambitious goal of catching up with Marvel’s films since I stopped at Infinity War so I buckled down to do it. You can see that I’m already slowly catching up.

My recommendations this month goes to Turning Red, Do Revenge, Underwater and the Maze Runner trilogy.

TV

  • I Just Killed My Dad (Limited Series, 2022)
  • The Oasis鄧錄圓魚洲
  • The Rap Of China中國説唱巔峰對決
  • The Real Bling Ring: Hollywood Heist (Limited Series, 2022)

Currently binging: Great Escape Season 4 密室大逃脫第四季, Love Between Fairy and Devil 蒼蘭訣, Call Me By Fire 2 披荊斬棘的哥哥, Heart Signal Season 5心動的信號, Hello Summer Relationship相遇的夏天, Rock & Roast Season 5脫口秀大會,

Oh boy, TV series will be hard to talk about unless you have a massive interest in Chinese Variety shows or dramas. Its honestly just the time of year where all the shows I like have gathered together to be released at the same time. Most of them are currently playing in the currently binging one. The standout is always Great Escape where Season 4 has truly notched up the fun element and they expanded and blended the Escape Room with other game elements.

I actually was planning on finishing Love Between Fairy and Devil before Netflix added it but got lured to watch other stuff and never got around to resuming it however, its a pretty great show and if you have Netflix, it makes it so much easier to watch.

Games

  • A Plague Tale: Innocence (to be finished)
  • Coffee Talk (Review)
  • AI: The Somnium Files (not finished)

I’ve been taking a little more time on gaming when I have the time to spare. I mean, I have a fixed amount of time where I can do my own stuff when the little one naps or goes to bed at night so its not really a ton of time. However, with a lot of the Game Pass catalogue leaving during September, I tried to get through the ones that I wanted to play hence the unfinished two games. A Plague Tale: Innocence is actually pretty good but I saved myself the rush mostly because I didn’t realize that my husband bought it on Steam so I will get back to that eventually. AI : The Somnium Files is a pretty good game and super expensive to buy in general but its a visual novel with investigative elements and you can’t really rush those so I unfortunately didn’t get to finish it. I was pretty much a third into the game at that point looking at some of the game chapter breakdown. This one’s a little quirky and odd but there are some pretty graphic murder scenes in this one.

Now, lets talk about something that I did finish: Coffee Talk which is also a visual novel and once where you brew coffee while listening to what goes on with the customers. Its a relaxing game to say the least plus there are some fun drink blends that they include which were fun to discover as well.

What’s Up & Adventures – May 2022

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Welcome everyone to the May 2022 recap for the What’s Up & Adventures! Honestly, there’s no adventures at this point. My life is very much just getting ready for the new arrival to our family. Of course, there was 2 little things that did happen which was rather fun but most of it was just trying to do a lot of restructure to our home (which I won’t be showing here) including a lot of deep cleaning throughout the weekends. So, as usual, we will start with some little “adventures” and then hop into the What’s Up portion which should be a lot more entertaining, I suppose.

Annual Garden Haul

While we struggled in our decision between whether to have a garden or not this year since we have no idea what to expect in the coming summer months, we eventually decided that we would do a little container garden! Its a step down from the normal which would be to raised garden patches but we figured this would at least be in our face and easy to maintain plus when things get hard, we can add self-watering systems to it. Plus, we chose pepper, patio cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce and leaf lettuce which are all fairly low maintenance from past experience. We did also pick up a rose that has yet to go into the garden. If we do have time though, we are shifting around the berries, notably the blueberries were are getting murdered by these rogue vines that we just can’t seem to get rid of.

Baby Shower

I’m not going to bore everyone with the details of the gifts since we had a little family gathering for the baby shower. The highlight of the day did go to my sister-in-law who made us this beautiful cake from scratch and it took her a whole 4 days to put it together from the cake to the fondant decorations. Its pretty impressive and a lot of appreciation for what she did for us.

WHAT’S UP – MAY 2022

*Highlighted titles are my recommendations*

Books

Currently reading: Nevernight

Not going to lie that reading isn’t on my top priority as I shift back to working from home a little bit more. Plus the wonderful fatigue is back to visit me so its been a little hard to focus. It doesn’t help that I was having a hard time getting into Nevernight so the game plan right now is to put it down and start something else since I wasn’t supposed to but still ended up picking up 2 books as a little treat for myself. I will probably start one of those shortly.

Movies

  • Uncharted (2022, Review)
  • Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979, rewatch)
  • Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020, Review)
  • Only (2019)
  • Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind (1984 rewatch)
  • SPF-18 (2017)
  • Last Moment of Clarity (2010)
  • The Outcasts (2017)
  • Basic Instinct (1992)
  • Kate (2021)
  • A Perfect Pairing (2022)
  • Agatha Christie’s Crooked House (2017)
  • Lie With Me (2005 rewatch, Review)
  • Deep Blue Sea 3 (2020)

May has been a decent movie watching month as I got through some of more unknown titles on the list as I continue trying to work through some non-Netflix films in case they happen to leave. Unfortunately, nothing too exciting for the most part although The Outcasts was a pretty fun discovery for a teen coming of age film whereas Last Moment of Clarity was a real disappointment. I did catch up with 2 films that I’ve been meaning to watch for a while: Basic Instinct and Kate and they were pretty good as well. Much like Deep Blue Sea 3 actually was a silly but still rather entertaining sequel compared to the second film (which isn’t that hard to beat since that one was pretty bad).

TV

  • Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes (2022)
  • Who’s The Murderer (Season 7)
  • Love Death + Robots (Season 3, Review)
  • Who Rules The World (2022)
  • The Circle (Season 4)
  • Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Part 1, Review)
  • Stranger Things (Season 4 Volume 1)
  • Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Part 2)

Currently binging: Yes I Do (Season 3), Infinity and Beyond, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Part 3)

This past month’s TV adventures has been pretty decent. For the most part everything was very entertaining. With the release of Love Death + Robots Season 3, which was a fun ride and over at Movies and Tea, we’ve already released our latest After Hours episode for it HERE, and then the month ending with Stranger Things Season 4 Volume 1 (2 more episodes to follow on July 1st), its been one heck of a trip. The Circle USA Season 4 was a real trip as well with some fun little twists added in much like Netflix acquiring a really good Chinese drama Who Rules The World that is very much worth the watch. As for a end of month little binge, I started up Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and working through all the seasons. Who knows, it might be a first step before going back to continuing Riverdale next…

Games

  • Unpacking

Gaming was fairly tame. While not listed here, I’ve been playing Crazy Diner on mobile which reminded me of the nostalgic days when I used to play Diner Dash on PC. At the same time, I’m working through the Xbox Game Pass catalogue and finally got around to playing Unpacking. I am trying to get a review up for that on Game Warp’s blog but I really just wanted to see how an unpacking game got all these nominations especially in terms of narrative. While I can see where a lot of it comes from and the deeper meaning to it and it is surprisingly easily to get sucked into it where I finished it in one sitting as its 3-4 hours long, the experience is really not for everyone and probably some people might find it rather pointless perhaps.

That’s it for this month’s Adventures & What’s Up!
What have you been up to?

What’s Up & Adventures – April 2022

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

Welcome to this month’s wrap up for What’s Up & Adventures for April 2022.

April is always a crazy month work-wise and adding in a lot of the current situation, its been a lot more bonkers as well. Hence the later than usual recap post. While adventures is a little lacking, we have been getting things together in general. Lets take a quick look at some fast updates before we jump into the much more interesting Wha’ts Up portion.

New Season – Movies and Tea Podcast

While I am still working through the reblogs for the previous season, Movies and Tea blog and our podcast platform everywhere is already updating the new season of the podcast as we go through our Quentin Tarantino season. For myself, its a whole new adventure since its almost three quarters first time watches.

You can check it out over at the blog HERE or on most podcast platforms.

Baby Things and Preparation

I have really held off on talking a whole lot about the pregnancy since my little not so hidden announcement at the beginning of the year or last month’s office move/nursery setup. As the nursery starts shaping up and my due date is a little over a month away and the last stretch of preparation shows up, its fine time to talk about something probably not so important but something I always thought was a somewhat memorable moment if and when I had a baby and its buying the first pair of shoes.

Not to mention, one of April’s highlights was going for the second ultrasound as the first one had a minor little abnormality which was all normal in this one. All around good news so far plus seeing the much bigger baby then was a pretty touching moment.

What’s Up – April 2022

Books

  • The Girl On The Train (Review)

Currently reading: Nevernight

Still relatively on track with reading as I try to use the commute to the office to read as much as I can. The Girl on the Train is a pretty decent read. I do hope to watch the adaptations at some point.

As for the currently reading selection, Nevernight has a world building which is pretty extensive but there are some elements that I am finding a little annoying. I am still fairly early in the book so I don’t want to make any judgments quite yet especially since beginning of books are my usual hurdle.

Movies

  • Virus (1999)
  • You vs. Wild: Out Cold (2021)
  • Ronny Chieng: Speakeasy (2022)
  • The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021, Review)
  • Desperado (1995)
  • Knives Out (2019, Review)
  • Rebecca (2020)
  • The Invisible Man (2020, Review)
  • The Sadness (2021, Review)
  • The Crazies (2010, Review)

Movies are still going relatively strong this month. Even the writing is pretty on track as well. The movie reviewing writing slump is slowly going away. With that said, this month was full of fun film discoveries from all genres. Nothing really disappointed too much except one or two. The interactive film You Vs The Wild: Out Cold was kind of a snoozefest but these things are never too long so it helps fill up some time when I couldn’t decide what to watch next. As for recommendations for this month, Knives Out, The Mitchells vs. The Machines and The Invisible. If you don’t mind a massive trigger warning and gut-wrenching gorefest, The Sadness is a decent choice as well.

TV

  • Another Me (2019)
  • Archive 81 (2022, Review)
  • Falling Into Your Smile (2021)
  • Bullsh*t The Game Show (2022)

Currently watching: Yes I Do (Season 3), Who’s The Murderer (Season 7), Gypsy, Falling in Love With a Scientist, Infinity and Beyond

Looking at the TV list, it sure feels like eons ago that I finished Another Me at the first half of the month. Probably because the TV series had a lot of issues for the most part and hit a whole new level of melodrama that started bothering me. The ending did kind of redeem itself a little though. The film version which I have yet to see did get lots of praise so I will hopefully watch it at some point.

With that said, Archive 81 is a cliffhanger ending and cancelled Netflix series which is somewhat of a pity since it is pretty good. Netflix did add Falling Into Your Smile which is a Chinese drama that I had my eye on last year but its from a channel which geo-locked the series when I wanted to watch it. Highly recommend. This might just be the series for me to get back into some form of TV binge for the Chinese dramas since I am so behind on it.

Games

  • Erica
  • Football Game

A light gaming month to say the least. Both of these games were fairly short in content. Erica is an FMV game which is basically an interactive film with 4 endings running at around 2 hours per run. Considering that I didn’t do the run again and did some research and think the ending I got was the good one, I just left it at that. The second game, Football Game is a short point and click game which is a little bit laborous with little favors and tasks which all comes down to a deeper story for the thriller as it came to a rather vague but depressing ending. I will try to get a review up for these two over at Game Warp but its a daunting since game reviews have fallen into the abyss for myself.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for this Adventures and What’s Up for April 2022.
Hope you enjoyed! Let me know if you’ve been up to some exciting stuff.

My Adventures & What’s Up – March 2022

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Weekly Adventures – March 2022

Nothing much happened in March. March basically included a lot of cleaning and tidying. I did work on some of those “2022 Upcoming Plans”, one of which is I’d say 80% done at this point. Since I haven’t been super vocal about being pregnant or sharing my experiences despite the blog slowing down a whole lot. The goal I’m talking about for this year to move the office and set up the nursery is the only thing that is happening as the due date gets closer. However, that’s personal stuff and other than acknowledging it quickly, I don’t want to post up any photos of it since its still a work in progress. My adventures basically has to do with being pregnant which is not exactly exciting to talk about other than my own experience of it. The other part is mostly job and then my constant contemplation on eating healthier and really starting to miss some of the stuff that I’ve cut out of my diet to be healthier. That’s basically it in that department. Oh right, and I also just turned 36! Isn’t that exciting, right?

Now moving on to more fun things like the next part, What’s Up for the past month!

What’s Up – March 2022

Books

  • The Handmaid’s Tale (Review)
  • Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) (Review)

Currently reading: The Magician’s Nephew (re-read), The Girl On The Train

Finally some progress in the Goodreads Reading Challenge this year! It was a slow start but now I’ve been motivated to move from one book to the next and get those reviews up as soon as I finish to keep things rolling. Scarlet was a really fun read. I guess taking a break from YA novels was a great move since I did appreciate the easier reads. The basic system now is alternating between YA books and older books. I should start adding classics to it but it will probably happen later this year.

Movies

  • Time (2021, Review)
  • Ms. Pat: Y’All Wanna Hear Something Crazy (2022)
  • Piranha 3D (2010)
  • American Girl (2021, Review)
  • Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022, Review)
  • Great White (2021)
  • The Bay (2012)
  • Catherine Cohen: The Twist?… She’s Gorgeous (2022)
  • Crawl (2019, rewatch Review)
  • Jaws (1975, rewatch)
  • Secretary (2002)
  • Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
  • In The Cut (2003)

As Movies and Tea focuses on the next season of production, a lot of these movies are a part of that. In a perfect world, I did want to get at least one more double feature out before this recap post went up but oh well, what can we do? Movies was a decent month. Other than my not so happy outing with Piranha 3D, everything was pretty decent overall. Some was a little disappointing like Great White, a few surprises like The Bay, some exceeded expectations like Time and then some lived up to expectations (in a good way) like Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. It did feel great to catch up with some older films that I have heard great things about like Secretary and finally returned to watch a Meg Ryan film. If you have been here in the earlier days, I really love Meg Ryan and have been wanting to go through all her films but Netflix is usually a bit thin on that front.

TV

  • Love Under The Full Moon (2021)
  • RuPaul’s Drag Race (Season 7, 2015)
  • The King’s Avatar (2019 rewatch)
  • Is It Cake? (Season 1, 2022)
  • Light The Night (Part 3, 2022)
  • Bridgerton (Season 2, 2022 Review)
  • Fresh Fried & Crispy (Season 1, 2021)

Currently watching: Who’s The Murderer (Season 7), Another Me

Looking at the list, I didn’t even realize how much TV I have watched. To be fair, I had 4 episodes left of Love Under The Full Moon when I started the month so not exactly hard to complete. The King’s Avatar was a rewatch basically because I think its a great choice as background content but also a great choice as a kickoff for my podcast concept which I promise is going into production soon. A little tired of my own procrastination. Just overthinking the whole thing at this point. Highlight of this month goes to Light The Night Part 3, the anticipation and wait was pretty worth it. Netflix will never see this but if they do, please don’t split a complete series into 3 parts. Its really pointless. Bridgerton Season 2 was also a bingeworthy watch considering I watched it over a weekend.

Games

  • Taiko no Tatsujin: The Drum Master!
  • The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
  • A Memoir Blue

Currently playing: Bloodroots

Even gaming had a lot of progress. I did play The Drum Master for the longest time but finally stopped when I hit a bug that kept shutting off the game on its own. A Memoir Blue is a one sitting simplistic narrative game that was pretty heartfelt and fits the Game Pass really well. The highlight is definitely House Of Ashes which I streamed shared story mode with my friend BrandelSavage. We do plan to play it again since there seems to be a few other paths to explore. I will also replay it on my own. Maybe on stream, who knows. I do want to start streaming which was also on my goals for this year especially since my office is moved, the only issue is that its now in open space so need to reconsider when to stream.

I guess this whole recap explains why I haven’t had adventures considering how abundant everything is. Its been pretty fun overall. April will be crazy work phase so expect a big drop in the next month although I also have some planning to do for this next month to get things ready in advance as much as I can.

Cute Kitty Pic

That’s it for this Adventures and What’s Up for March 2022!
What have you been up to?

What’s Up & Adventures – February 2022

Posted in My Weekly Adventures, What's Up by

Welcome to the February 2022 What’s Up and Adventures! To be honest, February 2022 wasn’t all that eventful. I spent A LOT of time doing overtime for work like every year and it had a few winter storms in Montreal so freezing rain and snow and all the fun winter stuff that we get. Aside from that, its just been the basic February month as I slowly get back into the groove of things. Next month might have some fun stuff in the planning and some of the those goals to cross of my list from the beginning of the year so I’ll have updates on those then.

With that said, two little things to talk about for February 2022 Adventures (feel free to add air quotes to Adventures) since it wasn’t exactly anything super crazy but still, its something…

Chinese New Year – Year of the Tiger

February 1st was Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of the Tiger which means its also my Chinese zodiac year (which isn’t exactly a good thing if you are superstitious). I had the usual decorations and got a lovely bouquet of flowers. However, Chinese New Year wasn’t exactly a great time as well since we got some bad news right before the New Year with news of my grandmother’s passing (non-pandemic related, just age).

Ultimate Decades Blogathon 2022

Ultimate Decades Blogathon is going on right now as it enters its second week. This year its featuring selections of films from myself and my fantastic co-host Drew from Drew’s Movie Reviews and a wonderful line-up of guest entries with their choices of releases in a year ending in 2. The entries are rather expansive with one of them over a century old.

If you missed the entries, you can check out the list updated daily HERE.

That wraps up the Adventures portion of this post. Let’s move on to the What’s Up February 2022!

What’s Up – February 2022

Books

Currently reading: The Handmaiden’s Tale, The Hate U Give

Finally started up my reading of 2022 as I started off with the first book on my TBR pile of physical books sitting on my bookshelf, in an effort to finish up all those books this year or at least make some good progress with it. I haven’t seen the TV series for The Handmaiden’s Tale but I did pick up this book when the show was pretty popular. Its just never filtered through any of the streaming services so I haven’t caught up with it. I’m still fairly early in the book but its pretty decent so far.

As for The Hate U Give, I honestly just started it up because it was what I had on Google Play Books while I was waiting for an appointment. Its pretty decent as well. I have watched the film but never got around to reviewing it although I did like it quite a bit.

Films

  • Wild Beasts (1984)
  • The Girl Next Door (2004, Review)
  • The Tinder Swindler (2022, Review)
  • The Hustle (2019, Review)
  • Falling For Figaro (2021, Review)
  • Arachnophobia (1990)
  • Letters to Juliet (2010, rewatch, Review)
  • Tall Girl 2 (2022)
  • Love and Leashes (2022, Review)
  • Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008)
  • Resident Evil: Damnation (2012)
  • Ali Wong: Don Wong (2022)
  • Resident Evil: Vendetta (2017)
  • Into The Beat (2020)
  • Step Sisters (2018)
  • Porco Rosso (1992, Review)
  • Deep Rising (1998)
  • Drug War (2012)

I’m actually quite impressed with how I’ve moved forward with movie watching this month. A good portion of it is for an upcoming of Movies and Tea which is very early in production right now. However, I did start back up my double features originally starting them off in alphabetical order with a focus on teen and comedies since last month (although I think I forgot to mention it) but this month, its fallen away from it as movie watching intentions have changed a little.

With that said, my biggest recommendations would be Korean rom-com Love and Leashes and the creature feature Deep Rising. Both films are two that I’ve immensely enjoyed this past month.

For March, I’m actually thinking of working through some of the Netflix Asian film selections so I’m compiling a list to catch up on some of the titles before they eventually disappear from Netflix.

TV

  • Shining For One Thing (2022)
  • All Of Us Are Dead (Season 1, 2022) Review
  • Rupaul’s Drag Race (Season 4, 2012)
  • Catching Killers (Season 2, 2022)
  • Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness (2021 rewatch, Review)
  • Rupaul’s Drag Race (Season 5, 2013)
  • Fishbowl Wives (Season 1, 2022)
  • Luke Cage (Season 1, 2016)
  • Rupaul’s Drag Race (Season 6, 2014)
  • Iron Fist (Season 1, 2017)
  • The Defenders (Season 1, 2017)

Currently binging: The Wolf

Oh boy, has TV been great! This month started off strong for a good half of the month with Chinese drama Shining For One Thing which was such a wonderful series that was not exactly what the trailer was but at the same time, added so many cool elements to it and some points to ponder. Much like Korean zombie series All of Us Are Dead which had some flaws but was a pretty fun one as well. Season 2 of Catching Killers is also a great one if you like the Netflix crime docuseries. The other part of the month went to sporadic watching of jumping back into Rupaul’s Drag Race for a few seasons and then with the Netflix Marvel series leaving Netflix in March, I tried to at least get “phase 1” (as I call it, not sure if that’s how its separated) ending with The Defenders watched in the final week of February. I’m leaving out Fishbowl Wives because that TV binge is coming up very soon so you can just read it then.

Games

  • Code Vein (unfinished)
  • The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (Shared Story mode)

Currently playing: Bloodroots

In terms of games, I tried out Code Vein before it left Xbox Game Pass. I do admit that it is a lot easier to get into as a souls game however, still the learning curve is quite high since there’s a lot to ponder. Much deeper than the normal games that I play. I have been streaming co-op with my friend BrandelSavage on Twitch and trying out the Shared Story mode for The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope. We played through it once with a rather unsuccessful result of killing almost everyone so we are currently doing the second run of it. There’s probably one more stream of it left this coming Friday. You can see both our perspectives since I do stream my perspective over on my own channel. The Dark Pictures Anthology is pretty great if you like horror stories and it’ll be nice to see what other horror genres they plan to do in the planned 8 episode run that they have especially since Episode 4 is supposed to be released sometime this year.

That’s it for this February 2022 Adventures and What’s Up!
What have you been up to?
What are you reading/watching/playing/binging?