Oh, Christian Bale. How you make drastic weight loss look so easy!

THE FIGHTER IS REALLY GOODDDDDD.

To be honest, I originally wanted to see it only because everyone was *raving* about how good Christian Bale is in it, but no. This movie offers SO much more than Christian Bale emaciated and on crack. Amy Adams, for example, is so good in it and I was rooting for her the whole movie. It was so nice to see her play a "tough girl" role for once; I honestly wouldn't have thought she had it in her! And Mark Wahlberg was such a woobie for most of the movie. I just wanted to hug the poor guy. You wouldn't think so after seeing The Departed, but yeah. Mark Wahlberg the Woobie.

Also, I'm a sucker for underdog stories, and esp. if the REAL focus of the story is the protag's dysfunctional family. How could I not love this movie??

I've seen all of what are likely to be the "heavy-hitting" contenders (no pun intended) for the Oscar this year, and I think my list goes something like this:

Black Swan >> The Social Network & The Fighter >>> The King's Speech >>>>>> Inception

However, I DON'T THINK THE ACADEMY AGREES. :(

SPEAKING OF CHRISTIAN BALE AND INCEPTION, it's been officially announced that Tom Hardy has been cast as Bane, along with Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman) in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises. I'm optimistic (and excited!), but of course the fanboys are rioting. And most of them are complaining Anne Hathaway's not hot enough! Who DO they want, Megan Fox??? :/

I'm hoping for the best. Esp. seeing as how everyone doubted Heath Ledger when he was announced, and look how that turned out. FOOLS!!

As much as I love TDK, I think this is hilarious. The Alfred and Joker impersonations are spot-on. :)

MLK Day. (And life update!)

NPR has been playing documenteries and having discussions about MLK for the past few days now, and it was not until just yesterday that I found out about MLK's highly controversial stance against the Vietnam War. He only began publicly protesting against the war in the last years of his life, and it resulted in him losing support not only from most of the American public, but also from the majority of the African American population as well. (The latter of which really boggles my mind. Americans really hate communism that much?) And not only the American public, but some very powerful people (including the heads of the FBI at the time) ran smear campaigns against him and would do almost anything to take him down.

It's times like this that I really begin to buy into Nietzsche's whole overman/superman thing. How many people could continue fighting for their beliefs (or even continue believing their beliefs) when so many people not only disagree, but are malicious in their disagreement? And to continue even when you lose most of your supporters? Yes, politicians find themselves in this position more often than most, but what makes MLK's situation more unique is that the message he preached was essentially one of equal rights and non-violence. Seemingly harmless beliefs, and yet it inspired so much hate and anger.

Which, I suppose, is why he has a day dedicated to him. So here's to MLK and to all the people who are so much stronger than the average man. :)

--------------

A quick update on my life since my last post:

• The process I've had to go through in preparation for South Africa is the most tiring thing I have ever done in my life, especially since much of it had to be completed while I was still in China. I've had to to make dozens of phone calls, send dozens of emails, made about ten visits total to three different hospitals (one of which was a local Chinese hospital), made three visits to the South African embassy, and even had to have a fingerprint criminal background check done. Oh, and my family has had to spend hundreds of dollars on medical fees, and I had to contact both Kenyon's accounting and financial aid offices multiple times and they STILL messed up my desired loan amount. x____x
• BUT in spite of all my bitching, I've had a good vacation so far. Watched Black Swan, The King's Speech, Tron, and Tangled in theatres. (Planning to see The Fighter tomorrow.) Also watched Despicable Me and the Last Exorcism of Emily Rose on DVD.
• Managed to watch some anime too. Rainbow, Kemono no Souja Erin, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, the Disappearance of Haruhi, and I finally started Bakemonogatari. ON THAT NOTE, I'm officially preregistered for ACen. Hopefully, I won't still be suffering from jetlag. ^^;
• Have eaten lots of sushi, Thai food, and banh mi. :DD

Also, this. I guess Changmin has been foisted with all the awkward, effeminate outfits now that Jaejoong is gone. Poor kid. :P

Merry Christmas!

Not gonna lie; I'm not expecting to get a lot of presents this year. I've reached an adult-like age, which means that soon I'll be giving a lot more gifts than I'll be receiving. Weird. o-o;

Since returning home from China, I've:

• Started Birth by Sleep, Ventus mode. :D :D :D
• Watched Tangled in theatres. <3
• Caught up on episodes of The Office & Glee that I missed while away.

Btw, I love Kurt's new guyfriend on Glee. He's so dreamy, haha. <3

The most flattering pic of me from China:

:P

Final stretch.

Done with exams. Have four pages of an eight page paper that needs to be written by the end of today, and after that, all I have to worry about is packing.

Going back home on Sunday. The next post I write on here will likely be when I'm back in the States. o-o

As a side note, I've been playing 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors as a form of procrastination the past few days. It's sooo cool. *o*

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention, a kid on my program was on a Chinese dating program recently. You can see it here. He pops up at 11:19. :3

Successful meetup. :)

Finally, finally met up with my Chinese 'penpal' of sorts. It was short, but with all our schedule conflicts, I was glad we were able to see each other at all.

After today, I've concluded that he's pretty much the nicest guy I've ever met. He even brought some small gifts from Jiangxi province (where he was away for business) and bought breakfast for me when he heard I hadn't eaten. ^^

His company is having their annual meeting in Nanjing over the next couple days, so depending on whether he has time, we might get to meet again. :)

FYI, I was nervous as hell when heading to the meeting place. Esp. since I knew he would insist on primarily speaking to me in Chinese, haha.

In other news, as of this weekend, I only have about two weeks left in China. Have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I am going to miss this place and the people I've met here. I'm really going to miss my professors here, too, which is a first for me. (Not that I hate my American professors, but I can't say I'm close to any of them.) On the other hand, I can't say I'm sad about getting to go back home, either, nor am I sad about having a month and a half-long winter break. :)