Sunday 25 March 2018

Movie Review: Star Wars, The Last Jedi (2017)



I know what you must be thinking. A movie review of Star Wars: The Last Jedi? Only now? And yes, I answer. Only now. I didn't manage to go watch it in the theatres but I was finally able to watch it this week. So the description of this movie is that "Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares for battle with the First Order." And this is pretty much accurate. So spoilers ahead, I guess!

The movie starts with the battle of the Resistence and The First Order that is, The First Order catching the rebels evacuating and they all congratulate themselves because are "going to reduce them to ashes". But it's the start of the movie so we all know that't not going to happen. Dameron goes to speak with General "Hux" to let him know Leia has an important message to him about his mother so we start the movie laughing followed by some anxiety when Poe decides to destroy the cannons alone with BB-8 and gets hit but BB-8 fixes it and they end up defeating The First Order (for now). What surprised me is that even after such a big defeat, "Hux" is still very arrogant.

We finally zoom in on Rey, where after a very dramatic pause, Luke tosses the light saber out and we manage to meet those cute little animals which are half owl-half pug, called Porgs. Chewie breaks into Luke's shed and tells him Han is dead. We see Kylo Ren being scolded by the supreme leader and we're back to Luke rejecting Rey. We then skip to another fighting scene and we're shocked by an explosion where Leia is caught and then somehow, even more shockingly, manages to fly all the way to the ship again.

There's a particularly funny scene between Rey and Luke where he asks her to reach for the force, she reaches with her hand and he touches her palm with a branch and she gets all excited with the feel telling him that "it's so powerful" before opening her eyes and realising it was just Luke messing with her.

Throughout the movie Rey and Kylo Ren keep seeing each other as the force connects them. They finally touch and Rey sees the bright future ahead of Kylo Ren so she goes to him and they're told the Voldemort looking guy (the supreme leader) is the one who connected their minds. There is a very nice twist near the end and then drama drama drama afterwards. When all hope is lost, Luke sort of saves the day and Leia changed her hair.

In short, this is a movie with very cute creatures: we have a mix between horses and sheep, ice crystal foxes and the porgs. I really liked the last scene, there's always a spark of hope. I did feel like this was sort of a filler movie, though. The major things that happened were towards the end and the plot didn't move very quickly. Honestly, not much happens in the movie when it comes to plot development but I still really liked it since it's Star Wars and it's still terribly entertaining to watch.

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Sunday 18 March 2018

A No-Maj Ponders Potter: The Philosopher's Stone



It was with mixed pride and disbelief that I discovered that my godson, almost 20, had never in his life seen a Harry Potter movie. As a big fan of Harry Potter since I was a kid (I even went to the movie studios in England), I was curious about his opinion about the first movie: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001). Like Mike Schubert (25), author of the Potterless podcast where he reads J.K. Rowling's books for the first time and tells us his theories and opinions, my godson also had a lot of thoughts, so here's a quick summary he made of the movie:

You need to be very cautious when deciding the future of a baby who has the potential to be the most powerful wizard in the world. In my opinion, the main concern would be to keep him from becoming the most spoiled and irritating child ever. I can perfectly picture little Harry casting a spell to make the soup disappear from his plate, controlling the weather to go play in the streets, or even to prevent his caretakers from roughing him up, locking himself inside a ball of energy, for example. In this regard, my opinion is that Gandalf (whom I later realised was called Dumbledore) made a good decision. Giving Harry to his uncles, who forced him to live in a cellar under the stairs as they channeled the whole caress to his son, proved to be not only a very clever decision but also a very lucky one since they were his only family. Still, I remained skeptical throughout the film. You never know when someone with such talent will not become a first-rate brag.

A bunch of birds starts spinning around Harry to give him some letters inviting him to a school of wizards. His uncle won't let him go because he needs someone to cook bacon for breakfast, understandably. They then decide to move houses and choose an abandoned shed without even worrying about hauntings or supernatural dangers. Consequently, on Harry's birthday, the shed is invaded by a bearded hairy giant (it's because of things as such that we should always consult our real estate agent)! This giant intends to take Harry Potter to Hogwarts but first they have to buy school supplies in London, where they visit the bank and Harry discovers that he's rich after all. He then buys a wand from a specific store and receives a special one that blows wind on his face and wooshes his hair. It's on the train to school that my suspicions are confirmed: Harry Potter is already a brag! He only needed to have his hands on some money and he's already buying an entire cart of candy to impress a colleague. He took a handful of coins from his pocket to pay and didn't even ask the price. Because of this, nothing gets out of my head that further on, Harry will fall into disgrace because of poor financial management.

When he arrives at Hogwarts, he is given a talking cap whose job is to divide the new students into four teams. These four teams will compete against each other in an exciting game of good behavior. The main character becomes popular in school because he was able to retrieve a silly boy's toy that had been thrown away by an annoying lad named Malfoy, denoting great dexterity flying on a broom. He is invited to the Quidditch team (a sport that I haven't completely understood the rules yet), where he will play as a Seeker, with the aim of catching a golden ball that moves very quickly. In his debut game he manages to catch the ball and gives the victory to his team, although he was a victim of spells on his broomstick. He later begins to investigate what's being protected by a three-headed dog and ends up realizing that it's actually the Philosopher's Stone. To explore the protected area and reach the stone you have to go through the three-headed dog, some herbs that kill hysterical children and you have to play chess on a giant board and risk your friends's lives.

Here are also some of his opinions about the characters that stood out to him the most in this first stage of the journey:

“Hagrid: He's a nice, hairy giant who walks into Potter's uncles' shed by breaking the door and then shoots fireworks through his umbrella and gives pig tails to fat kids. He has a job at Howgarts but I haven't understood it yet. He takes Potter to Diagon Alley but at the bank he drops down a few points in my consideration: firstly by risking pouring down the drain all the work done by Dumbledore so  Harry wouldn't be a brat when he shows him the inheritance his parents left him and then by getting himself in a slyish scheme where he seemed to be stealing a crumpled package from someone else's safe.
At one point, Hagrid is baking a dinosaur egg (which is then born and taken away) but is interrupted by Harry Potter and Company. He escorts Ron, Hermione, Harry and Malfoy with their punishment in the black forest but doesn't take very good care of them, allowing them to be attacked by a man with a cape just like Snape, drinking unicorn blood. Throughout the film, Hagrid is an accomplice of the three friends in their adventure to find out who is trying to steal the philosopher's stone.

Professor Snape: He's the Malfoy's good behavior team director and also the school's most sinister teacher as the first time he appears he causes Harry's scar to hurt and then asks him difficult questions during class just to make him look bad! In Harry's first Quidditch game he starts talking to himself, causing the broom to go uncontrolled but Hermione sets fire on his robe and the broom stabilizes. Throughout the movie we are led to think that Snape is bad, which I still believe even after the end of the movie, where it is perceived that the evil one is Quirrell. I am therefore expecting a turnaround in the next films where they proves that Snape is actually bad.

Professor Quirrell: Throughout the film I could not unravel the character of this teacher: first he refuses to shake hands with Harry Potter but then seems to be a nice teacher. In the end you realise he is the bad one! I still believe that Snape is the bad guy and that Professor Quirrell is just a victim in this story because his bald is possessed.

Voldemort: Kind of demon that only takes hold of people's balds. Bald people who don't ventilate their heads tend to develop Voldemort because of heat and humidity. Professor Quirrell, for always walking in a turban, caught Voldemort. When the possessed person dies, it turns into smoke and goes away. It is said that he was he who killed Harry Potter's parents and tried to kill Harry himself but couldn't do it (probably because he wasn't bald at the time).

Other characters: They didn't catch my attention as much as the ones mentioned above. Ron and Hermione are always doing what Harry tells them to do, and they are friends who are subjugated to Harry's fame and wealth so I'm convinced that they are driven to so many situations with incentives (particularly candy-filled carts). If they don't get some personality in the next movies, they are more likely to become bait for the bad guys while Harry escapes. I've seen lots of action movies and that's what happens to the main character's friends.
Professor Dumbledore runs the school and, excluding Harry Potter and his friends, he's my favourite character. He was the one who decided to give Harry to his uncles and didn't punish him during the entire movie, unlike the lady who turns into a cat (although being left with the Dursleys is more than enough punishment).

In conclusion, my godson told me that he really liked the movie despite not being a big fan of plot twists. Before watching the movie he thought that everything was happening in the middle ages so he was very surprised by how recent the film was and found it very nice to have funny parts.

It seems that he became a fan of the saga, so you can count on his next reviews here!

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Sunday 11 March 2018

Simba becomes Simballess!



This is another post about my little cat, Simba, even though we can hardly say he's a little cat  anymore now. I like to believe he was born on July 31st (at least that feels the estimation) so that makes him around seven months now, with 3.5kg and with his own Instagram account. He's still a little terrorist and I've no answers for the letter I wrote him about two months ago but there's been little progress when it comes to answering his name. I'm pretty sure he know his name is Simba by now, but most of the times chooses to ignore it. He does respond very well to "Let's go eat, Simba?".

We took Simba to the vet last friday, who told us he was completely developped by now and he recommended neutereing him as soon as possible to avoid problems at home. We always knew we were going to neuter him. It made no sense to us to expose him to the torture the mating season is and we'd avoid all the territorial marking we still hadn't seen but weren't very keen to. So we scheduled it for the next day (do you get the pun in the title now? see what I did there?) and that meant he couldn't eat anything that afternoon and the morning before the surgery. That was the most complicated part because, as a little terrorist, he usually manages to find food we didn't even know it was there and sometimes, goes through various levels of "security" to reach the food such as a bag inside a bag under a lot of tupperwares on top of the balcony. That's how much of gluton he is, it's indeed a real problem!

So the morning after he got inside the transporter fairly easily, unlike every other time and I took him to the vet. Despite being reassured this was a very easy surgery it's a surgery nontheless so I spent the day worried about my "little" 3.5kg kitten. Since he would be asleep, the vet would also take some blood to test him for FIV, which is the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (equivalent to the human HIV) and FeLV, the Feline Leukemia Virus. Both diseases, even the virus themselves are not letal, means his immunity would be reduced and a simple cold means endless headaches since his immune system can't fight it properly. They're very easily transmited: fights, scratches or even saliva and sand boxes. Because we didn't know anything about his past, we were very worried he would test positive for any of these as they will eventually impact his quality of life.

Thankfully, when I picked him up, I was informed he had tested negative for both diseases. He was already awake and ready to go when I got there. The vet told me he could be a little dizzy and aggressive because of the anesthesia and may even vomit, so we would have to keep him confined to a dark room with no food and make water available to him only after midnight. We would also have to desinfect his scars twice a day, which in itself proved to be a challenge because I'm almost sure Simba is bipolar: he is a tiger with us and a kitten with the vet.

He reacted better than we expected. He got out of the transporter like it had been just another visit to the vet. We didn't find him dizzy and he didn't vomit. He was our little old Simba, ready for another one! I think he didn't even noticed something was missing! Yesterday we returned to the vet with him, who confirmed he was healing very well. Of course, it will take a maximum of six weeks for the hormones to completely leave his system, which means we will have to be even more careful with food near him because both his appetite and lazyness will increase, so the risk of getting fat will too. I am not sure if this will make the running like a mad cat disappear, or the nighttime crazy activity but I do hope it calms him down somewhat. Like I said, he is a bipolar cat: oftentimes he is cuddling with us on the sofa and the next moment he is running around like crazy without a purpose.

While talking about this recent news with a friend, I learned that in the first-language English countries you don't castrate your pets but "neuter", "spay" or "fix" them instead because of the torture association with the first word. I guess here in Portugal we're still slightly barbaric because we only call it "castration" or "spaying" but mostly castration. I understand the "neuter" word but I am still not sure what is there to "fix" besides possibly their behaviour.

Do you think we should neuter our pets? Let me know about your opinion and don't forget that you can follow my Simba's adventures on Instagram!


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Sunday 4 March 2018

Workshop: Pre and Post Workout Snacks



Depois de ter experimentado o workshop sobre pequenos almoços saudáveis da Patrícia, autora do blog Ele Cozinha, Ela Lava, inscrevi-me no workshop seguinte em Lisboa sobre snacks pré o pós treino como tinha dito que ia fazer. De maneira que nesta manhã de domingo enfrentei a chuva (que não era nada pouca) e lá rumei ao centro de Lisboa à procura de novas ideias saudáveis para snacks.

Este workshop teve a colaboração da Sik Nutrition com o João Gonçalves (CEO Team Sik Nutrition) que fez uma breve introdução sobre nutrição, os seus pilares e a importância de uma dieta adequada, variada e, acima de tudo, uma que nos faça felizes. Tivemos também direito a informação nutricional das receitas na hora e ele foi-nos dando pequenas dicas e conselhos de substituições ou adições que podíamos fazer às receitas.

Desta vez já sabia ao que ia por isso não comi grande pequeno almoço mas mesmo assim saí de lá a rebolar e sem vontade nenhuma de almoçar! Em um pouco menos que quatro horas, a Patrícia mostrou-nos como fazer seis receitas mais uma surpresa que derivou da conversa entre o grupo. Mais uma vez, com a ajuda dela, fomos nós a "pôr as mãos na massa" e fizemos tarteletes, bolinhas energéticas, potinhos proteícos, sumo verde do Hulk, crepioca e mousse/brownie. Claro está, tudo delicioso, como era esperado!

Começámos por fazer a base das tarteletes mas, em vez da aveia usada no workshop dos pequenos-almoços, usámos quinoa. À falta de frigorífico, ficou algum tempo a repousar para ficar mais rígida e no final pusemos skyr e acrescentámos alguns toppings em cima. Seguimos para as bolinhas energéticas de tâmaras com cobertura de sementes de cânhamo ou cacau magro que, para mim, são claramente as vencedoras do dia (vou ver se compro tâmaras para as fazer!). A Patrícia publicou uma versão com batata doce que também quero ver se experimento, se forem tão boas como as que ela apresentou hoje, isto promete! Experimentámos depois uns potinhos proteícos com queijo quark, fruta e granola. Mesmo pessoas que não sejam grandes fãs de queijo (euzinha) vão gostar deste porque é líquido e praticamente não sabe a queijo. Aliás, misturado com fruta e granola, fica divinal!

Prosseguimos para o sumo verde do Hulk com pepino, espinafre, banana e ananás. Esta é uma excelente maneira de conseguirmos incorporar alguns vegetais na nossa alimentação e efectivamente uma boa ideia para "mascarar" alguns vegetais se a pessoa não estiver para aí virada. Eu que não sou grande fã nem de espinafre nem pepino posso dizer que não me importava de beber um destes todos os dias. Como eu sou "repetente" já conhecia a receita seguinte, a crepioca com recheio de banana e manteiga de amendoim mas, em conversa com o grupo, a Patrícia depois mostrou-nos como fazer a famosa tapioca com o mesmo recheio. Por último e para terminar em grande, ela apresentou-nos uma mousse/brownie mediante quando tempo a deixarmos estar no microondas, ou petit gateau se o pusermos no forno. Fiquei grande fã desta última também porque acaba por ser mais simples do que as bolinhas e leva menos ingredientes.

Em resumo, mais uma vez conheci novas marcas e sabores e saí de lá de barriga cheia, cérebro cheio de ideias e com a certeza de que estarei presente no próximo workshop em Lisboa!

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