I am just back from the movie theater after watching "The taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3". The movie is excellent, to say the least. I will always prefer an intelligent, down-to-earth movie and this movie fulfills my expectations. The story is very simple yet it has lots of twists along the way. It has some bits of comedy every now and then. And the performances of Travolta and Washington are quite good.

For me, what I liked the most is the fact that the movie has the right amounts of action, suspense, special effects, plot twist and comedy. This movie doesn't have larger-than-life heroes, or star-wars like special effect, nor comic relief supporting roles. Every character has its own dose of everything, making it a very good movie.

The only thing that kinda turns me down is the fact that this is yet another remake. Seems to be that there was a previous Pelham movie in the 1970's. That only makes me wonder when movie studios are going to start doing original movies instead of continuous remakes.

Finally I was able to upload all the pictures from MFM 2009. Just to let everybody know, I am the guy with the wolf ears (chubby tall guy with a Tiger Haven Shirt) in the last pictures of the album. My friend Cassen also appears in some pictures.

Finally I have some time off to write a post about MFM (Mephit Fur Meet) 2009.

( Read more about my MFM experience so far... if you dare )

Well, I am ready for MFM 2009 (Mephit Fur Meet 2009). I've been spending time with cassen_grrrl and her friends in Kansas City.  Her plan is to use these days to catch up with all her friends from KC until we have to depart to Memphis for MFM on Thursday. It's been great so far and her friends are very nice and friendly too. I and her went to a party last saturday (the day we arrived from Mexico) and I finally had the chance to experience an American party, which involves playing games, drinking and talking with other people (in different groups) and moving from one group to another. Since Sunday and until Wednesday, she will be catching up on her friends (and I tagging along with her) .

I can't wait for thursday to finally experience my first BIG con. There was a con in Mexico City which could be considered my first con but it was small and with very few events (and no fursuits). I am expecting lots for fursuiters and lots of events, and buying some stuff to bring home. I am really excited. I will tell you more on friday or saturday if I have some free time to write something here.

BTW, I just bought two werewolf books from Barnes and Noble, therefore, I am quite excited as I am about to start reading them. I am always like that with whatever new werewolf media (books, movies, artwork) I can get in my paws.

This is my wall paper. A picture from Defenders of Wildlife website. I really really like it. Sometimes I think my computer screen is just a mirror and I am on the other side :) And yeah, I am missing one paragraph.

Wallpaper meme rules
1. Anyone who looks at this entry has to do the meme.  Or not.  I don't really care.  But it would be FUNNNN if you did.
2. Explain in 5 sentences why you are using the wallpaper.  If it's hideous, you are allowed 2 extra sentences.
3. Don't change your wallpaper before you screenshot.

Well.. I have just paid my registration to MFM (Mephit Fur Meet). This should be considered my first fur con I will ever attend. I will be going there with cassen_grrrl . I still need to pay the plane ticket and we are still two people short for the room (it's a room for four people). Anyway, I am a little excited about it even thought it's still months for MFM.

Added: Technically, it will not be my first con because I attended confurtiva in Mexico, but it was a very small con so I don't know if I can compare that experience to going to a fur con in the United States. Confurtiva was very fun nevertheless.

Your result for The What type of wolf are you test...

The Pack Wolf

Take The What type of wolf are you test at HelloQuizzy

After very stressful months, I finally had the chance to go on vacations to Ixtapa. I traveled last wednesday to Ixtapa and stayed in a very nice all-inclusive hotel where I could rest, go to the swimming pool and pretty much relax all day long. cassen_grrrl was also there joining me in the hotel. She traveled to Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo since last week and she joined me at the hotel when I arrived. We had a pretty good time, she got a lot of sun and I got a lot of rest. I feel so much better and relaxed now than last month.

Everything started on tuesday night. I traveled by bus all night and I arrived to Ixtapa early morning. The bus stopped in Zihuatanejo and I took a cheap bus ride to Ixtapa. Unfortunately it was too early to do the check-in so I waited in the nearby mall and use the internet a little bit. I went back to the hotel at 1:00 PM, met with cassen_grrrl  and finally checked in.

From wednesday thru saturday, my days were mostly sleeping, going to the swimming pool, drink some booze at the pool-bar, going to the snack bar for food, back to the swimming pool or to rest in a chair. Then back to the room, shower, having dinner at the restaurants in the hotel and finally going to bed.

On sunday we went back to Guadalajara, but there was a delay and the bus left Ixtapa until 1:45 PM. We ended up arriving to Guadalajara until 10:20 PM and then going home. I arrived very tired no matter that the bus ride was pretty smooth.

Now I am back to work with energy. Let's see how much it will last :p

Last weekend I went to the theaters to watch Gran Torino. I had a kinda high expectation of this movie and I wasn't disappointed. I enjoyed the story because of its crudeness. "Being Politically incorrect" was the name of the game in this movie, but it was good because I am sure the things that were shown in the movie happens sometimes. And besides the crudeness, the movie is pretty good and it keeps you interested during the whole movie.

Now, I honestly laughed the whole movie because of the way Clint Eastwood's character was. But, on the other hand, cassen_grrrl (we watched the movie together) didn't like some parts. Unlike me and most of the mexican audience, she didn't laugh at the derogative terms used or the whole politically incorrect theme.

Now, for the bad parts, Clint Eastwood did a decent acting job but the rest of the cast was bad. There were other things but I don't want to spoil the ending to someone who hasn't seen the movie.

Bottom line, I enjoyed the movie and makes one think just how stupid racism on one side, and race pride, on the other side.

I've realized that I didn't write anything about Underworld 3, Rise of the Lycans, so here it is:

As for the special effects, I like them a lot. The original werewolves or lycans(the ones created by William and his offspring were incredible), the others created by Lucian were also cool but I preferred the first ones in terms of shape.

I also like the way they tied all the loose ends so the next movies could be more coherent. But, on the other hand, trying to connect the movie with the first one, ended up in failing to give a good explanation to the war between lycans and vampires. So because of Lucian's blind rage, the lycans became what they fought against the vampires for.. Instead of being free, the became pariah of society, living in the sewer while the vampires became rich and powerful.

The ending was a gift to all werewolves' fan where they could see the revenge we have been waiting every since the first Underworld. Those scenes are great.

I wasn't expecting much of this movie, specially if I compare it to Underworld 2, so I think Underworld 3 exceeded my expectations.

It's funny that I am always a werewolf in these test no matter what kind of questions I am asked

Wow.. I am watching "the breakfast club" movie. This were the days when 90% of the movies were not rip offs. Where directors and writers could be bold and try to break the mold with something different. The premise is so damn simple, no special effects, no super heroes, no patriotism, no lame speeches, just 5 kids in detention.

I love this movie.

Finally I had some time to post something here. Last week I went to see the Twilight movie. Although I've heard the books are very good, I had a very low expectation on the movie mostly based on movie reviews and the fact that there are very few good book-to-movie adaptations.

First of all, I am very impressed about the movie. Although it was the typical "Geeky girl loves weird handsome kid", I loved the way the handled the "Vampire" situation. The vampires in the movie are people trying to fit into the society but not in the usual lame way other movies do. It wasn't either the typical "We are vampires therefore we are cool over the rest" but not also the "We are vampires, cursed people who deserve to die". I also enjoyed the way that "being vampire" didn't change their minds at all. he was a vampire, but he accepted what he was much in a way other people would accept their flaws (like being lactose intolerant, being not to smart, etc.). The movie was much of acceptance as the vampire family totally accepted (maybe not all the members but still) the new "girlfriend" in the way all families does. Like trying to be "nice" to her and usually screwing things up :p

I also loved the way the movie didn't fall into the typical situations all vampire/werewolf/monster movies fall into. Where you can really notice that is at the ending where they didn't go for the ending everyone was expecting and that could have been a "happy" ending of sorts.

And finally, of course, I can't wait to see the next installment of the series where the werewolves are going to make their introduction :p If this new movie is as good as twilight, it will set a new standard of monster movies that will leave the rest in the gutter. GO Werewolves

I just had another Christmas celebration with my family and relatives. I worked half day on the 24th so I took a flight from Guadalajara to Mexico City at 7:00 PM. Finally arrived to my relatives' home by 8:30 PM.

This Christmas celebration was way different from previous years. I could not tell why but it was. For starters I think it was way less wine and liquor than other Christmas celebrations. Not that I drink a lot, actually I barely drink at all. But I noticed a lack of cheerful spirit. This Christmas none of my uncles played the guitar so no music except a few CD's, the party didn't last that much and we were back at the hotel by midnight.

Next day my other uncle (the one that always shows up the day after) showed up but still, nothing out of the ordinary. He didn't play the guitar either (which he always do) and although we stayed there the whole afternoon, nothing interesting happened. I think even thought I could not say the world financial crisis was to blame, I think it influenced the general non-cheerful mood of this Christmas celebration along with all the people that had died in the Drug Lords vs. the government battle.

On the other hand, the kids (nephews mostly) had a good time, played soccer most of the day, played WII and, in general, had a pretty good time. On friday, I had to return home but my parents and sister decided to stay one more day so they could take my nephew to a Wrestling match (haha, seems to be wrestling is now cool among kids).

This is a picture of the family gathering (yeah.. typical Mexican large family gathering and I think this has been the smallest I've ever attend)

Seems to be that this last weekend I had my first furry convention (or fur con). According to the organizers it was also the first furry convention nation-wide ever held in Mexico. It was held on the 22 and 23 of November in a very nice city called Cuernavaca. The place was an old hacienda at the outskirts of Cuernavaca. A pretty closed and private place where furries could gather without being seen.

Everything started on friday night when I and cassen_grrrl  took a midnight bus from Guadalajara to Mexico City. After traveling the whole night and taking a cab, we arrived at the place where the ConFurtiva Bus was waiting for all of us. Now, my first problem was that I am kinda shy person, so while cassen_grrrl  immediately started hugging and greeting everyone even if she didn't know any of them, I was like hiding in my own den trying to be invisible. So, basically I didn't know if the problem was that I am just shy or that I wasn't a furry in the first place, or maybe both. On that last note, I am technically a were or therian because most of my beliefs are more therian-based than furry-based but still I wanted to have a lot of fun.

It was really cool that most of the participants of Confurtiva were wearing tails and/or ears. But on the other hand, made me feel out of place because I didn't have any. The only thing furry/were I had was a "furries anonymous" shirt I bought a month ago. The trip to Cuernavaca was a nice trip, everybody was excited to be there and it was lots of fun, we stopped for some snacks at an isle in the middle of the highway and it was kinda funny to see all the reactions of people looking at us with the tails and ears. After two hours, we finally arrived to the Hacienda. We got our rooms, left our stuff in the rooms and we did a few group activities to know each other.

Now, the lunch was fantastic. It was a buffet lunch with lots of typical homemade mexican food. It was great. Me being a wolf, I enjoyed and wolfed out all my food in record time :p After lunch and some rest, we did another game related to searching for clues and getting prizes. Then came a few sessions of video games but I wasn't interested. After that, there was an ears workshop. I was kinda motivated to do so but also afraid of being unable to do a nice set of ears, but actually I was able to. I really like the set of ears I made for myself. Finally, a fire pyre was light at the garden. At 12:00 AM I was really tired and went to bed. And no, no yiff for me :(

Sunday morning the only thing that was scheduled to do was breakfast (also a buffet), packing our stuff, getting our free shirts and cups (We paid the sponsors' package) and got in the bus to return to Mexico City. Unlike the first ride, everyone was tired so it was a calmer, less loud ride. I guess everyone just wanted to arrive home. From there, we took the subway to the bus station, had some late lunch and then took the bus back home.

Now, there was a few things I was really hoping to happen in this, my first con: I wanted to see a fursuit, but unfortunately no one brought one; there was no artists's area, I would have loved to see some really cool anthro wolves being drawn from scratch, hey I would have bought one too. But besides this, the rest was pretty cool, all the participants were really nice and cheerful. At the end it was a good experience but somehow I still feel something was missing, maybe next time more things will be part of the confurtiva or maybe cassen_grrrl</lj>  will convince me to go to some fur con on the United States. I really don't know.

Here's the final shot of all of us after arriving to Mexico City

Well, It's been a while since I post. But I didn't have anything interesting to tell except working and studying :p. The reason for studying is because I needed to take a test in the United States. Long story short, if I pass that test called IQEX, I will be able to get a CPA certification. But to take that test, I had to travel to Chicago. It could have been any city but I choose Chicago because I needed the last available date in the period window so I could have enough time to study.

I travel to Chicago on Thursday. I arrived early morning and because cassen_grrrl 's suggestion, I used the subway system (or better known as the L) from O'hare to downtown chicago. A friend of mine offered his house for me to stay, but It was a little far away and I didn't want to worry about being late to the test (I will explain about the distance my friend's house was from Chicago in a moment).I stayed Thursday and friday night at the Westin North Michigan hotel. That Thursday night I had a dinner with cassen_grrrl</lj> 's parents. I didn't know what to expect from them but they were very warm and open minded. I really enjoyed the dinner. We talked about a lot of things and it was really good conversation.

The next day, on Friday, I went to take the test, the place was like 3 minutes away from the hotel but with the famous Chicago traffic, the cab took 10 minutes to get there. And that cab was driving like crazy. My test went from 12 to 5 so when I was finally finished, I was hungry. I decided to try interesting and typical places, so I went online and discovered some places like B-B-Q bob's. I try to go there but it was pretty late so by the time I arrived, it was closed. I went back and ended up having dinner in a place called The Cheesecake Factory right in front of the John Hancock Observatory.The funny thing is that I never had the time to actually visit the observatory :(

On Saturday, I check out and headed to my friend's house. I called him on the morning and asked him about how to go there. The only thing he said is that I should take the train to the Wheaton station. My first thought was that when he said train, it was really the subway system. But noooo, it was a real train, called the metra. So I had to use the regular subway system to get to the Clinton station, and from there walk to the Ogilvie train station to take the US West line to Wheaton. The whole thing took me like one hour and a half. The good thing is that I passed in front of the Chicago Theatre and I noticed they were going to show Video Games Live that night. Basically music from videogames. So now I know my friend lives in a town called Carol Stream,

So, I arrived at my friend's house, we had lunch and then I went back to the Wheaton station to go back to Chicago and watch the Video Games Live show at the Chicago Theatre. It lasted 2 hours and a half, and it was awesome. I really enjoyed Metal Gear Solid and Kingdom Hearts, but the rest was awesome too. The bad thing is that after  waiting for the next train back to my friend's home, I ended up arriving at home at 2:00 AM.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 12:00 PM. We had breakfast at an IHOP and I wanted to go to Chicago to try to go to some touristic places. But unfortunately, my friend's work schedule and the fact that I could not get a cab in Carol Stream, I ended up checking emails and doing stuff  with my laptop at the closest McDonalds. I stayed there until 8 PM (meaning I stayed there until they closed for the night) and then went home to wait for my friend. We have dinner at his house and went to bed.

On Monday, I had to go back to Guadalajara, so my friend gave me a ride to O'hare. We said good bye to each other and I took my flight home.

Well.. my friend cassen_grrrl convinced me to take this test even so I am mexican and most questions are directed to USA citizens and/or deal with USA issues.

Eres un/a Social liberal (65% permisivo/a) y un/a... Moderado económico (50% permisivo/a) La descripción que mejor te cuadra es: De centro Link: Test de política en funcionamiento OkCupid también : El Test de candidatos OKCupid

Today I was supposed to go to the Ontario Science Centre and to the CN Tower. Only the latter objective was accomplished. Seems to be that the Canadians don't know the mexican term -ish commonly used for establishing opening and closing times. So when I read that the Ontario Science Centre closes at 5:00 PM, obviously as a mexican, I thought "Oh.. it closes five-ish". Well, the thing is that they truly closed the gates at 5:00 PM. I know that because I arrived at the place at 5:05 PM :p. Now, for my justification, I planned to arrive 4:30 PM but unfortunately a lot of things including rush hour delayed my trip. So after my failure and since I didn't want to spend another 40 canadians dollars on another taxi, I decided to go to the CN tower by bus and subway. I arrived there, did the whole thing and was out of there at 8:00 PM. I went tack to the hotel by subway too and arrived at 10:00 PM at the hotel. The subway was fast but by some reason the bus took like forever.

Since the restaurant at the hotel closes at 10:00 PM I decided to grab some food at the 7/11 and then went to the hotel. And this is where I am now. Sitting in the conference center typing this after arriving.

So tomorrow if everything works as planned, I will go to the Ontario Science Centre at 10:00 AM (I will leave here early) and then go back to the hotel at 12:00 to checkout and then go to the airport to go back to the USa and then to Mexico. Actually, I was thinking of going to the USA without a visa and daring then to "deport" me to Mexico. It would be a free ticket back to Mexico. Or I wonder if they would deport me to Canada???!!!

Well, this is my third day here in Toronto, Canada. I don't know why I always have a higher expectation of the so called "First world" countries' cities. I arrived at the airport and the first thing odd was that the inmigrant officer was asian (chinese, japanese, I don't know, no offense), then I go take a cab and the driver was hindu just like the clerk at the hotel. arrived at the hotel and the first thing I notice, some "latino" (I hate the term but since I don't know if they were canadians, mexicans, guatemalans, I will use that term just this time) speaking Spanish. My assumption now is that 9 of every 10 people here in Toronto is foreigner, or either son or grandson of a foreigner. I think  I could easily have my way with spanish here, there was a place in the food court that even had a spanish menu.

Now, the neighborhood where the hotel isn't the nicest one, the mall isn't any better that the ones that exist in my home town. I guess it's because it's on the suburbs (the highway is like 10 minutes away from here) but still, I would not live here if I had the choice.

Then I decided that I wanted some soda and food and went to the 7/11 store. My jaw dropped when I saw the "taquitos" spinning along the hotdogs with a message that reads "Double your MEXpectations". I felt so low that I returned to  the hotel and cried.

Then I decided to go downtown so I used the public transportation. I climbed a bus, then connected with the subway system and I ended up at Union station. Nice place, btw. Then I bought a CInnabon and headed to CN Tower. Unfortunately it was crowded so they had a 1hr waiting to climb the darn thing, but I could not wait that long because I had to go back to the hotel and call the airline. Did I forget to tell you that my luggage was delayed in Houston???

WEll, yeah, typical. The travel agency set my connecting flight just one hour from my arrival to Houston so after dealing with your "Friendly USA Inmigrant officer" and running to get to the other terminal, I barely made it to my connecting flight. Unfortunately, my luggage wasn't that lucky. The bad thing is that my training material was in my luggage so the first day of training (which was Sunday, I love my job so much that I am willing to spend a Sunday in training) I had to share the training material with a fellow classmate.

Today was uneventful. I had lunch in a place that I think it's called "Deli - country style". It's basically a combination of Subway and dunkin donuts. I had a 6" sandwich. It was good but nothing exceptional. My plan was that after finishing the training (at 5 PM) I could go to the CN tower and take the ride but I had to work (some things needed to be done and unfortunately, I brought a laptop with me, so no excuses) so it will have to be tomorrow. The good thing is that the training ends early tomorrow so I want to do both the CN tower and the Toronto Science museum. YAY for me.

That's it. See ya because I am using the conference center computer and I want to go to bed. And the question is, why are you using the computer from the hotel if you have a laptop, the answer is.... that my laptop sucks and decided that it will not access "secured" sites (something to do with https). Anyway... TTYL

Yesterday, cassen_grrrl and I went to watch the Skinwalkers movie. I know it's been premiered in many other places before here and I've read all those bad reviews about the movie, but I really wasn't expecting this "crap". I really don't know where to start. I am a werewolf and a werewolf fan and I always have a low expectation about werewolf movies (will explain this later) but at least I always enjoy a good werewolf TF or werewolf in general, specially with today's special effects.

First of all, the plot. I can't believe they went into the whole "good" werewolves against "bad" werewolves. I can understand that in every movie there should be good and bad guys, but not based on a lame term as just that "bad" werewolves are the ones that "enjoy" their "curse" and the "good" werewolves are the ones that hated the so-called "curse". They really showed them totally slaved to their wolf sides but in an incoherent manner. Sometimes they had enough intelligence to set traps to other werewolves and some other times they were these wild and uncontrollable beasts. The worst of all is that the "bad" werewolves weren't bad by choice but simply because they happened to taste blood. That's pretty much as saying that all people who try a drug (like marijuana or cocaine) will become addicts and kill their parents for money.

Now, I blame this whole way of portraying werewolves to Hollywood. I am sure Hollywood studios (or executives) don't want to show a "good" werewolf that has accepted his "curse" or "gift" and is just an average dude. Why? Because it's a dehumanization. They think Humans are the ultimate evolution ladder and going back to this "beast" state is just wrong. So.. what do they do?? Each and every time they show a werewolf, it will always be either: A bad guy enjoying it and killing whatever it moves or a good guy that wishes to end the curse because it's just wrong. I am really hoping in some near future we can see in theaters the movie Freeborn and finally see a good portrayal of werewolves and movie studios will finally discover what they were missing.

Plot aside, now let's go into special effects. I can't believe that after almost 20 years from Teen wolf, their portrayal of the werewolves were pretty much like Michael J. Fox's werewolf character. Just a furry creature with big "noses", yellow eyes and big paws and claws. The funny thing is that their hand paws and claws were huge but their feet paws not, as they could still use shoes. The transformation scenes where lame too. They used the typical shaking-scene technique to never show a good transformation. I can understand it was a B movie but I wasn't expecting this. I am sure they could have had enough money to at least show one good werewolf transformation. Even Cursed, which wasn't a very good movie in terms of plot, showed a very cool werewolf and one very nice transformation scene.

Finally, the ending. They could not avoid the typical b-movie ending which is: 1) All supporting characters either good or bad die, 2) Bad guy becomes a good guy and, depending on plot, falls in love and/or protects the good guys, 3) The world is saved and hope is back.

Actually, after the movie I was talking about werewolf endings with cassen_grrrl and told her what a great ending could have been in Van Helsing if he could not be cured at the ending. The irony of the monster hunter becoming the monster. Realizing that maybe not all monsters are bad. Realizing that maybe monster like to live as much as anyone else. Realizing that it is not the same thing now that he's on the other side of the scale. WOW, I would love to see the sequel to that movie with that ending :p

Anyway, my general rating is "sucks" and hopes the next werewolf movie will be more interesting plot-wise and with better transformation scenes and werewolves in general :)