minamimusings

I know I should have tacked this on to the previous post, but I'm just so happy they finally released it, I thought it deserved its own entry. :P Here's a video of the 5-minute extended sneak peek.

Johnny Depp. As a vampire. That is all.

Remember I mentioned they were releasing TWO Snow White-centered films this year? Well, I just watched one, the movie that has Julia Roberts playing the wicked queen. Okay, first of all, I know I said how I'm highly anticipating the other one that stars Kristen Stewart. But it doesn't mean that I wasn't eager to watch this one, too. I love Julia. I also generally fancy fairy tales. And I am aware how different Mirror, Mirror will be, especially in terms of story. In addition, Armie Hammer's in it and he makes for great eye candy. Yum. So you see, I tried really hard to not think about my biases and be objective. Anyway, here goes... The movie was dark. No, I don't mean that figuratively. I'm not sure if it was just me, but the movie could have stood a little more brightness. Like, if I was watching it on my laptop, I would have pressed F2's sun icon to full capacity. There were all these bold, happy colors on the set and on the costumes (THE COSTUMES! <3...

Because it's almost spring in Japan and the cherry blossoms are again going to be in full gorgeous bloom, I thought I'd bust out some of our sakura photos from 2007 in tribute. These were taken in the park in the Imperial Palace. Carpet of fallen sakura blossoms.

When breastfeeding, moms are often advised to ingest some form of the leaves of the "malunggay" plant. It's mostly used to make soup, although there are also malunggay capsules. They say that this helps you produce more milk. So, look what we discovered while in Molito one night a couple of weeks ago. Malunggay snack. My sister says it's like Snacku. This one is barbecue flavored. Malunggay drink! The seller said it also has ginger and, I think, a bit of lemon? Kind of wondering why they're not listed in the ingredients though. My malunggay diet. (The white tablet is the odd one out. That's Calcium. :P)

Because it's almost spring in Japan and the cherry blossoms are again going to be in full gorgeous bloom, I thought I'd bust out some of our sakura photos from 2007 in tribute. These were taken in Nakamise-dori and near Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa.

A fun site I stumbled upon after visiting a book review blog was another review blog of children's books written by their kids! The site is called Little Red Reads . According to their profile, they "review baby board books and middle grade titles." Each entry has a picture of the book cover, its product description, a blurb about its author and the review of the child that read it with their recommendations. How cute is that? I'm sure the mothers make each kid write down their thoughts and they (the moms) do the actual post entry. But still, I think it's a great idea. It encourages children to write, there's interaction with their parents, and, most importantly, it ties up with reading! I might adopt the idea when my little Munchlax gets a bit older. :)

Because it's almost spring in Japan and the cherry blossoms are again going to be in full gorgeous bloom, I thought I'd bust out some of our sakura photos from 2007 in tribute. These were taken in Ueno Park. I miss Tokyo. Still hoping Paul and I can go back there soon.

Snow White, of all the Disney princesses, is my least favorite. She annoys me for some reason. Her inate fragility, that irritating way she sings, her godawful song that goes "Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah" (choo! Bless you! I just added that in.) I watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs once and never did again. Which is why, for the life of me, I have NO IDEA why this particular princess seems to be the focal point of recent media. She's actually the lead character in the TV series Once Upon a Time and has not one, but TWO movies coming out this year: Mirror, Mirror this month and Snow White and the Huntsman in June.   The great thing about her reemergence into popular fiction is that the screenwriters of these shows have reworked Snow White. Gave her guts. Turned her into a 21st century woman of fantasy's Middle Ages. Less damsel-in-so-much-distress and more call-me-damsel-in-distress-and-I'll-forcefeed-you-this-poison-apple. I think it's awesome! ('Coz I swear if...

I'm a dentist. I used to play MMORPGs so I was using the mouse a lot. Plus, obviously, I blog, so I'm always on the computer. Who knew it would take pregnancy and carrying my baby for me to have almost-severe wrist pain?! You see, the thumb part of my wrist has been hurting like hell for more than a month already. It's so bad, I couldn't carry my little Munchlax during his baptism, afraid I'd drop him. The orthopedic surgeon I eventually consulted diagnosed me with, and this is going to be quite a mouthful, DE QUERVAIN'S TENOSYNOVITIS. I'm just going to copy-paste the definition from the Mayo Clinic site:  De Quervain's tenosynovitis (duh-kare-VAHS ten-oh-sine-oh-VIE-tis) is a painful inflammation of the tendons on the thumb side of your wrist. If you have de Quervain's tenosynovitis, you're likely to feel discomfort every time you turn your wrist, grasp anything or make a fist. Although the cause of de Quervain's tenosynovitis isn't kno...

My husband and I are itching to travel. I've declined a couple of opportunities to join friends of ours because of our little munchkin. I'm waiting for him to get a bit older so that he's either not as dependent on me for nutrition, or we can consider bringing him along. At the moment, travel plans are all up in the air due, mostly, to my indecision. But if we could travel, it seems like we'll be headed to Singapore. I was lucky to have watched Laruku, our favorite Japanese rock band, when they performed in Hong Kong in 2008. But Paul was too busy orchestrating his proposal to join us for the concert. It's fortunate that the band added more venues in Southeast Asia for their 20th anniversary tour , and Singapore was a last minute addition! The event is in the last week of April and there are still tickets available !  If that pushes through, Paul also wants to watch Wicked, which will run until April 22. (Although I guess there'll be a bit of a scheduling dilemm...