Category: Slice of Life

Enjoying Dragon Age: Inquisition

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO640
 “Dragon Age: Inquisition” Cedar Park, 2020

A couple of weeks ago, I received a notification that Dragon Age: Inquisition was on sale, so I quickly bought it and installed. Several years ago I played Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II and finished both of them, which is rare for me with video games. I really enjoyed those two games. When the third game was released, my computer system was too underpowered to play it, so the game slipped off my radar. That was a full six years ago, and in that time, I have upgraded to a more powerful computer which has no trouble running the game at high detail, and I am absolutely loving Dragon Age: Inquisition!

The class/professions I choose for my characters vary, but for years my go-to race/gender in whatever fantasy RPG I play is a female elf. I think they just look the coolest (except in the Elder Scrolls games). This time, I went with a rogue-assassin for class, and I am having so much fun. I tend to play ranged characters (archers or mages), so playing a melee class is new, but I haven’t looked back.

What’s also great about playing a rogue as opposed to a mage is that the armor and weapon design is really cool. Dragon Age has always excelled in this respect, and it’s neat that the armor, weapons, and your character’s customizations all make it into the cutscenes. It’s like magic. I guess I’m old enough to remember when cutscenes were generic and not dynamically generated so this game design is still really neat to me.

What makes Dragon Age so fun for me is not so much the story, but the interactions with the other characters that you pick up along the way. You can have up to three companions in the group (and can switch up the line-up pretty much anytime) and while adventuring, they often have conversations amongst themeselves. Since each character has their own extensive backstory and distinct personalities, it’s fun to listen in on what they say to each other. It also adds to the plot and backstory. so I pay close attention to these conversations. I really love this aspect of the Dragon Age franchise.

Anyways, I think I am still pretty early on in the game, but things just keep getting more and more interesting with the plot. It’s so good. If you have never played Dragon Age before, I highly recommend picking this classic up!

Christmas Breakfast

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/120 sec, ISO1250
 “Xmas Breakfast” Cedar Park, 2020

Following another of our family traditions, we had bagels, cream cheese, salmon, pastrami, roast beef, homemade pesto, swiss cheese, and sliced onion for breakfast. And lately, we’ve also had Scotch Bonnet on the table for those who like to add a little heat (that would be me). When we meet with our extended family, we also have corned beef, but I skipped that this year. But one thing that made it very special for 2020 is that the bagels were homemade. Super yummy, with good ingredients.

The timing of the breakfast varies… sometimes happening before opening gifts, sometimes after, and many times both. This year it was before the gifts which is fine with me because that gives me more time to wake up and have coffee! I guess the older the kids have gotten, breakfast seems to come first as they have more self-control with their gifts and can wait a bit longer. 😊

For those celebrating, I hope you had a nice Christmas!

Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO640
 “The Tree” Cedar Park, 2020

Christmas Eve Dinner

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 “Hawaiian Dinner” Cedar Park, 2020

Each year on Christmas Eve, we have a Hawaiian feast. It’s usually at my parents’ house in California, but this year we decided not to travel due to the pandemic, so we just had a smaller 4-person version here in Texas. Instead of the usual lau-lau, I made a char-siu-style chicken, and also our staple kalua pig. Kalua pig is really easy and simple to make following this recipe from Foodland, and it turned out perfect! Mariko also made poké and mac salad for a delicious, traditional (to us) Christmas Eve dinner. 😊🎄🍴

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior 花木蘭 (2009) – Movie Review

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Today I watched the 2009 film Mulan: Rise of a Warrior / 花木蘭 starring Zhao Wei. I read some good things about this telling of the Mulan story and I like Zhao Wei so I was really looking forward to it.

The story of Mulan is one that most of us are familiar with, but in this version, the plot focuses more on her time as a general in the army, and the romance between her and a fellow soldier who also rises to become a leader. I found this spin on the story somewhat interesting, but I felt they didn’t spend enough time developing the relationship, and kind of left it to the imagination. Lots of tears were shed on-screen, but that emotion didn’t quite connect with me. I often get teary-eyed when watching movies, but not for this one.

Of course, the tale of Mulan has to have a lot of fighting in it, and this movie has its share of battle scenes, however, I was a little disappointed in the quality of them. I guess I was expecting a more epic feel along the lines of Lord of the Rings or Avengers, but that was not to be. I’m sure the budget for Mulan was only a fraction of those blockbusters, so it’s understandable. The fighting here is pretty much all live-action actors and extras as far as I could tell and nothing special or memorable in the martial arts world. It makes sense though since the focus of the story is on Mulan’s emotional struggles rather than the physical battles.

The overall look of the movie is washed-out and gloomy (in contrast to the vibrant colors of the live-action Disney version) and not pretty to look at which is kind of a bummer, because I’ve seen movies where dark and depressing can look slick, polished, and amazing, such as in Shadow 影. I’m pretty sure a touch of CGI could have given Mulan: Rise of a Warrior that extra boost visually that it needed.

On the other hand, you could say the movie had an authentic, historical feel to it (although having a white character in the opening shot was an odd choice). Contributing to the authentic feel were the costumes and armor. I loved looking at them and although I am no expert, they felt accurate to the time… as if I were looking at the real armor from a museum. The colors were muted and not flashy at all. I didn’t once feel like this aspect of the movie was unrealistic. And the clothes that the characters wore in Mulan’s rural village at the beginning of the movie seemed authentic as well. It really establishes that this isn’t a fantasy world, but part of history, even if Mulan was most likely a fictional character.

If you want to watch a wartime romance movie, Mulan: Rise of a Warrior might just be for you. Just don’t expect anything super-epic, which is a shame since the story of Mulan I think deserves that kind of scope. Still, it’s a good re-telling of the story and worth a watch.

My rating of Mulan: Rise of a Warrior is 7 out of 10.