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Project Hail Mary (2026)

Math Teacher read me the book years ago.  The book was dense with math and science stuff.  I couldn't get past it.  I gave up after a few chapters.  Math Teacher read the whole book by himself in two days.  It was THAT good!

Fast forward to 2025.  When Math Teacher heard Ryan Gosling was making Project Hail Mary into a movie, he was so pumped.  That was all he could talk about.

Fast forward to 2026.  The movie did not disappoint.  Math Teacher loved it!  He said they cut some heavy math and science for the sake of the movie run time (2.5 hours already), but that was ok.  I agreed.  A normal person like me could not take all that science-y things.  I needed to see colors and moving pictures.

Rocky was adorable.  The friendship was so touching I almost cried.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 (not five stars because I felt horrible for Rocky.  His people did not understand Newtonian physics but they still sent him out to save their planet.  A suicide mission!  *sniff*)

ps.  Do I know Rocky is a fictional fake alien????!!!  I was so invested in his life.  Maybe this should be a five-star movie.

Trader Joe's Butter Chicken with Basmati Rice

This was average.  It was a little bit spicy, but not spice-y.  English really needs two different words to describe "spicy hot" and "spice-y full of fragrant spices".

The portion size was manageable for a lunch when I wasn't too hungry.  If I were starving, this would not be enough.

Box

Frozen

Microwaved

A Call to Spy (2019)

This was a difficult movie to watch.  This was not a James Bond movie. This did not have a happily-ever-after.  The entire time I was worried for the spies; their next steps could be their deaths.  And yeah, they did not come back home.

This was a heavy watch on a weekend night.  Be prepared to feel sad and hopeless and helpless.

HAPPY Chinese New Year 2026 / 新年快樂

Happy Year of the Fire Horse!  How awesome is that!  Wishing everyone the best this year!

柿柿如意大吉大利

🔥🐎年快樂

除夕年夜飯

Shin Godzilla (2016)

Shin Godzilla was a quintessential Japanese movie.

95% of the movie was people in meetings, in various settings such as different desks, tables, chairs, sofas, arranged in different ways, in different offices, conference rooms, etc.  At first one shot would include multiple people talking.  By the end of the movie each shot was one talking head closeup, then quickly moved to the next head.  I got dizzy after the movie.  There would also be one person telling another person some possibly important information, then the second person relaying the same information to the third person, IN THE SAME ROOM AT THE SAME TABLE, three heads away!  The third person could hear the first person clearly, but in Japan, lower rank was not allowed to talk to high rank directly.  So they set up another office called "the rebels" so no ranks in this office.  I didn't understand this "the rebels" office because all they did was folding origami.  And also this "rebels office" still had to report to someone higher rank than them  🤦

5% was about Godzilla.  In the beginning the baby Godzilla was someone's sock puppet with googly eyes glued on.  Finally the baby Godzilla grew up to adult Godzilla and destroyed Tokyo.  That was really cool scene.  Then Godzilla just stood there.  Even when the talking heads attacked Godzilla, it barely moved and just let humans attacked it.  Did the production company run out of budget?

For a movie set in 2016, the technology was bad, the dialogues were bad, the plot was bad.  They even tried to explain "God" in Godzilla in English because foreigners thought it was God.  But in Japanese, it was simply GOjira 🤦

For a better Godzilla movie, watch Godzilla Minus One.

It took me awhile to recognize Yutaka Takenouchi; he was my no. 2 Japanese actor.  In this movie his lips were kind of droopy, and his hair didn't look as nice as before.  Getting old...

Back to the Future (1985), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Last year was the 40th anniversary for Back to the Future.  Our local theater was rerunning the movies, but somehow we couldn't make it because life happened.  So we got the DVDs from the library to re-watch all three of them.  This cemented that Back to the Future trilogy was my all-time favorite movie.

Now that I am older and familiar with the plot, I was able to pay attention to minor details.  I did not realize the excellent acting until now.  In all three movies, there were multiple long scenes without any dialogues.  All we could guess was from the actors' facial expression and actions.  They were brilliant.  There were also short gestures to indicate each character's quirks.

In addition to the great acting, the story was cohesive; the set design was beautiful; the makeup and costumes were outstanding.

I love this movie!  🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Forty years, huh, I feel old.

LBJ (2016)

We don't know much of President LBJ except the school history textbook.  So we decided to watch this movie to educate ourselves.

The makeup team was excellent.  LBJ and JFK actually looked real.  The movie was actually not that dense so it was ok to watch on a weekend.

I learned the infighting between the young JFK administration and LBJ the old politician.

⭐⭐⭐

Trader Joe’s Truffle Risotto

“Naturally flavored with other Natural flavors.”

Hmm, was this natural?  😂

Front

Frozen

Microwaved

Seriously, it wasn’t too bad. The flavor was good.  The rice was acceptable.  And I didn’t feel too yucky after eating this highly-processed frozen food.

⭐⭐⭐

2026 New Year Hawaii trip

I haven't been to Hawaii since the sixth grade.  Math Teacher hasn't gone to Hawaii since six years old.  So it was time to make our own adult memories at Hawaii.  The islands were stunning.  I am an ocean person; Math Teacher is a mountain person.  Hawaii combines both.  We could stare at the ocean as well as the mountains for hours.

First up, Shaka!

Shaka

View of the Waikiki Beach.

Waikiki Beach

Kualoa Ranch was a ton of fun!  There were a lot of tourists, but it was well-organized so it didn't feel crowded (except the gift shop).  We joined the Movie Sites & Ranch tour.  We were surprised to learn not only big action, adventure movies were filmed at Kuala Ranch, but also rom-coms. In addition to movie sites, many tourists were here for outdoor activities. So there were lots of options for people to choose from.

Welcome to Jurassic World

Kong:  Skull Island

Waikiki Aquarium:  Highly recommend!  It was only $12 per adult.  It was very small, but very few tourists visited this part of Waikiki.  We got to see a blind monk seal.  He was so smart and cool!  I didn't know when a monk seal lost his sight, he gained super hearing ability.  Simply amazing!

Waikiki Aquarium

Waikiki at Night:  breezy and peaceful.

Waikiki at night

It rained for three days when we were there.  So we had to find indoor activities to do.  We went to Ala Moana Center.  It was a huge shopping center, but it was farther away from Waikiki therefore fewer tourists and more locals.  It was "outdoor" but with overhang to protect from the rain.

Yayoi Kusama's famous pumpkin

ALOHA!

Bishop Museum:  beautiful museum to learn about Hawaiian history and culture.  And great air-condition in the Hawaiian heat and humidity. BUT!  We're getting old.  The lighting in the museum is dim and yellowish.  For $38.95 per adult, we would prefer to be able to read the signs and information.

Bishop Museum outside

Bishop Museum inside

Volcano National Park:  Not recommend to visit when it was the day after three-days of raining. We assumed it would be all right, but the mist plus the wind in the face was uncomfortable. Everything was still wet and muddy. We were unlucky. The light bulbs at the lava tube burned out. Math Teacher described walking through the lava tube as "walking in a completely dark room with water pouring on us." I didn't see anything because I was too concerned about tripping over the wet ground. This was my whole point of the trip. I wanted to see volcano and lava! Instead I got the chills and almost got sick. We did see a rainbow inside the volcano crater. That was cool. We saw rainbows almost everyday in Hawaii.

USS Arizona Memorial:  We were unlucky at the Volcano National Park then we got lucky with USS Arizona Memorial.  I was checking every hour with tickets.  Even when tickets were available, the website crashed so I couldn't reserve.  Then finally, we got them!  Highly recommend the last tour of the day at 3:30pm.  No more rushing because no more next boat. We got to see the Memorial slowly. It was a solemn experience.  It was saddening and I felt like crying.

On the way to Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

USS Arizona Memorial

Last day in Hawaii.  Aloha!