adventures of a tired coder

Yep, that’s right… I completely missed the first week of SIFF. There are definitely films that I’m hearing about that I wished I’d had the chance to see, but Maui was pretty awesome, too. :) Immediately jumped back into SIFF, seeing two films on the same day I arrived home via redeye flight. It was a real challenge because nothing happened in either film! But things got better during the week – I saw a delightful French musical and worked a good will call shift at the Uptown. Film Count: 4. Volunteer Vouchers: 7.

Stray Dogs
(also: Jiao You)
Taiwan, 2013
Genre: Drama
Watched: SIFF 2014, Uptown
Rating: *** (out of 5)

I feel like I have a good amount of patience with slow movies, but this one was just too much for me. A lot of people who liked it seem to be familiar with the director’s work, though I’m really not sure that understanding references would have made it more bearable. It’s 138 minutes of long shots where nothing happens. It’s really uncomfortable, especially when the shots zoom in close on faces and you spend 10 minutes trying to figure out if he’s going to let the snot drip down his nose or not (spoiler alert: he does). There’s a semblance of a story, but since very little happens and very little is said, there’s a lot of missing information that frustrated me. On the redeeming side, a lot of the shots were very beautiful, and misery was strongly portrayed.

A Dream of Iron
(also: Cheol-ae-kum)
South Korea, 2014
Genre: Documentary
Watched: SIFF 2014, Uptown
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5)

The narrator is sad that his girlfriend left him to search for god, so he decides to find a “better” god. Monks chant. Lots of shots of an enormous ship factory and the impressive metalwork that takes place there. Whales. And a few dolphins. Back to the metal. Whales again. Documentary?! For this one, I could get over the fact that nothing happens and it’s actually pretty ridiculous because there was a meditative quality to the whole thing that reminded me of Samsara (but I liked Samsara a lot more).

Attila Marcel
France, 2013
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Drama
Watched: SIFF 2014, Uptown
Rating: **** (out of 5)

I was originally planning to see this one before my vacation, but I decided to volunteer instead. This one lived up to my expectations: it was beautiful, charming, and funny. Definitely lots of laugh-out-loud moments (I still have the phrase “merde de lumiere” stuck in my brain). There’s no way you’re going to connect with any of the characters or get anything meaningful out of this film, but it’s entertaining, the characters are interesting (if not realistic), and it brought me into their brightly-colored hallucinogenic world for an hour and a half.

Here we go again! Hopefully I can complete my SIFF blogging this year (unlike last year). It’s going to be a much shorter fest for me, since I’m out of town for 9 days of the festival for my brothers’ graduation and a family trip. Before leaving, I worked two volunteer shifts, one as a “human arrow” at the opening night gala and one long venue shift at Lincoln Square. We were able to watch a film during our shift, so I did get to see one before leaving town. Film Count: 1. Volunteer Vouchers: 5.

Words and Pictures
USA, 2013
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Watched: SIFF 2014, Lincoln Square 
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5)

This isn’t a movie I’d typically see at SIFF because it’s a mainstream American flick that’s going to have a wider release soon. But I was happy to catch it during my volunteer shift! It’s a solid rom-com, with lots of laugh-out-loud moments, especially between the two main characters as they engage in their battle of literature (“words”) vs. art (“pictures”). I really like Juliette Binoche as an actress, and she does a good job with her character here. It was also nice to Valerie Tian’s role as a student that didn’t reek of Asian stereotypes. The romance side of the picture is inevitable but not as convincing or interesting as the rest of it. The passion the teachers show for their subjects is really engaging and made me want to go out and write and paint.

Mozart's Last Aria by Matt Rees

Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller
Rating: *** (out of 5)
Recommended for: Dan Brown fans, music lovers
Received ARC copy through a GoodReads giveaway.

Back-cover summary:
The news arrives in a letter to his sister, Nannerl, in December 1791. But the message carries more than word of Nannerl’s brother’s demise. Two months earlier, Mozart confided to his wife that his life was rapidly drawing to a close… and that he knew he had been poisoned.

In Vienna to pay her final respects, Nannerl soon finds herself ensnared in a web of suspicion and intrigue—as the actions of jealous lovers, sinister creditors, rival composers, and Mozart’s Masonic brothers suggest that dark secrets hastened the genius to his grave. As Nannerl digs deeper into the mystery surrounding her brother’s passing, Mozart’s black fate threatens to overtake her as well.

My review:
Beautiful cover, intriguing premise… maybe this was too much for this book to live up to. My main issue was that there’s way too much fiction in this historical fiction novel, so much that I spent a lot of my reading time thinking that there was no way this story could be true. This probably wouldn’t have been as much of a problem if it wasn’t about someone as famous as Mozart, but I’m not sure I would have been as interested in that case. It’s a no-win situation, I guess.

Nannerl receives word of her brother Mozart’s death and the suggestion that it might have been a murder. She rushes off to Austria to investigate Mozart’s connections with politics and the Masons that might have led to his death. Along the way, she rediscovers her own talent and love for music. While the Mason stuff screamed “conspiracy theory” to me, Nannerl’s personal journey was more interesting, and the book would have been a better read for me if it had focused more on this part than on solving the mystery.

Defy by Sara B. Larson

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5)
Recommended for: Fans of Kristin Cashore
Received ARC copy through NetGalley.

Back-cover summary:
Alexa Hollen is a fighter. Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alex uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alex, who is virtually unbeatable, can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory.

The longer Alex is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets. And suddenly, after her own secret is revealed, Alex finds herself confronted with two men vying for her heart: the safe and steady Rylan, who has always cared for her, and the dark, intriguing Damian. With hidden foes lurking around every corner, is Alex strong enough to save herself and the kingdom she's sworn to protect?

My review:
Book reviewers seem to be having a field day skewering this one, and while thinking about what to write for this review, I have to admit that it’s easy to come up with things to criticize. However, despite my slight predisposition to dislike this novel and its very apparent flaws, I still found myself enjoying it. There’s plenty of action, and Alexa and Damian are characters that I wanted to cheer for. It’s probably better for potential readers to skip all the overanalysis and criticism and just dive into the book.

There are two criticisms that keep my rating of this book from being higher. The first is the love triangle. I don’t understand why it was included because it is the lamest love triangle ever. It doesn’t destroy the book or anything, but it just feels unnecessary. However, I’m seeing that there is a sequel planned, and I suspect that the triangle will be drawn out further in that book. That’s too bad. I think Defy was good as a standalone novel, and I don’t think adding more to the saga will improve it.

That takes me to the second criticism – usually the reason why fantasy series work well is because the world is built up so well that you want to see more out of it. Well, this world is not built well. There’s not a whole lot of background on the history, politics, races, etc. of this world. It’s forgivable for a light YA read, but it makes some of the aspects not hit as hard as they could. I think this is also why the “breeding houses” seem like such a harsh and random inclusion.

Many people seem to expect Defy to be some sort of feminism poster child, but I disagree. Alexa is a teenage girl and acts like one. So she has silly thoughts about boys. I don’t feel like that takes away from her actions and experiences. In fact, it’s probably more realistic and relatable that she has these struggles in her mind while trying to save the world.

I haven’t been the best blogger lately, but it’s a new year, and maybe I’ll actually post more! Jenni, Sandy, and I went to Disneyland over MLK Jr. weekend to run the inaugural Tinker Bell 10k. Sandy wanted her first event to be a Disney one, and we were all ready to sign up for the half marathon when we saw that they added a 10k option. Still a great shirt and medal, a cheaper event, a shorter distance to run, and a higher percentage of the run inside the parks. It made perfect sense!

 
Paradise Pier at night

After our arrival in Los Angeles and a quick stop at In-n-Out, we headed for packet pickup. The whole process was pretty easy and we had our shirts and bibs in no time. We checked out the merch section, but it was crowded and most of the items were for the half marathon, so none of us got anything. Maybe I’ve been spoiled with the other runs I’ve done, but I’m used to getting a lot more free stuff in my bag and at the expo, but that wasn’t the case with this event.

Left: People waiting in the corral for the run to start
Right: Characters in the park for pictures

After packet pickup, we spent an eventful day in the California Adventure park, ending the evening with World of Color. Since we were there too late to get Fastpasses, we did the lunch dining package at the Wine Country Trattoria to get preferred section passes for the show. The food wasn’t spectacular (it was edible), but it was definitely worth it. We managed to get the rides in that we wanted: Soarin’ Over California, Radiator Springs Racers, Toy Story Midway Mania, and California Screamin’ (twice). Also caught the Aladdin show, which had great singers and was a lot of fun. We did the Ariel ride when we were nearby, and we ended up stopped for awhile (probably because someone needed extra time to load or unload) at Ursula, who kept singing “Pour Unfortunate Souls.” From that point on, anytime we got stopped at a ride, we’d start singing that as well. The lines for World of Color formed way before they were supposed to, but we still managed to squeeze in some space in the very front. I also discovered that you’re allowed to buy alcohol and drink it anywhere in the park. The World of Color show was really amazing, but it did stop in the middle with technical difficulties (poor unfortunate souls…). I loved the lighting effects, the fountains, all the Disney characters, etc. We didn’t get wet, but I can see how people would if there was even the slightest bit of rain.

Right: Photo ops at the castle
Left: Running past the Tower of Terror

The next day, we were up bright and early to make the 6am start time. We started in Corral B, crossing the start line almost 10 minutes after the clock started. It was a lot of fun running through the parks because there was so much to see! We got to run through areas that were typically behind-the-scenes, and crew members were standing outside the buildings and cheering us on. There were some character photo ops (which we didn’t stop for because we wanted to make sure we’d finish before they started sweeping) and they had a few of the rides turned on. And of course all the costumes that people were wearing were fun to see as well. I think next time, we’ll try to coordinate some costumes as well.

Left: Running as the sun rises
Right: Inaugural medal and shirt

The last part of the run was outside of the park. We even passed by our hotel, and it was tempting to run back to bed! But we made it to the finish line with one final sprint and got our fancy inaugural medals! The medals are pretty and solid, and I noted that if Disney sold them in stores, they’d probably cost almost $50, so maybe that helps justify the steep race cost. We wore them proudly around the park for the first part of the day, and a few people asked us about them. The half marathon medal is really cute as well, but I’m glad we did the 10k this year because both the shirt and medal say “inaugural” on them. We also got a bottle of water (worth $3 inside the park… hah!) and a small box of snack food (which we took into the park later). Again, I’m used to there being more freebies at the finish line, but oh well… There wasn’t anything else to do, so we headed back to the hotel to shower.

Left: Monte Cristo sandwich from Café Orleans
Right: Desserts from Wine Country Trattoria

We made it to Disneyland not long after the park opened and quickly got in two rides at Space Mountain, Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Indiana Jones. We stuffed ourselves with fried chicken and mashed potatoes at Plaza Inn, grabbed Fastpasses for Indiana Jones for the evening, then went back to the hotel for NAP TIME. After two days in a row of waking up around 5am, all of us were exhausted. When we returned in the afternoon, the park was noticeably more crowded, but we still got quite a lot in: Haunted Mansion, two rides at Matterhorn (one on each side), Buzz Lightyear, and Winnie the Pooh (which seemed more like Pooh on acid). The line finally got short enough for It’s a Small World for us to ride it, but near the end, the ride stopped for quite a long time. Unfortunately, this version of the Small World ride is a Small World + Christmas ride, so we had to listen to Deck the Halls and It’s a Small World over and over and over until we were about to go crazy (poor unfortunate souls). Dinner was at Café Orleans, which was very tasty. I got a bowl of gumbo and a salad for a very reasonable price – something that doesn’t usually happen at Disney! We stumbled upon the fireworks (and a very nice viewing spot for the fireworks) by accident, so we got to watch most of the show, which featured Tinkerbell and many of the rides in the park. For our last ride, we stood in the long line for Peter Pan (still 30 minutes at 11pm!) and enjoyed our short flight through Neverland.

Me in front of the castle!

We didn’t do a Disney day on Sunday and slept in instead. Had a brief panic moment when the car wouldn’t start, but we got some jumper cables from the hotel and the guy parked next to us gave us a jump start, so we were good to go. We did continue the Disney theme by seeing Frozen, which we loved. Sandy promptly got the “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” song stuck in her head, but she only knew the first line, so she sang that over and over again. I think it’s been awhile since a Disney song has been so catchy!

Great weekend, and maybe we’ll repeat this (with a longer distance) next year!

Distance: 8 miles
Elevation gain: 2265 feet

Here’s the beginning of my catch-up trip reports for the summer, beginning with three hikes from the Canadian Rockies. I was pretty bad about completing my trip reports for my two trips last year (did I really not post any? Looks like I’m further behind than I thought!). For now, I’m starting with the last hike of the trip because it was also the last hike I did (and did not write about) on my previous trip.

A lot of the hikes I do sell themselves pretty well through pictures. Iceline is not one of them. Last year when I was doing my hike research, I noticed that many people raved about Iceline. But when I looked at photos, I saw this barren wasteland with big chunks of ice and thought, "Seriously?!" On my Cirque Peak hike, I talked to a couple who had been going hiking in the area for many years, and they said Iceline was their favorite. So on my last day in town, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. It didn’t end up being my favorite, but I did like it a lot, especially for its uniqueness. On this trip, having already done a summit hike and a lake hike, Mike and I settled on Iceline for the last day.

 
left: Takkakaw Falls, right: moraine and interesting imprints in the rock

There are different trailheads that can be used to access this hike. We chose probably the most popular one, at the Whiskyjack Hostel. Many people park along the road, but we parked in the nearby Takkakaw Falls lot for a closer look at the massive falls before walking to the real trailhead. The falls are a popular drive-up destination.

 
left: paintbrush, right: trail sign with many options

People who love the Rockies tend to be mountain and glacier people, not forest people. A lot of trails in Washington will sit in the forest, maybe next to a babbling creek, for about two miles before starting the serious climbing. In Banff and Yoho, the beginning of the hike is switchback after switchback until you’re over the treeline. Fortunately, on this hike, there are views of Takkakaw Falls and surrounding mountains to look at as you go upwards (and Daly Glacier, which feeds the falls, quickly comes into view).

Emerald Glacier, waterfalls, tarn

Finally, the elevation gain calms down when you hit a moraine. (A moraine is an area of debris left behind by a glacier – in this case, the entire trail is moraine) Here, the Presidential Range is right next to the trail, the glaciers are practically at trail level, and the name Iceline makes sense. It’s impossible to convey the scale and presence of these things from pictures. From a distance or from pictures, all of the debris looks pretty boring. But there’s a lot to see up close. There’s actually quite a variety of rocks, and some of it had interesting imprints. (The Burgess Shale, one of the greatest fossil fields in the world, is located in Yoho National Park.) And even though the moraine looks all rocky and barren, some flowers still manage to grow up there.

Yoho Valley, mountains (more detail)

One reason the Iceline isn’t a typical trail is that there is no destination. Not only is there no single standout sight, there isn’t even an obvious end. You can just keep on walking. The trail forks early on to head over to Yoho Pass and Emerald Lake, then forks later on to go to Lake Celeste and Laughing Falls. There are options to continue on into Little Yoho Valley and the Whaleback, and there’s even a backcountry hut out there for people to stay overnight. But most dayhikers do what we did – walk until it’s time to turn around. It seems like each section of the trail is separated by a small ridge, and when you climb over it, there’s a new surprise to see: waterfalls, a tarn, a view of a new mountain, etc.

Ground squirrel, waterfalls, panoramic views

I was surprised by how many people were hiking the trail this time (there weren’t nearly as many last year in early September). However, since there’s so much open space, it didn’t feel crowded. Hopefully this is a convincing description of the hike that makes it sound more interesting than barren wasteland! More to follow.

…NOT. People always think that rain is the worst part about Seattle weather, but it’s not true. Lack of sunlight is the worst part. During daylight hours, we already get a measly amount of sunlight coming through the thick layer of clouds that blankets the sky from October until June. It’s just rubbing salt in the wound to see complete darkness when we leave work each day. So while I was happy to get an extra hour of sleep today, I am more unhappy about this:

Oh well.

Snow and low temperatures in the mountains also means I’m done hiking for the year. I’ve been pretty behind on my blog entries, but I’ll have some catch up trip reports coming soon.

In other news, I finally got a new camera! The Canon EOS M dropped low enough in price to make it worth buying. I might regret it once I see all the Black Friday deals, but I didn’t want to wait that long because I need to figure out how to use the camera properly before my trip in December. Sadly, I didn’t get the camera before my last hike, so instead, I’ve been practicing on my cat, who hates it.

He’s an attractive subject to photograph, though! And trickier than hiking scenery because he doesn’t want to stay still.

Yeah, I guess this was just an excuse to post cat pictures. More content coming up soon!