Olive Garden: Cookie-cutter Chain Restaurant or Fabulous Casual Eating Experience?

The chain restaurant gives the average person certain perks. One always knows what to expect when walking into a familiar chain restaurant even if he/she happens to be across country or perhaps even out of the country. The décor is the same. The atmosphere is the same. The food is the same. The uniforms are the same. It’s safe and cozy.

While this can seem monotonous to some, when traveling in a new and different place, it always feels reassuring to find somewhere familiar and comforting. However, some restaurant chains take this overboard and make them so familiar you don’t even have to open your eyes to find the bathroom.

Olive Garden handles the chain restaurant niche very well. Many of their locations have differing floor plans and buildings, although they do keep the same kinds of decorations so it feels like you are still in their domain but just simply in a different wing of the Olive Garden mansion. This effect is also enhanced by the employees who all wear the same uniform but look different and have different personalities.

The menu is one thing that doesn’t change across the different locations. This ensures that you will always have your favorite dish at any Olive Garden you may visit. And since the menu itself is so large, it will still offer a variety of tastes if you are looking for something different.

Olive Garden is the average-Joe's paradise. It offers just the right amount of high class (napkins you actually have to wash and servers with ties) with the right amount of middle class casual (you don’t have to dress up to get in and you can slurp on your pasta an no one will give you a dirty look). And, of course, their creamy sauces and chewy pastas always fill you up and keep you coming back.

The Last Airbender

The Last Airbender as an M. Night Shyamalan film

This new movie is inspired by the popular Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon seen on Nickelodeon. While the cartoon focuses more on the character development and their relationships, this movie couldn't do all of that and get the plot in at the same time, despite the fact that they only focused on one book (which I think is the equivalent of the first season from the cartoon). So while the movie was definitely not as funny as the cartoons, it does have many other perks.

The casting was awesome. The actors they got for Aang and Katara are spot on. Aang is a young boy who manages to look wise and experienced at the same time. It reminded me of the princess from The NeverEnding Story. And Katara is just super cute.

Sokka was played by none other than Jasper from the Twilight series. It was really interesting seeing him in a speaking role although he does go more in the background as the movie progresses. He actually looked similar to the cartoon character he was supposed to play but he was a little bit too old and it really showed when him and his sister were standing side by side. Prince Zuko's actor could have never been perfect for me no matter who they chose since his cartoon voice is done by Rufio from Hook. I loved that dude so much that there was no way they could replace him and they couldn't get him because he was too old. :/

All in all, the cast was great.

The special effects of this movie are AWESOME. I've always loved the idea of the four elements, despite the fact that many people feel they are overdone. I just love how they play together and this movie really captures the heart and soul of these elements while embodied by humans. The special effects of the movie take the front seat and it feels just a little bit like the filmmakers were just seeing what they could do with their computer toys- kind of like Avatar did. Yet they keep just enough humanity and dialogue and intrigue that it isn't as bad.

I felt like I was apart of this different world and I enjoyed getting to escape from my own for a little while. It was definitely a well-spent afternoon.

Eclipse

The strongest reason why there are movie giants and creations (because the words "series" or "films" are too inadequate) is their great ability to yank us out of our own real lives into a complete world where things happen, where characters connect and make choices in the face of danger which we can only dream of. We end up spending hours with these fictional people but they become our friends, our sole attention for the time we spend with them. They become our world and it is all we can do to not cry as we say goodbye and part ways. Luckily, the structures of our friendships are such that on a day we are feeling particularly lonely, all we have to do is crack open that book again.

Eclipse finally caught most of the essence from Stephenie Meyer's creation. Us as fans have been waiting for them to get it right and yet while the first two attempts were not short of failures, we still supported and loved them anyway. Now they are getting it. This film was phenomenal in so many indescribable ways. They finally put in more from the other vampires and some of their back stories. They finally gave us an Alice who loves to party and plan and yet who has a mysterious edge to her. They finally gave us action and power that we knew should have been there all along. And Kristen Stewart finally quit biting her lip and acting so unsure of her role, of what strength and love Bella really had.

While the very makeup of a movie dictates that it cannot be completely the same as a novel, and while this one did have its inconsistencies as all novel adoptions into movies do, it was so much closer to what we needed. What we as fans wanted.

In short: this is film was amazing. And I can't help but feel, as a potential creator, dwarfed by this epic story of real people who just happen to not exist.

The bar has been set and it is very high.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Joss Whedon

Alright, this show was hot when I was in middle school and high school. I never got into it and only had vague notions about what was in it. Then I got Netflix and ran out of other shows to watch so I jumped into this one. Little did I know, it was a seven seasons long series and took me a little over two and half months to completely watch. But by the time I was done with it, I felt completely satisfied with the length of the series.

That being said, it's really difficult to keep this post short with so much material to work from. Overall, I haven't watched much of Joss Whedon's other stuff but through this series, I've come to really appreciate his talent as a writer. In a series like this, you know money is a motivating factor and trying to keep the show and the actors interesting can be a hard job for the writer but Whedon pulled it off excellently. He often had moments where I was thinking what was going on was all for ratings and then he'd pull out this awesome plot move that tied it all together (ex: Dawn as Buffy's sister). It takes lots of skill to work around ratings and the actual integrity of the show at the same time.

The actors overall were decent, though I definitely had a love-hate relationship with Sarah Gellar as Buffy and David Boreanaz as Angel. Her nose bugged me a lot sometimes and other times I thought she was cute. And David's acting skills are very good but his forehead is just so reminiscent of a cave man I can't help but be reminded of Geico. :( Willow was great and so was Xander. But you know who was the best? Yea... Spike. He will always hold a soft place in my heart.

As a huge fan of the paranormal, I really loved the subject matter of this series and how it almost made these kinds of things mainstream. I'm certain that it helped Stephenie Meyer's expansion into popular culture as a vampire writer. And I loved how Whedon could make fun of himself as there seemed to be a never ending pile of impending apocalypse doom and the characters had jokes about it.

I do recommend this series to anyone. Although my friends of the Mormon variety may find some uncomfortable moments, I do challenge them to look beyond the issue and into the interesting facets of the characters.

I feel like this post is lamely too short for the goodness I partook of but let me just finish that I've spent so much time with these characters that I actually feel like they are my friends.

Oh, and Felicia Day shows up in the last season. She's not as hot as she is now but I can still appreciate just seeing her cute face. XD

WoW: Intro and Character Creation

World of Warcraft

This section is going to be all about my favorite game. Since I love it so much and it’s such a HUGE thing, I’m planning on reviewing quite a few different aspects of the game. For starters I’ll definitely go over character creation/design, layout, social aspects, some linguistics specific to the game, and some gear/stat elements. Be prepared because although I love to compare good and the bad, I’m going to be very biased.

I’ve played this game for five or so years, off and on, and have met some really awesome people and had some hilarious moments. However, I have also seen it and games like it, that hurt families and relationships. Like all things: take it in moderation!

Character Creation

I’ve been around the gaming block a little bit and being a writer, I absolutely love character creation. That’s my favorite part of starting a new game or a new story.

To be honest, WoW has a terrible character creation system. It’s not as bad as Diablo II where you only have five or so characters to choose from and they are gender specific. So if you want play a warrior, it has to be a boy or the wizard is always a girl and they always look the same. Compared to that, it’s nice. But compare it to City of Heroes or Soul Calibur 4. It is atrocious.

There are only a few different types of hair, a few different colors, and depending on the race, different markings, horns, earnings, or patches of missing skin. Since my primary character is a Night Elf, we’ll use this as an example.

There is only one hair style that I like from the original batch. In the last year, they have allowed characters to change their hair style and that has been awesome. Before that, what you picked in haste to play the game, was what you had for life. My first choice was a ponytail that I absolutely grew to detest. I celebrated the day I could take my toon to the barber and get something done about it.

With this ability, they also put out a few more hairstyles that can only be attained by going to the barber. Initially, I didn’t really like many of them, but it might have been because I already had a hairstyle in mind. I got the one I had been dreaming about for years, only to run around for a while and realize that every. single. night. elf. chick. had the stupid hair. For most of us women, that bugs when we have the same looks as someone else. In one instance, I had the same hair, facial markings, and hair color as another person and that just drove me off the edge to going to get (another) complete makeover.

Much to my dismay, the hairstyles all seemed to be ugly. They were cut weird, or too bushy, or too pulled back or too something. I probably spend an hour and at least 40 gold sitting there trying to figure out what I could spend my time staring at. Finally, I had to pick the hairstyle my sister already had. It isn’t very popular and made sure it was a different color from hers, but it was cute enough to stare at for hours.

WoW does have a lot of races (and more to come) to choose from and that freedom is nice. But that does not make up for the lack of choice when actually creating a character. Added to the hairstyle conundrum is the gear sets. As you are leveling, there are lots of different armor that makes you seem unique but once you hit 80 and start getting Tier armor, you start to be clones of each other. It’s no good.

For those persons who don’t care if they look the same as everyone else, then the character creation might suit them. For us other picky people, it’s annoying, especially after the awesome, seemingly limitless creations of City of Heroes and Soul Calibur 4.

For those of you who haven’t played these games, I’ll explain City of Heroes a bit. Also note, it’s been a few years since I’ve played so the exact details maybe a little off.

You get to pick the class and then a sub class. So just right there there are like 24 different combinations. Then the characters themselves: height on a scale from tiny to huge, weight from skinny to obese, tons of different hair styles available in any color of the rainbow. The armor has, as far as I can remember, I think like seven different categories and each category has 3 to probably 20 different types of belts or shoulders or shirts. I simply cannot do it justice in a short amount of time. Suffice it to say that the possibilities are limitless and the odds of someone looking even close to you are very slim.

The character creation of WoW is it’s biggest weakness, and although they have made some steps in the right direction, there is still a long ways to go.

House M.D.

Well, if you know me at all, you know I love House. I thought I’d just give voice to a few specific reasons why I love to watch this show.

I’m a strong believer in being able to say what you are thinking without being stoned for it or getting weird looks. Of course this is within reason as I don’t go around telling people rude opinions that aren’t important for them to know. However, people should be able to say what they think and feel about certain situations. If you think your friend isn’t dating someone good enough for them you should be able to tell them. Dancing around with words and trying to be all flattering and fake all the time is just retarded. That being said, I absolutely love how honest House can be. He is overly rude and I probably wouldn’t appreciate being around him in person but I love watching him in a safe setting far away on TV. His truths are very real and can therefore be brutal but sometimes they are essential and important for the patients/coworkers to hear. House helps define the other characters by being honest with them and not letting any secrets stay hidden.

Another aspect about this show I love is the hidden psychology behind everything everyone does. Peopledo have motives and schemes in their heads and it’s just naive to think otherwise. I’d love to be able to be as perceptive as House is but we all know that he reads a script and has an upper hand in that the writer tells him what to think and know about other people. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the awesomeness of his character and I still wish I could do that in real life.

One weakness I will admit is that the plot of every episode, as far as the patients are concerned, is the same. He always has this “aha!” moment that you can clearly see on his face as he is talking to someone else about something in the subplot that is going on. That being said, I still love it and joke around when he has that moment but we all know that the patients aren’t the real reason we love and watch this show. It’s about the characters and their interactions with each other.

In this last season there was an episode all about Cuddy. She had an absolutely horrible day starting with her child being sick in the morning and it just spiraled down hill from there. I loved this episode because it mixed up the general same plot type that we always see and also gave a whole new spin on the characters. We didn’t see much of Dr. House the whole time but when we did, he wasn’t that awesome character that we love. He was an awful annoyance that made you cringe when he walked into the office. It gave me a whole new perspective and appreciation for Cuddy. She is an amazing giving and caring woman who is smart and knows what’s right. That hospital is lucky to have her.

And you know it is true: everyone lies.

Bones

I had heard that this was a good show and that I know quite a few people who watch it on a regular basis so when I saw it on Netflix, I decided to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, all the hype hurt the experience for me. I expected to be laughing all the time and marveling and the genius and witty writing. It was a let down to find otherwise. The plots are interesting, although there are some very gruesome scenes and shots. Don’t watch this show if you are sqeamish, and even if you aren’t, I don’t recommend eating while watching.

However, despite this disappointment, I have still continued to watch it. The character interactions are the strongest part of this show, and not just the interactions of the main characters but of the supporting cast as well. The main character, Dr. Brennan, often reminds me of House because of how smart she is and how she always seems to solve the situation.

I can’t address this show without pointing out Agent Booth, who happens to be Angel from Buffy. I have never ever found this man attractive and his large, overbearing forehead has always channeled an ugly caveman look. So it comes as a surprise when I find something about him that I like or feel any sort of small attraction for him, which happens more than I expected.

All in all, I’ll probably end up watching the whole first season, testing the waters to see if I fall in love with it as some other people have, or maybe I’ll quit when I find another interesting show to take its place.