Knott's Berry Farm visit

Half an hour stuck in the traffic on Beach Boulevard to get into the parking lot, another half an hour waiting in line outside the main entrance to get in, then spent only one hour strolling in the Farm. People, people and people everywhere. It was only a Tuesday!

The Divergent Series: Insurgent (Movie, 2015)

It is similar to the "Hunger Games" series, yet still very entertaining. The novels by Veronica Roth, upon which these films are based, are also quite good. This is the second film in the "Divergent" series. The best reason for watching this movie is Shailene Woodley who delivers another fine performance and is developing into a fine young actress. 

It's a good movie but a slow start and was hard for me to get into at first, but I watched it and it was pretty good towards the end.

Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (Movie, 2015)

I feel like I was watching Star Wars: A New Hope, version 2.0. While visually stunning, we've been here before. Rey finds a message hidden in a droid containing the blueprints of the Death Star, I mean the location of where to find Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Check. Evil forces try to quash the Resistance with their mighty Death Star, I mean bigger Death Star. Check.

Visually beautiful and packed with thrilling action sequences. But you can't help but notice that almost everything about this film is derivative of the 1977 film. It doesn't take a genius to see how Rey is the new Luke, Finn is the new Han, Kylo Ren is the new Darth Vader, Snoke is the new Emperor, the new Death Star replaces the old and is destroyed in more or less exactly the same way. Blasters, light sabers, familial conflicts, dogfights, alien jazz band, aliens trying to collect money from Han, latent Jedi powers in an unknown living on a barren planet, a planet-destroying weapon. It's an old melody.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Movie, 2015)

This excellent spy actioner was adapted from the popular spy series of the 1960s. U.N.C.L.E. stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. As in the series, the story is set in the 1960s, with Solo, Kuryakin and Teller enlisted to participate in a joint mission against a mysterious criminal organization, headed up by Victoria Vinciguerra and her husband, which is working to proliferate nuclear weapons. 

This was kind of like discovering a really good vintage '60s spy thriller movie that you somehow never saw before. This film was fun, cool and stylish. 

Yali Liu's dance performance "Sing and Dance"

Went to see my long-time classmates and/or comrades of Yali Liu's dance studio at their bi-annual dance performance, Mt. Sac college. My heart is always with you even though I didn't participate as a performer. This year had a few improvements at the background scenes, program printing, 3 dancers from China, etc. In a nutshell, it was a successful and elegant gala event.

My dear teacher Yali also made me a beautiful poster as an inset which arose my fond memories of Las Vegas trip last year. It was a great milestone in my dancing career, per se. Thanks and kisses go to Yali!

Xmas center pieces