'Once Upon a Time in Canada' Chapter 73.

I think I had the worst time at a sports game. Having travelled a long way through the God damn freezing cold, I didn’t have the greatest time like I would at any other sports game. Today I finally had the chance to go and see a football game between Toronto FC and CAI Panama, based on my brother’s suggestion. I was freezing my ass off and had to buy two cups of hot chocolate from the stadium food stand to keep myself from becoming an ice block. Compared to the other stadiums and games I’ve been to, this was the one that has put me off of attending football games set in an outdoor stadium for a long while. Thanks a lot, Leo!

The cold was particularly bad. It usually was during this time. But it was especially bad since a snowstorm hit the next day. If that was the case and if I had known, I would have just stayed home instead of agreeing to go to the game. I should have known. If that night was going to be that cold, I should have just stayed at home in bed and just watch whatever was on Netflix until 2am in the morning. Once the game had reached its end that left me in a terrible mood as not only did it end in a tie, but also I just wasted two hours sitting in the freezing cold to the point where I thought I was going to freeze to death. Again, thanks a lot, Leo!

If the game hadn’t ended the way it did, and if the night weren’t so God damn cold, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. As it is, turning out the way it did, I wasn’t the happiest person in that stadium. I made my way back home fuming with boiling anger to the point where I wanted to choke my brother the way Homer would choke Bart whenever Bart did or said something that pissed off Homer. I don’t know when I’ll end up going to another football game and/or back to that stadium again. But one thing’s for sure: I won’t be attending another game like that for a LONG while. The cold. That will definitely be the death of me if I stay here and don’t get used to the climate. If I don’t, I’ll definitely live a short life here. And I still have a lot to do while I’m here. Sheesh!

Also, see Chapters 72 and 74.

Film Review: "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" (2019).

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is Their Final Quest. This computer-animated action fantasy film written and directed by Dean DeBlois, loosely based on the book series of the same name by Cressida Cowell, and produced by DreamWorks Animation. It is the sequel to How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and the final installment in the How to Train Your Dragon film trilogy. What began as an unlikely friendship between an adolescent Viking and a fearsome Night Fury dragon has become an epic adventure spanning their lives. Now chief and ruler of Berk alongside Astrid, Hiccup has created a gloriously chaotic dragon utopia. When the sudden appearance of female Light Fury coincides with the darkest threat their village has ever faced, Hiccup and Toothless must leave the only home they’ve known and journey to a hidden world thought only to exist in myth. As their true destines are revealed, dragon and rider will fight together—to the very ends of the Earth—to protect everything they’ve grown to treasure.

In December 2010, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that there would also be a third film in the series. DeBlois said in an interview that the third part will be released in 2016. Although the series has taken a different path of telling a story of Hiccup and Vikings, Cowell has revealed that the trilogy and the book series will have similar endings, with "an explanation as to why dragons are no more." By mid November 2017, Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen Wiig, Kit Harington, and Cate Blanchett returned, with F. Murray Abraham joining the cast. T.J. Miller was replaced with Justin Rupple as Tuffnut, due to Miller's destructive behavior making headlines in mid-2018. During the earlier stages of production, DeBlois stated that Djimon Hounsou would also return as Drago Bludvist. It was even planned to have Drago redeemed by the film's end, but halfway through development, his inclusion was ultimately scrapped. In mid April 2018, DreamWorks Animation announced that the sequel's title would be entitled How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. The movie was previously set to release on June 29, 2018, but it was then moved to May 18, 2018 due to The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019). However due to Universal acquiring DreamWorks, the film was then moved to March 1, 2019. Ultimately it was once again moved up to February 22, 2019.

The film stars the voice talents of Baruchel, Butler, Ferguson, Ferrera, Hill, Mintz-Plasse, Rupple, Wiig, Harington, Blanchett, and Abraham. The cast gave performances that were just as entertaining as always, but seemed to be incredibly poignant more so this time round as their story comes to a close.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World offers a fun-filled, action-packed conclusion to DreamWorks' endearing animated series. Visually speaking it's all quite impressive, but the storyline fulfils its prophecies enough dramatically speaking. One of those very rare animated features that completely justifies its 3D glasses.

Simon says How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World receives:

Also, see my review for How to Train Your Dragon 2 and The Boss Baby.

'Once Upon a Time in Canada' Chapter 72.

Almost everything never went as planned today. No moments without hiccups until the big event for the day. I can’t say exactly if the day turned out great or terrible, more or less it fundamentally turned out good. The ideal "good day" can only go so far. I had to come to peace with this thought as I left the live concert of Amadeus at the Sony Centre of Performing Arts.

Then, afterwards, I had a quick, late night dinner with Michael. It was rather late; I shouldn’t have eaten at that time of night. But I didn’t exactly have time before the concert, and, also, Michael owed me a meal. Also, have I mentioned that I have to do chores since I no longer live in my family home? If I were still back in New Zealand, I wouldn’t have to lift a finger to do much. Because most of the stuff would be done by either my mother and/or my father.

I bring it up because this what you’ll have to do when you’re living on your own, especially when you’re millions of miles away from your family. I had to take care of groceries, as well as cooking and cleaning when I woke up to start my day. But it was especially packed when I forgot to do groceries the day before and had other things to do on top of my chores. So I had quite the day before I had fun at the concert.

It’s probably less dramatic than what I make it out to be, come to think of it in retrospect. Who knows, maybe it was a tough day or maybe I just lack the will to implement organizational skills when it comes to simple personal errands. And if it ends up being the latter and I’ve truly lived rather sheltered, then I don’t how I’ve survived for this long.

Also, see Chapters 71 and 73.

'Once Upon a Time in Canada' Chapter 71.

It took all day, but I think I got all the photos I needed. I needed to make sure that I got as many as I could so that I didn’t have to come back. One of the reasons being that it was event with too many people, and I’m not the biggest fan of attending an event or place teaming with people. And the only way to avoid it was to do it as much I could in one day.

The 2019 Canadian International Auto Show was another photography opportunity to add to my new Instagram account (otherwise known as my new photography portfolio) and it didn’t disappoint. A perfect opportunity to get out of the house and further hone my photography skills, just like I would with any opportunity such as this. My new camera did not have the opportunity to shoot last year’s show. So I figured, why not take it for a spin for this year’s show? I can have another opportunity to test out the 6D. So that’s what I did. When I got my stuff ready for the day, I made sure to be ready. Just in case I had any hiccups as the day went on.

First, Michael, James, Jason, and I made our way through security and the entrance. We had to be careful; we didn’t want to have any trouble getting in. Its security is pretty tight. We went through just fine, and the whole place was jammed packed. I took out my camera out of my bag, and then started to take photos right away. When the day was over, the camera was put away back into the bag. For the event, I ended up taking hundreds of photos. How much of which ended up being unusable once I got to edit them? It was nearly half. That provided me with enough shots to add to my Instagram.

Also, see Chapters 70 and 72.

'Once Upon a Time in Canada' Chapter 70.

"I think I can make this work", I thought. I was on the edge of freezing to death. I didn’t know exactly how cold it was. But it wasn’t getting better or going away anytime soon, and that’s something I had to deal with. I didn’t have to wonder about when it’ll end. It was never going to. The cold is just freezing wind filling the night air; it’s kind of dangerous to vulnerable people. All I can think of, other than taking photos, is to get inside and have some food as soon as possible. I checked the time, and it was still a bit of time until the photography meetup group would rendezvous and head indoors.

I need to take as many photos as I can so that I didn’t have to go back outside to take it again. I use all the power my camera can muster in the cold to take photos (when I stop in front of places/objects I wanted to capture). If I end up with, at least, a hundred photos or so by the end of night, I should be more than fine. I would have enough to upload onto my blog and Instagram even if I only end up with a dozen or more photos by the end. That’s the best-case scenario. But really, it was kind of hard to tell how it would go at that point. It could all go to shit.

The more I leave the camera on, and power I use, the shorter the time I could have to take as many as I wanted. With the cold climate, I dedicated some of my attention on the camera to make sure it didn’t die on me in the middle of the shoot. So right now, at 3bars, I was perfectly fine, just as I had hoped. It’s okay to lose a little bit of battery power. I have plenty of time, but I can’t let myself get too carried away in the cold, and have the camera on for too long or I’ll be in trouble. At the very least, I need to take as many as I can and as fast as I can before I’m in trouble. If I can move around faster, I can manoeuvre from display to display without the camera failing on me. So I need to find a way to move faster through the crowd to the next display.

I can do that by moving as fast as possible after I’ve gotten the shots I wanted/needed. All I have to do is make sure I’ve gotten the shots first of all. Then I can move as fast as possible to the next display. The displays are close by to one another. They were just a few kilometres apart. So when I worked my way from one to another, I just needed to make my way and just take capture them as best and as many as I could. I wanted to move speedily to the next display, and in however much time and capacity I had. In the end, I did it, with still a lot of battery power to spare. After the shoot, we wrapped up for the night and made our way to the nearest pub, and had a nice warm meal in the nice, warm indoors. Thank God! Since I had spent much of my evening in the freezing cold, I was more than relieved to be in the warm indoors. I might as well enjoy with a nice, warm dinner and drink.

Also, see Chapters 69 and 71.