Doing Fun Stuff Instead of Studying

If you remember from my whale watching blog post, I stated that when I climbed the Harbour Bridge, I got tickets to go to the Pylon Lookout. Every climber gets a free entry into the lookout, which is only about $13 anyway ($8.50 for concession), but it expires in one month, so my mum and I went on the Saturday before my exams because that was the only time we could.

It's a pretty good view for $14, let alone for free, but obviously it doesn't compare to the bridge climb. It's still good though, because you're at 89 metres above sea level, which is the same height as about 1/4 of the way up the Harbour Bridge's upper arch. Obviously the upside here is that you can spend as long as you want and take your own photos.

There's quite a lot of stairs, I think off memory about 200 of them, but they're interspersed with various mementos and items for you to look at, so it's not that boring or tiring really.

After you get to the reception, once you go up one flight of stairs, they have this little thing set up for you to take a photo on, and it looks like an old-timey photo of you chillin' on the bridge.

Then when you get to the top there are a bunch of facts inside before you actually go to the lookout.

Unfortunately it was super super windy that day (I had to hold down my skirt even on ground level, let alone all the way up there), but it was still very enjoyable.

Some fun facts:
Sixteen men died when building the bridge (I'd imagine this is quite low for the number of deaths, considering men worked without harnesses or safety rails). Eight were iron workers, one was a carpenter, one a painter, two were quarrymen and four were labourers. Only two fell from the arch.

BridgeClimb started on the 1st of October, 1998, and had reached 1 million climbers on the 14th April 2003.

It required 272,000 litres of paint to give the bridge it's initial three coats.

Another fun thing I did was a market research taste test!

I pretty much got paid $50 for tasting 6 different types of dips - 3 guacamole and 3 salsa. It was pretty interesting; it was my first ever taste test. I always do surveys but I could never get through to actually being a participant until now.

It was also super professional, like you sit at a little cubicle so you can't see anything, and there's door/hatch thing in front of you that you slide up/down for them to slide the samples to you.

It was for a brand called Obela, as they're trialling guacamole and salsa products now, and I must say that the classic guacamole (with no spices) was sooo delicious. I ticked all the good options for that one on the survey.

I also checked out their website and I see that they specialise in hummus, so I went and bought some for dips for my brother's birthday party. The smooth classic hummus is quite nice, but the roasted garlic one looks really weird (it's not yet opened).

So anyway that was fun, and not a bad way to earn some cash while you're at it. The leading market research companies (at least I think they're leading? I dunno, they're just the ones I'm registered to) are Farron Research and Realtime Research if you want to sign up.


Movies!

The Amazing Spiderman (2012)

7.1/10 on IMDb
73% on Rotten Tomatoes
I remember when the trailer for this first came out and I was just like, "Why are they doing a reboot of this? Spiderman 3 was VERY recent! And why are they getting the guy from The Social Network?"

But despite that, this was actually really good. I can't remember too much because I've been waiting to watch The Amazing Spiderman 2 to do this review, but I remember liking Andrew Garfield and thinking he was a better Spiderman than Tobey Maguire (and let's face it, who wouldn't think that after being traumatised by Tobey's crying face and also his dancing scenes in the third movie?).

I liked how they added in Peter Parker's father's role (although I found it funny how his name was Richard, because of Richard Parker the Bengal Tiger from Life of Pi), as well as Spiderman's character development as a result of this. I also like the web shooter development just as something that's a little different.

Andrew Garfield's portrayal of Spiderman seems really arrogant though; like when he is swinging or even just talking it seems so over-the-top. I know that his character IS meant to be arrogant, but it was a bit off-putting. Although I don't particularly remember if Tobey Maguire's portrayal of him was arrogant too so I can't really compare.

But my favourite part of the movie, and I think many agree, would be the one where Stan Lee makes a cameo in the school library.

So in comparison to the original Spiderman trilogy, it was still very enjoyable.


The Amazing Spiderman 2: Rise of Electro (2014)

7.0/10 on IMDb
53% on Rotten Tomatoes

So if the first Amazing Spiderman was enjoyable, this was only alright.

I did hear some bad reviews on it but I watched it anyway, and whilst I didn't find it that bad, it wasn't that great either.

The whole movie is very emotional and very slow-paced. You get to see a lot more of Peter Parker's emotions and struggles with trying to find out what happened with his parents, as well as trying to protect Gwen and convince her that it would be best to end the relationship. It's all very sad and emotional and you really feel for him and just want to reach out and hug him.

HOWEVER, the plot was not the best. Whoever wrote the section for the villains... like I don't even know.

I really DID NOT like the actor for Harry Osborn. He looks like evil Luke Skywalker and was just super annoying. He also didn't play much of a big role in this so it was just annoying to have to see his annoying acting and then by the end of the movie not have a big justification for why he was in the film.

~SPOILER ON THE ENDING!~

In Jeremy Jahn's Spoiler Talk, he stated how it felt like Harry was just put into the plot JUST so that he could kill off Gwen Stacy. That actually seems about right and if so, that's really annoying.

Also if Peter Parker was arrogant in the first Amazing Spiderman, then he was like super super annoyingly arrogant in this one. I didn't think it was possible to be even more arrogant.

Electro as a villain was alright; Jaime Foxx did a good job of it, but I don't know... I just didn't really like the idea of him.

~SPOILER ON ELECTRO!~

How did he just materialise OUT OF NOWHERE? Like I get that he is literally just electricity at this point, but he still has organs and a brain and all that, and even if he doesn't, then how does he just materialise with the armour on? He's ELECTRICITY. Last time I checked, electricity couldn't be converted into a tangible form, let alone an actual body or a metallic armour.

~ANOTHER SPOILER ON ELECTRO!~

Why is Electro's weakness water? Doesn't water + electricity = electric shock? Isn't water an excellent conductor of electricity? That part didn't make sense to me. His weakness should be some really durable insulator, but obviously that wouldn't translate well across the screen; water looks heaps cooler.

Now with the ending, I think it should have ended a bit sooner, without the last scene. It actually reminded me a lot of The Incredibles' ending, and it also just reinstated Peter Parker's arrogance.

~ANOTHER SPOILER ON THE ENDING!~

I feel like they should have left him really upset about Gwen and then in a sequel make him go through that emotional journey and then meet Mary Jane, or even just condense it so that Gwen dies about halfway through the film so that the rest of it would be his emotional journey, instead of leading up to the death with a semi-unrelated emotional journey on his parents and then cutting out his grief at the end. This was exactly why I hated the HIMYM finale; it was too short. There was no time spent to see the character development over that long period of time.

So basically, I wouldn't re-watch this movie any time soon.