Mountainous Weekend

This is a little late it feels, but I wanted to make sure I wrote some stuff on this weekend. I had a great weekend with the great weather helped me do a bunch of stuff. I was able to get a few things done around the apartment, and then since it was so nice, I decided to take a hike in the beautiful weather. I traveled down to Beacon to hike up Mt Beacon. It was only a mile or so to the top, but they weren't kidding when they said it is one of the most strenuous 1 mile hikes. Combine that with me being out of shape and I was really huffing and puffing. The trail was pretty muddy from the melting snow and at some points, dangerously icy. I actually slipped and fell twice. The views were pretty good. I liked looking down on the Hudson and Beacon. I have to say that the actual trail wasn't the best maintained though. at several points it would split and I imagine would seemingly come together. This happened unfortunately to me coming back down. The path would split, and both would be marked red, so I would take the easier path. But coming down, I never met up again with the main trail. I actually was lost for a little bit. Nothing too scary or anything. There were still for the most parts rough paths, and I knew the general direction to head, downhill. So that is exactly what I did. I kept going until the path spit me out onto a nearby road at the base of the mountain. Using the mountain and the old cog railway as my guide, I walked along the road back to my car. I imagine the trails may get cleaned up a little more towards spring, but I was having some trouble with them. I still enjoyed getting some good exercise. The rest of the day and weekend were pretty lazy as I was able to relax and enjoy some digital entertainment. I did beat some games, and I'll most likely give my impressions in the coming days.

I did watch the movie Appaloosa. I thought this was a pretty good Western. I have to say nothing stood out incredibly good or bad, but it was some fun cowboy action. I have to say that I did not like Viggo Mortensen's facial hair. It looked way unnatural. Everyone else's looked rough and aged. His looked like he just visited the barber in every shot. I don't know, that was mainly the only thing that bothered me.

Later on Sunday, I saw Howl's Moving Castle at MCAS. Somehow I did not see it yet, so I'm glad I was able to see something new there. It was an extremely pretty anime. We watched the English dub, mainly I think for Cristian Bale as Howl and Billy Crystal as the flame. All of the voicing was done really well, which I shouldn't be too surprised since Disney always does a good job. I have to like how Cristian's voice for Howl and his transformation were exactly the same as Bruce Wayne and Batman. It was laugh out loud hilarious for me since Batman's voice was always a little comical. It was a great movie. It felt a tad too long overall, but I could have just been tired. My only gripe is how the main character's appearance and voice would change for sometimes no given reason at all. With it, sometimes it looked like the animation quality would vary as well. Overall, another great Miyazaki film.

I have to say, I hate Daylight Savings Time. Getting up is now so tiring.