DH and I watched two good movies already this weekend.
Last night we watched Seven Psychopaths. I had never heard of it, but DH had. Neither of us really knew what to expect. As it turns out. it was quite good. It had moments that had me squawking with laughter, and other moments that really got both of us thinking. It tells the story of a guy who is trying to write a screenplay about seven psychopaths. His movie intertwines with his real life and you can almost feel the direction the movie wants to take. It is the kind of movie where the characters spend a lot of time talking about it as if it is a movie. It is not for the faint of heart, as the name suggests contains significant violence, but not of the normal variety I would say.
Then, this morning while Benjamin was down for his morning nap we turned on Beasts of the Southern Wild, and so Oscar season begins! It is up for many awards, and I can see why. This tells the story of a little girl who is living with her ill father in a bayou community faced with flooding. It really got the wheels turning in my head both about America and about how we define a good life. Is a long life automatically better? Are their joys as well as miseries that our "modern conveniences" keep us from experience? Have we disconnected with reality of life and death?
Quite the good picks after last weeks disastrous viewing of Cosmopolis, which no one should bother seeing.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Monday, March 26, 2012
Reviews
This weekend I finished my first book of 2012- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I don't know what it is with me and Charles Dickens. I thought I liked him. I did not mind reading Oliver Twist and Hard Times in high school, I liked The Christmas Carol, by my last two reads by him have been disappointing. I am thinking I don't like Charles Dickens, I am just so-so about his writing. Anyways, it took me FOREVER to get through Great Expectations. I thought this was because of pregnancy brain and mommy brain, but finishing the book and looking back, I think it really was because I did not enjoy it, not even an eensy weensy bit. It wasn't horrible for the most part, until the end got really preachy. I ended up giving it 1 out of 5 stars. Pointless and preachy in the end.
I also watched a movie this weekend that I wanted to comment on - Midnight in Paris. It was nominated for best picture. I think it was really interesting. It is really about how we romanticize what has already been created and fail to see the genius in our own time, or in ourselves. I would give it 4 stars (of 5). The thing I would change about it is that there were some characters who were too blatantly unlikeable and it would have been a more clever/deeper movie if they had had more value.
I also watched a movie this weekend that I wanted to comment on - Midnight in Paris. It was nominated for best picture. I think it was really interesting. It is really about how we romanticize what has already been created and fail to see the genius in our own time, or in ourselves. I would give it 4 stars (of 5). The thing I would change about it is that there were some characters who were too blatantly unlikeable and it would have been a more clever/deeper movie if they had had more value.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night
Today was DH and my first Christmas with just us two, and probably if we are lucky our last - not because it was bad, but because we will have a child to celebrate with from now on.
We got up at our leisure. DH walked the dogs while I cooked breakfast sausages (sort of) like my Dad was doing back in Minnesota. While the sausages were baking we both wrapped presents. Then we made hot chocolate and sat down and unwrapped gifts and ate breakfast. After this was done, we looked at each other and were like "what now?". DH suggested we go to a movie, so after reading all the possibilities, we decided on The Descendants, which is "that one with George Clooney in Hawaii". So we headed down to Lennox and enjoyed the earliest showing. For the record, it was quite a good movie and I really enjoyed it. We made a bet - DH thought I would cry, I thought I would tough it out. He was right. His prize? Making me figure out where to eat. When the movie ended at like 1:30 we were both hungry so I said we should try China Dynasty. We drove over to it, and it was packed, had an hour wait, and a set menu/buffet for $30. No thank you on the wait or price. So we googled what was open but only found a list that was from 2010. We drove down through the Short North to downtown w/out finding anywhere open that was supposed to be. We figured out a lot of the places were opening later in the day, like 4pm. So, we decided to go to another movie. We went to Arena Grand and saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It was very entertaining, much better than I thought it would be, but my standards were very low. After the movie we drove to Tip Top and had dinner there, then headed home, walked the dogs, called our families and friends, and settled in for a typical evening of internet and television.
Overall it was just a really relaxing day. We enjoyed spending all the time together and just going with the flow of things. Of course it would have been nice to be with parents and siblings and such, but since that was not an option we made the best of it and had a good time.
Now if only these occasional Braxton Hicks would turn into real labor. LOL
We got up at our leisure. DH walked the dogs while I cooked breakfast sausages (sort of) like my Dad was doing back in Minnesota. While the sausages were baking we both wrapped presents. Then we made hot chocolate and sat down and unwrapped gifts and ate breakfast. After this was done, we looked at each other and were like "what now?". DH suggested we go to a movie, so after reading all the possibilities, we decided on The Descendants, which is "that one with George Clooney in Hawaii". So we headed down to Lennox and enjoyed the earliest showing. For the record, it was quite a good movie and I really enjoyed it. We made a bet - DH thought I would cry, I thought I would tough it out. He was right. His prize? Making me figure out where to eat. When the movie ended at like 1:30 we were both hungry so I said we should try China Dynasty. We drove over to it, and it was packed, had an hour wait, and a set menu/buffet for $30. No thank you on the wait or price. So we googled what was open but only found a list that was from 2010. We drove down through the Short North to downtown w/out finding anywhere open that was supposed to be. We figured out a lot of the places were opening later in the day, like 4pm. So, we decided to go to another movie. We went to Arena Grand and saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. It was very entertaining, much better than I thought it would be, but my standards were very low. After the movie we drove to Tip Top and had dinner there, then headed home, walked the dogs, called our families and friends, and settled in for a typical evening of internet and television.
Overall it was just a really relaxing day. We enjoyed spending all the time together and just going with the flow of things. Of course it would have been nice to be with parents and siblings and such, but since that was not an option we made the best of it and had a good time.
Now if only these occasional Braxton Hicks would turn into real labor. LOL
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Last Weekend
I wanted to write a lot about this past weekend, but I have been busy and have not gotten to it and now I am afraid I may not have that much left interesting to say about it. Lets see...
MOVIES: I already posted about the bad theater and mediocre movie of Friday night. Well, Saturday night we rented "Machete". You may or may not remember a series of three movies coming out a few years ago jointly called "grindhouse" that paid homage to the old B films that would go straight to certain types of theaters known for their violence etc. Well on those movies they had a bunch of fake previews, including one called "Machete". Then they actually went and made this movie. When we rented it, we were expected basically another Grindhouse movie - lots of fakey gratiuitous violence w/some outlandish plot that did not make total sense. Well, the movie had its fill of gratuitous violence, but we really were both stunned by how much plot and character development it had. It had some serious political commentary. Its plot was somewhat outlandish but ultimately made sense. Very odd outcome. In other "movie" news. I had people over at my house last night to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. It is the seventh movie. The 8th and final movie comes out tomorrow night at midnight. We also watched "Confessions of a Shopaholic" on Monday night. It was a bit painful really. I mean, it had its moments and ultimately served its role as romantic comedy, but you just wanted to smack them all sometimes. Also, we are currently debating our future with netflix. It has been announced they are drastically raising prices on their DVD service. Its more of this nonsense where they are trying to force people into streaming. The problem is while they do have 20K streaming titles, they have over 100K titles on DVD. The streaming service frequently does not have a specific movie that we want and we are annoyed they are trying to force us to use it more as if our DVD use is costing them so much money. We are mad, maybe mad enough to cancel all of our service with them. We will see what happens. We are talking about it.
SPORTS: We went to Roosters, a bar/restaraunt, both Friday and Saturday midday this weekend to watch U.S. Women's soccer in the World Cup. First, I wanted to comment that the prices at that place are great. Feels like prices from 10-15 yrs ago! What actually happened is that we went on Saturday thinking it was the U.S. vs Brazil game, but when we got there and had ordered drinks we figured out it was actually France vs England. We just stayed and watched it. It was very relaxing. The game was slow/laid back and we talked a lot. Then on Sunday we went again, same time same place, this time for the actual US vs Brazil game. Unless you live under a sport-resistant rock you probably have heard that the U.S. won in dramatic fashion. It was much more fast paced game. the refs played a bit to big of a role for comfort unfortunately. The questionable reffing on one play swung the game from the U.S. being up 1-0 to it being a 1-1 game w/U.S. playing a player down and totally demoralized by how it all occured. Luckily they have tougher resolution than I do because they actually played better down a man. Brazil did eventually score again during the first half of overtime, though upon review it should have been called offsides. Somehow, in extra time of overtime (like the 122 minute of the game), U.S. Had a beautiful beautiful cross and header goal to ties things up. So dramatic and awesome. Then the U.S. won in penalty kicks. They play France tonight. It hopefully will be on when we go for Trivia. We may hit up Roosters more often now, unless we decide to get cable again.
Car Show. We went to the "good guys" car show at the Ohio State Fairground. It rocked, but I so don't have energy to post about it Recap is we were smart to go in the morning (8-10AM) to beat the heat, and we want a late 60's Camero (for DH), a 55' Bel Aire (as a family car), and a Shelby Cobra.
MOVIES: I already posted about the bad theater and mediocre movie of Friday night. Well, Saturday night we rented "Machete". You may or may not remember a series of three movies coming out a few years ago jointly called "grindhouse" that paid homage to the old B films that would go straight to certain types of theaters known for their violence etc. Well on those movies they had a bunch of fake previews, including one called "Machete". Then they actually went and made this movie. When we rented it, we were expected basically another Grindhouse movie - lots of fakey gratiuitous violence w/some outlandish plot that did not make total sense. Well, the movie had its fill of gratuitous violence, but we really were both stunned by how much plot and character development it had. It had some serious political commentary. Its plot was somewhat outlandish but ultimately made sense. Very odd outcome. In other "movie" news. I had people over at my house last night to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I. It is the seventh movie. The 8th and final movie comes out tomorrow night at midnight. We also watched "Confessions of a Shopaholic" on Monday night. It was a bit painful really. I mean, it had its moments and ultimately served its role as romantic comedy, but you just wanted to smack them all sometimes. Also, we are currently debating our future with netflix. It has been announced they are drastically raising prices on their DVD service. Its more of this nonsense where they are trying to force people into streaming. The problem is while they do have 20K streaming titles, they have over 100K titles on DVD. The streaming service frequently does not have a specific movie that we want and we are annoyed they are trying to force us to use it more as if our DVD use is costing them so much money. We are mad, maybe mad enough to cancel all of our service with them. We will see what happens. We are talking about it.
SPORTS: We went to Roosters, a bar/restaraunt, both Friday and Saturday midday this weekend to watch U.S. Women's soccer in the World Cup. First, I wanted to comment that the prices at that place are great. Feels like prices from 10-15 yrs ago! What actually happened is that we went on Saturday thinking it was the U.S. vs Brazil game, but when we got there and had ordered drinks we figured out it was actually France vs England. We just stayed and watched it. It was very relaxing. The game was slow/laid back and we talked a lot. Then on Sunday we went again, same time same place, this time for the actual US vs Brazil game. Unless you live under a sport-resistant rock you probably have heard that the U.S. won in dramatic fashion. It was much more fast paced game. the refs played a bit to big of a role for comfort unfortunately. The questionable reffing on one play swung the game from the U.S. being up 1-0 to it being a 1-1 game w/U.S. playing a player down and totally demoralized by how it all occured. Luckily they have tougher resolution than I do because they actually played better down a man. Brazil did eventually score again during the first half of overtime, though upon review it should have been called offsides. Somehow, in extra time of overtime (like the 122 minute of the game), U.S. Had a beautiful beautiful cross and header goal to ties things up. So dramatic and awesome. Then the U.S. won in penalty kicks. They play France tonight. It hopefully will be on when we go for Trivia. We may hit up Roosters more often now, unless we decide to get cable again.
Car Show. We went to the "good guys" car show at the Ohio State Fairground. It rocked, but I so don't have energy to post about it Recap is we were smart to go in the morning (8-10AM) to beat the heat, and we want a late 60's Camero (for DH), a 55' Bel Aire (as a family car), and a Shelby Cobra.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Top Ten Reasons Not to Go to Screens a the Continent
Last night we visited Screens at the Continent, the dollar theater that is closest to our house. We will not be going back, because:
10. Lights are not on in the lobby.
9. Two people sell tickets and vending at one register at a snail pace.
8. Its hard to figure out what theater your movie is in.
7. Their concession products are highly questionable.
6. The movie reels are poor quality and they cut them off before the credits finish.
5. There is no music, ads, or even lights between the movies. You sit in the dark until it starts.
4. No one is cleaning up the theaters.
3. All of the above makes the theater creepy as hell.
2. There is something in the theater that aggravated my allergies, and I don't usually have bad allergies.
1. There is a perfectly good dollar theater at Carriage Place that is the same price and is way way way way nicer and less creepy.
The movie we went to see is Priest. It stars Paul Bettany, who for whatever reason has become a trigger/signal for me to see a movie. The movie was OK, probably 5/10, maybe 6/10 depending on my mood. The concept itself was really interesting and could have been great, the execution was not as great. Some of the acting was poor and characters were not as developed as they could have been. The movie is steampunk/vampire/dystopia. Yeah - that's a lot to combine! I will probably see the movie again sometime, or would be interested in seeing the comic books it was based on.
10. Lights are not on in the lobby.
9. Two people sell tickets and vending at one register at a snail pace.
8. Its hard to figure out what theater your movie is in.
7. Their concession products are highly questionable.
6. The movie reels are poor quality and they cut them off before the credits finish.
5. There is no music, ads, or even lights between the movies. You sit in the dark until it starts.
4. No one is cleaning up the theaters.
3. All of the above makes the theater creepy as hell.
2. There is something in the theater that aggravated my allergies, and I don't usually have bad allergies.
1. There is a perfectly good dollar theater at Carriage Place that is the same price and is way way way way nicer and less creepy.
The movie we went to see is Priest. It stars Paul Bettany, who for whatever reason has become a trigger/signal for me to see a movie. The movie was OK, probably 5/10, maybe 6/10 depending on my mood. The concept itself was really interesting and could have been great, the execution was not as great. Some of the acting was poor and characters were not as developed as they could have been. The movie is steampunk/vampire/dystopia. Yeah - that's a lot to combine! I will probably see the movie again sometime, or would be interested in seeing the comic books it was based on.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
If you are reading this, you should know by now that I am knocked up!! I know some people hate that phrase, but I find it amusing. 8 weeks, 4 days. It is still really early, but we are excited and hopeful. There are other good things going on as well for us, but I believe that should stay under the radar for a few days.
I expected to get morning sickness (or "morning" sickness), but I was not expecting the fatigue, dizziness, and shortness of breath. Its all for a good cause though, eh? The nausea is so weird. I can simultaneously be cooking/want to eat something and feel like I am going to throw up. The thought of food can make me feel ill, but the smell of food is almost always good (except perhaps Chinese food). Things that shouldn't smell bad at all make me sick (like the smell of wet paper towel?? Not dirty, just wet). I have some other symptoms as well, but they are not entirely blog appropriate. LOL.
Yesterday I came home from work early. It was not a particular symptom that had me down, just a general sense that I needed to lie down. If I am feeling sick to my stomach, or have a headache, or a sore muscles, I can just get myself to work through it - but a general sense of unwellness and desire to lay down? Don't know what to do with that, so I came home.
I expected to get morning sickness (or "morning" sickness), but I was not expecting the fatigue, dizziness, and shortness of breath. Its all for a good cause though, eh? The nausea is so weird. I can simultaneously be cooking/want to eat something and feel like I am going to throw up. The thought of food can make me feel ill, but the smell of food is almost always good (except perhaps Chinese food). Things that shouldn't smell bad at all make me sick (like the smell of wet paper towel?? Not dirty, just wet). I have some other symptoms as well, but they are not entirely blog appropriate. LOL.
Yesterday I came home from work early. It was not a particular symptom that had me down, just a general sense that I needed to lie down. If I am feeling sick to my stomach, or have a headache, or a sore muscles, I can just get myself to work through it - but a general sense of unwellness and desire to lay down? Don't know what to do with that, so I came home.
Friday, April 29, 2011
1/3
Tomorrow is April 30th. Sunday is May 1st. Measuring by months, we will be 1/3 of the way through the year. Time certainly does fly. And as far as I know, it will just go faster.
Work. People keep asking me "has work calmed down?". The answer is yes and no. There have not been any new changes in the past few weeks (since the implementation of the dress code), so that is good. But there is a lot of drama/gossip concerning SB5 going around. (the Anti-Union legislation that was passed in Ohio under the new governor.) Additionally, without OT, and with my low motivation levels, and recent use of a lot of sick time, I have been treading water instead of swimming laps around my pending - just keeping my head above water. Its not bad and I certainly am not behind or in trouble, its just not as pleasant as it was to be ahead and be helping other people out. We found out we will get OT back soon, but because of new rule changes it will only be available on Saturday's and will not help your individual pending. I doubt I will be doing much, especially in May, since I have so many weekend plans already laid out.
I went to a used book sale at work earlier this week. They had universally marked all of their hardcovers as $1 and all paperbacks as $.50. I feel like I robbed them. I bought a copy of Mockingjay and Catching Fire - hardcovers in brand new mint condition, all shiny and pretty, for $2 total. I have the urge to say that if you have never heard of these books you live under a rock, but that is not true. But, they are massively popular. They are the 2nd and 3rd books in the Hunger Games trilogy. Still don't know what I am talking about? I guess that just means you don't follow the literary world/books much. Mockingjay was considered the "savior" or the 2010 financial year for publishers. It is not as big as Harry Potter or Twilight, but it definitely has a following. They are currently working on the first movie, which will star that young actress from Winter's Bone that was nominated for an Oscar. I am both skeptical the movie. The book is a Young Adult book, but it is very violent and dark. I am not sure how they can both please parents and readers. I am not sure how they can show some of the images that were described and not have it be rated R. We will see what happens. THE POINT is that these books are worth way more than #1. Probably $20 a piece new, $15 used. Now I just need to find a nice copy of the first book and I will have added nicely to my book collection.
There are ideas swirling in my head about new projects with regards to the use of our bedrooms, they are such a disaster. With any luck we will be selling out house withint he next year, and things really need to get straightened out a bit. In an ideal world (OK... not in an ideal world... in an ideal world we would win the Powerball and be back in Duluth without caring if we sold this house and have a nice mansion on the lake... but in a realistic but ideal world...), we would
(1) get bookshelves for all the books that are in the closet in the red room.
(2) clean out the yellow room which is currently storage, organize its contents and move the contents to the red room closet in a manor that allowed for future use of said contents.
(3) re-paint the yellow room to a color or shade that doesn't give me a migraine, and reinstall the closet so that it is officially a bedroom
(4) Re-organize the green room so things are findable and move any overflow from it to the red room.
Did I mention we have way too much space? All the above rooms (red, green, yellow) are essentially "spare bedrooms". They all have massive closets. Perhaps I should post picture to demonstrate... perhaps another day.
Work. People keep asking me "has work calmed down?". The answer is yes and no. There have not been any new changes in the past few weeks (since the implementation of the dress code), so that is good. But there is a lot of drama/gossip concerning SB5 going around. (the Anti-Union legislation that was passed in Ohio under the new governor.) Additionally, without OT, and with my low motivation levels, and recent use of a lot of sick time, I have been treading water instead of swimming laps around my pending - just keeping my head above water. Its not bad and I certainly am not behind or in trouble, its just not as pleasant as it was to be ahead and be helping other people out. We found out we will get OT back soon, but because of new rule changes it will only be available on Saturday's and will not help your individual pending. I doubt I will be doing much, especially in May, since I have so many weekend plans already laid out.
I went to a used book sale at work earlier this week. They had universally marked all of their hardcovers as $1 and all paperbacks as $.50. I feel like I robbed them. I bought a copy of Mockingjay and Catching Fire - hardcovers in brand new mint condition, all shiny and pretty, for $2 total. I have the urge to say that if you have never heard of these books you live under a rock, but that is not true. But, they are massively popular. They are the 2nd and 3rd books in the Hunger Games trilogy. Still don't know what I am talking about? I guess that just means you don't follow the literary world/books much. Mockingjay was considered the "savior" or the 2010 financial year for publishers. It is not as big as Harry Potter or Twilight, but it definitely has a following. They are currently working on the first movie, which will star that young actress from Winter's Bone that was nominated for an Oscar. I am both skeptical the movie. The book is a Young Adult book, but it is very violent and dark. I am not sure how they can both please parents and readers. I am not sure how they can show some of the images that were described and not have it be rated R. We will see what happens. THE POINT is that these books are worth way more than #1. Probably $20 a piece new, $15 used. Now I just need to find a nice copy of the first book and I will have added nicely to my book collection.
There are ideas swirling in my head about new projects with regards to the use of our bedrooms, they are such a disaster. With any luck we will be selling out house withint he next year, and things really need to get straightened out a bit. In an ideal world (OK... not in an ideal world... in an ideal world we would win the Powerball and be back in Duluth without caring if we sold this house and have a nice mansion on the lake... but in a realistic but ideal world...), we would
(1) get bookshelves for all the books that are in the closet in the red room.
(2) clean out the yellow room which is currently storage, organize its contents and move the contents to the red room closet in a manor that allowed for future use of said contents.
(3) re-paint the yellow room to a color or shade that doesn't give me a migraine, and reinstall the closet so that it is officially a bedroom
(4) Re-organize the green room so things are findable and move any overflow from it to the red room.
Did I mention we have way too much space? All the above rooms (red, green, yellow) are essentially "spare bedrooms". They all have massive closets. Perhaps I should post picture to demonstrate... perhaps another day.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Crickets
Do you hear the crickets??
Wait... I have not been in hear for so long they probably died off or something.
And I really don't have anything to post today, but I thought I should post something.
I hope to get back to meal planning next week. It has been ages. I really am going to try. I might shift to shopping at Kroger. I have been disapointed by my Giant Eagle's selections in a number of departments. Today I went to Kroger on the way home instead of Giant Eagle and its not as far our of the way as I thought.
I am currently on a Pride and Prejudice kick. I love that movie (Kiera Knightley version). Now I am watching the 1980s BBC version. I am five minutes in and already feel like its trying to hard.
I watched Gone with the Wind. I like it, but I don't see why its called one of the best movies every.
That really is all my news....
Wait... I have not been in hear for so long they probably died off or something.
And I really don't have anything to post today, but I thought I should post something.
I hope to get back to meal planning next week. It has been ages. I really am going to try. I might shift to shopping at Kroger. I have been disapointed by my Giant Eagle's selections in a number of departments. Today I went to Kroger on the way home instead of Giant Eagle and its not as far our of the way as I thought.
I am currently on a Pride and Prejudice kick. I love that movie (Kiera Knightley version). Now I am watching the 1980s BBC version. I am five minutes in and already feel like its trying to hard.
I watched Gone with the Wind. I like it, but I don't see why its called one of the best movies every.
That really is all my news....
Saturday, April 2, 2011
the movies...
HP1 - warm, cheerful, comfortable, wondrous, embracing HP2 - mysterious, curious, naive, confused, youthful HP3 - suspenseful, playful, nervous, off-kilter, stimulating HP4 - adventurous, tumultuous, dramatic, grand, aggressive HP5 - stubborn, frustrating, angsty, strained, rebellious HP6 - hopeful, overconfident, romantic, expectant, dark HP7 - tense, lonely, resigned, determined, gloomy that is all
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Over and Over and Over
The motivation crash I reported at the end of February... well it has not swung back up.
And I am in a Harry Potter kick. Which is exactly what my New Years Resolutions were designed to prevent/remedy - you know, read new books and listen to new music instead of listening to the same stuff over and over, because how does the same thing over and over expand your knowledge or improve your life?
But sometimes the same thing over and over again is just what you want. I watched the first 4 harry potters in the last three days. I listened to movies 2&3 on CD about 4 times in the past 2 work day. I am about to go read the second book while watching the fifth movie, because that is what sounds good to me.
You all probably think I am insane. Or obsessed. Its catharsis, what can I tell you? Maybe if my motivation swings back the other direction I will get back to those resolutions...
(For the record, its not up to quota, but I have read 2 books from my recommended list and watched 1 classic movie in the last month. And I am 2/3 of the way through a second classic movie... so I am doing SOMETHING besides Harry Potter... just not as much as I could be).
And I am in a Harry Potter kick. Which is exactly what my New Years Resolutions were designed to prevent/remedy - you know, read new books and listen to new music instead of listening to the same stuff over and over, because how does the same thing over and over expand your knowledge or improve your life?
But sometimes the same thing over and over again is just what you want. I watched the first 4 harry potters in the last three days. I listened to movies 2&3 on CD about 4 times in the past 2 work day. I am about to go read the second book while watching the fifth movie, because that is what sounds good to me.
You all probably think I am insane. Or obsessed. Its catharsis, what can I tell you? Maybe if my motivation swings back the other direction I will get back to those resolutions...
(For the record, its not up to quota, but I have read 2 books from my recommended list and watched 1 classic movie in the last month. And I am 2/3 of the way through a second classic movie... so I am doing SOMETHING besides Harry Potter... just not as much as I could be).
Saturday, February 19, 2011
My Saturday
Woke up to a dog licking my face at 7:30am. Got up. Took the dogs on their normal walk. Got home. Put the dogs in the car and took them to Alum Creek and took them walking on the dam. Stopped at Starbucks. Came home. Took a hot shower. Sat and drank my Latte, watching the first part of "The Shining". Got dressed. Drove downtown with DH to pick up his car. Chatted with my little sister on the phone. Ate lunch. Watched "Law&Order: SVU". Played Rock Band. Went shopping with DH for work clothes (bought new brown close-toed shoes for the new dress code"). Came home. Walked with DH while he walked the dogs. Ordered Pizza. Watched "Angel". Watched "River Monsters". Went grocery shopping. Came home. Had a campfire with DH. At S'mores, star gazed. Took a hot shower. Read. Now watching "Angel" with DH again.
Nice day off.
Nice day off.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Compiled From the Last Week...
Different people have different ability and tendency to understand nuance, or even basic argument. I am very nuance oriented. I spot inconsistencies in arguments, policies, and rules whether or not I want to. I see the implications of arguments, as in sub-arguments that the main argument implies that also can help to support or refute the main argument. This tendency (I say tendency rather than ability because its not something that I honed or something that I choose to be able to do), is why I was a good academic. I am excellent at telling people where the holes in their arguments are. It is also why I was a miserable academic, because I could see the giant holes in my own theories/areas of research and easily thereby easily lost interest. In other words, its an annoying habit and a satisfying habit. I know this is something I am particularly good at, or we could say, above average. Since I am above average at it, I should not be surprised when other people are not as good at it as I am, and typically I am not. But some people are just SO BAD at it, I just can't help but be shocked and I often struggle to communicate with these people. And these are generally not stupid people, they are average or even intelligent people, its just not part of their skill set. These are people who read or hear an argument and only pay attention to the subject, and not to the details. For example, if you argued that oranges are better in fruit salad than apples because the oranges don't brown, they would probably actually "hear" something of you saying "I don't like apples", and respond by telling you that they do like apples and it is weird that you dont. Or if you said "I don't like going to baseball games because the parking is so bad," they may assume you did not like watching television on TV either. These people drive me beserk. I feel like I am constantly saying "thats not what I meant!" only to have another person chime in with the same response. This is more than missing nuance, its totally not paying attention to what the other person is saying, and it is shocking to me how often this happens. Thats my rant for the day.
My MP3 player has been down, so have not listened to much music. BUT I Think my mP3 player is coming back up today. I think it is possessed. I brought CDs to work on Friday and got a couple new groups/artists in: Van Halen (too 80s, but great guitar solos), Bruce Springteen (surprised how different his general body of work was from "Born in the USA", which probably constituted my entire pre-existing knowledge of him), and Wilco - light/alt rock that I very much enjoyed.
(the next day: )My Mp3 Player has resurrected itself. This thing is so weird. Basically, last week was the second time it just stopped working mid song and would not respond when I tried to plug it in. Last time, when I tried to plug it in at home that night it worked. This time I tried 4 different computers before declaring it really dead. Then I waited 3 days. Then I tried to plug it into my work computer, and it worked. I don't get it. Its totally crazy, but I am glad its back up and running.
Some music reviews. I am getting confused about which reviews I actually posted and which I did not, so there may be repeats. In fact, there may be repeats that don't agree with each other since I tend to change my mind (minorly usually) about things.
Janet Jackson - the worst yet. I do NOT want to listen to this again. Everything else was at least sort of like "Eh, it OK". This is the first one that would get ranked 1 on a scale of 1-10. Synthesizer hell, horrible lyrics, total lack of musicality. Bleck!!
U2 - there is nothing wrong with their music, but I just am not excited by it, not moved, and I am listening to supposedly their best of the best, so if this is there best, how mediocre is their average?
System of a Down - highly amusing, not so musical per se, but very interested. It was actually hard to listen to this while I was working because I was trying to listen to their lyrics, which are very interesting, instead of concentrating on my work.
Barbara Streisand - she should stick to Christmas music and covers of classic songs. Her voice is fine, but her lyrics are SO CORNY.
Metallica - I think I may have already commented on them, but now, per some advice from friends, I got their black album. There is nothing wrong with it. I really like Enter Sandman and a couple of other songs. All of the songs would be fun to play on Rock Band, but as a whole the album is just repetitive. Every song has the same sound, and that sound is so heavy. I know. Its heavy metal. But it just gets really old really quickly.
Thrice - I am not even sure this band counts as famous. I have sure never heard of them and they are not on my "list" of bands I should know, but I was interested by their album cover, title, style, etc, so I picked it up. I think because I "picked it out", I really wanted to like it. I listened to it twice, and its not bad by any means, but its nothing special either.
Billy Joel - I listened to him last week and don't remember what I thought. I am trying to decide whether that means I should give him another change, or if he is just that forgettable.
Cher - I love the song "Walking in Memphis" (as featured on X-Files, lol), so I was looking forward to hearing more, but most of her songs are just OK. I prefer her work that really shows off her unique voice, but a lot of the songs on the album I had could have been sung by pretty much anyone.
Green Day - They are fun, I see why they are popular. Its definitely "teen" sounding music, but
very enjoyable.
Josh Ritter - some people who saw my list of "to hear" had no idea who Josh Ritter was, but I had heard the name before. Now I have heard him, and his music is really interesting, lots of variety from song to song.
Limp Bizkit - Some of their songs are really annoying, but on average they are fine. They have a unique sound and a lot of variety, but not exactly my cup of tea either.
New Kid on the Block - Ok. This may make some people angry. I hate them. Like, one step above Janet Jackson. Take all the stereotypes about 80s ridiculousness and they seem to have them. A new "wonderful" surprise at every turn. Did they really just end that song with "peace"??? Yes. They did. Wow. Now, I am sure there are some stupid things I like that I like just because they were from when I was younger and stupider, so I am not judging people who heard this when they are little and are still crazy about them... but I can't take it.
Other random music things: I have been picking up classical music as well, and I have been listening to classical music on the radio in the car a lot, and at night sometimes too. This is more a revitalization of knowledge than a discovery of knew things, since I had quite extensive knowledge of classical music in high school when I participated in the Minnesota State High School Music Listening Competition, sponsored by MPR (Minnesota Public Radio). This weeks selections: Strauss' Lieder, Salieri, Weber's Overtures. I have been trying to get one of Wagner's opera's on my MP3 player, but its having issues due to the way the CD company named the tracks. I need to go through and rename them, which may or may not happen.
To tie things together, I also just finished my first book for my New Years Resolution. I read "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult, as recomended by my little sister. I have read Jodi Picoult and I have to admit I am not a big fan. I described the last book I read by her as "a bad lifetime movie". That description works for this book as well. However, that is really not the point of this resolution and I am likely going to be reading many books that I do not enjoy. Therefore, there are a few questions besides "Did I like it?" that I want to address. These include "What can a person, in general get out of this book?" "What did I get out of this book?" "Could I get more out of this book if I changed the way I was thinking about it?"
So, here it is. I think that books like Nineteen Minutes feeds into a human need for drama. Admit it, you love drama, in some for or another. Everyone likes a little drama in some form or another. Books, movies, message boards, gossip, celebrity gossip, sports... they are all drama. So that is the general purpose of books like this. This particular brand, a kin to the a bad Lifetime Channel movie, also serve as a sort of catharsis. They take scary or dramatic scenarios that can happen in real life - cancer, affairs, accidents, in the case of Nineteen Minutes - school shootings - and they play them out in great emotional detail. It gives you the impression are having all of these emotion expierences outside of your own reality, as if you get to experience what a tragedy is like without actually having your own - playing with fire w/out risking getting burnt. Its a human impulse, and thats what Nineteen Minutes is all about. That is what you can get from this book.
What did I get out of this book? Not the above. I have other sources of drama I enjoy more, and this particular brand is a bit time consuming. Secondly, know that knack I mentioned for picking out inconsistencies and details? Well, Jodi Piccoult is not exactly a careful writer and her book is full of them. I have difficulty looking past all of the inconsistencies and becoming emotionally involved, which is a necessity for this type of book. I also get a bit worried about what harm this book could cause. It is so chalked full of stereotypes I get worried that it will rub off on the wrong people, or subconsciously reinforce false ideas they have about how the world is or should be.
Could I have gotten more out of this book if I thought about it differently? Probably, yes. If I had been able to ignore the inconsistencies and the cliche's and focused on the more interesting points. Regardless of style, a book on this type of topic is capable of raising interesting questions. Perhaps if I focused on these - thing such as what role do parents have in the actions of their children? What is self defense? What roles do school's have in inteferring in the social interactions of their students? - I would have gotten more out of the book. Alas.
My MP3 player has been down, so have not listened to much music. BUT I Think my mP3 player is coming back up today. I think it is possessed. I brought CDs to work on Friday and got a couple new groups/artists in: Van Halen (too 80s, but great guitar solos), Bruce Springteen (surprised how different his general body of work was from "Born in the USA", which probably constituted my entire pre-existing knowledge of him), and Wilco - light/alt rock that I very much enjoyed.
(the next day: )My Mp3 Player has resurrected itself. This thing is so weird. Basically, last week was the second time it just stopped working mid song and would not respond when I tried to plug it in. Last time, when I tried to plug it in at home that night it worked. This time I tried 4 different computers before declaring it really dead. Then I waited 3 days. Then I tried to plug it into my work computer, and it worked. I don't get it. Its totally crazy, but I am glad its back up and running.
Some music reviews. I am getting confused about which reviews I actually posted and which I did not, so there may be repeats. In fact, there may be repeats that don't agree with each other since I tend to change my mind (minorly usually) about things.
Janet Jackson - the worst yet. I do NOT want to listen to this again. Everything else was at least sort of like "Eh, it OK". This is the first one that would get ranked 1 on a scale of 1-10. Synthesizer hell, horrible lyrics, total lack of musicality. Bleck!!
U2 - there is nothing wrong with their music, but I just am not excited by it, not moved, and I am listening to supposedly their best of the best, so if this is there best, how mediocre is their average?
System of a Down - highly amusing, not so musical per se, but very interested. It was actually hard to listen to this while I was working because I was trying to listen to their lyrics, which are very interesting, instead of concentrating on my work.
Barbara Streisand - she should stick to Christmas music and covers of classic songs. Her voice is fine, but her lyrics are SO CORNY.
Metallica - I think I may have already commented on them, but now, per some advice from friends, I got their black album. There is nothing wrong with it. I really like Enter Sandman and a couple of other songs. All of the songs would be fun to play on Rock Band, but as a whole the album is just repetitive. Every song has the same sound, and that sound is so heavy. I know. Its heavy metal. But it just gets really old really quickly.
Thrice - I am not even sure this band counts as famous. I have sure never heard of them and they are not on my "list" of bands I should know, but I was interested by their album cover, title, style, etc, so I picked it up. I think because I "picked it out", I really wanted to like it. I listened to it twice, and its not bad by any means, but its nothing special either.
Billy Joel - I listened to him last week and don't remember what I thought. I am trying to decide whether that means I should give him another change, or if he is just that forgettable.
Cher - I love the song "Walking in Memphis" (as featured on X-Files, lol), so I was looking forward to hearing more, but most of her songs are just OK. I prefer her work that really shows off her unique voice, but a lot of the songs on the album I had could have been sung by pretty much anyone.
Green Day - They are fun, I see why they are popular. Its definitely "teen" sounding music, but
very enjoyable.
Josh Ritter - some people who saw my list of "to hear" had no idea who Josh Ritter was, but I had heard the name before. Now I have heard him, and his music is really interesting, lots of variety from song to song.
Limp Bizkit - Some of their songs are really annoying, but on average they are fine. They have a unique sound and a lot of variety, but not exactly my cup of tea either.
New Kid on the Block - Ok. This may make some people angry. I hate them. Like, one step above Janet Jackson. Take all the stereotypes about 80s ridiculousness and they seem to have them. A new "wonderful" surprise at every turn. Did they really just end that song with "peace"??? Yes. They did. Wow. Now, I am sure there are some stupid things I like that I like just because they were from when I was younger and stupider, so I am not judging people who heard this when they are little and are still crazy about them... but I can't take it.
Other random music things: I have been picking up classical music as well, and I have been listening to classical music on the radio in the car a lot, and at night sometimes too. This is more a revitalization of knowledge than a discovery of knew things, since I had quite extensive knowledge of classical music in high school when I participated in the Minnesota State High School Music Listening Competition, sponsored by MPR (Minnesota Public Radio). This weeks selections: Strauss' Lieder, Salieri, Weber's Overtures. I have been trying to get one of Wagner's opera's on my MP3 player, but its having issues due to the way the CD company named the tracks. I need to go through and rename them, which may or may not happen.
To tie things together, I also just finished my first book for my New Years Resolution. I read "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult, as recomended by my little sister. I have read Jodi Picoult and I have to admit I am not a big fan. I described the last book I read by her as "a bad lifetime movie". That description works for this book as well. However, that is really not the point of this resolution and I am likely going to be reading many books that I do not enjoy. Therefore, there are a few questions besides "Did I like it?" that I want to address. These include "What can a person, in general get out of this book?" "What did I get out of this book?" "Could I get more out of this book if I changed the way I was thinking about it?"
So, here it is. I think that books like Nineteen Minutes feeds into a human need for drama. Admit it, you love drama, in some for or another. Everyone likes a little drama in some form or another. Books, movies, message boards, gossip, celebrity gossip, sports... they are all drama. So that is the general purpose of books like this. This particular brand, a kin to the a bad Lifetime Channel movie, also serve as a sort of catharsis. They take scary or dramatic scenarios that can happen in real life - cancer, affairs, accidents, in the case of Nineteen Minutes - school shootings - and they play them out in great emotional detail. It gives you the impression are having all of these emotion expierences outside of your own reality, as if you get to experience what a tragedy is like without actually having your own - playing with fire w/out risking getting burnt. Its a human impulse, and thats what Nineteen Minutes is all about. That is what you can get from this book.
What did I get out of this book? Not the above. I have other sources of drama I enjoy more, and this particular brand is a bit time consuming. Secondly, know that knack I mentioned for picking out inconsistencies and details? Well, Jodi Piccoult is not exactly a careful writer and her book is full of them. I have difficulty looking past all of the inconsistencies and becoming emotionally involved, which is a necessity for this type of book. I also get a bit worried about what harm this book could cause. It is so chalked full of stereotypes I get worried that it will rub off on the wrong people, or subconsciously reinforce false ideas they have about how the world is or should be.
Could I have gotten more out of this book if I thought about it differently? Probably, yes. If I had been able to ignore the inconsistencies and the cliche's and focused on the more interesting points. Regardless of style, a book on this type of topic is capable of raising interesting questions. Perhaps if I focused on these - thing such as what role do parents have in the actions of their children? What is self defense? What roles do school's have in inteferring in the social interactions of their students? - I would have gotten more out of the book. Alas.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Post from Feb 11th
I have taken writing blog posts at work and emailing them to myself. The problem with this is I have to remember to post them. Here is one written back on Friday:
Internet is slow as molasses in winter today. Naturally this is true because I ended up at work 15 minutes early and just wanted to look at a few things. I have not managed to make it to a single website yet.
My MP3 player died again. I am getting frustrated. This is the second new one I got. Amazon already replaced it once for me. Guess I should stop promoting Sansa Clip. I think its too late to have it replaced by Amazon again and Sansa is not responsive. Time to go to Best Buy and get something cheap (even cheaper than Sansa). *sigh*. It does put a kink in my music listening. I was cruising along. I had just loaded my player with all sorts of new things like U2, Greenday, Janet Jackson, Wilco, Josh Ritter, and many more. I brought a stack of CDs in to listen to today (in the computer), but I know I don't like that nearly as much as having them on MP3 because I hate being attached to my computer by a cord. You all should be taking bets on how many times today I get up to run to the printer or bathroom and do some sort of comical jerk backwards when I reach the end of my headphones cord.
DH and I went to see Black Swan last night. If you do not want to know any more about it, then you should stop reading. It was a very interesting movie. I am glad I watched it, but I doubt I will ever watch it again. And Natalie Portman deserves the award for best actress, even without seeing any of the other nominees... although I have heard great things about Blue Valentine and I think its the next thing on my list to see. Anyways, Black Swan is about mental illness. I think a few things makes it really successful. First, the camera work really takes you into the movie. You are not an objective observer, you are caught up in the world of the character is caught up in. In many ways it captures the "unreliable narrator" concept often used in writing but hard to put into film, where normally the audience gets to see what actually happens instead of what the character perceives (a notable other movie that would capture the unreliable narrator is Fight Club, also ultimately about mental illness, though in a much more cartoon-esque way). The second thing that really makes Black Swan work is the sheer complexity. While the movie centers on the main character's descent into madness, there are so many other conflicts going on. Essentially, Black Swan could be a decent movie even without the mental illness, though much less interesting, less likely to be up for awards, and less likely to make anyone think about anything. But it would have a rising young ballerina, anxious about succeeding, dealing with the sexual advances of an experienced and powerful director, an overbearing mother, and a social structure of ballerinas where when one gets her dream the others lose theirs (and therefore they are incredibly competitive). Having all of these competing forms of drama all be trumped by the menal illness is quite interesting, and also with the unreliable narrator you are left asking what parts of these other dramas actually existed and what is only in the main characters head. It is clear that the relationship between Nina and her mother is not normal, but is it not normal because her mother is unnaturally overbearing, or because her mother has to take care of her because of her mental instability? It is clear that the other ballerinas are bitter about Nina's success and want some for themselves, but are they actually doing anything to suggest they wish her ill will? The movie was quite good, and the more I think about it, the more I think it was actually great. I expected it to give me weird/bad dreams (the mark of a good dark movie), but it did not. Maybe that would have been different if I had seen it right before bed instead of 5pm.
OK. Off to work. Bis spaeter!
Internet is slow as molasses in winter today. Naturally this is true because I ended up at work 15 minutes early and just wanted to look at a few things. I have not managed to make it to a single website yet.
My MP3 player died again. I am getting frustrated. This is the second new one I got. Amazon already replaced it once for me. Guess I should stop promoting Sansa Clip. I think its too late to have it replaced by Amazon again and Sansa is not responsive. Time to go to Best Buy and get something cheap (even cheaper than Sansa). *sigh*. It does put a kink in my music listening. I was cruising along. I had just loaded my player with all sorts of new things like U2, Greenday, Janet Jackson, Wilco, Josh Ritter, and many more. I brought a stack of CDs in to listen to today (in the computer), but I know I don't like that nearly as much as having them on MP3 because I hate being attached to my computer by a cord. You all should be taking bets on how many times today I get up to run to the printer or bathroom and do some sort of comical jerk backwards when I reach the end of my headphones cord.
DH and I went to see Black Swan last night. If you do not want to know any more about it, then you should stop reading. It was a very interesting movie. I am glad I watched it, but I doubt I will ever watch it again. And Natalie Portman deserves the award for best actress, even without seeing any of the other nominees... although I have heard great things about Blue Valentine and I think its the next thing on my list to see. Anyways, Black Swan is about mental illness. I think a few things makes it really successful. First, the camera work really takes you into the movie. You are not an objective observer, you are caught up in the world of the character is caught up in. In many ways it captures the "unreliable narrator" concept often used in writing but hard to put into film, where normally the audience gets to see what actually happens instead of what the character perceives (a notable other movie that would capture the unreliable narrator is Fight Club, also ultimately about mental illness, though in a much more cartoon-esque way). The second thing that really makes Black Swan work is the sheer complexity. While the movie centers on the main character's descent into madness, there are so many other conflicts going on. Essentially, Black Swan could be a decent movie even without the mental illness, though much less interesting, less likely to be up for awards, and less likely to make anyone think about anything. But it would have a rising young ballerina, anxious about succeeding, dealing with the sexual advances of an experienced and powerful director, an overbearing mother, and a social structure of ballerinas where when one gets her dream the others lose theirs (and therefore they are incredibly competitive). Having all of these competing forms of drama all be trumped by the menal illness is quite interesting, and also with the unreliable narrator you are left asking what parts of these other dramas actually existed and what is only in the main characters head. It is clear that the relationship between Nina and her mother is not normal, but is it not normal because her mother is unnaturally overbearing, or because her mother has to take care of her because of her mental instability? It is clear that the other ballerinas are bitter about Nina's success and want some for themselves, but are they actually doing anything to suggest they wish her ill will? The movie was quite good, and the more I think about it, the more I think it was actually great. I expected it to give me weird/bad dreams (the mark of a good dark movie), but it did not. Maybe that would have been different if I had seen it right before bed instead of 5pm.
OK. Off to work. Bis spaeter!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
LONG Update.... becoming a trend
Another week has gone by.
Monday was the national championship game between Auburn and Oregon. Since it was on ESPN we went to a friends house to watch it. It was a very sloppy game and we stayed up too late.
Tuesday I came home early from work, I just didn't feel like being their and our schedules are very flexible. I was tired from the previous night, so I took a nice nap and then we had a quiet night in.
Wednesday I went to Trivia. I actually helped out with some of the answers, which is not very common. I guessed that Lays Potato Chips were started in 1936, the answer was 1937 (it was a 10 yr range). I deduced that Kiefer Sutherland was not Canadian by use of the pro-Canada commercial that ran during the olympics and featured a lot of big Canadian actors (the group was debating between England and Canada). It was a fun night.
Thursday was another quiet night in.
Friday I came home and cooked Spaghetti. We watched I'm Still Here, the film in which Joaquim Phoenix pretended to retire from acting and try to start a hip hop commercial. This attempt was documented by his brother in law who was supposedly making a documentary, but in actuality Joaquim was acting. Almost no one new this (friends, agents, the general public). The movie is very weird, I would say intense. I actually think people will have one of two reactions. I think a lot of people would just be like "Did I really just waste 2 hrs of my life for that?", but hopefully some other people would be like me and it would make them think about a lot of things. The thoughts lingered and I ended up having a disturbing dream, maybe even a nightmare depending on you definition. It was an existential crisis dream, a failure dream. Any movie that can give me a meaningful/disturbing dream gets 5 stars in my opinion.
Today I went in and got some overtime in, then I ran some errands that turned out to be quite frustrating, including circling looking for a UPS drop box and an hour at a very grumpy post office with poor service and even more ridiculous international rates. Then I stopped by Wendy's and their service seemed so incredibly great after the USPS that I had half a mind to call the manager and compliment them. LOL.
Now a quick update on my goals--
I did not listen to much music this week because I have had more MP3 Player issues, but I am getting it back up and running today, and will be adding five new albums:
crash by Dave Matthews Band
The Very Best of the Grateful Dead
Diana and the Supremes, #1 Hits
Teasar and the Firecats by Cat Stevens
Stevie Wonder Number Ones
I also watched my first classic movie (of 20). I watched To Kill a Mocking Bird. It was really good. While I had read the book, I did not remember some of the details. That book was seriously groundbreaking, some of the issues it dealt with, and in such an interesting way. The movie was very well put together and well cast. I highly recommend it.
In terms of books, I have three of the recommended books in my possession now, but have not started them because I need to finish up something for book club first. I plan to start The Secret soon. I still have some open recommendation slots if anyone is interested.
Organizationally, I did arrange to get my new carpet. They are coming on Monday to measure and bring samples, installation will be a couple days after that. I did some cleaning in my office to move towards making it a sewing room. The unexpected consequence of this was that I picked up my violin and "fiddled" around a little bit. I think I may end up using it as a music and sewing room. DH and I also did some joint organization, we had a "date" set up this weekend to go through a few trouble spots in the kitchen that were bothering DH. We cleaned out the junk drawer, the upper dry-food cabinets, and the area next to the stove where spices etc tend to get stacked resulting in spills and dog messes (when they steal, lets say, a big jar of paprika off the counter).
Health - made breakfast 4/5 workdays, cooked two dinners at home, exercised once, ate fruits and veggies everyday. I still have not managed to get out a camera. Overall things are going well though.
Other random things
I worked 23 hrs of overtime in the past week. Yay money!
My coworker, who I have been significantly helping with her caseload, resigned to pursue other options, the work was making her way to stressed. It was probably the right choice for everyone.
Looking forward to watching NFL playoffs this afternoon!
Trying to decide whether or not to go to my Gmas tomorrow.
DH is on call, which is kind of stressful, but so it goes.
DH and I have a "date" next weekend to clean out the front closet.
It is really strange for me to have a three day weekend and have nothing planned, makes me feel a bit anti-social. I tried to plan something the last minute but nothing came together, so I guess I will just have to entertain myself.
Monday was the national championship game between Auburn and Oregon. Since it was on ESPN we went to a friends house to watch it. It was a very sloppy game and we stayed up too late.
Tuesday I came home early from work, I just didn't feel like being their and our schedules are very flexible. I was tired from the previous night, so I took a nice nap and then we had a quiet night in.
Wednesday I went to Trivia. I actually helped out with some of the answers, which is not very common. I guessed that Lays Potato Chips were started in 1936, the answer was 1937 (it was a 10 yr range). I deduced that Kiefer Sutherland was not Canadian by use of the pro-Canada commercial that ran during the olympics and featured a lot of big Canadian actors (the group was debating between England and Canada). It was a fun night.
Thursday was another quiet night in.
Friday I came home and cooked Spaghetti. We watched I'm Still Here, the film in which Joaquim Phoenix pretended to retire from acting and try to start a hip hop commercial. This attempt was documented by his brother in law who was supposedly making a documentary, but in actuality Joaquim was acting. Almost no one new this (friends, agents, the general public). The movie is very weird, I would say intense. I actually think people will have one of two reactions. I think a lot of people would just be like "Did I really just waste 2 hrs of my life for that?", but hopefully some other people would be like me and it would make them think about a lot of things. The thoughts lingered and I ended up having a disturbing dream, maybe even a nightmare depending on you definition. It was an existential crisis dream, a failure dream. Any movie that can give me a meaningful/disturbing dream gets 5 stars in my opinion.
Today I went in and got some overtime in, then I ran some errands that turned out to be quite frustrating, including circling looking for a UPS drop box and an hour at a very grumpy post office with poor service and even more ridiculous international rates. Then I stopped by Wendy's and their service seemed so incredibly great after the USPS that I had half a mind to call the manager and compliment them. LOL.
Now a quick update on my goals--
I did not listen to much music this week because I have had more MP3 Player issues, but I am getting it back up and running today, and will be adding five new albums:
crash by Dave Matthews Band
The Very Best of the Grateful Dead
Diana and the Supremes, #1 Hits
Teasar and the Firecats by Cat Stevens
Stevie Wonder Number Ones
I also watched my first classic movie (of 20). I watched To Kill a Mocking Bird. It was really good. While I had read the book, I did not remember some of the details. That book was seriously groundbreaking, some of the issues it dealt with, and in such an interesting way. The movie was very well put together and well cast. I highly recommend it.
In terms of books, I have three of the recommended books in my possession now, but have not started them because I need to finish up something for book club first. I plan to start The Secret soon. I still have some open recommendation slots if anyone is interested.
Organizationally, I did arrange to get my new carpet. They are coming on Monday to measure and bring samples, installation will be a couple days after that. I did some cleaning in my office to move towards making it a sewing room. The unexpected consequence of this was that I picked up my violin and "fiddled" around a little bit. I think I may end up using it as a music and sewing room. DH and I also did some joint organization, we had a "date" set up this weekend to go through a few trouble spots in the kitchen that were bothering DH. We cleaned out the junk drawer, the upper dry-food cabinets, and the area next to the stove where spices etc tend to get stacked resulting in spills and dog messes (when they steal, lets say, a big jar of paprika off the counter).
Health - made breakfast 4/5 workdays, cooked two dinners at home, exercised once, ate fruits and veggies everyday. I still have not managed to get out a camera. Overall things are going well though.
Other random things
I worked 23 hrs of overtime in the past week. Yay money!
My coworker, who I have been significantly helping with her caseload, resigned to pursue other options, the work was making her way to stressed. It was probably the right choice for everyone.
Looking forward to watching NFL playoffs this afternoon!
Trying to decide whether or not to go to my Gmas tomorrow.
DH is on call, which is kind of stressful, but so it goes.
DH and I have a "date" next weekend to clean out the front closet.
It is really strange for me to have a three day weekend and have nothing planned, makes me feel a bit anti-social. I tried to plan something the last minute but nothing came together, so I guess I will just have to entertain myself.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
A Real Day Off
First, a small reading update. In the last three days I have finished two books - The Book Thief and It Walks in Beauty. I now have read 33265 pages total, meaning I have completed 83.16% done with 86.84% of the year gone. To complete my goal I will have to read 140 pgs a day. That is a 5 page reduction in my per-day quota. Another way to look at it is if I still intend to read 145 pages a day (as my last post dictated), then I am 2 days ahead of schedule. I will take it, especially since I am over half way done with Harry Potter 7 and Persuasion at this point. In an ideal world I could get a good 5-6 days ahead before leaving for Minnesota next week, so when I fail to read much there (which is likely), I will still be in the running.
I had Thursday off. It was lovely. It felt special, and DH and I have no idea why. We felt like we could do anything that day. DH asked the good question - why don't we feel that way every weekend? They are all ours to do what we please with, yet they don't have the same sense of freedom that Thusday had. After some doctors appts in the morning, we went out to breakfast at a chain restaurant I had never been to called First Watch. It was fine, but I prefer Bob Evans breakfast. Then we ran some errands, went to Half Price Books (where I of course got a few new books, including Good Poems, an anthology of poems chosen by Garrison Keilor, which certainly will be part of my reading list now), and then went to the dollar theater for a movie. We saw the new Wall Street - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. It was a bit slow, but I decided that I really liked it. I thought the characters were interesting and realistic, and the acting was fantastic. DH did not like it, partially because he thought none of the characters were likeable or sympathetic. I disagreed. After much discussion about it, we came to the conclusion that he judges characters more harshly than real people and I judge them less harshly. When we got home from the movie we watched the original Wall Street, which was also fine, but nothing special. We went to bed crazy early and I did some reading, of course.
I had Thursday off. It was lovely. It felt special, and DH and I have no idea why. We felt like we could do anything that day. DH asked the good question - why don't we feel that way every weekend? They are all ours to do what we please with, yet they don't have the same sense of freedom that Thusday had. After some doctors appts in the morning, we went out to breakfast at a chain restaurant I had never been to called First Watch. It was fine, but I prefer Bob Evans breakfast. Then we ran some errands, went to Half Price Books (where I of course got a few new books, including Good Poems, an anthology of poems chosen by Garrison Keilor, which certainly will be part of my reading list now), and then went to the dollar theater for a movie. We saw the new Wall Street - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. It was a bit slow, but I decided that I really liked it. I thought the characters were interesting and realistic, and the acting was fantastic. DH did not like it, partially because he thought none of the characters were likeable or sympathetic. I disagreed. After much discussion about it, we came to the conclusion that he judges characters more harshly than real people and I judge them less harshly. When we got home from the movie we watched the original Wall Street, which was also fine, but nothing special. We went to bed crazy early and I did some reading, of course.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Disorganized Thoughts on the Weekend
On sunday we "found" an hour. Neither of us remembered it was daylight savings time (fall backward), until "noon" on Sunday when DH tried to turn on the NFL pregame programs and found nothing on. It was a beautiful, magnificent discovery. I spent the extra hours playing Sims 3. DH spent the extra hour sleeping through a movie. Ah, the joys of the weekend.
We did almost no cleaning this weekend, which based on the state of the house was really bad of us. I found I just couldn't care that much when I would rather be doing other things. I went shopping with a friend and bought about 10 new tops. I am wearing two of them right now and love them. On Friday night we went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and then to see Easy A, which was a hilarious movie. I love Emma Stone. We watched Clash of the Titans on Saturday night, which was pretty boring for an action movie.
Football was good. Vikings won. I lost in fantasy. The Browns beat the patriots in an exciting game. It was not close at all, but it was exciting because how unexpected the blow out was.
My schedule coming up? 3 days of work. Thursday off. One day of work. The weekend. three days of work, then I leave for Duluth.
I will be in Duluth in 9 days. HP7 comes out in 10 days. I am excited. Life is good.
We did almost no cleaning this weekend, which based on the state of the house was really bad of us. I found I just couldn't care that much when I would rather be doing other things. I went shopping with a friend and bought about 10 new tops. I am wearing two of them right now and love them. On Friday night we went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and then to see Easy A, which was a hilarious movie. I love Emma Stone. We watched Clash of the Titans on Saturday night, which was pretty boring for an action movie.
Football was good. Vikings won. I lost in fantasy. The Browns beat the patriots in an exciting game. It was not close at all, but it was exciting because how unexpected the blow out was.
My schedule coming up? 3 days of work. Thursday off. One day of work. The weekend. three days of work, then I leave for Duluth.
I will be in Duluth in 9 days. HP7 comes out in 10 days. I am excited. Life is good.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Sick, Broken, Busy
We had a lot of plans this weekend. Monday night we went to the preview of an online estate sale with our friend T, then out to dinner. Tuesday night we went to an election party. Wednesday night we were supposed to go to trivia. Today we needed to pick some little thing sup that we won at that auction.
Unfortunately, this was all complicated by (1) me having a cold and (2) the Buick deciding it was it's turn to have battery issues. My cold was not horrible, but it was bad enough to make me not want to work. I ended up cutting all of my overtime for the week and coming home early both yesterday and today. I have been spending the time reading and watching stuff on Netflix. Streaming netflix is pretty much the best thing ever, did I mention that?
Somethings I have watched:
Donnie Darko - weird but really good
Mansfield Park -Jane Austen is always nice
Wristcutters - a dark dramady about what may happen after suicide
I also have watched episodes of Doctor Who, Primeval, Law & Order SVU, and am currently watching Alice in Wondeland (Yes, the new one w/Johnny Depp that I have been craving to see again).
Unfortunately, this was all complicated by (1) me having a cold and (2) the Buick deciding it was it's turn to have battery issues. My cold was not horrible, but it was bad enough to make me not want to work. I ended up cutting all of my overtime for the week and coming home early both yesterday and today. I have been spending the time reading and watching stuff on Netflix. Streaming netflix is pretty much the best thing ever, did I mention that?
Somethings I have watched:
Donnie Darko - weird but really good
Mansfield Park -Jane Austen is always nice
Wristcutters - a dark dramady about what may happen after suicide
I also have watched episodes of Doctor Who, Primeval, Law & Order SVU, and am currently watching Alice in Wondeland (Yes, the new one w/Johnny Depp that I have been craving to see again).
Monday, October 18, 2010
Another Weekend Update
This blog is rapidly becoming a slew of weekend updates. I do think of other things to blog about, but typically either don't have time or my enthusiasm wanes before I have the time. I am sure anyone else who tries to keep a blog understands entirely.
This past weekend went by quickly, but was nice. On Friday we watched The Blind Side. It was pretty good, entertaining and interesting, a bit too feel good, which I expected. We are absolutely loving Netflix and can now stream programs through our PS3. Some other things we have watched: Doctor Who, The Guild, A Haunting in Conneticut, and Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog. DH has been watching a lot of documentaries. Its so nice to have all of this good entertainment at the tip of our fingers and not have to rely on television programming.
Saturday I worked a little OT (money money money money money ... Money). After that I spend the afternoon baking a cake and watching football. In the evening we went to a dinner party. DH did not want to go because the OSU-Wisconsin game was on, but alas, social ettiquete. Anyways, it turned out to be good in multiple ways. The dinner party food was good (and more difficult, OK for Aaron), the chocolate cake was a hit, the company was good, and we played a fun game called Acquire (about hotel monopolies). Best of all, we did not watch the blood bath that was OSU getting beaten up by Wisconsin. I am glad I did not see the ridiculous, frustrating game.
Sunday morning we relaxed, got McD breakfast (yum.. I can't help it, I love fast food breakfast!!), watched some Netflix. I did some cleaning. In the afternoon we watched football and I read. I finished my book Mockingjay, which is the third in the series that starts with Hunger Games. It is YA Sci Fi Dystopia. I would post a review here, but it would contain spoilers and I don't know if any of my readers are reading that series. Suffice it to say, I gave it five stars. After I finished I headed up to Grandma's. Unfortunately I had a pretty bad migraine, so I was pretty miserbale company I am afraid, but it was still nice to be up there as it has been awhile. I made it home by 10pm and went pretty much straight to bed.
I have been having a ridiculous # of headaches recently. It has been a long time since I have had these many problems with them. They had become somewhat rare. *sigh*.
This past weekend went by quickly, but was nice. On Friday we watched The Blind Side. It was pretty good, entertaining and interesting, a bit too feel good, which I expected. We are absolutely loving Netflix and can now stream programs through our PS3. Some other things we have watched: Doctor Who, The Guild, A Haunting in Conneticut, and Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog. DH has been watching a lot of documentaries. Its so nice to have all of this good entertainment at the tip of our fingers and not have to rely on television programming.
Saturday I worked a little OT (money money money money money ... Money). After that I spend the afternoon baking a cake and watching football. In the evening we went to a dinner party. DH did not want to go because the OSU-Wisconsin game was on, but alas, social ettiquete. Anyways, it turned out to be good in multiple ways. The dinner party food was good (and more difficult, OK for Aaron), the chocolate cake was a hit, the company was good, and we played a fun game called Acquire (about hotel monopolies). Best of all, we did not watch the blood bath that was OSU getting beaten up by Wisconsin. I am glad I did not see the ridiculous, frustrating game.
Sunday morning we relaxed, got McD breakfast (yum.. I can't help it, I love fast food breakfast!!), watched some Netflix. I did some cleaning. In the afternoon we watched football and I read. I finished my book Mockingjay, which is the third in the series that starts with Hunger Games. It is YA Sci Fi Dystopia. I would post a review here, but it would contain spoilers and I don't know if any of my readers are reading that series. Suffice it to say, I gave it five stars. After I finished I headed up to Grandma's. Unfortunately I had a pretty bad migraine, so I was pretty miserbale company I am afraid, but it was still nice to be up there as it has been awhile. I made it home by 10pm and went pretty much straight to bed.
I have been having a ridiculous # of headaches recently. It has been a long time since I have had these many problems with them. They had become somewhat rare. *sigh*.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Gallavanting Across the Midwest
DH and I headed to St Louis this week to visit his parents. We had a long weekend because of Columbus Day. It was a pleasant and relaxing weekend. FIL was unfortunately sick with a lingering cold/fever. Because of this we kept it low key. MIL and I did some shopping and hung out, the guys mostly watched football. We all watched some football. I bought a pretty new fall jacket from Kohl's. It's orange and it makes me smile. (see if here). I also bought a couple of patterns (a simple skirt, shirt, and dress, as well as a doggie jacket, which may be the first project because River needs it). We had a lot of fun sorting through fabrics and drinking Starbucks.
Saturday night we went out for Mexican (FIL was feeling a bit better), and then watched "Book of Eli", which was terrible in my opinion - boring, preachy, and unrealistic. Great combination. After the movie we bowled, batted, pitched, hoola-hooped, skiied, and flew on the Wii. Lots of friendly competition, lots of fun. By Sunday FIL was mostly better and MIL was starting to go down hill. We watched the Lions beat up on the Rams, did a bit more shopping, and just enjoyed the day and each other's company. We had burgers and fried potatoes for dinner, and my Apple Cake for dessert, all of which was delicious.
Monday morning FIL had to head off to work bright and early. MIL stayed home for a couple of hours to see us off. We watched "The Express", which was pretty good, sorted through some of MILs fabric, and eventually headed off, which is when the real adventure began. DH was driving and I was not paying attention. We crossed the bridge from Missouri to Illinois and thought we were on our merry way across 70E, towards Columbus. WRONG. At the bridge, about 6 gajillion roads all cross the same bridge and then branch off their seperate ways. Apparently while I was babbling about random gossip, or singing along to some song, DH managed to take the wrong lane and head for Chicago on 55N. We did not realize this until we stopped for lunch over an hour later. After eating we went to get back on 70 and realized 70 was not there. By this time we were so far north it did not make sense to just back track. We also managed to do this on the one trip that we did not have our GPS with us (this might actually have contributed to the problem, since when I do have the GPS I check it frequently for fun). So, with no map, and no GPS, I ended up calling home for directions. My mom pulled out her map and directed us across 48 to 72. This new route happened to land us directly in Urbana-Champaign, so we called up our friend who live their and stopped for ice-cream before continuing on. Back on the road, DH managed to get a speeding ticket, so I took over the wheel. It felt like it took FOREVER to get around Indianapolis and back to Ohio. We left St Louis before noon and did not get home until after 10pm. While it was great seeing our friends in Illinois, it was a really long day and rather exhausting. I did not get to sleep until after midnight and had to be up at 6am this morning.
I think I will be hitting the sack early tonight. Now lets just cross our fingers and hope that DH and I did not catch the bug that was going around STL.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Its been a long time... I think I should be going
It is rapidly closing in on two weeks since my last post. An unintentional lapse sparked mostly, I believe, by my brief but rabid dedication to Les Miserables, which I finished on Wednesday night. I was reading that book in all the times I would normally be writing blog posts. I am sure a lot has happened since my last post, but I am not entirely sure what, or which things are interesting enough to blog about.
Some Highlights (and low lights for that matter):
- first beef stew of the season
- OSU football w/50 pack of McNuggets
- DH got a new wool coat, it looks great
- Nestie Dinner in Dublin
- Two Nights of Trivia (one of which we won)
- Review of Mansfield Park (see good reads, I am quite proud of that review)
- Les Miserables
- Found Money
- My first overtime/raise paycheck
- Low productivity at work- my first substantive quality assurance return
- Middlemarch: the movie
- the motorcycle vs Fools Rush in Bet
- "Shiver" book messing up MN
- "Forever" book taking Forever to read.
- DH's lost wedding ring.- last minute trip to St Louis (pending).
See? Things Happen. But nothing that is so amazing it dictates it's own post. So, you get some rambling. I am sure you are used to it. She was not able to reach the clmt.
I am currently on hold with Binder and Binder. Their hold message is really annoying. It is one of the Binder's talking in a low, calming voice, about how you might be eligible and they have a large staff that will be with you shortly. Let me be honest here. Binder and Binder is probably the last company I would go to if I wanted to file a disability claim. My opinion may be biased by my position on the "other side", but they are hard to work with, they don't allow us to speak to the clmt and they are not consistent at calling back with information. They do not respond to call-in letters. It is annoying.
I have been reading a lot lately, clearly. It is nice. The main reason DH and I made the challenge concerning Les Miserbables and Pride and Prejudice is because these are books we wanted the other person to read. I wanted Aaron to read Jane Austen, he wanted me to read Les Miserables. As far as I can tell, it is his favorite book. I spent a lot of time while I was reading Les Miserables complaining about it. First, about the long historic narratives of things I did not care about, then about the abuse of coincedences in forming the plot, then about the pages and pages harping on particular points, beating you over the head with ideas that could have been offered covertly with as much effectiveness (if not more). Victor Hugo wanted to be SURE that you knew what the book was about. He was not taking any chances of it being misinterpretted. Anyways, after all that complaining and whining, I ended up giving the book four stars. DH was surprised. The fact is, despite all of these annoyances, the book was chalked full of philosophy and interesting ideas, the part of it that actually concerned the characters was gripping and even a page turner, and it has an emotional satisfaction to it. Now, if I could, I would edit out 500+ pages, but I can see why it is classic and why DH likes it. I am sure we will soon watch the Mini-series version of it, and then perhaps the musical. Anyways, this reading challenge had nothing riding on it.
Another bet, however, had a bit riding on it. DH wants a motorcycle. I am OK with one from most perspectives, but would like to make sure that it makes sense moneywise. Would DH get as much utility out of a motorcycle as we could get out of using the money to go to Europe or fix up the house? I don't know. And so we have been debating the motorcycle. Well, trivia last week they asked a "casting call" question: What movie features Matthew Perry, Salma Hayek, and Jon Tenney? DH said "its that one movie that you own, where they get married fast and go down to south America." I told him I had no idea what he was talking about and I had never seen a movie like that. I told him I own the movie "Three to Tango", which has Matthew Perry, Naomi Cambell, and that guy from Law & Order. He did not believe me. We made a guess, which turned out to be wrong. The correct answer is "Fools Rush In", a movie I have heard of but never seen. DH continued to insist I owned it, until finally we made a bet. It was DH's idea. He said that if I owned it, he got to choose if he got a motorcycle, and if I did not own it, then he would not bother me about it for a year. Worked like a charm. I OF COURSE do not own it. DH cannot bug me about the motorcycle anymore. So, tell me, why do we put something HUGE like a motorcycle on a stupid little thing (whether I own a movie?) and put nothing on a big challege that we both have control over, like a reading race? I don't have a clue, but hey, whatever works.
I should go back to work. Bis Spaeter.
Some Highlights (and low lights for that matter):
- first beef stew of the season
- OSU football w/50 pack of McNuggets
- DH got a new wool coat, it looks great
- Nestie Dinner in Dublin
- Two Nights of Trivia (one of which we won)
- Review of Mansfield Park (see good reads, I am quite proud of that review)
- Les Miserables
- Found Money
- My first overtime/raise paycheck
- Low productivity at work- my first substantive quality assurance return
- Middlemarch: the movie
- the motorcycle vs Fools Rush in Bet
- "Shiver" book messing up MN
- "Forever" book taking Forever to read.
- DH's lost wedding ring.- last minute trip to St Louis (pending).
See? Things Happen. But nothing that is so amazing it dictates it's own post. So, you get some rambling. I am sure you are used to it. She was not able to reach the clmt.
I am currently on hold with Binder and Binder. Their hold message is really annoying. It is one of the Binder's talking in a low, calming voice, about how you might be eligible and they have a large staff that will be with you shortly. Let me be honest here. Binder and Binder is probably the last company I would go to if I wanted to file a disability claim. My opinion may be biased by my position on the "other side", but they are hard to work with, they don't allow us to speak to the clmt and they are not consistent at calling back with information. They do not respond to call-in letters. It is annoying.
I have been reading a lot lately, clearly. It is nice. The main reason DH and I made the challenge concerning Les Miserbables and Pride and Prejudice is because these are books we wanted the other person to read. I wanted Aaron to read Jane Austen, he wanted me to read Les Miserables. As far as I can tell, it is his favorite book. I spent a lot of time while I was reading Les Miserables complaining about it. First, about the long historic narratives of things I did not care about, then about the abuse of coincedences in forming the plot, then about the pages and pages harping on particular points, beating you over the head with ideas that could have been offered covertly with as much effectiveness (if not more). Victor Hugo wanted to be SURE that you knew what the book was about. He was not taking any chances of it being misinterpretted. Anyways, after all that complaining and whining, I ended up giving the book four stars. DH was surprised. The fact is, despite all of these annoyances, the book was chalked full of philosophy and interesting ideas, the part of it that actually concerned the characters was gripping and even a page turner, and it has an emotional satisfaction to it. Now, if I could, I would edit out 500+ pages, but I can see why it is classic and why DH likes it. I am sure we will soon watch the Mini-series version of it, and then perhaps the musical. Anyways, this reading challenge had nothing riding on it.
Another bet, however, had a bit riding on it. DH wants a motorcycle. I am OK with one from most perspectives, but would like to make sure that it makes sense moneywise. Would DH get as much utility out of a motorcycle as we could get out of using the money to go to Europe or fix up the house? I don't know. And so we have been debating the motorcycle. Well, trivia last week they asked a "casting call" question: What movie features Matthew Perry, Salma Hayek, and Jon Tenney? DH said "its that one movie that you own, where they get married fast and go down to south America." I told him I had no idea what he was talking about and I had never seen a movie like that. I told him I own the movie "Three to Tango", which has Matthew Perry, Naomi Cambell, and that guy from Law & Order. He did not believe me. We made a guess, which turned out to be wrong. The correct answer is "Fools Rush In", a movie I have heard of but never seen. DH continued to insist I owned it, until finally we made a bet. It was DH's idea. He said that if I owned it, he got to choose if he got a motorcycle, and if I did not own it, then he would not bother me about it for a year. Worked like a charm. I OF COURSE do not own it. DH cannot bug me about the motorcycle anymore. So, tell me, why do we put something HUGE like a motorcycle on a stupid little thing (whether I own a movie?) and put nothing on a big challege that we both have control over, like a reading race? I don't have a clue, but hey, whatever works.
I should go back to work. Bis Spaeter.
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