Ok, so I never actually left - it was just one of those weeks. The AC in my apartment started dripping, twice, which wasn't great for all the stuff nearby it... including my blow dryer. I had no idea that thing was a bit wet inside when I plugged it in, but at least all that happened was that I got to hear a scary sizzly snapping noise. Now I just have slight water seepage from my bathroom floor - here's hoping I can convince the apartment maintenance people to do something about it before it turns into mold.
A few plastic storage containers, a new blow dryer, a quart of chocolate fudge ice cream, and a day off have helped my mood some. I'm very behind on my blogging, though, which seems a bit pathetic. One post a week is all I aim for, and I didn't even manage that.
I do have lots to write about, both in full posts and in passing. I've been getting much more into listening to books/stories in podcast form. During the past few work days, I've been listening to The Leviathan Chronicles - I highly recommend it (there's a trailer on the site - at least go try that out!). If it were just a book, I'm not sure I'd be saying that, since the story is slower paced than I'd like and the mystery element not as interesting as it could be. However, the production is excellent. It's not an audio book - if I had to compare it to something, I'd say it's like a radio play. There's a full cast, enough sound effects to make you think you're listening to a TV show or something, and a narrator. It all sounds really, really good, and it's a joy to listen to. Even if the story continues to not grab me, I'll still listen to it. The only drawback, for me, was the size of the files - well, the first file, at least, since I never tried any of the others. With Podiobooks stuff, I usually download all the files and then listen to them in Windows Media Player - it's easy to tell where I've stopped for the day, and I don't have to pause my cataloging to click to the next file. Because the files are so big, I just listen to The Leviathan Chronicles directly on the site - not too big a deal, but the site's player doesn't tell you how many minutes or seconds into a chapter you are (or even how long a chapter is), so it's a little hard for me to stop in the middle of a chapter and start it up at the same spot the next day.
Well, moving on. I decided to go see a movie today - in particular, I saw The Ugly Truth. Happily, it cost me less than $3, because it failed on all levels. It was a romantic comedy that was neither romantic nor funny. I think there were a couple scenes that made me laugh, but I can't say what they were, since those scenes were so unforgettable that I can't remember them mere hours after seeing the movie. As far as the romance goes, it seems like the script writers decided that simply calling something romantic makes it romantic, which, unfortunately for them, isn't true. For instance, there's a bit near the end where the two main characters, Abby and Mike, suddenly succumb to the passion/lust that started to build between them during an earlier dancing scene - they start kissing in an elevator and probably would've torn each other's clothes off if they'd been somewhere more private. Later, Abby says something about this time in the elevator being incredibly romantic. Huh? Passionate, ok, lustful, yes, but romantic? Do the script writers even know what romance is?
That's only one of my complaints about the movie, but I can't say I hated it as much as so many critics did. It just wasn't very good, and I'd probably be more upset about that if the movie ticket had cost me more and if there had been anything else I'd decided not to see so that I could see this instead. The nice thing about the movie theater here is that it's cheap. The not-so-nice thing is that they only show a handful of movies at a time. I've already seen the new Harry Potter movie and have no desire to watch stealth guinea pigs or whatever else is showing right now. I'm looking forward to The Time Traveler's Wife in a couple weeks, though.
That's it for now. Hopefully I'll get off my butt and finish a book or movie post sometime in the next few days.
The Time Traveler's Wife was such a beautiful book in some ways. There was something about it that made it, hmm, I don't know: complete, alive and real. Really satisfying.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you think of HP? I quite enjoyed the movie, really liked the visuals and the artistry in the compositions.
The way I approach movies is to completely forget about a book and enjoy its reinvention. There're so many things that can't be transferred across both mediums.
I enjoyed the Harry Potter movie and it's been long enough since I last read the book that knowledge of that didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the movie too much. I occasionally had moments where I my brain started nagging me about events I thought had happened in the book that didn't happen in the movie, and vice versa, but I was usually able to squash that feeling. I haven't seen the previous Harry Potter movie, although I've seen all the ones before it, so I also couldn't quite remember what had already happened and what hadn't.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED The Time Traveler's Wife, even though it made me cry every time I read it (I hate it when books and movies make me cry). I was also lucky enough to see some of the real life locations mentioned in the book, like the cage at the Newberry Library - that adds a level of enjoyment I've rarely gotten to experience. It's been a couple years since I last read the book, so I'm hoping it's been long enough that I can just enjoy the movie for what it is.