Star Trek

I just watched the new Star Trek movie...

IT WAS THE BEST STAR TREK MOVIE EVER!!!

What else can I say. The movie completely resets the Star Trek universe while staying true to the characters and there are no lame-o, wimpy cop outs in this movie at all.

I can't get over how much I love this movie. I just paid $15.50 to watch it in an IMAX theater and I can honestly say it was worth every penny, and more.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

This is just outside the Pump Room at Bath. The Pump Room is part of the Kings and Queens Baths where people went to bathe and drink the mineral water. It was very healthy.

The baths were made by the Romans using the natural water sources and the ubiquitous Roman engineering to produce heated flooring, steam baths, pool sized public baths, etc. It was very awesome until the Romans left and the baths went to ruin because the natives didn't have the skill, or maybe even the desire to keep things working.

Anyway, later on the baths were rediscovered and restored, sort of, and Bath became a health resort. By the time Jane Austen lived there, it was a fashionable place to be unwell. Which brings me to the book I'm reading this very day! I have gotten sucked into Persuasion by Jane Austen. I'd seen the movie with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root, and loved it. I also gave the book a try a while back, but wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. I'd been reading too many instant gratification novels to be able to settle down to the intricacy and quiet build up of intensity that makes Persuasion magic.

The main character, Anne Elliot, is disregarded and underestimated by almost all the characters in the book. She is voiceless and unwanted in her family. Austen seems to be illustrating Anne's invisibility in the first part of the book by using Anne only briefly here and there in the story. She seems to be scenery. We read what the other characters do and say, Anne is mentioned, but does not speak or take action herself. I wonder if we are meant to relate to Anne as fellow participants, without voice, in the story. Are we supposed to BE Anne, seeing, and understanding, but having no influence?

As the novel progresses, Anne becomes more visible and audible. She takes greater part, and receives some encouragement, which makes her begin to come to life. When Anne begins to be more involved, she becomes more visible and audible in the novel. We read more of her thoughts, and more of her conversation.

I love how this story is so intensely romantic. It's about feelings and convention, and which is more important. I particularly like the title the more I think about it. There are so many kinds of persuasion in this novel: Misguided persuasion, forceful persuasion, gentle persuasion. As I read, I see how persuasion is used by many of the characters, sometimes for good, and sometimes for ill. Some characters can only sometimes be persuaded to sensible behavior, if their pride is properly appealed to. Other times characters will not be persuaded, because they know what they know.

The more I read Jane Austen's novels, the more convinced I am that she was a very astute observer of human nature and I admire her courage in writing so clearly what she saw.

On the Road

I really love the scenery on the drive from Henderson, NV to Grand Junction, CO, so I wanted to take pictures of it.  But I didn't want to stop the car.  I was torn between my desire to have pictures of the scenery and my desire to not stop.  

This is one of the pictures I took through the windshield.  I think it's okay.  I had other pictures that just show bug dots on the windshield, not the scenery.

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa was great.  I got to spend time with Grandpa,  go to a movie with Dawnee, eat tres leches cake for the first time, and watch Wall-E.  

I asked Grandpa about his time in Japan right after WWII, and looked at his pictures from Japan.  Grandpa really enjoyed his time there and said that he was seriously planning on going back as a civilian worker, but the Korean War broke out and he ended up staying in the U.S. because he didn't want to be involved in that.

The movie Dawnee and I watched was Escape to Witch Mountain a remake of the 70's Disney movie with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  I thought it was cute.  A couple things stood out though. For one,  The Rock's teeth were noticeably WHITE.  Every time he spoke or smiled, I thought to myself, "Yep, white teeth.  Didn't this character just get out of jail? Doesn't he live in a motel, and drive a taxi?  Is teeth whitening part of the exit package for prisoners leaving jail these days?"  So, I definitely noticed the teeth. 

 The other thing that stood out in a perplexing way was the relationship between the girl alien and The Rock's character.  During most of the movie, the action was quick with not a lot of time for relationship development.  All of a sudden, in the last 15 - 20 minutes, The Rock's character and the girl alien seemed to have a really close relationship, not inappropriate, just closer than the rest of the movie led me to expect, so when they had their emotional good-byes, I was a little uncomfortable.  I couldn't help wondering where all the pathos had come from.  

I did read a book this week.  I read the third book in Lois McMaster Bujold's "Sharing Knife" series.  It was good.  It's a fantasy series that's not too 'fantastic'.  It's more down to earth and the characters come across as likable people who don't, usually, take themselves to seriously.

I really like the manga "My Heavenly Hockey Club" too.  It's about a girl whose main goals in life are to sleep more and to eat more.  She's really lazy.  She gets into a prestigious high school by studying her butt off, not to change her ways and get a quality education, but because the school is only 5 minutes away walking distance.  She wants to sleep as long as she can in the morning.

This manga is really silly, and I like it because it has food, travel, bishies, and a clueless heroine.

I think I'm done. 

 Yep.

This Week In the Life of Me

I really liked taking pictures of ruins, and gardens, and museums, and other historic sites when I was in England.  Unfortunately, I killed my camera a couple years ago by dropping it and then stepping on it.  Double whammy.

Sooo, I think it's about time I buy another camera.  I've chosen my poison already.  It's a Canon Powershot A590 digital camera.  All the reviews I've read have been really positive and it's around $130, which I think I can handle. 

I'm getting my camera, hopefully, this week to take with me to Grand Junction, and then in June to Indianapolis; where tons of fun will be had by Roni and Kim.  If I get the camera like I plan, I will definitely have more up-to-date photos to put up.  This picture of Stonehenge is almost four years old.  

I joined a Jane Austen book club and we're starting with Persuasion.  I loved the movie, I don't remember the version, or actors names, but it wasn't a BBC mini series version.  I started the book a while back, but never finished it.  I think I couldn't stand middle part with the twists and turns and hurt feelings that had to be resolved.  I believe I read the beginning and the end. This time, I will be good and read the whole thing from cover to cover.  

 

Just belonging to a "Jane Austen book club", frankly, makes me feel all cultured and better than everybody else.  Okay, not really.  It's kind of like the way glasses make a person look smart, no matter what the truth of the matter may be.  

 

Umm, it's time for  a confession now. . . I set off the smoke alarms in the apartment this week.  It was awful.  I had rice on the stove and completely forgot about it.  There were clouds of black smoke billowing from the pot, and the stench was awful.  Added to that was the brain-penetrating power of the howling alarm, and the terrible fear that I wouldn't stop the alarm soon enough to prevent the fire department from coming to drench my rice and waste tax-payers' money because I forgot I had rice on the stove.  

The smell lasted for a couple days and to top it all off, when I tried to salvage some of the rice, I couldn't.  Even the unburned bits smelled terrible.  I really wanted to eat that rice, too.

 

The second part of the alarm story is just persecution of me by the alarms.  Today the alarms went off for no reason.  I promise, there was no smoke, or anything.  I didn't burn ANYTHING today.  I couldn't get the alarms to go off, and I thought I was going to die from the wicked awful clamor.  I was so desperate, what with disturbing the Sunday peace and all, that I disconnected all the alarms from the ceiling.  I just took them right off.  

 

It wasn't until I took off the first alarm that I fully realized that ALL the alarms in the apartment were going off, and the apartment has four alarms.  Three of the alarms cooperated and stopped screeching within a minute of being disconnected.  The fourth and final alarm kept going.  And going.  And going.  I tried turning it over.  That slightly muffled the sound.  I put it under the kitchen sink.  That was better.  But I wanted it to stop completely.  Why not try waving it around under the ceiling fan?  Surely that will stop it, I thought, but I was a bit pessimistic about positive results, to tell the truth.  Happily, the planets were correctly aligned and the alarm stopped...Until I noticed the excess lint stuck in the alarm and tried blowing it out.  

 

What the Heck!  It was at this point that I became personally offended.  I put the alarm back up to the fan and it stopped again.  Sheesh.  Then my roommate came home.  She was very nice about the alarms all being disconnected, even the one in her room, but I just know she thinks I'm a nut.  

 

I got two of the alarms reconnected, no problems, but the other two started screeching as soon as I tried to connect them, so they probably need new batteries, or a service check, or something.  Now I'm all worked up again and angry at obnoxious alarms.

Bone Crossed

Woohoo!

This Wednesday I found out that Bone Crossed, the newest book in Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series is already out. I thought it wouldn't be out for a while yet. I decided I couldn't wait for it to be shipped to me from Amazon, so I went to Barnes&Noble and grabbed a copy.

I did not wait for the weekend. Even though I knew I would NOT want to put the book down until I finished it. Even knowing that reading late on a school night had the potential to make the next day pretty crummy could not stop me.

I devoured the book in one, wundermous night. The book, and read, were way too short for my greediness, but it was a fabulous night.

I like Mercy Thompson a lot. I really do. She has attitude and pride, but she doesn't make her pride more important than anything else. She has serious car skills, and she cares deeply about the people around her. She's a person who does what she believes is right, even when it's really hard, and she has the ability to laugh at herself.

In this installment Mercy finally comes to terms with her feelings of hesitation regarding her relationship with Adam, the local Alpha werewolf. She realizes that Adam's dominant personality will not drown her own personality out for a couple reasons: One, her own will is too strong to be washed away; and two, Adam doesn't want to control her. Adam loves her as she is, and as angry as she makes him at times, he wouldn't want her to be a doormat.

Other than the relationship stuff, Mercy tangles with a monster vampire, another twisted vampire, and some ghosts. She's also dealing with the aftermath of events from the previous book which were personally awful for her.

I'm already excited for the next book.

As a final note, this is the first hardback for Patricia Briggs, and even though I'm a little miffed to have to pay more and have my set not match (paperback, paperback, paperback, hardback), I'm glad for her! I love her stories, her characters, and her style.

If you haven't already read her stuff, DO IT NOW. Don't delay.

Hob's Bargain
Raven's Shadow, Raven's Strike
Moon Called (1st Mercy book)
Cry Wolf (Mercy world, diff. characters)

Inkheart

Before I even talk about the movie, Inkheart, can I just say that $10.25 for a movie is crazy!? I didn't even buy any snacks. I'm sure that if I had, I wouldn't be able to buy groceries for a while.

I liked the movie alot. I wasn't sure I would, because when I started the book the movie is based on, it just didn't hold my attention. I really bought the book because the cover was pretty, and the subject reminded me of The Neverending Story, which is, like, a book lover's fantasy come true. What book lover doesn't want to be part of the story, and be friends with the characters?

Back to the movie, I really liked it, and not just because it has Brendan Fraser. The story is about a father and daughter who travel all over together. Everywhere they go, dad looks for a certain book. Apparently there are people who can read objects and characters out of books, and the dad is one of them. The tricky thing is that when something or someone is read out of a book, something from this world gets sucked into the book. Dad didn't know he had this talent when he was reading to his wife and daughter one night. Bad guys from the book came out, mom went in.

After nine years of searching, the dad finally finds the book that mom got read into, and that's where the adventure starts. The book he finds is destroyed, but they find the author of the book, discover that mom was read out of the book a year ago, without her voice, and have to go to the castle of the originally read out bad guy to save her - and daughter, who, it turns out also has the talent to read things into being.

I don't really want to summarize everything from the movie. I just want to say I enjoyed it and recommend it. Especially if you love books, want to share with someone the true adventure of books, or just like Brendan Fraser.

There is a really awful part of the movie. It involves a life's collection of books and cretins and fire. I can't say anymore. It's too painful. I'm sure you can imagine it.

I just have to ask though... why do movie makers and bad guys take so much joy in BURNING BOOKS?

sob, whimper, gasp...

No Room is Complete Without Books

Reading Room at the British Museum

There have to be books in a room for it to be complete. Books add warmth and companionship. Books are possibilities and friends. I love books best when they are open, but I also sincerely love a book's mere presence.

I can't imagine myself ever living in a place with no books. I'd probably be stark staring nuts in a matter of days. One of the first things I check out when I'm moving somewhere is the location and catalog of local public libraries. I also like to know where the bookstores are: Barnes and Noble, Borders, and most especially used book stores.

My room is full of books. I have books in/on/under bookshelves and in boxes in closets. I have new books, used books, and books my Grandma Williams used in high school. I have hardback and paperback, and some with messed up covers. I have manga, poetry, scifi, fantasy, westerns (Louis L'Amour), biographies, inspirational, romance, young adult, children's, historical, travel guide, mystery, reference, unread, and forever favorites.

I love books. I no longer have an actual security blanket, but my books are my comfort and my security blanket, and I like it that way.

My current favorites are Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka, A Single Voice by Kristen M. Oaks, and Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series.