My 2018 Reading Challenge Fail

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may recall that for the past 4 years I post about my year in books. I've set a goal to read a number of books that coincides with the year; no real reason other than that it's been doable and I figured why not? So last year, my goal was to read 18 books in 2018. Prior to that 17 books in 2017, and so on.

This is the first year I did not meet my goal. I only read 13.

I have to admit, I have not been reading nearly as much as I used to since my diagnosis. I think part of it is because I'm more tired, and reading while tired is hard to do. And part of it is that I've definitely fallen into a habit of watching more TV, it's just easy to do.

But aside from all of that, coincidence or not, I've just been having a really hard time getting into books. The past 5 audiobooks I rented were started and never finished because... ehn. They just didn't really interest me that much. The last book I actually finished was in September. Ever since, I've been kind of aimless, picking up and putting down so many books trying to find something that grabs my attention.

So for this year, I didn't increase my goal as I have years before and instead set it again at 18. I am currently reading a book that I'm actually into, so hopefully that can kick me back in the right direction. But, here are my thoughts about the books I read in 2018:

Tell Me Where It Hurts — Written by an animal surgeon, this one promised to be good, but didn't really deliver the kind of 'heart' I was looking for.

Orphan Train — 3 stars, not sure what all the hype about this one is about. It was good, but not that good.

A Walk In the Woods —I have not chuckled so much at a book in a very long time. I loved his writing style and learned quite a lot as well. I mean, there is only so much you can say about endless walking. This book was peppered with wonderful anecdotes, ecology facts, botany, and history. It was a very enjoyable, quick read.

Ready Player One — Full of 80s nostalgia and references of all types, this book was really good! The movie version, though, is nothing like it and is awful. Avoid the movie lol.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye — Really slow, way too many plot lines that oh-so-coincidentally tie-in with each other. Sadly, my road with Lizbeth Salander may have come to an end here. If this hadn't been part of the Millennium books I know and love, I probably would have put this down and not finished. Will I be curious for the next one, just the same? Who knows.

Exit West — The writing style was weird and difficult, but aside from that it just wasn't that interesting. Huge disappointment.

The Great Alone — A bit predictable at times, but the story was told so well that it didn't even matter. I really enjoyed this one. A great story of love, loss, and the hardships and beauty of life.

All the President's Men — I very much enjoyed Bernstein and Woodward's book, and it is crazy how so many of the things that happened parallel with things happening today.

10% Happier — I re-read this one. Good as always.

Finding Gobi — Delightful! This was a well-written, beautiful, feel-good dog story.

Girl, Wash Your Face —  I devoured this book. And loved it. If I could, I would give a copy of this book to every young woman my age that I know. There are things to nitpick about it, but the overall message was so good and so well done.

All Creatures Great and Small — This one was alright, but wasn't entirely what I expected. It is a collection of stories from a vet in the British countryside, back in the day. The stories were good, but many of them were frank tellings of, well, medical things, so there's a lot of blood and pus and whatever else you could imagine you'd encounter when you have to take care of farm animals.

Little Fires Everywhere — Really good book! A little too "of the now" at times, but great story telling. I highly recommend the audiobook version.

Friday Fast 5

Five quick things!

1. We saw Hamilton on Sunday! It was really good, a very impressive show. The writing/music is quite a masterpiece. That being said, I can't say it's my new favorite musical. My favorite either has to be Wicked or The Lion King. This is up there as one of the good ones, and I'm really glad I saw it, but I don't know... I guess I've been conflicted with this because there is so much hype around it. What am I missing here? But if I'm being completely honest, it didn't totally blow my socks off. I chose to NOT listen to the soundtrack and familiarize myself with the music ahead of time, which I've done on nearly any other big show I've seen. I mean, I knew a couple of the songs, I could have sung you "Alexander Hamilton" in the specific notes, but I didn't listen and memorize it all. I've been wondering if that was why I felt how I did? It was REALLY good, but for me it wasn't the best show ever on the face of the earth. 
2. I also went to see Godspell at Borgia last night, and it was good. They took a slightly different spin on the show, but a very modern one that felt right with the times. 
3. I finally was down in Chesterfield valley and drove past where they are building Top Golf... Holy. Crap. What a monstrosity that thing is. I can now understand why some locals weren't too happy about it being right there. That being said, I'm curious to try it. I've never played golf in my life, and don't intend to, so this would be my only opportunity to swing a golf club outside of putt putt. I expect I will be equally as bad at it as I am at bowling...
4. ...the last time I bowled, for Jarrod's birthday, I got a 68. I'm just that good.
5. I'm really bummed it will be cold again on Sunday, gosh I'm ready for this spring weather to stay here!

17 Book in 2017

Time for my annual re-cap in books I've read this year! I once again surpassed my original goal of reading 17 books in 2017. I ended up reading 21, so I will press on with the trend and set a goal of 18 books for next year. I also started three other books, but haven't finished them, so those will end up on next year's totals.

Enjoy.

Better Than Before — This one is about habits and learning about yourself and your tendencies, but unlike most self-help books, does not proclaim one singular way to achieve whatever it is you are wanting to accomplish. The author Gretchen Rubin acknowledges, and celebrates, that there are fundamental differences in how people operate and what works for one might not work for another. A great book!

Four Seasons of Marriage — Meh. The first part, describing the seasons, was somewhat interesting. But the last two parts were very repetitive and long-winded.

Pride and Prejudice — I know many of my women friends love this book, and love Mr. Darcy, and love Jane Austen's writing in general, but it's just not my cup of tea. I tried, but didn't like this book.

The Dorito Effect — Also meh. The initial information presented was interesting, especially learning about how food has progressed and changed through recent decades. But the author gets a little too wrapped up in his analogy that practically everything is a victim of "the Dorito effect." I kept waiting and waiting for the author to present a solution or some sort of upward, motivating thinking to solve the problem or get real flavor (not fake flavors) back into our foods, but it never really came. (So basically we're all screwed, ha.)

Scent of the Missing — Loved this book! Very interesting to learn about search and rescue; well-written, a great book for animal lovers.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up — This book is not even that long, but it is way too long. What could have sufficed as a well-written essay was drawn out, repeated over and over, for 4.5 hours (in audiobook.) This book details Marie Kondo's self-made method for picking up your house, but she is so self-righteous. She feels this is the ONE and ONLY way to truly "tidy" your house. There is no other way. Final answer. This was presented as the end all, be all method. I have a problem with that. The book drove me nuts for a few days, trying to adhere to her advice, until I decided to promptly forget it. I've been happier since. Read at your own risk... some people love this book. I am not one of them.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — Re-read this book in preparation to read the new, 4th installment in the series. Still holds up, still really enjoyed it.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — Underwhelming. The plot was predictable but I think the format is what really bothered me. I'm even a theater person, I've read many a script, but this one is lacking, written as a script. It's like-able enough, but I definitely did not love it. In a perfect world, I would have much rather Rowling write this on her own, work with the other two to create the script for the stage, and they can coexist as both a full blown novel AND as a play.

The Girl Who Played With Fire — Again, re-read this one. Probably my least favorite, so far, in the series. It's just kind of slow to build up the plot, in comparison with the others.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest — Also re-read this. I had forgotten the most about what goes on in this one, so it was nice to rediscover it.

Not My Father's Son — One of the best 'celebrity memoirs' I've read in recent years. For me, this is because it is actually a story about a particular subject rather than the mish-mash of cheap jokes, gossip stories, and life advice most celebrities compile into a book (which are not my thing.) Though tragic, the story was told beautifully. I think the audiobook was even better since it was read by the author.

We Bought A Zoo — Boring. This is one of the rare cases where the movie is much better than the book. I really like this movie and it's uplifting, positive message. The book is hardly like the movie, and how the movie producers were able to come up with such a fine story from such lackluster source material is to be commended. After 2/3 of the book, I completely lost interest.

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Shape Our Man-Made World — As someone who is constantly fascinated by physics and chemistry (though did not have an aptitude for those school subjects) I loved this one! Written by a materials scientist, this book is not dumbed down, and therefore won't be for everyone. But for those curious about 'stuff' on an atomic and molecular level, it is very interesting. Full of detail, yet concise and well-written.

The Girl in the Spider's Web — A continuation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books, but with a new author since the original author passed away. Slow to get going, but once it did, it was hard to put down. A worthy continuation.

Pax — My first foray into YA lit in a long time. It's about a boy and his pet fox, Pax. It was good, I guess, but not great. I expected so much more from this book.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — This is the source material for Blade Runner, and what an interesting story this was! The version I read was a graphic novel adaptation of the original book, but it was really good. I enjoyed it so much more than Blade Runner. 

Lord of the Flies — Never had to read this in school, so this was my first time. I thought it was very good too. It's a great commentary on how societies and communities are built, what they're built on, and how they can so easily fall apart. Short read.

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir — Meh, nothing special about this one. This was one man's story of his upbringing in a dysfunctional, poor, white family.

The Green Mile — The book was good. It was originally released in pieces as a serial novel. But now that I've read it, I can tell you that the movie is SO well done. Everything is almost to the letter of the book, which is to be highly commended for a movie. There's not much to be gained from reading the book in this case, but it was still a good book.

Color Me Beautiful — Since I love color theory, this one interested me when a friend told me about it years ago. The writer posits that the color of your hair and your skin tone (warm or cool) determines your "color season." You will look This book was published in 1980 and has never been updated, but I actually appreciate that. The rules and theory never change, so it didn't matter if it was stylistically outdated. Not for everyone, but if you're curious why you look great in the color blue, but something just seems 'off' when you wear the color orange, this might be for you.

The Innovators — This book book details the history and collaboration behind some of the most important technological advances in history, starting with Ada Lovelace, punch cards, transistors, and onwards. A fascinating story for nerds like us (Jarrod actually listened to this one on audiobook and enjoyed it.)

Rosie the Roomba

For anyone who's ever thought about buying one, I thought I'd share my experiences.

I finally broke down and bought a Roomba over a month ago. I'd been contemplating it for over two years. Vacuuming the house is something that is physically really hard for me to do. So it falls on Jarrod, but it was easy to forget about. We were lucky if we vacuumed the house every two weeks.

Enter Rosie the Roomba, fondly named after the Jetsons' robot maid. She has been cleaning my house ever since, and it's been great. I am really, really glad we finally got a Roomba.

But, it's not exactly a no effort thing, not quite "set it and forget it." Unless you buy a higher end model that has "whole home/multi-room cleaning", you still have to make a point to move the Roomba and charger room to room. The reason is that the Roomba only has so much battery life, and it is 'supposed to' return to its dock when it knows it's finished cleaning. If you were to just set it loose on your whole home, it would surely die of a dead battery in some random spot. Unless you live in a studio apartment that is like 800 sq. ft., most all homes are too big for the Roomba to attempt to cover in one go (again, unless you get a more expensive model.)

We bought a middle-of-the-road model that we felt would suit our needs, and I got a great deal from an Amazon seller. One of the options I wanted was the "tangle-free rollers." The rollers aren't made of normal bristles, but instead these rubbery teeth that whisk up dirt and hair. For those with a pet, this is practically a must-have.

Josie meets Rosie :)

To use it properly like I just described, I made myself a schedule for which room to move it to, and what day. Our Roomba came with a "virtual wall" that creates an invisible line the Roomba will not cross, which is essential for splitting up our kitchen from the rest of the living area.

It cleans well on all surfaces; tile, wood, carpet, it does great. What I really love about it is that it gets under the hard-to-reach areas, like under your bed or under your sofa. It also happens to fit perfectly under our bedroom furniture (the dresser, the night stands, all of it) and I love walking in the bedroom to find it cruising along from underneath our bed to underneath my dresser.

But there are some cons. You definitely have to pick up your space before you use it. If there are shoes or toys laying on the floor, it will either run them over or shove them around. I left a pair of shoes in the laundry room once and it sucked up the laces; luckily I pulled them right out, but still. There are also horror stories of Roombas smearing dog poo around because it cleaned while the owner was at work. There is a schedule function on it, which I have yet to use since I work from home, but that option is there. Say you want it to clean while you're at work, again, you have to make sure you're room is all picked up before you leave the house.

It cleans in a non-sensical pattern, not in straight lines like we would. I do think it misses spots occasionally, even though technically it's not supposed to, but I am not overly concerned because it will get to it next week. And if this does happen, it's primarily in our large living room, not in the bedrooms. For our hardwood, I still dust mop every couple weeks to pick up whatever it may have missed. Futhermore, since it is a round object, it doesn't always get into tight corners. So the dust mop takes care of that. There are times it gets fixated on an area and keeps coming back there 4-5 times, which I don't understand but whatever.

It pushes my floor lamp around, which is sort of comical to watch, but a tad annoying. The base isn't heavy enough to keep it in place. It bangs into things sometimes, too. Sometimes it is really good at sensing it is approaching an object and it slows down and gently taps it, and then other times it just runs right into it. It does better with solid things like walls and such, but not so much with skinny table legs.

Josie was wary of it when we first got it, but she never barked at it or was really scared, so that's good. I think the most annoying thing for Josie is once she finally finds a comfy spot to lay down, she has to get up again because suddenly the Roomba is headed her way, haha.

Overall though, I'm very glad to have it. Our floors are probably the cleanest they've been—consistently—in a long time. The dust bin, though much smaller than a full sized vacuum, always has a good amount of dust and dog hair in it, so it cleans really well. There are no more colossal dust bunnies or piles of dog hair under our bed, which is great. It's a very clever machine, and I've watched it work itself out of tight spots before.

To sum it all up, I'm very happy with it, though it does have a couple drawbacks that mainly revolve around it running into furniture and having to put your room back together when it's done. But the ease of use and convenience outweigh those, for me.

If you're thinking of getting one, my best advice is to do some research. Not all Roombas are created equal, something I didn't realize before. There are 5 current models offered, though you will still find plenty of older ones no longer in production on Amazon. There is a budget model, but based on my research, it sounded like the cheaper models constantly banged into everything, where the higher models do better sensing the room and slowing down as they approach something. There are almost always some super duper Black Friday offers on Roombas, but many times it's on cheaper models or, on Amazon, out-of-production or open-box stuff. If you just want a Roomba but don't care about the options, Black Friday is your best bet. If you do want to be more picky, like myself, do your research and watch Amazon prices, and especially the "other sellers."

If I haven't exhausted the topic and you have any more questions, just ask! :)

16 Books in 2016

I was able to continue my theme of reading the number of books to match the year this year, and I play to set a goal of reading 17 books for next year! I even surpassed my goal this year, way back in the beginning of October. Recently, I've been slowly re-reading the Harry Potter books, and at this point I'm not going to finish all 7 this year. We've had so much else going on that I've barely had much time to sit and read.

But, without further ado, I give you my small reviews of my books in 2016:

Batman: The Killing Joke — Hailed as one of the essential stories in Batman and Joker lore, this graphic novel had great artwork and a great origin story to boot.

Modern Romance — I started listening to audiobooks with this one (adding audiobooks into the mix this year certainly helped me reach my goal quicker). It was read by the author, Aziz Ansari, and if you're a fan of his humor you will enjoy this book. It was comical yet poignant at the same time, and listening to the author read their own book is a nice treat.

It's A Long Story — This new biography of Willie Nelson was good. I'm not even the biggest fan of his music, but I thought his would be an interesting story. And it was. If you are a fan, this is a must-read.

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works — This book was all about meditation. But it was written in a no-nonsense way that made the topic very accessible. There was no fluffy voodoo crap, no stories of people sitting around going "Ohmmmmm", just straight-forward talk about this man's situation and how he came to use meditation in his life to control his anxiety and stress, and it was really well done.

Yes Please — Amy Poehler's humorous book... another entry in the obligatory "comedian writes a funny book about life lessons" category. It seems every comedian or celebrity feels they need to write a book like this, and they are all essentially the same. Aziz's Modern Romance book was slightly different, because he actually looked into research and studies about one central topic: relationships in the modern world. This book was fine, but afterwards I decided I was kind of over these types of books; I don't care how hilarious you claim Amy Schumer, or Chelsea Handler, or whoever's new book is, I'm done with this specific genre.

The Fellowship of the Ring — I attempted to read the LOTR books a long time ago and failed. This time, I made it through the first one, but I've been at a dead stop on page 20 of the second one. We re-watched the movies, which are great, and I am glad I am getting around to reading these, but it's been slow.

All the Light We Cannot See — As much as I wanted to like this book, I never could get into it. I'm glad I stuck with it, as the ending was at least somewhat satisfying, but it was hard. The writing style was too drippy-poetic for my tastes, sentences were choppy. Cut up. Like paper scattered on sunlit sand. (See what I did there?) I found the book at times confusing because I wasn't sure which character I was reading about, but mostly I found each character's story too dissonant. The loose theme of always coming back to everything being about light was thin at best and, again, mostly a bunch of poetic flim-flam I wasn't really in the mood for.

From Baghdad, With Love: A Marine, the War, and a Dog Named Lava — My cousin passed this book onto me, because she knows we both like dog books. It was an interesting story about a soldier who 'adopts' a dog while in the military over in Baghdad, and the hoops he has to go through to bring her home. Not bad, especially for a dog lover.

When Breath Becomes Air — I'm going to declare this my favorite book of 2016. It's a memoir from a neurosurgeon who suddenly ends up with terminal cancer. He is extremely introspective and reflective on what life is about, what makes life worth it, and other deeper musings. It was a quick read, but a really, really good one. Grab a tissue box. Even for someone who deals with these topics more often than the average person, it had me in tears more than once.

Little Bee — A slightly different book, but rewarding. It's hard to say what it's about, but I thought it was good.

Animal Farm — I'm glad I finally read this classic. Once again, as most distopian or satirical classic novels are, this book proved true in multiple ways. It was also especially interesting to take note of different things in the book and different things that happened during the election campaigns.

I Am Malala — Malala's story is an interesting one, and one worth telling, but I didn't find this book phenomenal like some people did.

Inside of a Dog — Fairly intriguing ideas and concepts, but I began to lose interest about 2/3 through. This book is extremely detailed and reads kind of like a psychology study published in a medical journal, so it's not for everyone. It was a tad too long-winded.

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things — A new book from a new author this year, this one was really good. The story is not exactly pretty, as it is about a child who lives with drug-addicted parents, but it was worth the read.

The Joker — This graphic novel was a darker take on the Joker. The artwork was simply stunning; one of the early pages with the Joker walking out of Arkham Asylum was beautifully done. The story was pretty good too, but the artwork was so great!

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — This book got to be long-winded. The author weaved in her own story of investigating HeLa cells and the family of Henrietta, which I understand to a point, otherwise the book would have been too dry and medical. But the details upon details about the author's daily life were not needed. The audiobook version also became very grating with the voices the reader was using. All in all, just meh.

The Book Thief — Great book! It was creatively told from a very different voice and kept the story very interesting and enjoyable. 

And after that, I've been reading the Harry Potters. So there you have it! 

Photo Shoot: Lesson Learned

I've been sitting on the following blog for quite a long time, so I thought I'd finally publish it. Here goes:

I thought I'd share some thoughts I had after our photo session from last fall, in case you might be thinking of doing one yourself in 2017.

With everyone and their brother proclaiming themselves as photographers these days, there is definitely an over-abundance of choices for photographers to use for photo shoots. Being the person I am, I am very, very particular about photographers. I'm also a harsh critic. Most people are fine with almost all of the work that is out there, but truthfully there are a lot of mediocre photographers who don't really know what they're doing, which bugs me. It devalues the creative work of people, like myself, who actually know what we're doing—but that's another rant for another time.

Last year, I had my list narrowed down to three photographers whose work was seemingly up to my standards. One was significantly cheaper than the others, they had done my friend's wedding and their photos looked great, and we went with them. They had good photos on their Facebook page with nice outdoor backgrounds, on a piece of property they have set up specifically for this.

My first suggestion for doing a photo shoot is: Book early! Unfortunately, I put off contacting the photographers for a little while. I wanted a date in the fall when the trees would be turning—like lots of people, I'm sure—but they were almost all booked up and I was going to to have to push off our shoot until the spring. I learned that they are now more of a 'group of photographers' and we wouldn't have the woman who shot my friend's wedding. I jumped at the one open session, which turned out was with one of their B-list photographers. I realized later that the lady I emailed with to set all this up was the main family portrait person, the girl who did our shoot was not.

Our photo shoot was short and sweet, and we had a decent time. Our photographer seemed knowledgeable enough. I said I wanted some photos with just us, some with our dog, but I was leaving the rest up to her expertise. She was pulling up various poses on her phone for ideas during the shoot, which was fine with us, and we were done in 40 minutes and heading back home with Josie not too traumatized.

A few weeks later, we received our "preview" on Facebook, which is how this group does it. They posted about 8 photos of us to their page, and I shared the album with excitement. The photos looked great, but it would still be another month or two before we got all of them back.

I will say a small complaint right now about the photographers we used, and I know it's very nit-picky, but to me it was very evident whose photos they loved, and whose photos they were just doing their job. For some super cute families or couples, they kind of went on about how adorable they were, how much fun they were, what-have-you, and then for the other not-so-perfect people, of which I will lump in our set of photos, there was nothing. It was just like "Well, here's the photos of these people, they're nothing special." It kind of hurt, just a smidge. Like I said I know this is nit-picky, but it felt like a subtle way of saying "This isn't our best work, but here's your photos anyways." Either they should fake enthusiasm with all of their clients' previews, or just post them with no comments. I imagine I can't be the only person who's ever picked up on this.

The day came when I got our photos back, and it was ahead of schedule. I downloaded all of the images, super excited to see the rest of them.

And then... my excitement subsided as I started to arrow through them. They were not that great, and there were a few that were downright bad and I was surprised they included them in our final selections. Essentially, all of the good ones were the ones that were posted in our Facebook preview. There weren't many 'new' ones that particularly wowed me.

Jarrod and I sat down and marked which ones each of us liked, and there ended up being 12 photos we liked, 7 of which we felt worthy of getting prints of, and 22 that we didn't like at all. So here is the live and learn part...

Nope, never getting prints of this one.
Plus, the lighting is awful on this.

Most of the photos we didn't like were ones where we weren't looking at the camera. There were a lot of cutesy poses where we were gazing into each others' eyes, kissing, or just sharing a gentle smile, not looking at the camera. Some people might be a fan of those, but honestly I don't know who would get large prints of those to hang on their walls. This isn't an engagement photo shoot, I really don't need a bunch of lovey-dovey photos. I'm not going to hang a large 11x14 of the two of us kissing in my house, I'm going to hang up the family portrait of us and our dog. Furthermore, from a guy's perspective, Jarrod didn't care for those because he said "That's just not me, I'm not like that." And it's true. It's nothing against Jarrod whatsoever, because I would venture to guess that most guys aren't exactly movie-style romantics. So for him those seem very unnatural, and honestly they feel that way to me too. I didn't say anything during our shoot because I didn't realize just how many of them (photos not looking at the camera) we were taking. And, live and learn.

Basically, the next time we do this I want more traditional, portrait-style photographs. Some people want the cutesy photos, but now that I've gone through this, I learned I'm not one of them.

And, remember how I said I was really picky about photographers? Well, turns out their photo-editing skills are not as good as I thought, especially on their black and white photos. Take a look at the comparison I loaded on here. The top photo is their version, the bottom is mine.

Really, whenever we do this again, I just need someone to take the photos and to send me the raw files. I can do the editing myself, which I'd almost prefer seeing as how few people actually know how to do it well. I'm not even an expert, but I feel I can edit out some really natural-looking photos that look good. The black and white photos we received were not great, and after about 10 minutes in Photoshop, I had them looking way better. I did a blind test with Jarrod and asked which one he preferred, not telling him which one was mine and which was theirs, and he picked mine every time.

It's kind of funny because for this photo shoot, we had a good time with the photographer, but the photos we ended up with were just so-so. For our wedding, the photographer ended up driving us nuts, but we got some damn good photos from him. Maybe if we're lucky, next time I can find a fun photographer AND they know how to take great photos, haha!

My last suggestion is the most difficult. If possible, I would suggest hiring a photographer you know. Even if it's just a little. Picking a photographer is much like picking a name out of a hat, and that was certainly my case. Yes, they had photoed my friend's wedding, but it was a different person who only does weddings, not the actual photographer we got. Ironically, the same week we got our previews, I also saw a really neat piece about 6 different photographers who took a photograph of the same man. Each person was told a different story about the man, and it showed that photos are entirely dependent on the photographers impression of you, the subject. Check it out here, it's a short little fascinating video. With that in mind, if you can find a photographer who knows you, I would bet your photos are going to be even better because of it. They might know a tiny bit of your own life story that influences their work just enough to produce some really spectacular images. Next time I do this, I'm going to most likely choose someone I kind of know.

15 Books in 2015

I continued my book reading challenge this year, and upped the ante by one. And I even reached my goal in November! I plan to keep on track with matching how many books I read with what year it is, and am planning to read 16 books next year. I'm not sure when I'll reach my threshold, when it'll be too many books, but so far I haven't had too much trouble reaching my goals. It's one small thing in my life where I actually set a goal and attain it.

Without further ado, here were the books I read in 2015 and a few thoughts on each:

Born to Bark—The big reason I read this book is because it's about a cairn terrier, and it was a joyful story about a feisty little dog.

Everything Is Illuminated—I liked the movie, but I had a hard time getting into this book. The main reason was the writing style, which was very different and full of run on sentences, conversations, and paragraphs. The style did not help the story, it hindered it. Would not recommend, but if you're up for a quirky movie, check that out.

Memoirs of a Geisha—This one was good, it's really interesting to read about the geisha culture from long ago. The story is fiction but based very much in history.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns—This book was supposed to be the créme de créme of graphic novels, along with Watchmen (which I loved), but I found this one hard to follow due to the extremes in illustration.

The Martian—When I finished this book I said "It'd make for a good movie", and little did I know they already were filming it (Matt Damon wouldn't have been my first choice for the character.) This book is Apollo 13 meets Castaway. Really good modern sci-fi.

The Rosie Project—Not sure what I expected from this one, but it didn't really wow me like it did for many other people. A guy creates a test to find the perfect woman for him, you can probably guess how the rest goes. Intriguing characters, an easy read, but not mind-blowing.

A Dog's Purpose—I continued my guilty pleasure for dog books with this one, and it did not disappoint. I cried multiple times and really enjoyed it. This book is about multiple dogs, and the ending is really satisfying.

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland—Some find this book delightful, I couldn't stand it. I've never been a big fan of the Disney movie, I don't know why I thought this might be any better. It's just SO darn weird.

The Girl On the Train—This was one of 2015's 'hot books' for the year, but I wasn't overly impressed. The story wasn't bad, but it was very dark. The main character was hard to sympathize with, and that's a big deal for me. If I don't find myself caring about the main character, then I don't really care what happens to them, ergo I'm not really hooked into the story.

I, Toto—This was a quick little read about the dog who played Toto, and it was cute and short. Kind of like the dog, haha.

To Kill A Mockingbird—I read this back in high school and wanted to re-read it now as an adult. The book still holds up, and some of the themes had more relevance now than they did back then. This one is a good one to revisit.

The Nightingale—I really enjoyed this one. It's about women living in France during WWII. Not much is written about all of the women who had to stay home while their husbands went away to war, so this was a great story about a different perspective of the war. It made me think.

Merchants of Doubt—This non-fiction book details how companies and organizations through the years have worked to sew doubt when scientists try to say their product/what they're doing is wrong. Example: big tobacco campaigning to prove second-hand smoke isn't bad, or politicians saying global warming can't be true. It was ironic that I started this book the same week Coca-Cola was caught paying scientists to say that sugar doesn't make you fat, diet doesn't matter, it's exercising that matters. It was quite the eye-opener, and I now see these scenarios playing out all the time. Highly recommend if you want to understand how big corporations and big government work these days.

Room—It's been a while since I've had a book grip me like Room did. A good suspenseful, interesting book that should make for a good movie.

City on Fire—Officially the longest book I've ever read at 944 pages. The story was kind of intriguing, taking place in 1970s NYC, which was a bleak time in the city's history. But it could have been cut down 200-300 pages easily, and made for a better, more refined novel. By the end, it was a bit of a bummer to realize I'd just wasted so much time reading this enormous book that I only found "intriguing." Read at your own risk, it's a long haul.

14 Books in 2014

I'm happy to say that last week, Monday night, I reached by goal of reading 14 books this year! I'm pretty much one month ahead of schedule too, so that's cool.

Last year I read 10 books, and this year I upped it to 14. Next year, I'm going to do 15.

Sadly, I didn't have any books that I felt deserved a 5-star rating. Most all of them I rated 3 or 4 stars. Although, looking back over things, the same can be said for the books I read in 2013, too. I'm just a tough critic.

So there, if anyone asks me in the upcoming month about a New Year's resolution, I guess I already have one: to read 15 books next year. Woo hoo!

If you're looking for something to read and find me a trustworthy book recommender, I'll add a few comments at the bottom about the books I read. :)

Crossroads—Written by the same guy who wrote The Shack, it was another story of reflection and thinking about your spiritual health. The Shack is better, though, read that one.

V for Vendetta—The second graphic novel I've read. Also heavily influenced by the same guy who created Watchmen, the illustration was spectacular. The story, however, differs from the movie version, which we are fans of. It was alright.

Bitter Brew—This book was really great! It is about the Busch family, and a well-rounded look at the history and scandal that has plagued their massive beer empire. I highly recommend this one.

Is This Tomorrow—This one was the most surprising. I read it on a whim and turned out really liking it. It's a fairly easy read, the story is about childhood friends dealing with a tragic accident that happened in their childhood but haunts them into their adult lives.

The Hunger Games Trilogy—For me, this series was good, but didn't really blow me away like I expected it to. After reading it, I'm kind of done with the teen trilogy thing for a while. It starts out really strong, but by the end I was just over it. The last book was a drag.

The Fault In Our Stars—Somehow, I only cried once. But this is a solid book with a less-BS approach to disease, dealing with it, and the struggles that loved ones face with you.

Steve Jobs—I've only been slowly reading this ever since it came out three years ago... but his life sure is a fascinating story. It's good, if you like biographies.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time—Really good book about a child with some sort of autistic-spectrum-disorder. The neighbor's dog is killed, and the young boy sets out to solve the mystery.

Orange Is the New Black—Part 'insider's account' of being in prison, part 'platform to tell everyone what she thinks is wrong with the prison system', this started to feel a little snobby by the end. The writer's concern for her fellow inmates started to feel less and less sincere. Also, this book is nothing like the Netflix show; the show is loosely based on it, and I mean very loosely.

Brave New World—I finally read this classic, and just like other futuristic dystopias, it is frightening how much this holds true in the present day. Great book. I never want to live in a brave new world.

Bossypants—Tina Fey's book started strong, simply due to her wit and jokes. The book was written almost like one long standup routine, and by the end it was getting a little boring. Who wants to read a standup sketch? Put it this way, if there's an audiobook version of this with Tina Fey reading it, listen to that. I guarantee it will be better.

Thoughts on that Walmart Savings Catcher App

You may have seen a few TV ads from Walmart touting their latest app improvements, which includes this new little thing called "Savings Catcher." The premise is if you buy something at Walmart, then you can scan your receipt with this app on your phone (which means, you take a photo of the barcode), and Walmart will automatically price compare the items in your receipt with other local stores. If they find a store with the item for cheaper, they will refund you the difference in an e-gift card. Sounds great, right? 

Maybe, if you're okay with Walmart knowing a lot about you. Let's see what's going on here...

First of all, I'd like to start with the caveat that I have not downloaded this app. I don't know if it works well, if it is designed well, or if it's easy to use. I'm speaking solely about the idea for this app as a person who has a well-rounded understanding of tech and analytics.

Let's take a big step back and acknowledge that there are many, many companies that know a lot of data about you already online. Facebook is probably the biggest information grabber, simply due to people's compulsion to share things about themselves. So what I'm about to lay out shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but I wonder how many people are aware of the amount of data mining that retail companies do to get to know you; it's a very big business. If you don't care and want to save a couple bucks here and there, download the app, if you're curious, then let's continue.

First of all, in order for this entire app to work, people will have to create an account for it. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but this app is going to generate a lot of new accounts for Walmart from people who wouldn't ever actually shop online at walmart.com. So you would most likely have to fill out your usual information like your name, address, phone number, email, and create a password. Bare minimum, that's what they would require from you. So let's pretend, here. Walmart now knows: I'm Susie and I live in Orlando Florida. 

To qualify for the price savings, you have to scan your receipt, which means you are linking yourself to your receipt. Now, I need to mention that stores will typically track a lot of this information on their own simply through credit card use. When you use a credit card in most stores, they will assign a generic ID number to you to track your purchases. However, with this app you are without-a-doubt giving away your information. This also means that you will have to give the app permission to access your camera and most likely your photos. Walmart now knows: I'm Susie, I live in Orlando, and I just bought 5 items which were milk, diapers, shampoo, carrots, and lettuce. 

One week later I go back to Walmart, and let's pretend I buy 5 more things (for the sake of keeping this simple, I realize most people buy LOTS of stuff at Walmart.) I scan my receipt again, Walmart now knows: This time I bought milk, diapers, a frozen veggie pizza, coffee, and butter.

Furthermore, Walmart now also knows: I'm most likely a new mom, since I've bought diapers two weeks in a row, and I bought coffee, I am maybe a vegetarian, since I haven't bought any meat and bought a veggie pizza and vegetables the week before.

To look for the price saving ads, you will have to enter your zip code or it will pull it from the store listed on your receipt so it can search for them. Walmart now knows: I'm Susie, I live in Orlando, I bought 10 things in two weeks, and I also shop in Orlando. 

Now let's pretend that it finds one item cheaper at Target, and it then refunds me 56 cents. It sends me an email. Walmart will then also know: if I opened the email, if I was on my phone, my IP address, and from there, they will be able to gather a whole lot more information about me and my internet habits. When I go to spend the money (which no doubt will be in the form of some barcode in the app or in the email they sent me) they will also be able to pinpoint the exact location of my cell phone.

If willfully giving all of this information about yourself to Walmart is okay with you, by all means sign up for it. But I wish more people realized that all they're doing is signing for up a marketing data collection system, with the "reward" of offering you a few cents here and there in price checks. 

Lowe's does something similar with their "My Lowes" program, except their slightly more blunt about what they're doing. They tell you upfront that they will keep track of your purchases, and the "reward" of it is making returns easy, and sending you reminders to buy replaceable household items like air filters. Lowes can, and does, also track your purchase through your phone number. So every time they ask you for your phone number at the end of your transaction, that's what it's for. Rewards programs work in this same way.

It should be noted that this Walmart app will only compare with other store circulars, not the entire store. The other thing of note about the app, versus other price comparing apps, is that it keeps you going to Walmart. Other apps will price check all stores when you scan a barcode at the store, allowing you to then choose where to make your purchase. This scans your receipt after you've already made it, then offers money to spend right back at Walmart.

The Fault In Our Stars

I just finished the book The Fault In Our Stars last week, which is sweeping the teen world by storm. It's a young adult novel by this John Green, and it sounds like ALL of his books are sweeping the teen world by storm. Teen super fans of his call themselves "Nerdfighters" and they are obsessed.

The book is about a girl and a boy who meet at a cancer support group. The girl has lung cancer, the boy had cancer that made him lose his leg. They like each other, and the story goes on from there. You can probably guess how most of it goes, quite frankly.

I became interested in the book once I started hearing about the movie buzz. The movie version just
came out a couple weeks ago. With images of a girl walking around with oxygen tubes in her nose, I figured 'Hey, I can relate to that. I'll read about a character with lung problems.'

The book was good, though nothing too ground-breaking. I only cried once, and supposedly this book makes everyone cry multiple times. Honestly, I feel this has something to do with the fact that a lot of what she talked about—dealing with hospitals, PICC lines, and oxygen concentrators—is quite familiar to me, whereas I assume a 'normal' teen might find it totally-oh my gosh-that's so awful-heartbreaking, whereas my internal thought is a flippant "Yeah... that sucks."

However, I do think one thing the book has going for it is a no-BS approach to disease. The girl herself is written as very witty, wise beyond her years (a little too wise, actually), and intolerant of bullshit cheesiness. I have a hunch his other books are written in the same voice, and I also suspect that's why teens are loving them to death. Since the book is written from her perspective, she lays it on the line as to how she feels and what things are like. I think that is helpful, and it in no way covers up the hardships of cancer or dealing with your lungs failing you.

So for that, I'm thankful for this book. I'm also glad this book/movie has taken off with teens like it has because maybe, once I start wearing oxygen full-time in future, I won't get stared at so often and it won't seem so out of place for a young-looking person to wear oxygen 'nubbins' in their nose. Granted, I don't have lung cancer like Hazel does, but still.

The characterization in the book is what disappoints me. It is very typical in teen fiction to have an extremely witty (not just smart but really witty) character. In this case, there were 2 or 3 witty teen characters, and their wisecracks and never-ending philosophical takes on the world get a little old. No one, in real life, is like that. I felt the same way about the movie Easy A; it's a good movie, but every single character was funny and witty. Teens like to think of themselves as quick-witted, I remember that, but in reality hardly any of them actually are. However, I realize that a book about boring ol' characters is also, well, boring.

JCP, Tale of a Struggling Store

Maybe you haven't kept up on their doings like I have, but JCP has been having a really hard time of "finding itself" lately. A while back, they announced an entirely new strategy of true, honest pricing. This meant no sales, the price would be what it should be, not what it actually should be once they inflate it and you take 25% off in our Sale of the Season. At first, I thought it sounded great. The way they pitched it made sense.

But as time went on, I and many others weren't going into their stores as often. Turns out old habits die hard and shopping is all mental (which, shouldn't we already know this?) You feel like you've been successful and found a bargain when you present that coupon, or see that 20% off sign, or whatever the sale might be. You feel better about your purchase and I'm sure many people find it more justifiable. When you take that element out, like they did, a ten-dollar shirt is just a ten-dollar shirt. It sounds much better when you say "I got an 18-dollar shirt on sale for ten dollars."

So in recent months, seeing that their stock was tanking and their sales plummeting, they fired their CEO, found a new one, and are now back to their old ways. They even ran a large ad campaign about the changes they'd made, "some you liked, some you didn't", practically begging people to give them another shot. I'm on their email list and I got emails saying the same thing, practically with puppy dog eyes crying "Pwease come baaaaaccckkkk!"

Now, the entire reason I thought of writing this is because I just shopped there last Sunday and wanted to share something.

I bought two items: a bra and a pair of jeans. I noticed that both had price tag stickers on them that were clearly covering up a previous price. The bra was $38, but after I peeled it back I saw that the previous one (as in, no-sales-true-pricing-days) was $25. Whoa... that is quite a jump up. For the pair of jeans, the price was $34, but they were on sale for $19.99. I peeled up the sticker on the jeans too and found they used to be $27.

So if we compare...

True Price Model:
$25 + $27 = $52

Sunday's 'old pricing' structure:
$38 + $34 = $72

...with sales: $38 + $20 = $58

But... I had a 25% off coupon which brought my total down to $43.

You can make your own judgments on that, but I like that we're back to the old way. I'm sure they still made a profit on my purchase Sunday, and I felt better about it because I had a one-day only coupon. I wasn't the only one either, there was a line of probably 15 people at the checkout, all with coupons; you would have thought it was Christmas.

Muppets

We saw The Muppets last night, and we saw the late show. I only mention this because that dictates the type of audience you get, meaning no kids, a handful of adults, and some teens.

I'll start by saying I really liked the movie. If I could do half-stars, I think I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5. I'm a huge Muppet fan; love the sense of humor, but mostly love it for its pure creativity, and I truly enjoy those little characters as if they were real, which is how it's supposed to be. I've been known to cry a few times listening to Kermit sing "It's Not Easy Being Green." And I gotta say when they were panning through Kermit's old office last night, looking at all the banjos on the wall, the pictures with multiple guests on The Muppet Show, and numerous other iconic props, I teared up.

We saw the movie with my cousin and his fiancé, who are also fans. The rest of the people in the theatre, hard to tell. We were definitely the 'most-laughing' group in there. And as I mentioned there were teens there too, who, as teens usually are these days, were completely disrespectful of everyone else there and annoying. They made fun of the movie the entire time. Why in the world would you go see something you have no intention of liking? And when they weren't doing that, they were talking, for the whole theater to hear. I seriously contemplated being that chick who walks out, asks management to ask them to leave, and hope they can't subconsciously pick out my car in the parking lot. It was beyond annoying. So this leads me to my [now obvious] realization: if you are under the age of, let's say, 20, you should not see this movie. Exceptions to this rule are if you are indeed a Muppet fan, like British and dry humor, or are involved in the arts somehow.

So moving on from that. The movie was great. They took an angle to the story similar to Toy Story 3. In Toy Story 3, the 'old toys' are dealing with the fact that Andy got older and doesn't play with them any more, and they've been kind of forgotten about. It had been ten years, I believe, since the previous Toy Story 2, so that is exactly what they acknowledged with the story: Hey, it's been ten years, so let's do that and ask what has changed in the last ten years? The Muppets is a similar thing. The story is set up around the fact that it's been years since their last gig, and they've been forgotten about and replaced by other things. So they try to round up the gang, and you get to see what each Muppet found a separate career in once "the old gang" fell apart. The story itself felt natural and geniune, as did Toy Story, because it is fans like myself revisiting things we loved in our childhood that have since gone by the wayside.

I don't think it was quite the epic, comic genius of Jim Henson 30 years ago, but it was as good as it will ever get for modern times. Yeah, some of the voices were a little off, but the differences were forgivable. The jokes were very well done though, and they referenced themselves often just like they used to; referring to the camera being there, Statler and Waldorf asked a question and were like "Did we just reveal a key to the plot?" "Well I hope so, otherwise I just wasted the audience's time!" "Doh-oh-oh-oh!", etc.

There were a few more songs than normal, though. Even though I'm a fan of musicals, some of them just felt unnatural. When Amy Adams sang a song solo at a diner, it just felt kind of off. That song was not needed. But! Many of the other songs were hilarious and the lyrics would take you where you didn't think they would go, one of my favorites being the "Am I a Muppet? Or am I a Man?" or whatever it's true title is.

I had heard from a movie critic that Jason Segel, who helped write, and the director, James Bobin, approached this movie very carefully. They didn't want to blow it out of the water or make it so over the top, as many movies are these days (kids ones especially.) They really wanted to make it like the Muppets they remembered as a kid. I appreciate that, and it definitely came through. They did NOT try to outdo the movies of old, just be on par with them. All in all, it was a lot of fun and if you laughed at the Muppets back then, you should give it a shot.

Review: "Exit Through the Gift Shop"

"Exit Through the Gift Shop" has been on my radar for a little while now and I watched it the other day. It's now up for an academy award for Documentary Feature, so that's fun.

The documentary is about street art, which is kinda fun. In a nutshell: this random French guy randomly stumbles upon his cousin one day who is preparing his street art, and then decides to follow his cousin around at night and such as he places his pieces up around the city. As time goes on, he hooks up with some of the most well-known street artists around to film them as they put up their work at night. Except for one: Banksy. If you don't know who Banksy is, he is possibly THE most well-known street artist around. He lives in Britain and is known for his particular style that is fairly distinct and usually in your face. If you don't know what street art is, it is basically artistic graffiti. Sometime is isn't spray paint, though, but it is all art that is strategically placed, usually in a city setting. The fun part about it is that it is usually temporary, as most times it's illegal. So obviously this random Frenchman filming this is a great thing, as it captures the technique and documents that it happens because sometimes the art is only up for a day or two. The movie goes like this for a while and it is quite interesting, not to mention that it's kind of fun and intriguing to delve into the underworld of street art.

Finally one day Thierry (the guy filming all this stuff) gets a call that Banksy is in town. He speeds off to meet him, literally, and ends up gaining his trust and starts to tape him as he works. This was really cool to me because Banksy is this mysterious guy who is never revealed in the film. We have faces for all the other street artists in this film except him; he is lighted from the back, in a hoodie (which looked very Assassin's Creed-ish) and his voice is processed. But he's a very intriguing person, and his ideas intrigue me. Something I've noticed about myself when it comes to art and design: I typically love things that I would never, EVER, in a million years come up with. I do not think like a Banksy. I can criticize something, sure. But to take that idea and turn it into a satirical work of art? Never.

So watching Banksy and listening to him was quite fun. Honestly, the movie could have ended right after his prank at Disneyland. But it didn't, and then it just went downhill.

Banksy challenges Thierry to go and create his own art. Thierry, thinking Banksy is this all-powerful god, takes this to heart and does just that. So he becomes a 'street artist' and calls himself "Mr. Brainwash." This was about where my internet cut out for the third time and I decided to postpone finishing the movie. I had a feeling that the movie was just taking a turn for the worse, though. And I was right.



So now the scope of the movie has changed. We are no longer following the underworld of street art but the new street art of Thierry. Except... he's not really doing art.

Thierry's ideas are bland and shallow to put it nicely; they have no depth, which is obvious in his explanations of his pieces. Even his name is cheesy, I mean come on, "Mr. Brainwash"? He claims to have no art training whatsoever, and it's kind of obvious. All of a sudden he makes hundreds of pieces of art for his opening show, a show that would typically be the size of someone who is well-established, not brand new. I found this further proof that the guy had no clue what he was doing. Even MORE is that everything he does is a rip off of Andy Warhol. He does the Cambell's soup in 50 different ways, he does Marilyn in 100 different ways, yet they're all still the same. It's very much a one trick pony. And also just like Andy Warhol: he's not making any of his art, he hires people to do that. And the thing is: people eat this shit up! They buy it for thousands of dollars (something else he obviously has no clue about—he just makes up astronomical prices as he goes, proving his ego is as big as ever.)

This documentary gets you thinking. My first thought was that this was further proof that I just don't 'get' post-modern art, or whatever art movement we're in now. But the more I thought about it the more I think the joke is on Thierry. Banksy has some HILARIOUS quotes at the end about Thierry's success and being mostly responsible for it. I won't tell you them because they're good ones, but basically he doesn't think the guy's art is worth crap.

And I feel it should be noted, Banksy is the one who made this film. The decisions to put 'what' in the movie were Banksy's. Therefore, I feel that the joke is on Thierry because he thought Banksy was this god-like person, when in reality Banksy is laughing at Thierry and his 'fame' knowing that the guy has no direction, has no vision, and has no concept as an artist. Banksy's art draws your attention to something, to point out why this is weird or why this is ridiculous. In no way do I feel that Banksy tried to glorify himself in a "my stuff is way better than his" way, but rather this movie is just another piece of Banksy's art: he draws attention to the fact that Thierry has no talent and is mostly trying to make a quick buck. "Exit Through the Gift Shop": you paid for your admission, now buy more of our crap.

Books books books

Last night I finished 1984. It's about time, too... it only took me three years, haha. Anyways, I must say I am glad I read it, though I'm going to take a break from the dystopia books for a while. Had it not been for my true push to finally finish the book, and my self-made rule that I couldn't read anything else until I finished one of my books-in-progress, I might have put it back down. The ending is a very uncomfortable one, and I tell you, when he looked at himself in the mirror, that was the worst of it for me. I can't explain why, but it was. Anyways, still glad I read it and it's 'message' is kind of percolating in my brain right now.

So I woke up early this morning in order to get a good shower in, since I'm heading to the hospital and won't get one for another week. And I had time to start another book. I chose to start reading Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God. I started the book, and after 20 minutes of reading, I closed it. I decided to look up the reviews on Amazon about the book. I was specifically hoping to find someone out there who said something like "Being a Catholic, I still thought this book was great" but I found no such thing. I found one review that said this: "His disclaimers aside, it is my opinion that Francis truly, deep down, believes that the believer's work is mystically tied into their salvation. His denials are only at a superficial level so that he can remain "evangelical" and avoid the necessary soul-searching that might lead him toward a Roman Catholic-esque theology." which I found interesting. Anyways, let me step back and explain this Amazonian search: the book was written to "Christians" and had lingo of "Being a good American Christian" and things like that, and I just can't get into that. Catholicism is still Christian, yes, but there is a huge difference between our beliefs and those of a non-denominational Christian (the author.) Never once has my priest ever, EVER said in mass "as good Christians we should blah blah blah." (he usually says good stewards, servants, or something like that.)

Needless to say, I'm taking this book back. I'm sure there's a nice message in it, but it's just not for me. Plus, the whole thing is just one big ongoing sermon. Nah, I think I'll pass. And if I do feel the need to read it, I'll get it from the library.

Review: Coco Avant Chanel

I just finished a nice little French movie called Coco Before Chanel. It truly was about Chanel's life before she became the famous fashion designer we all know her to be, because only the last twenty minutes of the film were devoted to the beginning of her career. Turns out, too, that her name was not Coco (if you had not guessed that before) but Gabrielle. Coco was a nicknamed she was given by her father and later by another gentleman in her life. It just stuck, and from a brand standpoint, it sounds nice.

What I really loved about this movie was the use of color and the cinematography. In the late 1800s in France, women wore elaborate white (or very, very pale pink) dresses and huge gaudy hats. Men wore darker colors, usually some sort of suit. Chanel was a true innovator in her time and what was awesome about her was that she did not care if people stared, which I'm sure they did in real life and not just in the movie. She didn't wear white all the time but wore dark colors, prints, and most shockingly: pants. She also didn't wear the frilly, humongous hats. Instead she wore simple, but still elegant, straw hats, which is how she actually got her start. So the use of color and the contrast of Chanel's clothes to those around her was done really well.

Like I said, I also enjoyed the cinematography. Many scenes were simply picturesque and lovely. Also, something else I really appreciated was the point of view shots with Chanel. These usually happened when she was in some sort of crowd and was looking around at everyone's clothes. The camera would move along, just like someone's vision does, but it would stay in focus as it passed by people and it was obvious they were pointing out very specific details about the clothes; maybe a collar here or the cut of a coat there. It was really nicely done.

All in all, I gave it three stars of five and if you're up for renting a French film, give this one a try.

Review: "The Hurt Locker"

First of all, I am sick. Ugh! I am so upset that this has happened again so soon. As most anyone reading this probably knows, when I get a cold, it's pretty darn bad and my cold is way worse than your cold. I have been coughing all day long. No exaggerations. I'm finally calming down, but it's minimal. My lungs are frowning at me and my new cold and they want to tell me "We are tired. We want a break." But I can't seem to give them a break no matter what I do. Second of all, I finally fixed the damn comment links on my blog. Now it's much easier for you to leave a comment and find the link.

Moving on...

Tonight I got to watch "The Hurt Locker." I really liked it. It was a great depiction of the situation in Iraq in it's simplistic style and realism. Through various shots and camera angles, I really felt like I was right there with them, which definitely added to the raw, realistic nature of the film. I will say, though, that I've read and heard that many veterans of the actual war don't find this movie all that awesome. It's definitely getting mixed reviews on their side. The consensus seems to be that while it depicts the stresses of the job of defusing bombs and the relations between the Americans and Iraqis really well, many little details (big ones to the vets, though) bother them; mostly in the way the movie handled situations. For instance, a team would never split up just to cover more ground, but this happens in the movie, and other procedures of that nature are not accurate. But, despite that, many of them still agree that this is the best movie about the Iraq war so far. So, just throwing that out there. I always think it's important to hear from the source as to how accurately something is portrayed (Speaking of which, trivia moment!: Contrary to the depiction in "Cool Runnings," the Jamaicans were actually accepted and well-received by the Olympians, including the Swiss. Okay I'm done, haha.) 

One of my favorite parts about the movie were the characters. They were very believable and the main character, Will James, was completely intriguing. I definitely can see why he was nominated for the Academy Award. I also really took to the character of Owen Eldridge and, even though he was a supporting role, could really feel his emotions and the battles he was having with himself over what he was dealing with.

The movie kept me on the edge of my seat almost the entire time. I'd say that's pretty darn good for a 2 hour 11 minute movie... There's not a whole lot of 'action action' but it is very suspenseful, making it a heavy movie I'd say; it's not exactly a light journey to go on.

I'll end with something I was reminded of while watching this. One of the things I find awesome about movies, and any sort of art in general, is how two people can watch the same thing and come away with different impressions or ideas. Example: (Spoiler Alert!) There is a very difficult-to-watch scene in which James finds a boy has been killed. Because of certain things I won't mention, he decides it's best to blow the building up and get rid of the whole situation. He sets up his explosives, but then just can't do it. I said to Jarrod that I thought the reason he did this was because he was thinking of his own son and just couldn't follow through. (End Spoiler) It didn't sound like Jarrod had the same initial thought, and had a reason of his own for the scene. So yeah, I think that's just great. We can all look at the same movie, the same painting, hear the same song, and we all come away with something different.