The State of Me (6 months, the mid-season finale)
I swear, I intend to post more. I think that I'll write updates of my life and take photos and then... I do none of that. I've been feeling very lethargic lately. There's been more home stresses and more work stresses and it's taken it's toll. *sigh* Annnnyway, here's where I am for my yearly goals.
Health - It took me midway through the three month cycle, but I finally got myself in gear. Started riding the stationary bike, ate healthy food. And THEN I had a major wipeout at work. Went down hard on my knee and was barely able to hobble across the room never mind ride a bike. It's been three weeks now and I am still bruised and sore. So while I did manage to lose twelve pounds I have not made nearly as much progress as I would like.
Writing: I had a VERY successful first five months, but June was a disaster. Sitting at the computer for long periods of time was difficult after the wipeout, and whenever I've tried to write it's just strings of gibberish. So frustrating. I'm down 22K on words from where I should be right now.
Ready to start anew in July and hope to start stringing those X's along again for the rest of the year.
Money Jar - I've continued to empty out my coin into my money jar every Saturday night. It's starting to get heavy now! It's a little more than half full.
I'm also doing well in my Movie and Reading goals! As of end of June I am exactly where I should be in the reading department...
Books 12 to 23
Goal: 45 books, of which approximately 15 can be rereads
12. The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Reread. The final book in the 7-volume series, and the adventures of Roland and his ka-tet come to an end. Many people were unhappy with the final chapter in the novel, but I loved it – because it meant that there was a possibility to fix -- at least in my head – the problematic parts of this last book. King managed to write the conclusion to his tale while still giving a true open-ended ending, and I have to salute that.
13. The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey
New. With all the zombie popularity, there is a glut of books on the market that put a 'twist' on the subject. Zombies that can talk, zombies that can think, zombies who are space aliens, zombies who know how to breakdance. (Okay, I haven't actually seen that last one, but it probably exists out there somewhere.) I usually like my zombies straight up, because the reason zombies are terrifying is because they can't think or reason and they will never, ever stop. But I'll still occasionally read a twist tale, like this one – and true to form, I was hugely disappointed. It's about a child zombie with a genius level IQ. Yes, really. There are SO MANY things that simply don't make any sense that I very nearly stopped reading. The basic premise of the book doesn't hold up when you think about it for ten seconds. I hated that I wasted time on this one.
14. Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
New. I remember watching the movie many years ago, and thought maybe the book would give me further insight into the true story of two black hawk helicopters shot down in hostile territory. Well, this is a mess. The story begins with no explanation of what is going on, no background on the situation or the people, and the writing is extremely bland. Hated this one, too.
15. A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller
New. Post-apocalyptic is my favourite genre, and this story of a monastery whose patron saint is a former engineer who was in at ground zero during the nuclear apocalypse that almost destroyed the world was a strange little thing. This is actually three stories, each set 800 years apart, and my only complaint is that I wanted *more* of the first two tales. They each ended too abruptly for my taste. Impressive to create essentially three new worlds, and I wanted to visit in them a lot longer. And who the heck was the old man supposed to be?
16 to 19. Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager and Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
New. I'd been seeing photos and hearing snippets about Outlander the TV series, and my curiosity was peaked. So I picked up the first seven books in the series, about a married WWII nurse named Claire who is somehow transported back in time to 1743 Scotland, where she falls in love with Jamie, a handsome Highlander. I absolutely loved the first book! It's not the best written thing in the world but it's intensely readable, you know what I mean? And it includes some lovely romantic moments – and some shocking ones as well. There is great attention to detail and setting, and the three main characters and many of the minor ones are fully realized. The quality goes down in each subsequent book and more characters are added that I simply didn't care about, but I kept reading because I simply adore Jamie. The heart of the books for me is Claire and Jamie's romance, and when other characters or events take over it simply becomes a little pedestrian. I stopped reading halfway through book five when it was taking me EONS just to plod through it, but I may go back to it eventually.
Oh, and I caved and bought the first season of the TV show sight unseen. Best decision ever. LOVE IT.
20. Regulators by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
Reread. A few hours on a typical suburban street in smalltown USA, except one of its residents has been taken over by an evil creature called TAK who can bring to life the characters of its favourite TV shows – and they're bloodthirsty. This is one of my favourite King books, even though the large cast of characters isn't as fleshed out as they could be. I just love the idea behind it, even when the execution is a little messy.
21. Desperation by Stephen King
Reread. King's second version of the TAK tale, featuring different incarnations of the same characters from Regulators. This story takes place in the town where TAK has been trapped, and is much more detail oriented. We get to know the characters a lot better, and I do enjoy the story, but for some reason Regulators has more exuberance.
22. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Reread. Oh man, I love this story. Jude Coyne, a semi-retired hard-rock singer, buys a ghost from an online auction site. Unfortunately, the ghost is real, and it wants him dead. The story encompasses Jude's past and present and manages to say something about the meanings of love and family while still being a page-turning and creepy little yarn.
23. The Fireman by Joe Hill
New. Hill's latest, an apocalyptic tale about the end of the world via 'dragonscale', a fungus that invades the body and first stripes it in elaborate swirls of black and gold before finally burning the host from within. A small enclave of the inflicted have managed to learn how to control the scale, but unfortunately sometimes the worst comes out of people when society breaks down – and the members of the community face danger from without and within. It's always frightening when a skillful writer delves into humankind's basest instincts. The most horrifying moments in this book are the ones where the cruelty is turned on friend instead of foe. In that it reminded me very much of Stephen King's The Mist, where the great fear is the crazy religious lady and not the giant creatures hovering outside the windows. It's not Hill's best work, IMO – it's really the story of a Mary Poppins loving nurse named Harper and not the fireman of the title, and Harper always felt a little 'unreal' to me. But I definitely wanted to keep reading to find out what happened.
The Tally:
New To Me: 11 books
Rereads: 12 books
TOTAL: 23 books read
... and I am just slightly behind in the movie watching goal.
Movies 10 to 17
Goal: 40 movies in 2016, 25 of which must be New To Me
10.Captain America: Civil War (2016) -- starring Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Robert Downey Jr
I was soooo looking forward to Civil War, and… I ended up being a little disappointed. I thought it was overlong (that endless opening sequence was soooo not necessary) and a bit heavy-handed. I always sort of love Tony and this movie made me hate him a little. Okay, more than a little. And there was not.enough.BUCKY. Hmph. (But as my friend leaned over to say to me as I was grumbling through the first thirty minutes: it's Captain America: Civil War, not Bucky: Civil War.) (It should be Bucky: Civil War to be quite honest.) And honestly, was it really necessary to have Steve making out with the blonde like *two seconds* after the love of his life died? And to have Sam and Bucky looking smugly approving? Ugh.
On the plus side, I love me some Scarlet Witch. I adored Clint more in the brief moments he had in this movie than in the previous two Avengers movies combined. Sam is awesome, and I love the Sam & Bucky dynamic.
11. Central Intelligence (2016) -- starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart
I thought this would be much more amusing than it was, but it did make me laugh out loud on several occasions. Johnson and Hart play off each other so well that I wish the script had allowed them more silly moments to just riff off each other. Who knew that The Rock could play a big ol' goofball so well? I also loved Aaron Paul's small part as Johnson's former partner – and I love that he threw in a 'bitch'. You can't tell me that wasn't a nod to Breaking Bad.
12. Now You See Me (2013) – starring Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo
My friend wanted me to go see the sequel to this with him, so I agreed to watch the first one. I found it very disappointing. It's the story of magicians robbing bank accounts and the cop who's after them, but there were just too many things that relied on luck and coincidence rather than the magician's 'plan' for the whole thing to succeed. And I know they were relying on misdirection but there was at least one time the script had to outright LIE to the audience to make the plot work, and it made no sense when you realize that. So no, I didn't see the sequel.
13. Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) – starring Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth
Wow, this was horrible. Leaden, two dimensional characters saddled with every trope in the action playbook. We have the 'former friends turned rivals who have to work together again' (except who cares because we've gotten to know each of them for about five minutes total). The geek who goes after the pretty girl (who has about three lines and whom we know not at all.) The inspiring presidential speech listened to on short wave around the world (except this guy has been President for about ten seconds, we know nothing about him, and we haven't even seen what's happening around the world before now.) They try to fit in too many characters, both old and new, with the result being that we don't care about any of them. The special effects are odd and uninspiring and so obviously CGI, and combine that with the bland characters and there is just no sense of danger or excitement. Someone dies? Meh. And worst of all, there was no sense of fun! Now I know why Will Smith turned this down…
That's two hours of my life I'm never getting back.
14. The Legend of Tarzan (2016) – starring Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie
Okay, I LOVED this. The transitions are a bit choppy and I think it could have used a few extra minutes to flesh things out because the pacing was sometimes off, but this is a fun throwback to old time movies but still with a fresh spin on things. Jane is a badass who is more than capable of holding her own against the bad guys, and Skarsgard gives his Tarzan, John Clayton, an introspective melancholy as he realizes that he really doesn’t fit in anywhere. The scenes in which John interacts with the animals are exciting and when he races through the jungle in search of Jane it's exhilarating to watch. This Tarzan is like the first superhero, relying on his experience, his intelligence, and his physicality to save the day. I also like that he doesn't really do anything that members of his tribe can't also do – they *all* can swing from the trees and run flat out of miles. It's his bond with the animals that is special.
I just may go see this one again.
15 to 17. The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) – starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen
I've always though the Bourne movies looked interesting but since I'd never seen the first, it was impossible to see the 2nd, the 3rd, etc. Well, now I've rectified that. I really enjoyed the first one, with Jason trying to untangle the mystery of who he is. Smart guys are hot. And I adored the chemistry between Jason and Marie. The second was not as good -- Marie! *sob* -- but the third redeemed itself as Jason finally got to the heart of the mystery and Joan Allen stopped wearing that distracting bright red lipstick. Too many car chases, though.
The Tally:
New to Me: 16 movies
Rewatch: 1 movie
TOTAL: 17 movies out of 40
Aaand I think that's it for me. I'm currently at the start of a week's vacation so I'm gonna try to snap myself out of this funk and actually start accomplishing things again.
.
Health - It took me midway through the three month cycle, but I finally got myself in gear. Started riding the stationary bike, ate healthy food. And THEN I had a major wipeout at work. Went down hard on my knee and was barely able to hobble across the room never mind ride a bike. It's been three weeks now and I am still bruised and sore. So while I did manage to lose twelve pounds I have not made nearly as much progress as I would like.
Writing: I had a VERY successful first five months, but June was a disaster. Sitting at the computer for long periods of time was difficult after the wipeout, and whenever I've tried to write it's just strings of gibberish. So frustrating. I'm down 22K on words from where I should be right now.
Ready to start anew in July and hope to start stringing those X's along again for the rest of the year.
Money Jar - I've continued to empty out my coin into my money jar every Saturday night. It's starting to get heavy now! It's a little more than half full.
I'm also doing well in my Movie and Reading goals! As of end of June I am exactly where I should be in the reading department...
Books 12 to 23
Goal: 45 books, of which approximately 15 can be rereads
12. The Dark Tower by Stephen King
Reread. The final book in the 7-volume series, and the adventures of Roland and his ka-tet come to an end. Many people were unhappy with the final chapter in the novel, but I loved it – because it meant that there was a possibility to fix -- at least in my head – the problematic parts of this last book. King managed to write the conclusion to his tale while still giving a true open-ended ending, and I have to salute that.
13. The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey
New. With all the zombie popularity, there is a glut of books on the market that put a 'twist' on the subject. Zombies that can talk, zombies that can think, zombies who are space aliens, zombies who know how to breakdance. (Okay, I haven't actually seen that last one, but it probably exists out there somewhere.) I usually like my zombies straight up, because the reason zombies are terrifying is because they can't think or reason and they will never, ever stop. But I'll still occasionally read a twist tale, like this one – and true to form, I was hugely disappointed. It's about a child zombie with a genius level IQ. Yes, really. There are SO MANY things that simply don't make any sense that I very nearly stopped reading. The basic premise of the book doesn't hold up when you think about it for ten seconds. I hated that I wasted time on this one.
14. Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
New. I remember watching the movie many years ago, and thought maybe the book would give me further insight into the true story of two black hawk helicopters shot down in hostile territory. Well, this is a mess. The story begins with no explanation of what is going on, no background on the situation or the people, and the writing is extremely bland. Hated this one, too.
15. A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller
New. Post-apocalyptic is my favourite genre, and this story of a monastery whose patron saint is a former engineer who was in at ground zero during the nuclear apocalypse that almost destroyed the world was a strange little thing. This is actually three stories, each set 800 years apart, and my only complaint is that I wanted *more* of the first two tales. They each ended too abruptly for my taste. Impressive to create essentially three new worlds, and I wanted to visit in them a lot longer. And who the heck was the old man supposed to be?
16 to 19. Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager and Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
New. I'd been seeing photos and hearing snippets about Outlander the TV series, and my curiosity was peaked. So I picked up the first seven books in the series, about a married WWII nurse named Claire who is somehow transported back in time to 1743 Scotland, where she falls in love with Jamie, a handsome Highlander. I absolutely loved the first book! It's not the best written thing in the world but it's intensely readable, you know what I mean? And it includes some lovely romantic moments – and some shocking ones as well. There is great attention to detail and setting, and the three main characters and many of the minor ones are fully realized. The quality goes down in each subsequent book and more characters are added that I simply didn't care about, but I kept reading because I simply adore Jamie. The heart of the books for me is Claire and Jamie's romance, and when other characters or events take over it simply becomes a little pedestrian. I stopped reading halfway through book five when it was taking me EONS just to plod through it, but I may go back to it eventually.
Oh, and I caved and bought the first season of the TV show sight unseen. Best decision ever. LOVE IT.
20. Regulators by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
Reread. A few hours on a typical suburban street in smalltown USA, except one of its residents has been taken over by an evil creature called TAK who can bring to life the characters of its favourite TV shows – and they're bloodthirsty. This is one of my favourite King books, even though the large cast of characters isn't as fleshed out as they could be. I just love the idea behind it, even when the execution is a little messy.
21. Desperation by Stephen King
Reread. King's second version of the TAK tale, featuring different incarnations of the same characters from Regulators. This story takes place in the town where TAK has been trapped, and is much more detail oriented. We get to know the characters a lot better, and I do enjoy the story, but for some reason Regulators has more exuberance.
22. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Reread. Oh man, I love this story. Jude Coyne, a semi-retired hard-rock singer, buys a ghost from an online auction site. Unfortunately, the ghost is real, and it wants him dead. The story encompasses Jude's past and present and manages to say something about the meanings of love and family while still being a page-turning and creepy little yarn.
23. The Fireman by Joe Hill
New. Hill's latest, an apocalyptic tale about the end of the world via 'dragonscale', a fungus that invades the body and first stripes it in elaborate swirls of black and gold before finally burning the host from within. A small enclave of the inflicted have managed to learn how to control the scale, but unfortunately sometimes the worst comes out of people when society breaks down – and the members of the community face danger from without and within. It's always frightening when a skillful writer delves into humankind's basest instincts. The most horrifying moments in this book are the ones where the cruelty is turned on friend instead of foe. In that it reminded me very much of Stephen King's The Mist, where the great fear is the crazy religious lady and not the giant creatures hovering outside the windows. It's not Hill's best work, IMO – it's really the story of a Mary Poppins loving nurse named Harper and not the fireman of the title, and Harper always felt a little 'unreal' to me. But I definitely wanted to keep reading to find out what happened.
The Tally:
New To Me: 11 books
Rereads: 12 books
TOTAL: 23 books read
... and I am just slightly behind in the movie watching goal.
Movies 10 to 17
Goal: 40 movies in 2016, 25 of which must be New To Me
10.Captain America: Civil War (2016) -- starring Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Robert Downey Jr
I was soooo looking forward to Civil War, and… I ended up being a little disappointed. I thought it was overlong (that endless opening sequence was soooo not necessary) and a bit heavy-handed. I always sort of love Tony and this movie made me hate him a little. Okay, more than a little. And there was not.enough.BUCKY. Hmph. (But as my friend leaned over to say to me as I was grumbling through the first thirty minutes: it's Captain America: Civil War, not Bucky: Civil War.) (It should be Bucky: Civil War to be quite honest.) And honestly, was it really necessary to have Steve making out with the blonde like *two seconds* after the love of his life died? And to have Sam and Bucky looking smugly approving? Ugh.
On the plus side, I love me some Scarlet Witch. I adored Clint more in the brief moments he had in this movie than in the previous two Avengers movies combined. Sam is awesome, and I love the Sam & Bucky dynamic.
11. Central Intelligence (2016) -- starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart
I thought this would be much more amusing than it was, but it did make me laugh out loud on several occasions. Johnson and Hart play off each other so well that I wish the script had allowed them more silly moments to just riff off each other. Who knew that The Rock could play a big ol' goofball so well? I also loved Aaron Paul's small part as Johnson's former partner – and I love that he threw in a 'bitch'. You can't tell me that wasn't a nod to Breaking Bad.
12. Now You See Me (2013) – starring Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo
My friend wanted me to go see the sequel to this with him, so I agreed to watch the first one. I found it very disappointing. It's the story of magicians robbing bank accounts and the cop who's after them, but there were just too many things that relied on luck and coincidence rather than the magician's 'plan' for the whole thing to succeed. And I know they were relying on misdirection but there was at least one time the script had to outright LIE to the audience to make the plot work, and it made no sense when you realize that. So no, I didn't see the sequel.
13. Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) – starring Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth
Wow, this was horrible. Leaden, two dimensional characters saddled with every trope in the action playbook. We have the 'former friends turned rivals who have to work together again' (except who cares because we've gotten to know each of them for about five minutes total). The geek who goes after the pretty girl (who has about three lines and whom we know not at all.) The inspiring presidential speech listened to on short wave around the world (except this guy has been President for about ten seconds, we know nothing about him, and we haven't even seen what's happening around the world before now.) They try to fit in too many characters, both old and new, with the result being that we don't care about any of them. The special effects are odd and uninspiring and so obviously CGI, and combine that with the bland characters and there is just no sense of danger or excitement. Someone dies? Meh. And worst of all, there was no sense of fun! Now I know why Will Smith turned this down…
That's two hours of my life I'm never getting back.
14. The Legend of Tarzan (2016) – starring Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie
Okay, I LOVED this. The transitions are a bit choppy and I think it could have used a few extra minutes to flesh things out because the pacing was sometimes off, but this is a fun throwback to old time movies but still with a fresh spin on things. Jane is a badass who is more than capable of holding her own against the bad guys, and Skarsgard gives his Tarzan, John Clayton, an introspective melancholy as he realizes that he really doesn’t fit in anywhere. The scenes in which John interacts with the animals are exciting and when he races through the jungle in search of Jane it's exhilarating to watch. This Tarzan is like the first superhero, relying on his experience, his intelligence, and his physicality to save the day. I also like that he doesn't really do anything that members of his tribe can't also do – they *all* can swing from the trees and run flat out of miles. It's his bond with the animals that is special.
I just may go see this one again.
15 to 17. The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) – starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen
I've always though the Bourne movies looked interesting but since I'd never seen the first, it was impossible to see the 2nd, the 3rd, etc. Well, now I've rectified that. I really enjoyed the first one, with Jason trying to untangle the mystery of who he is. Smart guys are hot. And I adored the chemistry between Jason and Marie. The second was not as good -- Marie! *sob* -- but the third redeemed itself as Jason finally got to the heart of the mystery and Joan Allen stopped wearing that distracting bright red lipstick. Too many car chases, though.
The Tally:
New to Me: 16 movies
Rewatch: 1 movie
TOTAL: 17 movies out of 40
Aaand I think that's it for me. I'm currently at the start of a week's vacation so I'm gonna try to snap myself out of this funk and actually start accomplishing things again.
.
