A fairly eventful week
So, I kept meaning to post about various things and not doing it. The last week has been interesting. Because I talk to long, most of this will go behind cuts.
A few weeks ago, now, Mom stopped to talk to a rep from DirecTV at our local Sam's Club. I should note, right here, that we've had both our television (extremely basic, like maybe 20 channels) and internet through Cox, the only cable company in our area. I don't much like Cox. I spend nearly $75/month. My internet is lightning fast, when it works. In the last few months we've had on average, about 30 hours of downtime a week. I've called the company repeatedly, and they insiste it's a problem on our end (either with our router which is nonsense, because I spent one whole day with just the hard line from the modem to my laptop, and we had almost 3 hours of downtime split between two different cables, so it's not just a bad bit of cable either) or with the co-ax in the house. We've replaced that twice, and the guy they send out insists that we're receiving a good strong signal, but cable still insists that this is a problem on our end, so they won't issue any credit for my downtime and it's really starting to get on my last nerve. But that's beside the point. I don't have a better internet option, so I'm going to continue putting up with them. The cable television was basically our local networks a couple of "extra" digital PBS stations, WGN, The Weather Channel, and a couple of shopping networks. That was $20 of my bill. So, when the guy told her he could get her signed up for the Choice package which has a ton of stuff that we used to watch, but no longer get on cable (stuff like SyFy, BBC America, Food Network, Bravo, etc) for the same $20/month I was paying for cable for the first year (2nd year at $65/month, but we can drop back to a smaller package that still gives us more than we have right now, but loses most of the channels I love for about $30/month at no penalty), she jumped at the chance.
So, last Wednesday our DirecTV was hooked up, and I'm loving it. Watched the season premiere of Leverage, but White Collar conflicts with Master Chef or some other such crap that mom watches, so I haven't been able to watch it yet. Watched a lot of other stuff too, but that's the thing I'm most excited about so far. I love my show. I now need to watch last season, though, because I only saw the first three episodes and the one where Eliot sings country music.
That same day, was Dad's day off, so I took him to the movies for his father's day gift. He won't choose the movie, ever, so I had to think about it a little. I think he would have actually preferred to see Thor or Green Lantern, but Thor is probably my least favorite Marvel superhero & I really just don't care about Green Lantern. So it was X-Men, and really the difference for Dad was probably miniscule.
I understand a lot of the criticisms I've seen of the movie, especially when it comes to the serious departures from Marvel canon, but I liked it anyway. I felt like it was true to the spirit of the comics if not the actual canon, though I have to say that X-Men canon AUs weren't exactly in short supply even in the comic books. The animated series added more, and this just strikes me as yet another slightly AU imagining of the world. It's not entirely consistent with the other films either, but it worked for me, and is most inconsistent with the third film which I'm not a huge fan of, so I don't really mind this conflicting with it.
The only thing I can really complain about at all, isn't something that I really think they could have solved in a single film. One of the great tragedies of the X-Men universe, has always been Erik and Charles' relationship. Not even necessarily in the subtexty slashy way, but any way you read it, they were incredible friends whose ideological differences put them on opposite sides of violent conflict. While I thought the movie did a good job at creating that friendship very quickly, it doesn't quite feel like enough. That's what the idea of Erik and Charles really starting the school and building it up together does for me, and the film reduces that to a few weeks spent training a handful of mutants.
As for characterization, I thought both Erik & Charles were perfect. I'm not particularly familiar with Alex, but he worked for me based on the little bit that I remember about his personality. It was strange, but good to see Hank as this incredibly unsure, and even insecure, young man. While Beast has certainly struggled over the years, and this origin story pretty closely mirrors the canon, I still pretty much have a picture of him as extraordinarily calm, almost serene. I like the idea that maybe he had to be here first. Raven brought depth to Mystique that I seldom see, wrapped up in a petulant barely adult package. I don't know that it's ever occurred to me to wonder what a teen Banshee would have been like, but I enjoyed this Sean.
I shipped Charles & Erik before I knew what shipping was, long before I'd heard of fandom, and definitely before I'd heard of slash. This certainly didn't change my mind any. Wonderfully, beautifully slashy bits that leave quite a lot of room for fic set during the film, but also leave plenty of room for AU endings or probably angsty, but canon-compliant post-movie fic.
Speaking of AU fic, there are plenty of critical moments, but the biggest one for me is there on the beach when Charles makes the comment about good men following orders. I felt like Erik was looking for a reason from Charles, but that pushed him entirely over the edge. If I ever get any of my other writing projects done I might try to write this AU, because while I've seen a lot of AU endings, that's never been the point they turn on, and it is for me the moment that decides Erik's future. In my head I'm calling it the Charles actually thinks before he speaks AU.
Last Friday Mom & I spent the day in Kansas City. With one of my last paychecks from the tax service, I had bought tickets to see the Cubs play the Royals. So we went down for that. We left early in the day, because even though I've been to Nelson-Atkins museum twice this year, I still hadn't managed to see the newish addition, the Bloch galleries. So we went down fairly early. We had an early lunch in the Museum's restaurant which is fabulous. I had an incredibly good salad (and I now know what to do with leftover roasted potatoes, toss them with salad greens, Kalamata olives, and steamed green beans) with a grilled salmon fillet. It was perfection.
The galleries were nice. Bloch galleries include the contemporary and modern art galleries (1944-present) and the African art gallery, as well as special exhibitions. I was able to reinforce my love of Basquiat (sadly a travelling piece which probably won't be there the next time I am) and Pollock and bond with my mother over a baseball themed Andy Warhol piece. We also apparently share the same lack of appreciation for color theory as an art movement. The African gallery is small, but nice. I was struck by the similarities in beadwork, textile patterns, and even pottery between the African items and the items found in the Native American galleries which I've spent a lot of time in over the years. There was a special members only preview of a new exhibit which I could have gone to, but didn't. The artist sits in a room with a typewriter. Patrons are supposed to suggest a word, and he will compose a poem on the typewriter and then add it to the collection on the walls. The really special exhibit was for Monet's Water Lilies. They have, for a limited time, all four panels, and have built a beautiful exhibit around them. I never really appreciated the scale of them. I was familiar with them, of course, but I guess I just didn't realize how truly massive they are.
We went to Winsteads for dinner, and it was good for what it is. I did have a fabulous pineapple ice cream soda. After that it was time to head for the stadium. After stopping and being redirected by the traffic guys a half dozen times, we finally managed to find the handicapped parking. I drug out mom's wheelchair, and we made our way to the stadium where we got lost twice on the way to our seats. Our seats were fabulous. I bought in April for a game at the end of June, and I was still almost too late. I ended up spending a lot more money on tickets than I typically do, over $100 for the two of them (and I usually spend about $60 for them), but it was so worth it. We were behind home plate, just slightly to the first base side, and very close to the field. We were as close as you could get with accessible seating, I think. The weather was perfect. It was just about 80 degrees with a nice breeze and not too humid when we got there, but it cooled off to the upper 60s by the time we left. And as an added bonus, my Cubs won after a very tough game. It was fun. I wish, as close as we are, I made it into KC more often.
So that's how I spent the end of last week. I guess this week wasn't actually eventful, just spent Sunday afternoon watching the race, and Monday recovering from taking the girls to church the day before. I feel bad for our littlest girl, Kylah. She's about 1 1/2, and wants to be with her big sisters all the time. Sadly, she has to be 3 before she can play in the playplace at McDonalds. Keeping her from leaping on and heading up a slide is a full-time job.
I'm glad we're taking the kids to church though. I think it's good for them, both from a socialization standpoint, which they all need, and because while Ashley and her Mom are both Catholic, neither of them attend church, and don't really talk about god or religion at all. Several weeks back, Haley, won a prize in Sunday School for being able to recite her memory verse, "God is Love." That same day, a member of our church spoke during the service about an experience he had. His wife's little sister is in college and taking a class called fringe religions. One of the requirements of the class is that they attend a service for a group that meets the class's definition of fringe. The sister decided that she was going to attend a service at Westboro Baptist Church. She didn't want to go alone, so she asked her sister and brother-in-law to go with her. He spoke about what he saw there. I won't go into a lot of details, but it was pretty much the kind of vile hatemongering you would expect from Phelps and his people. He apparently hands out a copy of his sermon before every service, and Joe made copies for anyone who wanted them at our church. I think I'm the only member of the family who actually made it through this one. The gist of it seemed to be that the reason for the flood was gay marriage, and that gay marriage will usher in the apocalypse, so it's getting close. The saddest thing he said about the entire experience was that nearly half of the congregation of 60-65 people were children, mostly grade school age and younger. It just made quite an impact that on the same week we heard about that, one of our girls was getting a prize for remembering that God is Love. I have my issues with the church I attend. They are serious enough that I will probably not become a member. They are serious enough that if I could find a congregation that even came close to the same servant's spirit that these people do, and didn't offer up the concerns, I would leave. But, they're good people doing good work, and as long as we're still teaching our kids that love is the foundation of our faith, they can't be all bad.
For full-disclosure, I spent most of Tuesday watching Mutant X interspersed with Property Virgins, and most of Wednesday watching Moonlight and reading fanfic for First Class. Today, I spent cleaning the kitchen making a semi-successful attempt at banana muffins out of leftover oatmeal and a couple of past their prime bananas, and staring at the freezer until meal ideas came to mind.
A few weeks ago, now, Mom stopped to talk to a rep from DirecTV at our local Sam's Club. I should note, right here, that we've had both our television (extremely basic, like maybe 20 channels) and internet through Cox, the only cable company in our area. I don't much like Cox. I spend nearly $75/month. My internet is lightning fast, when it works. In the last few months we've had on average, about 30 hours of downtime a week. I've called the company repeatedly, and they insiste it's a problem on our end (either with our router which is nonsense, because I spent one whole day with just the hard line from the modem to my laptop, and we had almost 3 hours of downtime split between two different cables, so it's not just a bad bit of cable either) or with the co-ax in the house. We've replaced that twice, and the guy they send out insists that we're receiving a good strong signal, but cable still insists that this is a problem on our end, so they won't issue any credit for my downtime and it's really starting to get on my last nerve. But that's beside the point. I don't have a better internet option, so I'm going to continue putting up with them. The cable television was basically our local networks a couple of "extra" digital PBS stations, WGN, The Weather Channel, and a couple of shopping networks. That was $20 of my bill. So, when the guy told her he could get her signed up for the Choice package which has a ton of stuff that we used to watch, but no longer get on cable (stuff like SyFy, BBC America, Food Network, Bravo, etc) for the same $20/month I was paying for cable for the first year (2nd year at $65/month, but we can drop back to a smaller package that still gives us more than we have right now, but loses most of the channels I love for about $30/month at no penalty), she jumped at the chance.
So, last Wednesday our DirecTV was hooked up, and I'm loving it. Watched the season premiere of Leverage, but White Collar conflicts with Master Chef or some other such crap that mom watches, so I haven't been able to watch it yet. Watched a lot of other stuff too, but that's the thing I'm most excited about so far. I love my show. I now need to watch last season, though, because I only saw the first three episodes and the one where Eliot sings country music.
That same day, was Dad's day off, so I took him to the movies for his father's day gift. He won't choose the movie, ever, so I had to think about it a little. I think he would have actually preferred to see Thor or Green Lantern, but Thor is probably my least favorite Marvel superhero & I really just don't care about Green Lantern. So it was X-Men, and really the difference for Dad was probably miniscule.
I understand a lot of the criticisms I've seen of the movie, especially when it comes to the serious departures from Marvel canon, but I liked it anyway. I felt like it was true to the spirit of the comics if not the actual canon, though I have to say that X-Men canon AUs weren't exactly in short supply even in the comic books. The animated series added more, and this just strikes me as yet another slightly AU imagining of the world. It's not entirely consistent with the other films either, but it worked for me, and is most inconsistent with the third film which I'm not a huge fan of, so I don't really mind this conflicting with it.
The only thing I can really complain about at all, isn't something that I really think they could have solved in a single film. One of the great tragedies of the X-Men universe, has always been Erik and Charles' relationship. Not even necessarily in the subtexty slashy way, but any way you read it, they were incredible friends whose ideological differences put them on opposite sides of violent conflict. While I thought the movie did a good job at creating that friendship very quickly, it doesn't quite feel like enough. That's what the idea of Erik and Charles really starting the school and building it up together does for me, and the film reduces that to a few weeks spent training a handful of mutants.
As for characterization, I thought both Erik & Charles were perfect. I'm not particularly familiar with Alex, but he worked for me based on the little bit that I remember about his personality. It was strange, but good to see Hank as this incredibly unsure, and even insecure, young man. While Beast has certainly struggled over the years, and this origin story pretty closely mirrors the canon, I still pretty much have a picture of him as extraordinarily calm, almost serene. I like the idea that maybe he had to be here first. Raven brought depth to Mystique that I seldom see, wrapped up in a petulant barely adult package. I don't know that it's ever occurred to me to wonder what a teen Banshee would have been like, but I enjoyed this Sean.
I shipped Charles & Erik before I knew what shipping was, long before I'd heard of fandom, and definitely before I'd heard of slash. This certainly didn't change my mind any. Wonderfully, beautifully slashy bits that leave quite a lot of room for fic set during the film, but also leave plenty of room for AU endings or probably angsty, but canon-compliant post-movie fic.
Speaking of AU fic, there are plenty of critical moments, but the biggest one for me is there on the beach when Charles makes the comment about good men following orders. I felt like Erik was looking for a reason from Charles, but that pushed him entirely over the edge. If I ever get any of my other writing projects done I might try to write this AU, because while I've seen a lot of AU endings, that's never been the point they turn on, and it is for me the moment that decides Erik's future. In my head I'm calling it the Charles actually thinks before he speaks AU.
Last Friday Mom & I spent the day in Kansas City. With one of my last paychecks from the tax service, I had bought tickets to see the Cubs play the Royals. So we went down for that. We left early in the day, because even though I've been to Nelson-Atkins museum twice this year, I still hadn't managed to see the newish addition, the Bloch galleries. So we went down fairly early. We had an early lunch in the Museum's restaurant which is fabulous. I had an incredibly good salad (and I now know what to do with leftover roasted potatoes, toss them with salad greens, Kalamata olives, and steamed green beans) with a grilled salmon fillet. It was perfection.
The galleries were nice. Bloch galleries include the contemporary and modern art galleries (1944-present) and the African art gallery, as well as special exhibitions. I was able to reinforce my love of Basquiat (sadly a travelling piece which probably won't be there the next time I am) and Pollock and bond with my mother over a baseball themed Andy Warhol piece. We also apparently share the same lack of appreciation for color theory as an art movement. The African gallery is small, but nice. I was struck by the similarities in beadwork, textile patterns, and even pottery between the African items and the items found in the Native American galleries which I've spent a lot of time in over the years. There was a special members only preview of a new exhibit which I could have gone to, but didn't. The artist sits in a room with a typewriter. Patrons are supposed to suggest a word, and he will compose a poem on the typewriter and then add it to the collection on the walls. The really special exhibit was for Monet's Water Lilies. They have, for a limited time, all four panels, and have built a beautiful exhibit around them. I never really appreciated the scale of them. I was familiar with them, of course, but I guess I just didn't realize how truly massive they are.
We went to Winsteads for dinner, and it was good for what it is. I did have a fabulous pineapple ice cream soda. After that it was time to head for the stadium. After stopping and being redirected by the traffic guys a half dozen times, we finally managed to find the handicapped parking. I drug out mom's wheelchair, and we made our way to the stadium where we got lost twice on the way to our seats. Our seats were fabulous. I bought in April for a game at the end of June, and I was still almost too late. I ended up spending a lot more money on tickets than I typically do, over $100 for the two of them (and I usually spend about $60 for them), but it was so worth it. We were behind home plate, just slightly to the first base side, and very close to the field. We were as close as you could get with accessible seating, I think. The weather was perfect. It was just about 80 degrees with a nice breeze and not too humid when we got there, but it cooled off to the upper 60s by the time we left. And as an added bonus, my Cubs won after a very tough game. It was fun. I wish, as close as we are, I made it into KC more often.
So that's how I spent the end of last week. I guess this week wasn't actually eventful, just spent Sunday afternoon watching the race, and Monday recovering from taking the girls to church the day before. I feel bad for our littlest girl, Kylah. She's about 1 1/2, and wants to be with her big sisters all the time. Sadly, she has to be 3 before she can play in the playplace at McDonalds. Keeping her from leaping on and heading up a slide is a full-time job.
I'm glad we're taking the kids to church though. I think it's good for them, both from a socialization standpoint, which they all need, and because while Ashley and her Mom are both Catholic, neither of them attend church, and don't really talk about god or religion at all. Several weeks back, Haley, won a prize in Sunday School for being able to recite her memory verse, "God is Love." That same day, a member of our church spoke during the service about an experience he had. His wife's little sister is in college and taking a class called fringe religions. One of the requirements of the class is that they attend a service for a group that meets the class's definition of fringe. The sister decided that she was going to attend a service at Westboro Baptist Church. She didn't want to go alone, so she asked her sister and brother-in-law to go with her. He spoke about what he saw there. I won't go into a lot of details, but it was pretty much the kind of vile hatemongering you would expect from Phelps and his people. He apparently hands out a copy of his sermon before every service, and Joe made copies for anyone who wanted them at our church. I think I'm the only member of the family who actually made it through this one. The gist of it seemed to be that the reason for the flood was gay marriage, and that gay marriage will usher in the apocalypse, so it's getting close. The saddest thing he said about the entire experience was that nearly half of the congregation of 60-65 people were children, mostly grade school age and younger. It just made quite an impact that on the same week we heard about that, one of our girls was getting a prize for remembering that God is Love. I have my issues with the church I attend. They are serious enough that I will probably not become a member. They are serious enough that if I could find a congregation that even came close to the same servant's spirit that these people do, and didn't offer up the concerns, I would leave. But, they're good people doing good work, and as long as we're still teaching our kids that love is the foundation of our faith, they can't be all bad.
For full-disclosure, I spent most of Tuesday watching Mutant X interspersed with Property Virgins, and most of Wednesday watching Moonlight and reading fanfic for First Class. Today, I spent cleaning the kitchen making a semi-successful attempt at banana muffins out of leftover oatmeal and a couple of past their prime bananas, and staring at the freezer until meal ideas came to mind.