*yaaawn*
My browser is slow and work still sucks. I'd like to go into more detail involving hatchets and flamethrowers, but that's neither pleasant nor constructive, so I won't.
I am also short on sleep, but that was my own fault - I scored a bargain copy of Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips and stayed up to read the whole thing.
Sometimes I get the feeling that SEP recycles her plots and characters. She's written about hunky football players and the feisty, creative women who love them before. She's had other heroines wear silly costumes and have their backs to the wall in her other books, and caused them to work for or take long road trips with the hero with the usual jolly little conflicts along the way. She's also written about the football players' mothers before - in fact, I think they always appear in their sons' stories and have issues and romances all their own.
But when I think about it some more (or try to, anyway, as sleep-deprived as I am) there are still things that set NBC apart from her other books :) I think the thing that made this book really stand out from all the others is the amount of creativity in it - the heroine is a painter, the football player hero has a rock star dad, a musically talented half-sister and a stylist mother, and even the cranky old lady in the book was a former dance instructor. The descriptions of the artwork, clothing and home decor are great :) And unlike the other books where the hero or heroine have existing families who may or may not have conflicts of their own, this is about a whole family - father, mother, son and daughter - coming together with the help of art and the need to make life beautiful.
Besides buying a book, I also finally watched Alvin & the Chipmunks. I think I'm impelled to watch movies based on cartoons from my childhood to reminisce and compare the new adaptations to the original o_O
The reviews for the movie weren't very good, so I was prepared for Jason Lee's lame interpretation of the classic "Aaaaalvin!" yell. I think that was the only thing that the critics panned with which I agreed.
No, actually, I agree with the critics that the plot was kind of clichéd, but I also thought it was kind of fresh to have the Chipmunks go through the requisite things that would land them a Behind the Music documentary. (And to have them looove toaster waffles and Spongebob Squarepants, LOL. I didn't like how they basically became a rodent boy band, though, but I guess that's standard for the megamillion pop music industry.) And I must say it was a wrench to see them struggling with their fame :( Inside, I was rooting for poor, powerless Dave to kick the evil record executive's butt!
The happily-ever-after ending was kind of weak, too, but since this is a movie primarily for kids, I guess I could let that slip. All in all, it was decent junk food for the brain, but I'm glad I didn't spend so much on the ticket.
OK, back to work!
I am also short on sleep, but that was my own fault - I scored a bargain copy of Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips and stayed up to read the whole thing.
Sometimes I get the feeling that SEP recycles her plots and characters. She's written about hunky football players and the feisty, creative women who love them before. She's had other heroines wear silly costumes and have their backs to the wall in her other books, and caused them to work for or take long road trips with the hero with the usual jolly little conflicts along the way. She's also written about the football players' mothers before - in fact, I think they always appear in their sons' stories and have issues and romances all their own.
But when I think about it some more (or try to, anyway, as sleep-deprived as I am) there are still things that set NBC apart from her other books :) I think the thing that made this book really stand out from all the others is the amount of creativity in it - the heroine is a painter, the football player hero has a rock star dad, a musically talented half-sister and a stylist mother, and even the cranky old lady in the book was a former dance instructor. The descriptions of the artwork, clothing and home decor are great :) And unlike the other books where the hero or heroine have existing families who may or may not have conflicts of their own, this is about a whole family - father, mother, son and daughter - coming together with the help of art and the need to make life beautiful.
Besides buying a book, I also finally watched Alvin & the Chipmunks. I think I'm impelled to watch movies based on cartoons from my childhood to reminisce and compare the new adaptations to the original o_O
The reviews for the movie weren't very good, so I was prepared for Jason Lee's lame interpretation of the classic "Aaaaalvin!" yell. I think that was the only thing that the critics panned with which I agreed.
No, actually, I agree with the critics that the plot was kind of clichéd, but I also thought it was kind of fresh to have the Chipmunks go through the requisite things that would land them a Behind the Music documentary. (And to have them looove toaster waffles and Spongebob Squarepants, LOL. I didn't like how they basically became a rodent boy band, though, but I guess that's standard for the megamillion pop music industry.) And I must say it was a wrench to see them struggling with their fame :( Inside, I was rooting for poor, powerless Dave to kick the evil record executive's butt!
The happily-ever-after ending was kind of weak, too, but since this is a movie primarily for kids, I guess I could let that slip. All in all, it was decent junk food for the brain, but I'm glad I didn't spend so much on the ticket.
OK, back to work!