On lots of stuff
Shutterfly
Srsly, sign up for Shutterfly. They have occasional promotions where you can either redeem or earn free prints. 20-40 prints a couple times a year, imo, is a great deal :D Got my next batch of free Shutterfly prints to put up in my little office cubicle.
Cake
Does PC-Cola (basically no-name coke) and microwavable chocolate cake mix sound like a regular (or trendy?) cake recipe?
Volleyball
Yep. Forfeiting so many games put us in last place in the round-robin. First game of the tourney, we played the 1st place team, and the highest score we got was 15 (games to 25). Three up, three down. Lots of fun though, and the best game was the for-fun game we played after. Good times. Until next year. Hopefully we'll get a more full, committed team :)
Subway Eat Fresh
Customer appreciation day at Subway - brilliant! BOGO day, no coupon needed. Suffice to say, the places, around the city, were packed. Got two footlongs at lunch, and headed to another one on my way home after work for two more. Deal was done at 7, but the place went to was out of bread at 6:30. Anyone willing to wait still got their free sub. Others stopped in saying the other stores they visited were out of bread too. Well I hope they got more customers, in the long run maybe, to outweigh the cost :). But all the stores seemed to be in on it, and not bothered by it, so franchise HQ must have really pushed for it, or offered great reimbursements.
mmm subway...
Viewer discretion advised.
Watchmen. First, TSCC (Terminator, for those not in the know). What..on earth..was with showing a guy get his eye stabbed with a needle? Why could that not just have been implied? Rhetorical question.
Which leads to Watchmen. I haven't finished the novel yet - got through the first 25 or so pages before seeing the movie. Probably should have read more.
I did not expect the movie I saw.
I have opinions from multiple perspectives on this one. (minimal spoilers below? discussion of themes, but no detailed plot points)
* Philosophically - wow; deep, questioning, challenging, difficult to swallow, well written.
* Visually/artistically - loved the cinematography, creativity; you can see the comicbook influence in the visuals, though not nearly as blatant as in 300, for instance. I was watching for scenes that looked like comic book illustrations.
* Visually/content - w. t. f. seriously? How much stuff in there was gratuitous? In a nutshell: lots made sense given the theme of 'human nature', the dark human condition.. but there was stuff in there that simply did not need to be in there. I'm of the opinion that they had to match the shock value the comics introduced in the 80's for content, but relative for today. Stuff you see off-frame is on-frmae, in your face, extremity times 10. An R movie it certainly was.
* Christianally(?) - can't recommend it. Not unless the person is really strong and capable of taking in things that one should not be forced to watch, and doesn't feel that seeing it is condoning it. HOWEVER - it poses amazing discussion points, great subject matter that can give rise to deep, thought-provoking explorations of faith and the supernatural. Bring on a censored version and I'll be more willing to recommend it. While I personally truly enjoyed the philosophical content of the movie, the characters and events- I saw parallels, allegories, analogies, and unanswered questions. The movie was very dark and hopeless, really. But with a theme of 'human nature', how else could it be portrayed?
Inevitability. Humanity is all there is, thus we, in a sense, must overcome ourselves. The lone glimmer of hope is the 'good' humanity can bring amidst this darkness. It's an endless, depressing cycle. ...When it's left as that.
Anyway, point being - depending on who asks me, or from what perspective I'm asked, I'll have different answers about how good the movie is and whether to see it. It's not for the faint of heart, nor the weak of stomach. I think it'll skyrocket, from the die-hard fans seeing it the first week or two, but it'll certainly die off. After hearing reports of people leaving the theatre just after seeing the full (computer generated) body of Dr. Manhattan, and seeing newspaper reviews that can't get past the extreme graphic, violent content in the movie, I think it ultimately shot itself in the foot. And we got to see that foot get shot in slow motion, close up, and in excrutiating detail.
(it's a love/hate thing for me :P)
Now, to finish reading the (tame, by comparison) graphic novel.
ETA:
Trailers
Transformers - niiiiice
Terminator Salvation - Oooooooh
Star Trek - IMAX, most definitely.
Srsly, sign up for Shutterfly. They have occasional promotions where you can either redeem or earn free prints. 20-40 prints a couple times a year, imo, is a great deal :D Got my next batch of free Shutterfly prints to put up in my little office cubicle.
Cake
Does PC-Cola (basically no-name coke) and microwavable chocolate cake mix sound like a regular (or trendy?) cake recipe?
Volleyball
Yep. Forfeiting so many games put us in last place in the round-robin. First game of the tourney, we played the 1st place team, and the highest score we got was 15 (games to 25). Three up, three down. Lots of fun though, and the best game was the for-fun game we played after. Good times. Until next year. Hopefully we'll get a more full, committed team :)
Subway Eat Fresh
Customer appreciation day at Subway - brilliant! BOGO day, no coupon needed. Suffice to say, the places, around the city, were packed. Got two footlongs at lunch, and headed to another one on my way home after work for two more. Deal was done at 7, but the place went to was out of bread at 6:30. Anyone willing to wait still got their free sub. Others stopped in saying the other stores they visited were out of bread too. Well I hope they got more customers, in the long run maybe, to outweigh the cost :). But all the stores seemed to be in on it, and not bothered by it, so franchise HQ must have really pushed for it, or offered great reimbursements.
mmm subway...
Viewer discretion advised.
Watchmen. First, TSCC (Terminator, for those not in the know). What..on earth..was with showing a guy get his eye stabbed with a needle? Why could that not just have been implied? Rhetorical question.
Which leads to Watchmen. I haven't finished the novel yet - got through the first 25 or so pages before seeing the movie. Probably should have read more.
I did not expect the movie I saw.
I have opinions from multiple perspectives on this one. (minimal spoilers below? discussion of themes, but no detailed plot points)
* Philosophically - wow; deep, questioning, challenging, difficult to swallow, well written.
* Visually/artistically - loved the cinematography, creativity; you can see the comicbook influence in the visuals, though not nearly as blatant as in 300, for instance. I was watching for scenes that looked like comic book illustrations.
* Visually/content - w. t. f. seriously? How much stuff in there was gratuitous? In a nutshell: lots made sense given the theme of 'human nature', the dark human condition.. but there was stuff in there that simply did not need to be in there. I'm of the opinion that they had to match the shock value the comics introduced in the 80's for content, but relative for today. Stuff you see off-frame is on-frmae, in your face, extremity times 10. An R movie it certainly was.
* Christianally(?) - can't recommend it. Not unless the person is really strong and capable of taking in things that one should not be forced to watch, and doesn't feel that seeing it is condoning it. HOWEVER - it poses amazing discussion points, great subject matter that can give rise to deep, thought-provoking explorations of faith and the supernatural. Bring on a censored version and I'll be more willing to recommend it. While I personally truly enjoyed the philosophical content of the movie, the characters and events- I saw parallels, allegories, analogies, and unanswered questions. The movie was very dark and hopeless, really. But with a theme of 'human nature', how else could it be portrayed?
Inevitability. Humanity is all there is, thus we, in a sense, must overcome ourselves. The lone glimmer of hope is the 'good' humanity can bring amidst this darkness. It's an endless, depressing cycle. ...When it's left as that.
Anyway, point being - depending on who asks me, or from what perspective I'm asked, I'll have different answers about how good the movie is and whether to see it. It's not for the faint of heart, nor the weak of stomach. I think it'll skyrocket, from the die-hard fans seeing it the first week or two, but it'll certainly die off. After hearing reports of people leaving the theatre just after seeing the full (computer generated) body of Dr. Manhattan, and seeing newspaper reviews that can't get past the extreme graphic, violent content in the movie, I think it ultimately shot itself in the foot. And we got to see that foot get shot in slow motion, close up, and in excrutiating detail.
(it's a love/hate thing for me :P)
Now, to finish reading the (tame, by comparison) graphic novel.
ETA:
Trailers
Transformers - niiiiice
Terminator Salvation - Oooooooh
Star Trek - IMAX, most definitely.