Review; III

In future, I will try to not do everything all at once.

Publish This Book is the most irreverent book I've ever read, but also one of the funniest. It's all about getting a book published (hence, the title). On the other hand, it's depressing to hear about how difficult it is to get something published.

Despicable Me is worth seeing.

It's clever, and it's highly entertaining to hear Steve Carell doing a Russian accent (and then to hear O. imitating it is even better, since she actually is Russian), but more than anything, it's highly endearing even though it's easy to figure out the plot from just the trailers. Unlike, say, Avatar, which you could figure out from the trailers, but then didn't give you much else (yeah, I know. Sue me, I didn't like it).

The minions are wonderful.

However, the best line belongs to Vector, the bad guy (well, the "more" bad guy):

"I'm Vector: a villain with both direction and magnitude!"

Vellum, by Hal Duncan...

...is beautifully written, but the only way to do it is to ignore the fact that time is a linear thing. Don't bother unless American Gods is your favorite Gaiman book.

But....

I did it. I finally gave in and saw it:

Inception.

I'm odd when it comes to movies. If the plot's not good, there's nothing in the 'verse that can make it good. (I'd say "think Twilight," but there just isn't anything good about those movies.) On the other hand, there are some movies I avoid because I don't like the lead.

I've never been a huge DiCaprio fan (he's too hit-and-miss for me), but the plot looked too good to ignore--plus, I love Ellen Page.

So I saw it.

I think the best way to describe it is a cross between The Matrix and Ocean's Eleven (the remake, not the original).

It was less Memento mess-with-your-mind than I thought it would be, but sleeping through half isn't really an option. They delve into the dream-within-a-dream idea, and play with the chemical makeup of dreams, and the fact that your brain incorporates what's going on in the world into your dream, and how you don't realize how weird a dream is until you wake up.

In short,

go see it.

m.

Tiny Things

An excerpt from my journal, 19 July:

There seem to be two things I've done in the past few weeks: beading and writing.

I love taking small, banal insignificant and often boring things and making them--by putting them together in different patterns and shapes and galaxies and universes with different stars and worlds--into grand and grandiose creations that perhaps I sometimes take too much pride in. I love watching them come together, though. To see something in progress; to combine colors and spaces and silence, to watch and appropriately note where things seem best to fit, to be careful patterns, and to watch the creativity of years come out. But perhaps not years. My mind is filled with the words, and the maps, and "banal" is my new favorite word; I keep seeing it in the books I'm reading. Apparently, I should also be reading Joyce, in addition to those books I've currently read and/or finished.

I think this is a good descriptor of not only what I've been doing the last few weeks, but also what my summers are like: lots of (usually) tiny things that come together and make up a few months.

Kali, one of the girls I went to NZ with, finished our website. I would recommend you check it out. It has all of our pieces (essay & creative), photos, and the obligatory "meet us!" section, which isn't anywhere near as bad as most of the author descriptions on the inside cover of a novel.

As I said, this is some of what this particular summer has consisted of:

These last beads are handmade...by me (be impressed. I don't do that much). They've been drying for this past week while I've been (back) in Colorado. I can't wait to use them.

m.

When they talk about life experiences,

I don't think they usually count getting balsamic vinaigrette in your eye. However, it is most definitely an experience.

In other, slightly more pertinent, news:

My mom and I got back on Tuesday. I don't want to go anywhere ever again. Unless it's Turkey.

Un/fortunately, there are a few other things scheduled for this summer.

O., my cousin, is out of the hospital. (Yay!) She's doing better and better every day. There wasn't any swelling, and no more bleeding than the doctors expected. It goes without saying that she's covered in scabs--arms, legs, and face. In addition, her right eye looks like an eleven-year-old from the eighties was let loose in a makeup store.

My grandpa is also out of the hospital, although he's in rehab (no, obviously not that kind...although it is entertaining to imagine an 83-year-old there...).

I am from, and in, Tacoma. It is 9:46pm and 79 degrees. Things are not right in the world.

Tacoma has an official-ish-ish music video, Two Five Three. Two warnings: it contains language, and accurately describes the city I live in.

The new INK magazine is out here. The photography is always good, as are the featured artists. What makes this particular issue so cool are:

page 17. An article by Alex Taitague about boat shoes. Similar to Hugh Gallagher's NYU application essay. Which, incidentally, is well worth reading.

pages 182-7. Chelsey Scheffe. She can do just about anything. I should know. Not only did I sit by her at graduation, we went to China together our senior year (read: spent three weeks together in the same house).

pages 140-5. And interview with Isaiah Whitmore, a fashion student. I went to high school with him, too. He is gifted, is one of the sweetest people I know, and both come across in his interview.

About a year ago, my cousin K. (out of my three cousins, she's the coolest. Sorry. I take that back. Out of my entire family, she's the coolest) told me about The Big Bang Theory. Since I now have to wait until next summer for more Doctor Who and I'm out of school (read: not hanging around the math lounge, listening to conversations about topology, theoretical physics, stats, and computer science), my geek coefficient has been significantly reduced. Big Bang Theory has changed that. It's about Sheldon and Leonard, theoretical and applied physicists, respectively, and their troubles operating in the real world. Sadly, it's quite accurate. Even more sadly, I understand most of what they're talking about.

m.

slowing down

Remember how I said things were slowing down?

Well, I lied.

Not on purpose, of course.

We found out on Wednesday that my younger cousin got hit by a car while riding her bike, and then we found out this morning my grandfather broke his hip.

Yes, all this in only three days.

They're both in the hospital (my cousin's still in the ICU), and we don't know when they'll be out. We're flying out today (in a few hours, actually) and will be there until Tuesday.

If you could pray for them, that would be wonderful. Well, actually for all of us. There are the grandparents, the parents, and the two cousins, and then the aunt and...me.

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows."

2 Corinthians 1:2-5

m.

Oh, yeah. This, I think, qualifies this as the worst 4th I have ever had.