…is tres cool. It arrived last night (with my Christmas present, which I’m trying to forget about like he tried to forget about knowing about his party. That reminds me: I still need to post pics from the surprise party).
Category Archives: reviews
The Incredibles
Last night, Mark and Aaron and I went to see The Incredibles at Showcase Cinemas Maumee.
I have decided that all Pixar films rock.
Kill Bill Volume 2: Less Blood, More Plot
Upon seeing the “sequel,” I could really tell how the two halves were supposed to fit together as a whole. Watched in succession, the pacing of the two movies would be perfect. While Kill Bill Volume 1 focused on The Bride and her single-minded revenge, Volume 2 focuses more on the backstory and why her revenge is so necessary (and so flawlessly executed). The alteration of pacing would be a cleansing of the palette after two hours of jam-packed hack-and-slash gore—you’ve got it out of your system, so now let’s see more of why she’s on a murderous rampage. If you didn’t enjoy Volume 1 because of the over-the-top blood and guts, you may enjoy Volume 2 more for its drama and plot and character development. However, if you enjoyed Volume 1 solely for the gratuitous violence and much fast-paced kicking of asses, you may be mildly disappointed in the lack of equally massive gore in the second installation of the story (although it does still have its share). Remember, The Bride has fewer people to kill in this movie, anyway. 🙂
Apart from seeing Kill Bill, Amy and Aaron and I went to Subway for lunch, then the Low Carb Solutions store for the infamous pork rinds, then to Allied and Goodwill and Savers before we got our movie tickets. Fun weekend, great weather, and Amy’s visit most certainly saved us from doing yardwork all weekend.
Ah, well. There’s always next weekend.
Rollins in Ann Arbor
Need to get my shower and get to sleep, but I just felt the need to update. It’s been a few days.
Went to see Henry Rollins do his spoken word thing in Ann Arbor on Sunday. I was worried that the drunk bastard sitting behind us would ruin the entire show instead of just the first 20 minutes, but he mercifully passed out and didn’t wake up until the show was almost over, nearly three hours later. I swear, we can’t get away from the drunken fucks even when we pay for reserved seats. —But drunken debauchery aside, Rollins was on top of his game, as always, with tales of his recent USO tour in Afghanistan and of a would-be burglar “running like a scared bitch,” as one Abe-lover I know would say. 🙂 Gotta get a Rollins fix every couple of years, just like Clutch.
While we were in Ann Arbor, we stopped by the anime store (of course), a couple record stores, and a couple of book stores. I ended up buying Nichelle Nichols’ autobiography, Beyond Uhura, a book on the making of Star Trek entitled Star Trek Lives!, and a trade-paperback edition of an Asimov-universe book that Aaron had already bought for me in small paperback form for Christmas. I felt kind of bad buying that one, but the size and artwork matched the two hardbacks I have for the other books of the set, and I just couldn’t resist. I may eBay the other paperback, but I may not. It was a present, after all.
Incidentally, I am absolutely hooked on Nichelle Nichols’ book. I can’t put it down.
I ordered some new candle scents that should be arriving soon: ginger, chamomile, green tea… and marshmallow. I also ordered tealight tins and wicks, so now I can pour a bunch of little candles and burn them together to test-mix fragrances. I still need to get some additives and a couple more dyes before I get going full-steam again, but I’m looking forward to it.
OK, my 20-minute session of Pilates kind of whipped my butt again tonight, so I’m hitting the shower and going to bed. Of course, once I’m there, I’ll probably read for a good half-hour before I actually go to sleep…
Ohayocon4
…was a lot of fun. Arrived at the Hyatt Regency Columbus at noon, got registered (after standing in line for a half hour), and ate lunch at the Subway in the hotel’s food court. (FYI, the Atkins-friendly Chicken Bacon Ranch wraps are yummy, and the actual wheat/soy wrap itself is really quite good, but the portion size leaves a little to be desired.)
After lunch, we hit the Dealer Room to spend our respective wads of cash. Two circuits around the Dealer Room yielded:
- a Chibi Totoro plushie (the white one)
- a Chu Totoro keychain (the blue one)
- a deck of giant Totoro playing cards
- Warcry: a book of Berserk postcards / art
- a Berserk Dreamcast poster
- a Gamera toy
- an Aruru capsule toy (with Puyos—from the Puyo Puyo video game)
…and left us enough money for dinner later.