Random Thoughts on Dear John

Yes, I know, another chick flick, but @DarrellSykes and I went to see “Dear John” today. It was actually a very good movie. It had Channing Tatum (as John) in it, which I’m not a huge fan of his acting, but it also had Amanda Seyfried (as Savannah), whom I love (from two of my favorite movies: Mean Girls and Mamma Mia!), so I thought I’d give it a shot. From the beginning I really liked the characters, and I felt the chemistry between them. Young, new love. It’s magical, and they made me feel it with them. Then there were some bumps in their newly formed relationship and we got to experience some of the military life of John. There were some slow moving scenes in that part of the movie, but in the end it all worked out for the best of the story. During the military stint, September 11th happens, and he re-enlists in the Army. His extended absence creates even more relationship issues between John and Savannah. During this whole thing, there are actually two other mini-storylines that are going on and are intermingled with the main story.

I’ve gone way too far into a synopsis, which I promised I’d never do. Ugh. Well, there are a LOT of twists and turns in this movie, it reminded me a lot of The Notebook, which was an excellent movie. In the end, I left the theatre in tears. Were they happy or sad? You should go see the movie, then you’ll know.

I can recommend this movie for a very romantic date night.

Here is the trailer:

 

Random Thoughts on “When In Rome”

  The other day Darrell and I went to see another chick flick, “When In Rome.”  This one stars Kristen Bell (you’ve seen her in Heroes as Elle Bishop) and Josh Duhamel (the hottie from Transformers). Again, I’m not going to re-write a perfectly good IMDB synopsis, so hit the link for that.

This movie was extremely cute. There was some decent music in the soundtrack and the scenery was gorgeous. There was a brief art history lesson, too! A lot of the story was kind of silly, but overall, it ended up being a really good movie. Again, it was a complete chick flick, but we saw it during the week as a matinee, and apparently that’s when all the straight dudes get their romantic comedies on. There were at least two single guys there (the looked straight anyway), and there were a few couples. Overall, the guy-to-girl ratio was pretty even in the theatre, but I digress.

There was a twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, probably because I wasn’t looking for a twist, and there were definitely a LOT of laughs! I whole-heartedly recommend you get with your other half and go see this one!

 

Here goes the preview. Check it out! (In case you’re wondering, the song playing is called “Starstrukk” by 3OH!3 ft. Katy Perry. Watch it here)

 

Random Movie Reviews

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, but with work and life being what it is, I haven't made time to blog. Sorry! I've seen a couple of new movies recently and wanted to jot down a few thoughts on them.

I'll start with "Leap Year." It was a feel good chick flick to the core, and I predict it will be a staple of your chick flick collection within a couple of years. It will be synonymous with "Steel Magnolias," "Pretty Woman," and other non-Julia Roberts movies I can't think of at the moment. It was a bit predictable, but most movies in this genre are, but there were a lot of moments that made this movie an original, and I genuinely liked it. SO, if you like romantic comedies/dramas, and want to see a great movie (perfect for date night or a girls movie night out), then this one is for you. I will say that in the theatre where I saw the movie, there were a total of about 10 guys, and the rest were girls. All of the guys were there obviously at their girlfriend/wife's request (except for me and Darrell, the only gay couple at this particular showing), so if you're a macho guy, you might want to sit this one out until it comes out on DVD, or get your girl to go see it with you. She'll appreciate the sentiment!

The second movie I wanted to talk about was "Legion." Ok, this one had the potential to be an awesome movie, but fell short for me. It kind of upset me in the end, because I felt like it was one of those M. Night Shyamalan bait-and-switch religious movies. Granted, I KNEW it had angles in it, but it seemed to draw several parallels to the birth of Jesus. Maybe I was reading more into it than I should, but it seemed more interlaced with biblical mythos than I was comfortable with outside of church. It did have some action scenes, and honestly, you saw the best ones in the previews. Some of the fight sequences seemed silly to me. I think I might have actually giggled when Gabriel wrapped his wings around him and started spinning and they were deflecting bullets. I mean, come on. Obviously I recommend waiting until this one is out on Netflix before you see it.

In case you were wondering, I don't plan on going into storyline detail on anything I review. I don't do this on purpose. One reason is because I don't want to spoil it for you if you want to see the movie, read the book or play the game, the other reason is because synopsyses (I don't know what the plural for synopsis is, so if you do, help me out!) have been written over and over again for literally anything that has a story, so if you don't want to experience the story for yourself, hit up IMDB.

That's it for now. Let me know what you think in the comments, and stay tuned for the next installment!

Random Thoughts on Missing My Family

My entire family lives in Southern Indiana, while I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia. That puts them all precisely 693 miles from me at all times. It can be rough sometimes, because my family is very close-knit. My mom and dad are still married after nearly 32 years of marriage, I have two sisters who still live at home with my mom and dad, and one sister who is married and lives on her own with her husband. They all live within 20 minutes of each other. We used to stay with my grandmother nearly every weekend, so I am also very close to her. I speak with my mother nearly every other day, and I speak with my grandmother at least twice a week, sometimes more.

In October 2008, Darrell said he wanted to relocate to the Louisville, Kentucky area (which is where my family is).  I had dreamed my entire childhood of getting away from there, and when presented with the opportunity to move back, and I was excited beyond my own imagination. In preparation for the move, I quit my well-paying job as a licensed automobile insurance agent and moved to Indiana to stay with my parents while Darrell stayed in Virginia Beach and began the job search. This move took place at the exact time of the economy crashing, which meant there were no jobs to be had.

It was very difficult being away from my husband for so long, and I was depressed much of the time, but I was with my family every day for the first time in nearly 12 years! I got to spend time with my mom and dad, get to know my sisters Toni and Sunni as adults, and get to know my youngest sister, Baili (pronounced like "Bailey") who was 9 at the time, on a one-on-one basis and face-to-face, rather than over the phone. She and I hit it off famously. We were immediate best friends, and we spent a lot of time together. Darrell doesn't understand the bond we made and have, and he says that sometimes he feels like I treat her as if she were my daughter rather than my sister, and I suppose in some ways I do, because I don't think I'll ever have the privilege of having my own daughter.

I decided to make the move back to Virginia Beach and put moving back to the Louisville area on the back burner until the economic crunch is over in February 2009. This was almost a year ago, yet I miss them all as if I just left them yesterday.

My sister Baili and I have been writing letters back and forth at her request. It's quaint, and it's sweet, and I love it. She feels like it's more personal than writing emails or sending text messages. I don't disagree in the slightest. It's actually fun writing letters by pen rather than by Microsoft Word!

I got my second letter from Baili today, and she mentioned in her letter that every time she thinks about all the fun we had she wants to cry because she misses me so much. I feel the same way. I wish I lived closer so we could spend more time together, and hopefully someday soon I will be able to make that jump, but for now, I'm in Virginia Beach and I'm homesick.

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Random Thoughts on The Sookie Stackhouse Novels

I've been a fan of HBO's True Blood since it debuted in September 2008. I enjoyed the first season immensely and when it was over, I waited anxiously for the second season. It came and I was equally impressed with the new iteration. It was during the second season that I learned that the whole television series was based off of a series of books. I thought it was interesting and let it be. A few months ago I got an Amazon Kindle for Darrell and since he was in school, I started using it to read during downtime at work. I chose to read the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse Novels, or The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, which was the basis for the first season of True Blood.

I was immediately enthralled and even addicted. Several people have asked me if the books are better than the TV series, or vice-versa, and I have to say that they are different. The show is very close to the book in most aspects, however, the books are all written from Sookie's point of view. While she is a telepath, she is not omniscient. What I mean by this is that the show goes into details of the lives of some of the other characters that the book does not go into. The characters are all the same people (for the most part), but you don't know what Sookie doesn't know. There are also some differences in how some of the stories are played out. Are they better or worse, no, they are merely different.

I believe that the show has helped me to envision the characters a little more roundly, if you will. What I mean by this is that I know exactly what Sookie looks like and what her accent sounds like, her mannerisms, and so forth.This is also true for Bill, Arlene, Jason, Lafayette, and most of the other characters. There are a few glaring differences, like the relationship Sookie and Tara have in the show is not the same as it is in the book, also Tara is white in the book. Another major difference is the way Sookie describes Sam over and over in the book, he is different in the show, but I just kind of overlook these differences and take them as kind of a "side story." It can be distracting, but overall, I think that the books benefit the show and the show benefit the books.

In total, there are (or will be) twelve Sookie Stackhouse books, and I'm currently reading the sixth one. These books are so well written that I feel like I know Sookie Stackhouse, and I feel like I've been to Bon Temps, Louisiana (which I just found out last week is a fictional place), and had drinks at Merlotte's with Jason and Hoyt, and even been to the "Fang Banger" bar in Shreveport, Fangtasia and gawked at Eric in all his splendor while Pam looked down on me for being a human.

I often say (jokingly) to Darrell, "you won't believe what trouble Sookie's been in lately!" I say this, because, that poor girl is ALWAYS getting into trouble. Now I'm leaving out details on purpose. I want you to go read the books, and watch the show. Don't be disappointed when the plots are slightly different, the stories are all excellent, and the character development is superb. I also have to warn you that there are some steamy scenes in there, too, so if you're faint of heart, or kind of weird about that, you might want to steer clear.

I also have this to say: HBO is filming the third season of True Blood, and it is supposedly falling inline with the books as far as some of the characters are concerned, so if they keep on the direction I hope they are, we're in for one hell of a ride with Sookie and the gang from Bon Temps!

Thoughts of Changing This Site

The original intent of this site was to be a 365Project where I take pictures every day and upload them to the site. Right from the start I started incorporating blog-like items with the pictures, which I think was a mistake on my part. I actually found that I enjoyed writing the blogs, but doing it daily along with a picture feels like a chore rather than something I should like doing. I got a comment from a good friend of mine that brought to my attention that other people might feel the same way. Here is her comment:

Disclaimer: this is constructive criticism; not an attack in anyway. I believe that your blog is a little lacking in substance. I read many of my friends’ and acquaintances’ blogs, and I rather enjoy them. The reason for this being that their blogs contain book, movie and music reviews, opinionated political essays and so on and so forth. Entries that recall things like daily activities are better served on a platform like LiveJournal.com. These entries, or at least this one in particular, seem to me like emphatic and loquacious Facebook status updates. Being the self-proclaimed tech nerd that you are, I’m surprised that you’re not writing compare/contrast essays on new pieces of portable technology or commenting on the usage of computerized special effects in say the newly released Avatar movie.

Just thoughts of mine. I applaud your effort to write – I just think it might behoove you to give us more to read so that we may want to return to see what more you have to say.

This is my response to her comment:
Stef,
Thank you for your candor. Quite honestly, I was thinking about this just yesterday. The hard part for me is that the goal of this site was intended to be a daily journal, particularly a 365Project where I take pictures everyday to visually document my daily activities, but I am finding that it is difficult to write something of substance every day to go along with these pictures, rather than a standard blog. I see where you're coming from with the suggestion of using Live Journal, but this site is a hosted site, rather than a site like Live Journal where it is on their servers. I wanted the flexibility to do what I want with the site rather than having to go with the restraints put on me by using WordPress.com, Live Journal, Blogger, etc.

Keeping that in mind, as I stated before, I am having a tremendously difficult time finding things to write about every day, so I think I may change the scope of the site and make it more of a blog. I believe if I changed the direction of the site, it would attract more readers, and could be a destination, rather than just someplace you go when you see the update link posted.

So yes, the site will be changing. I will take the direction of more of a blog and I will be writing about things that I find interesting, not just tech, but about the books I'm reading, movies/TV shows I've watched and enjoyed/hated, and many other things.

Stay tuned to see how things pan out!

January 10, 2009

Today we slept until almost noon, but it's still my birthday weekend, so it's all good. We got up and Darrell made me an awesome breakfast with this egg dish he made with turkey, cheese, and I don't know what else was in it, he made these awesome fruit and yogurt parfaits, and I was STUFFED. Afterward we went to the mall to get our hair cut and then we went to Sam's Club to get some random stuff. The pic-of-the-day today is me taking a break and lounging for a minute at Sam's.