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JURY DUTY! I HAZ IT! Anything to find an excuse to avoid the workplace for an extra day. I lucked out by re-discovering my jury notice underneath a pile of books and mail while looking for something else, and then remembered I was supposed to have started calling after 5pm on Friday. Turns out I'm due in court Monday at 8:30am sharp. Joy. I have about 500 pages left in Under the Dome, and what better place to wrap it up than in a room with 300-400 other restless folks while sitting on uncomfortable wooden benches waiting to get called for jury interviews. I really don't mind jury duty as long as I don't get called for a trial, particularly since TPTB are looking to restructure the workplace before May 1st and I'd like to be privy to whatever bullshit they're bound to fling about the place. Let's see what happens.
Watched How to Train Your Dragon Friday after work. The animation work was gorgeous; the story was interesting but rather light, simple enough that I was able to ignore plot holes and sudden mood changes without losing my place in the movie. In brief: cute, but not a Pixar film. It's a kid's movie that doesn't necessarily dumb things down (no toilet humor, thank God) but also doesn't try to pander to adults. For example: the "meet cute" between the protagonist and his dragon occurs because the protagonist cripples the dragon in a misguided attempt to prove his worth to his community. The two slowly form a bond (think master-pet, even though the dragon shows itself to be somewhat sentient and higher-thinking), and their relationship forms the impetus for the plot and climax (of course). There's no reveal where the dragon figures out the protagonist is the one that injured him, but surprisingly enough imo, at the end something happens to the protagonist that plays almost like a bit of karmic retribution or schadenfreude from a different movie. It was a little distracting, but didn't take away from the overall cotton candy entertainment tone of what had come before. Definitely think it should be checked out on the big screen.
I mentioned Under the Dome above. Damn thing is massive, but I've started carrying it in my purse for reading during my commute (I've had to empty half the items from my purse to make it fit) and am making progress. It reads almost like old-skool King, in that there's tension brewing from the first ten pages and when the dam finally breaks (oh boy, when it breaks) you KNOW shit will go down but good and no one will come out unscathed. Which is why my pace is somewhat slower than usual: the main character's a bit of an unknown at this point (some might say "2D," but I'm a fan of being thrown into the mix and having salient details strewn in front of me like breadcrumbs or snack cakes) but I like him and don't want to see him effed with at this point.
Weekends need to be longer. Or not; I probably wouldn't find them as enjoyable if it didn't take so long to get to them and if they lingered.
Watched How to Train Your Dragon Friday after work. The animation work was gorgeous; the story was interesting but rather light, simple enough that I was able to ignore plot holes and sudden mood changes without losing my place in the movie. In brief: cute, but not a Pixar film. It's a kid's movie that doesn't necessarily dumb things down (no toilet humor, thank God) but also doesn't try to pander to adults. For example: the "meet cute" between the protagonist and his dragon occurs because the protagonist cripples the dragon in a misguided attempt to prove his worth to his community. The two slowly form a bond (think master-pet, even though the dragon shows itself to be somewhat sentient and higher-thinking), and their relationship forms the impetus for the plot and climax (of course). There's no reveal where the dragon figures out the protagonist is the one that injured him, but surprisingly enough imo, at the end something happens to the protagonist that plays almost like a bit of karmic retribution or schadenfreude from a different movie. It was a little distracting, but didn't take away from the overall cotton candy entertainment tone of what had come before. Definitely think it should be checked out on the big screen.
I mentioned Under the Dome above. Damn thing is massive, but I've started carrying it in my purse for reading during my commute (I've had to empty half the items from my purse to make it fit) and am making progress. It reads almost like old-skool King, in that there's tension brewing from the first ten pages and when the dam finally breaks (oh boy, when it breaks) you KNOW shit will go down but good and no one will come out unscathed. Which is why my pace is somewhat slower than usual: the main character's a bit of an unknown at this point (some might say "2D," but I'm a fan of being thrown into the mix and having salient details strewn in front of me like breadcrumbs or snack cakes) but I like him and don't want to see him effed with at this point.
Weekends need to be longer. Or not; I probably wouldn't find them as enjoyable if it didn't take so long to get to them and if they lingered.
