• Indy’s back …

    8 Comments

    Along with the AC crisis of ’08, Wheezley and I managed to make it to the movies for the first time since The Bourne Supremacy came out last year. We watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Warning: there be spoilers ahead.

    It sucked.

    I didn’t expect it to be great, given what George Lucas did to the Star Wars franchise with the three new movies. But Indy 4 wasn’t anything like the other movies. I liked it even less than Temple of Doom, which was just a strange movie overall.

    Why didn’t I like it? Mainly because of the alien angle. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about the Indy movies is that he’s searching for lost civilizations — people who could have really existed, along with a touch of magic. But aliens? In South America? Ugh.

    I get what the filmmakers were trying to do. The movie is set in the ’50s, a time of communism and fears about little green alien men. But aliens have never been a favorite thing of mine. (I like fantasy much better than sci-fi). The movie just didn’t show me anything I hadn’t seen before in the other Indy movies –or even National Treasure. The supporting characters were stereotypes, the action scenes were just okay, and I knew what the dialogue was going to be before the actors said it.

    There were a couple of things I enjoyed. The opening 20 minutes where Indy’s fighting bad guys in a warehouse full of weird artifacts was the best part of the whole movie. The first time we see Indy is cool too. His fedora blows out of a car, and you see his shadow pick it up and put it on. Loved that.

    Other nice touches were the picture of Indy’s dad and old friend Marcus Brody on his desk. No John Rhys-Davies though. Missed him. And the theme music. Still love the theme music.

    But overall, I wished we’d gone to see Iron Man instead. Maybe this weekend …

    Anybody else seen Indy 4? What did you think?

  • The good, the bad, and the sweaty …

    3 Comments

    One thing I love about summer: Eating big, thick, greasy barbecue sandwiches with my mom and grandma. I even indulged and drank a Mountain Dew, which I rarely do since it’s like the worst soda for your body. But man, was it ever good. :cool: 

    One thing I hate about summer: The fact my air conditioner decided to crap out on the hottest day of the year — when I had people over. When I left the house, it was working fine. When I came back, it was six degrees hotter than before. And it didn’t get any better no matter what I, Wheezley, and another friend did to it. Restarted it, tripped the breaker, checked the fuses, etc. Nothing worked.

    Yesterday afternoon, the temp inside my house topped out at 91. I sat very, very still underneath a ceiling fan and read. I needed to work on some revisions I’m doing, but my computer got so hot I had to turn it off or risk frying it. Sigh. On the bright side, I finally finished one book and started another.

    Luckily, the AC guy is coming today to try to fix it. I left him a message and he called me back — on a Sunday. Wonderful man. He’s getting a nice tip.

    What about you? How did you beat the heat — or not — this weekend?

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    Hobby or necessity …

    12 Comments

    Wheezley (the significant other) and I had an interesting discussion a few days ago. We were talking about hobbies and how geeky some of ours are. Wheezley builds model tanks, and we both enjoy Dungeons & Dragons-style gaming. I also said reading was a hobby of mine (although it’s really more like a passion, bordering on addiction).

    To which Wheezley responded: Reading’s not a hobby, it’s a necessity.

    Of course in one sense, reading is a necessity. You have to read e-mails and street signs and the label on the soup can at the grocery store. But Wheezley meant that reading books is a necessity.

    He’s right.

    I’ve learned and grown so much as a writer from reading other people’s books. Not to mention the hours and hours of pleasure of being transported into another world. In using my imagination to fill in the details. In squealing with delight when the hero triumphs and the villain gets what’s coming to him. I love reading so much I couldn’t ever imagine not doing it.

    I think reading keeps your brain active, lets you learn about different folks, places, and culture, and helps you put yourself in someone else’s shoes for a few hours. Books broaden your horizons, something that’s always important.

    So yeah, to me, reading is a necessity. I just need to make time to do more of it. And whittle down my ever-increasing TBR pile. :rolleyes:

    What do you think? Hobby or necessity?

  • All stamped out …

    7 Comments

    It’s official. The people at the post office hate me.

    I’ve spent the past two weeks or so mailing out bookmarks and promo packages for Jinx to bookstores across the U.S. and even overseas. We’re talking around 130 envelopes or so, all of which weighed different amounts. All of which had to be scanned.

    The guy at my local post office is terrific. Always jokes that I’m a world-famous author and people should hurry to get my autograph. He’s even taken to calling me “the David Hasselhoff of Australia” after I mailed several package of bookmarks there last weekend. (For those of you who don’t know, for some reason the Hoff is extremely popular overseas, especially in Germany.)

    The folks at the other post office I frequent, well, they’re not so friendly. Which is were the hate comes in. I can see them cringe every time I come in with my envelopes. And I’ve snippily been informed they can only scan 10 envelopes at a time.

    So I get my 10 envelopes, stand in line, get them scanned, pay the postage — and then go out to my car to get 10 more and face the wrath all over again.

    Ah, the life of an author. Glamorous, ain’t it? :joker:

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    One month and counting down …

    2 Comments

    I just realized that the mass market paperback version of Karma Girl goes on sale a month from today on July 1. So pre-order away!

    And is anyone else freaked out that it’s almost July already? Where did the first half of the year go? Bueller? Bueller?