5.14.13.

(my bedside table, always a mess of books.)

Let's Blog a List! ♡

• I downloaded the A Beautiful Mess app today.  I don't usually purchase apps, but OH MY GOSH do I love this app!  Super-cute features, easy to use, and lots of fun.  Just another thing to help fuel my Instagram habit.  (and also to help with photo editing since I don't have a camera and everything on my blog comes from my iPhone)
• As per Maggie's suggestion I've finally started reading "Magical Thinking" by Augusten Burroughs.  I'm loving it.  Lots of laughter involved.
• I'm pretty excited about seeing Star Trek later this week with some friends.
• I got together with Lauren and her boyfriend on Saturday to see one of my brother's shows.  We had sushi afterwards and saw "The Great Gatsby", which I was surprisingly very pleased with.
• My brother surprised me today with belated Christmas gifts (he wasn't in town for Christmas this year.)  He got me a really wonderful Deadpool art print, and the Pop Vinyl Deadpool bobble-head.
• I'm thinking about letting the "sponsor" feature on my blog fizzle out.  All the ads currently running will stay up until they expire, but I don't think I'll be accepting any new ads or renewing any old ones.  It was a fun experiment, and PassionFruit is a great service, but I just don't think it's right for my blog.  I met some lovely bloggers through my brief fling with sponsorship, and will definitely still frequent all of your lovely blogs!  Obviously this has nothing to do with you guys, just a personal decision for my blog. :)
• I'm mulling over some new regular features for my blog.  Bi-weekly tea reviews perhaps?  What are some things you think I should blog about?  With summer approaching I should have some more blogging time on my hands.
• Speaking of summer: AUSTIN IS SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT!
• Puppy is doing better.  He's on steroids now, and is slowly getting his walking legs back.  Hopefully he continues to improve.  
• I started watching Hannibal a few weeks ago and I am HOOKED.  The show is brilliantly executed, and incredibly engaging.  Wonderful acting, writing, and production design.  I highly recommend it.  If you do start watching please consider watching on Hulu, or NBC's website.  The show is up for possible cancellation, and it would be such a shame to see such a work of art cut short.  Obviously, viewer discretion is advised given the content. (BUT IT'S SO GOOD.)

That's pretty much life right now.  Hope you're all enjoying what May has to bring you!

This Month in Movies: April 2013

Here's This Month in Movies: (* = rewatch)

Star Wars: IV, V, & VI (1977-1983)*: I did a marathon of the original Star Wars films.  It had been years since I'd watched them.  I was a BIG Star Wars nerd when I was a kid, so watching these again was a lot of nostalgia.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You (2011): Based on one of my favorite books by Peter Cameron (one of my favorite authors), I had a lot of expectations for this movie.  Only once have I been 100% pleased with a movie adaptation of a book, see: The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  This adaptation of Someday comes close though.  Parts of the storyline were tweaked, and plot devices changed, but it was done in a tasteful manner.  Almost all of the dialogue was straight from the book, which was wonderful, but also made the acting look forced at some points.  Still, I enjoyed it a lot.  I had been worried that any movie adaptation of this book would not show James (the main character) in a flattering light seeing as he is a very introverted, deep thinking character, but they did a good job.
So, if you enjoyed the book, I do think you should take the time and see the movie.  Not by any means perfect, but a good job for a book-to-movie film.

Miss Representation (2011): I have a long list of documentaries I've been meaning to see, and this was among them.  While the content and message is nothing I wasn't already aware of, it was nice to see a documentary that attempts to shed light on the gross misrepresentation of women in the media, and how, we just can't seem to win.  It shows the truths and hypocrisies of a culture that claims equality and then continues to judge and shame women on their bodies rather than showing their worth as human beings.  While this film explores few solutions, it's a good "introductory course" to showing people just how much discrimination and degradation women face in the mainstream media.

Faces in the Crowd (2011): This movie started off fairly slow, and I wasn't sure whether or not I could get into it, but towards the middle-end it got really good.  I'm glad I stuck with it.  My only complaints about the film are moments when the lead character does things that are just not smart to do when you're being pursued by a serial killer.  Although, that's sort of the norm in thrillers, and I suppose if she was smart the whole time there wouldn't have been much of a plot.

Eddie and the Cruisers (1983): This movie was a lot of fun. The story of a (fictional) band in the sixties that only made it big twenty years after the death of their lead singer.  It follows both the history of the band, and the lives of the remaining band members twenty years later as some of them begin to doubt whether or not Eddie actually died.

Other movies I watched this month: Practical Magic (1998)*, Kumare (2011), Alien Nation (1988), Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! (1989).

Month in Review: April 2013

Instagram Recap: 

(1) Bread Pudding. (2) Blogging. (3) Home Sick. 

(4) Bowie on Record Store Day. (5) Used bookstore finds: Midnight is a Place, by Joan Aiken.

Month in Review:  

I started April off with another really awful sickness (mono?) that lasted a couple of weeks, and my ears still haven't gotten back to normal... 

I posted about wanting to read more, made my seventh and eighth Online Window Shopping posts, and posted about a lovely weekend I had.  I also made a little post about my Record Store Day.

I started watching Hannibal this month, and have found myself hooked.  I never saw the Anthony Hopkins movies.  To be honest, I have trouble watching Anthony Hopkins in films because he gives me the creeps.  I figured that would only be worse in a movie where he plays a cannibal and avoided the films, but I'm familiar with the character and story.  It's definitely not a show for the queasy, but I love it.

I also was very happy to find Midnight is a Place, by Joan Aiken at a used bookstore this month.  Joan Aiken has been one of my favorite authors since I was a kid.  The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Midwinter Nightingale, Is Underground, and Give Yourself a Fright were some of my favorites.  Her books are a bit hard to find though, and I only have a few.  So stumbling across a hardcover copy of Midnight is a Place was a great surprise!  I definitely want to get my hands on her other books.  Did any of you read her books as kids?  I definitely recommend them!

April 30th:  As for today?  I have work off, which is a welcomed break even though I've spent most of the month home sick.  Our wonderful dog has been sick for about a week now.  The vet says it's most likely a brain tumor.  He's an older dog (fourteen years old), but it's still sad to see our wonderful "puppy" ill.  He has some medicine, and we're hoping he'll improve and stay with us a lot longer.  He's the best, but it's definitely been a rough week.  

My apologies if I've left any emails unanswered, letters unsent, adswaps ignored, etc.  I've been a bit preoccupied, but I'll try and sift through what I've not responded to in the next few days.  If you don't get a response within the next week and it's super important don't feel bad about sending me a reminder, and I'll do what I can.

I hope you all had a lovely April, and are looking forward to your May.  

I can't say I'm prepared for the triple-digit temperatures May brings us here in Phoenix, but other than that I'm hoping it'll be a pleasant month.  There are a few fun things planned: Star Trek: Into Darkness, Phoenix Comicon (John Barrowman photo-op!), and Free Comic Book Day to name a few.  

Plus, Easter is this Sunday (I'm Eastern Orthodox)!

and in conclusion...

...sorry, not sorry.