We're trying to scout out locations for our wedding, and we've been doing a tonne of reconnaissance over the internet. I just have to say, thank god for the internet. I have no idea how people did this whole wedding planning thing before the internet. Jeeze. We had an appointment booked yesterday to go and actually look at a place for the wedding (the first place we've actually looked at in person, not just on the interwebs), and we were pretty excited! Then we got horribly lost, thanks to the GPS, and incorrect addresses on the venue's website. We drove for 3 hours before we actually found it, when in reality the place should have taken us about 45 minutes to get to....oops!
My favourite part of the adventure was when finally got to the place that the GPS said we were supposed to be, Tim was like "did you enter Monora (name of place where we wanted to be) or Murder Farm (what could only have been the name of the dilapidated farmhouse that we ended up at)?" We then decided that the address for Monora on the website could only have been a clever ruse by a cannibal family of inbred hillbillies to lure innocent (or at least relatively innocent people) to their Murder Farm. My only question is "who taught those fuckers to use the internet?!" aren't they supposed to rely on strategically placed barbed wire blowing out your car tires? AREN'T THEY?! What the fuck is this world coming to?
So that was our first step in the journey to find a wedding venue. Let's hope the next time we don't encounter cannibal hillbillies (crosses fingers).
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Books 2010
I've been keeping a list of all of the books that I read this year, mainly 'cause I was curious how many I'd actually get through. There were some lapses, months or so where I read next to nothing, then I'd binge read like I was CJ on Baywatch with a fridge full of cupcakes. So here's the list, and the sad part is that I know that I missed some here and there, but I just can't remember them...womp womp.
- Bone - Jeff Smith
- Rose - Jeff Smith, Charles Vess
- Batman Battle for the Cowl - Tony S. Daniel, Sandu Florea (Inker), Ian Hannin (Colourist) Jared K. Fletcher (Letterer)
- Y the Last Man 1 - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra (Penciller), Jose Marzan Jr. (Inker)
- Y the Last Man 2 - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra (Penciller), Jose Marzan Jr. (Inker)
- Horns - Joe Hill
- The Boys 1 - Garth Ennis, Art by Darick Robertson
- Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter - A.E. Morat
- Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
- Wild Things - Dave Eggers
- High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
- Level 26: Dark Origins - Anthony E. Zucker with Dave Swierczynski
- Y the Last Man 3 - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra (Penciller), Jose Marzan Jr. (Inker)
- The Boys 2 - Garth Ennis, Art by Darick Robertson
- Bite Me: A Love Story - Christopher Moore
- Arkham Asylum: Madness - Sam Kieth, Michelle Madson & Dave Stewart
- One Bloody Thing After Another - Joey Comeau
- Overqualified - Joey Comeau
- Walking Dead Book 9 - Roberk Kirkman, Charlie Adlard (Penciler, Inker), Cliff Rathburn (Gray Tones)
- Wakling Dead Book 10 - Roberk Kirkman, Charlie Adlard (Penciler, Inker), Cliff Rathburn (Gray Tones)
- The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology - Edited by Christopher Golden
- The Losers Volume One - Andy Diggle, Art by Jock
- Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars Volume One - Frank Beddor with Liz Cavalier, Art By Ben Templesmith
- Lord Vishnu's Love Handles (A Spy Novel, Sort Of) - Will Clarke
- Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsen
- Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire - Derek Landy
- Girl Who Played With Fire - Steig Larsen
- Hatter M: Volume 2 Mad With Wonder - Frank Beddor and Liz Cavalier, Art by Sami Makkonen
- Walking Dead Book 11
- Walking Dead Book 12
- The Boys 3 - Garth Ennis
- The Boys 4 - Garth Ennis
- Kick Ass - Mark Millar & John Romita Jr.
- Locke & Key V3 - Joe Hill
- Dead Politician Soceity - Robin Spano
- Kill Audio - Claudio Sanchez
- Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
- Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Steig Larsen
- Narcissus in Chains - Laurel K. Hamilton
- Loveless: A Kin of Homecoming - Brian Azzarello & Marcelo Frusin
- Carnivore - Mark Sinett
- Loveless 1 - Brian Azzarello
- Y the Last Man 4 - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra (Penciller), Jose Marzan Jr. (Inker)
- Y the Last Man 5 - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra (Penciller), Jose Marzan Jr. (Inker)
- Sweet Tooth - Jeff Lemire
- M is for Magic - Neil Gaiman
- The Three Fates of Henrick Nordmark - Christopher Meades
- Bullet - Laurel K. Hamilton
- The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
- Batman: Widening Gyre - Kevin Smith
- Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
- Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Millenium Trilogy...Or At Least the First Two Books in the Millenium Triology
I read Steig Larsen's novel the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a while ago, and I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I've actually had a hard time trying to explain how I felt about the novel to other people. It's well written, but the first 3/4 of the book were monotonous...not enough so that I put it down and didn't bother to pick it back up again...but enough that I found it mildly irritating.
Before I'd even picked up the book, I read a review of it, referring to it as a feminist work, which intrigued me a little bit, and did contribute a little to my desire to give the book a read. I've gotta say though, I totally disagree with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo being a feminist work of fiction. It's clear that Larsen is trying to make a statement about a culture that condones, or at least seems to shine a blind eye on violence against women, but it falls short. The main female characters are strong, but at times almost too much so. What Larsen has created with these characters is not a fictionalized reality, but rather a caricature. The women are either extremely strong, or they are victims. The men are all either aggressors and perpetrators of violence against women or some sort of protector. I fail to see any balance or reality in the characters that Larsen has created. I do suppose, however, that anyone reading this should keep in mind that I am writing this from a Canadian perspective, and the novelist and the novel itself are Swedish. Perhaps I am lacking some of the proper context.
As you can tell by the title of this entry, I have only read two thirds of this trilogy, but I've got to say that the Girl Who Played With Fire is a far better read than the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (which as I said above, I didn't hate, but I found the balance in the book a little bit off. Three quarters of it were devoted to giving the reader a background and only in the last quarter was there any catalyst or increase in action). The Girl Who Played with Fire was more interesting from the get go. The action was balanced throughout the story, and there weren't any parts that I found particularly monotonous. I've got to say that I still have issues with Larsen's characters though. You've got Lisbeth Salander (the main female character)who Larsen has crafted as someone who doesn't give a flying fuck about any social norms. She lives as off the grid as possible. She sees the world in black and white. She doesn't take shit from anyone, she's brilliant (like genius smart), doesn't need help from anyone and won't do anything that she doesn't want to do. So reading that, you're thinking 'Holy fuck, that seems like a pretty strong female character'...but wait, Larsen decides to make her bi-sexual and in the second book the character gets breast implants. So the reader is supposed to believe that the character who doesn't buy into any social stigmas and media propaganda suddenly decides that we wants a boob job. Nope, I'm not buying it. I also had a little bit of a problem with one of Lisbeth's lovers in the book. Apparently it's not enough for a character to be a lesbian, but she had to be the caricature of some kind of uber-lesbian. She's a kick-boxer who does performance art at S&M clubs and part owner in a store that sells lingerie and fetish wear. This is my problem with Larsen's characters. It seems as if everyone has to be a complete extreme. It's very unrealistic and totally over the top.
Some of you might say that I am reading too much into this and that I'm not just taking the story at face value. Perhaps you're thinking that Larsen didn't even really intend for this to be read as any kind of commentary on the rights of women or feminism or anything of the sort. You may be right, and at face value, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a good story, and the Girl Who Played with Fire was even better. I'm not denying that. But here's some food for thought...The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's title in the original Swedish is Men Who Hate Women. I find it hard to believe that Larsen would call the book that without thinking that he was making some type of commentary on the rights of women.
That's all.
Before I'd even picked up the book, I read a review of it, referring to it as a feminist work, which intrigued me a little bit, and did contribute a little to my desire to give the book a read. I've gotta say though, I totally disagree with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo being a feminist work of fiction. It's clear that Larsen is trying to make a statement about a culture that condones, or at least seems to shine a blind eye on violence against women, but it falls short. The main female characters are strong, but at times almost too much so. What Larsen has created with these characters is not a fictionalized reality, but rather a caricature. The women are either extremely strong, or they are victims. The men are all either aggressors and perpetrators of violence against women or some sort of protector. I fail to see any balance or reality in the characters that Larsen has created. I do suppose, however, that anyone reading this should keep in mind that I am writing this from a Canadian perspective, and the novelist and the novel itself are Swedish. Perhaps I am lacking some of the proper context.
As you can tell by the title of this entry, I have only read two thirds of this trilogy, but I've got to say that the Girl Who Played With Fire is a far better read than the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (which as I said above, I didn't hate, but I found the balance in the book a little bit off. Three quarters of it were devoted to giving the reader a background and only in the last quarter was there any catalyst or increase in action). The Girl Who Played with Fire was more interesting from the get go. The action was balanced throughout the story, and there weren't any parts that I found particularly monotonous. I've got to say that I still have issues with Larsen's characters though. You've got Lisbeth Salander (the main female character)who Larsen has crafted as someone who doesn't give a flying fuck about any social norms. She lives as off the grid as possible. She sees the world in black and white. She doesn't take shit from anyone, she's brilliant (like genius smart), doesn't need help from anyone and won't do anything that she doesn't want to do. So reading that, you're thinking 'Holy fuck, that seems like a pretty strong female character'...but wait, Larsen decides to make her bi-sexual and in the second book the character gets breast implants. So the reader is supposed to believe that the character who doesn't buy into any social stigmas and media propaganda suddenly decides that we wants a boob job. Nope, I'm not buying it. I also had a little bit of a problem with one of Lisbeth's lovers in the book. Apparently it's not enough for a character to be a lesbian, but she had to be the caricature of some kind of uber-lesbian. She's a kick-boxer who does performance art at S&M clubs and part owner in a store that sells lingerie and fetish wear. This is my problem with Larsen's characters. It seems as if everyone has to be a complete extreme. It's very unrealistic and totally over the top.
Some of you might say that I am reading too much into this and that I'm not just taking the story at face value. Perhaps you're thinking that Larsen didn't even really intend for this to be read as any kind of commentary on the rights of women or feminism or anything of the sort. You may be right, and at face value, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a good story, and the Girl Who Played with Fire was even better. I'm not denying that. But here's some food for thought...The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's title in the original Swedish is Men Who Hate Women. I find it hard to believe that Larsen would call the book that without thinking that he was making some type of commentary on the rights of women.
That's all.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
God, It's Been A Long Time...
Wow, I can't believe that it's been almost two months since I committed any acts of bloggery! I actually caught a little bit of shit today from my super awesome boyfriend (who is also, I suspect, the only person who actually reads this) for not having written anything in so long. So I suppose that we can thank him for this entry, and hopefully for my getting back into the routine of writing with some level of frequency.
I usually write about stuff that I'm reading, or movies that I've seen, but we sort of fell out of our routine of going to the movies frequently, and the lack of decent films hitting theatres as of late hasn't really helped our motivation out at all.
Right now we're working our way through the Six Feet Under complete series (we just finished season one)that we bought over a year ago. It's a re-watch for me, and the boyfriend has seen about half (maybe a little bit more than that) the series. I hadn't forgotten how fantastic a series it is, but watching it again is just as amazing as watching it the first time. The characters are incredibly well written and superbly acted, the story lines are both hilarious and heartbreaking. It's really got everything that you could possibly want in a television series, and fuck, don't even get me started on the last episode of the series. It's probably the most complete, and satisfying ending to a series that I have ever seen. In fact, I can't wait to get through the series just so that I can watch that ending with the boyfriend and see what he thinks of it.
I usually write about stuff that I'm reading, or movies that I've seen, but we sort of fell out of our routine of going to the movies frequently, and the lack of decent films hitting theatres as of late hasn't really helped our motivation out at all.
Right now we're working our way through the Six Feet Under complete series (we just finished season one)that we bought over a year ago. It's a re-watch for me, and the boyfriend has seen about half (maybe a little bit more than that) the series. I hadn't forgotten how fantastic a series it is, but watching it again is just as amazing as watching it the first time. The characters are incredibly well written and superbly acted, the story lines are both hilarious and heartbreaking. It's really got everything that you could possibly want in a television series, and fuck, don't even get me started on the last episode of the series. It's probably the most complete, and satisfying ending to a series that I have ever seen. In fact, I can't wait to get through the series just so that I can watch that ending with the boyfriend and see what he thinks of it.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
This Is't About a Book or a Movie...
Shocking, I know, but this blog isn't about a book that I've read, or a movie that I've seen. Weird, right? I've been kind of lax on reading for the last week, and the only movies that I've seen are re-watches. What I am really excited about is the trip to Europe that my boyfriend and I are leaving for in 3 months and 18 days! It seems like it's still a while away, but it's coming up so fast!
I ordered a backpacking pack on the internet the other week, and it came yesterday! It's everything that I wanted! It's big, not too heavy, the day pack that attaches to it is the perfect size, and it's really well made. My stoke-o-meter is at, like, an 11! So excited that I can hardly contain myself!
I'm going to set up a travel blog that I'll be writing in while we're away so that my friends and family, and whoever else in the blog-verse can see what awesome things we've been up to! Here's the link, although not a whole lot is going to be happening there (with the exception of a countdown) for the next 3 month and 18 days...I just couldn't wait to set it up!
I ordered a backpacking pack on the internet the other week, and it came yesterday! It's everything that I wanted! It's big, not too heavy, the day pack that attaches to it is the perfect size, and it's really well made. My stoke-o-meter is at, like, an 11! So excited that I can hardly contain myself!
I'm going to set up a travel blog that I'll be writing in while we're away so that my friends and family, and whoever else in the blog-verse can see what awesome things we've been up to! Here's the link, although not a whole lot is going to be happening there (with the exception of a countdown) for the next 3 month and 18 days...I just couldn't wait to set it up!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
So Once Again, I've Let Too Much Time Pass Between Blogs...
...and I've seen a few movies and read a couple of books that I haven't blogged about. Last weekend, we went to the movies to do a 'double feature' night. The first movie that we saw was The Losers. During the day I read the first volume of the graphic novel, so that I was at least a little in the know about the source material before seeing the movie. I've gotta say that it was acutally pretty damn close to the grpahic novel, despite changing the ethnicity of two of the main characters, and making Aisha's back story a LOT less interesting and bad ass, but more palatable for American mass consumption. All in all, the movie was really entertaining, and I actually loved it. I didn't have the highest of hopes going into it, considering that it had earned a PG rating, but it was actually pretty damn good. It was fun and fast paced, the characters were fairly true to their comic book roots, definitely worth seeing.
The next movie that we saw that night was How to Train Your Dragon, which for some completely baffling fucking reason has been marketed as Dreamworks Dragons...does anyone know the logic behind this? 'cause I'm at a total loss, is How to Train Your Dragon too hard to say, or is it the vague innuendo of auto erotic exhileration that made Dreamworks decide to try to market it as Dreamworks Dragons instead? Like I said, baffling. But enough about the bizarre name change, and back to the actual movie: IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING!!! Possibly the best animated feature that I've seen since Wall-E, and that's saying a lot, 'cause I fucking loved Up too. It's definitely, hands down, Dreamworks' best animated feature film (sorry Shrek, I still love you, but this movie was just amazing). The animation was stellar, the story was amazing, and the 3D just blows you the fuck away. I'd definitely say that it's a 'must see' movie, not just for kids, or families, but for everyone...and if you want to avoid the kids and the familes, then go to the late show. That's what we did.
The next movie that we saw that night was How to Train Your Dragon, which for some completely baffling fucking reason has been marketed as Dreamworks Dragons...does anyone know the logic behind this? 'cause I'm at a total loss, is How to Train Your Dragon too hard to say, or is it the vague innuendo of auto erotic exhileration that made Dreamworks decide to try to market it as Dreamworks Dragons instead? Like I said, baffling. But enough about the bizarre name change, and back to the actual movie: IT WAS FUCKING AMAZING!!! Possibly the best animated feature that I've seen since Wall-E, and that's saying a lot, 'cause I fucking loved Up too. It's definitely, hands down, Dreamworks' best animated feature film (sorry Shrek, I still love you, but this movie was just amazing). The animation was stellar, the story was amazing, and the 3D just blows you the fuck away. I'd definitely say that it's a 'must see' movie, not just for kids, or families, but for everyone...and if you want to avoid the kids and the familes, then go to the late show. That's what we did.
Friday, April 23, 2010
The New Dead
I finished reading The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology (edited by Christopher Golden) yesterday morning, and I know, I read a lot of zombie books and stories, but this anthology was really phenomenal. It's comprised of 19 short stories by a wide range of writers. I loved a lot of the stories, and at least liked and enjoyed reading the rest. I really stretches out the zombie genre, the vast majority of the stories weren't just about people running from brain munching zombies (don't get me wrong though, I fucking love stories where people have to run from brain munching zombies), some dealt with moral dilemmas, some with the concept of the soul, some with the dangers of technology, and some were just straight up great stories.
As you know, if you've been reading my blog, I'm a Joe Hill fan, and I really like his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts, so I was really excited to read his contribution to the New Dead. I've got to say, it blew me away. I haven't really stopped thinking about it since I finished the story yesterday morning. It was brilliantly written, and everything a short story should be. I'm not going to say too much here, because I really don't want to give anything away, but if you have the chance, you absolutely must read Twittering from the Circus of the Dead. The entire story is told via a girl on a family road trip tweeting from her cell phone, and each little 140 character or less segment is compelling. I'm not going to say anymore, 'cause with a short story, you really run the risk of giving something away, but I've got to say this, read it!
As you know, if you've been reading my blog, I'm a Joe Hill fan, and I really like his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts, so I was really excited to read his contribution to the New Dead. I've got to say, it blew me away. I haven't really stopped thinking about it since I finished the story yesterday morning. It was brilliantly written, and everything a short story should be. I'm not going to say too much here, because I really don't want to give anything away, but if you have the chance, you absolutely must read Twittering from the Circus of the Dead. The entire story is told via a girl on a family road trip tweeting from her cell phone, and each little 140 character or less segment is compelling. I'm not going to say anymore, 'cause with a short story, you really run the risk of giving something away, but I've got to say this, read it!
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