Next few posts or so I'm probably going to do some "looks into me" posts (probably spread between my random posts about movies and whatever else). This is entirely unintentional, but I was planning to blog about these things anyway and thought I'd split them up and make them more "formal." One will be about nail polish (I get a lot of questions about my hobby and the stuff I use, so why not?). One will be about my life as an adoptee (lots of babies popping up around me, read an interesting piece about fertility issues, and have had a string of recent "what nationality are you?" questions). And, lastly, there will be one about horse racing (perhaps less about me and more about the industry and the issues it faces). Might be another that's somewhat work-customers related, but we'll see.
With that said, you have those to look forward to, but here's my requisite movie post with random life observations. :)
I realized the other week that my new life motto (not really) is, "Can live messy, can't work messy." Sounds weird, but it's totally true! I remember vividly in school (I mean high school and lower grades) that I had to have things on my desk in a neat and ordered way. My backpack had things in certain places and so forth; however, my room was never exactly "neat." I will admit I've gone from severely messy to less...messy... :P I can't say I'm "neat" at home, but I guess I'm more "orderly" on the grand scale of things. Back to the topic at hand, the other day I was doing the dishes before I started cooking and I had to clean the kitchen before I could even THINK about cooking. Counters had to be cleaned of miscellaneous items; dishes had to be all cleaned and put away; counter had to be wiped down; etc. At least I don't go as far as needing the floor mopped! It got me thinking, "Why do I do that...?" and it dawned on me! I can live messy, which means I can walk into the kitchen, put a dirty dish on the counter or in the sink and walk away and be fine with it. I can even let them pile up for days and I'm fine with it. In that regard, no harm, no foul. I can have a messy desk and be fine if I'm not using it (Chris tends to "stash" a lot of things on my desk). Unfortunately, for me, whenever I need a space to WORK, whether it's simply washing the dishes, cooking, doing Aquarium work at my computer, etc, I need my space clutter-free. It's like the chaos of the place being messy distracts my brain and I can't function till it's gone. It's like OCD takes over a part of my brain because things have to be in certain places or not in my work area. Chris always knows to watch out when I get into these, "I can't deal with this mess! I need it cleaned NOW" moments. They can hit me suddenly in the apartment and I just get into a cleaning frenzy because I can't take it anymore. Coincidentally, these moments tend to happen when I'm trying to move about the place the most. When I cook, I need empty counter spaces and an empty drying rack with no dishes in the sink. Even when it's just cleaning dishes and nothing else, I can't have dishes in the sink. I take them out of the side I'm washing in or put them onto the counter. I also clean dishes as I cook. I can't leave a huge pile in the sink or on the counter. It also makes sense while I'm at work why I have to have things neat and orderly. My manager isn't as neat and I'm constantly putting things back into place or whatever and it goes back to my "Can live messy, can't work messy." It's my place of work, which means it needs to be orderly or it drives me up a wall. In a lot of ways, I guess the saying says a lot about me. Haven't deduced it all, but it's been an interesting "eye opener" for me and how I function.
As I said earlier, I'm cooking -- a lot. Why? I have no other idea than it's a mechanism to ween myself off of nail polish. LoL If I'm cooking and spending money on cooking stuff, I don't have money to spend on nail polish and I don't have time to browse websites! I still don't fully enjoy cooking, but it's something different and it's fun trying different recipes and seeing how well I can execute them. In addition, at least eating out means more now. LoL My problem right now is that I need to figure out "quicker" recipes to make after work since I'll end up spending the entire evening cooking and/or baking instead of relaxing. Eh. I'll figure it out at some point. I can't be up till 11:30pm every night finishing baking 2 lemon pound cakes with a lemon glaze after making homemade beef stroganoff all on the same day I did the grocery shopping for said foods right after work! Won't do that again...I was exhausted! Though, the lemon pound cakes were absolutely amazing...I'm going to make them again in a day or two.
On to movies...
The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) - You know, it wasn't too bad...until you get to the end. It was better than Wolverine Origins and it's better than the 3rd X-Men (and probably the 2nd one...? It's been too long since I watched them to say definitively), but you get to the end and, if you know canon at all, it gets shot to pieces. What did they do to the end?! It was a decent film up to the moment Logan face plants into the snow after being made a human pin cushion (watch the trailer for the scene I'm referring to). From that point on, it made me go, "Wha...?" If you took out the canon issues, it was an okay ending. It was a little too much "immortality sacrifices," blah, blah, blah, but you probably could have lived with it. Unfortunately, even people who don't know canon are going to ask questions during some scenes because it doesn't make sense. If you know even a LITTLE bit of canon (I know enough to be dangerous, but by no means am an expert and I'd barely even call me a novice), it will make you go, "What?" I also didn't like Jean in this film...This movie takes place, roughly, right after X-Men 3 so Jean "appears" to Logan and it was definitely a "been there, done that" feeling with her. I was totally over her. It's been too long since X-Men 3, apparently. :P With that said, it's the step in the right direction for Wolverine movies and for X-Men movies in general. With X-Men: First Class being a good film and The Wolverine being an okay-to-decent film, maybe X-Men is partially redeeming itself? One can hope... Grade: C+
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Dwayne Johnson, Bruce Willis, etc) - GI Joe 2 was delayed from being released in theaters by about 8-10 months (I forget when, exactly, in the latter half of 2012 it was supposed to come out) to do reshoots and to make sure 3-D was done properly. I waited for DVD to watch it and I'm not sad. First off, it's GI Joe. I know it's going to be fantastical and a little over the top, but you watch it for the action and not the story, right? Okay, maybe not, but that's why I was watching it. It's a little too fantastical for me. By far, the best scene was the ninja scene on the mountain. It was pretty darn cool to watch and who doesn't like watching ninjas fight? With that said, the rest of it was over-the-top and I laughed at the end about all the "chases" there were. It wasn't horrible, though. Was it better than the first one? It's been too long since I saw the first to say and I didn't think the first was as bad as people thought it was in the first place. I would say it's in the lower levels of action films, though. It just doesn't work as well as it could. Grade: C-
Admission (Tina Fey, Paul Rudd) - In ways, the title of the movie is a double entendre. Sure, it's about someone who does admissions for Princeton, but she also had an "admission" (as in a confession, of sorts) in it too. While the movie had some funny parts and I think Paul Rudd and Tina Fey were pretty good in the film, the story is okay till you get about 3/4 (2/3) of the way through the film and then it loses you. What starts as trying to be different, gets a little too different and then it takes you down a road that I can't agree with. I wish it stayed in the rom-com department and stayed away from the drama. The drama and the twists really do ruin the movie, but, at the same time, I was able to watch the movie without it making me feel like I wasted my evening. So, it's a toss up, but the ending does really degrade the entire thing. Grade: D/D+
I'm currently enjoying the Pacific Rim soundtrack. Djawadi does the soundtrack for the first Iron Man, which I really enjoy and knew from the opening song of Pacific Rim he did the soundtrack because it sounds VERY similar to Iron Man. It's a good theme, though, so I'm enjoying the Pacific Rim soundtrack. I like songs with a good bass in them and Djwadi does that a lot in both films. I do enjoy the Game of Thrones opening credit theme song too, which he does the music for Game of Thrones.
Speaking of movie soundtracks, I never mentioned Varese Sarabande released their 30th anniversary compilation of CDs this year. Every 5 years they release a 4-CD set of "main theme" songs from TV shows and movies they publish. I'd been waiting for the release of it months before it came out (technically, been waiting since their 25th anni was released!). I own every anniversary set they've released (20, 25, and 30) and I love them. They're fairly cheap for such a wide array of soundtracks and for being a 4-setter. They're not all instrumentals too. Some of them have singing, but it's not a lot. I do appreciate how they release a NEW set of songs for each set (basically the previous 5 years) rather than mix-and-match the sets for the past 30 years.
My CD of choice, though, has been Lord Huron again. I'm almost nonstop playing it. I do so enjoy it. Randomly, I found out Florence + the Machine (who I also really like) and Lord Huron are signed by the same record label. Random tidbit. :)
With that, time to find something new to read. I demolished the two new books in series I'm reading that came out the last week (that was a really awkward sentence...). I really should slow down to read them (finished one in 24 hours -- that's including the fact I had work during that day), but I enjoy the series so much and the books are good so I can't stop! In addition, even if I reread the series (and I've reread these series several times), I can't read them for the first time again. I'm seriously addicted to the feeling and excitement I get from reading and devouring a new series for the first time. It's an addiction for me. I crave that feeling so I've been hunting for a series trying to find other stuff to read. There's just something special about reading a good book you really liked and had no idea you'd like it so much. Next best thing is reading a new book in the series, but...just not the same. Course, that's assuming the next book in the series is actually good. :P
