The Lost Symbol. . . It Should Stay Lost

Okay, this is my first ever Blog Book Review and I'm doing it because I feel so strongly about the book. . . and not in a good way.  I don't know how many of you have read Dan Brown's books, but I've read all but one (Digital Fortress, something about computers.  It made me not as interested, although I'm sure I'd still like it) and have loved every single one of them.  I got so into Angels & Demons that I read it in one day.  True, I was up very late that night, but I finished it and it was better because the story took place in 1 day, it was like I was reading it in real time, 24-style.

 

Anyhoo, I read his most recent book in the Robert Langdon series, The Lost Symbol.  Ever hear the expression, know when to stop?  Yeah, it should have been prior to this book.  What, you ask, was so bad about it?  Well for once, I have specific critiques of something, so here goes.  I first want to start out by saying: Buy a thesaurus!!!  I have never seen the word "esoteric" so much in my entire life.  I would actually like to do a word count in the book.  It would be worth it to me to sit down and scan each page to find how many times he uses the word.  My friend read the book after me, with my strong warning in hand, so she actually paid attention.  She counted it over 30 times in the first chunk that she read.  She noted that sometimes it was used 2x in one sentence.  Just like many other things in this book, I say "Okay, I get it already!  Move on!"

 

Which leads me to my next issue.  I think I actually read several facts at least three times throughout the book.  Individual facts and larger themes were constantly repeated like the reader is in kindergarten and just can't be trusted to learn the first time.  I'm a big girl now.  You tell me something is important, I get it.  Next fact.

 

Now the facts.  Like all of his books, this one was chock full of little known trivia items.  Fascinating to be sure, but this is a novel, not a lesson in the architectural subliminal messages created throughout the rise of our great nation.  I readily admit that Dan Brown seems to know a lot about these topics and does an amazing amount of research for his books.  I'm sure he could teach some of the classes that his fictitious scholar teaches at Harvard, and I would actually be very interested in those classes if he offered them.  However, this is not a classroom, it's a novel. 

 

Which leads me into my main problem with the book: Most of his other books are fascinating stories that teach you interesting things along the way.  This one is the reverse.  It's almost like he decided that he knew a lot about the topic and wanted to write a book about it, so he set out to and squeezed a story around the multitude of facts.  Basically, the story comes second to the lesson, and it's very obvious.

 

If you've never read a Dan Brown book, please do not let this book be your first, for it may come to represent your future opinion of his works, which would be a mistake.  I swear, the rest of his books are really good!!!  If you've read his other books, you will be disappointed.  Let's just hope that his next work gets back to his story telling as a priority and interesting tidbits as an added bonus.

Avatar = Amazing!!

Theatre, theatre, theatre!!!!!  Wow.  This movie was so visually amazing that I'm going back to see it in theatres while I still can.  Please don't even waste your time asking if I saw in 3-D or not. . . why would anyone go see that movie not in 3-D when it's offered??  3-D.  Always 3-D.  I know that it cost an exorbitant amount of money to make this movie (even more than the Waterworld flop), but great googily-moogily, it was worth it!  Now, I don't generally rave about movies. . . yes I get obsessed with certain things occasionally and talk incessantly about them, but this isn't one of those situations.  I'm not obsessed with the movie, I'm just that impressed. 

 

Every single creature in the world that Cameron created was obviously thought through in its entirety.  At a certain point in the beginning of the movie, the main character is being chased by pantheresque creatures.  The movie showed them close-up and slowly to give you the opportunity to see the tiny details given to the animal.  And everything was like that.  From the trees to the flying pinwheel-type things.  The other part that amazed me was the colors.  There were such brilliant and beautiful colors throughout the world of Pandora.  The first scene with the flying dragon things, I couldn't even take notice of the scenery they flew by because I was so captivated by the colors of the dragony creatures.  My basic point here is that they did such an amazing job creating this world, I think everyone should go see their technological achievement. 

 

Now that I've gone off a bit on the visual stimuli, I can now tell you that the storyline was also pretty interesting.  Now, I get that this comment doesn't seem nearly as exhuberant as my description of the technological aspects, and I don't mean to downplay it.  It really was an interesting storyline, it's just that the visuals leave such an impression that everything else seems secondary, although in this case secondary is not a bad place to be either.  At a certain point you realize that something has to happen to merge the aspects of the main character and you can't really see how that can happen, until they attempt the feat on another character first.  Then you think "oh, so that's how they're going to do that." 

 

I don't want to give too much away, so I'll leave it at that.  Go.  See this movie.  In the theatre, in 3-D.  I promise you it will be worth it.  I want to hope that even non-sci-fi fans will like it, if they can appreciate what this movie has to offer beyond its genre.

My So Called Change In Perspective

(For those who don't know what "My So Called Life" is, it will be useful info for you to know that it was a semi-popular show from the 90's about teen life, centered around the main female character, that only had one season, but became popular via MTV after it was cancelled from network tv due to a horribly chosen time slot)

 

Have you ever gone back and watched one of your favorite shows from your teenage years after enough time has passed to put you in a different stage of life?  Well, I guess growing up during the creation of Nick at Nite and the resurgence of classic tv has allowed everyone to get to experience this with something.  I recently had my first, "Wow, it means something completely different to me now" moment. 

 

This past New Year's Even my friend and I did our normal plans of gorging ourselves with food and beer in the comfort of one our homes while watching tv, but this year we had a My So Called Life marathon (yeah, yeah, my friend already called me dork, but let's remember that I embrace my inner-dork and willingly admit to being one. . . of course this claim of my dorkiness came in the same minute as him telling me his main concern about losing his hard drive is based heavily on all of the episodes of Battlestar Galactica that he would lose.  Yeah, that's right, then he called me a dork!!!) 

 

Anyhoo, not to make myself sound worse, but I used to have every episode on VHS, minus the one pivotal episode of the entire show (yes, that's right, the one where Rayanne slept with Jordan. . . Catalano), and each tape was set to our favorite episode on that particular tape.  My friend and I would obviously watch these quite often, and each time, we always fast-forwarded the scenes that related only to the parental drama.  They were boring, their drama was uninteresting and frankly, the mom was a bit much, and annoying.  However, we were always very understanding of the horrific dramas that the teens went through and could relate to many of their experiences. . . although even we didn't understand some of the stupid things they did (okay Angela, we get that you're not ready to sleep with Jordan, but does that really mean that you have to break up????).

 

After not watching for several years (I recently got them on DVD, thanks again to our beloved blog creator that allows me to house them at my house so that she's forced to be social in order to watch them), we were super excited to start back from the beginning.  When we did, something strange happened.  We didn't fast-forward through the parental story lines.  The mom wasn't as annoying (still annoying, just not as much and I even felt bad for the mom several times) and the parental story lines weren't as boring.  The dad's potential affair, the mom's hurt and dismay at not knowing her daughter anymore, the crying apology to the mom after getting a dose of reality in her teenager world. . . it all had a different spin to it now.  And the kids, of course we could still remember the things they went through and understand their reactions (to an extent), they seemed different, more absurd at times.

 

Then there were the other things that I noticed before, but it meant more now.  Like when the girl bought a fake ID that said she was born yesterday.  Irony received fully this time.  I also noticed that no one had a clue what they were doing.  Not just the kids, but the adults too.  I guess as a kid I never noticed it because I didn't care about the parents enough to bother, but they were walking around in the dark just like the parents.

 

We watched these episodes with a small sense of awe at how different it seemed to us.  Of course we still loved it, we just loved more of it now.  Huh. . . I guess I am sort of growing up. . . but don't worry, not too much!!!

“Reality” vs. Escapism

I recently received one of those emails where you have to list 4 things in various categories and I noted that the perosn who sent it to me listed Burn Notice as a current show, when in fact, it's on break until January.  She responded by saying that considering it still a current show was her display of optimism and this eventually led into a rant on reality tv.  I tried not to get carried away, but hey, it's a hot button for me.  I detest reality tv on prinicple.  So here is my response to her:

 

In the time of shows being cancelled before the first season is even finished, I understand you considering a show on break (that still has commercials for new episodes) as still being current.  And don't even get me started on reality tv!!!  Ok, here we go:  First of all, who's freakin reality is it??  I don't know any real people that have lives like that.  And if it is "reality" then why are there writers credited for the show?  And how can there be cameras in the car of some guy asking out one of the main characters for the first time, if it's a surprise????  Yes, that actually happened on The Hills (my friend forced me to watch several episodes under the misguided delusion that I would choose to watch it on my own afterward). 

 

Secondly, has everyone completely forgotten that "reality tv" was created when all of the writers went on strike and no one with an ounce of creativity or common sense was left to come up with something new that had any substance to it??  It was created as a filler for a time period when no one with talent was left to create anything. . . and it's still going.  There are now people that are famous just for being greedy enough to eat cow balls or live in a hut.  There was a happy marriage that was publicly torn apart by cameras and the wife has the audacity that be thankful for the opportunity, because the opportunity that it gave her was to be stinkin rich and very famous.  And still, the American public is enthralled with this crap!  I just don't get it.

 

And people make fun of me because I watch the recreated 90210 about a bunch of spoiled, and extremely stupid, vapid teenagers or a show about a teenage girl who's friend is a witch, she's in love with the good vampire brother (as opposed to the evil vampire brother) and her own brother just had his memory erased so that he doesn't remember his druggie girlfriend turning into a vamp and being staked right in front of him.  I also watch a crime drama where the main character has no social skills and her partner sees Stewie Griffin on a sperm bank tv b/c he has a brain tumor. 

 

And why do I watch such things?  Because there is absolutely no basis in reality whatsoever.  At no point will I ever be watching one of these shows and think, "yeah, I can relate to that" or "hey, that just happened to me last week."  Because the things I watch never happen to real people, but they're not trying to claim that they are real people either!!!!  I can watch these shows, knowing that none of it is even trying to be real, and yet I'm interested enough to get invested in their lives (mainly b/c they're so outlandish and fake) and can take that time to completely forget about anything wrong in my own life. 

 

Books, movies and tv.  These are the avenues of escapism and if I have to see people talking to their children like they're the gum on the underneath of their shoe, and know that this person actually just said that to their child and not a pint size actress that knows it's fake, I think I just might puke.  So go, watch mindless happy endings and be happy, because that is what tv should be all about.  If we can't get happily ever after in own lives, at least we can watch it happen to other people!!!

2012 - The Review

Let me start off by saying that I'm giving this movie a "Theatre" rating (see the bottom of the page for the rating scale definitions), if for no other reason then the special effects.  I feel that all of the doomsday, end-of-the-world movies (i.e. The Day After Tomorrow) tend to have very intense, epic imagery that deserves to be seen on the big screen, and this one does not fail in that category.  Now, in the commercials the only person you really see is John Cusack, but it's got a really interesting cast besides him, including a conspiracy-theory lunatic played by Woody Harrelson, with some strange love of pickles.  The movie itself definitely was one of those edge-of-your-seat type movies, while you anxiously watch to see if they can get past the giant smoke cloud or off the ground before they get sucked into the molten hot magma filled canyons forming throughout Pasadena (Cali, not Maryland).  Even though in the back of your mind you're thinking, "Of course they make it, they're the leading characters!"  Logic never plays a part during these intense moments, if done well, which these were.

 

I also really liked their estimation of how the end of the world would be handled by the government, if it had enough advance warning, which it did in this case. . . sort of.  From selling off seats of safety, to screwing over the laborers that built the ships of salvation, I feel that they accurately portrayed the greedy elitist attitude of some of the people in charge of such a project, while balancing with the idealistic hope of the martyrs that such a situation would hopefully be saved by (not that I feel they need to die, just the fact that some people are idealistic and humanitarians is enough).

 

Of course the end is chock-full of mishaps and near-catastrophes, that somehow all are connected to the main (and important side) characters, as you would expect.  The only criticism I have is that it seemed like a bit much.  I mean, ok, I get that there are going to be problems that heighten the drama at the end, making the result more victorious, but at a certain point even I was noticing how it seemed like a bit much.  I remember thinking "Wow, with all of these things going wrong, I'd sure wish I was in one of the 4-5 other ships that John Cusack wasn't in!"  I won't get into all the goings on, but let's just say that it was a bit much to have it all happen to only one of the ships.  Sure, some of them were chain reactions, but still. 

 

All in all, if that's the only thing I can say seemed a bit much (and please don't come back with anything about how the images of destruction were over the top.  That's what these films are all about, so you have to be impressed with them, rather than criticize them. . . unless they're done poorly, then you can criticize the shit out of them.  But these were done really, really well so we'll just move on), then I have to say it was a pretty good movie all around and I hope you all enjoy it!!

I Want to Take My Freak Flag Down

Freaks love me.  Everyone thinks that all the crazies find them, but in my case it's true.  I even have an explanation for it.  My grandfather was the unique individual that used to actually go out looking for freaks.  He even brought them home to give them tours of the addition my parents built for my grandmother and him.  True story.  My dad came home to find my grandfather showing someone the house, walking through every room.  My dad asked who it was and my grandfather said "I don't know.  I met him at the shopping center behind the house and brought him home to see the place."  The only logical explanation to draw from this is that my grandfather had the freak-gene.  It somehow mutated when passed to my mom, and subsequently me, and now the freaks come find us. 

If you have this gene (the mutated kind), it's very dangerous to be around others with the same aspect.  My friend and I had to stop going to one bar because we couldn't go there without being, essentially, harassed.  In one evening, an albino slammed his drink down next to us and stormed out because we spurned his advances; I was delayed on my way to the bathroom by a group of guys by the foosball table telling me that they went to "Spring Break University" because (as I had learned at that very moment) that's what my t-shirt said; and was cornered by the regular old-drunk-guy for so long that the bartenders gave us money to play the jukebox, just so that they could get rid of old-drunk-guy for us.  This is not to say being with other people make you safer.  Another night (at the same bar) I was invited to play pool by the boyfriend of some girl sitting next to me, just so I didn't attack this guy that kept calling me Clifford (because I reminded him of the big red dog. . . red hair and pigtails are apparently enough to spark such memories).  You can see why I've tried to avoid going back to that bar since the bartender that protected me left.  One of the few times I did go back, my friend and I had to actually leave and go to another bar to get away from my most recent admirer.  Luckily, I've gotten enough practice putting my "Get the hell away from me" face on that I haven't had too many ridiculous experiences like that in a while. . . let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Coffee Shop Hype

So, as you know by my repeditive claims of computer disuse, I don't go online at home very often (mainly b/c the unsecure network that I've always used doesn't seem to be allowing me full access anymore), so I'm sure you're all very proud that I've actually made changes to my page (all by myself I might add!).

Well, yesterday I decided to try to go to Starbucks to go online and actually do all the things on my computer that I never do.  Okay, so this was motivated by my DVR's inability to properly record 2 of my shows and I really just wanted to watch them, but whatever, I finally found the motivation.  So I go to the wretched coffee house (I hate coffee.  Really, really hate it.  Even the smell is disgusting to me) and I order my delicious hazelnut hot chocolate (I highly recommend this by the way) and go to set up my computer.  I even had my headphones so no one else was disturbed by me, I opened up my itunes so that I could listen to music while I set everything up and tried to get started.  Now, keep in mind before I went in I made sure that the window had the little "ATT Wifi" sign, thinking that meant that I could get free internet.

You techies must be laughing at me by now.  Let me just interject now that, first of all, I don't go in coffee shops, I just know that on TV people sit in coffee shops and play on their computers.  Secondly, I clearly have never tried to go online anywhere but my house.  So, as you may have guessed, I open up Explorer, and it gives me login info and differnet options. . . point is, I can't get online without paying for it.  Stupid Starbucks and stupid ATT and stupid coffee houses with their stupid false stereotypes!!!!

So my mom suggested that I go to McDonald's that now offers wifi.  Here's the thing with that.  I feel like when I walk out of places like that I have a thin layer of grease on me, and that's just gross.  Oh, and I also figured that they'd cheat me out of my free internet too.  So I went to my friend's shop and watched my shows on his computer (b/c low and behold their wireless seemed to stop working the moment that I walked into the shop.  Shocker).  While there, I also updated my Shelfari page (the dorkiest, most awesome site ever), and I finally cancelled my eharmony account (Really, what was I thinking??). 

This all took so long I didn't have time to work on this (let's just say that my day today allowed me access to this. . . which it normally doesn't, and we'll leave it at that) and I couldn't use my laptop so I couldn't download music. . . or go through all my emails.  Anyhoo, point is, I finally got to update this (you'll notice I even have the movie rating scale at the bottom of the page!!) and still need access to the freakin internet!!!  If I didn't already hate coffee, I'd boycott that place!!

So uh. . . where am I supposed to go for free internet?  Any suggetions that you guys can give me, your antiquated (I guessed on the spelling for that) blogger, I'd appreciate it!  Oh, and I really hate training classes that you take to get out of the office and the teacher is so slow that after more than 2 hours you're only on page 30 of the training book. . . that has over 160 pages!!!  There's no way I'm getting out early today!!!

UPDATE:  I got an email from Borders telling me that they have free internet, but isn't that dangerous???  Telling me to go to a bookstore and spend tons of time in there??  I never walk out of that place without bags of books. . . so dangerous.