Review

In a Mine! In a Mine! Where a Million Diamonds Shine!

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20141026_000544I bought this book recently, but didn’t get around to actually using it until today. The point of the book is to carry it with you while you turn your normal daily life into a scavenger hunt to find the items listed in the book. And when you have found one of the items, you turn around the book and flip to a random page. The edge of the page then tells you what to do with the item you’ve found and then, after you’ve done that, you can register it in the book.

20141026_000602Yesterday I joined Ingrid in going to The Farm to celebrate Julius’ birthday. It was a really fun day with good people and tasty food (they had made a wide assortment of cakes, tea and candies). While walking around checking out the new goats I found a magnificent white feather. And today I realised the book had a feather on the list 😀

As you can see, it has a space to note the time and date and how and where I found it. I wrote in the corner what I was supposed to do with it (Play) and since that isn’t something you can really show, I described it around the feather. And to keep it festive, I taped it to the page with fabric tape.

20141025_213358I also spent some time, yesterday, building my new Warcraft Lego Set. It consists of a Goblin on a rocket and a Night Elf on a sabercat (aka “Barren’s Chase”).

On Friday, Gert and I went to see Pride. This is an historical film taking place in England during the miner’s strike of 1984-85. The movie opens in London during a march for LGBT rights. After the march, a group of friends meet up in the bookstore of one of them and discuss politics. As they get to the strike, they realise that the plight of the miner’s is not unlike theirs. Both are not seen very positively in the public eye and garner a lot of abuse.

The group decides to band together to raise money for the miners. Raising money is very much needed as the union’s funds are getting depleted and social security is limited, so the miners are short on money and necessities.

Thus the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners organisation is formed. It doesn’t always go well, but eventually they have raised a fair amount and go about looking for a way to get it to the needy. They contact the National Union of Miners, but they refuse the donation, not wanting to be associated with the LGSM. At first discouraged, the group decide not to give up and start looking for a town to give their money to. They find the Welsh town of Onllwyn and are ecstatic when they accept the money.

Pride_posterThey pile into their van and travel to Wales to hand over the money. Once there, the atmosphere is awkward at first, as the town had not quite understood they were a gay group. However over the course of the movie, the continued support and interactions show most of the town that the LGSM are people, too, and they gain a mutual understanding of each other that is paid back after the strike ends.

I loved this movie. It takes place in the same time period as The Normal Heart, and touches on some of the same topics (acceptance, gay rights, AIDS) but mostly this is a heartwarming story in a difficult time, whereas The Normal Heart is heartbreaking.

Welcome to Your Life

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I’m liking Luke Evans more and more. I saw him, consciously, for the first time in The Hobbit (where I was, at first, mightily confused about the two Orlando Blooms…) and I really like what he does with Bard. Today I saw him in Dracula Untold.

I’ve been seeing the trailer for weeks now and it pushes all my buttons. Supernatural creatures, historical referencing, fantastic costumes and sets, and a good lead actor. So, Gert and I went to see it. As I expected I loved the movie. It’s a fictionalized account (obviously) of Vlad the Impaler. As a kid, he was traded to the Ottoman Empire to be raised there as a political hostage together with a 1000 boys for the Ottomans to use as cannon fodder in their army. As such, he fought in the Ottoman army as well and there gained his nickname of The Impaler for the heinous ways he would dispose of his enemies.

As an adult, no longer suited to fight, he is released and returns home, the Ottomans decline somewhat. He gets married, takes over the throne and has a son, all the while trying desperately to forget the past. This works decently until about ten years later. Over the years, the Ottomans have started to rise in power again. There are incursions of scouts and an all around feeling of unease.

One night, during a banquet of sorts, the Ottoman prince comes a-calling. He is of the same age as Vlad, they were raised together.  But tonight he comes to claim another 1000 boys, including the young prince. Vlad refuses him and a fight breaks out. He loses the fight and is forced to concede. A few days later, they meet the Prince’s caravan on the road to do the hand-over of the boy. There, Vlad rebels and kills the men of the Prince and rides off.

Having basically put his country at war with the Ottomans, Vlad searches for help. He enters a cavern in the mountains of which there are many rumours of horrible things. In there, he meets the vampire and strikes a deal. He gains the powers of a vampire for three days and three nights. If he does not succumb to the powers in that time (i.e. drinks human blood) he will regain his humanity afterwards. If he does succumb, he will become the vampire.

With his new found powers, Vlad takes on the Ottomans in battle and fights both them, and his new urges, while trying to hide the monstrous side of his abilities from his family and his people.

You Are Not Prepared

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20141009_203639

Illidan: “You are not prepared!” Arthas: “WTF dude!? I’m not the enemy here!”

Woohoo! Illidan & Arthas finally arrived today, aren’t they cute?

I finished reading the second and third part of the Maze Runner trilogy. I really like the world building, how the current dystopian society was formed. The science, and sociology, behind the whole thing is fascinating. I also liked how you could never quite trust anyone. That being said, the books do feel rushed sometimes, and the ending is too easy. I am, hoever, interested enough that I will be reading the prequel sometime in the future.

I also read If I Stay. It’s a good book, well written, good characters and the story is well done. I was a wee bit disappointed, though. This because the story is really a romance and I was expecting a bit more supernatural elements besides the obvious one.

20141007_202529Started watching Resurrection on TV. It’s a show where an eight-year-old, American boy is found wandering in China. After he is returned, he is placed in the temporary case of an immigrations officer. He tries to figure out where the boy is from, and returns to his hometown with him. There, it turns out he is the son of a local couple. The catch, though? He died 30 years ago…

DNA testing and the like proves that he is in fact their son. The rest of the series deals with how the family and the town people (once they find out) deal with this, especially as more resurrected people show up. I find it really interesting, and it features Omar Epps (Dr. Foreman on House) as the immigration cop.

The first season is only 8 or 10 episodes, and they show 2 an evening, so it should only take a few weeks to finish.

Ooh, and miracle of all miracles, Nienke suggested we play a board game, the other day 😀 So we played Rummicub.

Koos, Thomas and Robert

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Social Media can be a really useful thing 🙂 After my birthday party last Sunday, my little (second) cousin lost his favourite stuffed animal Koos while on the way home. He was seated on the back of the bicycle and fell asleep and probably dropped it. Since it was his favourite, he was devastated. Monday I discussed this with Kim and later that day she sent me a link and said “isn’t this it?”

The link was to a Facebook post in a a local group, someone had found a stuffed animal and was looking for the owner. It sounded just like Koos. So I posted there, saying it was probably my cousin’s and warned my cousin that it looked like Koos had been found. She contacted the lady and indeed, it was Koos! Yesterday they picked him up there.  Lucky for them he’d already fallen off the bike still in town, and luckily there are people that are willing to put in some effort to return lost goods. Faith in humanity restored 🙂

Monday I also went to the movies with Kim. We saw The Mazerunner. It was entertaining, but a bit too fast and easy. It also reinforced that it’s really not a good idea to read the books that close to seeing the film (I finished the book that morning). The differences really stood out, and I think if there had been a week or twee between, I would’ve liked the movie better. Not that it was bad, but was okay-good, not good or good-good.

Then yesterday I went to see The Equalizer with Gert. I don’t normally watch straight-up action movies, but I’d seen the trailer for The Equalizer a few times among the previews before other movies and it seemed interesting. I’m glad to be able to say that the movie lived up to my expectations.

The story revolves around Robert, a middle aged man with a hidden past, who lives a quiet life with set routines. During the day, he works at a big hardware store where he tries to help his co-workers. At night, when he can’t sleep, he goes to a diner to read his book and talk with another regular there: Alina, a young prostitute. One night, he sees her being abused by her pimp and stands up for her. When she is then so severely beaten that she is hospitalized, he decides to act.

He seeks out Slavi who ‘owns’ her, and offers his savings to buy her freedom. Slavi ridicules him and declines the offer. Robert then kills Slavi and the four other gangsters present in about 16 seconds. Later, Robert is called in by the authorities and we learn he used to be a special ops agent who is now retired, and that the gangsters he killed were hotshots in the Russian mafia.

This is the start of the main action. Robert is pursued by a mafia hitman named Teddy and has to use all his skills and wits to outsmart him. Of course he succeeds, but the twists and turns in that are interesting, and not always as expected.

Fun Day

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IMG-20140813-WA0007Today I picked up my new ID card, it is very pretty 😀

In the evening I went to the city to meet up with Nienke and Ingrid at Subway for food, and then on to the cinema for the first of Ingrid’s presents. My bus was late, so I ended up being a bit late, too. Fortunately we had enough time, but they were already done eating. While I was eating my sub, Gert called. Nienke was so kind to answer, and the whole thing ended with Gert also coming along to come see the movie, Begin Again, also 😀

I really liked the movie, it’s an ucomplicated romcom with good actors and a fun story. Ruffalo and Knightlet play off  each other well, the city and scenery is used well, and the other characters are well developed enough to round out the film. Plus, the music is pretty good.

 

Three Days Make a Post

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Dragonmaw PassI had a fun weird dream last night 😀

There was a war going on, and I was the general of one of the sides. I don’t know who we were fighting, or even why. I just knew, my side was the French Horde. I can understand where the Horde came from, as I have been playing a fair amount of Warcraft, but why they were French, I haven’t the slightest idea 😀

Anyway, we had to assault the enemy base, which was on the other end of a large pass. The pass was generally straight, but twisty because of rock outcroppings and other nature things sticking out. Added to that, there were many, many gates in the pass. For the WoW players among us, it was basically a version of the Dragonmaw pass leading to Grim Batol, except straight.

The gates were very, very tall; easily 8-10 meters high. And every gate was swarming with defenders. We couldn’t get too close, because they had archers and would throw all kinds of crap down on us. Boiling oil, pitch, rocks, etc… All the while yelling insults at us, Monty Python and the Holy Grail style.

Fortunately, we had trebuchets, and with the copious amounts of rocky outcroppings we had more than enough ammunition for them. And lucky for us, the gates were wood. So it took us a long time, but we managed to break down the various gates.

Unfortunately, I awoke before we reached the enemy stronghold 🙁

My companion yesterday morning

My companion yesterday morning

Lucy Film PosterFriday I went to see Lucy with Gert and Nienke. It was an interesting film, exploring what might happen if we could use all of our brain at the same time. Even though it starts from the old, flawed, premise that we only use 10% of our brain, it is still entertaining to watch. It has some pacing issues where the first half goes fairly slow, and the second half fairly fast. I would have liked to see it the other way ’round as I found the first half, where Lucy delivers the drugs and ends up with it in her system, less interesting then the second half, where Lucy has figured out what the drugs do to her, and goes about trying to help herself before it kills her. The movie also has Morgan Freeman in it, which is always good.

After, we went to Starbucks and dropped Nienke off at the station.Starbucks

Gert and I then went back to the cinema for Hercules. No deep thoughts necessary for this one, it was pure entertainment. I liked it a lot better than I had previously expected. It was a nice treatment where the myth really is larger than the man. Good to see how his friends help, and helped, him achieve the things he gets hired for, all the while using their tricks to bolster the myth.

Society

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426262Hmmm… So I finished Reached, the third book in a dystopian trilogy by Ally Condy. I got the first part, Matched, from Kim when she was clearing out books. I read that last week and I enjoyed it. It reminded me a bit of The Giver by Lois Lowry which is a classic in the dystopian sub-genre. I found the concepts and characters intriguing enough to want to read the next two parts but not enough to warrant buying the paperbacks. So I acquired them in e-book form and read the second part, Crossed, in one day last Saturday. That part suffered from middle-part syndrome quite badly, but not enough to make me quit.

In short, after wars and all those things, a group decided to rebuild society and limit free will and what people can and cannot do to prevent a repeat. The Society has chosen 100 pieces of some art forms that are still allowed to be seen and talked about and stuff (100 paintings, poems, stories and songs). Other than that, there is no art and creativity. People don’t make things, even their writing is copy-pasted phrases on tablets. The Society has data on everything, and everything is sorted and matched and regulated to create the healthiest and most productive people.

People go to school and afterward are given a designated work position. They only have to know what they need for that job and nothing else. So a botanist only knows about plants, a medic only knows about treating people and so on. If one is lucky, they become an Official, one of the people who run things. Children are Matched with their prospective partner when they are 17. This is followed by a strictly regulated courtship until marriage at 21. After which children are expected around age 24 as that is the optimum age for healthy children. And so on.

Cassia, the main character, is in luck. Unlike most cases, she already knows her match, her best friend Xander. This is what the book starts with, the Matching Banquet. But then, when Cassia views the micro chip she’s been given, as per tradition, with info on Xander, she sees a photo of a different boy. It is Ky, another boy from her neighbourhood and friend group. Something like that is not supposed to happen and it leads to doubt in Cassia’s mind about the Match, and the whole process.

When her grandfather dies, because he turns 80 and that is when people die in the Society, he gives Cassia poems. Poems that are not part of the 100. This brings Cassia to further question the Society and with this mind set, she sees more and more things that are off, and realises that art from before the 100 were chosen, as well as other items, are used to trade. Trade for information, but also to trade for passage to other places, beyond the Society’s inner provinces.

Cassia and Ky hang out a lot over the summer as they both chose the same recreational thing to do, hiking. Cassia falls in love with Ky, and then the conundrum of what to do, who to choose, who to believe, who to follow really takes off. The Society notices their association and as Ky is classified as an Abberation, he is eventually taken away.

The second and third books take this further as the Society starts clamping down on things, a revolution brews and Cassia, Ky and Xander must navigate these circumstancces to  find each other, and try and help rebuild a new society and figure out their love triangle. As I said, the second book is not as good. It’s slower and not much happens, but it does give a lot more info and background on the Society and the people that chose to live outside it. About the trade system and about the revolution. The third book is a nice surprise as usually these books end with the overthrowing of the old government and the new dawn rising. But here, the revolution succeeds pretty early in the book. The rest is dedicated to show that even after such an event, things don’t magically fix themselves.

I was a wee bit disappointed in the ending. I had hoped to also learn more about the Otherlands and how the rest of the planet is faring. I understand it is too much for the scope of the story as is, but maybe a short story here or there in the future would be nice. All in all, for people that like dystopian fiction, I would recommend this.

Rottumeroog and The Fault in Our Stars

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BqP3CsrCQAADxFFYesterday at work I was looking out the window when I noticed they were building something down at square in front of the station. As more of us saw it, we were stumped as to what is was as we are far enough away that we couldn’t make it out. I did say it reminded me of National Geographic, but other than that, we got nothing.

Naturally curious that I am, I decided to go down there in my lunch and check it out. Which is when I found out that it was, in fact, National Geographic who put it there. It was a photo exposition of photos taken on the wild island of Rottumeroog by photographer Jasper Doest. It will be there until July 27, go see! It’s beautiful.

Today I had the day off because I switched my shift (so I’m working tomorrow). I spent the morning in bed reading The Fault in Our Stars. It’s a very good book, very moving. I’m looking forward to the movie!

Tonight I watched Elysium on TV. It was worse than I expected.

Movies Galore! Also Lego! And Theater!

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Did a bunch of movies this week, by myself and with others. Monday after work I went to see Edge of Tomorrow. It was a much better movie than I was expecting. I really like Full Metal Bitch and I didn’t even mind Tom Cruise in the movie 🙂

I also ordered tickets to go see War Horse with Mom. We’re going January 14!

Tuesday I finally went to see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. The movie is hilarious! It’s been a long time since I laughed out loud at a movie that much. It’s been compared to Forest Gump, but it’s better than that. The titular character, Allan, gets put in a home when he blows up his hen house. Then on the day of his 100th birthday he decides to escape the coming party and attention and climbs out the window and walks off. As he goes to buy a bus ticket at the station, he gets asked to watch a suitcase for a minute and decides to walk off with it. It turns out the case is full of money. Criminal money. Cue an awesome road trip where he meets all kinds of people while being tracked and followed by the criminals that want their money back, interspersed with flashbacks to Allan’s long life where he experienced important events and met important people all the while being mostly oblivious to the importance of it.

Wednesday I had my shot again. Had it done in my arm because I still had some movies planned. Am never doing that again, though. My arm hurts like hell now still, and it’s Sunday. A quick Google has taught me that arm muscle is just not big enough. The way T. shots work is that the fluid bubble sits in your muscle and is slowly absorbed over the three weeks until the next shot. A leg muscle (or your ass 😀 ) is big enough to stretch around the fluid bubble, but arm just isn’t.

I also went to Bedum and Uithuizen with Mom to check for World of Warcraft Lego (Megabloks technically) at the Action10173768_10152193319638155_281758145161566397_n. Nico had seen it there, they had a big Stormwind Demolisher Set, a smaller Goblin Shredder (which I already have), about six or seven mounts+riders and eight single character figures with a small piece of scenery. They didn’t have all of them anymore, but I got a fair bunch

At the end of the afternoon I headed for the city to meet Gert. First we saw Grace of Monaco. It took me a while to get into but that’s mostly because I had the wrong idea and expectation beforehand. I’d seen trailers of the movie before, and that gave me the idea it was more a biopic of her life from marriage on and further. Until her death basically. But instead, it focuses on a specific period (early sixties) and shows how it was difficult for her to get used to life as Princess, torn between acting (Hitchcock offers her the lead in Marnie) and her family and duties, and how she could influence people, both behind the scenes, as well as the general populace. Once I figured that, the movie fell into place and things like pacing made sense.

Afterwards I had planned to go home, but we sat and talked for a while and decided on a whim to also see A Million Ways to Die in the West. I won’t dignify that movie with too many words. Suffice it to say that it is a stereotypical American comedy that runs on sex and poop jokes. The basic plot is fun, and there are occasional good, clever, jokes. So if it had been more of that, it would not have been so bad.

Thursday I also had the day off since I had to work yesterday. Nico was off early, so we decided to go see X-Men: Days of Future Past. It’s a good movie, I really liked that we got to see the merging of the old trilogy and these new films. Even though the timeline of the old trilogy is fairly effectively wiped by the events of this film, I like that they didn’t just go fingers-in-your-ears-it-doesn’t-exist-la-la-la-I-can’t-hear-you 😀

Back home, I finally ordered my theater tickets. As I said on Facebook, it cost me three organs and some change. But I have seven shows (in addition to the earlier mentioned War Horse) to go see in the new season two of which Mom will join me for.

  •  Chamber Choir of St. Petersburg: Vespers of Rachmaninoff ( 25-09-2014)
  • Toneelgroep Amsterdam & Toneelhuis: Maria Stuart (10-12-2014)
  • Musictheater Transparant & Claron McFadden: Lilith (05-02-2015)
  • Sara Kroos: Van Jewelste (25-03-2014) with Mom
  • Toneelgroep Amsterdam: Koningin Lear (03-04-2015)
  • Various Comedians: Onceuponatimethegodfatherflewoverthecuckoosnest (29-05-2015) with Mom
  • Marrugeku: Gudirr Gudirr (dance performance) (06-06-2015)

Friday, after work, I spent the evening reading and avoiding football. Not very lucky with that as I sat in my bedroom with the window open so I could hear the whole street erupting every time we scored. And we scored a lot.

Then, yesterday. I had a late shift, which I can normally do at home. But I realised this too late and since Kim was also working, I came to Groningen. Got a message from Gert half way through, he was at the Action, did I need any more Lego? I was indeed missing some, so I had him take a picture and saw they had ones I didn’t have yet. He was so kind as to buy them and bring them to work for me. I took my break and met him at Starbucks. I had just enough time to get a drink and chat briefly, before having to head back.

Today I slept in, and just as I was gonna go to the Parents for Father’s Day, Mom rang the bell. Dad was out cycling, so she came to ask if I wanted to take a walk with her. I joined her, and then after went back to their place for coffee and merriment 🙂

A Week in the Life [+ The Normal Heart]

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The_Normal_Heart_PosterI came home Tuesday to a new edition of Flow on the door mat as well as next season’s theater catalog. After the first run through, I was on 9 shows I wanted to see.

My Uncle’s birthday was Wednesday so went there in the afternoon.

BphOiMBIUAAKrBFThen Thursday I had planned to go see The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared after work, but it rained so much I decided against it. Instead I went to the Bruna at the train station and bought books (including The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman). Once home, I watched The Normal Heart (I had recorded it when it premiered on HBO Sunday).

It’s a movie, after the play of the same name, about the beginning of the AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 80’s. Main character is the, gay, writer Ned Weeks. As more and more people around him get ‘gay cancer’ and die from it, he notices that mainstream medicine and the government choose to look the other way. He and his friends form Gay Men’s Health Crisis, an advocacy group to raise awareness and money and help those affected and afflicted by the disease. Ned favours a more aggressive, vocal approach which conflicts with the more diplomatic way the rest of his friends choose. Meanwhile, in his personal life, he falls in love with journalist Felix. The two start a relationship, but then Felix gets AIDS as well.

It is a difficult movie to watch. It is raw and deep and open, quite literally like a festering wound. It is beautiful, intensely fragile and strong at the same time. Watching it left me devastated and in pieces. I will be watching it again, and I will definitely be buying the blu ray when it’s released. And I only buy blu rays of movies I really, really, love.

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Saturday: Lounging on the bed with Milo 🙂

The Normal Heart stars Mark Ruffalo as Ned, Matt Bomer as Felix and has, among other, Jim Parsons, Julia Roberts, Jonathan Groff and Alfred Molina in it.

Friday I went to the cinema with Kim to see Maleficent. I liked the movie. The visuals were very pretty, and the back story they gave for Maleficent was nice. The acting was okay to good. Angelina Jolie was good, as was the guy playing her lackey. But the dude playing the king sported the most awful fake Scottish accent. And later on, in a scene at his castle, all of a sudden mid-scene half the men there acquired the same horrible accent… And the ending felt rather rushed.

Back home, I went through the the theater catalog again. Got it down to 7… But am talking with Mom about going to see War Horse in January…

Saturday I played a lot of Warcraft, and I read The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It’s a lovely, lovely book. It tells the story of a little boy who meets the people who live at the end of the lane, the Hempstocks. And there is something odd about this family. There are no men, and they have an ocean in the garden. And then an old evil manages to enter this world, and he needs the Hempstocks to survive. It has magic and supernatural stuff and all those things you find under the veneer of modern day life (well, modern day sixties life). It is definitely a recommended read.

Also,  the new birthday calendar I ordered to hang in the downstairs toilet came. Unfortunately packed, but very, very, pretty 🙂