Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I

Let this serve not only as a movie review from a converted skeptic, but also as a review for the experience at Polaris's Rave Theater. Skip to the end for the movie comments.

If you haven't been to Rave at Polaris, you should. It's a great place to watch movies with amphitheater seating, comfy seats, mostly clean floors and bathrooms and the armrests go up and out of the way if you're sitting with someone you like. Essentially you get a social setting similar to your living room couch but you also are immersed into a big screen and great sound for the total experience. It's about as intense as I can get since IMAX makes me sick. Nice place, especially for big movies.

The crowd. Well, I think I accurately described to Chris earlier today that a majority of them were either creeps, or jerks, or prepubescents and their helicopter parents. Besides obnoxious jeers and "spells" shouted out at each other throughout the nearly 2 hours that we sat waiting for the movie to start, the crowd was generally ok. They weren't too rowdy, besides some acting going on down front and center. This was the ultimate people-watching experience.

In retrospect, I would've like to get out and walk just before the movie started. I got really sore and tired of sitting just about 3/4 of the way through the movie. The movie was about 2 hrs and change, plus ads, we got started on time and were out and home by 3.00 am. Now, mind you, this also included some crafty manipulation of the parking exodus after the movie ended. Our car was blocked in, so we also needed Amanda to finally get out and hold up traffic because nobody bothered to care that we had been there waiting for a chance to get out. Nor did they care that they had gotten into a line blindly without considering traffic laws and how they might apply to getting out ASAP. We did, however, get out fast and apart from really ticking off a lady in a bug who thought she could cut in front of me when I had the right-of-way just because someone else had done it (nothing a simple honk and words couldn't solve), it wasn't bad at all.


The movie. Realize that I was a severe skeptic of the series before and during my time reading it early this summer. But as the books developed and a solid plot line stopped evaporating (somewhere around book 5), the books got exciting, remaining easy to read, and I tore through them. Everything falls together in the end, and I feel like watching the movie satisfies the need for people to see it fall together on film just like they read in the books. My take, the books are better, the movie is changed and if you had to choose between the two, read the books. Definitely read the books before the movie.

Complaints about the movie include the quantity of flashy scenes where they try to portray flashbacks but also the present and the flickering doesn't really allow you to focus on either without ticking off your eyes.

The makers of the movie in my opinion did a good job in this movie (much better than in some previous) of selecting what was unimportant in a movie plot line and cutting it from the original book. The movie flowed, had light, entertaining sections, dark scenes precursive of the next movie, and drama/horror types of scenes that frankly pushed me a little. I don't go to movies to get scared and things like a dark room battle scene with a monster snake don't really get me going. But it was a well-balanced movie, accurately incorporating the book into an exciting on-screen adventure. Well worth the trip and the wait.

Good Weekend

As with any busy weekend, I stayed off the internet for the most part and concentrated on enjoying the time I'd been given, with the full knowledge that come Monday I'd have time to blog again during Stats class. As such, I've got a collection of topics and such so there will be a blog overflow today.

For starters, Louisville and the North American was a great opportunity to lean back and relax just a bit (literally during the accident induced traffic jam on the way back) and a chance for Amanda and I to sleep in and do some fun shopping and roaming together. It wasn't all play, as Katherine and Jacob used our help to get the lambs ready and I did more to get a lamb ready for show than I have ever done in my life before (which was obvious by my lack of experience). The family placed decently with the sheep and showed that we are making progress in our improvements to the flock.

It's really amazing to me that despite the "horrible" economy and all the financial troubles that Americans are experiencing this year, there was little reminder of that down in Kentucky at the show. Things went on just as always with both old and brand new vendors selling lots of great things to many genuinely interested customers. If there was any change from last year, it was the increase in store security to prevent the loss of merchandise and a slight decrease in the number of entries that made the trip. Otherwise, all boded well and a good time was had.

On that note, I include 3 links for big money items that came up in my BBC news today. Megamind
is bringing in the big bucks for the second week in a row, and yet I have minimal interest in seeing it. It would be impossible to top How to Train Your Dragon in my mind, so I'm gearing up to go see a couple of other movies with Amanda in the future instead, including Harry Potter 7.


Secondly on my list is an article discussing people getting bamboozled in an investment scam for treasure recovery. Honestly folks?!? When did you begin to believe that a deep sea recovery was going to pay itself off for you? It's good I don't write for BBC because I wouldn't have taken so much pity on you.

And rumors surround Facebook as they prepare for the unveiling of a new unknown product. No fears Google; I won't leave you.

Kick it up a notch....

Usually I associate that phrase with some terrible office rally speech, or some new sales pitch at Wal-mart, or Bdubs' 11th sauce that has yet to rear it's ugly head. Instead today marks the day when I want to set aside 30 minutes to document my thoughts, feelings and feeble accomplishments every day.

Reading this one blog that I subscribe to and realizing he has now limited himself to 2 hours per day for blogging, I understand why some peoples' blogs are so superior to mine. But then there are people like my dearest Amanda who still post meaningful and recently especially good blogs and yet don't spend half of their life in doing it. I'm looking for this next couple of months to be a period of growth for my blog which launches it into a larger readership and more frequented category. Mind you, that means it has to become less obviously personal. I don't like to share my personal thoughts and feelings with nearly anyone and for this reason don't even keep a journal. However, I can still keep all of my best friends informed via this blog on what's going on in my life whilst entertaining the other readers on this blog and I think if you know me well enough you'll be able to read between the lines and hopefully piece together a more personal biography of me and my life during grad school. Who knows, I might even start a new blog specifically for grad school just like I did the off-shoot for my agricultural discussions. Who knows, I might even really start into ad and reviews on here as well, even though I doubt you actually make any money doing that stuff.

As this week begins and I am no longer sick, I decided I needed to take the time and sit back and reflect on how this summer is going. I'm not here to fill you in on all of the details, but I am really surprised by how fast the summer flew by. And while I'm finally over the fact that my undergraduate years are gone, it was a hard shock to have Gail come down and visit for the last time last week before she moves out to Minnesota. I think that really struck the reality in my that I'm into a new stage of my life in school. Obviously the wedding did that but my life with Amanda seems so natural and wonderful that I wouldn't describe it as a harsh shock at all. Sure, it's crazy at times around here - I really wonder what our neighbors must think of us - but it's been as seamless of a transition as I could've asked for and every day I thank God for her.

What I really mean to say is though that as I've gotten older, every year has had more and more of a routine to it. It seems like just yesterday that I was starting my summer on pig farms and the sun was coming up earlier and earlier. Well, by the time that the novelty of my new job had worn off (and trust me, that didn't take long) I started into the pattern of just counting the samples, and calculating the time required for jobs. Well, then came the chores around the house. Sweeping the floors or putting away the dishes just fit itself into the other facets of my everyday life so conveniently that it wasn't long before we'd broken into the double digits on washer and dryer uses and the DVR didn't seem like anything other than a way to record the weekly series. (By the way, my weekly series is definitely The Colony. Sure it still has an element of control that I don't think a reality series should have, but given the camera footage captured, it has been an entertaining summer show to watch.) Then the TV fit into the idea that I was just getting from one show to the next, or looking forward to the next evening when I fed the fish, or the next Sunday when I went to church. Family, friends and Amanda have been the only breaks to this onslaught of life this summer that is relentless in its pursuit of tomorrow. Every second that I can spend with them is the time that is precious, captured in the moment and they are what have made this summer so great. Without them it has just been an endless progression towards the start of the school year and a repetitive monotony that I think has just made the summer blur together until it finally seems to have flown by.

And that gets back to just why I think this blog is going to be so important. This is a way for me to express myself to people in the next few months and will serve as my experiment to truly evaluate publicly what I am doing and is an opportunity for me to focus on those things which make me happy. I think we only truly realize how happy we are once we're looking back, and I want to appreciate life as it comes instead of spending so much time in the past.

On that note, my movie review for today is "Rachel Getting Married". Yeah... no offense to anyone who found this either introspective or entertaining, but I found little meaning or comfort in a movie so poorly shot and terribly scripted. There are few movies that Amanda and I give up on, but this is definitely one of them. I've sat through my share of cheap movies, but it's the not the budget the limits this. It seems as if the directors went for this subtle approach to portraying a family in its dysfunctionality, but this has already been done a million times. And besides, doesn't Brothers and Sisters do this so much better? Instead, this show has scenes that drag on forever with it unwitty script while you're forced to endure inferences at topics which should seem to be critical to an actual plotline if there had been one. The choppy cinematography did nothing but exacerbate the problems this movie already had. In summary, don't watch, but if you must, you can borrow it from us. :)

Hopefully some storms can show up this week to lower the temperatures and humidity before Chris and I suffer through a 200 mile Pelotonia this weekend. The current temperatures and humidity have been combining for weather that stifles the body and soul.