WIJFR: The Once and Future King

The whole world knows and loves this book. It is the magical epic of King Arthur and his shining Camelot; of Merlin and Owl and Guinevere; of beasts who talk and men who fly, of wizardry and war. It is the book of all things lost and wonderful and sad. It is the fantasy masterpiece by which all others are judged.

As a slight change to my regular WIJFR posts, this one should be WIAFR (What I Almost Finished Reading).

It’d been a while since my daughter and I had read a book together so back in Mid-May we started “The Once and Future King” by T. H. White.

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Cars 2

This afternoon we caught a matinee showing of Pixar’s latest film, “Cars 2.”

My random thoughts (as usual, no spoilers):

  • there were some great “cameos” like Sig Hansen and the Northwestern from “Deadliest Catch” as Crabby, and Bruce Campbell as American spy-car Rod “Torque” Redline (an obvious nod to Campbell’s character Sam Axe on “Burn Notice“).
  • in Radiator Springs, the movie playing at the drive-in is “The Incrediblemobiles”
  • I noticed one of the advertisements along the racetrack was for “Lassityre” (presumably a reference to Pixar’s Chief Creative Office, John Lasseter)
  • in Paris, I though I saw the restaurant from Ratatouille

Of course, there are a ton of easter eggs that I missed … those are just the ones I noticed and remembered.

As for the movie itself? Well … it was okay. It hasn’t been getting great reviews and I can kinda understand why. Unlike the Toy Story sequels, “Cars 2” doesn’t feel, well … original, and lacks the emotional power of Pixar’s previous films (think about the incinerator scene in “Toy Story 3” or the first 10 minutes of “Up” for example). It’s just a James Bond/Jason Bourne spy-thriller story with the Cars characters. There’s also way too much of Mater and probably more guns and explosions than “The Incredibles.”

Don’t get me wrong … I enjoyed it. The car references and jokes were funny, and there was certainly a lot of action. It was a good movie, but I expect great movies from Pixar. Even the new Toy Story short before the film didn’t seem to have that Pixar magic that the shorts usually posses. I guess it just seems like it’s now too easy for them to just crank out “new” stuff by re-using their “old” stuff.

I saw a poster for “Brave” (the next film) in the theater … hopefully that one re-captures the spirit of Pixar’s previous works when it comes out next year.

 

Atlantis lifts off, shuttle program comes to an end

The skies were gray but that didn’t detract from the beauty of the last space shuttle launch. It sounded like they might scrub the launch at the last minute due to the weather, but Atlantis lifted on-time, taking a huge load of supplies up to the international space station.

I wasn’t lucky enough to be selected for KSC tickets in the raffle so I had to settle for watching the last launch live on NASA TV on my iPad. I love listening to the live feed (although there were a lot of prepared speeches this time).

It’s hard to believe STS-135 is the last shuttle mission, ending a 30-year program. Sadly, it will be years before another manned spacecraft blasts off from U. S. soil. I wore my Constellation polo shirt to work today as a little reminder of what could have been (or what still might be).

At least I got to see a few launches live, although only one up close and personal (well, from Titusville … a spectacular night launch of Endeavour in 2002 for STS-113). And, of course, I’ll always remember Challenger and Columbia (the very first shuttle launched for STS-1).

Amazon Kindle (2nd gen)

Back in May I spotted a woot! deal for Amazon’s second-generation Kindle e-reader and jumped on it, not for myself (I do my reading on my iOS devices), but as an end-of-the-school-year present for my daughter. We gave it to her on the last day of school in celebration of her straight As report card and she freaked. Her best friend had gotten a Nook for her birthday and she’d been asking for an e-reader ever since. She loves to read (we find open books scattered all over the house face down), so being able to put a bunch of books on a tiny device she can take with her anywhere was an appealing idea.

This was the first time I’d laid hands on, and actually used, a Kindle! Hard to believe, given my fondness for gadgets, but I’ve been reading books on small LCD screens since my Palm/iPAQ days so I never felt the need for a dedicated e-book reader.

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WIJFR: The Hunger Games

In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’s young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

During our recent family vacation road trip, we all “read” (listened to) the audiobook version of Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games.” We spent almost 68 hours in the car, so we had no trouble getting through all 11 hours of it.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 10 – home!

Not a lot of excitement today, just driving and the anticipation of finally getting back home.

We grabbed a quick breakfast, checked out of our last hotel, and were on the road by 8:30am. At 10:15 we crossed the border back into Florida. After going around Jacksonville to I-10, we took the back routes, cutting south and west to meet up with I-75 around Ocala just after 12:30pm. Two hours later (after a quick stop to pick up grocerie), we were pulling into the driveway. Whew, we made it!

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Road Trip 2011: Day 9 – driving to GA

We saw our first rain of the trip this morning when we woke up. All of us were looking forward to breakfast at The Old Chikahominy House in Williamsburg, and it can get crowded quickly on a Sunday morning, so by 7:30am we were on the road, driving east on I-64 through the light rain. By the time we got to Williamsburg an hour later, the rain had stopped and it was shaping up to be a decent day weather-wise. Adding to our delight, the restaurant was almost completely empty and we were seated immediately.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 8 – driving to VA

Our hotel in Norwich wasn’t the greatest, but that’s what we get for making a last-minute change to our itinerary. The new plan was to stop at my aunt and uncle’s house in Stamford, CT for brunch so we skipped breakfast at the hotel this time and were on the road by 8am. Two hours later we were sitting in their dining room having a wonderful, relaxing meal and catching up on family news.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 7 – heading south

Our original plan called for us to spend Friday in Boston, maybe taking a harbor cruise or going to some of the places we didn’t get to see yesterday. As we talked about it back in the hotel last night, however, we realized we had seen all we wanted to see and maybe it made sense to start heading south to make tomorrow’s drive (to Richmond, VA) a little easier. So this morning, as we ate breakfast in the hotel room, we made last minute reservations at a hotel outside of Norwich, CT and decided that’s where we would stop tonight.

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Road Trip 2011: Day 6 – historic Boston

After breakfast (again) this morning at the hotel buffet, we drove over to Woburn to see some old family places (my mother-in-law grew up in the area). Then went to downtown to the city of Boston. We had pre-purchased tickets online for the Old Town Trolley tours, so after parking the car we walked to the nearest stop and boarded the trolley to see the sights.

The Junior Ranger badge for Boston National Historical Park isn’t nearly as straightforward as some of the other national parks we’ve visited since it involves visiting multiple sites around the city. My daughter really wanted to earn that badge, though, so we knew we were in for a lot of walking and lot of sight-seeing today.

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