Stuff and nonsense post 2354

[ciroccoj]

• Just realized I never did my Books Read in June, and it's almost August. Should look into that.
  
  
• Got our yellow tags last Friday, by the way, so we are all now at ninth geup. Also went to Fitzroy Park and did a two-hour workout with the dojang. Learned lots, including some ninja-type moves and a new thing the black belts christened the "Quack Quack Attack." I can't quite believe we actually got up early on a Sunday morning to drive 45 minutes out of town to work out for two hours, but it was a hell of a lot of fun.
  
  
• BTW, Daniel finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and survived with psyche mostly intact. I was a bit worried, remembering when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to him and he grabbed the book from my hand and threw it against the wall when Aslan died. We got through that by me reassuring him that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was children's literature and children's literature always has a happy ending. Notsomuch here. I guess he's come a long way since he was five, though ;)
  
  Daniel's sum-up: I think it's my favourite book, except for Rowling's excessive bloodlust.
  
  
• Speaking of, Harry Potter the character turns 27 today, and JKR turns... well, more than 27. I had a brief idea about writing a drabble or something in honour of the day but then I read this bit by fourth_rose and... well, somewhere amidst the shrieks of laughter my inspiration went AWOL :D :D :D
  
  (Warning - DH spoilers, and it makes little sense of you're not into fanfic)
  HP b-day crack: You've Got Mail
  
  
• Am picking out my last set of law courses. It's rather exciting. Am also looking at articling positions. It's less exciting, more daunting.
  
  
• It's hot. Damn hot. Real hot. I won't do all of Robin William's routine from Good Morning Vietnam here, but those of you who know it can fill in the rest ;)
  
  
• Chris is re-roofing our shed. I keep fearing he'll crash through and impale himself on a rake or something. That would be embarrassing.
  
  
• Oh my god I'd forgotten, somehow, how funny So I Married An Axe Murderer is.
  
  
• And OMG I'd forgotten, somehow, to mention that we finally (finally!!!) went to see Pirates of the Caribbean! Yeah, the third movie, the one that's been out for like a year and is almost done its run here.
  
  It was good. Fun. But nowhere near as good as the first, and I was actually kinda not impressed for the first 3/4 of it. Maybe it was just me, but I found the pacing weird and slow. It sounded like the actors were being told to give it their all and make every. single. sentence. a pronouncement, a show-stopper, leaving the audience goosebumpy and wow!ed - for the entire movie. I found it hard to keep up the level of wow!ness that seemed called for. It felt like it was all over-drenched with significance, like there was no downtime where the characters were just sitting around, picking their teeth, vaguely thinking "Hm, I gotta pee - I wonder if there's a privy anywhere close by?"
  
  ::shrug:: Maybe that was just me. Chris liked it better than the second movie. I'm sure the kids'll like it too. Glad we didn't take them to the theatre, though; there was some weird-ass yucky stuff going on as well, stuff I'm not sure I want my kids to seeing with building-size visuals and blaring SurroundSound.
  
  The music was good, too. I'm almost tempted to buy the soundtrack, except that I have the first soundtrack and while it's very very good, I don't much want to pay another $20 for 60 minutes of music where one theme takes up about 70% of the playing time. I may pick it up if it's ever on sale.
  
  
• In honour of Pirates of the Caribbean, this morning the boys and I listened to The Last Saskatchewan Pirate. And it's funny how much history, geography, economics, literary analysis, and vocabulary-building you can cram into listening to one simple song. Home schoolers never go on holiday; we just go into laissez-faire mode for the summer.
  
  
• It's hot.

Comments

[owens-mom.livejournal.com]

...stealing wheat and barley and all the other grain...

so he made it through Lupin's death okay?

I wish my kid would pay attention long enough for me to read a long book to him. :(

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

...stealing wheat and barley and all the other grain...
Farmers bar yer doors when you see the Jolly Roger on Regina's mighty shores!

so he made it through Lupin's death okay?
Yeah. He was a bit bummed, but not crying or shrieking in anger or anything. And he still thought it was a really good book, and plans to re-read it soon. After he's done re-reading the rest of the series :)

I wish my kid would pay attention long enough for me to read a long book to him. :(
Hee, it took some doing with Daniel. We started slow, with Bartholomew Cubbins (longish, with lots of illustrations, getting him used to reading something in more than one sitting), then Danny Champion of the World (long, with many frequent illustrations), then gradually worked up to the Narnia books.