Out & About – Page 310

Three sentence movie reviews: The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

Unlike the original, this movie fleshed out the back story and pointed me in a direction, so I knew what was supposed to be funny. There were the usual Farrelly Brothers gratuitous touches* and Ben Stiller did his uncomfortable Ben Stiller thing.** Not the worst way to spend two hours, but not the best one either.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

*Older woman in hot tub with breasts the size of basketballs.
**However, it was enjoyable watching the scenes he did with his father.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/index.html

Three sentence movie reviews: Neighbors

I only got this movie because the preview for Neighbors 2 both attracted and repelled me in a way that was interesting. And this movie is chock full of uncomfortable situations which beget uncomfortable laughter. There was much flapping of hands, saying “oh-no!” and looking away, but goodness gracious did I laugh.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home with Matt. After the second-worst work day of my life.*

*I accidentally installed ransom-ware which killed off my computer, took down the server and rendered everyone in the company unable to work for the afternoon. Everyone was very nice about it and the backup server was restored the next day, but it was still pretty terrible.

poster from http://www.impawards.com/index.html

Postcard from Taiwan

This is from a postcrosser new to Postcrossing. In fact, I’m her very first postcard. (!!) This is a very pretty postcard and the back tells me that bird is the calophasis mikado which can be found in middle/high altitude mountains. They are also apparently endangered.

Postcard from Russia

This is from Regina in Russia. She is studying at the university and is very fond of traveling, biathlon and cats. She includes a quote by Maksim Gorky: Words have the insidious property to distort the idea

Three sentence movie reviews: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Having seen the play, I knew what I was in for, and I had already experienced the claustrophobia that comes from being trapped in a small theater with George and Martha. This, the film felt roomy and expansive in places, and lost some of its urgency. That said, it’s still quite a good movie and while all actors are great, Sandy Dennis particularly delights as Honey, the young wife of a Biology Professor new to campus.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home
(Part of The Next Picture Show’s pairing: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and 45 Years)

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1966/whos_afraid_of_virginia_woolf.html

Three sentence movie reviews: Beyond the Lights

Overlooked movie alert!* There’s really good stuff in here, from mother/daughter relationships to fame, and how women are often required to sell their bodies to achieve it. Great performances all around.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home

*Thanks to the hosts of the Next Picture Show Podcast for squealing when this title was mentioned, thus alerting me to its existence.

http://www.impawards.com/2014/beyond_the_lights.html
The above poster was the only one the site had. However, the poster below was on the front of my DVD and it’s a million times better.

http://www.target.com/p/beyond-the-lights/-/A-16927432?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&CPNG=PLA_Entertainment%2BShopping&adgroup=SC_Entertainment&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9032941&gclid=CjwKEAiAgKu2BRDu1OGw3-KXokwSJAB_Yy2QL926H6_3jXftq6Px5exWLb_dQQEBm-cTScTozlrcvBoCrmHw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Portland Fit Sashiko T-quilt block completed.

I have completed my first block in my t-quilt. Doing this block of Sashiko embroidery has taught me that this will be a very, very long project. This t-shirt is five movies worth of work time. Knowing that, I have sorted and prioritized my t-shirts and will first embroider the shirts from high school and college. Which means this is really block zero and the next shirt I do will be the first block in the t-quilt. If and when I finish that quilt I will start on the post-college t-shirts.

I’m pretty happy how this turned out. It doesn’t look super professional, but it’s doing what it should, namely holding the stretchy t-shirt to the solid block of fabric behind it.

Four weeks, one notepad.

Today is the last day of my fourth week of work and it seems I’ve also completed this notepad. Work is going well, and I’ve been enjoying learning new things. The notes above pertain to editing a PowerPoint, where I created a boatload of charts from the data acquired in a phone survey. The post-it note on my monitor is from my co-worker, as a handy reminder of how charts in reports are centered. This is the last week of PC usage for this office, though. Next week we switch over to the other side of the computer divide and everyone gets a MacBook Pro.

Postcard from Taiwan

This is from Daisy who sends her greetings form Taiwan. She tells me that the most important festival of the year, Chinese New Year, is coming soon. She said she would celebrate it with a family reunion and some food.

Three sentence movie reviews: Deadpool

We flipped a coin to see which movie we were going to see and Matt won, so we took in this “romantic comedy” on Valentine’s Day.* Members of the male species seem to really, really like this movie finding it gaspingly funny and wonderfully raunchy. I found it to be amusing and raunchy and perhaps more proof that I’ve hit my superhero movie quota.**

Cost: $5.10 (somehow the special $5 price has added ten cents to it)
Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12 with Matt

*My choice: Brooklyn.
**Which is a little worrisome. What if I don’t like the next Thor movie? Or the next Avengers movie?

There were a number of posters to choose from. I went with the faux-romantic comedy one, because that’s how Matt was selling it. But I think the one below is my favorite.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2016/deadpool_ver7.html
http://www.impawards.com/2016/deadpool_ver6.html