Under the Skin

I am not a fitness person.  I'm not overweight.  I'm not out-of-shape.  In fact, I'm very active.  I just don't  have a personal philosophy of miserably running on a treadmill in the pathological fear of being fat.  I understand that a lot of people love it and get a real endorphin rush out of it. If you love it, then that's not why you're running on a treadmill, so that comment doesn't apply to you.  But me?  I like hiking, Irish dancing, kayaking.  I don't like treadmilling or weight-lifting. I also love yoga.  However, I wanted the guidance of a yoga instructor.  So, I went to go to a gym in Tooele (which shall remain nameless)  in order to join yoga classes and maybe use the swimming pool.  I signed up for the membership (for the yoga), but I was disappointed with the whole experience.  Why?  The sale's philosophy. I told them up front that I was happy with my fitness and my body and that I wasn't interes...

“You are the answer to every prayer I've offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don't know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have.”   (puke) I hated the movie of The Notebook .  It might be one of the worst movies ever made.  Why?  Honest Trailers does a good job of summing it up here .  So, I was told, "You have to read the book."  I'm willing to try.  I'm trying to develop humility.  So, even though The Notebook  seems to always end up on the lists of "The Movie Was Actually Better,"  I did it.  For the good of the public, please read, and take heed of my words.  Please. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to die by fluffy kitten?  That's pretty much what it was like reading this book.  Thankfully, it is fast and short.  And, to be honest, if you take it as one big comedy making fun of books like The Notebook , it's actually quite good.  At work when...

"You think Mary Poppins is saving the children, Mr. Disney?  Oh, dear..."  At Christmastime, I went and saw the movie, Saving Mr. Banks , with my mother and sister.  And now, almost two months later, I am finally getting around to the movie review.  Pathetic, I know.  But they always say, "better late than never."  In my mind, I'm  not quite sure I believe that.  However, I will take it, because it's more convenient anyways for me this time. Saving Mr. Banks is the story of how they got P.L. Travers (a perfectly awful woman) to consent to the making of the Mary Poppins movie.  Or, rather, it's Disney's spin on it, based mostly off the memories of Richard Sherman.  Just have to acknowledge that not everyone on the internet agrees this is what happened.  But every historical film is subject to that.  The 1960s convincing of P.L. Travers is interspersed with a rendering of this woman's childhood as Helen Goff in Austral...

Did you know that playing the piano with cold fingers is a lot harder than it looks?  I love this song.  It's a relatively unknown Chopin piece that was published posthumously.  However, when I first played it, I was entranced by it.  It is fun to play and absolutely hauntingly gorgeous.  I don't play it that.  I haven't really played this song since my initial "mastery" this past summer, and it shows.  But that's the point, everyone!  Falling with style.  Chopin's Waltz in A minor, with all of its mistakes intact.

I finally saw Catching Fire.  The movie where all naturally blonde actors become brunettes, and all naturally brunette actors become blondes! That means that I now have two movie reviews to write for you guys, because what would you all do if you didn't have my media guidance?  It's not like you can make decisions and form opinions about books and movies without me, or something!  So, I will get to that, but I first will share my take on one part of The Hunger Games . I really like these books.  They have a lot more poli-sci than squealing fourteen-year-olds would have you believe.  I am not keen on the writing style (darn you present tense), but Suzanne Collins knows her political philosophy, and she also actually knows the meaning of a love triangle.  Not many people seem to understand the meaning of that phrase anymore.  However, there is one specific aspect of The Hunger Games that I really do not like.  And that is Katniss.  Why?...

“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.”    I was in IB in high school, and I was homeschooled in junior high.  So, a lot of the books that people read for English in high school and junior high-- let's just say that I read different things, okay?  Not many people  have read Labyrinths by Borges, though. Anyways, because of that, I have a gradual goal to read all the books other people read that I never got to.  And yesterday, I didn't feel like a million bucks, so I kind of sat on the coach most of the day.  And I kind of read all of Catcher in the Rye.  So, maybe it's because I don't have to read them for school, but a lot of the books people read in high school and hated, I end up really liking.  Catcher in the Rye isn't an exception.   I genuinely liked it. Holden Caulfield has been to multiple prep schools, and doesn't stay at any very long.  Mostly because he usually flunks out. ...

“A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.”  I know.  Sacre Bleu!  Two posts in one day!  I must say, that I finished a book today, and I felt like writing its review today.  And thus, two posts in one day.  There has always been a little strange pull in me to read this book.  Perhaps because the movie is rated R, and I'll never see it?  I'm not sure.  But I read it.  And guys.  I definitely ventured into Big-People literature on this one. After reading a lewd, but basically-consensual and relatively harmless, love letter between their housekeeper's son, Robbie, and her older sister, Cecilia, 13-year-old Briony believes that Robbie is a monster.  Her imaginative mind leads her to knowing that he must be a monster.  Her only impulse is that she knows she must protect her sister. That knowledge leads her to the police with false, eye-witness testimony that he is a monster a...

I'm not going to try and be gracious about it.  I hung out with the smart kids in high school.  Most every single one of my friends were either IB Diplomates or pretty darn close (as in, they decided to just not take TOK or something like that).  As such, even though a lot of people from my high school joined the military, only three of them were my friends.  Two went to West Point (one straight out of high school, the other transferred there a year later), and one went to civilian college but is now a commissioned officer in the Navy.  The one that went to West Point straight out is done now, and is now finishing airborne training.  The other West Pointer is still at West Point.  The Navy one was deployed this past week to the Middle East for nine months.  It's a strange feeling.  Lots of people have been deployed in this latest of American Wars.  Even people I know.  But it kind of struck me when it was a high school friend....

For those who are reading my Falling With Style series, I thought this article was a good addition to what I've said:  "Thank you, Shaun White, for not medaling in the Olympics" http://www.chicagonow.com/tween-us/2014/02/shaun-white-not-medaling-olympics/

People analyze what is wrong with our society a lot.  I think it might be classified as a national pass-time, right up there with baseball.  I'm nothing if not American, so, even though I dislike this national pass-time most of the time, I will add my two cents. I think one thing that has been lost is that it is okay to fail.  So, I give you this maxim: "It is okay to fail."  I'm sure that maxim will be published and someday my maxims will be studied in American Literature, just like I studied Rochefoucauld's in French Literature class. Now, this maxim is only true within reason.  If a child comes home with a report card full of nothing but f's, it's probably time to discuss success techniques, and that's not fully okay.  However, it's okay to get second sometimes.  And it's okay to do something that you're not good at, or be not good at something in general.   What is important is that you do it gracefully.  In Toy Story, Buzz Lightyea...

I think most of you are aware of my slightly-to-very unhealthy Olympics obsession.  And it's about to start up again.  So, the press is telling us that the Sochi Olympics may be frightening on many levels because of the city's apparent lack of readiness to host an Olympics.  There are also lists out there that rename the Olympic events such that luge is now Ice-Slide, curling is now Ice Bocce, and skeleton is Face-First Ice Slide. However, there have been some interesting Olympics on the books, and some of them are because of the events that they decided to have at those Olympics.  There are a lot of past Olympic sports that are sports, like Lacrosse, cricket, baseball, polo, rugby.  But then, there are some bizarre ones.  So, I present 20 Bizarre Former Olympic Events.  Some of these need to stay former; some should make a comeback, in my opinion.  1. Tug-of-War: From the 1900 Olympics to the 1920 Olympics, Tug-of-War was a real event.  T...

"Nobody but a reader becomes a writer." I have some great plans for you, my readers.  I know that there are about 14 of you, but that's more than my immediate family...I think.  But the 14 of you are in for quite a treat.  I have plans... But, today's plan is a book review.  Today's books were recommended by my sister, Carol.   These two books are companions of one another.  Technically, A Year Down Yonder is a sequel,  but the central character changes.  In A Long Way from Chicago , Joey gets sent to his Grandmother Dowdel for a week each summer, with his sister, Mary Alice.  From the summers of 1929 to 1935, they get to go down and endure their grandmother who has no regard for social grace or rules or buying things.  In A Year Down Yonder , as the throws of the Depression deeper further and further, Mary Alice is sent to live with Grandma Dowdel to save money for the family in Chicago, and she learns even more about this ...