Under the Skin

I am back in Salt Lake from New York.  These are my thoughts from the airline travel experience in a list: (Warning: My dislike for people who complain about babies on planes will be featured. If you are one of those people, I'm not sorry. Babies have a right to fly too. I've seen a fad around the internet saying that the parents of babies on planes should give out gift bags to other passengers. Heck no. Other passengers should give them gift bags. I promise you, their day is going much more stressfully than yours, and no I don't know what's going on in your life, but I don't care, because the statement still stands).  On to the list: 1) The babies: The guy next to me keeps on making snide comments about how unlucky we are to have a toddler in front, a baby behind and a toddler across the aisle. Then he starts whining to the parents behind us to shut their child up. If you hear enough of it, you start to speak baby cry. That baby was c

“We are at a turning point of revolution species. Evolution has blindly felt its way forward , now, we, the product of evolution are taking the wheel. We soon will have the ability to design and create the new human, evolution still, but guided evolution...of course, only on computer simulation.”  Lots of book reviewing coming up, and actually a lot of very flattering book reviewing coming up. So, I mentioned in my review of The Martian that I had an example of the other acceptable SciFi treatment--claiming character ignorance of the technical details--coming up.  This is that SciFi offering.  I didn't say that made it an amazing book, just acceptable scifi. Evening (Eve) Spiker has been tasked with what she believes is just a game--come up with the perfect male.  But could it be more devious than that?  With her mother being a genetics company tycoon, Eve starts to worry that the Adam Project is not the simple little educational outreach project she has been told it

“But really, they did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that way sometimes, but it’s true.”  I have a rule.  I cannot go to see a movie that is based on a book until I have read its respective book.  I hadn't read this book yet last month, but was asked on a date to go see the movie.  So, my hand was forced.  I was asked on this date on a Tuesday night for that coming Friday night.  The next morning, I went to a Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy of the book.  I planned it out to read it in three days (a do-able feat, especially on a week off), but got so caught up in it that I actually read it in two!  So here we are, my book review of The Martian.  Movie review to follow. Here's something that you need to know about me.  I tend to strongly dislike SciFi.  Why--you may rightly ask--would a book-loving, professional scientist ever dislike SciFi? Because I'm a book-loving professional scientist.  A lot o

"Until you let me be an "I," the way you are, you can never come inside my silence." "I heard. I heard every word, g****** it. I translated for myself.   It went from your hands into my brain and out my mouth…You want to be on your own. You don't want to be pitied.   Then you learn to read my lips and use your mouth for something besides showing me you're better than hearing girls in bed. Read my lips. What am I saying? You want to talk to me, then you learn my language. Speak!" Hello there.  I am back with another book review.  I guess that this one is technically a play review, but I read it like a book (with the exception that I tend to read play scripts aloud when I read them like books). As such, I am going to treat it like a book.  I first heard about this play when I was in high school from my ASL teacher, but I never got around to seeing the movie, reading the play, or anything like that.  Then, when I w

"You can go feel this way for yourself as long as you want, kid. But knowing where you're from, that's half of knowing who you are - that's more than what most of us here will ever know! At least you know where you've come from. Born to a warrior, heir to a prince, does that mean you're the One? I don't know. I don't know if there is a One. I do know that if you aren't the guy, and you're just you, maybe that's enough." As I've always said, I'm not really much of a movie-goer.  However, my aunt and I wanted to go to a movie, and this was the only one that we both wanted to see.  So, we went to Pan .  Should you go see it? Pan is a fantasy-adventure Peter Pan prequel.   That's kind of all the summary you need. So, here's the scoop:  this would have been a pretty solid fantasy-adventure movie, had one thing happened.  The one thing? They acknowledged it had absolutely nothing to do with Peter Pan.  The story

First there was 39 Clues--the "Dream Team Middle Grade Collab."  That was so successful that they created "Spirit Animals," another in the same vein.  Now, while also continuing on with more 39 Clues spin-off series, and now Spirit Animals spin-off series, they have Infinity Ring, the same idea.  I haven't read Infinity Ring yet, but I did read Spirit Animals. First, what is a Dream Team Collab?  Well, it's when a publishing company enlists already successful writers to write a manufactured series.  Complete with online tie-ins..  It's very commercialized.  The 39 Clues team consisted of writers like Margaret Peterson Haddix, of Shadow Children fame, Rick Riordan ( Percy Jackson and such), Jude Watson (of Star Wars tie in fame), Gordon Korman (of I have writer-ADHD-and-cannot-pin-myself-down-to-one-series-at-a-time fame), and others.  Spirit Animals is similar and draws from writers such as Brandon Mull ( Fablehaven series ) , Shannon Hale ( Books

Another book review!  I know that I read too much.  Get over it.  It relaxes me.  Molly, a scullery maid, has a tendency to see things.  So did her mother.  But they usually turn out true.  When she realizes that this is a gift, not a curse, she must set out to save the Prince, the sole survivor of a family curse meant to destroy his dynasty.  These books were purely meh.  That's all I can say about them.  Meh plots.  Meh characters.  Meh writing.  I did get frustrated when the love triangle--ridiculous to start with--morphed directly into a love square, all the while, the female wasn't even likable.  Then, we needed to resolve said square (which eventually kind of turned into a pentagon with another girl involved--then a hexagon when another character got introduced into the mix to get the other girl out of the love polygon), so we just kind of dissolved it.  And why can Molly save it? Because she's special--no one really knows why.  Basically, it's just y

A few weeks ago, I was on facebook, and saw someone post another meme of a life hack.  Someone's comment, "How did we ever live without life hacks?"  I thought about that for a second.  What did we do before tumblr and Pinterest were so kind as to make life hack pages for us?  How did we live? Then, I thought back to all the times that I saw a "life hack," and thought, "Didn't your mom ever tell you that?"  Because life hacks, used to go under a different name:  Old Wives Tricks.  So, here are some "Life Hacks" that everyone is going nuts over, that my mother already taught me: 1) Put a piece of bright ribbon on your suitcase handle so you can find it on the baggage claim. 2) Put a magnet in a door to keep it from automatically locking 3) Flip button-up shirts inside out when ironing so that the buttons don't get in the way 4) Keep the boxes for Christmas ornament bulbs to put them away 5) Keep batteries in the fridge to kee

It’s been awhile since I did a list post.   So, I decided to make one.   I enjoy books, I enjoy movies.   I tend not to get into TV series quite as much.   There are some I watch, but…it seems I like a show and it gets cancelled!   Some shows, far too soon.   Some because they don’t have good enough marketing, some because it seems like I like them, but no one else does.    Of course, these are my opinions, and obviously, and shows which I haven’t seen wouldn’t be on the list (so no My So-Called Life , even though I hear it was awesome…perhaps someday I’ll watch it).      Also note that shows that were great, but ran their course are not included. Most things on here will have run only one or two seasons.   So, as much as I loved Chuck , it had its life, and we moved on. 1. Forever   This show was on last year, and was cancelled after just one season.   I was devastated!   Following the life of a New York City medical examiner who cannot die, this murder drama was cleverly writte