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Mar. 24th, 2012 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljWeather back to normal. Quite cold and windy today.
Mom, Sis, niece and i went to see The Hunger Games at noon. Good time to go as it wasn't really crowded. We all enjoyed the movie and felt it kept fairly close to the book. The cast was all great, especially Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. Excellent choice. Some topics and scenarios that are more detailed in the book are only touched on here, as you would probably expect from a movie adaptation but it was enough to get the idea across. There were only little brief bits about the past and the lead heroine, Katniss's personal history and the history of her more deprived district so you really didn't get a good sense of why she is the way she is or who she is. That's a lot to do with trying to fit the events of the book into a movie though. If you hadn't read the book you might not have found the movie as engaging. If you have, then you can fill in the blanks.
I didn't like some of the camera work, that hand held shaky, too-close-up, too quick editing during action scenes. Makes me dizzy. You really didn't get to know the other Tributes much because over half the movie was the set up and training and by the time the Games were on, there wasn't time to go into great detail or character development for the other combatants. I did like that you got a bit more of the "behind the scenes of the Games" in the large control room, watching how they manipulate things.
After the show, Mom and i had lunch at Montanas and then we went up to Staples. I had seen a netbook on their website and wanted to see if they had it in the store. They did but the Operating System was different than described online. Lo and behold, the website has been changed between yesterday and today so they now match. (Windows 7 starter, which i think is going to be the case on all or most netbooks from my research. It's not as good but it can be upgraded). I asked about getting more memory in it as it can go up to 2gig instead of the 1 that comes with it. Apparently it's a bit tricky to install in the netbook so it would have taken a couple of hours. They were also uncertain whether Windows 7 would have recognized the extra memory before a full install or not. Might have been fine, might not. They charge extra for the installation (Windows is loaded but you have to go through the registration, service pack and patch update process apparently and they soak you to do that if you are too nervous to do it yourself. I could do it but if it didn't recognize the new memory stick and froze up i'd have to take it back to the store, probably pay for them to do the installation before adding the memory after. Pain in the arse, that. He didn't know if it *would* be a problem but said some netbooks are like that and some are not and their tech wasn't sure if this was one of them.
Anyway. Now i find myself rethinking. Do i want a netbook or a tablet? I'm still leaning to the netbook and i considered that i could just buy it out of the box with 1 gig of memory and go from there. Maybe the 1 gig would be fine most of the time. I'm not planning to do anything really heavy with it, any more than maybe light photo editing and i could get software that isn't big and ugly to do that. In fact, PicMonkey looks like it might be pretty good and it's online and not an install and there's no registration required. I tried it but not with a larger resolution photo. You drag the photo or upload it, do the work on it and save it back to your puter. It's one of the suggested replacements for Picknik which is going away. It seems to have all the basic editing needs i would require for on-the-go stuff.
As for the netbook and 1 gig memory, I can always take it back and buy the upgraded memory and pay to have them install it since it's a bit tricky on that model as to the ease of getting to it. Decisions, decisions.
2012 books....more detailed review through the links
30. Madame Bovary - Gustav Flaubert
A classic that i read in school and hated. Emma Bovary was bored, I was bored, then she topped herself. I thought i might reread it to see how my tastes had changed and how i viewed it. Much better this time around. I don't remember much else from it when i first read it but i realize that she is a woman that pretty much lives in a fantasy world and can't cope with the realities of day to day life. She wanted romance, adventure, a white knight to sweep her off her feet. Life isn't like that, toots.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/278694284
31. The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
Apparently winning a lot of awards, i found it a bit less riveting than all the reviews are screaming about. It was good, well written, but not a lot of character development so when you read the description that says you know what the recently deceased grandfather is by the two tales/legends that are told in the book, you don't know at all really. There's a few other characters introduced in those stories and the author takes you back to their whole history which seems unnecessary. Still, i did enjoy it overall.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/295331004
Mom, Sis, niece and i went to see The Hunger Games at noon. Good time to go as it wasn't really crowded. We all enjoyed the movie and felt it kept fairly close to the book. The cast was all great, especially Woody Harrelson as Haymitch. Excellent choice. Some topics and scenarios that are more detailed in the book are only touched on here, as you would probably expect from a movie adaptation but it was enough to get the idea across. There were only little brief bits about the past and the lead heroine, Katniss's personal history and the history of her more deprived district so you really didn't get a good sense of why she is the way she is or who she is. That's a lot to do with trying to fit the events of the book into a movie though. If you hadn't read the book you might not have found the movie as engaging. If you have, then you can fill in the blanks.
I didn't like some of the camera work, that hand held shaky, too-close-up, too quick editing during action scenes. Makes me dizzy. You really didn't get to know the other Tributes much because over half the movie was the set up and training and by the time the Games were on, there wasn't time to go into great detail or character development for the other combatants. I did like that you got a bit more of the "behind the scenes of the Games" in the large control room, watching how they manipulate things.
After the show, Mom and i had lunch at Montanas and then we went up to Staples. I had seen a netbook on their website and wanted to see if they had it in the store. They did but the Operating System was different than described online. Lo and behold, the website has been changed between yesterday and today so they now match. (Windows 7 starter, which i think is going to be the case on all or most netbooks from my research. It's not as good but it can be upgraded). I asked about getting more memory in it as it can go up to 2gig instead of the 1 that comes with it. Apparently it's a bit tricky to install in the netbook so it would have taken a couple of hours. They were also uncertain whether Windows 7 would have recognized the extra memory before a full install or not. Might have been fine, might not. They charge extra for the installation (Windows is loaded but you have to go through the registration, service pack and patch update process apparently and they soak you to do that if you are too nervous to do it yourself. I could do it but if it didn't recognize the new memory stick and froze up i'd have to take it back to the store, probably pay for them to do the installation before adding the memory after. Pain in the arse, that. He didn't know if it *would* be a problem but said some netbooks are like that and some are not and their tech wasn't sure if this was one of them.
Anyway. Now i find myself rethinking. Do i want a netbook or a tablet? I'm still leaning to the netbook and i considered that i could just buy it out of the box with 1 gig of memory and go from there. Maybe the 1 gig would be fine most of the time. I'm not planning to do anything really heavy with it, any more than maybe light photo editing and i could get software that isn't big and ugly to do that. In fact, PicMonkey looks like it might be pretty good and it's online and not an install and there's no registration required. I tried it but not with a larger resolution photo. You drag the photo or upload it, do the work on it and save it back to your puter. It's one of the suggested replacements for Picknik which is going away. It seems to have all the basic editing needs i would require for on-the-go stuff.
As for the netbook and 1 gig memory, I can always take it back and buy the upgraded memory and pay to have them install it since it's a bit tricky on that model as to the ease of getting to it. Decisions, decisions.
2012 books....more detailed review through the links
30. Madame Bovary - Gustav Flaubert
A classic that i read in school and hated. Emma Bovary was bored, I was bored, then she topped herself. I thought i might reread it to see how my tastes had changed and how i viewed it. Much better this time around. I don't remember much else from it when i first read it but i realize that she is a woman that pretty much lives in a fantasy world and can't cope with the realities of day to day life. She wanted romance, adventure, a white knight to sweep her off her feet. Life isn't like that, toots.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/278694284
31. The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht
Apparently winning a lot of awards, i found it a bit less riveting than all the reviews are screaming about. It was good, well written, but not a lot of character development so when you read the description that says you know what the recently deceased grandfather is by the two tales/legends that are told in the book, you don't know at all really. There's a few other characters introduced in those stories and the author takes you back to their whole history which seems unnecessary. Still, i did enjoy it overall.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/295331004
