MN Amusing Myself

I've been sick lately and restricted to my home. I thought this would give me plenty of time to post on Star Wars or catch up with the rest of the people on Jedi Eclipse. I haven't had the attention span for it and have nothing SW to contribute. I will tell you how I've been wasting time...eBay. I have been amusing myself to no end looking up random kooky things. I can "turn any bedroom into a motel room" for around $40 for a Magic Fingers. If it were $20 I would be all for it. Who wouldn't love to drop a quarter into the box everynight for a soothing shake? Even stranger on eBay is the Garfield personal massager. He has such a wicked little grin and his paws will soothe away your stress.

It's been pretty quiet on this board. What is everyone doing instead of posting?

 

Homework. Graduation standards to be exact.

 

Well, I've been posting on Chi and St. Louis boards. Didn't have any new topics to open a thread here, so... I didn't.

Ya know, eBay is one of my favorite things in the world, except I ALWAYS end up spending money on stuff. It's just like shopping a good sale, some bargains are too good to pass up.

Then there are the things that are other people's junk that DON'T look like treasures, but actually loook LIKE JUNK. At least to me. But, different strokes for different folks (write Bobafemme ?)

 

What I've Was Up To This weekend:

- Saw the movie "Traffic", in my opinion the best movie of 2000, even though it didn't open here until 2001

- Watched the Vikings kick the New Orleans Saints ass on Sunday.

- Read Various Non-SW books and a little bit more of Balance Point

- Spent money I shouldn't be out shopping

- Played the new "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" board game I got at Target on clearance. Oh, how I love a discount. Especially when its at least half off the old price.

- Did I mention watching the Vikings kick ass...

 

Go Vikings!!!
(I have to have SOMEONE to root for now the Rams screwed up their miracle opportunity.)

This is the second time I've heard mention (favorably both times) of the movie Traffic. I haven't even heard of it (although when we saw Crouching Tiger something Dragon I did see it listed as playing at the theatre, but I didn't know what it was. Can I get a no-spoiler description from anyone?

 

Oh, I've been reading my ass off. After reading "Children of the Jedi," (yes, please feel sorry for me -- I've scrubbed my eyes w/acid).

But I've taken time off from the SW Univserse for a while and I've started reading Tolkien. Finished "The Hobbit" a few days ago and I'm about half way through "The Fellowship of the Ring." Pretty cool that there's going to be a trilogy based on the books.

Oh, and did I mention that the Vikings kicked some ass?

 

Bobafemme and RogueNine, my condolences to you! BF, for being sick and R9 for "The Children of the Jedi" thing...

Me... not amusing myself, unfortunately. Just burned-out, swamped, over-loaded... you name it!

 

R9, my husband and I are reading the Hobbit together right now. We take turns reading a chapter aloud. We plan to go through "the [holy] trilogy" next.

You've read them before right?

 

Well, I have been working in my office. But as for reading I am starting on the corellian trilogy. I am planning on reading the Hobbit and the LOR after I finish the Timothy Zahn duology.

That will give me a break before I start on the NEW JEDI ORDER series.

JediLars

 

Here's a non-spoiler description of "Traffic" for you Steph.

Basically, it's about drug trafficking and the efforts to stop it. It essentially follows three storylines:

1. The newly appointed Drug Czar for the U.S. government (Michael Douglas) who is so busy trying to fight the war on drugs, he ignores what's happening in his own home.

2. A wealthy woman (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who learns of her husbands "business" activities when he is arrested and she left alone and pregnant.

3. A Mexican cop trying to fight the corruption in the government while still moving up in the world.

Basically, its a thought provoking movie about what everybody's doing wrong if they really want to fight the drug problem in this country and how no one is completely innocent in their actions.

Hope that wasn't to spoilerish. I didn't give anything beyond about the first ten minutes or fifteen minutes or so and its about a 2 1/2 hour movie.

 

In response to jedigal:

No, I've never read them before. I did watch the cartoon-movie that's based on "The Fellowship of the Rings."

My best friend back in Minnesota absoluletly adores "The Lord of the Rings." For years he's tried to push Tolkien on to me and finally this past Christmas I received "The Hobbit" along with "TLoR" as a gift.

If I'm done reading a book and I throughly enjoyed it, as a tradition of mine is to kiss the back cover of the book. I kissed "The Hobbit" as soon as I was done -- last time before that was probably the Thrawn Trilogy.

I just can't believe how much detail Tolkien goes into his books, just unreal. And plus there's Appendixes and Indexes at the end of the books? Unbelievable.

As soon as I'm done reading Tolkien, I will continue where I left off from the Star Wars timeline with "Darksaber," but as for now, I'm really enjoying Tolkien's works.

 

My opinion of "Children of the Jedi":

I won't say that I really hated the book -- it was just hard to understand what the hell was going on. The author spent half the time making analogies and comparisons that sent me way off track.

I liked the idea for The Eye of Palpatine. It would have made an excellent super-weapon in my opinion. I really didn't like the idea of Luke falling Callista like that -- eventually taking over Cray's body (or whatever the hell happened), plus the fact that I know that Luke gets hooked up w/MJ later on.

But picking up Jawas, Tuskens, and other dumb creatures was out of whack. Jawas tearing the place apart was nuts. I actually had headaches from reading everytime that some "panel has been ripped open by grubby hands, with power cells and wire missing." Frustrating.

Also interesting that Irek is the possible son of Palpatine, kind of cool.

Oh, well. Selfish ranting I guess, but it's my opinion of the book.

 

Well, Rogue, if you like the Hobbit, I predict that you will love LotR. I can't believe you've been resisting your pushy friend. The LotR trilogy are 3 of those books that I have read time and time again b/c I love them so much. And as you noted, the detailed work JRR has put into them is fantastic! I think of them as his Opus, which means "life's work".


Btw, as an aside, (half on/half off topic) my copies of the books are in fairly worn condition. I am one of those people who breaks the backs on books, dog-ears pages sometimes, eats while reading thus often getting stains on the books, reads in the bath thus often getting pages wet and when they dry they're always warped, etc. etc. I just believe that books are to be read, they're not decorations, and reading shouldn't be some lofty activity, but an everyday thing. Just MHO.

Along the same line I am usually happy to lend books out to those I think will actually read them. Except for my SW books. Other books, if they don't get returned, no big deal, and if it is, I'll just get another one. My SW books otoh, can't leave, b/c then my collection would be getting smaller instead of larger. Can't let THAT happen!

As an aside to that aside, I do NOT feel the same way about music. I keep my CD's (and before that LP's) IN their jewel cases, and I handle them carefully.