Thursday, February 23, 2012

Least I Could Do Moment of Truth

LICD is their annual Valentine's Date contest, and the winner this year is Tyler, a SCA member. Today's episode nearly made me snort diet soda out my nose.

Today's my last day of work. Tonight I'll be driving to Austin. Saturday Sherwood Forest Faire! SQUEE! I'll be back home Monday and back to the normal routine Tuesday.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Friday, February 10, 2012

The Shining Analysis

This is a topic that has been keeping me distracted while at work. It came up in my newsfeeds that someone made a documentary of the theories surrounding Stanley Kubrick's the Shining called Room 237. It's been a while since I saw the film and what I remember of it as a whole was "not the novel at all but SCARY with a dash of significance." Hey it is Stanley Kubrick apparently he didn't know how to film without "significance" all over the place. And I was now curious as to what film analysis people had come up with and went Googling.

Bill Blakemore The Family of Man This is one of the first ones to come up in the search, explaining in broad strokes the whole subtext regarding Native Americans. The Exploding Kinetoscope's essay "Dad, Do You Feel Bad?" The Secret History Lesson of the SHINING expands on the first essay with screenshots to illustrate.

Physical Cosmologies: The Shining (excerpt) part one is a bit harder to get through, reminding me of all the reasons why I evade literary analysis. But ultimately, the writer made some good points about mirrors being doorways to the realm of the ghosts and Danny luring crazy Jack to his death on purpose. That second part really impressed me, since my initial viewing I always thought this kid was clever to get away from him and was just plain lucky with the blizzard.

Then io9 posted Watch this Insane Breakdown of Stanley Kubrick's Hidden Narrative in the Shining, so I did. Then I clicked on Rob Ager's other YouTube videos analyzing the movie before finally ending up at his site Collective Learning. Here's the direct link to his in-depth analysis: "MAZES, MIRRORS, DECEPTION AND DENIAL". Good news is he has done analysis on more movies than just the Shining, bad news is he wants you to buy his DVDs to get all of it. He is upfront with what is available for free on his website is about 50%.

And in the someone is being very cute file: The Overlook Hotel article that blends fictional facts with behind-the-scenes facts. My only issue with it is that the writer tried to match Kubrick and King's depictions in the same article. It may have been easier to just pick one.

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The BookWorm

Saturday, February 04, 2012

January's Done

The past two weeks have been off, so it's time to climb back on track. To start, see what I accomplished this month and set my boulders for February.

January Boulders
  • Take measurements Jan 1
  • Self-assessment for exercise
  • Research for Imbolic (Feb. 2)
  • Start reading 365 Goddess
  • Spending diary from Dec. 20 - Jan. 20
  • Finish "Stellar Gift of Death"
  • Update my NetWorthIQ badge
Monetary Concerns
I finished the spending diary boulder for January, caught up Chase Student Loan payments, took and out a new loan to pay off Republic Finance so they wouldn't sue me.

February Boulders
  • Finish taxes on Feb. 19th
  • Have a budget for Sherwood Faire trip before Feb. 15th
  • Update the NetworthIQ badges for Dec. and Jan.
Not on the same level as the boulders, I have budget exercises on the Big Rocks list that I need to do:
  • Set up Zero-based spreadsheets for 2012
  • Create a five-year financial plan
Take health seriously

I completed the January Boulders of taking my body measurements and self-assessment for exercising. But as soon as I started adding daily exercise into my schedule, I got the bad news stress courtesy of Republic Finance, and my upper back seized up in response to the point where turning my head brought tears to my eyes. So exercises is on hold until my back is fixed.

February Boulders
  • Find the best time of week to update FitDay.com
Spirituality Practice

The idea behind reading 365 Goddesses was to follow the suggestions for celebrating each goddess. That hasn't worked out in the morning scramble to get ready and I stopped reading it. I also didn't do anything for Imbolc.

Add to Pebbles
  • Read 365 Goddesses
February Boulders
  • Research Ostara
  • Make a new Book of Shadows
Fiction Writing

I haven't finished the first read-through of Forget the Sun and I feel like I'm stuck in Stellar Gift of Death.

February Boulders
  • Finish Stellar Gift of Death
  • Finish Forget the Sun's read-through and move to step two.
DIYLife featured a "snapshot of my life" that I liked enough, I decided to answer it like a meme.

Snapshot of My Life Version

Actual age: 35 years minus 20 days.

Age I feel: Present. Except for more physical aches and pains, I don't think the interior has changed all that much. I matured early.

How I look: Forever getting carded.

Marital status: Single and happy with it, much to my mother's consternation.

Short term goals: They're on my This Week I Need to Do list, and I'll spare you since most of them are above.

Long term goals: Remodel my house or at least get a new roof on it. Publish my original fiction. Travel more.

What’s worked recently: Sticking to my checklist for the day.

Things I’m trying: Breaking goals down by the month seems to be working.

Thoughts on Life: One shouldn't read a story about a cooking show when one is hungry.

Read Free!
The BookWorm