IWSG #14 - Boring the shrinking masses

My biggest insecurity right now, is about having to post here and say "Hey, nothing's changed!" It's getting old, and I don't doubt my visitors here are becoming quickly bored by it. However, it is just my life at the moment. I have said it recently and I'll say it again - I'm motivated, in fact I'm slightly desperate to get going again. But I just haven't shoved myself over that line yet.

I am starting to take some time back for myself as I have long felt I should, and I believe I'm creeping ever closer towards being 'ready'. I'm getting closer to that point when I will jump on my laptop and instead of going straight to Facebook to check up on the kitty rescue business, I'll open a Scrivener file instead, and get writing. Or rather, editing.

I want nothing more than to get stuck into my editing!

In other fun news, I had a DVD & pizza night at a friend's place recently, and we started our 80's fest. We watched:

• The Breakfast Club
• Some Kind of Wonderful
• Pretty in Pink.

We're not sure which movies will be on the menu next time, but the plan is to have a DVD night at least once a month, and I can't wait for the next one.

Also, another friend and I are going to a screening of Serenity this Saturday, followed by a "Shindig" at the pub next door to the venue, where apparently games will be played and prizes may be won. Woot!

[JULY UPDATE] Book Club & Goals

I meant to post this yesterday, but am only getting around to it now. Better late than never!

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : July Edition ~

I was excited to be reading this book that I just didn't want to put down, as that has seemed a little difficult to find lately.

The story in Charade flowed really well, the characters were addictive (as was the storyline), and it was just a really good read. It might not have been the most perfectly written story in terms of the actual writing, but the story was engrossing.

I was excited to see there's another book in the series, too! Thanks for a very satisfying read, Nyrae.

~ Do You Have Goals? : July Edition ~

Oh jeez, what a sad state of affairs. My goals are just lying in the dust. The only bright spot is that I'm still reading! But I have to admit that I'm lagging behind with my reading goal - five books behind, to be exact.

One of my main problems is that I am simply not dedicating enough time to reading. I desperately want to change that. Sometimes there's nothing better than chilling out on a weekend and catching up on some reading. But I guess we'll see how I go.

As for the other goals ... don't even go there. But I can say that I am motivated to do some editing. And I am going to try and step away from some of my other extracurricular commitments at least a little bit, so I can get back into writing / editing.

[JUNE UPDATE] Book Club & Goals ... and Mal / Jayne

~ The Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club : May Edition ~

This month I have a very simple little review for you, as I am all drained of energy and steam to write a better one!

Basically ... I love this series and want to see it all on the big screen, NOW!

I really admire Marie Lu's world of LEGEND that she has built. I am going to miss the characters now that the story is over. But I guess I can always read it over again!

The description in these books, Champion included, does put me in mind of some of the anime series I've seen on DVD, and that is a good thing.

I was happy with how things wrapped up. Towards the end I was worried it was going to be some cruel cliffhanger, but thankfully Lu didn't do that to her readers!

All in all ... a thumbs up!

~ Do You Have Goals? : June Edition ~

What I said last time, still applies this time. I am terribly sorry to say I have nothing more to say than that. I will say that I'm steadily saving up to pay for the production of my band's next album, so that's something! I guess I might just focus on that.

Oh, and THIS...

Source

This weekend is SupaNova 2015, and tonight I'm going to see Nathan Fillion & Adam Baldwin on stage together, in the flesh!! This is majorly exciting as I am a Browncoat in spirit if not in fact, e.g. don't have an actual brown coat to wear around! There are other people I'll see during the weekend who are pretty exciting too, but you can't really top Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin on a Friday night. ;)

Movie Mayhem! $10 movies

My mobile phone service provider has this really cool deal where you can get $10 movie tickets. In Australia, that's a great discount, since movie tickets cost well over $20 each these days. I went to two movies today (yes, a bit over the top of me!) and ahead of the second movie I bought a 'small' popcorn...for $7.80 or so. But anyway, moving on.

These are the movies I've seen since early April, not long after I first signed up for this rewards program:

  

Insurgent - I am really liking how these movies are going, but having read the books, I'm curious how they're going to handle book three. I guess time will tell! But for now, the movies are pretty enjoyable. The people behind these productions have really brought the story to life, and I will definitely be buying the DVDs at some point!

Avengers: Age of Ultron - I wasn't all ga-ga over the first Avengers movie. I enjoyed it, sure, but unlike most people I didn't walk out of the cinema thinking it was the best movie ever made. I'll still happily see all these movies at the cinema. With this one I believe there was some controversy over the treatment of the Black Widow character? But as someone who hasn't ever been a comic book reader, this was lost on me.

San Andreas - As soon as I saw the short for this, I knew I wanted to see it. For some sick reason, I love disaster movies - Deep Impact is one of my all-time faves, and I even like cheesy crap like Armageddon (though Deep Impact is a way better movie, I must say!). With San Andreas, I wasn't at all surprised by the scene at the end with the big American flag unfurling (reminded me of the similar scene in Armageddon, actually). It's basically a requirement of cheesy disaster movies. All in all, though, I was entertained, and in some ways, pleasantly surprised, by this movie.

Cinderella - I love a good Cinderella movie. But I suppose after seeing one like Ever After and having it become your all-time fave, it's hard to move on to another one. Especially as Ever After is the only one that has the hotness of Dougray Scott in it. hehe. This was still a cute, magical movie. But I just couldn't believe Cinderella never snapped after how amazingly horrible her step mother was to her!

And just today, I saw these two:

Jurassic World - I always get nostalgic when a new Jurassic movie comes out. I saw the first movie when I was in my first year of high school, on an excursion. It was so amazingly epic that the movie made a serious impact on my life. While the later movies might not have had such a strong impact, I still have loved them all. This one was good, too, though I have to agree with a large part of this article regarding the comparative sexism in this one. Still, for a bit of dumbed down action that wasn't nearly as philosophical as the original movie, this one did all right.

Pitch Perfect 2 - Obviously these movies have a certain type of stupid humour, but at least they're not as stupid as Dumb and Dumber, or certain other movies I can't even remember right now. I've never really got into Glee and I'm not really into musicals, but I enjoyed Pitch Perfect when I saw it for the first time recently. So I figured I'd give this one a go too! I was entertained, and that's all I asked for.

So yeah... that's been my movie watching lately. I love my mobile service provider. :)