Ponderings

 

I don’t understand this new hair style on guys – the bald style.  There are a number of trainers at the gym and I think they are young dudes, but they all have their heads shaved so it’s kind of hard to tell.  I do not like this look.  I try to imagine them with hair to tell if they are cute or not, but I can’t imagine it.  While I thought Yul Brenner was fine in his day, Vin Diesel, the Rock and other famous head hairless guys are a turn off for me.  I don’t know why, if they have hair, they shave it all off.  It’s one thing if they really are bald.  My youngest, should he let his hair grow, would be half bald, and don’t think I didn’t give him many a warning when he was a kid and trash talked to his dad and his lack of hair.  I told Rye chances are he would lose his too – and sure enough I was right!)  My older son on the other hand, also keeps his hair to an almost nonexistent level, but he does have it should he let it grow.  I just don’t get this trend.  I may have pondered this before – but if so, I’m still pondering on it and the why of it.  Short hair on men I've come to grips with, but no hair????

 

They have a pool at the “club” I go to so when I go to the locker rooms, there are many women in various stages of undress.  I’m very disconcerted that this disconcerts me.  I don’t know why I’m rather unnerved at the sight of half-naked women.  The lockers are in short rows and if there is someone sitting there minus their clothes, I automatically move to the next short row and look for a locker.   I think I maybe should talk to a shrink about that.  I'm sure they would be fascinated

At the risk of sounding redundant, I hate the word haters.  In so many areas anymore if you don’t like something, you are called a “hater”.  I may not like the Kardasians but in no way shape or form could I be called a “hater”.  To me to hate something involves strong passion.  And I don’t have a strong passion against Kardasian family.  I think the mother (who most annoyingly shares the same name as me) is your typical stage mother magnified many times over; the girls are somewhat annoying although I do have a certain fondness for Chloe.  Poor Bruce has made a mockery of what was once a fine face and I did like Rob on DWTS.  As for the younger girls, I’ve never watched the show so I have no opinion on them.

But my point is I think most people accused of being haters aren’t – they just don’t give a rat’s ass.  Of course you have your nut jobs, you will always have those.  But in general, “hater” is a misnomer.

I am bound and determined to cut down on my TV reality show watching.  I watch way too much of it.  From Sister Wives to Toddlers and Tiara’s to DWTS, it’s taking over my life and sucking time I could be cleaning the house or reading or any number of better time management things.  I started last night when I turned the TV off after DWTS and refused to give in to another season of the Bachelor/Bachelorette.  I will allow myself So You Think You Can Dance – and that’s it!  I’m going to have to get my Wi-Fi working at home again though as there are some of us who live tweet during the show; apart from the main hash tag group.  I prefer the group smaller and more intimate.

But other than SYTYCD THAT IS IT.  No more reality TV for me!

On a further note about not getting Wi-Fi on my IPad – it’s driving me batty!  I have tried everything I can think of to get it going.  It works when I go to a wireless place such as McDonalds (only for coffee these days, only for coffee – I haven’t had any real fast food other than the very healthy choice at Subway going on 2 months now – and surprisingly enough, I’m not missing it.  I’m not missing cola either).  Wireless worked at my sister’s place though I didn’t use it that often as she isn’t limitless.  Should someone with an IPAD come to my place it works on theirs.  I have had a technician over twice – and have the bill to prove it – but to no avail.  It cut out on me again the last upgrade and I haven’t been able to get it back again.  I miss my tweeting.

It just seems wrong that healthy food costs more than garbage food.  My food bill has skyrocketed since I started eating healthier.  And a nice bag of chips last ever so much longer than a tray of strawberries.    This just seems grossly unfair to me.  The more I eat healthy, the more it's costing me.  Apparently there is an epidemic of obesity going on in North America but the food producers and restaurants aren't helping things out any!

The ANTI 50 Shades topic

There is a ridiculously long thread over at one of my favourite places to visit, AAR on this series of books.  Mind you, I think most of the pages are kept going mostly by two particular posters, but that’s neither here nor there.   I think 18 + 18 + 12 (and counting) PAGES of this book is a record. I’ve only made one post during the whole thing and that wasn’t really connected to the topic of the book.  So I think us ANTI 50 Shades need a voice.


Reason #1: I have no intention at this time of reading this book. Nothing in the VAST number of posts there has convinced me otherwise. First off, and I mean this as no judgment, but the conflict of the book; the hero is into BDSM has zero, zip, nada interest to me. Again no judgment but for me personally, this is a lifestyle I have no interest in. I prefer a relationship that is balanced between the protagonists. That’s reason number one why I don’t plan on getting/reading this book.


 Reason #2: From what I gather, this is not unlike a Harlequin Presents line – only hotter and by many accounts, better. I enjoy many a Harlequin line but I never have tried and do not really want to try this particular one. Again, they strike me as slightly unbalanced in power between the uber rich Greek/Italian/etc. Tycoon/Millionaire/Billionaire and the baby mama/secretary/dog walker – whatever.


Reason #3: From some of the posts I gather the hero/heroine don’t talk the way Americans/Canadians would. They talk Brit speak. One particular poster said she just had to think they were actually British and not Americans to get past some of the peculiar phrases and terms. I’ve no desire to play that kind of game in my mind. I have no trouble suspending belief on many a subject in romance, but I don’t want to do it because the author doesn’t get the difference between the ways the two cultures talk. Set the book in England for Pete’s sake and don’t make us pretend we are playing ‘airplane’ in order to swallow things.


Reason #4: One of the big discussion points/controversies on this book is it stated as a work of fan fiction and then took off to the stratosphere. I haven’t read the Twilight books it’s based on and I don’t care to. So I can’t say how much it may resemble them. But I’m not interested in fanfic. I know some authors, such as Meljean Brook started off writing fanfic. But then she developed her own brand new world. I may be wrong but it seems to me like fanfic was her springboard onto other things.  She then went on to completely develop her own entire worlds and characters, which in my opinion makes the two authors totally different cases.  But I do believe the author of 50 Shades is selling her fanfic work. Where once it could be found free, now it’s over $11 a book here in Canada. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that, though I tend to think ‘good for her’ but I still don’t want to read this series of books.


Reason #5: I think its first person – someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a much harder time getting into first person as a rule. Of course there are exceptions; the Stephanie Plum books, Lisa Kleypas trilogy and the Blair Mallory books by Linda Howard. But those authors I trusted having read many of their previous books – well, not the Evanovich books but they aren’t really romance so for some reason it’s a bit different. In romance, I also want the hero’s POV and you just don't get it in Fifty Shades.  Some books where I know the author, while disappointed, I can accept and even love the book.  But in this case I don't really want to try.


Reason #6: The price. As I mentioned, they are over $11 here for the eBooks and as there are 3 of them, that’s $33. I’m not about to spend that kind of money anymore on an unknown author. There are two of them and only two that I will go over $10 and they are JD Robb (not Nora) and Linda Howard. It drives me crazy not buying authors I love if they are charging over $10 for an eBook so I certainly won’t be paying over that for an unknown to me author.


Reason #7 I’m just perverse. I’m not sure if I can exactly say this to come out the way I want to, but the attention this book is getting is just SO overblown to me. I was on the stationery bike today at lunch (yes, I’m still a beast) and Access – the hour long one – and Billy Bush and Lisa Rinna were on talking about this book and speculating about who should play the roles.  I have been reading romance for all my life in one form or another and romance almost exclusively for the past 20 years or so. For a good deal of those years I wouldn’t tell other people my genre of choice but in the past few years, I’ve not only been telling people, I’ve been proud to tell them. And now this book comes out and all of a sudden it’s ‘cool’ to talk about sex and 50 Shades.

I’ve known all my life what a wonderful thing the romance genre is so I’m not going to go jumping on some particular book bandwagon just because Billy Bush and so many other people are talking about it. It may be the most wonderful book ever, but I’m not a wagon jumper, and I often don’t want to go along with the crowd. So those are my reasons why chances are very good I won’t be reading this book. Unlike what some of the more prolific posters have said on the never ending thread, it’s not about jealousy, it’s not because I’m a fan girl of other sites that have discussed this book; in fact the only place I’ve actually half-assed followed any discussion of this book phenom is at AAR.

In the past couple of days since I started this post, the 50 Shades discussion has started where I work and even still - I've no desire to read it.  


Some on that lengthy post have said us who don't plan/want to read the books really don't have the right to talk about it.  But I say we do!!!  And I'm here to say why this is one romance reader who will be passing these by.

Recent Movie - Review

The Lucky One

Synopsis:  Based on Nicholas Sparks' bestseller The Lucky One, Zac Efron ("17 Again," "Charlie St. Cloud") stars alongside Taylor Schilling (TV's "Mercy") and Blythe Danner ("Meet the Parents" franchise) in this romantic drama directed by Academy Award®-nominated writer/director Scott Hicks ("Shine," "No Reservations").
U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault (Efron) returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq, with the one thing he credits with keeping him alive—a photograph he found of a woman he doesn't even know. Learning her name is Beth (Schilling) and where she lives, he shows up at her door, and ends up taking a job at her family-run local kennel. Despite her initial mistrust and the complications in her life, a romance develops between them, giving Logan hope that Beth could be much more than his good luck charm
Steam Level:  Oh! My!

My Thoughts:  Oh! My!  My job share partner bid for another job at the same place a couple of weeks ago and she got it.  So I had to decide whether to go back full time or see if I could find someone else to job share with.  Since I went part time, things have changed quite a bit.  First of all, when I did go part time I lost all benefits, sick days, vacation time etc.  Since I was diagnosed with diabetes, my expenses have gone up.  I'm having to take more meds (for the time being anyway) I joined a gym and have myself a personal trainer.  On top of that, I seem to have misplaced my glasses and since it's been more than a few years since I had my eyes checked, it's most definitely time for a new pair.  All of this is costing money I'm not making anymore so I decided to go back full time.  I'm much healthier now, have more stamina and more endurance and all this exercise is starting to have a very strange effect on me, in a good way.  I am able to handle stress much better.  The same kind of thing that would drive me batty a few short months ago doesn't bother me as much as it used to.  I start back full time on Monday.

So what, you are wondering, does any of this have to do with the movie The Lucky One???  Well, I've kind of been wanting to see this movie, but every since Message in a Bottle, I've been gun shy of Nicholas Sparks movies.  But I was talking to a coworker today who went to see the movie on Monday.  I asked her, not exactly how it ended, but did it have a happy ending.  She laughed and said yes.  Tomorrow is my last mid-week day off so at the last minute, I decided to go to the show after my workout tonight.  The theatre is nice and close, the timing of when the movie would start vs the time I would finish with my trainer was perfect and I've been having such a craving for movie popcorn, I decided to go it alone and go to the show.

Now we get to the movie :-)

Oh! My!  Now it's no surprise to anyone I love a good romance and this one was excellent.  I LOVED THIS MOVIE.  Yes, yes, it can be argued it's rather simplistic in it's storyline.  I got talking to the girl sitting next to me before it started and she said she didn't like this kind of movie (chick flick).  When it was over and the lights were up and the credits were rolling, I asked her what she thought.  She said it was kind of cheesy and I'm not saying it wasn't, but even as she was saying it, I noticed she was smiling seemed rather happy.  And really, isn't that how we like to feel after we finish a good romance.

Yes, the story was almost step by step and I've no desire whatsoever to read the book as I think this kind of thing would bother me, but Zac Efron, besides being wonderful, wonderful eye candy, brought a lot of character to the role of Logan Thibault (pronounced Teebow which I found amusing).  He made me feel the loneliness and lostness of Logan and the frustration in not being able to tell Beth the truth about why walked from Colorado to Louisiana.  I was very pleasantly surprised at how well he played the role.

And I also loved the way Taylor Schilling played Beth.  She is intimidated and rather frightened of her ex, but she grows through the movie and is able to stand up to him.  Of course there is a misunderstanding between her and Logan - don't romance books have them all the time?  But they both made it believable.   And the chemistry between them - wowzers thought I.  The love scenes weren't too explicit, but very steamy nevertheless.

And Blythe Danner was quite a scene stealer as Beth's Nana.

The Lucky One isn't going to win any kind of Academy Awards.  I'm sure some people will make fun of it - just as some people make fun of romance books.  But at the end of the movie when someone who doesn't like this kind of movie was smiling, well, to me that says it's done it's work of making us romance fans sigh and feel good.  That's what I want most of all from a movie - or a romance book.

Grade: 5 out of 5