Category Archives: Movies

Leave Her to Heaven

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I finally got to go to the used bookstore that’s just a few-ish miles away. We did pick up a few things, but I didn’t find all I was looking for. One book that I did find though, which I had never looked for, is Leave Her to Heaven by Ben Ames Williams, published in 1944. I’ve never read it.

I do have the VHS version of the 1945 film that starred Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, & Jeanne Crain though. I want to get it on DVD, just haven’t run across it ever nor looked on purpose for it. It is one of my all-time old-movie favorites. The film is well done, and won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color in 1946, and had three other nominations as well.

Leave Her to Heaven catalog card on My Library Thing account.

Inside the book, opposite the first page of the actual story which is on the right, is a quote from Hamlet, which is, of course, Shakespeare:

Leave Her to Heaven

Eragon

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Speaking of good books, as in the last post, the Inheritance Trilogy has this site linked … which looks good, and we are very excited about it, even though we’ve not read the books yet, but since I’m writing about it all today, and my wireless keyboard is going nuts, not working right:

I declare the rest of today, Day after Birthday Recovery and Sinking into Egragon through Literary Portal Day.

Cheerio!

[Update: 9:06pm] I got to read the first chapter and a half, and that’s it. I was constantly interupted at first, when I tried to read the book downstairs, and got nowhere, so I went up to my bed with strict instructions for the children to play with this or that particular thing and let me alone for an hour, so I could sink into my reading for once.

Asa just couldn’t leave me alone, so start, read a sentence, stop. Start, go back and read sentence, read a few paragraphs, stop, start, …. stop. I gave up after that and resolve to read as much as I can tonight. I really did like how it started. I had a bit of trouble with the part I was last reading, it was a bit choppy, dare I say I was prejudiced by my knowledge of whom the person is that wrote it, from reading of the author, and knowing he was younger when he wrote the book, or not. I will say it this way “It reminded me of my own writing when a teen, a bit rough, not said in a clever way, not “knowingly”, not “flowing”, just immaturely written. It was just a small section. It made me uncomfortable, like when I hear someone singing and they go flat or sharp or get mousy sounding, and I know better how to sing what they are singing and I am embarrassed for them. Anyhow, I do like how the book is in general though, and a fresh crack at the book later will be one that has already read that small section and maybe it’ll not be that bad second time through, and I don’t expect the rest of the book to be rough as that piece was. Just to be forthcoming, it’s the part where Eragon gets to town and is in the Butcher shop … it’s the dialogue, the character introductions that ensue … it really reminded me of stories that I wrote when I was a teen, my self-attempts at novel writing that I abandoned.

I abandoned them because I decided I hated dialogue … and felt constrained to write about places that are real, like I couldn’t “invent” my own world to write about. I was held in check by my silly education I’d had up until then, and I despise it grotesquely … I’m mad at myself for letting it get the best of me and keep me from writing more.

Dialogue is hard to write, it takes maturity, I think. So it’s something that grows with a writer as they mature and keep on writing. My education derailed so many of my desires. I’ve toyed with creating my own world and attempting to write novelia again. Hmmm. I’ll see about it after awhile. It’s time to enjoy a young author with a good future. The Inheritance Trilogy is the beginning, readingly wise for me, and eventually for my children.

Thursday awlfuls turn to Friday good

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Last night I wrote that I wasn’t feeling well, and Victoria was sick too.

So I went to bed at 6:30pm and just layed there, watched TV and rested. Frank went to the store and got TV dinners for the children, and some mac and cheese from the deli and a ham slice for me. He warmed them up and it was a good dinner. In bed. I stayed there and it was good to do. I had chills the first couple of hours under the covers, but that went away eventually. Eating was devine, I had a big appetite, but exhausted, so it was good to have simple food prepared and served by someone else. I hadn’t been hungry, without realizing it, in a couple of days. :)

So this morning I woke up feeling fine, except for the obligatory allergies of Spring.

Victoria woke up in the middle of the night, well, actually it was 10pm a bit thereafter ;) and threw up again. Frank helped her.

So that’s that. She seems OK now. So do I. :) Hope it hold out. We are going out to do a few errands, and see The Pacifier if all goes well. :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

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It’s Christmas Eve, the tree is trimmed.

It’s just a little trimmed, it’s a little tree. 4Ft. Tall, it looks like a minature Christmas Tree, it’s like a Full Fledged tree, just small.

It’s also ALIVE.

Alberta Spruce, of some sort, it’s going to get a couple or so feet taller, and end up about 4 to 5 feet wide. We’ll plant it in our front yard somewhere.

It’ll be something in future years for us or someone else to decorate for the season outside. We’ve not really had anything to do that with before.

I have a long strand of cranberries on it, and mini-white lights, 1 and a half strands of those. Also a couple of other little things. Most of my Christmas stuff is just too big for that tree.

I made a paper star for the top. [It's a kid's site, but the star was the only online directions for anything that'd work for a tree that I could find]

http://www.dltk-kids.com/usa/fold_and_cut_star_shape.htm

I made two of them, pooked out the fold lines of the stars after cutting the folded paper, to give it more depth, then used a stapler to attach them together, bizarre, but I figured at night it’s not visible, and even if they are, in day or at night the tree lights will add sparkle, hopefully ;) At any rate that’s the only way I could figure to get them together with what I had available .

It looks alright, kind of nice. I have a light from the light strands inside of it.

The Gigantic Star atop our Huge Tree is nice. ;) That what it looks like if one doesn’t think about it being a minature tree in the first place. I don’t have any other large ornaments on it, just a few smaller things, but most of my stuff is in the garage. It’s just too much, too big and heavy for this little tree.

So that’s that. Tomorrow is Christmas Day. Presents to open. Then in the afternoon we have a present for the whole family, we’ll be going to see “The Incredibles” at the theatre. Last Christmas we did that for the first time, we saw Peter Pan, so it’s a new tradition that we will “try” to keep each year. We don’t have any family around here, so it’s just us and since we love movies and are visual, it’s a nice thing to do. I used to think it a terrible thing to go to the movies on Christmas Day. But after all I always didn’t like Christmas Day much past the morning, it was dull and boring. No more excitement. No mystery about what presents you might be getting, or about the ones you are giving to others. The pleasures were had and gone. They linger, not entirely gone, but the newness of it all wears off, and a little time together seeing something new at the theatre seems to get our attention off of the “Stuff” and onto enjoying the time together, without being sprawled out in front of the TV or something like that.

Since we hadn’t seen The Incredibles yet, it was the one we decided to do this year for Christmas. We are looking forward to it!

LoTR Return of the King – Extended

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It comes out today. The final installment, the REAL movie of Return of the King. :)

Oh, the theatrical one was good, but this one will be much better.

It’s the way of the good movies. They save the good stuff for the DVD, leave it on the cutting floor for the theatres.

It ensures people going out and buying or at least renting the movie once it comes out on DVD.

LoTR gets it better. They have released the theatrical on DVD first, and saved the Extended for months later. So how much money do REAL LoTR fans sink into the DVD’s?

I don’t know.

What I do know, is that on the day new stuff comes out, you get the cheaper prices in stores, on some discs. The one in particular, that this post is about, is found at Costco for 24.99. That’s the one to start with, the price, to gauge other stores by. Costco will have the disc for LESS than actual “List Price”, but then, no one hardly sells DVD’s at “Actual List Price”. Next consider that Costco will be pricier than most other stores on first day of selling. Costco doesn’t play the games that other stores do. So they hold steady, until they want to get rid of something near the end of stock. :)

Since Fry’s has come to town I have pretty much considered them the next one to check prices on. Nearly always, get their price, and compare it then to Best Buy and Circuit City, and the winner will be Fry’s by $1.00, at the least. This is opening day, first day of sale, mind you.

After that day, you must compare shopping, and find it for the Costco price, or a little less, or for much more. Target is key: much more. What will the price be at Best Buy, Circuit City, and Fry’s tomorrow? They know. I don’t until tomorrow. But most likely I won’t check tomorrow, since we’ll get the DVD today. :)

That will leave us with the full collection: Widescreen Theatrical release of all three. Widescreen Extended Release of all three. That’s a lot of discs. Add movie ticket prices in … :roll:

Considering it all, we’ve not gone overboard and gotten LoTR this and that. We just have the two-sets x 3. Total discs in our LoTR collection: 18. That’s a modest collection :lol:

To that you can also add the inspiration for the movies: the books. So far we’ve bought a large paperback omnibus version, as well as a hardback set. That’s all of them, starting with The Hobbit. [we bought these before the movies came out, yes, much later than we should have ... tsk tsk at myself, and at you if you haven't yet read them!]

I admit fully I’ve not loaded most of the extra DVD’s into the player or computer, yet.

So now the breath is held to await further announcements of Peter Jackson and The Hobbit. I don’t mind turning blue. I like blue :)