IntenseDebate - Teresa

8 years ago @ My Friend Amy - The Girls by Emma Cline · 1 reply · +2 points

I kind of wish the Manson angle hadn't been so prominent in the marketing of this book because I think I would have approached it differently. It's a very good book of its type, but when I picked it up, I was looking for something darker, more focused on the murders. (Something more like Gillian Flynn, as you said.) The fact that the cult ended up murdering people seemed almost unnecessary because Eva wasn't there or particularly involved.

8 years ago @ The Toast - Things That Will Happe... · 0 replies · +8 points

I once lived next to a drummer whose drum set was in the room that shared a wall with my bedroom. If he was practicing, I couldn't be in that room at all. Lucky for me, he was very nice and tried to practice only when I was at work and also told me that if the drumming ever bothered me to just come in and let him know (since he wouldn't hear me knocking). And I tried to be considerate enough not to tell him it bothered me every single time he practiced. Because it did. It really, really did.

When he moved out, the new neighbors had infant triplets. There was never not a baby crying. Still easier to endure than the drums.

8 years ago @ The Toast - The Order In Which I W... · 0 replies · +22 points

I was actually *in* the stage adaptation in high school, playing Dr. Armstrong because there were generally not enough boys trying out for things and too many girls, so we changed a couple of the men to women. And I approve of Dr. A's ranking here, although I also think his ability to be duped makes him not at all a nice person. (The logic I made up in my head when playing the part was all about judgmentalism and snobbery.)

The ending of the stage version is lame, I agree. It seemed especially lame to me in high school because the best actors deemed the two lead roles too boring to bother trying out for, so everyone interesting and fun to watch was dead.

9 years ago @ My Friend Amy - It by Stephen King--Au... · 0 replies · +1 points

I read this relatively recently, and I liked it a lot. I love King's characters, and I think he writes kids especially well, and the characters in this were really easy to like. I especially adored the librarian, but they were all terrific.But this is for sure one of King's scariest books. And there's a scene toward the end involving Beverly (you'll probably know the one) where I wish King had made a different choice. I've seen some defenses of it thematically, but I don't find them entirely convincing. King usually does better with women than that, so I give him a pass for that mistake, though it made me wince. I can't imagine it being retained for a movie version.

9 years ago @ The Toast - Every Track From DC Ta... · 0 replies · +1 points

At the very least, we need a ranking from the JofC self-titled album. (I say we, but I mean me because that's the album I listened to over and over.)

9 years ago @ The 3 R's: Readin... - A(n Otherwise Unmemora... · 1 reply · +1 points

I've never heard that you're not supposed to start the day with e-mail. I've always checked my work e-mail first thing after arriving at the office--or close to first thing anyway. It so often includes small little tasks and questions that I can get out of the way immediately and not have to think about later (or have someone come and bug me about later).

I'm a big believer in stepping away from the desk for lunch, but I do it less and less these days. Ever since a TV with CNN playing was installed in the lunch room, it's not felt like much of a break.
My recent post Blogging Event: A Day in the Life

9 years ago @ My Friend Amy - Weekend Notes 1/19/2015 · 1 reply · +1 points

I'm kind of a podcast junkie. I really need to figure out one or two that I can drop because I don't have time to listen to them all. I think there's a very good chance you'd like Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. It's a weekly roundtable conversation about TV, movies, music, sometimes books and comics, and other stuff. It's probably my favorite.

There are also some tech ones that I think you'd like: New Tech City and TL;DR. Both are basically about how we integrate the Internet and technology in our lives.

Others that I like are This American Life, The Moth, On the Media, Radiolab, Snap Judgement, and Judge John Hodgman. And then there are the game shows Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and Ask Me Another. YMMV on all these, but I find them pretty entertaining and informative.

9 years ago @ The 3 R's: Readin... - Blog Talk: Your Blog i... · 1 reply · +1 points

It's interesting to see so many bloggers talk about diversifying their content and having more personal posts as a way to beat burnout because for me it's just the opposite. Keeping my blog focused on books is how I keep it from overwhelming me. There are lots of things in my life that I could write about, but doing so would be too time-consuming and would make the blog a much bigger project than it needs to be. I sometimes incorporate personal stuff into my reviews, and I'm happy to chat about other stuff on Twitter and Facebook, but I get overwhelmed at the idea of making my blog about anything much other than books.

All that said, I figured out early on that a lot of the advice about how to be successful didn't apply to me. I may like having a niche, but I don't enjoy blogging within that niche in the way a lot of experts used to say we were supposed to. I realized early on that the kind of writing about books that I want to do would never be lucrative, and the kind of writing that might be didn't particularly tempt me.
My recent post The Vet’s Daughter

10 years ago @ The 3 R's: Readin... - Book to Movie Talk: GO... · 1 reply · +1 points

Frito pie seems like a southern thing to me, particularly working-class southern. I wouldn't think to associate it with Missouri, although I'd be clueless as to what cuisine to choose, which makes it lucky I'm not writing a book or movie set in Missouri :)

Anyway, I agree overall with your take on the movie. I liked it a lot and had lots of fun watching it, but the loss of Nick's point of view took some of the complexity out of it and turns him into more of a victim. Affleck's performance was great, so I can't fault him for that, and I think that Flynn tried to show some of his complicity, especially with the conversation with Margo at the end. But without his thoughts, it's hard to see that he enjoys the relationship.
My recent post Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading

10 years ago @ My Friend Amy - Weekend Check-In · 0 replies · +1 points

I agree about season 2 of Orphan Black. I enjoyed it, but it seemed rushed in a way that season 1 didn't, which is weird because I watched season 1 all in just a few days and season 2 as it aired. I think a lot of the suspenseful bits got resolved too quickly.

Mark as a clone surprised me. I'd decided a while back that there were male clones, but that's because I figured Felix was one. I'm still thinking on how I feel about Mark being a clone. I'm guessing he's self-aware and with the Proletheans as a spy. Otherwise, it seems like too many coincidences.

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