Finally saw Dark Knight Rises.
They certainly didn't skimp on the production qualities. It's impressive, no matter what else you might think about the movie.
Was talking to employee Matt, who said he was the only person he knew that didn't like the movie. I haven't asked why yet, because I didn't want any spoilers.
I liked it. The second movie, with Heath Ledger's Joker, will probably always be the highwater mark of this series. But still a monumental trilogy.
**********
Finally hit my low weight again, after a week of hovering above it. I've mentioned that it's always been easy for me to lose weight, once I decide to do it.
Well, apparently not this time. I'll be doing a second month, just like the first month. But I may have to do yet another month after that, at this pace.
**********
H.Bruce was saying it was my Calvinist tendencies that makes me say "I've been good" about dieting. That it has nothing to do with being "good."
Well, it sorta does.
But I was talking to Linda about "parental tapes" that run through my head. The biggest, I think, is my Mother's voice: "Get out and do something! Don't sit around reading (watching T.V. , daydreaming, etc. etc.) all day!"
"I don't think I have any "parental tapes," Linda says. "Except, I remember my Mother saying, 'Be Nice.' But I never had any trouble with that."
"No, you never have, have you."
The biggest 'tape' I got from my Dad was: "If you don't know something, you need to learn it."
This was not so much, learning How to do something (which would have been useful), but knowing About something. Which is more like Trivia, and doesn't seem to be as useful in the Google age.
**********
Speaking of which -- I've stayed away from Reddit for almost a week. Not because I don't like it, but because for someone like me, who likes to collect information, it is a Ginormous, Endless Time-Suck!!!!!!!
**********
This just in.
Peter Jackson is going to make a 3rd Hobbit movie.
I actually believe there is enough material in the appendices to do this: But I really wonder how he is going to craft it all into a narrative.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
My Business Blog & My Darling Wife's Blogs
-
-
Trillium Trilogy10 years ago
-
Twitter Updates
Blog Archive
-
▼
2012
(593)
-
▼
July
(34)
- Who killed the rock chuck?
- Monday mopes.
- Hunger Games is a remake of Death Race 2000.
- Dog days of summer. (no dogs).
- The Fates are conniving bastards.
- Thursday thunks.
- Writing an "Epic" fantasy.
- Wednesday Wats?
- My health plan actually sent me money.
- Mountains out of molehills.
- I love summer business.
- Comic Reading Binge Weekend.
- Where are the kids?
- Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like th...
- Me, myself and I....
- Why do budgeting and dieting go together?
- Downtown Comings and Goings. 7/17/12.
- Just one big sigh.
- And then you....survive.
- You...just survive.
- The Summer Pest.
- Friday the 13th is lucky for the Irish! (?)
- Thursday thuds.
- I never thought I'd write this.
- Well, the important thing is I'm back to writing.
- Agoraphobia and NEWSROOM
- Bend's Wall Street is its Main Street.
- Push this button every 108 minutes.
- Friday fuds.
- June results.
- Another wasted day.
- Eyes swollen shut.
- A sense of Bend.
- Another Bend kid made good (?)
-
▼
July
(34)
About Me
- Duncan McGeary
- I'm Duncan McGeary, owner and/or operator for the last 39 years of Pegasus Books in Downtown Bend, Oregon. These days I'm writing books as well as selling them. I'm the comic book guy. But even more so, I'm a book book guy. Books of all kinds. Big books and little books, children's and adult, fiction and non-fiction, hardback and paperback and trade paperback and graphic novels. Books with more words than pictures and books with more pictures than words. They are all part of the book world to me, and I love being surrounded by them every day.
15 comments:
I do think that all that info gathering is useful to someone trying to be a writer, however.
As it turns out.
"The biggest, I think, is my Mother's voice: "Get out and do something! Don't sit around reading (watching T.V. , daydreaming, etc. etc.) all day!"
Having some "down time" during the day -- for reading, meditation, contemplation, introspection -- is essential for mental, emotional and spiritual health, and for creativity. Being busy for the sake of busy-ness is Calvinist nonsense.
"I loaf and invite my soul; I lean and loaf at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass." -- Walt Whitman
I don't have any old parental tapes playing in my head, at least not consciously. A fact for which I am deeply grateful.
"I don't have any old parental tapes playing in my head,"
I suspect we all do. Though,as you say, we're not always conscious of them.
I agree with what you say about "down time."
I haven't seen the movie yet. I am reluctant as I feel after the last one, this installment will be a letdown. However a friend of mine gave it a 6 out of 10.
I am just dissapointed they chose Bane as a villian instead of Penguin. A modern mob boss Cobblepot in the stylings of Al Capone and a big shot business tycoon would have been great. Bane..meh. Anne Hathaway as Catwoman...double meh.
Being as spoiler free as possible, it was because I thought it was way, way too long, poorly paced, the dialogue was really bad (everyone speaks in one liners or inspirational speeches), the ending was out of character for nearly everyone involved, the resolution of Bane was anticlimactic, Bane's plan made no sense, and a particular reveal at the end was infuriatingly hamfisted.
I actually liked Anne Hathaway though, so there's that.
Hi Duncan, completely off topic but related to your support of legalizing pot blog post recently, I was wondering if there was any evidence that pot is a gateway drug.
By chance, I heard a podcast by Dr. Daryl Inaba, who is a leader in the addiction research field.
What caught my attention, something I had never even thought about before, was his statement that contrary to the common belief that pot is a gateway to harder drugs, in his experience it is in fact alcohol that is the gateway drug to the hard drugs. I believe he mentioned a study that provides evidence of this. He also mentioned that it has not been studied much at this point, but he strongly feels that tobacco is the biggest gateway drug to cocaine, heroin, meth, etc. He stated he felt that this will be proven true not too far in the future when more research linking nicotine to hard drug use is done.
So, I wonder, of your friends who you said tried pot and then went on to the hard stuff, did any of them drink and/or smoke prior to getting into other drugs? Interesting, eh? You learn something new all the time. I've heard the pot is a gateway drug statement ad nauseum - but never heard that booze and cigarettes the biggest gateway drugs.
More info on Dr. Inaba can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_S._Inaba
And the podcast can be found here: http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/podcasts/1425/
Cheers, Owen
I agree with the resolution of Bane as anticlimactic. Sort of a"nevermind."
" it is in fact alcohol that is the gateway drug to the hard drugs."
I believe coffee is the gateway drug to all drugs. I'm sure rigorous research would discover that virtually 100% of all drug users experimented with coffee at some point prior to moving on to "the hard stuff."
"he strongly feels that tobacco is the biggest gateway drug to cocaine, heroin, meth, etc."
Sounds like the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy -- assuming that because Event B followed Event A, Event A caused Event B.
No doubt a great many hard-drug users formerly used tobacco, and still do. But only a small minority of tobacco users (thankfully) become hard-drug users.
I have only anecdotal evidence -- my own -- but weed certainly acted like a gateway drug by any definition I've ever heard.
It was the step toward illegality. And the association with people who were doing other drugs.
Maybe we should abandon the term "gateway drug." It's silly. No one even agrees on what belongs where.
Years ago I worked at a youth detox and we used the term gateway drug when "counseling." (More like babysitting.) Talk about a stressful job. Sometimes at the end of our shift some of the staff would go smoke pot or drink to blow off steam and escape the miseries of our workaday life.
Did anyone actually listen to the podcast before tossing out the coffee is the gateway drug comments? I believe that Dr. Inaba was saying that due to the fact that alcohol and tobacco are easily available (much easier than pot) that they serve as a gateway to harger drugs. From his comment, I suspect that he would say that pot would be a gateway drug if it was more easily available. But please listen, then comment. It's only ten minutes long.
The only reason I bothered to post my earlier comment is that I finally got some evidence that pot, contrary to popular opinion, is not a gateway drug. The addiction experts say that tobacco and alcohol are the gateway drugs. Having never heard this before, I thought it was worth sharing. Truth is infinitely more interesting than opinion, in my opinion. : )
Except this is one of those cases where I trust my own observations and experience over what the "experts" say.
In my opinion.
Post a Comment