Fridays Off! And a movie Review…

I’ve gone to working part time, as of last week. After leaving Deloitte and the Air Force, and the fantastic team I helped build and was a part of up there, I have some higher standards for the work I do, and the contract work I started to help get us moved back to Louisville just isn’t as fulfilling. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve stayed a year longer than I expected to, and there are some great people and good potential… plus it’s been nice getting health care experience, but there’s nowhere to go in this position without having to step on some toes, and I have more I want to accomplish outside of work.

So here I am, at home, on a Friday. I’ve already visited Ollie’s Trolley for lunch (they’re only open weekdays during work hours), so that’s great!

Last week, I was mid-work on a bathroom renovation which, curiously, is still going on. But I’m almost done, really, I just need a tall person to help me with the top row of tile (*ahem*Angela*ahem*). I do have a ladder, just in case.

March 2014 Bathroom Tiling

Anyway… there’s probably more I’ll have to actually accomplish, but one focus will be blogging more!  I don’t know what about… data stuff, monkey stuff, heck maybe even politics just to get my readership riled up (yes, both of you).  I have a lot of goals that hopefully some more “free” time will help me achieve; more time in the wood shop, writing some software and a book to go with it (maybe not in that order), having a kid, possibly getting in shape (although, you know… that’s lower on the goal list lately), and generally just trying to stress less.  Not that I’m really that stressed… in fact in the whole scheme of things I probably rank down there near the least-stressed end of the scale.

Maybe I’ll even write more reviews?  I watched a movie last night that definitely deserves one:  How I Live Now.  I don’t know if I was just in the perfect mood for the movie, or if it was helpful that I knew nothing about it and had never heard of it going in, but I certainly think it’s an underrated film.  It seems a bit slow at first, and you’re left well in the dark about the details of why things are happening… why this girl is flown from the US to London and why her extended family is taking her in.  What important work her aunt is busy doing, why there are so many terrorist attacks on the news… all just taken in stride (and all in the first few minutes of the movie — no spoilers here).  The movie is literally played out as if you put a camera on someone while their teenage life is being interrupted, but given no direct context.  It’s a refreshing change from movies that don’t leave anything of the character’s backgrounds and motivations to the imagination — or worse just pile on back-story in a voice-over at the beginning — and it does so without, I felt, taking away from the core story lines.  If anything it added more to the characters and allowed them to get to know one another as we got to know them, better than many movies manage.  I don’t want to give anything away, so this is vague, but there’s a scene with the wind whipping through a forest just after the kids have been having a bit of a picnic that absolutely gave me chills in a way movies rarely do any more… let me know how you feel when you see it.

Oh, and do NOT watch the trailer.

It’s worth noting that this is also a pretty well thought of book — I hadn’t heard of it in either setting, so I watched it as a movie first, but it’s good to know just the same, and if you’re that sort of person perhaps you should read the book first.  Or second… or not at all.  All I can tell you is that the movie stands quite well on its own.  I give it four Chipmonkeys (out of five).