Aftershocks

I have a ton of music, and I honestly don’t listen to everything when I get it. I’ll find an artist I like and acquire their whole discography or a good chunk of it and it may be another year or so before I truly listen to it all. I just have to be in the right mood for something new. I like it though; this way I’m always discovering new favorites within my own collection.

“What Sarah Said” became one of those new favorites just a few days before Willow got sick. Talk about timing. Anyhow, it’s an absolutely beautiful song done in true Death Cab fashion with no-bullshit-lyrics. It’s just all laid out.

And it came to me then
That every plan
Is a tiny prayer to Father Time
As I stared at my shoes
In the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409

And I rationed my breaths
As I said to myself
That I’d already taken too much today
As each descending peak
On the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me
Away from me…

Amongst the vending machines
And year-old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind
That our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds

And I knew that you were a truth
I would rather lose
Than to have never lain beside at all
Then I looked around
At all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself

Cause there’s no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I’m thinking of what Sarah said
That love is watching someone die…

So who’s gonna watch you die? (3xs)

I love this song for a few reasons– for one, it just sounds great, but I really love the meaning I pull from it. It makes me think of when you’re in a relationship and you just accept things for what they are and assume that there are times when you just have to settle. There are things about this person you don’t particularly like, but no one’s perfect, right? The relationship ends and eventually you move on and (if you’re lucky) find someone who’s actually right for you. Of course there are things about them that remind you of the old relationship because they have the traits you gravitate to in a person, but they seem to lack all those down sides and you realize that maybe in love, you really don’t have to just ’settle.’

I met her in a room of strangers
Laughing as I painted her with mind
Now we meet in darkest places
More sacred than any place
You and I could find

Just like you, only sweeter
Just like you, but more refined
Just like you, without the bitter
Unlike you, she never lies

It’s a fresh touch, a new way
A language of our own brought to life
A slow serenade to the broken
Drowning out the years
Holding back the tide

When she turns in the shadows
She calls to me
And seems to me
Like you from time to time

(She’s) Just like you, only sweeter
Just like you, but more refined
Just like you, only deeper
Just like you, but more alive
(She’s) Just like you, but I can feel her
Unlike you, she never hides

The soft pulse
Shakes the whole room
Quiets the sound of the crowded mind

And then she comes in the shadows
She feels to me
Like it used to be
Before we had to try

(She’s) Just like you, only sweeter
Just like you, with more inside
(She’s) Just like you, without the bitter
Unlike you, she never lies

Ressurrections just a whisper from your lips
And it’s coming through
Hard to think of even one thing that I could miss
When it comes to you

Just like you, only sweeter
Just like you, but more refined
Just like you, without the bitter
Just like you, with nothing to hide
Unlike you, she never lies
Unlike you, she doesn’t hide

Just like you, only sweeter
Just like you, with more inside
(She’s) Just like you, only deeper
She’s just like you, but more alive
(She’s) Just like you, but I can feel her
Unlike you, she doesn’t hide
Unlike you, she never lies
Unlike you, she’s always right here..

Wow! I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed I am with this cleaner!

Our apartment is old, and hasn’t been professionally cleaned in probably more than ten years. We’re not in the typical setup where people move out, the landlord sends someone in to clean and repaint, and then someone new moves in. These apartments have been passed down– sometimes switching out one roommate at a time. For the past 6 years it’s been primarily boys so only mild surface cleaning has been done.

Our bathroom was the worst. (I can’t tell you how excited I am to put that in past tense!!) Every crevice of the shower floor and wall was covered in a gray or yellow sheen of years of impacted mildew and soap scum. It was bearable only because it had been there so long that it was pretty much just a part of the tile, ya know?

In the time I’ve been here I’ve tried multiple things only to spend over an hour scrubbing to get maybe a square foot looking clean….yeah I just can’t do an entire shower like that– who could?

I saw this Arm & Hammer in the store and I had been looking for something with a bit of bleach in it to give the shower another go. I completely ignored the ’scrub free’ part since that’s NEVER true. It was only a few dollars so I threw it in the cart.

I’m still at a loss for words for how great this worked. I sprayed it on, expecting some scrub time but it was never needed! Most areas I never touched at all! The most I had to do was wipe a sponge across the major problem areas with very minimum pressure. At first I thought I’d have to scrub with the rough side of the sponge through each of the crevices between tiles, but I soon realized that if I let the product sit for the suggested amount of time, it took care of it!

I don’t have a before picture of the shower because I wasn’t expecting these miraculous results, but you can see now that my shower walls are totally white again and the window in the shower– I honestly always thought the glass was frosted. I’ve wiped it down many times before with no different results so I had no reason to believe otherwise until now!! I’m only partially done with the ceiling so you can see the differences there with just spraying and you start seeing the results by the time you start on another section!

My bathroom is almost spotless now! It’s ridiculous, but I’ve been stopping to look at it often. It excites me that much….

Anyhow, the only downside really is that it is a bleach cleaner and comes with the strong smell. Because of my asthma, I’ve been having to do it all in sections to get away from the fumes for a bit.

The smell lingers, but not in a way that makes it hard to be in the bathroom, and in my experience it’s been gone by the next day.

There’s a lemon-scented version without the bleach that I came across a few great reviews of as well, so I’m definitely going to look for that one to try for maintaining this cleanliness without the bleach smell.

I’ve got some staining on the kitchen counters as well so I want to try it out there and see if it can stand up to that. I’ll let you know!

If you try one new cleaning product this year, I highly recommend that it be this one.

When Henry meets Claire, he is twenty-eight, and she is twenty. He’s a hip, handsome librarian; she is an art student with Botticelli hair. Henry has never met Claire before; Claire has known Henry since she was six…

Henry has a genetic disorder which spontaneously sends him through time– mostly to the past.

This story is absolutely incredible. I found myself amazed by the amount of detail that could be included and all still make perfect sense. I kept waiting for a slip-up or something contradictory to happen with such an elaborate setup, but it was total perfection.

You follow the story more or less in chronological order for Clare, with the story coming sometimes from Clare and sometimes from Henry. When I first started reading, I thought it would all be terribly confusing as there are random moments out of order, but it all comes together to serve a purpose and make sense.

I don’t know what to say about the book other than to give it my enthusiastic recommendation. I could barely put it down. It’s one I think I’ll be soon re-reading to look for more connections that I know escaped me the first time around.

It’s also been made into a motion picture but there’s some red tape to take care of before it’ll be released. Essentially, there are those who worry that it will be thought of as too similar to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but of course, they’re entirely different stories, but I suppose it’s hard for some to ignore two stories involving someone ‘old’ meeting their future love while she’s still young.

Anyhow, this one gets my total seal of approval. I’m so glad to have found it.

S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure

The “Good Parts” Version Abridged by William Goldman

I’ve loved the movie adaptation of The Princess Bride practically my whole life. It’s always been cherished. I picked up the book….well I don’t even know how long ago and finally decided to read it.

Apparently S. Morgenstern put a great deal of Florin history and satire in his story, such as spending 56 pages on the Queen packing, traveling, and unpacking, meeting with a princess of Guilder, her packing, them traveling back and unpacking. Well, William Goldman has cut out all of this and just included the ‘good parts’. Call me silly, but I was probably a good halfway through the book before I went to look up something online and discovered that S. Morgenstern only exists as a sort of pseudonym/literary device for Goldman. It’s entirely his creation. Hooray for me not knowing what’s up! Anyhow, I thought that was incredibly interesting and pretty brilliant of him!

I LOVED this book and will certainly be reading it again. I always knew I would.

Inigo and Fezzik are just as they are in the movie. Most of my favorite lines are there such as, “I only dog paddle” and “Inconceivable!”

Of course some of the story details are a little different, but nothing so much as to really change the story for me.

One big difference is that we really see how Buttercup goes from not caring at all about Westley to what we see in the movie. The transformation is fantastic! I loved that extra insight into her character. There’s a bit more development to Inigo and Fezzik as well =)

I don’t really know what else to say about it other than if you enjoy the movie, you’ll absolutely enjoy the novel as well!

I would very much love to see if Goldman delivers on finishing his ’sequel’ Buttercup’s Baby. Supposedly it was set to be ready for the 35th anniversary edition in 2009. The first chapter is included in the book edition I own and I hate cliffhangers!

From IMDB:

Set on a colorful Greek island, the plot serves as a background for a wealth of great ABBA songs which are used in remarkably appropriate ways. A young woman about to be married discovers that any one of three men could be her father. She invites all three to the wedding without telling her mother, Donna, who was once the lead singer of Donna and the Dynamos. In the meantime, Donna has invited her backup singers, Rosie and Tanya.

The short of it– Nope.

Okay, so I didn’t watch expecting to love or even truly enjoy the movie, but you know sometimes movies like this are just worth watching once for simple entertainment.

Notsomuch with this one.

There’s really not a plot here, just some vague storyline pieced together weakly just as a setup for the next ABBA song. Unfortunately, you can’t even skip the songs since you never know when they’ll break for dialogue.

And Meryl Streep’s character spazzes out and reacts to everything as a teenager would and it’s just awful trying to watch someone her age act that way.

The only thing I enjoyed about the movie was watching Amanda Seyfried in a role that was really cute for her. I enjoyed her character– she played the part well.

And of course the three possible fathers were fun. Other than that it was just painful.

So if you think you might as well succumb to the hype ’cause it’ll probably be cute and somewhat entertaining, don’t bother ;)

Coming from me– the picky eater, the girl who shies away from just about anything that could possibly be considered healthy– this may come as a shock. Quaker Oatmeal Squares is by far my absolute most favorite cereal.

It’s got such an incredible taste! It just has this subtle sweetness to it that’s so unexpected.

And of course it’s completely filling as well!

They’re great in a bowl of ice-cold milk, or just by the handful as a snack. In fact, I think I should go have a bowl now.

Edit: Oh hey! I have a terrible habit of forgetting I have cereal here when I run out of milk. I waste a lot that way, unfortunately. I just found that I had a box in the cabinet that has a sell-by date for the beginning of November and I know it was opened at least a month before that. You won’t believe it, but they weren’t stale! Lasting-power in a cereal! That’s a definite plus!

Being a music nut and falling in love with a book (or entire series, for that matter) eventually leads to crossovers.

There’s no shortage of Twilight playlists rolling around, but I have two songs that I absolutely adore that fall into the Twilight series too perfectly for my ears. I had to share, if for no other reason than they’re just amazing songs as is.

Since there’s two songs and lyrics get lengthy, I’ll hide them away. Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

Over at Dawniemom Reviews there’s a contest to win the Twilight Collector’s Edition! I get way too excited over things like this and I’d love to have this! There are a few ways to win, but the contest is only open until the 12th so hurry over!!

One more Twilight-related post to come next and then I promise I’ll give it a rest! ;)

Things didn’t work out to where I could see Twilight on opening night, so I saved it for my Birthday.

Overall, I liked the movie. It wasn’t the book, of course, but for someone who’s read the books, it was still worth seeing. As for those who don’t know the story, I think it would be a bit confusing, and there were a good deal of things changed or unexplained/undeveloped that probably make the movie look a little lame.

There were a lot of big and little things that bothered me, so I’ll share some of the ones that really stick out in my mind. Yeah, I’ve got more bad than good to say, of course. lol

For one, Bella’s personality is just off…I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think it’s that even when she’s supposed to be incredibly vulnerable, it just comes off as frantic and still overly independent. I just didn’t see Kristen Stewart really pulling it off.

They made Edward way too grumpy. Yes, he’s in anguish through most of the first story, first fighting his instincts and then worrying about the danger he puts Bella in, but I thought most of the grumpiness was really misplaced. We needed a lot more of the confident Edward and less emo-Edward.

They didn’t at all develop the relationship. It went straight from, “I think this guy hates me for no apparent reason,” to “I can’t live without you,” and that’s just really hard to overlook.

After four extensive books, you KNOW these characters and what you should expect from them. I mumbled, “bullshit….” after far too many of Edward’s lines in this movie. Some of the things they had him say just….wouldn’t come out of Edward Cullen’s mouth.

The makeup was distracting. I know they had to be pale, but I think there had to have been a better way to represent that than obvious pancake makeup.

Not a big deal, but it’s hard to accept actors in the minor roles when there’s a detailed description of them in the book and they’re 100% opposite…

There is, however, a scene in Bella’s imagination that was just plain HOT.

More gripes to follow, but they’re spoilerish so I’ll leave them to the end of the post. I liked it. I didn’t love it, I think maybe after seeing it once or twice more, I might be able to detach it from the book a bit more, but we’ll see. I still don’t know how I feel about sequels. On the one hand, I’d really like to see the actors perfect the characters and get them right, but on the other, we’re moving more and more into areas that I absolutely know movie magic just can’t handle so things will either be left out, changed, or straight up ruined. Really, the final book is what I’m most worried about because it was so different from the others and at that point, I really feel like it had grown into something for an older audience than the first books and they’re going to have to water that down to keep it in line with the other films. I’ll just have to work to keep them separate in my mind and not let the films taint my imagination for the books.

IF YOU HAVEN’T READ/SEEN AND INTEND TO, THE FOLLOWING OPINIONS ARE SPOLIERS.

Edward sparkling in the sunlight was just ridiculous. This is one of the things I knew movie magic wouldn’t be able to handle and I really would have rather they just had him explain it, and not show it.

In the movie, Carlisle has to coax Edward to stop drinking Bella’s blood. Bullshit. At this point, yes, he was worried before he started, but Bella being safe was more important to him than any of his own desires. Changing this in the movie really killed that aspect of the relationship.

There’s never any discussion of Alice’s past, there’s no solid discussion about Bella wanting to be a vampire, and they completely changed prom for no apparent reason whatsoever.

There’s some other things I can’t remember at the moment, but that’s the gist of it.