Media Monday - Social Networking Instagram Style

I'm in Chicago this week...one of my favorite cities even though I won't be seeing much of it this trip.

I'm doing some work for the U.S. Dept. of Ed, and they like to work our arses off when they get us together :/ 

Oy.

Anyhoo, a paper grading marathon kept me from posting much last week, so hopefully the time here will remedy that...I enjoy visiting and traveling, but if I'm not busy, I miss home.  A lot.  

I was fondly strolling through my Instagram pictures last night before I went to bed, and here are a few that made me feel all warm and cozy:  

The best alarm clock evah...The German Shepherd who would not be snoozed! :)  My morning routine is so full of these two that this picture makes me miss home for sure.

My little office friend who greets me each workday with promises of a good day, starting with a cup of steaming hot coffee...and a variety of flavor choices :) 

This beauty also provides me with a cup of mint tea when I finally finish classes each day...schedules this semester are intense, to say the least.

We have a Nutella war going on at our house...this particular night, Layla decided to get in on the action.  After I snapped this silly picture, my middle daughter reminded me that chocolate and hazlenuts (2 main ingredients in Nutella) were not exactly "user friendly" for dogs.   We spent the rest of the night on Google, trying to decide what to do next.  Thankfully, GSDs are very large dogs, and it would take a LOT of Nutella to hurt her :) Not to mention her very large "snoot," as we call it, that barely fits into the lid of the small container. 

Hello, Halloween...I love you...I really do.  I'm not all into the scary stuff...the world is scary enough as it is.  But, bring on the cool Fall days, the traditional Halloween fare, pumpkins, witches ghosts, goblins, black cats, the county fair here, trick or treating, etc. and I'm your gal.

Mums mark the beginning of what I call "Thanksgiving season."  Thanksgiving is HUGE to me...HUGE! 

I. love. it.

Do you use Instagram???  

I already follow a few of my book blogger friends there, but would love to follow more!! :) 

Fun times, these :):)

Media Monday - Hunger Games

Well, I finally did it. 

Even though I missed the film version of Hunger Games when it was released...much to the chagrin of my oldest daughter...I finally watched it Saturday, the day it was released on DVD.

My first impressions were positive...and I'm not usually friendly to movies made from books.  It's been a while since I read the book, so I was almost able to go into the movie without pre-conceived notions (the details, my initial response to the book, etc were not fresh on my mind).  I didn't see the movie when it was first released bc I wasn't finished reading, and I didn't want to color my initial response to the movie or the rest of the series by interrupting the flow of my own brain and imagination...yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

I started watching the movie with a little trepidation later in the evening than I had originally planned...I even gave myself permission to watch part of it, press stop when I got sleepy and then finish it the next day, especially when I realized it was over 2 hours long.
That didn't happen...and by the time my eyelids got heavy, the "finale" was well into play and there was no way I was stopping there.

First, let me say this...Jennifer Lawrence is an AMAZING actor.

I secretly whispered a thanks to the Hollywood community for casting a little known actress in the role of Katniss.  If they'd cast a Miley Cyrus or Lindsey Lohan in this role, I probably wouldn't have watched it.  And, I'm not kidding here.  I'm exhausted with all the drama surrounding these little starlets, their bad behavior, their addictions, and their quest for stardom.  And, if Jennifer Lawrence becomes one of these doofus heads, I won't watch the rest of the movies either. So there.

There's plenty of action in this movie to keep action lovers entertained but still enough attention to the plot to keep the movie from become a giant kill fest.  Which, of course, the Hunger Games is.
But, I think that mix lets you truly care about these characters...their lives...what their world has become...and the true evil that is and will be The Capitol.

A few of the characters/actors that stood out to me were:

Donald Sutherland is a genius as President Snow.

A perfect fit for the silent, cool, plotting leader of The Capitol, playing both sides of field with ease...the president and the psychopath.
Can't wait to see more of him, especially in the Mockingjay installment.

The casting of Peeta and Gale were just fine with me...two more unknown actors (another good call I think) but I wasn't blown away by either of them.

Gale's character is underplayed in the movie version, and I never felt the connection between him and Katniss as I did while reading the book.  And, Peeta was much more likeable in this movie than in the book.  I actually disliked Peeta after reading Hunger Games.  He was so whiney :(  The Peetah of the movie was a little wiser than I thought he should have been...immediately taking to Haymitch's recommendations to play the crowd...even on first train over.  I more than sorta felt like Hollywood was setting us up to like Peeta better than Gale.  We'll see how that goes.

I was split on my feelings about the casting of the youngsters in this movie...Prim and Rue...the two characters who keep Katniss going.

Willow Shields is dynamic as Prim Everdeen...and plays the character with a ferocity that made me want to see much more of her.  I care about her already and can't wait to see what she has for us next.
The character of Rue, however, was so downplayed that Amandla Stenberg never really had a chance to touch our hearts.  I sobbed when Rue died in the book...just said "meh" and kept going when it happened in the movie.  I think this was a mistake on somebody's watch bc it's incredibly important to the whole Mockingjay connection that you get this part.  Future moviegoers may never see the intensity of this relationship, its meaning and the way it pulls Katniss through all the way to the end.

Never in a million years would I have cast Woody Harrelson as Haymitch...but boy oh boy, it works.

He's the perfect mixture of an unlikeable character (and person in my opinion) and plays the role fantastically.  When he first enters the picture, I sorta snarled a little and rolled my eyes.  It didn't take me long though to realize that somebody knew exactly what they were doing.  I can so see his up and down relationship with the games, the Capitol and alcohol as the story progresses.

Katniss's mother was also downplayed in the movie...lots of detail left out here, but I'm not sure how that will affect viewers in the long run.  The finale as well was incredibly vivid and violent in the book...not so in the movie...not sure about this either.

My review of the book was quite some time ago...and I purposely didn't re-read it before writing this review.

Let the Hunger Games begin...and "May the odds be evah in your favah"
:)

The Vampire Diaries - Movie Monday is now Media Monday :)

My Christmas gift to the Head of My Household this year was CABLE.  When our local Cable company switched to Digital, instead of getting all those pesky little boxes, the husband waited out the system, thinking the Cable company would never completely remove the non-digital signal.

 Well, he was wrong.
They did.

For a while he tried to act like it didn't bother him...but there are only so many football games a sports fanatic can be expected to miss...only so much ESPN withdrawal a fella can stomach...
It was a perfect gift, especially since he's such a hard fella to buy gifts for.

I had the new Cable hooked up a week or so before Christmas so he could enjoy all the bowl games, etc. over the holidays, and he's been in heaven.
My children have enjoyed their father's Christmas gift as well.  I have seen more ICarly, Spongebob Squarepants and Big Time Rush than I ever thought possible :/

Myself, I don't really watch TV.
If I watch a tv show, it's on DVD or instant download from the network site, Amazon or NetFlix.
I have a hard enough time keeping up with my schedule, the husband's schedule and my girls' schedule without adding a tv schedule to it.  So, I just don't watch it.
My friend Missie says I need that DVR thingie...but I would just forget to set it...or I'd record too many shows and forget I'd recorded them.
Oy.
Now, just because I don't watch TV on a regular basis doesn't mean I don't enjoy a TV show or so...
One of my current guilty pleasures right now is the CW show "The Vampire Diaries."

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know...
More vampires.

I stumbled on the pilot over two years ago.

Good guy Vegetarian Vampire Stephan returns to his home in Mystic Falls because of a young woman (Elena) who reminds him of a woman/vampire he once loved (Katherine).

Bad guy, not Vegetarian, Vampire Damon, who is also Stephan's brother, also returns to Mystic Falls simply to make Stephan's life miserable.  Damon also loved Katherine...at the same time as Stephan...and it wasn't pretty when Katherine finally chose Stephan.  Since then, these two have been at each other's throats for hundreds of years...and of course, they both fall in love with Elena this time around.   

I knew I'd never keep up with the series so I just kinda put it on the backburner...until a month ago...browsing NetFlix, I found the complete Season 1 and 2 of The Vampire Diaries on Instant Play...WAHOO!!

Over the last several weeks I've caught up on Season 1

and Season 2 

and then couldn't stand it and switched to the CW website where I watched several full episodes of Season 3 for free and then caught up with the rest on Amazon Instant Videos.

I love this fun, fast paced, action packed, non-thinking series...vampires, witches, werewolves, vampire hunters, "Originals" who can't be killed, humans who choose to be "turned" and those who don't get to choose...all in the middle of high school drama...which really doesn't seem like high school to me.   

As a matter of fact, I forget frequently that these characters (the humans anyway) are supposed to only be 16 and 17 years old.  And, of course the love triangle of Stephan, Elena and Damon.
Um, did I mention the music?? Holy Smokes! What a playlist this stuff would make!!

There's also a lot of history (what do you call pretend early American history?), and Nina Dobrev who plays Elena is something else switching roles back and forth between Elena and Katherine, especially in Season 2 when "Katherine" returns.  And, to add even more interest in the series, two of the show's stars are actually together as a couple off screen as well.
Isn't that cute??

My videos ran out in the middle of Season 3 with Episode 9, so as a new Cable consumer I decided I would also enjoy my husband's Christmas gift and planned to watch Episode 10 last Thursday night.

Guess what?

At 7:34 p.m. I realized it was 7:34 and I had missed most of the show :(

Good grief.

I told you so.

You see, I need TV shows on my schedule...not the network's.  

If only it worked that way.

Amazon had the video streaming (for $1.99) by the next day though, and CW had it streaming for free a day or so after that.  

Thank Goodness!

Now, I'm waiting on Episode 11!!