If time is money and money is the root of all evil; does that mean time is the root of all evil?
Random thought there.
See you next time.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Saturday, February 14, 2015
Review : The Jakarta Pandemic
The Jarkarta Pandemic by Steven Konkoly is not so great.
It's rare for me to consider not finishing a book. The main character, Alex is a Marine, a liberal, slightly racist and a tad arrogant. That's a weird combination. Konkoly has spent the first eighty or so pages drawing out the events of two days...
I suppose I will keep on reading before finally deciding whether or not to stop reading. The amount of positive reviews is unfathomable.
It's rare for me to consider not finishing a book. The main character, Alex is a Marine, a liberal, slightly racist and a tad arrogant. That's a weird combination. Konkoly has spent the first eighty or so pages drawing out the events of two days...
I suppose I will keep on reading before finally deciding whether or not to stop reading. The amount of positive reviews is unfathomable.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Review: Sugar Daddies
I have to stop watching Lifetime movies.
In almost every Lifetime movie, there are three elements: A (usually) female lead, a Psychopath, and family member/or friend(s) that is in danger due to the Psycho.
Sugar Daddies is no different. Kara is a college student. She lost her job. So she can't pay for her school stuff. Her roommate turns her toward Sugar Daddying. She meets a middle aged guy, Grant. He is rich. They go out for awhile. Until her boyfriend and father find out. Then goes the downhill slide. She needs the money so she turns back to Grant. Grant agrees, as long as he can have a threesome with her friend, who also sugar daddies. The friend dies, due to sexual axphilation. She tries to convince her roommate to stop visiting men. Roommate does not. Grant wants silence, and his bodyguard helps him. Fortunately, due to the GPS tracker on her phone, her dad comes to the rescue. Grant goes to jail.
So, Kara is really lucky to live. Really. She could have died. The whole movie, I shook my head at this. I thought the bodyguard was the bad guy. In reality, I missed his partner, Grant. There are two antagonists.
Moral : There is no easy money. Only cheap deaths.
Rate: 5.5/10
In almost every Lifetime movie, there are three elements: A (usually) female lead, a Psychopath, and family member/or friend(s) that is in danger due to the Psycho.
Sugar Daddies is no different. Kara is a college student. She lost her job. So she can't pay for her school stuff. Her roommate turns her toward Sugar Daddying. She meets a middle aged guy, Grant. He is rich. They go out for awhile. Until her boyfriend and father find out. Then goes the downhill slide. She needs the money so she turns back to Grant. Grant agrees, as long as he can have a threesome with her friend, who also sugar daddies. The friend dies, due to sexual axphilation. She tries to convince her roommate to stop visiting men. Roommate does not. Grant wants silence, and his bodyguard helps him. Fortunately, due to the GPS tracker on her phone, her dad comes to the rescue. Grant goes to jail.
So, Kara is really lucky to live. Really. She could have died. The whole movie, I shook my head at this. I thought the bodyguard was the bad guy. In reality, I missed his partner, Grant. There are two antagonists.
Moral : There is no easy money. Only cheap deaths.
Rate: 5.5/10
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Finding Mr. Right
Also known as Beijing Meets Seattle.
This drama is great. But depends on two things: understanding Chinese culture and having lived in the United States for an extended period of time. Otherwise, this romantic comedy falls flat on its face.
So it's basically a woman who is a mistress and gets pregnant by her rich man. To avoid scandal, she goes to the USA to have the baby. She meets a man, who is the driver for all the pregnant mothers in the illegal House for Unwed Mothers. She falls in love with him. He falls in love with her. Duh. And he's poor too. Duh.
Where it's different, is the guy has a daughter and is divorced. The daughter also has a love romance.
The lady goes go back to rich man. She decides that he isn't for her. So the break up. The rich man divorced his wife for the lady, and remarries the wife after the lady leaves.
Oh, and the ex-wife gets married to a rich guy. Blah.
I liked the movie in the sense that the comedy actually was funny. I recommend this movie, but the elements of American or Chinese culture may hinder your enjoyment of this movie.
Rate: 4/5
This drama is great. But depends on two things: understanding Chinese culture and having lived in the United States for an extended period of time. Otherwise, this romantic comedy falls flat on its face.
So it's basically a woman who is a mistress and gets pregnant by her rich man. To avoid scandal, she goes to the USA to have the baby. She meets a man, who is the driver for all the pregnant mothers in the illegal House for Unwed Mothers. She falls in love with him. He falls in love with her. Duh. And he's poor too. Duh.
Where it's different, is the guy has a daughter and is divorced. The daughter also has a love romance.
The lady goes go back to rich man. She decides that he isn't for her. So the break up. The rich man divorced his wife for the lady, and remarries the wife after the lady leaves.
Oh, and the ex-wife gets married to a rich guy. Blah.
I liked the movie in the sense that the comedy actually was funny. I recommend this movie, but the elements of American or Chinese culture may hinder your enjoyment of this movie.
Rate: 4/5
Friday, December 26, 2014
Young Sherlock
Young Sherlock is based upon the Judge Dee stories.
The Chinese drama is intriguing. Yet can movie along slowly. So there are three main plots, essentially.
One is the Di renjie storyline with all the mysteries.
The second is the Emperor and the palace.
The third is the people in the cave. These people are lead by bird guy. We don't find out much about him until the end. I'm only on episode 23 out of all fourty.
I did skip to the end out of boredom. Spoilers ahead.
The ending is a cliffhanger. Sorta. The love interest of Di, named Wan Qing, runs away. I don't know why, other than she thinks they shouldn't be together. So she becomes a nun again. She was raised in a nunnery until Di and his friends solved a mistery there, so she joins them. So, the drama ends with Dee keeping his promise at the beginning about wanting Wan Qing to come back. So he goes out to search for her.
The ending should have had another episode where he spends "forever " looking for her and he finds her at last. But we will never know. Since it just shows him riding a horse and the voice over going : " I will definitely find you and return. Li Wan Qing." Does this mean there will be a part two? What if he never finds her? There is no producer who will clarify that ending. (Unlike how Bryan and Mike dispelled any ambiguity for The Legend of Korra.) I'm just so agitated. Just have them meet and make up and walk into the freaking sunset.
So throughout the drama, he solves cases. He is successful on all of them. Even it takes forever. I mean several episodes. With that said, this is a good drama. Unfortunately, it's not subbed in English. So sometimes even I have no idea what they're saying.
The Chinese drama is intriguing. Yet can movie along slowly. So there are three main plots, essentially.
One is the Di renjie storyline with all the mysteries.
The second is the Emperor and the palace.
The third is the people in the cave. These people are lead by bird guy. We don't find out much about him until the end. I'm only on episode 23 out of all fourty.
I did skip to the end out of boredom. Spoilers ahead.
The ending is a cliffhanger. Sorta. The love interest of Di, named Wan Qing, runs away. I don't know why, other than she thinks they shouldn't be together. So she becomes a nun again. She was raised in a nunnery until Di and his friends solved a mistery there, so she joins them. So, the drama ends with Dee keeping his promise at the beginning about wanting Wan Qing to come back. So he goes out to search for her.
The ending should have had another episode where he spends "forever " looking for her and he finds her at last. But we will never know. Since it just shows him riding a horse and the voice over going : " I will definitely find you and return. Li Wan Qing." Does this mean there will be a part two? What if he never finds her? There is no producer who will clarify that ending. (Unlike how Bryan and Mike dispelled any ambiguity for The Legend of Korra.) I'm just so agitated. Just have them meet and make up and walk into the freaking sunset.
So throughout the drama, he solves cases. He is successful on all of them. Even it takes forever. I mean several episodes. With that said, this is a good drama. Unfortunately, it's not subbed in English. So sometimes even I have no idea what they're saying.
The Shade of the Moon Part B
So Jon is still an ass in my mind after a week later. He thinks that I love you equals sex. So first, poor Juile gets hurt. Then Sarah. This guy has no sense.
So, my long rant comes down to this. Don't waste your time reading this book.
So, my long rant comes down to this. Don't waste your time reading this book.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Review : The Shade of the Moon Part A
I just finished reading the fourth book in the Life as We Knew It series. So this review will refer to all four books. More or less.
The main character in this novel, Jon (Jonathan) Evans, is the biggest asshole of a protagonist that I have ever encountered in a book and/or movie. He lived his full life as a spoiled child. So when the moon was hit by a meteor, his life changed for the worst. He and his family survived on nothing. One would expect that when he was able to live I'm comfort again, he would cherish it.
Back to the beggining of the series. In the first and third books, we were told the story from Miranda's point of view. In the second one, Alex told his story. Alex and his two sisters and brother were from NYC and Miranda and her family are from Pennsylvania. People died and food became scarce. The family did what they did to survive. Eventually, the characters in book one met the characters of book two in book three.
I liked the Miranda and Alex. The author planned to pair them together from the start. Which I agree with. They have given up a lot to become lowly bus drivers and a greenhouse gardener instead of a chance to live in the town of Sexton. With that said, they aren't perfect characters. Alex has stolen from his neighbors to feed his sisters. Miranda had her selfish moment when she ate a whole bag of chocolate. Mind you, in a world where they don't make chocolate anymore, indulging like that is terrible. Anyways, they have a baby girl that was kidnapped by the rich people of the "enclave" of Sexton. Fortunately, asshole Jon with the help of Sarah, his girlfriend, was able to rescue his sister's baby. Miranda had some issues with her mother, Laura, at the beginning of the series, but the whole natural disaster struggle mended their bonds. Miranda suffocated Julie, Alex's sister, to prevent Julie from suffering in pain after being paralyzed by a tornado. Alex ran away after hearing what she did.
There's so much of the story to tell. Laura, by far is the most selfless person. She gives up her meals so that her children can eat. Seriously, she'll go days on end without eating if Miranda and her other son, Matt let her. These two have sense. Jon may have let her starve. After the family relocated to Sexton and the outside "grub" town/ shanty town of White Birch, she became a high school teacher. This lady fought the guards from letting them take her students to become house servants. They killed her. I don't think Jon felt as bad as pregnant Miranda did. She's pregnant! She could have had a miscarriage... Despite being divorced, she had no hatred towards her ex-husband's new spouse. Laura would do anything in her power to help people she cared about. This lady deserves a long moment of silence.
Lisa, is the wife of Harold (Hal). Hal died of exhaustion en route to the settlement. She has been portayed as a nice and caring lady. But, she is a stepmother, so at first, I didn't trust her. In this fourth book, we see that she also will do everything to help her family survive, even if they are her step family. She did have a son named Gabriel (Gabe) with Hal. She, Gabe and Jon went into the town of Sexton to become "Clavers" because Alex had given up his passes that were for him and his two sisters. So with these passes, they became akin to people in the Second Estate of Pre-Revolutionary France. Lisa first works as a low class clerk in the Administration offices, later being promoted to the Head of the Domestics. She deals with house servant issues. So, she has Gabe in the first book. Lisa doesn't like having Domestics in her house, but she has no choice since she can't work ten hours a day, six days a week and be able to clean and cook. So, knowing Miranda is pregnant, she arranges for Miranda to become a Domestic in their house. I understand this, at least the baby can be looked after and Miranda can be guaranteed decent food that can not be procured in the "Grub" town. But who would want to be a slave for their own family? Fortunately, she never does because the living members of the family move to a new settlement that doesn't have the oppressive Enclaves.
There is a riot between the Grubs and the Clavers and many laborers are killed. So, the children of the highschool are needed to be the new workers. And Laura gets killed. Lisa feels really bad about this, but is torn between her job and indirectly killing her dead Husband's ex-wife. Who wouldn't? Eventually, this guilt gets to her and she commits suicide. Partially, the suicide is a cover up for Jon, Gabe, Alex and Miranda's escape. She was a good woman. A standing ovation goes to her.
Jon should be greatful of having a mother and a stepmother who killed themsleves to let an ungrateful son live as close to a normal life as possible in this dystopia.
The main character in this novel, Jon (Jonathan) Evans, is the biggest asshole of a protagonist that I have ever encountered in a book and/or movie. He lived his full life as a spoiled child. So when the moon was hit by a meteor, his life changed for the worst. He and his family survived on nothing. One would expect that when he was able to live I'm comfort again, he would cherish it.
Back to the beggining of the series. In the first and third books, we were told the story from Miranda's point of view. In the second one, Alex told his story. Alex and his two sisters and brother were from NYC and Miranda and her family are from Pennsylvania. People died and food became scarce. The family did what they did to survive. Eventually, the characters in book one met the characters of book two in book three.
I liked the Miranda and Alex. The author planned to pair them together from the start. Which I agree with. They have given up a lot to become lowly bus drivers and a greenhouse gardener instead of a chance to live in the town of Sexton. With that said, they aren't perfect characters. Alex has stolen from his neighbors to feed his sisters. Miranda had her selfish moment when she ate a whole bag of chocolate. Mind you, in a world where they don't make chocolate anymore, indulging like that is terrible. Anyways, they have a baby girl that was kidnapped by the rich people of the "enclave" of Sexton. Fortunately, asshole Jon with the help of Sarah, his girlfriend, was able to rescue his sister's baby. Miranda had some issues with her mother, Laura, at the beginning of the series, but the whole natural disaster struggle mended their bonds. Miranda suffocated Julie, Alex's sister, to prevent Julie from suffering in pain after being paralyzed by a tornado. Alex ran away after hearing what she did.
There's so much of the story to tell. Laura, by far is the most selfless person. She gives up her meals so that her children can eat. Seriously, she'll go days on end without eating if Miranda and her other son, Matt let her. These two have sense. Jon may have let her starve. After the family relocated to Sexton and the outside "grub" town/ shanty town of White Birch, she became a high school teacher. This lady fought the guards from letting them take her students to become house servants. They killed her. I don't think Jon felt as bad as pregnant Miranda did. She's pregnant! She could have had a miscarriage... Despite being divorced, she had no hatred towards her ex-husband's new spouse. Laura would do anything in her power to help people she cared about. This lady deserves a long moment of silence.
Lisa, is the wife of Harold (Hal). Hal died of exhaustion en route to the settlement. She has been portayed as a nice and caring lady. But, she is a stepmother, so at first, I didn't trust her. In this fourth book, we see that she also will do everything to help her family survive, even if they are her step family. She did have a son named Gabriel (Gabe) with Hal. She, Gabe and Jon went into the town of Sexton to become "Clavers" because Alex had given up his passes that were for him and his two sisters. So with these passes, they became akin to people in the Second Estate of Pre-Revolutionary France. Lisa first works as a low class clerk in the Administration offices, later being promoted to the Head of the Domestics. She deals with house servant issues. So, she has Gabe in the first book. Lisa doesn't like having Domestics in her house, but she has no choice since she can't work ten hours a day, six days a week and be able to clean and cook. So, knowing Miranda is pregnant, she arranges for Miranda to become a Domestic in their house. I understand this, at least the baby can be looked after and Miranda can be guaranteed decent food that can not be procured in the "Grub" town. But who would want to be a slave for their own family? Fortunately, she never does because the living members of the family move to a new settlement that doesn't have the oppressive Enclaves.
There is a riot between the Grubs and the Clavers and many laborers are killed. So, the children of the highschool are needed to be the new workers. And Laura gets killed. Lisa feels really bad about this, but is torn between her job and indirectly killing her dead Husband's ex-wife. Who wouldn't? Eventually, this guilt gets to her and she commits suicide. Partially, the suicide is a cover up for Jon, Gabe, Alex and Miranda's escape. She was a good woman. A standing ovation goes to her.
Jon should be greatful of having a mother and a stepmother who killed themsleves to let an ungrateful son live as close to a normal life as possible in this dystopia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)