Meh. I was less-than-impressed. By a lot.

I’d also like someone(s) who has seen it to explain something to me. It’s not really spoilery, since it’s kinda the theme of all of the movies:

Is there a legitimate time-travel-theory explanation for how John Connor could have existed to send Kyle Reese back to impregnate his mother? I think of time linearly (failure of imagination, I know) so I conceptualize it such that the first time history played through, John wouldn’t have existed, because he didn’t exist in the future to send Kyle back. And since he didn’t come to exist, he wouldn’t have been able to send Kyle back, so he never would have existed.

So. If this makes sense in time-travel theory, someone explain it, because I don’t have enough nerd cred to get it.

If it doesn’t make sense, then I guess I just suck at suspension of disbelief.

Oh, and two more questions/annoyances that are spoilery:

- If they’d figured out a signal that would deactivate machines, why the hell weren’t they playing that thing everywhere they went?

- When they destroyed Skynet HQ at the end, if that was an actual nuclear explosion, wouldn’t there have been an associated EMP that would have killed their chopper?

Oh, and it also took me until 2010 to realize John Connor = J.C. Gee, can you think of any other savior-types with those initials?

The most notable feature of the movie, in my opinion (save Megan Fox’s hotness) was: They made a very big point of letting you know the POTUS in the movie is Obama. And then they made a very big point of sending a really annoying bureaucrat who did not know what he was talking about to screw up the military’s arrangement with the Autobots by order of the POTUS…

…An order the military promptly disregarded in the interest of Doing The Right Thing and Saving The World.

So. Take from that what you will.

Well, I can review the first 30 minutes: Good. The next 10 minutes, the audio was good (I listened as I sat there with my eyes closed, willing my stomach to stop churning).

After that, I got nothin’, because I quite literally had to leave to throw up.

Shaky-camera induced motion sickness: I HAZ IT. In a big way.

It had a lot of potential. I’m hoping I’ll be able to tolerate it on the small screen. Consider yourself warned, though: If Blair Witch Project turned your tummy, or Call of Duty is only playable after a dose of Dramamine, you might want to rethink District 9. Le sigh.

EDIT: I just looked around the internet to see if anyone else had the motion sickness problem. The answer is yes, but it apparently gets better right about the time I left. Go figure. Oh well, my pukey ship had sailed by that point, so I don’t think toughing it out was in the cards.

—

Yo, Joe (Huffman)! You might have the answer to this. I was musing earlier about Moscow’s city ordinance banning bare female breasts, and decided to do some Googling. It looks like at the time the whole debacle was going on (2002ish?) there wasn’t a state law banning bare female breasts. I can’t find anything referencing any Latah County ordinances against ‘em, either.

Does this mean I can run around topless in Latah County as long as I’m outside of the Moscow city limits, or have the state or county since passed anything?

(Don’t worry, I don’t mean to go horrify the prudish locals by going door-to-door with my hooters out. But I did find a nice little swimming hole, the other day, and…)

Me (trying to remember): “Humvee… That’s… H…M…M…W…V?”
Mike: “Yeah.”
Me (now trying to decode): “Highly mobile… multi-wheeled vehicle?”
Mike: “Yup.”
Me: *makes wow, did they really need an acronym for that? face*
Mike: “I know. It’s like… as opposed to what, Highly Mobile Combat Unicycle?”

Bwaha. In totally unrelated news, Changeling finally came to Pullman! Off to the cinema we go. And it’s snowing. A lot.

JA is totally worth owning and watching again and again and again. It gets the official PGB stamp of approval (which, yes, I just made up).

I’m not sure how long that sale is on for, so if you want a copy (or ten) – don’t wait!

I just want to know if Changeling is going to be playing around here, dammit!

P.S. Quantum of Solace in little over a week, woot!

It was very good, but depressing as hell. I can’t say too much without getting spoilery. I recommend it, though!

One random note: The dishes Robert Neville uses in the film are the dishes Barrett got us for our wedding. :)

A must-see if you haven’t already. Though, you might have a hard time finding it to rent tonight. :)

Yep. The Po showed up a little while ago…

Mistaken identity, though. No fun! Turns out the officer (single responder) was looking for the other half of the duplex (wow… thank God I’m not Cory Maye) for some family drama relating to one of the visiting teenagers over there. Booooring.

The lulz came just now, when Mike and I were sitting on the couch, and I said, “That cop seemed like a pretty nice guy,” and Mike replied… “Yep. I bet he’s a perfectly nice guy. Probably donates to charity and helps out with the Boy Scouts and a bunch of other stuff that I would totally agree with. Hell – I’d probably buy him a beer! But when the order comes to go out and violate the Constitution, he’ll probably get right on it, and then I’ll have to kick his ass.”

Okay… maybe you had to be here.

On an unrelated note, we’re watching the PBS documentary PBS wouldn’t air.

“Muslims Against Jihad”. A Denmark Muslim was on a little while ago, talking about how his parents were insisting he honor-kill his sister for wanting to marry a non-Muslim or something equally ridiculous. Doubleyou-tee-eff. Really.

Summer Blockbuster Roundup

We saw Live Free or Die Hard the other day. Lots of ’splodey things, lots of Bruce Willis (swoon) and lots of Mac-nerd. I was pleased. Definitely worth the matinee price and 99% sure it’s worth the evening showings. Pretty much pure fun.

Now… as for Transformers: THAT MOVIE KICKED ALL THE ASS. I wasn’t a Transformers watcher as a kid, though Mike was. I expected lots of cheesy, unnecessary humor (a la the Spiderman trilogy, which I didn’t like), mediocre special effects, and an overall “kiddie flick” feel.

WRONG!

It was unusually pro-American (compared to other current movies), completely chock-full of some of the best special effects I’ve ever seen, and not cheesy. Period. There were a couple very brief moments of campy dialogue, but it was so overshadowed by the overall movie that it didn’t bother me at all. The likeable characters, were, the bad guys were, quite so, and… Yes. Very yes. Go see it, and see it again. It was great.

Wedding Countdown

This time, four weeks from now, I will be about an eight-hour veteran of the whole Mrs. thing. I can think of worse things to be. :)

Feedback request: any ceremony suggestions? Readings, write our own vows or not, etc? It’s all 100% up to us, since we have a friend doing the ceremony… I’m thinking perhaps a passage from Gates of Fire and something from letters between John and Abigail Adams. Maybe a Bible verse or two, too, though I don’t want to do anything too stereotypical. I’m a smidge infatuated with Proverbs 31:10-31, though, so maybe I’ll work that in.

PFT

I’m working up to PT with Mike (more on exactly why, coming soon…) but have a long ways to go. Still, I got 46 crunches in two minutes (yes, sucky, but considering the fact I haven’t done any crunches in… months – not too bad for Day No. 1) and am up to a 20 second flexed-arm hang. My upper body strength has been historically poor, but I’m making quick progress with the flexed-arm hang, so I’m pretty happy with that. I have not yet attempted a run. That is going to suck.