Taking One For The Team

So, my office has an annual NCAA 'March Madness' pool. Although no one put in any money, which is odd. I'm not really clear on the details, but I think one of the owners is so very obsessed with the NCAA tournament that he foots the bill. So we all got 5 teams, drawn out of a box, and if they win their first game, we get $1, the second, $2 and so one. Well, I didn't get a team seeded above 7 in their division/conference. And most of my teams eventually play one another, meaning I will lose out no matter what. But I did decide to trade someone for BYU, my alma mater. They aren't expected to go that far, being seeded 8th in their division conference. But at least I feel I showed some school spirit. And if they do win, then I can rub it in all my co-workers' faces.

At The End Of The Rainbow

Or, rather, the end of the month, this will be arriving at my door:


I cannot tell you how giddy I am. So giddy, in fact, that I am very, very tempted to call in sick the day it is supposed to be delivered, so someone will definitely be here to sign for it AND I can start playing with it immediately. Also coming along for the ride:


It is silver, even though the picture makes it look white. Although mine will never have Nelly Furtado on it. Like, ever.

Hope everyone else's St. Patrick's Day is going as nicely!

Because I Am A Big Dork

Ok, so the death flu has passed, but it left me on the verge of laryngitis and I sound like I have been smoking a carton a day since kindergarten. I have sounded like this for more than a week. Not attractive. But that really doesn't matter, as I have spent an inordinate amount of time sitting in front of my computer a) obsessively checking the status of my graduate school application and 2) watching the trailer for Leatherheads, starring two of my favorite FBLers George Clooney and John Krasinski. You can all watch it here. I CANNOT wait to see this movie. I'm so there opening night. I also stumbled upon the trailer for the new Incredible Hulk movie, which I guess they felt obligated to make because the first one sucked so badly. The new incarnation of Bruce Banner is Edward Norton, who I find strangely attractive even though half the time he plays characters so psychotic and scary I can't even handle it like in Primal Fear (which I caught on TNT one night and found it so freaking creepy I had to keep flipping between channels, but I couldn't ignore it either. It was mesmerizing. Do check out The Illusionist, however, because he is totally dreamy and non-creepy in it). When I was little I LOVED The Incredible Hulk and thought it was the coolest show, second only to Wonder Woman. Anyway, I stumbled across the trailer and I think I will have to check this one out as well.

When not ogling FBLers on my computer screen, I have been indulging my TV addiction by checking out FOX's new show New Amsterdam of which they aired 3 episodes in 10 days and I got interested in spite of myself. The show is about a guy, Johann van der Zee (now John Amsterdam), who saved a Native American woman's life in 1642, on the island that is now Manhattan, by stepping in front of a sword aimed her way and she brought him back to life, with the caveat he wouldn't die until he found his One True Love. So he has been alive for 400 years and is now a detective for the NYPD. For the five of us who watched The Lone Gunmen, the actress who played Yves Adele Harlow is Amsterdam's partner. Anyway, I got sucked in because a) I am a TV addict and the dearth of new shows in this post-strike world is killing me and 2) I could not figure out who the actor playing John Amsterdam (his name is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau which I can neither pronounce nor spell. I had to cut-and-paste it from Wikipedia.) reminded me of. This is what he looks like:


Who do you think he looks like?



I finally decided it was as if some producer took DNA from Aaron Eckhart:


and mixed it in a test tube with DNA from Denis Leary:

and created the leading man he thought could carry the show.

But now that I'm hooked, I must say it is a fun show. They have flashbacks of his previous lives woven in with the present-day procedural stuff, which is fun. If you want to check it out, you can download the pilot from iTunes for free.

Austenland Part II

I generally assume everybody's opinion is more valid than my own, so after posting my last entry, I decided to re-read Austenland, just to make sure I was right about how ludicrous Mountain Mama's complaint about the book was. And I was right. There is exactly one mention of the word 'groin' in the book. And, as BlackJazz pointed out in is comment on the last entry, 'groin' is used medically to describe an area under the pelvis that can be injured or pulled. An injury that can occur in athletes of either sex. Which makes 'groin' the least offensive term Ms. Hale could have used to describe the scene. And I will stop harping on it now.

Mountain Mama's other complaint, that the writing wasn't consistent, is much, much less ludicrous. During my second reading, in which I could spend more time paying attention to details, I noticed that the name of the beneficient aunt was alternately spelled Carolyn/Caroline throughout the book. A good editor should have noticed that. There is only one character in the book with that name and it should have had the same spelling each and every time it was used. I would assume that the manuscript was read by its editor at least twice and if I -- still fairly doped up on decongestants and cough medicine -- noticed it, he or she should have noticed. Also, there are instances where the grammar completely changes. This is acceptable in scenes in which individuals are valiantly trying to mimic the speech patterns of Regency England, but it is not acceptable in the middle of the heroine's internal monologue. It takes the reader out of the book.

With all those nitpicks intact, I still really like the book. There are moments of truth in the story that are very relatable. Who hasn't, at one time or another, wanted to announce to roommates, Family Home Evening groups, or the universe in general, "I refuse to be Fanny Price." Who hasn't realized that her obssession with Mr. Darcy/Thornton/Rochester/Wentworth/
Hornblower just might be getting in the way of her real life? Who hasn't succumbed to the ephemeral delights of FantasyLand? I have spent a lot of time traipsing around FantasyLand these past few years. When life is hard it is easy to want to escape, part of what this novel is wrestling with is whether that doesn't make life harder. Obviously, in the grand tradition of Austen, the heroine gets the (right) guy, which just feeds into the fantasy. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

This Is Not An Overreaction

I think I'm dying. I may sound like I only have the sniffles or slight congestion, but I'm dying. Seriously, walking from my bed to the kitchen wipes me out. I'm not coughing, how could I hurt this much? Anyway, I had mentally composed a book review of Austenland by Shannon Hale, but it has drowned in the mucus that is currently residing where my brain should be. Suffice it to say, I suggest you read the book, it is fun and the first "chick lit" (I hate that term.) that I have actively enjoyed. Sure it treads the same ground as those that have come before it and sure the main character is Bridget Jones's American cousin, but there are some fresh and new things about it AND nothing to warn about if you should recommend it to your mother. Despite what one reviewer on Amazon.com wrote:

1.0 out of 5 stars I find nothing to recommend it., August 20, 2007
By Mountain Mama "MM" - See all my reviews

I bought Austenland to read with my teenage daughter. It sounded so promising! But the writing wasn't consistent and I felt that the references to male genitalia were in very poor taste.

I could find only one reference to "male genitalia" and that is when the main character, out of necessity due to being drunkenly accosted, knees a man in the groin. IN THOSE EXACT WORDS. I cannot for the life of me figure out why the term 'groin' is any more obscene or indelicate, than, say, 'genitalia' but it appears that to Mountain Mama, it is. So consider yourselves warned. This book could be the ruin of your maidenly innocence.