Hunger Names

I saw The Hunger Games over the weekend. I have to say, I was very satisfied. They did a lot of things visually that I always imagined in the books. Some relationships were simplified and certain scenes from the book cut down or out but in almost every instance, I understood why. Everything I wanted to change was minutia. They also included things that were left out of a first person novel like the war room for the actual Games and the last scene with Seneca Crane was very powerful. My only problem was that one person with me hadn't read the books and asked at the end of the movie "Who's Gale?" Considering how important he is in the following books, no one should really be asking that. On the whole, I thought they did an excellent job.

Since I'm such a fan of the books and the movie thus far only enhances the book, I though I would post 2 links that give you a Hunger Games name. All of the characters have interesting names like natural things in the poorer districts like Katniss or Rue and frivolous names like Glimmer and Marvel from the richer districts.


One site has an algorithm for your name. Mine there is Mine is Leymet G Readivy.


The other site provides a randomly generated name but it also assigns you a district, a Hunger Games, and a cause of death. Each time you refresh the page or exit and return, the information is different. The first time, I was Cashmere Tavistock from District 11; I died when I tripped on a stick and fell on my sword. I've heard you can come out a winner but it requires a lot of refreshing and patience. I'm skeptical.

Alphabet Challenge Round 5

The Thursday Next series is one of my favorite series to date. Fforde is a reader’s writer with a fantastic literary wit and cleverness. That being said, this book is told from the written Thursday’s point of view, not the point of view of the real Thursday from the previous 5 books.

The shift in view points definitely took some getting used to because written Thursday (wT) really was almost but not quite real Thursday (rT). You could see her short falls but you could also feel her insecurities about not measuring up. I enjoyed the new characters but it took some getting used to since it wasn’t about the character we’ve come to know and love; it was like her lesser stunt double.

Because it wasn’t the rT it wasn’t as good as the previous books. wT doesn’t deduce as quickly as rT so the story moves slower. wT also doesn’t have the zany relatives or coworkers that helped flesh out the other series. Something was lost by making wT such a loner but I supposed it also aided to the setting in BookWorld. Speaking of BookWorld, I missed the old gigantic library but the new story required the new set up.

I did enjoy the definite presence of Vanity and Fan Fiction. This new take on TN gained something by changing the rules of BookWorld. It might not have worked if Fforde changed it with the perspective of rT.

The backstory subplot with Whitby is an excellent parallel to Thursday fighting to get Landen reactualized for the first several books. I have a feeling that the written Thursday will get her man by the time this series of installments is over just like the real Thursday did. The only hard part is waiting for the next couple of books to get there. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a happy ending for my favorite characters.

While this was probably my least favorite of the Thursday Next series, that by no means makes it a bad book. It’s still a very fun read with clever jokes and interesting characters with a new-ish setting. It’s a fresh take on the existing world of TN. This is absolutely some of the best stuff out there and I continue to love this series. I just didn’t love this one as much as the others.

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G - The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham
H - How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown
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M - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
N - Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow
O - One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
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Q
R - Reality Bites Back by Jennifer L. Pozner
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Current Music: Only If for a Night - Florence + the Machine

Fix It

I read on Twitter that sarcastic people are better problem solvers. Of course we are. We can get away with stating the obvious.

Athletic Love

I was reading an article on The Frisky and it talked about the types to not date. Everyone knows musicians but I hadn’t heard bartenders although that makes total sense. McGuire also added pro-athletes and politicians to the list. I will not argue politicians. I have worked in the nation’s capital. You have to be confident/high on your self to go into that line of work in the first place. I’m not 100% sold on all pro-athletes.

I would be concerned about a U.S. soccer player because he would be a much bigger deal overseas than he would probably be at home. Most NBA and NFL stars I’ll agree with. Those sports are huge and a lot of the rock stars of the team would get enough ego to think they wouldn’t get caught. Some of the bigger names in the NHL (like Alex Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby) must dovery well for themselves. But not all of them.

My mom watched some pre-Super Bowl at home interviews. One of the players had been with the same woman since college and she was definitely no Gisele. Despite being well-known enough to make the special, he seemed to genuinely like his girl-next-door wife. You have to love your spouse butliking them after many years is noteworthy. 

Chimera had an interview recently where he was asked his favorite TV channel. He talked about how he and the wife watch HGTV together all the time. Vokoun had it in his contract that he could go to Florida early before every game there so he could spend time with his wife and daughters. Aucoin, who spent a lot of time in the minors this season, just had a baby boy and couldn’t be happier from what I’ve seen.

Stateside, NHL players aren’t as god-like as NFL players. There aren’t a lot of mainstream rock stars. You also don’t see as many celebrity-NHL marriages as you do NFL or NBA (Hilary Duff and Carrie Underwood being the main exceptions). Many of these guys married normal women-next-door. They get a bit of anonymity around town and with a non-celebrity SO which probably helps keep them humble(r).

I could be way off the mark and the NHL could be just as bad as every other pro-league but that’s not the feeling I get. From what I’ve seen as an outsider, they all seem very happy. If you’re happy, you usually aren’t stupid enough to screw it up, especially when your road trip roommate needs somewhere to sleep.

Current Music: The Chase - My Favorite Highway

Alphabet Challenge Round 4

For those who are only casually interested in astronomy at best, you may initially find the title How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown misleading. It opens with Pluto being demoted to a dwarf planet/planetoid but then goes back moves chronologically through Brown’s search through the ends of our solar system.

Going back to the beginning paints a better picture of what went into demoting Pluto than a lot of people see. It also gave me information I didn’t already have about our eight current planets. However, I think Brown could have been a little bit more detailed about why Pluto should have been demoted.

As we got closer to Pluto’s demise as a planet, Brown also focused more on his personal narrative. In the former part of the book it straddled the line between science and memoir well. In the latter it had more narrative and less science. For the amount of narrative he gave, I was disappointed that he didn’t give more background on the aftermath of killing Pluto. He talked about letters, news bits, and T shirts in the beginning but barely touched on that when the time came.

It was good and I liked it but I think the title left something to be desired

A
B
C
D
E
F
G - The Great Fables Crossover by Bill Willingham
H - How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown
I
J
K
L
M - Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
N - Naked City edited by Ellen Datlow
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P
Q
R - Reality Bites Back by Jennifer L. Pozner
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T
U
V
W
X
Y
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Northern Star - Melanie Chisholm

Correction

Sometimes I wonder if lack of self-awareness, self-absorption, and ego has made a large portion of my generation unable to function socially. I have one particular person in mind when I say this.

This revolves around one incident yesterday but I should give you a little background to properly frame this story.

I met him back in January at a singles night for Washington Capitals fans. He inserted himself into my conversation with another guy, more or less ran him off, and then wouldn’t leave me alone for the rest of the pre-game event. Since he was a season ticket holder and a fan club member, I was polite but I made it clear that all I wanted to be was friends.

He told me about the road trip to an away game that sounded like fun. Since he knew the people planning it, he was able to get me on last minute. I figured the least I could do was sit by him for the 10 hour round trip bus ride. Upon arriving to the bus that morning, he got out his netbook and proceeded to complain every 5-10 minutes “Wi-Fi’s still not on,” until the Wi-Fi actually started working about an hour later.

He had a cold but didn’t take any medicine because he wanted to drink beer instead. While he wasn’t majorly sick, it still irked me since I’m not a big drinker. He had been on the last road trip when the driver had gotten royally lost in New York which apparently scarred him for life. Despite what he described as an almost “idiot proof” trip, he commented on the route the driver was taking every 30-45 minutes. For most of the 10 hour trip. He also insisted that we switch seats for the ride back so he could use the bright overheard LEDs to continue to use his computer even though I said it would be easier for me to sleep in my current seat.

On the ride back, my friend called me to tell me about her date. It’s late; most of the bus is sleeping. I know almost everyone can hear my conversation. That doesn’t make it OK for you to blatantly listen to everything I’m saying. You don’t know her and I didn’t invite you into my conversation. Do you see anyone else on this bus listening that hard Captain Subtle?

Later, when he was commenting yet again on the route the never-lost driver was taking, I finally asked him what time it was. “It’s 2:15.” I informed him “My give-a-damn shuts down at 1:30. We’ll get there when we get there.” He didn’t seem to get I was politely trying to telling him to shut the hell up.

Last week, my friend had an extra ticket for the Caps vs Islanders game and offered to take me. We end up one row behind and a few seats over from my memorable ‘friend.’ He had asked me more than once in February when my next game was and I always told him in March.

It is February, I’m here with another guy, and I didn’t tell you about it. It looks like a date. It sounds like a date. While it wasn’t a date, the Minister of Social Grace didn’t know that and it didn’t stop him from trying to insert himself into our conversation whenever possible. I guess his third wheeling should have taught me to never underestimate his social ineptitude.

Because of how whiney, neurotic, and clueless he is, I usually refer to him as Woody Allen without the Funny or the Woody Allen Wannabe. Yesterday, I was at a regular board gaming event in DC. He came but some of my friends kept him distracted since I’d have to deal with him prior to the hockey game (bless them). As I was talking to some of my friends in the group, I mentioned that I hadn’t been out with anyone since the guy I dated last fall. WAW corrected me.

Maybe it was my use of the phrase “been out with” that had WAW trying to correct me to include him. I informed him, in a no nonsense tone, “Those weren’t dates.” He tried to correct me again. “Well, the singles night kinda counts.” The night where I arrived with my friend, met you, couldn’t get rid you, and then left to go have dinner with her? That doesn’t count. The road trip with most of the fan club and additional people doesn’t count. The one hockey game we went to with your brother doesn’t count.

If the girl says you’ve never been out, you’ve never been out. 

Going to a place together doesn’t equal going out (AKA a date). My opinion matters more than yours on this so don’t you dare correct me on whether or not I’ve dated you. I know who I’ve dated and you are not now nor will you ever be on that list. Please explain to me how you’ve gone 30 years thinking that it’s socially acceptable to try and retroactively correct your way into dating someone

When I told him over email that it was rude, presumptuous, and erroneous to correct me and that all we’ve ever been is friends his reply was “Uummmm, OK. Sorry."

That response either means he thinks I’m out of bounds (which I’m not) or he doesn’t seem to understand what he did wrong. I’m not surprised he doesn’t get it but I wrote you the check. If you can’t buy a clue, that’s too bad. You are not my problem anymore.

Current Music: A Lack of Understanding - The Vaccines