Z/Web

Nice little bank job thriller with an unusual twist. I’m not sure the film works without that twist — nothing much happens but the mystery of what is going on and once that’s explained, there’s not much left to watch — but if you don’t know what’s going to happen it is interesting. Several of the characters are quite interesting and it’s fun watching them fall or succeed. At times the music and edits are jarring — for such a simple story, a simpler style would have been better. But overall it’s not bad. It’s paint-by-the-numbers, but the finished product still looks decent.

I really, really liked this. It’s a fascinating look at a serious newsman, Edward R. Murrow and his public battle with McCarthy (the “everyone’s a Communist but me” guy). The theme is about censorship and the media, and acusing people without evidence, themes that obviously resinate today. What I found most interesting is that though this film was created by liberals with an obvious agenda, it’s really a conservative film: today the liberals control the media and jump down the throats of any conservative that dares to speak the opposite, exactly what hero Murrow was doing back in the old days of the film! I myself am a Libertarian and can’t stand censorship and believe in the rights of everyone to be heard, so I liked this movie a lot: I just wish both political parties would learn from it.

This wasn’t what I expected; it’s good, not great. I thought it was supposed to be funny, but it’s dead serious. It’s about a boy who murders another for apparently no reason and we track his time in jail and try to figure out why he did what he did (even he doesn’t seem to know). If that’s all it was, it’d be a decent Kafaesque premise, but unfortunately the film undermines itself by gradually trying to show us why the boy did it. Since the main interest in the film is that we don’t know why, revealing the why is anticlimactic and not satisfying. I’d have prefered if it would have remained a fascinating mystery.

Well, I am bummed. Yesterday I drove the Neon to a repair place — barely made it without overheating — and the guy told me it was a blown head gasket. Apparently that’s expensive, at least $1000, and the car’s hardly worth that. And of course the problems could be even worse. I drove the Neon home, sort of — it took me an hour to go five miles as I had to stop every 200 feet and let the car cool. I didn’t quite make it, leaving the car a few blocks from my house as it was overheating on idle even after ten minutes of cooling time. I went back later that night and moved it. Cooled, it worked just fine. Meanwhile, I took the van down to have that alternator belt looked at. And this morning I got word that the van also has major trouble — to the tune of $1200+. So this afternoon I’m out two vehicles.

Well, all’s well that ends well, I suppose. With both vehicles dead my mindset has changed. I liked having two vehicles as one backed up the other, but after this bad experience — two dead cars in two days — I’m leary of older models. That means springing for new or barely used (i.e. under warranty), which costs a lot more money. Not what I wanted to do, but I decided if I’m going to do that, it’s best to just get one reliable vehicle. The thing is, I want something small and sporty and not too expensive, yet it needs to have enough cargo space to haul Grandpa’s wheelchair around (collapsing the wheelchair is a major pain and greatly increases the time it takes to go anywhere). In the past I’d looked at PT Crusiers and so now I went that route again — and this time I liked what I saw. Before I was comparing their gas mileage (29 hwy) to my Neon (44 hwy) and was not impressed. Compared to my Mazda MPV van, they don’t hold much cargo either. But as a replacement vehicle, the PT met my needs: it has cargo space but it still a smaller vehicle with reasonable gas mileage. I checked with my local dealer and they had a slightly used one with less than 18K miles and a low price — just what I was looking for. I got it with a seven-year Chrysler warranty. (It’s an interesting warranty — if I never use it, I get all my warranty money back!) It didn’t have cruise control, which I regretted never getting for my Neon, so I included adding that into the purchase price. I traded in both my junkers as well, so now I’m down to just one “new” car! (If you want to see a picture of it, click here.) This was not planned but the outcome isn’t terrible, though now I have to hassle with car payments. Ugh!

My pick for best film of the year so far (not that that’s hard this year). I really liked the casting, performances, plot, everything. The film stirred the political winds due to its terrorist themes, but that’s not what it’s about at all. It’s actually a relatively mild film, a 1984ish fantasty about rebellion. The violence, though real, is symbolic, and innocent people are not hurt. Natalie Portman, who I wasn’t sure was right for a role involving physical action, turned out to be great and doesn’t actually do any stunts or action sequences — instead she’s merely a cog in the plot, and she brings humanity to the story. V, on the other than hand, is pure outrageous fantasy, brilliantly done, but always distant and incomprehensible like most superheroes. He’s not always nice — witness his brilliant-yet-warped trick on Natalie’s character — but that’s part of the purposeful ambiguity of the story. I liked that there’s not that much to the story or plot. It’s a simple, elegant little plot, not overly complicated like so many of today’s pieces.

Well, today was not a good day. I had plans to take a trip toward Portland to go to Costco and Fry’s Electronics, but on the way my car overheated. I had to stop and add water and head back home and it overheated going home — I barely made it. I took the van instead, but noticed it was getting hot as well, so I decided to get the long-delayed oil change it needed. I never did make it to Costco, though I did get to Fry’s to return something I bought at Fry’s in California. What sucked about that is the Oregon Fry’s won’t refund the sales tax I paid in San Jose, so I lost that. Stupid!

Author: Jeffery Deaver

Really enjoyable little twister. Unlike most WWII novels, this one was set before the war, during the Olympics in Germany in 1936 (where Jesse Owens won). The main character’s a mob hit man in New York who’s blackmailed by shady government types into going to Germany to kill a particular Nazi leader (not Hitler — everyone felt he was so radical his reign wouldn’t last long) who was the brains behind the throne. It’s a wild and intriguing story, with an unusual setting, and a cool, twisting plot. Worth the read.

Grandpa came home from the hospital. Even this wasn’t as simple as it sounds. First, my van’s battery was dead, as I expected, as it has a slow drain and if it’s not driven at least once a week it won’t start. Then, on my way to pick up Grandpa, my Neon started shuddering and not accelerating correctly. The “check engine” light came on. Unfortunately, I had a tight deadline: I had to get Grandpa home from the hospital in time for his next infusion of medicine which was to begin in a couple hours. Fortunately, the car made it, though it wasn’t happy. The hospital’s ten minutes away and by the time we got home, it was overheating. I just made it to my driveway. After getting Grandpa settled, I called a tow service to jump the van (it wouldn’t jump connected to a car), which worked, but the tow guy knew something about cars and didn’t like the sound of the engine. He checked the oil and found it was completely dry! I’d been meaning to get an oil change for a while (for both vehicles) but had kept putting it off. Unfortunately, my car knowledge doesn’t extend much further than knowing where to put the key — it had never occured to me to add oil (they usually do that when I change it). Anyway, we added oil and the van seemed okay — at least the engine sounded better, though apparently the alternator belt was too tight and that’s what was making the squealing sound on startup. We checked my Neon and found the same problem — no oil — and added some there also. During this period the nurse arrived to show me how to administer Grandpa’s new medicine — he’s on a 24-hour a day pump that shoots in the antibiotics. Everything was happening at once!

Author: Jeffery Deaver

One of my favorite Lincoln Rhyme stories: it’s a bit long and a key twist at the end is rather obvious (I saw it coming right at the beginning), but it’s still a fun read. I do get tired of Lincoln’s self-centeredness and self-pity for his paralysis, but then I’m not paralized, so I don’t know how I’d react. But that aspect is just not fun to read. What is cool in this story is the main “bad guy” is a kid: the Insect Boy, so dubbed because of his interest in bugs. He kidnaps a girl and uses his bug knowledge to set up traps and false paths for his persuers and is shocked when Lincoln Rhyme keeps right on his tail and eventually catches up with him. Pretty cool.

Whew! I was supposed to come in at 2 a.m. but instead I arrived in the early afternoon. My evening flight out of Houston on Thursday was delayed so they rebooked me for a flight this morning, as I would have missed my connecting flight in Vegas. I arrived in Portland and my mom picked me up — and informed me that Grandpa was back in the hospital. She’d been caring for him in my absense. He’s got an infection in his hip replacement and we’ve been fighting it with infusion therapy at home, but apparently his kidneys are not doing well and they wanted him at the hospital. Nice to come home to such calm chaos!

Author: Jeffery Deaver

Better in concept than in actuality. The concept is cool — a rogue pyschologist uses his gift of persuasion to cause all sorts of mayhem in a quest for revenge — but the story turns out to be little more than a mild chase caper. There are a few nice Deaver twists, but the story still feels slight.

It was another great conference. Exhausting, but that’s to be expected. I learned a great deal and made some good contacts. Had a fun time. It’s really wild meeting people in person you only know online, and even stranger being at a place where everyone knows and uses REAlbasic! Tonight I head off to Houston, where I’ll stay with my cousin and her husband before returning to Portland.