Vampire Movies

bk loves a good slasher/vampire/zombie flick as well as the next person. Better than the average person, I should say. And I, often shrinkingly, try to be supportive. This movie however, I wanted to see.

It was a coming of age story with a twist, it had vampires, humor, pathos and -- damn it -- it was foreign! Then, unfortunately, we watched it. We got it on Netflix and watched it and we turned to each other at the credits and said, WTF?

The story has good pacing, good photography, it was appealing both visually and auditorily (where did I come up with that word), but it was emotionally flat and the story didn't make sense in places. What the heck had we been fooled into watching?

A few days later, we heard about the controversy. It seems that the DVD releasers did not want to pay the same clever subtitler who had so effectively subtitled the Finnish movie for English-speaking audiences and made its sweetness and humor so apparent to theatre-goers.

Long story short, they have decided to redo the subtitles of the DVD.

Here's an article about that (with links for more information).

Linda Holmes writes on NPR.org

And here's a trailer that tells you why we thought it would be so special (and apparently is, if you watch the right subtitles). ;-)

Octomom

I am absolutely enthralled by how skanky Nadya Suleman has turned out to be. From the very moment I saw her I said, "Omigod! She wants to be Angelina Jolie!" which is kind of freaky because now everytime I see a picture of AJ, I think, "Omigod, it's the octomom!"

It's a car wreck that I can't turn away from. Everytime she fires a nanny or has a press conference or gets another pair of her 14 children home I can't tear my eyes from it. So I especially enjoyed this:

29 in 30

Second, I got a bodybugg! It's a device that you wear on your arm (all the time) and it measures your calories burned for the day. It is an amazing tool and it's like a Jiminy Cricket because it keeps you from cheating. Er, well -- it nags you incessantly for cheating.

The way the system works is that you plug in what you consume (and I've been really good about being honest, I know that when I talk to a counselor they will say, well, 32 oz. of wine a day is really not ideal...) and the bug measures what you burn and they tell you if there is a deficit. Simple. It's my first week. I'm expecting a good, solid, 3 pound loss for the week on Sunday. And I've worked my butt off for it so will be very disappointed if it's not that.

But I will still think it is a great tool.

30 in 30

So, yeah, that's my goal: 30 blog posts in 30 days. I have to warn you, it's not so much because I have 30 interesting things to say. And I freely admit I'm going to post two tonight because I probably won't be posting tomorrow.

First, let me say that I found a short series of pictures from the ice storm that I think are really pretty and that I haven't altered at all (and that's post 1!). Go ahead and click on them! (They are pretty pictures.)

Alex

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Originally uploaded by BillJKirby

I guess technically I shouldn't post this, but I'll let bk put the kibosh on it if he desires. This is one of those pictures that's outstanding when you know the kid involved.

That's Alex. Outstanding!


p.s. Edited to add that the other character is from Trilogy of Terror. Don't mess with his belt!!!

Complications

bk hangs on the smoker's dock. Not that he smokes and not that they're allowed to do it on the loading dock anymore (they are now relegated to an area they refer to as "The Slope").

We have a friend who is a bit tough to describe, she's probably about 110 pounds, short and spiky red hair, heavy smoker (she rolls her own), and wears jeans so tight they look painted on. Her attitude hovers somewhere between absurd optimism and radical cynicism.

The other day they were on the slope and she turned to bk and said, "Why are you so quiet all the time? You so fucking happy you have nothing to say?"

He just smiled.

(Mentioned by way of commenting on my own silence.)