Category: Musings

Movie Review: Shaolin (2011) ~ 4 Stars

shaolin-posterartShaolin

Released: 2011

Watched: late September 2016 via Netflix streaming

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Directed by: Benny Chan

Starring: Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse with an appearance by Jackie Chan

Short Synopsis (via IMDb.com):  After ambushing and killing his rival, losing everything in the process, dispirited warlord Hou Jie turns to a Shaolin monastery seeking salvation.

My Thoughts

My husband caught part of this movie on our Dish Network DVR, but was unable to find another airing of it to re-record the whole movie.  Neither was it available On Demond from Dish Network.  I did find it, however, available via Netflix streaming.  We streamed it on a lazy Sunday evening.  We’d spent much of the day being lazy thanks to a gentle fall rain which ended in a spectacular sunset:

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I didn’t realize until after finishing the movie that this was a remake of Jet Li’s classic Shaolin Temple (1982), which I have not seen (or don’t remember watching) but will remedy that lack in the near future.

While I enjoyed the story and the martial arts in Shaolin, what struck me most was the performance by Andy Lau.  I’ve now added at least four more of his recent and highest rated films to my Netflix queue.  Many of the supporting actors turned in good performances as well.

Many of the themes resonate with my Christian upbringing and lead me to further research and reading into Buddhism.  I need to foster tolerance and understanding, embrace our similarities and understand our differences.  Knowledge is power and tempered with love and compassion, can make the world a better place.

Autumn Arrives and Adventures in Astronomical Observing

Autumn arrived mid-week here in the Heart of America, but you wouldn’t have known it by looking at the weather forecast:  Mid 90s and moderately high humidity.  Also with the change of the seasons, I retired my FitBit Charge (or rather it retired itself by falling apart) and upgraded to a Samsung Gear Fit2.  The new fitness tracker is spurring me on to be more active, although my sleep pattern hasn’t improved much. I can safely blame work (10 pm to 4 am conference call on a Saturday night/Sunday morning) and astronomy, which requires, well, dark skies, for my reduced snooze time.

Speaking of astronomy, I’ve upgraded, finally after two years of paralysis analysis, from the Meade ETX 90, gifted to me by my father in October 2010 (also, unsurprisingly the birth of this blog site), to an Orion SkyQuest XX14G.  Continue reading “Autumn Arrives and Adventures in Astronomical Observing”

Thoughts on the Eye in the Sky

I watched Eye in the Sky several weeks ago and made sure my dad also watched it.  We (my ad and I) had to wait to discuss the movie with my uncle, a retired Air Force Colonel, until had a chance to watch the movie.  If you have not watched this movie, I highly recommend it.

My questions to him included the micromanagement of the civilian government(s) during the operation; the incredible moral dilemma placed upon the drone pilot; the portrayal of the American government as being the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ sort; and of course the excellent closing remarks made by the now deceased Alan Rickman to his civilian government overseer.

“Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war.”

Movie Review: Eye in the Sky, directed by Gavin Hood Four Stars “Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war.” Alan Rickman’s last movie investigates waging war in the twenty-first century. The movie centers on the complexity and mortal dilemmas surrounding using drones as remote killing weapons. Helen Mirren stars, […]

via Movie Review: Eye in the Sky, directed by Gavin Hood (Four Stars) — As a Matter of Fancy

Stranger Things than the Americans

About a month ago, I realized my Netflix queue was thinning out.  And at about the same time, I finished watching the second season of Manhattan, which I knew had been cancelled but still felt compelled to completely watch what was available.  I went looking for interesting television shows to watch.  During the summer and early fall, we enjoy TNT’s The Last Ship and Syfy’s Dark Matter, but those series have very short seasons (at most ten or twelve episodes).  I tried and loved Stranger Things and hope that Netflix backs the second season.  I also finished watching the second season of Marco Polo, but again, both of those Netflix series are good, but very short (eight or ten episodes each).

I added Arrow, Jessica Jones and Limitless to my streaming queue.  I’ve watched several episodes of Arrow and found it okay.  I’ve watched one episode of Jessica Jones and found it disturbing but since it won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form I will stick to it and see if it gets more palatable (I doubt it but as I learned in a lecture this past week, conflict feels like imminent danger, but we don’t need to act upon it or react so negatively towards it … so stepping out of my comfort zone is a good thing sometimes).  I have not yet watched any episodes of Limitless.

Continue reading “Stranger Things than the Americans”

WorldCon Withdrawals

Despite what my husband thinks, I have not over-dosed on science fiction since last Wednesday when the 74th World Science Fiction Convention (commonly referred to as WorldCon) arrived for the second time in Kansas City, Missouri.  MidAmeriCon II ended yesterday and of course the highlight of those five days was the Hugo Awards Ceremony held Saturday evening.

20160817_073751In fact, I sincerely hoped when I woke up this morning it wouldn’t be to the harsh reality of a Monday morning workday.  Ah, but life is cruel and the alternate dimension I’d enjoyed for five days evaporated into the dreary doldrums of gainful employment.  Well, not completely dreary.  Perhaps dreaded would be more like it, since I knew I’d be walking into some ‘hot potatoes’ once I strapped myself to my desk.

Continue reading “WorldCon Withdrawals”

Hugos in the Heart of America

I am attending WorldCon this week since it’s basically in my backyard. I’ll be tweeting highlights and photos throughout the con. I’ve also signed up as a volunteer so I’ll be behind the curtain so to speak most mornings. Follow me on Twitter @mossjon to see my updates and outtakes.

The 2016 Hugo Awards Ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, August 20, 2016 at 8 PM Central Daylight Time in the Kansas City Convention Center’s Grand Ballroom in Kansas City, Missouri. The Hugo Awards web site will once again offer text-based coverage of the Hugo Awards ceremony via CoverItLive, suitable for people with bandwidth restrictions. For…

via 2016 Hugo Ceremony Coverage Plans — The Hugo Awards

Writer’s Shift – L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

This time around it’s Modesitt’s thoughts on how the publishing industry has changed over the last forty years. Yes, he’s been cranking out great books since before my eldest son was born.

Over the past few years I’ve been asked how the field of writing has changed since I was first published, a question I suspect comes up because I’ve managed to stay published for a long enough time that I might have some perspective on any possible changes affecting writers, in particular. Some of the changes…

via Writers’ Shift — L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website

The Self-Made Myth — L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

I always savor the wisdom of Modesitt and I hope you don’t mind that I occasionally want to spread it around a bit with a reblog post here:

It’s always baffled me how so many successful, usually white, usually male, individuals claim that they alone were close to solely responsible for their success, discounting or ignoring so many factors that contributed to that success. One factor that’s so often discounted is simply the fact that it’s easier to take risks if you’ll still…

via The Self-Made Myth — L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website

Wildflower Garden Update

20160609_055708Last fall, we had some landscaping done on the east and north sides of the house. The south side just had some fill dirt graded against the foundation and a cherry try planted between the apple tree and the fence. We also removed the bothersome mulberry terry from the corner of the fenced backyard.

I attempted to grow sunflowers last summer with limited success.  This year, I decided I wanted a wildflower garden to give bees and hopefully hummingbirds something to enjoy.  I bought a bag of wildflower seed, raked the fill dirt to loosen it and even it out and liberally sprinkled the seed along the entire south wall of the house.  A few weeks later, I’m starting to see blooms, thanks in no small part to nearly ten inches of rain we received in May.

Continue reading “Wildflower Garden Update”

Portable Puzzling

I remember spending time with my grandmother putting together large landscape jigsaw puzzles as a child.  I have always had exceptional pattern recognition abilities, probably a direct result of my photographic memory.  Whether it’s puzzle pieces or star hopping using binoculars and a telescope, I can look at the missing space once and sort through hundreds (or thousands) of pieces and match it in my memory before confirming it by snapping it into place.

But with the advent of my own children, and then followed by large dogs who think puzzle pieces are dog treats, I just haven’t thought it was worth it to do jigsaw puzzles at home for quite a long time.

Spurred on by the “Exercise Your Mind” Bingo card challenge, I went searching for a 21st century alternative to thwart my Rottweilers.  I found an app for my tablet that allows me to complete a puzzle and never worry about dropping a piece to be snatched up by the mobile black hole on four feet padding around my kitchen.

Here’s the Flickr album I created today to track my progress while completing my first virtual jigsaw puzzle of “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh:

Jigsaw Puzzles

This satisfies my love for great works of art, astronomy and puzzles. My mind is doing mental cartwheels right now.