Movie Review: The Water Diviner (4.5 stars)

The Water Diviner

Released: December 2014 (Australia) and April 2015 (America)

Watched Netflix BluRay: February 2016

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:

Four years after the Battle of Gallipoli, Australian farmer Joshua Connor (Russell Crowe) travels to Turkey to find his three sons, who never returned home from the war. When he arrives in Istanbul, he meets others who have also suffered losses: hotelier Ayshe (Olga Kurylenko) and her son, Orhan, who befriends Connor; and Major Hasan (Yilmaz Erdogan), a Turkish officer who fought against Connor’s sons and now may be their father’s only hope in finding closure.

My thoughts:

My husband and I watched this on Saturday afternoon, Valentine’s Day weekend.  I did not expect there to be a touching romance, but was pleasantly surprised to find one midst all the death Joshua persevered through in his search for his sons

Continue reading “Movie Review: The Water Diviner (4.5 stars)”

My Son Turns Thirty

I should have scheduled this post to publish just after two o’clock this afternoon, which would have been thirty years to the hour marking the birth of Derek Randall Moss.  But, I couldn’t wait that long to welcome my son to his third decade.

As you can surmise, this blog post will be a trip down memory lane for me.  And unfortunately I don’t have many photos of Derek from his first decade.  It was the age of film cameras and I owned a very cheap almost disposable 35 mm camera that I took a few snapshots with.  I later scanned a few of them to create digital copies, but many of them still languish in shoe boxes in the storage room.  Oddly, I have more video footage of both kids on old mini-VHS than I do still photos.  At least until we reach the mid-90s when digital photography really started taking off.

First Photo taken of Derek (9 Feb 1986)
First Photo taken of Derek (9 Feb 1986)

I won’t go into the gory details but some interesting trivia from the night before.  Continue reading “My Son Turns Thirty”

Vanishing Addendum of DVR Highlights

Continuing in the vein of my previous post, I haven’t completely neglected my DVR this January, although it is my last resort for entertainment (see my reference to inferior HD quality provided by satellite subscription).

This week brought back the formidable Agent Carter who is apparently carrying the investigative torch of the mysterious and ancient society obsessed with the portal stone most recently perplexing the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  This is another series Terry rolls his eyes at.  I accused him of not caring for it because it has such a strong female lead.  He protested that was not the case.  I just love period dramas – the costumes, cars, sets, locations, etc.  Besides, we final met Jarvis’ wife (rumor was last season that she was a figment of Jarvis’ imagination).

I’ve dragged Terry along watching the new Syfy original series The Expanse, based on the SF book series of the same name by James S.A. Corey.  Except for one small quibble, I really enjoyed the first book of that series, Leviathan Wakes, and I do plan to eventually continuing reading the books.  I’m enjoying watching the series because good SF television series are few and far between.

But enough science fiction.  How about some epic fantasy?  Enjoyed Terry Brook’s Shannara books, including the original 1977 Sword of Shannara?  Then tune in to MTV (yes I really did just type those three letters) to feast your eyes upon The Shannara Chronicles, which debuted this month.  I’m three episodes in and pretty much hooked.

That’s it for now.  Can’t remember if anything else is forthcoming that I’m interested in.  If you have a suggestion for a show I should try, please leave a comment.

Oh, and Phase I of my weekend work project completed successfully.  Now we wait … so time to watch another episode of Manhattan.

 

 

 

The Case of the Vanishing January

Today is the 22nd of January and of 2016.  I woke up this morning to a bitter cold Friday, to the prospect of working through most of the weekend.  Not the best way to start your day.  A huge project I’ve been involved with for many many moons is finally rolling out.  So while I’m stressed beyond belief, I’m excited to finally be able to put this project in the completed bin come Monday morning.  Then it’s on to the next “Big Thing,” er, project.

Stressful work-life aside, January wasn’t a complete loss for leisure.  I’ve read a space opera that I liked, listened to an audiobook for a book club that was interesting, read my first graphic novel for another book club and read an ebook novella (click here to see what I’ve read so far this year).  Continue reading “The Case of the Vanishing January”

Recipe Review: Alton Brown’s Lentil Soup (4 stars)

Traditionally, people tend to eat black eyed peas for good luck on New Year’s Day.  I bucked that trend (and to be honest I don’t actually remember ever having eaten black eyed peas) and decided to make, for the very first time, lentil soup.

I’ve had great luck with recipes from Alton Brown’s kitchen so when I found this Lentil Soup one, I decided to give it a try.

All of the ingredients I used were organic, which the exception of the spices.  And speaking of spices, I had to skip the ground Grains of Paradise as I could not find that spice at my local grocers.   I will have to special order that spice for the next time I make this recipe.  And there will be a next time.

This was super (or should I say ‘souper’) easy to make.  And it didn’t take me as long as his recipe stated to prep.  Probably just 15-20 minutes instead of thirty minutes.  I sweated the vegetables a little longer than his recipe stated because I used my new crockpot and not a dutch oven.

Terry and I both had two bowls of the lentil soup for supper.  Very good.  We have enough left over to freeze and/or eat again later this week.

Happy New Year!

Full Moon Merry Christmas

Tomorrow, just after six o’clock in the morning and just as the sun is rising, we’ll experience the first full moon to occur on Christmas Day since 1977.  I wasn’t even in high school yet in 1977 (although my husband was already in college by then).  If you miss opening this Christmas present, you won’t get another chance until 2034 (by which time I should be retired).

Other astronomical items of note this holiday week include:

  • On the 4th day of Christmas (Monday that is), Mercury reaches its peak distance from the sun 30 minutes after sunset in the southwest.
  • On the 5th day of Christmas (Tuesday), Saturn continues its return from behind the Sun.  Look to the southeast in the pre-dawn morning time.
  • On the 6th day of Christmas (Wednesday), look up and south to spy the Seven Sisters (aka as the Pleiades)
  • On the 8th day of Christmas (Happy New Year!), use binoculars to find Comet Catalina rising close to Arcturus (a very bright star) around midnight and continue to rise high in the southeast until dawn twilight.
  • On the 9th day of Christmas (Saturday, January 2, 2016) the Earth reaches its closest point to the Sun (at the start of Winter no less)
  • On the last day of Christmas (Twelfth Night) at 10 p.m. EST, Pluto hides behind the Sun.

Comet Catalina

For more interesting astronomical events and items, please visit Astronomy magazine’s The Sky This Week: December 25, 2015 – January 10, 2016 web page.

May the brightest star guide you in your search for Peace, Love and Joy.

Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

The Dark Side Slumbers or Stumbles

Like many other Star Wars fans, I was seduced into a dark movie theater this past weekend to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  My husband and father accompanied me to the show.   But all was not unicorns and rainbows even from the start.

I recently learned that my favorite movie theater complex for the past ten years, the Legends 14, changed hands.  Almost mirroring the movie I was about to see, the Phoenix rising from the ashes of better distribution contracts fizzled before the dawn of AMC, which is anything but “amazing” (a snide reference to their marketing mantra).

Continue reading “The Dark Side Slumbers or Stumbles”

My Year in Books ~ 2015 Edition

GoodReads did something interesting today that I’m going to share here.  They created a nifty page that summarizes my ‘year in books’ for 2015.  Here’s the link to what they came up with:

My Year in Books ~ 2015 Edition

But since I stop actually rating books on GoodReads a couple of years ago, the results of somewhat skewed.

To see what I loved in 2015, try this link:

Books I Loved Reading in 2015

To see the books I liked, follow this link:

Books I Liked Reading in 2015

To see the meh and other underwhelming reads, follow these links:

Meh

Disliked or Abandoned

I had to halve my Reading Challenge this year.  Normally I read close to or over one hundred books in a year.  Due to work pressures and family health issues, I had to severely curtail my reading time.  And, these days, I hardly actually read a print edition or even an ebook.  The only time I have to ‘read’ is while commuting (about 90 minutes per weekday) so most of my reading has been audiobooks.  Consequently, I also have not written many book reviews this year.  I just never seem to find the time.  I may write up some mini-reviews, especially on those fiction titles that were released this year and are still making the rounds.

I may finish one or two more books yet before 2015 ends.  I do not plan to change drastically my reading habits for 2016.  Work projects should ease up by February so I may actually get more reading done.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and hope your stockings are stuffed with books.

 

Beyond PC « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website

http://www.lemodesittjr.com/2015/12/08/beyond-pc/

AKA calling a spade a spade.

This is almost the complete opposite of what Scalzi posted earlier today on his blog Whatever.

I’m on the fence. I don’t like intentionally harming anyone, including their feelings.

But when a religion or political entity fails the basic human rights test, what is our duty as members of said hunan race to heal that wound? Is it more bandages? Or surgery?

These questions keep me up at night. And we seem to be returning to the Cold War (the Sequel) and the threat of M.A.D. I had hoped my unborn grandchildren would not have to grow up under that doomsday cloud.

And on that depressing note, I’ll bid you ado.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon