Sin City Poster, originally uploaded by rikimaru0101.

What I'm Watching:

Sin City: I've seen it before. I recommended it to Nancy, who wanted to know about the violence against women in this movie. I had to think about it - I recall saying that I didn't think the movie is anti-women and that most of the violence towards women is implied. Now after watching it again I have to stand by my remarks. For the record, theres a couple of shootings, smackings, and one whipping on-screen, but none of the scenes struck me as voyeuristic nor at any time did the tone of the movie imply "she had it coming". The violence towards the men, however, both heroes and villains, is downright torture-porn.

Not all the men are monsters; Bruce Willis especially is a decent man who rescues a young girl from being raped, tortured, and murdered. He spends a long time in jail for his good deed, and keeps himself sane and in one piece because the girl he rescued sends him letters. The other two heroes - a totally unrecognizable Mickey Rourke and a very recognizable Clive Owen - are hoods but because they actually like women and try to help them, are heroes of sorts.

Even though most of the women in Sin City are all prostitutes or strippers exotic dancers, the movie is sympathetic to them and portrays the men who exploit them as monsters. Really gross monsters. If I have any complaints I'm not much into the 'women as helpless victims for heroes to rescue' stories, but the movie totally makes up for it with a sequence where a bunch of scantilly-clad, pretty hookers open fire on a bunch of men (who had it coming).

So in short I think women would like this film. As for men who are wondering if they should watch: the movie has whores with guns! what more do you want?

Twinkle Twinkle Patrick Star

Starfish, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Getting 'prepped' for a colonoscopy involves a 'bowel prep kit'. The one I was prescribed was called 'Halflytely' which consists of two tablets that get things moving, so to speak, and a 2-liter jug of some godawful tasting stuff that you mix and then slam down 8 ounces of the stuff every 10 minutes until the jug is empty. Hilarity ensues, if you enjoy poop jokes.

I was going to make a joke about 20 tabasco-soaked chicken wings and a six-pack being cheaper, but I'll stop.

The procedure was far more pleasant because the doc and nurses knocked me out before spelunking.

Anyway the doc removed a polyp and I presume that's being tested and he will tell me the results on Monday about it. Once the demerol wore off I started really thinking about that damn polyp. From what I can tell it's probably nothing but the last time I wrote those words I ended up losing a boob.

Action B

Getting wet, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Julys seem slow to me. The only thing new in my section of the country is Brenden's swimming skill set is growing in leaps and bounds. He will now swim underwater and jump off the diving board. We spend so much time in the pool that all three of us permanently smell like chlorine. Brenden is also a nice cocoa brown, except for underneath his trunks.

I have that colonoscopy this coming Monday, so that's something to look forward to!

Happy kids that have nothing to do with this post.

DSC_0074, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

What I'm Watching:

Not much, but I'll recap:

Jumper Kinda boring, even with interesting premise (teleportation) and Samuel L. Jackson.

Dairy of the Dead A George Romero zombie movie. I lost interest. WTF?

Out of the Blue I'm kind of sorry I watched this, it's about a true incident in 90's New Zealand where a nutbag went postal. I'm sorry I watched because it involved the death of kids (thankfully all off screen but still pretty haunting). I watched it however because my newest imaginary boyfriend, Karl Urban, is in it. You might remember him as Eomer in Lord of the Rings but he was hidden under a lot of hair. I'm totally excited that he's playing Dr. McCoy in the new Star Trek movie. I'm also thrilled that Eric Bana is playing a Romulan. Double-shot, woo hoo!

Just because I want Joss Whedon to succeed at everything he does:

No more sparklers. Bummer.

No more sparklers, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm trying to read more books - it's easier for me on the weekends to carry a book around while chasing Brenden than try and use the computer. I realized recently that I had basically quit reading for pleasure around 10 years ago and I miss books. On her last visit here Nancy brought me some books which I'm working through, and I'm also trying to read some classics simply because I'm appalled that I've never read them.

I finished Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms Sunday and while I admire the way the man wrote - he never wasted a word, ever! - I find him a total downer. Read it because it is a classic, but have something by Terry Pratchett nearby for afterwards so you can shake the gloom out pronto.

When I'm trying to judge something, I go by the old standard of what was the author /director /whatever trying to say, and how well did he /she /it achieve it? But I also have to add in something I learned from Ayn Rand: what is the sense of life in the work? I think I once mentioned on this blog that I'd rather watch any given episode of McGyver than sit through any of Stanley Kubrick's movies simply because of a more optimistic sense of life in the former despite the superior technical ability of the latter.

Look, I'm not saying every story has to have a happily ever after ending. I just prefer to read stories by people who cherish life and understand that no matter how bad it gets it's still a gift. I think that's the reason why Dan Simmons is my current favorite author: even though horribly bad crap happens to good people in his writing I still get a sense of optimism and hope by the end of his books (even if I'm crying me a river).

WOW BOOM!

WOW BOOM!, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I'm going to stop writing Brenden monthly letters, because this blog is basically all about Brenden anyways, with an occasional "what I'm watching" report thrown in occasionally.

So, Brenden's going through a defiance phase. He says "no!" to everything. Fortunately it's easy to take something away from him and he whines but that doesn't bother me. I like that he's learning that there are consequences to his actions. Sometimes it's pretty simple, like he found a dime in the couch this morning. He exclaimed "money!" and "mine!" which was fine with me.

Then I said, "put your shoes on, hon, it's time to leave". He said "No!" so I confiscated his dime, and told him he could have it back when he put his shoes on. Hey, it worked, with a little fussing.

Brenden loves fireworks. We went over to a friend's house on Thursday and shot off a bunch of stuff (there are some advantages to living in Alabama). Brenden's comments were along the lines of "WOW, BOOM!"

He's getting better at swimming. He'll get close to Jon or I in the shallow end, then duck his head under and dog-paddle towards us and grab a hand or a shirt.

Brenden is pretty much completely toilet trained, except at night time and that's my fault because I still have half a big box of diapers. Also, I'm not completely ready to remove the gate from his door. Once we do that there will be no peace ever. Not that we have that now.

Brenden's First Movie

Wall-E, originally uploaded by JasonCross.

Yep, we took B to Wall-e! And it was only a semi-fiasco. He got bored about halfway through - he just doesn't like to sit still for that long.

Sure it was only a 93 minute movie, but tack on that FARGING 15 MINUTES OF CELL PHONE COMERCIALS!!! ZOMG WTF?!!!?!!!11!

Add to that the popcorn was stale and expensive and the picture just wasn't that great I think I'm going to stick with NETFLIX from now on.

I gotta admit I enjoyed the Indiana Jones movie in the theater, but we arrived 15 minutes late and didn't even miss the Paramount Logo.

The movie? Pixar's worst movie still remains A Bug's Life. I can't tell you where it ranks yet (I need to see it when I don't have to accompany a bored toddler to the bathroom every 15 minutes) but what I did see was wonderful, great, fun, etc etc etc in otherwords typical Pixar.

Oh and anyone who gets their panties in a wad because of any message they find in the movie: get a life.