Killing is OK

This is a rant. I warned you there’d be some of these.

Picture this:

You and the girl you’re kinda into (except-let’s-keep-it-in-the-subtext) are running across the planet in a bid to find safety. The crazy, murderous preacher who’s tried to kill you both before is coming after you. In a climactic moment, he catches up with you and tries, yet again, to kill you. Somehow you get the upper hand. You don’t kill him. Instead you keep running.

Rinse and repeat three (or is it four?) times.

That’s pretty much the plot of Chaos Walking, a trilogy by Patrick Ness.

Chaos Walking actually has an interesting premise: In the future when Earth is inevitably ruined by careless, violent humans, other humans seek a new life on other planets. One group lands on New World, a planet where the natives (Spackle) communicate telepathically. Pretty soon, the newly-arrived men find that, like the Spackle, their thoughts are being transmitted aloud for all to hear. They call this “Noise.” Women, for some reason, aren’t affected.

Like I said, it’s an interesting and original idea. Leaves lots of room for discussion.

However. There were multiples times when I wanted to reach into those pages and shake the characters till their teeth rattled in their imbecilic heads.

Namely, whenever

What Would You Title This Blog?

Image via Wikipedia

I was very eager to start this blog.

I’d just finished a Lord of the Rings marathon; I read all the books and then watched each movie (twice).

So you can imagine my mind was a bit preoccupied with LOTR at the time. I needed a blog title, and “I Know What Hunts You” is – you guessed it – a Lord of the Rings reference.

Specifically when Aragorn asks Frodo if he’s frightened – Frodo replies, “Yes,” to which Aragorn says, “Not nearly frightened enough. I know what hunts you.”

Bah dah dah dum.

It might have been a good title for a blog post, but it wasn’t the smartest choice for my blog name and URL, which is not as easily changeable.

Still, I’m seriously considering changing my blog name, maybe relocating my blog, and I’d like your help! If you have any ideas for a blog name that fits the scope of my blog, please let me know. Nothing’s too silly or obvious, so leave your thoughts in the comments, or contact me directly.

If I end up using your idea, you’ll get a special mention!!

February 29

February 29th is the coolest day of the year.

In fact, it’s so cool, it can’t be bothered to show up most years.

It waltzes in every so often between February 28th and March 1st, gives us mere mortals an extra day to live, and single-handedly rights our calendars so that we don’t end up celebrating New Year’s in the summer.

I want you to appreciate what February 29th is offering us: An extra 24 hours to do all those things we said we’d do if we had just a few more hours in the day.

Treat yourself.

Spend time with your loved ones.

Do that thing you haven’t done for years that you really want to do again.

It’s not every day that it’s February 29th (otherwise, I wouldn’t have dedicated a post to it).

Be Back Soon!

Hi all!

This is just a short message to my readers (hi, Mom!) that I won’t be blogging for the next two weeks.

I’ve been really good at getting blog posts out pretty much every other day, so I wanted to let you know that I’m not abandoning my blog. I’m just taking a break, since I’m on a trip.

Hope you’re all enjoying the holiday season, whether or not you celebrate the holidays.

Be back soon 🙂

Do You Squidoo?

This month I started writing on Squidoo.com.

Squidoo (created by Seth Godin) is a website that allows its users to create a page about anything they want. Also, you can get paid for you work. Or you can give the money to charity. Or get paid.

Having just started, I’m not yet sure if it’ll be worth the time I’m investing in it, but it’s a fun experiment and if it works out, it’ll be pretty awesome.

So far I’ve written three “lenses” (what Squidoo calls posts). Here they are if you’d like to check them out:

Best Period Movies and Mini Series

A Guide to Spending the Day in a Movie Theatre

The Jewish Holiday of Chanukah (aka Hannukah, Festival of Lights, Festival of Dedication)

When Books Become Movies

It’s always a little nerve-wracking when books become movies.

You read this book, you think it’s awesome, you draw similarities between it and your own life, you really invest in it. Then along come these hotshots from Hollywood and they tweak the story, they add faces to the names, they make the story their own.

And by doing so, they take it away from you.

The next time you read the book, or go on to the next book in the series, you’ll see the actors’ faces instead of the ones you dreamed up and it’ll all take place on the film sets, as opposed to the settings you had in mind. So much for your imagination.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I like movies-based-on-books (Harry Potter comes to mind).

Sometimes the movies are even better than the books (like Lord of the Rings).

But sometimes the story gets butchered.

The reason I bring this up is because one of my favorite books will soon be in a theatre near you.

Can You Choose the Genre of Your Life?

I met a guy the other day. Let’s call him Ben.

We got to talking and he told me a bit about himself:

He’s 23 years old. When he was 19, he started dating a girl, she was 17 at the time – a month into the relationship, her father found out and made them get married. After the wedding, the girl totally changed, she made Ben’s life hell, and after three years and a kid, they got divorced.

It’s been a year since the divorce. He wants to be an engineer, but that isn’t a realistic option for him right now. Instead, he’s stuck in a dead-end job.

His ex still has it out for him. He has a kid to take care of. Wonderful kid, but still. Ben’s in a pretty crummy situation. He’s just starting his life and he’s got all this baggage.

But you know the funny thing? You’d never know it by looking at him. And it’s even harder to believe after talking with him.

Source: Krzysztof Poltorak via fotocommunity

He’s happy. He’s at peace. Not in the least bit cynical. He still believes in the beauty of marriage, and would love to get married again one day.