Goals 2020 -- January Recap

I had success in January by eliminating no fewer than four items which have been lingering on my to-do list for longer than I care to admit.  So I have exceeded my own expectations by one third.  Go me!

What I Watched -- The Spy Who Dumped Me

I love it when S picks out a random movie or show and I have no idea what to expect.  The Spy Who Dumped Me was just such a movie.

Now that you have heard the title and seen the movie poster (right), you probably have some idea how the movie is going to go.  But I did not, which I think made the movie even funnier and more enjoyable!

It's your basic spy, shoot-'em-up movie.  Except, instead of the usual Jason Bourne spy character, the ones who have to carry out the save-the-world task are two totally clueless girls who happen into the job by accident.  Sounds super dumb, right?  And it is.  But it's also surprisingly amusing, as long as you're in the mood for something a little bit dumb.

Bottom line: as I said, surprisingly amusing.

What I Watched -- Don't F**k With Cats

Don't F**k With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer has gotten a lot of press.  When I first saw the trailer for it, I expected that it would generate chatter, as all true crime stories tend to do, but I forgot about it until I had some time to surf through Netflix when I was on vacation.

It's a bit frustrating to watch because the editing is terrible.  There is so much manufactured drama in the interviews!  I had to wonder how many times the interviewers had to ask the subjects, "Can you explain it again, but slower and with more unnecessary detail?"

***SPOILER ALERT***

It was interesting (and also creepy) to see what a group of computer nerds with time to spare can do, but it all comes to nothing until the killer is caught the good old fashioned way by an unsuspecting witness who called the police.  Only after the police independently identify the killer is there actually any connection between the internet nerds and the actual murder investigation.

It is true that the nerds tried to alert the police prior to the murder that they anticipated something would happen, but they got no traction.  (Comments on this issue reserved for later discussion.)

***SPOILERS OVER***

It was interesting to see the whole thing play out, but -- I'm not going to lie -- it was a bit of a letdown at the end.

Rowing to Latitude -- Take 2

It's nice to be on vacation, when a person with a regular job has time to actually read books.  For fun.  What a treat!

Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic's Edge was an easy read for me.  It combines rowing, outdoor exploration, and enjoyable writing.  The problem with this book, though, is that it makes me want to take up ocean and open water rowing.  So there's that.

That one minor issue aside, however, I did very much enjoy reading this book.  For most of the book, it's divided into chapters based on the various rowing/kayaking trips taken by the author and her husband; the last two vary a little bit, pulling out and looking at the bigger picture -- illness, injury, life, death, goals, success, failure.

Overall, a winner.

What I'm Reading Now -- Being Mortal

Being Mortal seemed like a good book to read. Mom has been working in health care, including hospice care, for several years; my grandparents are getting older and have mentioned beginning hospice care; and truthfully ain't none of us gettin' any younger.

So, let's dive in and see what we can learn.

Lumberjack World Championship

Now that the weather is cold and ice and snow are dominating the weather forecasts, let's take a look back to a couple of sunny and warm vacations that S and I have taken but I've never gotten around to writing about.

Close to home, relatively speaking, was the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, Wisconsin.  We left on a Thursday afternoon and headed through Illinois in our van.  We made it across the Wisconsin state line without the wheels shaking off the van, but with all the monstrous and unavoidable potholes, that's a bit of a miracle.  We stayed the night just into Wisconsin, and made the rest of the drive to Hayward on Friday in time to see the afternoon of competition.

And boy, what a hoot it was!  There is sawing, chopping, climbing, running, rolling, and all kinds of other fun.  Lumberjacks and lumberjills competed in the semifinals on Friday and in the finals on Saturday, with the overall winners and the team relay capping the day on Saturday.  My pick for lumberjill, Martha King, won the overall women's championship!

This video from the 2015 championships is a pretty good summary of all the crazy stuff you get to see as an attendee.  And beers will run you around $4 per, with food being also comparably less expensive than a big league sporting event, so it makes for a reasonably-priced weekend.

We also popped into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum, and unfortunately didn't allocate nearly as much time as we needed for it, since we only discovered the old boats and motors right before closing time!  Also highly recommended is a stop for an enormous breakfast at Tiny's Diner just a little bit outside of town.

The whole weekend was just great, and I highly recommend the trip to all!

SLIFF 2019 (Part III)

My love of short films took us back to the Stage at KDHX, which is hands down the worst of the SLIFF venues that I have experienced so far.  Nevertheless, we braved it again for the Narrative Shorts: Comedy series.  They were not as funny as I hoped, but certainly better than they were the year prior.

The Dog Doc is a profile of Marty Goldstein, a veterinarian with a preference for holistic treatment.  His methods, though often unconventional and routinely criticized, appear to bring relief to lots of dogs whose illnesses and injuries have baffled other vets.

Because one dog movie isn't enough, we also saw To Be of Service.  This film explores the traumatic, often invisible, effects of PTSD, and the relief that can be provided through a properly trained canine companion.  A handful of veterans and their dogs are profiled, and though the pups certainly do not solve all problems, they make a big difference.

We rounded out the festival with some more short films, this time Narrative Shorts: Marriage Stories.  It was, as the festival organizers called it, a "bookend" to the opening night's selection of Marriage Story.  An interesting collection and a satisfactory ending.

SLIFF 2019 (Part II)

We started our first SLIFF weekend with The Booksellers, which was tailor-made just for me.  It's a peek into the annual rare book sale in New York City, combined with a profile of many of the booksellers, collectors, and other characters who inhabit that world.  It was simply delightful!

We headed from Frontenac to the Tivoli to see Olympic Dreams, the very cute romantic tale of two people, each lost in their own way, at the Olympics in PyeongChang.  She is a cross country skier who lives in the Athlete Village; he is a volunteer dentist.  A fun fact about this movie is that the whole thing was actually filmed in PyeongChang during the Olympics!  And it made for a very cute movie, to boot.

Sunday saw us at Tivoli again, this time to see Our Bodies Our Doctors, an investigation into the great lengths taken by doctors who are willing to perform abortions -- and who see the necessity of compassionate care in that circumstance -- despite all the political obstacles thrown in their path.  The subject is always political, but this shines a light that is kind and contextual.

Standing Up, Falling Down stars Billy Crystal, someone whom I have not seen enough lately.  He plays an alcoholic nearing the end of the line, who befriends a failed stand-up comedian.  The two strike up an unlikely friendship, and help each other realize some of their shortcomings and discover that not everything is as bad as it seems.

SLIFF 2019 (Part I)

Since I mentioned SLIFF in my last post, I guess it's time I tell you what S and I did during my favorite local holiday!

As I mentioned, Marriage Story was one of its featured films.  The problem was that in order to attend that, you also had to buy tickets for the opening night party, which I had no desire to attend.  So we skipped over to day 2 of the festival and saw Doc Shorts: Method M.  It was a collection of short films directed by students at Mizzou's Center for Documentary Journalism.

First up was 37-64-97.  It was made in substantial party from archival footage that the director's grandmother had filmed.  It was pieced together in such a way as to attempt to explore the relationship between the grandmother, the mother, and the director.  It met with some success in that regard, though I would consider it more of a tribute piece to honor the (now deceased) grandmother as much as anything else.

HorseGirl was our second selection, which was my favorite of the bunch.  It profiles a young horse trainer who left home as a teenager with her horse, and the two of them had to find their way in the world.  Eventually she found work doing what she loves and working with rescued horses, training them so they can be ridden again.

Jack (and Joe) would have been wonderful, if things had worked out right.  The director's long-time friend had a severely autistic brother, and the film is a tribute to him, and also to all the people who care for him.  The problem was with the film's audio; apparently there was a narrative track that was supposed to be playing over parts of the movie, but it was missing.  So something was certainly lost, but it was a sweet film even without it.

Qualm & Quietus was an odd one.  It purports to explore death and impermanence.  It seemed like more of an exploration of the pagan religion followed by its main (and really only) character.  There were some interesting, zen-generation snippets of reflection about death, but mostly it seemed to miss the mark because of the strangeness of everything else in the film.

What I Watched -- Marriage Story

Marriage Story had three things going for it when I first learned about it.  (1) It stars Scarlett Johansson, who is pretty much always wonderful. (2) I consider movies about relationships falling apart to be research (not personal).  (3) It was featured at SLIFF, which means nothing about its quality necessarily, but if it's terrible, it's at least going to be interesting to talk about. 

The movie is titled Marriage Story, and my initial thought before watching it (but after seeing the trailer) was that it might be more aptly titled Separation Story.  It really is a marriage story, though.  But it is a separation story too.

Scarlett and Adam Driver play Nicole and Charlie.  They live in New York with their young son, until Nicole -- who has always wanted to move back to California, where she's from -- takes an acting job that requires her to be on the west coast.  Her show gets picked up, so she stays longer.  She enrolls the son in school for the next school year, since Charlie is busy in New York producing his new Broadway play.  And things start to fall apart.  That's how it's a separation story.

The marriage part comes through each of their conversations with their divorce lawyers, and their conversations with each other.  The picture starts to come into focus about how things went so wrong between them, and how neither of them noticed it happening while it did.

Bottom line: well done, and a little close to home.

What I Watched -- Zack and Miri Make a Porno

When Zack and Miri Make a Porno came out, the range of my desire to see it was from little to none.  I adore Elizabeth Banks, but I really dislike Seth Rogen, and his presence alone was enough to tamp down any inkling of desire that I had to see the film on account of its lead actress.

Then, I think because it was on Netflix and we were bored, S and I watched it.  And it was pretty funny!  And also cute!  And I liked it much more than I anticipated that I would.

Zack and Miri are long-time friends and roommates.  They find themselves short of cash to make the rent (and keep the utilities on), so decide the best way to make a quick but is ... you guessed it!  So they set about their project and deal with the consequences.

Bottom line: when the bar is low, it's easy to get over it.

[Aside: having now seen this movie, I realize that maybe it's not Seth Rogen himself whom I dislike, but rather the choices he makes about which movie roles to take.  But in the world of Hollywood, it amounts to more or less the same thing, doesn't it?]

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Goals 2020 -- January Edition

This month, I am going to cross three things off my to-do list.  But not in the way that you normally see that happening.

We all have to-do lists, right?  And we all have some things on those lists that just hang on forever because they are not high enough priority to actually get done.  But we keep them on this list because we have the idea that some day we will do them, and then we will feel better for having done so.

However, during all those intervening days and weeks and months when those things are just hanging there on your list, staring back at you, they make you feel bad.  Useless.  Unproductive.  And the truth is, since they've been there so long and still not gotten done and the sky has not fallen, they're just not that important!

So this month, I will pick three things on my list and just get rid of them.  Not do them.  Just eliminate them.

And how will this further my goal of Clearing My Mind, Simplifying My Life?  By getting those items off my list, out of my eye line, and off of my brain, I can free up that space that's always reserved for, "oh, yeah, I really should do that..." for other things!

Goals 2020

My 2020 goals will have an overarching theme.  Each month, I will identify my goal and tell you how it fits with my theme of Clearing My Mind, Simplifying My Life.

Why this theme?  Simple: I have too much going on.  Some of it is of my own making, some are things that I feel others expect of me (even if they don't), some are things that others really do expect of me, and some are just those obligations that we all have in life whether we like it or not.

So I'm going to spend this year trying to pare down some of those things.  I don't have grand visions that at the end of the year I'll be an enlightened, homeless, obligationless individual.  But I do hope that each month I can inch a little bit closer in that direction.

Happy New Year!