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Katie (868 KP) rated Sling in Apps

Sep 22, 2018  
Sling
Sling
Entertainment, Photo & Video
9
7.3 (3 Ratings)
App Rating
Flexible plan choices (2 more)
Affordable
Easy to use
Some skipping during shows (0 more)
I finally decided to make the switch from cable to Sling and I'm glad I did. I chose the "blue" plan with DVR and HBO and it is the perfect amount of television for my family for a great price.

I've tried Sling on my android phone, Roku and Fire stick and it runs smoothly on all three devices. I've only experienced some skipping when using it and it's most often during commercials and not during the actual show. I'm not sure why this is, but it doesn't really bother me.

The DVR offers up to 50 hours of recording. I am able to record as many shows as I like at one time even when I have my devices shut off (there are some limitations to what can be recorded I believe, but I haven't run into any of them). Cable only allowed me to record one show at a time and my box had to be running. If I wanted to record more than that It would add another $10-25 to my bill as well as some installation fees, not to mention the amount of electricity the box uses when left running.

Not only that, there are tons of television shows and movies available On Demand!

One unexpected result of switching to Sling has been that we are actually watching television more because there are no longer so many junk channels to sift through to find something to watch. It's also nice to be able to watch cable in every room (thanks to our streaming devices) rather than only the rooms we can afford to put a cable box in. There is a limit to only 3 streams running at a time with my plan, but I doubt that will ever cause any issues for us.

Sling has made television enjoyable for me and my family again.
  
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Erika (17788 KP) rated Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) in Movies

Dec 29, 2020 (Updated Dec 29, 2020)  
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
2020 | Adventure, Fantasy
I was lucky enough to see this in theaters with my 'rents. I do not agree with Warner Bros decision to release same day on HBO Max, so I initially wasn't going to see it, but my dad bought the tickets.

The story itself isn't bad, but it is wayyyyy too long. I have an issue with how long the first section of the film was, taking place on Themiscyra. It didn't really add to the story, other than showing the gold armor that's worn later. I think it was just an excuse to have Robin Wright and crew in the film.

Kristen Wiig, of course, as horrible as every. Normally, I avoid everything with her like the plague, she's not funny, nor is she a good actress. She was highly annoying, and the CGI at the end was SO BAD. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for bad CGI for these delayed films, they had an extra six months to make sure it looked good.

I loved that Chris Pine returned in WW84, I'm always up for some Chris Pine in movies. I did find Diana's unwillingness to give him up initially a little off for the character. It just wasn't Wonder Woman, and coming from a woman writer, it was weak.

The climatic speech was not the strongest, not unlike the climatic speech in the first film (Seriously, the improper grammar during the climactic speech in WW haunts me). It was just kind of lame.

Now, good ol' Pedro Pascal, I liked his character overall. I wish they'd have shown more of the little snippets of his history prior to the climax, i.e. being made fun of due to being Hispanic, changing his name to something anglo. That was the only point in the film where I actually felt something.

I did like it in general, and I would watch it again. It just wasn't as strong as I wanted.
  
Paper Towns
Paper Towns
John Green | 2013 | Children
6
7.8 (36 Ratings)
Book Rating
"I suppose I never found boredom very boring"

Quentin is a senior in high school. Graduation is right around the corner and then he's off to Duke. When his next door neighbor, Margo knocks on his bedroom window late one night, he's reminded of a time when they were younger and used to truly be friends. Margo is extremely upset about the current status of her relationship with her boyfriend and is looking for someone to help her pull of the ultimate revenge. When Margo goes "missing" the next day, Quentin will stop at nothing to use her breadcrumbs and find her.

I decided to read this book for two reasons. Reason 1: It was coming on HBO and of course I had to read the book before I could watch the movie. Reason 2: I loved The Fault in Our Stars and when I enjoy a book by a particular author, I like to read everything they have written. Now I'm looking forward to watching the movie.

This whole book is based around a group of high school seniors who are out searching for their quirky friend, Margo. I liked the book because it was a quick easy read. It kept my attention throughout and I had to know how it was going to end. The book brought me back to my high school years(especially with my 20 year reunion coming up) with the references to poetry and prose I read during that time. During my 11th grade year we read a lot of poetry and classic literature. Interpreting poetry either as the author intended or by your own life experiences. Also this book made me thing about how far I would go to help someone else. Quentin and Margo are neighbors, but as time has gone on and their lives have changed, they aren't close friends, more like acquaintances. So when she disappears for yet another time, why does he feel it's his duty to be the one to find her?

This is a good YA book that may make some more interested in the poetry and classic literature featured in this and other John Green books.
  
All We Ever Wanted
All We Ever Wanted
Emily Giffin | 2018 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
8
8.2 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
Timely & Compelling
Determined to get to the second book in the series that everyone I knew had assured me was "the best," over the years, I must've picked up and earnestly started my paperback copy of Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed dozens of times but just couldn't relate to the characters.

And while I feared the same would be true for Giffin's latest novel All We Ever Wanted, especially considering that the first chapter of the book – which divides the storyline into three alternating first person points-of-view – began from the perspective of the wealthy one percenter wife from Nashville's elite, Giffin quickly replaces first world problems with real world problems.

Shocked to her core upon discovering appalling decision made by her Princeton bound son, in trying to get to the bottom of what exactly happened and what on Earth he was thinking, Nina Browning is forced to take a good hard look at her life and marriage as well as her past when she found herself at the other end of a similar horrific situation.

Continuing the action from the perspective of the two main other parties involved including her son's younger classmate, Lyla and Lyla's protective single father Tom, Giffin deftly balances her richly compelling drama with timely issues of economic inequality, racism, and sexual harassment in the digital age.

Surprising her readers with a few well-earned twists, while despite the narrative roller-coaster, we're pretty sure we know precisely who's to blame, ultimately it's in Lyla and Nina's journey toward accepting and understanding the truth that made the book increasingly hard to stop reading, particularly in its second half.

An ideal property for HBO to look into adapting as part of its annual miniseries exploration of twenty-first century women in literature, All We Ever Wanted might have been my first Emily Giffin work but it's just the right one to make me want to pick up Something Borrowed again for good.

Note: I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this title from Bookish First in exchange for an honest opinion.