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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated Emergency Contact in Books
Oct 8, 2020
This is the fifth book in my #atozchallenge! I'm challenging myself to read a book from my shelves that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Let's clear those shelves and delve into that backlist!
Penny Lee is heading to college in Austin, Texas to finally start her life. She's leaving behind her needy Mom, her annoying boyfriend, and everything else. She wants to become a writer and now, she thinks, is when her life will truly begin. For Sam, his life in Austin is at a standstill. He's broken up with his girlfriend and is living above the coffee shop where he works. He has a mattress on the floor, a dying laptop, and a dream of becoming a movie director. When Sam and Penny meet, it's not glamorous or romantic. They know each other, vaguely, via Penny's roommate, Jude. But they soon are texting each other--a lot. Sharing everything about their lives, all the time. But can the two maintain this intimate friendship if they meet again in real life?
I absolutely loved this book. There was just something about it that spoke to me, and I was lost in Sam and Penny's world from practically the first page. I had to laugh, because I read some other reviews that maligned Penny, calling her an unlikable character. However, I felt like Penny was ME--I empathized with her character so much, and found so many good lines in the books that I could relate with. (What that says about me, we won't go into, ha.)
This was such a funny, sweet, and real story. I didn't find Sam and Penny's relationship to be insta-love whatsoever as they bonded over text. As anyone who has met someone and shared things online knows, it can become something so deep and private--offering something about yourself with someone you don't see. I loved the wit and sarcasm in their texts. These are my kind of people--funny, wounded, and just so them.
There's definitely seriousness to this book, and the theme of family runs across the entire novel. Sam and Jude are oddly related in a way I won't unpack here. Sam and Penny both have complicated and difficult relationships with their mothers. Penny's mom is a character unto herself. And we see friendship presented in various ways, including Penny's relationship with Jude, and Jude's best friend, Mallory. I loved all the characters, who are each so individualistic.
Overall, this was just a great book for me. It's funny yet dark at times and the humor was right up my alley. I fell hard for the characters, so everything hit me right in the gut. I can see how it might not be for everyone, but I think it's definitely worth a read. I'm glad my challenge made me finally pick this one up. 4.5 stars.
Penny Lee is heading to college in Austin, Texas to finally start her life. She's leaving behind her needy Mom, her annoying boyfriend, and everything else. She wants to become a writer and now, she thinks, is when her life will truly begin. For Sam, his life in Austin is at a standstill. He's broken up with his girlfriend and is living above the coffee shop where he works. He has a mattress on the floor, a dying laptop, and a dream of becoming a movie director. When Sam and Penny meet, it's not glamorous or romantic. They know each other, vaguely, via Penny's roommate, Jude. But they soon are texting each other--a lot. Sharing everything about their lives, all the time. But can the two maintain this intimate friendship if they meet again in real life?
I absolutely loved this book. There was just something about it that spoke to me, and I was lost in Sam and Penny's world from practically the first page. I had to laugh, because I read some other reviews that maligned Penny, calling her an unlikable character. However, I felt like Penny was ME--I empathized with her character so much, and found so many good lines in the books that I could relate with. (What that says about me, we won't go into, ha.)
This was such a funny, sweet, and real story. I didn't find Sam and Penny's relationship to be insta-love whatsoever as they bonded over text. As anyone who has met someone and shared things online knows, it can become something so deep and private--offering something about yourself with someone you don't see. I loved the wit and sarcasm in their texts. These are my kind of people--funny, wounded, and just so them.
There's definitely seriousness to this book, and the theme of family runs across the entire novel. Sam and Jude are oddly related in a way I won't unpack here. Sam and Penny both have complicated and difficult relationships with their mothers. Penny's mom is a character unto herself. And we see friendship presented in various ways, including Penny's relationship with Jude, and Jude's best friend, Mallory. I loved all the characters, who are each so individualistic.
Overall, this was just a great book for me. It's funny yet dark at times and the humor was right up my alley. I fell hard for the characters, so everything hit me right in the gut. I can see how it might not be for everyone, but I think it's definitely worth a read. I'm glad my challenge made me finally pick this one up. 4.5 stars.
Fongo World Edition
Social Networking and Utilities
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•• Fongo World Edition is the best way to Call Canada and the World. •• WHAT YOU GET WHEN...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tussie Mussie in Tabletop Games
Jun 13, 2019
It is the Victorian Age. Music is getting better. Wardrobes are getting frillier. Friendships are getting… confusing. How do you tell your dear friend that they have upset you but you still very much care for them? By giving them a carefully crafted bouquet of flowers, with each bloom symbolizing a snippet of information you wish to relay. Thus is the story of Tussie-Mussies, the texting of the Victorian Age.
OK, I am not really a flower guy. My wife can attest to that. I like them. I think they are great outside in the landscaping. I just do not have an eye for combining them into intricate, meaningful bunches that really state my feelings. So when we received Tussie-Mussie from Button Shy Games, I was hopeful that I would not need to draw upon my severely-lacking knowledge of beautiful blossoms.
Thankfully, the game we received is a quick filler card game in Button Shy’s Wallet line, and it’s delightful. On your turn you will draw two cards from the deck and decide which you would like to offer to your neighbor face-up and which will be offered face-down (similar to the card assignments in Biblios). Your neighbor will then decide which card they will take, with the other card being returned to you for your collection. All players will offer cards to their neighbors and once the players each have four cards in front of them you may complete any card-driven actions. Once all players have had their chance to complete the printed actions the bouquets will be scored. Add your scores over three rounds of play to determine the winner of Tussie-Mussie.
Components. This is an 18-card micro-game that comes in the typical Button Shy Wallet. The wallet is fine and does what it sets out to do – protect the cards during transport. The cards themselves are of good quality, though I know not whether the quality of cards will be adjusted once the game completes its Kickstarter campaign upgrades through any planned stretch goals. The art is what really makes this game impressive. Beth Sobel knocks it out of the park again with the art here. The colors are vibrant, the flowers look amazing, and the layout is great. I have no complaints on components and art at all.
Is the game good? Yes! I think the game is very solid for what it is. I caution you not to go into this game with strategies devised and tactics you would like to try. This is not that kind of game. Since you never know the types of cards you will be receiving from your neighbors, your best strategy is trying to bluff and manipulate your neighbors into passing you the cards you really want. And isn’t that what the Victorian Age was really about, anyway? When you just cannot put together a winning collection of cards, just laugh it off and appreciate your gorgeous bouquet that you have assembled.
In the end, this game is really good for a quick light filler with amazing art that you will want to keep playing. The components are excellent, the game play is fun and light, and it helps to finish a game night or palette cleanse for the next game. Quite enjoyable! Here here!
OK, I am not really a flower guy. My wife can attest to that. I like them. I think they are great outside in the landscaping. I just do not have an eye for combining them into intricate, meaningful bunches that really state my feelings. So when we received Tussie-Mussie from Button Shy Games, I was hopeful that I would not need to draw upon my severely-lacking knowledge of beautiful blossoms.
Thankfully, the game we received is a quick filler card game in Button Shy’s Wallet line, and it’s delightful. On your turn you will draw two cards from the deck and decide which you would like to offer to your neighbor face-up and which will be offered face-down (similar to the card assignments in Biblios). Your neighbor will then decide which card they will take, with the other card being returned to you for your collection. All players will offer cards to their neighbors and once the players each have four cards in front of them you may complete any card-driven actions. Once all players have had their chance to complete the printed actions the bouquets will be scored. Add your scores over three rounds of play to determine the winner of Tussie-Mussie.
Components. This is an 18-card micro-game that comes in the typical Button Shy Wallet. The wallet is fine and does what it sets out to do – protect the cards during transport. The cards themselves are of good quality, though I know not whether the quality of cards will be adjusted once the game completes its Kickstarter campaign upgrades through any planned stretch goals. The art is what really makes this game impressive. Beth Sobel knocks it out of the park again with the art here. The colors are vibrant, the flowers look amazing, and the layout is great. I have no complaints on components and art at all.
Is the game good? Yes! I think the game is very solid for what it is. I caution you not to go into this game with strategies devised and tactics you would like to try. This is not that kind of game. Since you never know the types of cards you will be receiving from your neighbors, your best strategy is trying to bluff and manipulate your neighbors into passing you the cards you really want. And isn’t that what the Victorian Age was really about, anyway? When you just cannot put together a winning collection of cards, just laugh it off and appreciate your gorgeous bouquet that you have assembled.
In the end, this game is really good for a quick light filler with amazing art that you will want to keep playing. The components are excellent, the game play is fun and light, and it helps to finish a game night or palette cleanse for the next game. Quite enjoyable! Here here!
B.iCycle - GPS cycling computer for Road & Mountain Biking
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JusTalk: simple video calling
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Sheets & Giggles Game
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Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Endless (2020) in Movies
Oct 19, 2020
Alexandra Shipp's acting is OK (1 more)
The British Columbian scenary
A Ghost "Ditto" - but without the star quality
Riley (Alexandra Shipp) and Chris (Nicholas Hamilton) are teenage lovers about to be torn apart... but not in the way you think. Riley is about to turn her back on her talent for comic book art to follow her parent's wishes: to study law on the other side of the country in Georgetown. Chris is from the other side of the tracks - aren't they always in these films? - living in a one-parent family with his mother Lee (Bond-girl Famke Janssen).
But fate is about to push them even further apart as - with an advert as to why drinking, texting and driving don't mix - Chris is killed in a car crash. Tragedy - when the feeling's gone and you can't go on! Can their love for each other reach beyond death itself, and if so, at what cost?
We've been here before of course with the Demi Moore / Patrick Swayze hit "Ghost" from 1990. That was an Oscar winner (Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg and screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin). Will "Endless" - a teen-love version - match this potential? Unfortunately, without a potter's wheel in sight, it doesn't stand a ghost of a chance.
It feels like it's not for the want of trying from the five youngsters* at the heart of the action, with Eddie Ramos and Zoë Belkin playing the lover's best friends and DeRon Horton being the limbo-trapped ghost-guide equivalent to the subway dropout from "Ghost". (* I say "youngsters", but most seem to be in their late twenties!) )
All seem to invest their energy into the project. Unfortunately, with the exception of Alexandra Shipp, the energy is not matched with great acting talent. Poor Nicholas Hamilton (the bully from "It") seems to have a particularly limited range, with his resting expression being "gormless".
None of the adult actors fair much better, with Famke Janssen being particularly unconvincing.
As I said, the exception here is Alexandra Shipp, who had a supporting role in "Love, Simon" and a more centre-stage role as "Storm" in the otherwise disappointing "X-Men: Dark Phoenix". Here she remains eminently watchable, but is hog-bound by a seriously dodgy script.
If you read my bob-the-movie-man blog regularly, you will know I reach for my flame-thrower at the appearance of voiceovers. And the start of this movie made me shudder with fear as a "tell, not show" approach was followed. It's a mild blessing that the script - by Andre Case and O'Neil Sharma - used this device purely as a slightly lazy way to set the scene and the voiceover didn't rear its ugly head again.
However, on a broader basis, the screenplay doesn't excite - predictability is its middle name - and it contains lines of dialogue that are absolute stinkers. There are whole sections of the movie that defy belief, with a police investigation in particular appearing completely incompetent. The result is that it adds neither drama or tension.
Through my career in IT I've had the great fortune to travel to a number of small cities in Canada, and all have appealed with their consistently picturesque qualities and consistently quirky individuals! Here we have the cities of Kelowna and Vernon in British Columbia playing California, and the drone cinematography (by Frank Borin and Mark Dobrescu) displays the dramatic lake-filled scenery to the full.
With so many cookie-cutter movies out there, it feels like the non-horror "Ghost" recipe (or "Heaven Can Wait" / "It's a Wonderful Life" / "A Matter of Life and Death" / delete per your preference) is well overdue for a makeover. Unfortunately, director Scott Speer's attempt just isn't good enough to fill the void. And that's a shame.
(For the full graphical review, please check out the bob-the-movie-man review here - https://rb.gy/mzq6jx . Thanks.)
But fate is about to push them even further apart as - with an advert as to why drinking, texting and driving don't mix - Chris is killed in a car crash. Tragedy - when the feeling's gone and you can't go on! Can their love for each other reach beyond death itself, and if so, at what cost?
We've been here before of course with the Demi Moore / Patrick Swayze hit "Ghost" from 1990. That was an Oscar winner (Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg and screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin). Will "Endless" - a teen-love version - match this potential? Unfortunately, without a potter's wheel in sight, it doesn't stand a ghost of a chance.
It feels like it's not for the want of trying from the five youngsters* at the heart of the action, with Eddie Ramos and Zoë Belkin playing the lover's best friends and DeRon Horton being the limbo-trapped ghost-guide equivalent to the subway dropout from "Ghost". (* I say "youngsters", but most seem to be in their late twenties!) )
All seem to invest their energy into the project. Unfortunately, with the exception of Alexandra Shipp, the energy is not matched with great acting talent. Poor Nicholas Hamilton (the bully from "It") seems to have a particularly limited range, with his resting expression being "gormless".
None of the adult actors fair much better, with Famke Janssen being particularly unconvincing.
As I said, the exception here is Alexandra Shipp, who had a supporting role in "Love, Simon" and a more centre-stage role as "Storm" in the otherwise disappointing "X-Men: Dark Phoenix". Here she remains eminently watchable, but is hog-bound by a seriously dodgy script.
If you read my bob-the-movie-man blog regularly, you will know I reach for my flame-thrower at the appearance of voiceovers. And the start of this movie made me shudder with fear as a "tell, not show" approach was followed. It's a mild blessing that the script - by Andre Case and O'Neil Sharma - used this device purely as a slightly lazy way to set the scene and the voiceover didn't rear its ugly head again.
However, on a broader basis, the screenplay doesn't excite - predictability is its middle name - and it contains lines of dialogue that are absolute stinkers. There are whole sections of the movie that defy belief, with a police investigation in particular appearing completely incompetent. The result is that it adds neither drama or tension.
Through my career in IT I've had the great fortune to travel to a number of small cities in Canada, and all have appealed with their consistently picturesque qualities and consistently quirky individuals! Here we have the cities of Kelowna and Vernon in British Columbia playing California, and the drone cinematography (by Frank Borin and Mark Dobrescu) displays the dramatic lake-filled scenery to the full.
With so many cookie-cutter movies out there, it feels like the non-horror "Ghost" recipe (or "Heaven Can Wait" / "It's a Wonderful Life" / "A Matter of Life and Death" / delete per your preference) is well overdue for a makeover. Unfortunately, director Scott Speer's attempt just isn't good enough to fill the void. And that's a shame.
(For the full graphical review, please check out the bob-the-movie-man review here - https://rb.gy/mzq6jx . Thanks.)
