The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

Spider-Man: Homecoming finally brought in  an actor in Tom Holland who could actually convincingly play a high school student AND could play the guilt-ridden yet wisecracking during battle Spider-man we all grew up with. Both factors in to my dubbing thee Sir Best Spider-man Film Ever... Composer Michael Giacchino incorporating the 1967 theme music into the score was awesome and better than when Sam Raimi randomly placed it into his movies. It occurred to me having Robert Downy, Jr. reprise his role as Tony Stark could be interpreted as an unintentional homage to  Spider-man and his Amazing Friends since the character appeared in the pilot of that show... I'm of two minds when it comes to them skipping the origin. I mean we've seen it. Twice. But...it was weird that the only real reference was when Peter acknowledged that Aunt May was having a rough time lately. May seemed to straddle the line between "having a rough time" and being the cool single aunt with mo...

1. Spent the 4th at my parents' house. Their cat, who I guess is new though has lived in their yard for about three years, Black Beauty immediately became smitten with me. (Anyone who knows me or my mother's side of the family in particular should not be surprised.) I guess he looked around the house for me after I left.  While there I went to the wedding of a young woman from my father's church. Judging by who was in attendance, her mother, who has removed some of my stitches in the past, did the guest list... 2.  Finally saw X-Men: Days of Future Past . Though the last two X-Men movies ( First Class and The Wolverine) were my favorites of the series, I wasn't really looking forward to seeing the original cast and director Bryan Singer return. As director of the first 2, he's to blame for setting the franchise tone. (You would think it'd would be writers but no...)  The boring black costumes and the massive continuity errors still make me shutter. Anyway, I ...

I actually wrote this blog post in my head months, or maybe years ago, but decided not to share the thoughts with you all.  But, now with the seizure meds or whatever, the filters for what I think you want to read and what I want to talk about are gone so... A review I read of the How I Met Your Mother finale mentioned in passing that his friends hung out in a bar like on this show and not in a coffee house like on Friends . I would say, given the choice, my friends are more likely to go to a coffeehouse. (Strictly speaking, it might be accurate to say a 70/30 split...) This comment mad me think of other TV shows and why or why not I liked them. Judging by what's popular in specifically the sitcom genre these days, my family life was/is completely different than everyone else's.  My family is more like the Huxtables or the Keatons than the family on Raising Hope for instance.  (Yes, we all have at least one advanced degree and watch PBS...).  As I know I've men...

I'm back! I guess. We'll see how long it is before I don't want to do this any more and take another long hiatus... I could have just scrapped this blog and started afresh but then I would have had to change the signature thing in my e-mail and who's that ambitious? Though, my life is somewhat different now as my cousin now lives in Alaska which he had a blog about but I can't remember the address so you'll just have to take my word for it... I have a new roommate now who's a student at the seminary I work at... Oh, and the seminary finally hired me after 5+ years as Assistant Librarian. They're effectively going out of business as a seminary in June and becoming a continuing ed/support system for "ministry in the 21st century." It's really hard to describe. "You'd have to be there" is is an overused, and possibly too inaccurate, a phrase but but we'll go with that... Anyway, this new identity won't include a lib...

1. Watched American Gangster over Thursday and yesterday. That was a great movie and so well acted. I'm not old enough to know about the true events that inspired it but I'm surprised no one made a movie about it before. Russell Crow, who was also in the recently watched State of Play (Like that period of time where I watched like three Jennifer Aniston movies , this is my "summer of Russell" I guess...), was great as a cop turned DEA, turned prosecutor turned defense attorney but "my man" Denzel Washington rocked as Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas. (Looking at the pictures of the real guy, he reminds me of OJ Simpson...) 2. I'm scheduled to go back up to Ellsworth on Monday as my father got tickets to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals . I'm excited as they are one of my top favorite bands of the last 10 or 15 years. It'll be a quick trip but worth it, I'm sure... 3. So publisher is pissing me off. I haven't actually written ...

1. It's been awhile. I'll begin with a week ago this past Friday when I went down town to hear a band. A friend from high school plays drums. A couple other people from high school were there. It was a great time and welcome change of pace. 2. Finally had the Davis family Christmas party this past Saturday. Ugh. So boring. Only two presents for me as everyone else had already given theirs to me. Of course, I needed a calendar and another gift card is always good. Still not sure what I want to use it for. There was two kinds of apple pie. 3. Our movie loving cook friend spent the night before last. She makes some awesome nachos. Everything but the kitchen sink. a. That night we went down to see Up in the Air . Overall a great movie with great story and acting but the ending, which I shan't reveal, was unsatisfying. Even an unrealistic ending would have been preferable. I can't really go into more detail without revealing much. I will say though that corporations t...

1. Gave my parents the new Beatles Trivial Pursuit game for Christmas. I thought the 3 of us would have an easy time of it but they added six levels of difficulty to every category. Of course we got a lot of 5 and 6 level questions like where did John go to school or what street he lived on. Yikes! Get this there's a movie category and we watched Hard Days Night . It didn't help. It was good though as my father took an early lead before my mother took over. I ended up winning merely on a dice-roll. 2. Got two big music gifts this year. My parents gave me Tom Petty's Live Anthology which though it's set up as a long concert, it's actually several different concert clips spliced together. You really don't notice. I love it! b. Meanwhile my cousin gave me the John Lennon Anthology which is analogous to The Beatle Anthology as it's a compilation of outtakes, parodies and live tracks selected by Yoko Ono who also wrote the liner notes. This is great too! 3....

We're down to our last piece of pie and we're tossing the turkey carcass out so I think Thanksgiving 2009 is finally over. It may have actually ended when my parents went home on Friday but whatever...Yes, my parents came down and we had the dinner upstairs in my aunt's apartment. It was just the five of us. On Wednesday, I tried once more to get my ID replaced. They were open this time but I forgot to put my birth certificate back in my bag. Because this was a replacement, they had the address on file but I couldn't prove I was born here. Yes, I was born here then but I'm not now? Do terrorists have time travel tech to change this? Anyway, the saga continues... This is my first Christmas using Pandora. I have some thoughts. James Taylor's cover of Joni Mitchell's "River" is the most boring version I have ever heard but it perhaps is the only male version I've ever heard...Apparently, Louie Armstrong put "What A Wonderful World" on...

1. In case you missed my raving about the movie, I so enjoyed Pirate Radio . What do you get when you mix the hilarious Brit writer Richard Curtis, of Vicar of Dibley , Love Actually , Notting Hill and 4 Weddings and a Funeral , and music of the '60's? This gem. Go see it! 2. I'm thinking I should try the DMV again tomorrow as I have Wednesday and Friday off and Friday is Black Friday which may be scary being the mall and all. I'm still curious where my ID went in the first place... 3. We're having Thanksgiving up at my aunt's apartment. In attendance will be my aunt, my cousin (The one I live with not the one I can't stand), my parents and myself. The menu sounds traditional... 4. Finished reading Tess Geritsen's The Keepsake recently. After a break with The Bone Garden we're back to the Rizzoli/Isles series. I think the break helped. While the other books weren't bad by any means, Gerritsen added a bit more action to this time around which ...

Oscar Fellows had two sons Frank and Raymond . The descendants of these two branches gathered this past Saturday on a lake in mid-coast Maine. Frank, my great-grandfather, had more children so, naturally, more of them where there. It may have been tough for many but still being introverted, I found meeting relatives I've never met and then others who I haven't seen since some family funeral a decade ago quite overwhelming. That's in addition to everyone I knew of course... As befitting the occasion, there was tons of food... I drove up and back with my grandmother, uncle and little cousin, who is even more annoying in a small car. On the way back, we saw a moose by the side of Route 1. It was still far off in the distance so we didn't get a great view. I get home and realize my glasses case, with my glasses in it, was still in the car (I was wearing my sunglasses) so that added even more excitement...

Yesterday morning, I went to a funeral for a well-respected churchgoer. It was very touching. Though I knew the man well enough to want to pay my respects, I wouldn't say I knew him all that well. Yet, I cried twice. One of the hymns they'd played makes me weepy anyway as perhaps I will always subconsciously connect it to when we moved away from my hometown. (That's my explanation for that but hopefully there's a better one.) I realize now there was transference as well. Many things the two of his children who spoke related to us my own father would do/does. And then I discover he had the same cardiologist as my grandfather... As I was preparing dinner last night, I blew up the microwave which caused the whole apartment to fill with smoke. Just before I had to go back to work... I had followed the directions on the package and never had a problem withthe product before save for water leakage but something wasn't right. I couldn't possibly have cooked it for more...

Tuesday, I was supposed to go to the dentist. I call for a taxi as I didn't want to risk being late on the bus. They said they'd send one right out. I wait outside and when the taxi arrived, the fun began. Another person in my building apparently called the exact same taxi company not 5 minutes before I did! I realize now that this confused them. It became too late for my appointment so I had too call and reschedule for next month. Hopefully, the penalty for a missed a appointment isn't too steep... Wednesday night at work, I finished reading Death Star by Micheal Reeves and Steve Perry. The book was good all the way through but had no central plot until the last third in my opinion which was a downgrade. In that last third, we basically get a "Lower Decks" retelling of most of A New Hope . I did like how they were able to incorporate what we now know about Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin into it though...The question I now have is, if Millennium Falcon is w...

I've seen a lot of family recently. This has been good. Went with my parents to spend the Fourth visiting my father's, and my "upstairs aunt's" sister in New Hampshire. This was a nice change of pace. The weather wasn't too bad but it wasn't good swimming weather so boo to that! Now that he's 10, that little cousin is not the annoying little kid he used to be. They themselves came here to Portland to visit my cousin this past Thursday and we went out to lunch. Nothing exciting happened. Today, another mutual cousin and her husband, who have rented a house up near my parents, stopped here for lunch. It was good to see them as I don't think I really had since their wedding. Maybe... Going to the dentist tomorrow. I'm not expecting terrible news; just the usual "floss more" stuff. I'm just not looking forward to it. Like haircuts, it must be done... The weather has been nice finally after days upon days endless rain. Living in a...

Instead of giving you a huge recap of what I did over my little vacation up north, I decided to give you, more or less, what I'd have said on Twitter, more or less, at the time. I'm not counting characters and this probably won't be in order. -Had root beer float with dinner. Why is that funny, Dad? Hmmm? -Why does the new Iron Man cartoon suck? I mean besides them making Pepper annoying... -I'm glad the Sox finally capitalized on Lowe's weakness. Prick him and he bleeds. -Saw Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore . Apparently basis for '70's sitcom. But funnier. -If Green keeps this up, Lugo may never play again. #redsox -Saw The Proposal with parents and aunt. Green card wife couldn't make it. - Centurions not as good as I remember from my youth...

It's been awhile since I did a full CD review on here so let me tell you about Kelly Clarkson's new All I Ever Wanted . It's more and more awesome with every listen. It's not as good as her previous two albums. She has less writing credits with this album so it's less personal or "personally personal" as it contains genuine emotion but in the more generic sense. The sensible side of me wants to say the songs she actually did write are the best but I really can't say that. My favorite tracks are "All I Ever Wanted", "My Life Would Suck Without You" (Which she didn't write) and "Already Gone" (Which she co-wrote with one other). I know this can't be the first example of an album that combines phat (which is in Firefox's vocab apparently) beats touching lyrics throughout the entire album but it's the first I've thoroughly enjoyed. Yesterday, our final movie was The Spirit . It was very good but the che...

Wednesday was the Seminary's end of the year party. Despite no homemade feast this time, this was more fun to me than the last Christmas party. Once again, graduating students rang the bell for every semester they attended. This year, we had two 16s! But, Josh, you work on Wednesday night. Yes, I was working I just didn't get the money I'm used to. The dance group was canceled so we could use the space. The seminary gives more money to my church in terms of rent so there you go... The family crisis group still met so I had to give directions. To both groups actually. My mother and aunt came down to visit their mother as my aunt was on vacation this week. I went over for dinner on Monday and then they took me, my cousin and my other aunt out to lunch. (Well, actually, only me and my roommate hadn't actually eaten yet but whatever...) While they were down, their brother's cat was very sickly so they offered to pay to have him (the cat, not my uncle) put down. It wa...

With the discovery of the time-waster that is Facebook, I find I no longer need to waste my time here. This is mainly why I haven't done any quizzes or other memes here in a cat's age. (I'm not a dog person...) They're all over there. Also why tell you all about what's not going on in my life when I can better waste time by making fake money off Lindsay Lohan's hi-jinks? Added to that, you can regularly follow the mundaness that is my life on Twitter. I don't want to say I'll never blog again. Frankly, this site and I have chronicled much over the years and I'm not ready to give it up fully. Every so often, something comes up worth sharing. Case in point, Thursday night, there was a retirement celebration for our outgoing OT professor complete with a guest lecturer from Boston, dinner and a vesper service designed by the professor herself. It was good Thai food, though admittedly not my favorite Asian cuisine, and saw many people I knew. My parents c...

Today, relatives came to my aunt's apartment (Did I mention that she lives in our building now?) to celebrate my grandfather's 87th birthday. Nothing completely annoying happened but it frankly tests my love of mature conversation. It didn't help that it was scheduled during a Red Sox game. I had heard all the news already. I don't care if my uncle is shopping around for truck to plow is driveway... I don't think I mentioned this last time I did it but for the second time, I was the roamer/floater for my Sunday school this morning. All you do really is wander back and forth between the classes and make sure there's no murder or molestation going on. OK, there's more of a point than that but you understand... Yesterday, I went to the mall and got my haircut. The guy who cut my hair asked me twice if it started raining yet. Do I get weather reports beamed to my brain every ten minutes? Sadly, no. When I returned home, I started to do some writing but was int...

1. Yeah, so no eventful bus rides. It was kind of close making the bus home and for some reason the Metro bus driver didn't give me my free ride from the station. Maybe they dumped that arrangement due to the economy or maybe there's limits... 2. Wrote 10 pages. Actually, I wrote 16 but thanks to the cat, six were lost. She also managed to turn the display on my mother's laptop completely upside-down. Totally weird... I'm at about 75 pages now and have ideas on how to finish. I'm not sure how long it'll end up but will probably be comparable to the last one... 3. Watched many a TV movie but I will discuss 13 Going On 30 with Jennifer Garner. I think she is a much better actress than people give her credit. She acted like a 13 year old to me; at least one from the more innocent '80's... (Comparatively!) I loved her imitation of the "Thriller" dance as well as the dance she did to "Love is a Battlefield." 4. Susie was fine with it jus...

Because I know you all care, I figured I'd get on this here blog to report that tomorrow I'm back up north to cat-sit. My parents are going on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic for about a week and we all figured poor Susie would be happier not only having someone there full-time instead of just dropping by once a day but someone she knows and loves. This is where I come in... I hope to use this time to finish Spring Thaw ; as is the tentative title of my current novella. (I bet none of you can guess what it's a sequel to...) I figure I have only forty or fifty more pages in me while keeping the door to the plot bunny hutch tightly shut. Though the main plot of the third book in the series, unoriginally titled Summer Heat at this time, has so far eluded me, scenes that didn't make the cut for this book will surely be in it... Back to Spring Thaw , is there precedence, if you signed only a one book deal as I did, for finding a different publisher for a sequel? U...