Reviews of books, movies, and television shows.
On the surface, Warm Bodies is your basic Beauty and the Beast type story – through the love of a good woman, some guy is cured of being a monster. Pretty straight-forward stuff. It’s billed as a romantic comedy with a nifty Romero veneer for flavoring, but there’s nothing too surprising going on here.
If you’re paying any kind of attention whatsoever, though, this movie is horrifying. Read more >>
I started smoking when I was, like, twelve or thirteen. For the majority of my life, I’ve been a pack-a-day – or more – smoker. And it’s finally catching up to me. Let’s be honest, here. Smoking isn’t getting any cheaper. It’s a dirty, messy habit, and it smells bad. It dyes your teeth, hands and nails a pretty fugly color of yellow. All that, plus I’m tired of being sick and sinusy and out of breath all the time.
So, clearly, something had to be done. I’ve tried quitting before and it didn’t take. I have the will power of a turnip, and I like to smoke. It’s tricky to kick a vice you actually enjoy.
After some discussion, Jim and I decided to try this “eCigarette” thing. We’ve got a friend who’s been “vaping” quite happily for several years now and we figured, well, if it works for him…
We spent a couple of weeks reading reviews and watching videos and whatnot, and finally decided on the eGo Twist with the eGo T3 Sol Fuego “clearomizer.” We ordered them last Monday and they turned up Saturday.
eGo Twist C And eGo Clearomizer With Pen For Comparison.
I haven’t had an actual cigarette since Saturday afternoon. No withdrawals, no twitchiness, no grumpiness, no problems. It’s pretty awesome, guys.
This is a pretty simple device. The eGo Twist is the battery. It’s called the Twist because the silver cap at the end dials up the power for stronger or weaker vapor, to your preference. The Sol Fuego is the tank, where you put the nicotine liquid you’re smoking. It also has the atomizer in it – the little gadget that turns the liquid into steam. We also have a USB charger for the battery and some replacement atomizers because I guess they only last about a month. That’s no big deal, as they only cost about $3 or so. The battery is the expensive part, at about $23.
James and I got two batteries and two Sol Fuegos each, and five 10ml bottles of ejuice to try out. Total start-up cost was about $150, but the ejuice costs between $5 and $13 each, depending on what size bottle you get, and as far as I can tell, filling the 2.4ml tank on the device is going to last me a few days, so after the initial investment, and even counting for replacement gear, this is going to save a bundle.
Actually smoking – or “vaping,” which sounds dumber every time I say it – is fairly similar to smoking a cigarette. You inhale it like a cigarette, the vapor hits the throat with a similar bite as cigarette smoke, and you breath out a plume of steam that looks just like cigarette smoke. One big difference is that you light a cigarette, smoke it, and crush it out, and there’s a very distinct sense of having begun a thing and finished a thing that you just don’t get in the electronic cigarette. That takes a little getting used to.
Overall, though, we’re both pretty tickled with these things. We’re looking forward to trying all the different flavors, and after only a day and a half, we already know we’re going to have to bleach and steam-clean the whole house because good lord, people, why didn’t you ever tell me smoking stank that bad?! I had no idea.
Today’s a busy one – but here’s some fun reading I’ve stumbled across.
Man, this movie is getting raked over the coals just everywhere. Ashley says it’s fun, though, so that makes me feel better about it. I mean, fun and explosions are really about all you’re looking for in a Die Hard movie. Read more >>
We discovered Community only a month or so ago, because apparently we’re old and slow on the uptake now. “We should watch this Community thing,” I said one evening when we were hunting for something to watch on TV. “Reddit says it’s cool.”
“Yeah?” Jim said, with slight skepticism, because Reddit can’t be trusted.
“Seems like it’s funny as hell. There’s always new memes and screencaps. Want to give it a try?”
“Sure,” Jim said.
It turns out Reddit was right this time. We laughed until we cried. The paint ball episodes are epic. Troy and Abed are worth the price of admission alone – particularly Abed, played by Danny Pudi, who is a seriously talented individual.
If you haven’t seen Community, definitely add this show to your to-do list. It’s a real gem.
We finally watched The Dark Knight Rises last night, and I’m sorry to say I wasn’t much impressed.
I had heard good things from a lot of websites and people about this movie, but I’d also seen Batman Begins, too. Batman Begins wasn’t all that bad, but it was yet another origin story for a character that, I’m pretty sure, everyone has nailed down at this point. I didn’t think Nolan brought anything new or interesting to Batman’s origin, so the movie got a little tedious for me. Still, shit blew up real good, and that always counts for points in favor.
I didn’t head into The Dark Knight Rises with high expectations, is what I’m saying here. I mean, granted, The Dark Knight was pretty spectacular, but I think that was largely due to Heath Ledger’s stunning performance as the Joker. Outside of him, the rest of the movie was kind of meh.
Still, I figured TDKR would be fun – big explosions, massive beatdowns, etc. Bane was the villain, so we knew going in that we were going to see Batman take the ass-whooping of a lifetime, and that sounded promising. But oddly enough, there wasn’t a lot of action. There were a couple of semi-cool chase scenes, but I’ve seen sweet little old grandmas swat their grandkids’ behinds with more enthusiasm than Batman or Bane put into this movie.
Another downside was the plot, which didn’t make much sense. The movie had a really scattered feel, like it was trying to get too much done for one film. It reminded me of the third Spider-Man movie that way. The writers and director (for both movies) were trying to pack so much into the movie that in order to keep it down to a length that you could actually show in theaters, they ended up lopping massive corners off the plot and shaving characters that needed a lot more development down to cardboard shadows.
Over all, I found the movie disappointing. The writing was not great, the plot was a bit of a mess, and the secondary characters and their motivations needed a lot more work and development. I think this movie tried to bite off more than it could chew, and everything suffered as a result.
Here ends the non-spoiler portion of the review, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, and you don’t want it ruined for you, stop right here. For everyone else… Read more >>