Resident Evil: Retribution

Last Saturday, after supper at Applebees, I went and vegetated in the movie theater to Resident Evil:Retribution.  After watching the first four films the series I couldn't pass up the opportunity to again witness gruesome, blood thirsty zombies being killed by the Alice, the protagonist of the series.  To my great pleasure and amazement, there was a multitude of zombies and ass kicking.

Alice begins the movie in captivity of the Red Queen, a computer who is in charge of the Umbrella Corporation. The whole movie is based on her escape efforts from the underground operation.  She travels through four different Umbrella Corporation simulations: Suburbia, Russia, Tokyo, New York.  Each simulation has its own version of zombie death which Alice overcomes.

Being that this film was the fifth in a widely popular series I was not expecting to be disappointed.  But, after being pleased by the initial killing of zombies I slowly became dissatisfied with the film. First off, the film was only 90 minutes long!  How can one only produce 90 minutes of zombie killing escape efforts?  It seems like there were so many opportunities to expand on Alice's history and build on anticipation for the next film but, the director did not take this opportunity. Instead I wasted 90 minutes of my life watching Alice escape from captivity, knowing all along that she was clearly going to make it because if Alice dies, so does the whole series.

After leaving the theater I was left wishing that that film had given me more for my money.  It is definitely a renter.  

Writing Process.

Ahhh the writing process. For me, the process usually starts at random moments when I have no access to paper or a computer.  In writing this creative paper I had a myriad of ideas floating in my head at just the right time...while laying in bed, waiting to fall asleep. My best writing was not able to be documented because I was not prepared during the times in which my mind was working at its best. 
I felt that I had a bunch of really awesome ideas for my paper and then, when I sat down at the computer, they all just left me.  I definately spent a lot of time staring at a blank page. To get over the initial writers block I just started writing randomly and then ideas started to flow.
Writing this paper about the relationship between my sister and I was a struggle.  I found it to be very emotional, begining to end.  Writing this paper helped me to reflect on our relationship and the way I treat her.  It allowed me to see our relationship from a different angle, giving me ideas as to how I can better our relations and change my ways.

 

Infamous Orange Tape

     I always knew summer had started when I saw grandma back up our 1/4 mile, uphill driveway. Excitement and anticipation would make me restless as I opened up the duck taped, rusty door and hopped into the back seat of that quaint, green car.  My seat always had a trace of grandma's disorganization and rummage sale addiction. It was not uncommon to find three pairs of sunglasses or a few knickknacks she had just purchased scattered across the floor, inside the pockets of the seat or on the rear window ledge. 
     Seeing great grandma Stella in the front seat, adorned in her sequence shall, (known to the less thrifty person as a yard of fabric cut straight from the bolt and draped carefully over the shoulders) waiving her makeshift fan, (a bingo card glued to a Popsicle stick) always brought comfort to me. 
    After pushing the clutter to the other side of the car and buckling in, the first thing out of my mouth would always be "Put in the orange tape! Put in the orange tape!" Grandma would sift through her cluttered center console and pop in the infamous orange tape.  Without a doubt I would begin my car ride with an inspired rendition of "There's a Hole in the Bucket" and then move on to "You Can't Get to Heaven on Roller Skates."  Singing along to that orange tape the whole 4 miles to the Lomira Pool.

Hunger Games: Guilty Pleasure

This summer I felt the need to read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  After seeing the commercials for the movie played what I felt like 12 million times, I convinced myself that I would read the first book in the series. I did not want to be left out of this cultural phenomenon.

After downloading the book to my IPad I thought, "I will just read a few chapters, it probably won't be worth my time." Thirteen hours later I had completed the entire book.

Reading the novel I was not impressed with the love triangle or the convenience in with which some events happened, but I was impressed with the dystopian ideas that were present.  It astounded me that this young adult novel had such great examples of a dystopian society.  Everything was orderly, yet only a small percentage of people, those living in The Capital, were "happy." All the other classes in this world were made to comply by strict rules, work hard and be miserable for the benefit of a small percentage of people.  A lot of philosophical questions arose while paging through this book.  I I think that Collins did a great job at targeting the book to a younger audience while also putting some more sophisticated elements into the text that would catch the more mature reader.  This is why The Hunger Games was a win for me. 

I have to admit, this summer I was really into reading dystopian literature.  I started out with 1984, went to Fahrenheit 451 and than was pleasantly surprised when The Hunger Games gave me more to dystopian pleasure. Although some may not want to believe The Hunger Games is actually a good read, I am not ashamed to say that I enjoyed reading mostly every page.