05.22.09
On Terminator Salvation and More Knitting
Today we headed out to the Grove to watch the movie, Terminator Salvation. Being that we’re long-time fans of the Terminator series, we had to go see this one on big screen. I just love the surround sound when you can feel the ground rumble with all the explosions, hehehe. Not that I would like to be a in a “real” battlefield, but watching it in the movies makes for okay entertainment.
Now that I’ve watched it, I have to join in on the critiqing, right? Before watching the movie I noticed that some people were giving it an “A” rating, while others were giving it a “D”. Hmm, I thought, what gives? People seemed to either love it or “kinda” hated it, ha! Now that I’ve seen it, I think I understand why. . .
First of all, let’s start with the good things. There was lots of action–chase scenes, terminator encounters, and of course guns, guns, guns, and weapons. Well, maybe it was just “guns” and “weapons,” since really it was rather tame in that respect in comparison to other movies. So if your thing is watching things go boom, then this is a movie for you. The part where Kyle gets behind the wheel and drives. . . eh, that type of scene seemed to belong more in an Indiana Jones sequence, not in the Terminator, although it was funny when Marcus kicked him out of the car afterward. However, as far as storyline, well, I think it was a bit lacking. It had good parts like Marcus’s character–the terminator who didn’t know he was a terminator, oye–but strangely Marcus was more captivating than the expected heroes, John Connor and Kyle Reese. Aren’t we supposed to be routing for John Connor and Kyle Reese? Well then I think their characters needed more charisma written into their scripts or something because it was lacking in my estimation. And while we all know that the storyline for the Terminator is pure fantasy (and that’s part of the fun of this story), it does get distracting when there’s just too much fantasy like the heart transplant. . . eh, it’s hard to get it around my head when in this day and age organ rejection is pretty much a guaranteed complication in the transplant world. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes on that one, bud. No tissue typing or worries about tissue rejection? Come on. . . John needs to be in tip top shape to fight in the next two sequels! I can’t imagine him stopping off at the pharmacy from time to time to get his immunosuppressants. Why did they do that to John? The part in The Rock where Nicholas Cage injects himself in the heart to deliver the anti-toxin serum was much more believeable even if unlikely.
As far as the storyline making sense, why was Marcus chosen? Maybe they’ll disclose that in part II? Who was that doc that had him “sign” for his consent? Why bother with a consent signature if he was going to be executed anyway? Like Cyberdine would let a little thing like a “signature” hold them back from getting the tissues they wanted from a jail bird on death row. And why did they bother writing in the script that the doctor or whoever that bald lady was had cancer? Was there any relevance in the movie to that? Or maybe they just like bald women? And Marcus kissed her why? Marcus walks for miles and miles and co-incidentally walks in to Los Angeles and finds Kyle, of all people! Well, I suppose they had to meet somehow. . . And who is that little girl? And why can’t she speak? Now, I liked Blair. But again, I found her character more likeable than John Connor and Kyle Reese, too. Oye! What gives? The heros don’t exude hero-ness in this movie. I wanted to like them, I really, really did. So that was a bit of a let down. I hope part II is better. I likely would still want to see it, but “please,” better script, okay? Given the action and the so so storyline, I can see why the movie got such varied reviews. It left me scratching my head a bit, too.
So moving right along. . . since movie theaters tend to be chilly inside, I had a chance to test out my new caplet! Which co-incidentally, while I was making it, I made a discovery–the real cause of global warming. . .
I actually finished it some time in the beginning of this week, but didn’t get the buttons until yesterday. These buttons were from International Silks and Woolens.
Here’s what the completed caplet looks like.
Aaron took another picture because my hair was covering the collar (not to mention my hair was messy, too, ugh), so he tried another shot which turned out to be a slightly different angle of the caplet. Matthew said it looks like Little “Orange” Riding Hood. I like it because it’s long enough to feel like a little blanket, but not so long that it interferes with my hands. The other ponchos I’ve used have been too long and get in the way with using my hands, so this is nice for me. I may just make a couple other styles like this length for variety.
I didn’t know until I got home and uploaded the pictures that the details of the caplet didn’t really show up. It’s hard to tell in the above pic that there is even a collar or any lace work at all. So, I thought I’d try to take a closer up shot.
The buttons are a tad large, but I preferred them to the next smaller size which might later cause me grief if they ended up slipping out of the holes too easily. So I went ahead with the larger buttons. The yarn I used was Paton’s Classic Wool, paprika color. It took three skeins using size 9 and 8 US circular needles. The pattern was from a book called Wrap Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd. The pattern is the Lace-Edged Cardigan with Collar Caplet on page 57.
While I’m on the knitting update, here are the green socks I made for Andrew that I was too lazy to upload on my previous knitting update.
These are Aaron’s legs, not mine. Thought I’d mention that since now he’s starting to grow leg hairs! I try not to let my leg hairs get that long. Tee hee.
And finally here are some baby hats that I’ve been making. I thought I was going to give charity knitting a rest, but I figured that I could still do some newborn hats in between projects since they’re so small. Actually these are quite small since Stitches from the Heart supplies hats for preemies. So I whipped up these quick little things.
The pattern for this is very basic. I used worsted weight yarn on 7 US circular needles. These caps are started from the top-down and knitted in the round using the Magic Loop method. To start, CO 6. Knit in front and back of each stitch–12 stitches. Knit next round. *K1, increase 1* repeat from * to * to end of round. Knit next round. *K2, increase 1* repeat from * to * to end of round. Knit next round. *K3, increase 1* repeat from * to * to end of round. Knit next round. Continue in same increase progression until you reach either 6 or 7 knits in between increases. This should make the hat about 12 or 13 inches in diameter depending upon the size of yarn and needles used. Once the proper circumference is reached, knit even rounds for about 7 or 8 rows. Switch to 1×1 rib for about 7 or 8 rounds. I like to use the invisible bind off to finish. And that’s it!
The other thing I’ve been working on is reading. I did eventually get Frank Schaeffer’s book, Crazy for God, from the library and am about half way through. I’m glad I decided to read it before commenting because it is an eye-opener. I personally thought his dad, Francis, had a stroke of genius in him and never really bothered to look any further as to what his person was like or what his life was like. Actually regardless of what his person or life was like his books such as The God Who is There, and Escape From Reason and many others are still very insightful and do impart some truth. So it’s really disappointing to read some of the stuff Frank reveals about his family. My original goal was to find out why Frank converted to Orthodox, so I have been researching more and, wow, this has been an eye-opener. While so far Frank’s book doesn’t say exactly why he converted, I think I’m getting hints already. I hope to comment on Frank’s book when I’m done reading it. I have been reading other comments/reviews on his book, too, to get a better feel of what’s been going on, which have also been very insightful to me. Now with all that said, I think I’m gonna go continue reading Crazy for God.
Toodles for now.
Marlakins
