Life Update and Movie Reviews

Geez, I completely dropped the ball on this one big time. From December on, I had very little to actually do, but somehow constantly failed to post here consistently. The result has been very very few posts. However, now that my life is returning to some sort of semblance and hopefully with a pattern of some kind attached, posting will occur more often.

First, let me get you up to speed on things. In Mid-December, things at graduate school took an unexpected turn and left me out of the world of academia. The following months consisted of playing video games and watching plenty of movies (a nice life, but the pay kind of sucks). In addition to goofing off, I did some job hunting and got hooked up with a recruiting service. The end result was a job as a hospital pharmacist in Connersville, IN. I'm now 2 weeks in and enjoying it. It is so-much better than retail pharmacy. So, now I'm back in small-town, country Indiana and that is going to take a bit of getting used to. Luckily, Richmond is only 30 min. away, Indy/Dayton/Cincy are each in the neighborhood of 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I'm close(r) to family and friends, so that is nice. In between that move was 3 drives across the country (Denver to Indiana), selling my water bed and packing (and unpacking), going to Las Vegas, renting an apartment, buying furniture, and plenty of other stuff.

You are now up to speed.

Movie review time.

Star Trek
J.J. Abrams re-imaging of the Star Trek universe. On the whole I really enjoyed this film. It was fun and exciting. Most of the characters were spot on (Karl Urban as Bones was great, and Zachary Quinto as Spock), and some lines/scenes were great for each character (loved when Chris Pines as Kirk delivered lines like Shatner's Kirk). My biggest gripe is the whole time travel aspect of the plot. It doesn't fit well with what is known about Star Trek, however, I understand that it is needed for future sequels in this version of the Star Trek universe. Anyway, I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars and recommend to any sci-fi fan.



Terminator Salvation
A disappointing film, but I had some marginally high expectations. It didn't quite live up to what I had envisioned the future war between humans and machines to be. Nor was it quite how the previous installments hinted about the future. I felt the movie tried to do too much and never really hit all the right notes for any of it. The story should have been simplified and more attention paid to making that story work. My guess is the real kicker is McG (the director) isn't that good of a director. He should stick to producing and overseeing things and let someone else direct. Worth seeing if you are fans of the series, but lower your expectations. I give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

Well, with that I'll be signing off. However, I'm hoping this is the first of many new posts on a far more consistent basis. Movie reviews for sure, but possibly other insights (if you can handle them).