Tingly With Anticipation

With the start of a new year, the internet is rampant with people getting excited about the cool new things to look forward to in 2012. Lists are everywhere. A common theme I keep seeing is "most anticipated movies of 2012."

Now, I don't get to the movies nearly enough (by my reckoning, at least) now that I have a kiddo. It is possible this will be the year that changes that--she's growing up and soon we'll be able to do our mommy/daughter movie lunches together. I am really looking forward to that, but it won't come to pass probably until at least the back end of the year.* Even when it does, we'll be limited in what we can see together, because I know there will be a higher chance of her sitting still (and quietly) throughout if she is also engaged in the story. I don't think she'll be ready yet when this is released, but, if she is, this is probably the first thing I'll take her to see:



I'll be going to see Brave in theaters regardless, but it would be awesome if I could enjoy it with Baby Girl. We shall have to see.

Other than Brave, there are three other movies that I know I will be making the effort to see in theaters this year. I am super excited for each one of these.



The Avengers should, I hope, be a super fun romp. I absolutely adored Thor, found myself surprisingly engaged by Captain America, and also enjoyed the Iron Man films more than I expected. Add to this the fact that Joss Whedon is directing and I (and most of geekdom) have high hopes that this is just going to rock, pure and simple. Marvel has really done an amazing job with these one-universe films and I think that The Avengers will be the deciding factor on whether or not they keep it up. I hope they do. It's nice to have these things all tied together just a little bit. It makes the story feel a little bit more complete in my mind.

Next up, there's this:



John Carter, based on A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This...this is something I have been waiting for for a long time. I discovered Burroughs when I was about ten or eleven, picking up the first Tarzan book and becoming completely captivated by the world that Burroughs created on the page. I picked up many of his other series, and while the John Carter books aren't my favorites by a long shot, I have grown to appreciate them more in my adulthood, despite the problems arising from the fact that Burroughs was a man writing at the turn of the twentieth century with many of the outlooks and prejudices of his times. Still, his heroes always do feel like true heroes to me, and his world-building is absolutely phenomenal. I am very pleased to know that the movie is keeping the original era of the books (post-Civil War) intact, and I am quite curious to find out how this adaptation plays out. "Squee" doesn't even begin to cover my reaction to the approach of this film.

Finally, I am also waiting on tenterhooks for:



The Hobbit just squeaks past John Carter as the movie I am most looking forward to. Mostly because I am not really worried about it letting me down like I am with John Carter. Peter Jackson has more than earned my trust in regards to this franchise. I am not entirely sure I even need to explain why I am so excited about this one, but I'll try. Martin Freeman! Dwarves! Dwarves singing! I think every card-carrying geek on the planet is looking forward to it at least a little.

Honestly? I don't even care what else comes out this year. Let these four films entertain me, and I will be more than satisfied.

What movies are you guys most looking forward to this year?

*Yes, I know that many theaters have "child-friendly" viewings, where parents are welcome to bring their young kids and the lights aren't turned down all of the way and whatnot. I personally have no desire to attend one of those. For me going to the movies is a special kind of experience. I don't even like to get up to take a bathroom break during the film. I like to nip down in my seat and just let the movie take me away. Hence my personal decision not to take my daughter to the theater until she is able to at least sit more or less still and quiet throughout the film.

Can't Stop The Signal

Yesterday was the sixth annual Can't Stop The Serenity event in DFW. For those unfamiliar, Can't Stop The Serenity is a global series of screenings of the movie Serenity, held throughout the world on or around Joss Whedon's birthday and raising funds for Equality Now, Whedon's favorite charity (and an extremely worthy cause).

The Jane hat was made for days like this, y'all.

So yesterday morning Browncoats from all over the metroplex gathered at the Studio Movie Grill in Arlington to do something right, as well as to enjoy each other's company and enjoy a pretty shiny movie. Hubby and I have been attending the event for five years now (we missed the first one, sadly). Every year we find ourselves immersed in a crowd of like-minded folk and it is a truly wonderful feeling. It's not just that we are all fans of all things Whedon. I mean, yeah, there is that. But it is also a group of people who support the cause of equal rights for women all across the planet.

One of the great things about this event is that it is just that, an event. You aren't just going to a movie. There is always more to a Can't Stop The Serenity screening. At our event they also showed Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (singing encouraged), held an evil laugh contest, a costume contest, an raffle of all sorts of Whedon-verse goodies, and then auctioned off even more awesome items. Of course, there was also plenty of trivia to be had. All in all a fantastic time. We even actually won something in the raffle! I ended up going home with a shiny new copy of Done The Impossible, the documentary about how the fans were a driving force in getting the movie Serenity made after the cancellation of Firefly.

Before the show got underway, we got to view a message from Joss himself, thanking everyone who is part of the Can't Stop The Serenity event. So far Browncoats around the world have managed to raise over half a million dollars for the cause. That may not sound like a lot, but it truly is. He also mentioned that next year will be the twentieth anniversary of Equality Now, and hopes to make some noise when that times come, because the time has come for this organization, and all that it stands for, to be noticed. As Joss said, this cause boils down to wanting half of the human population to have the same rights as the other half. I think it is hard to argue with a message like that, and every little bit of boost we can give the signal sending that message takes us one step closer to that goal.

Spread the word, folks, spread the word. If you aren't local to DFW, here's a link to the global site, see if you still have time to get into the one in your area! Either way, definitely plan to attend next year, I have a feeling it is going to be BIG!

Southbound 35

Well, things went mostly well with the drive yesterday. The weather was pretty spiffy for the most part, though I could have done without the wind.

I accidentally (on purpose) overshot Oklahoma City last night and ended up stopping about 160 miles from home. I briefly considered pushing on through, but Baby Girl and I both really needed to stop. Of course, I did pick the hotel where the internet was down, though thankfully it is back up this morning. Cori gets cranky with no internet, folks. Also, why does autocorrect always try to capitalize internet? It really can't still be considered a proper noun, can it?

Anyhow, should be a short drive home, yay! Then I will collapse like an flan in a cupboard and all will be well.

Laters, y'all. Send some happy home-stretch travel thoughts my way, please.

Here, have a picture of my daughter being awesome at Cracker Barrel:

Straight for the peg game.

Also, a very happy birthday to Mr. Joss Whedon! Thank you for all of the awesomeness. We look forward to your next round of goodies, sir.

The Year of Multitasking

It all started innocently enough. I decided that 2011 would be the year that I finally jumped into the craft of knitting, in addition to my already existing mad crochet skills. I already have two completed projects (a pair of slippers and a hat) under my belt. I thought the easiest way to maintain balance would be to alternate between knitting and crochet projects. This worked for a while.

But then I started on THE project, you know the one, I've mentioned it often enough. Yes, I am talking about the Doctor Who scarf. Good lord, for such a simple and straightforward pattern, this thing managed to completely derail me. I would find myself going for a whole week without doing any knitting or crocheting, pick up the scarf for a day or two, and then more days of not doing anything. Blame it on the tediousness of the super simple pattern, blame it on February, whatever the reason, I was not happy with my crafting lethargy.

THEN I looked at a calendar and realized, holy cow, there are quite a few people in my life having babies in fairly short order! People that I actually do want to make baby blankets for. (The count is now up to five, good gravy.)

I have always preferred to just work on one project at a time, only occasionally taking a break if I had a specific very small and quick project that needed to get done, and then going right back to the main project once finished. But I finally had to face facts and admit to myself that a) if I want to ever actually finish the Doctor Who scarf, I can't just put it in a drawer until I feel like picking it back up again, I need to keep it going, and b) if I want to get all of those blankets done in a timely manner, I needed to get started on them pretty much nowish.

So, I have come up with a solution. Monday through Friday I will work on baby blankets. Saturday and Sunday I will work on the scarf. I put this plan into action a week ago, and so far I am pretty pleased with the results. This past weekend I made some decent progress on my scarf:

Doctor Who scarf as of March 17, 2011.

I felt much less pressure while working on it this weekend and once more found myself actually enjoying the project. Excellent. Goal achieved, huzzah! I have come to terms that this is a project that will get done when it gets done, and I am okay with that. Besides, it is starting to get warm here anyway, I won't need it until October at least.

I also have been plowing along with Baby Blanket Alpha:

Baby Blanket Alpha as of March 15, 2011.

This photo was taken Tuesday night, so I have actually made a bit more progress than what you see. It is about a third of the way done after less than a week of work. This bodes well for baby blankets!

Speaking of finished knitting projects, that hat I mentioned earlier is indeed the Jayne hat that I took with me to Seattle to work on. I started it on the plane on Friday morning and finished it as we were leaving the airport Monday night. I worked on it in between panels on Saturday and while waiting in line for our photo op on Sunday (causing me to now really want a couple of these). I am pleased as punch with how it came out, even though the entire time I was making it I worried that it would be too small. But it actually fits just right!

Jayne Hat by Cori 2011.

Pattern: Jayne by Heather Hill (inspired by Joss Whedon's Firefly)
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky by Brown Sheep in Autumn Harvest, Sunburst Gold, and Rust
Needles: Size 10.5 (US) Circular and DPN

Modeled by moi.

Note: Jayne hat also looks good on mini-Browncoats.

So, I have already been discovering the necessity, benefit, and possibility of multitasking in the crafting aspects of my life. If you had asked me a week ago I would have told you that was more than enough, thank you very much. I have enough going on in general without doubling up in each different area.

Then Leigh Butler announced that as of tomorrow she will be starting a new series of posts for Tor's website. I have long enjoyed her Wheel of Time re-read posts, and she has captured my interest with her writing style and turn of phrase. Tor is apparently pretty pleased with her as well, because they asked her if, in addition to her weekly Wheel of Time posts, she would be interested in doing a series of re-read posts for George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Here's the thing though: Leigh has never read the series. Not because she didn't want to, but because her devotion to Wheel of Time has sucked up enough of her time and energy that she didn't want to dive into another vastly epic and intricate series that is sort of taking its time to get finished. It's a testament to Martin's writing that fans are so vociferously annoyed at waiting for the next book in the series (which finally has a hard set release date for this summer), though it would be nice if they would go about expressing their desires in a more polite way. But I digress. The point is, Leigh decided she would be willing to give it ago, though instead of a re-read series, her posts will actually be a read-through. Two chapters a week.

Now I, like Leigh, have also had this series on my radar for quite some time. I too have hesitated to jump into it, though unlike Leigh this was because I already have enough other books to be reading that I don't need to jump into yet another big long addictive series (sadly, even though I have been reading at a pretty steady pace this year, my book pile has still only grown larger since last I showed you a picture). But. Two chapters a week? That really is not an unreasonable task. I read way more than that even on my slowest reading weeks.

So, I have finally, at long last, broke my hard and fast rule about reading more than one book at a time. Going forward, in addition to my regularly scheduled reading pile reading, I will also be reading A Game of Thrones (the first book in the series) along with Leigh. If I enjoy it enough, then I will pick up the next book when I am done.

My copy came Tuesday morning and I read through the prologue and first chapter that day. Can I just say, I really kind of want a direwolf now.

This also has the added bonus of ending up saving me about forty-five bucks (well, thirty six if you subtract the cost of the book) next month. I was planning to subscribe to HBO's forthcoming television show based on the series on iTunes (we haven't had any of the premium movie channels since I stopped working for the cable company and I refuse to add any just for one series). But since the first season is supposed to roughly cover the first book, I don't want to watch until I have read the first (and maybe the second as well) book completely through. So, I will probably just end up watching it on Netflix instead once I've finished my reading. Huzzah!

As a second added bonus, I won't be tempted to read the comments section on Leigh's posts (something that can suck up a great deal of time and often make me quite irritated at other people and the world in general). Since most people who will be reading her posts will have already read the entire series so far, she hasn't forbidden spoilers in the comments. So in order to avoid the risk of finding out something I don't want to know until I read it, I will just know to stay away. Excellent.

Hmm, maybe this multitasking thing is gonna work out for me after all.