Jul 9, 2009

Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

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Title: The Time Traveler’s Wife
Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Soft Science Fiction Romance
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When Henry meets Clare, he is twenty-eight and she is twenty. Henry has never met Clare before; Clare has known Henry since she was six. Impossible but true, because Henry finds himself periodically displaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. Henry and Clare’s attempts to live normal lives are threatened by a force they can neither prevent nor control, making their passionate love story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable. The Time Traveler’s Wife is a story of fate, hope and belief, and more than that, it’s about the power of love to endure beyond the bounds of time.

I’m torn with The Time Traveler’s Wife.  I enjoyed the story for the most part, but there are three things that make it impossible for me to love it. (The third reason contains spoilers.)

First, I’m not a big fan of profanity, especially when the profanity is the F-word.  I’ll read books with language in it and try to skip over the words as best I can, but the language usually keeps me from enjoying the book as much as I could’ve if it weren’t there in the first place.

Second, I’m not a fan of graphic sex.  I don’t need to know everything that’s done during the sex act.  I don’t mind knowing that the characters are sexually active; I just don’t want to know what he did to pleasure her or she did to pleasure him.  At that point, I feel like the book becomes more of a sex story than a love story. It feels as though the characters lust after each other rather than really love each other.  In Henry and Clare’s case, I do feel like they truly loved each other, but there’s more to a relationship than sex and I wanted to see those aspects explored more.

Third, and most importantly, I hated the ending.  It bugged me that Henry told Clare not to wait for him after he died, but then told her that he sees her when she’s 82.  Of course she’s going to wait for him armed with that knowledge!  She’d been waiting for him her entire life.  He just needed to let it happen like so many other things did during his and Clare’s life.

These things keep me from knowing that I’ll read the story again.  At this point, I may or may not; I’m just not sure.  However, I did like the story most of the time so I do recommend it to others as you may not have the same objections as I do.  And, because I did enjoy the story most of the time, I’d still like to see the movie as long as it doesn’t contain nudity or language.

Filed Under: Book Reviews ·  Tagged: , , , · 2 Comments
Jul 7, 2009

Personal Training

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I had my first session with my personal trainer last Thursday and it was great!

First, Brandon had me walk on an elliptical machine for seven minutes.  (Normally, I’ll do 15 minutes of cardio before I start doing any resistance training, but time was cut short because it was my first session and we had some talking to do beforehand.)  Walking on an elliptical is hard!  At least, it was for me.  I’m not used to keeping my feet down and just trying to push the pedals.  It felt awkward and my quads started to burn after only a minute of being on the machine because they were in a constant bent position.  Brandon told me to walk for a minute at a relaxed pace and then for a minute at the most vigorous pace I could keep up.  After three minutes of this, I could barely keep up the relaxed pace let alone the more vigorous one. I’m not sure how I’m going to survive for 15 minutes!

After walking on the elliptical, he had me do some reps that worked out my quads, hamstrings, and abs, using only my body weight as resistance.  Some of the exercises were more difficult than others because I have no strength in my abs.

By the time the session was over, I was very tired, hot, and sweaty.  I don’t think I’ve ever been as tired, hot, or sweaty from a workout before.  While I was walking on the elliptical, my arms were all red.  I almost passed out while I was doing the stretching exercises when I was cooling down, but that wasn’t because Brandon pushed me too hard; it was because I hadn’t drunk enough water.

My muscles started to feel sore by the time I got home, but the soreness wasn’t anything like it was for the next few days.  The soreness is finally starting to go away, just in time for my session after work today.

Before I went to my session, Brandon wanted me to measure my chest, waist, hips, and thighs so I can keep track of my progress.  Little did he know, I had already measured myself in April, so I could already see if I was making progress.  As of Thursday, I’ve lost a half an inch around my chest and waist and an inch and a half around my hips and thighs! I was pretty excited about that and look forward to losing more inches with Brandon’s help.  I’ve also lost 3% of my body fat since the end of February.

Filed Under: Getting Healthy, Weight Loss · 7 Comments
Jul 6, 2009

Harry Potter Reflections

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As you know, I’ve been listening to the Harry Potter series on audiobook.  Right now, I’m listening to Half-Blood Prince.  I’m halfway through so I’ll definitely be done before the 15th.  Incidentally, that’s only eight days away!

Before I read Deathly Hallows, I made a list of unanswered questions from the previous books, hoping they’d be answered.  Surprisingly, all of them, except one, were answered. (It’s the question listed under Order of Phoenix.) However, I think one can guess the answer to that question and get the answer pretty close to the truth so it’s not that big of a deal.

Now that I’ve read Deathly Hallows, it’s interesting to go through the books again because I’ve picked up on some foreshadowing that I didn’t before.  Also, I thought of a question I wouldn’t have before.  The question, which I thought of while I was listening to Chamber of Secrets, is whether Harry’s still a Parselmouth.

I posed that question to a few of my co-workers while I was listening to Chamber of Secrets and their gut reaction was, “Why wouldn’t he be?”  The answer to that question is because Harry was one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes.  The reason Harry could see into Voldemort’s mind was because of the little bit of Voldemort’s soul trapped in Harry.  That’s the reason his scar hurt when Voldemort was feeling particularly angry or happy.  Dumbledore also told Harry, more or less without going into the details of a Horcrux at the time, that was the reason Harry was a Parselmouth.

I thought it stood to reason that if the Horcrux was destroyed and Harry no longer felt pain in his scar, then he probably couldn’t speak Parseltongue anymore either.  Until today, this was just a hypothesis.  I found the transcript to a web chat JK Rowling had with some fans on July 30, 2007.

Nigel: Can harry speak parseltongue when he is no longer a horcrux?

J.K. Rowling: No, he loses the ability, and is very glad to do so.

I’m pretty happy to find this answer as I’m always wondering about these types of things.  (It was a link from Wikipedia on the page discussing the Horcruxes.)

It think it’s cool that I’m still thinking of things when I reread the Harry Potter series.  It’s the mark of a good story and writer.  And, I’m sure I’ll continue to think of questions as I reread each book for many years to come.

Filed Under: Books, Harry Potter · 4 Comments
Jul 2, 2009

Speeding Ticket? What Speeding Ticket?

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You may remember I received my first speeding ticket last year.  You may also remember it was the mother of all speeding tickets. However, because it was my first speeding ticket or any type of traffic violation, the judge took pity on me and gave me a reduced sentence.  Instead of having to pay the $400+ fine, I only had to pay $152, which in and of itself was awesome.  The judge also told me that if I went 12 months without receiving any traffic violations, this one would be erased from my record as if it never happened.

*insert drum roll here* I made it!  As I was driving around today, I realized my 12 months was up a little over a week ago! … You better watch out!  The speed demon is back in business! Okay, not really … sort of.  I don’t plan on getting caught for at least another 14 years anyway.

Filed Under: Life · 3 Comments
Jul 1, 2009

Creative Ad Campaign

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I thought these ads were very creative.  Too bad all airlines aren’t following suit “not” suit and using this Air New Zealand “bare essentials” safety video.  People may actually pay attention.

Filed Under: Just for Fun · 6 Comments
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