My lazy life...

First off, I apologize to Jason for using the same template he is using. I had planned to change the color scheme but I'm too lazy.

Sorry for not writing anything substantial in a while but I've been busy attending a wedding, and yet another bachelorette party. Plus my uncle from Manchester, UK is in town and is trying to find a house. Since I have nothing to do, he has appointed me as his "realtor."

Besides that, I've been watching bad movies and reading books. I recently finished There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale by Sean Astin. It's basically all about the filming of the Lord of the Rings. Normally, I wouldn't read a such a book, because I'm not a superfan although I did enjoy the Lord the Rings trilogy, but I thought it might be interesting to see the other side of filmmaking. Sadly, I find the AudioFile review of the book (on the Amazon page) to be pretty accurate. In every paragraph, Astin insults someone and then in the next sentence will basically kiss his/her ass to make up for it. There is a hell of a lot of ass-kissing in this book; it's a bit nauseating at times. Astin also seems to be really insecure. He did deliver a great performance in the movie though, no doubt about that. And the other thing that bothered me about it was that he claimed to have an inferior command of the English language (not in so many words), but the language in the book was verbose to the point where it came off as insincere and inconsistent with the attempted conversational tone of the anecdotes (hmm, perhaps the pot shouldn't call the kettle black, hehe). He didn't write the book on his own though; there was a second author, so I guess that explains that. Maybe next time, he should find a better ghost writer, or whatever you call them. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this book although there were some interesting bits.

The other book that I read this past week was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I first read it in 7th grade I think, but I definitely appreciated it more a second time around. It's a shame that Harper Lee only has written one novel. I guess when your first book wins the Pulitzer Prize, expectations might be too overwhelming. I love the name (and the character) Atticus, by the way. Maybe if I have a son, I'll name him Atticus. If not a son, then my dog. Maybe both. It's that good.

Also, I've been listening to the Black Keys - Rubber Factory. A good album. It's like alt-punk with a blues feel. Good stuff.