📚 Imbalance by V.E. Mitchell

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35/2023 – ⭐️⭐️

This one starts with an interesting premise, as the Enterprise is sent to negotiate with aliens only briefly encountered before, the Jarada (the unseen, highly demanding aliens that were the B story in “The Big Goodbye”). But while there are hints of an interesting society, the rest of the book doesn’t hold together well. Actions are taken by the aliens that are never really explained, and Enterprise characters are either reduced to repetitious mannerisms (Dr. Crusher brushes locks of her flaming red hair out of her face nearly every time she’s mentioned) or simply badly portrayed (I know Keiko and O’Brien have difficulties, but in this book they’re both rendered nearly incompetent by their insecurities). Toss on a rather abrupt end to the whole thing, and this is one I wasn’t disappointed to reach the end of.

Me holding Imbalance

🎥 Invitation to a Murder

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Invitation to a Murder (2023): ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This starts as a very fun homage to Agatha Christie movies, with a very 10 Little Indians basic setup and a lot of other classic Christie tropes wrapped up all together. But somehow by the end it just sort of feels like it fizzles out, with the final resolution depending on some things that felt very out of place and anachronistic. Mostly a lot of fun, but needed a better way to wrap things up at the end.

More spolieriffic details follow…

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🎥 Renfield

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Renfield (2023): ⭐️⭐️

Almost gets three stars, because it was entertaining, and really, how high were anyone’s actual expectations for this? But though I enjoy the cast, Cage is just as ridiculous as you’d expect him to be, Hoult somehow (very amusingly) channels 90s era Hugh Grant (seriously, Renfield Nicholas Hoult : 90s Hugh Grant :: Heathers Christian Slater : 70s Jack Nicholson), and there are a lot of clever lines that made me laugh, the whole is lesser than the sum of its parts. The editing during the fight scenes is far too quick and choppy, resulting in fights that are sometimes hard to track and often give the impression that the fight choreography just wasn’t there and they had to try to save them through the editing. And the decision to go with 70s-martial-arts/horror-style over-the-top fountains of gushing blood somehow didn’t quite work for me. I don’t regret watching this, but it’s not one I’ll ever have much need to watch again.

Year 50 Day 94

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Me standing in front of a white wall, wearing a black t-shirt riffing on the classic Joy Division Unknown Pleasures album artwork, only with text that says Tosche Station / Power Converters.

Day 94: A classic album by the best band under the twin suns of Tatooine! Amusingly, though I have three different spoofs of the Joy Division Unknown Pleasures album artwork shirt (this one which I’m pretty sure I got from Diesel Sweeties but the store appears to be down right now, Nimoy Division / Vulcan Pleasures, and Depeche Mode / Boys Don’t Cry), I’ve yet to add the original to my shirt drawer.

Year 50 Day 93

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Me standing in front of a wall; on a shelf mounted on the wall is a Lego pirate ship, shark, and small desert island with a castaway.

Day 93: We have a silly Lego nautical theme above our fireplace. On this side is a Lego pirate ship sailing through shark-infested waters by a small desert island with a castaway in his shack. We’ve decided that he was more interested in protecting his treasure chest than being rescued.

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Year 50 Day 91

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Me standing outside in a parking lot in bright sunlight, next to a red car with the driver's door open to let hot air escape.

Day 91: One of the advantages to my wife having the summer off before she starts teaching in the fall is that I can park in the lot next to the building I work in, instead of in the upper lot closer to the building with her office. Of course, the disadvantage to this is that the lot close to my building has no shade, while the upper lot has spot we can almost always grab that is directly under a big tree and nicely shaded. On days when the outside temperature is in the 80s or higher and the temperature inside the car at the end of the day is likely well into triple digits, I’m not sure the advantageous parking spot is really that much of an advantage….