![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
I have done something maybe stupidly spontaneous. As I got interested in food and cooking and food photography, in the back of my mind I've always considered getting a macro lens. But my existing lenses were always good enough, so I never really did any research on it. Well, I was going through a random food blog last night and she had great photos, as well as an info page about her equipment. And... well... you guessed it, she had a macro lens. Then came the feverish researching last night and this morning, and then I did it. I bought a really, really ridiculously expensive macro lens. Also, I love Ken Rockwell. He's my Nikon god. He's almost exhaustively thorough, yet easy to understand, and most importantly, always seems to know what the key points are that I care about. During my research, there were several lenses that came up as a possibility, and no matter how many reviews I read, I still didn't know how to tell the difference between them, or which would be right for me for my purposes. I was able to figure it out w/ Ken's help. Seriously if you have a Nikon go there for answers for any questions you might have.
All right, so I caved and started The Hunger Games. I was considering saving it until around August, when the third and final book is supposed to be out so I would have any between-book angst, but I was really excited to read this one and when you're that excited about a book it's not easy to pretend it doesn't exist. I have a few nitpicks here and there but I'm already totally hooked. HOW in the world is Kat going to kill Peeta?! IS he really just a nice person, or is he a master manipulator? It SEEMED from the beginning that it was Kat/Gale OTP, yet she's not even going to see him again until the Games are over (right now I'm assuming she's not going to die. 'Cause, you know, otherwise, no books). Right? Or is it really going to be Kat/Peeta? And what's up with Cinna? Was Kat's mother really depressed, or had she been deliberately infected with something that caused her to check out? Is Kat's father really dead? How is Kat going to topple the Hunger Games/free the Districts? I can't imagine that that's not the purpose of the series. Not, of course, that I actually want any of these questions answered out right, I'd rather read about it, but my mind's buzzing!
My minor nitpicks: Kat has a vast knowledge of things that seems to belie her poor, self-raised background. For instance, really small thing, but when she and Peeta are introduced at the Games with their flaming capes, she makes a mental note that she's sure she's going to be barbecue. Really, would someone with her background really throw that out so casually? The word "barbecue" to me connotes ease and a casual setting for roasting meat in an outdoor setting. Yeah, technically all it means is cooking meat over a fire/grill. But there are plenty of other, simpler words for that. Even if she cooked her kills outside, which it's never mentioned that she does, she'd probably just refer to it as cooking. I mean, who in her life, especially after her dad was gone -- and she was only 11 then -- would even USE the word "barbecue"?? It wouldn't have been so jarring if she'd said she'd be charred or the equivalent -- something that doesn't make her sound casually ambivalent about a term she shouldn't really be that familiar with.
That on its own might have just been a throwaway thing, something really minor and nitpicky that only bothers ME... but it shows up in other instances, too. It seems to me that her life is about minimalism, or at least it has been for a long time. Yet she seems to recognize all the things she's supposedly never had, or hasn't had since she was a young girl (maybe she has the best memory ever), like the luxurious food she's served once she's on her way to the Games. But even the notion that when her dad was around she got to have all that stuff is hard to believe -- we're told that her mom came from a wealthy (comparatively) family but gave that up to be with her dad and live in the Seam, which is like, the slums. So it seems really unlikely that she would have been exposed to all that stuff. Plus, her entire district seems to be in various levels of poverty -- even the 'rich' people aren't as rich as those in other districts, or so it seems, with District 12 being "the coal town." And yet they have things like sweet shops, bakeries, etc. WHO in District 12 can actually afford those things? Are there people in District 12 other than the Mayor and his family who can afford those things? What do they do for a living?
And finally, I just have to say that characters like Prim bug the shit out of me. The little girl who has to be taken care of, even though Kat was taking care of herself AND a little sister and a mother at the same age, a girl who everyone loves just because she's lovable, who wants to save kitties due to her big heart because she's never had to actually fend for survival, etc. It's a really easy and convenient plot device, and I don't blame writers for using it, but it makes the character totally unlikable.
Every time I watch Gosford Park I like it more. It's just so subtle and brilliant.
I have done something maybe stupidly spontaneous. As I got interested in food and cooking and food photography, in the back of my mind I've always considered getting a macro lens. But my existing lenses were always good enough, so I never really did any research on it. Well, I was going through a random food blog last night and she had great photos, as well as an info page about her equipment. And... well... you guessed it, she had a macro lens. Then came the feverish researching last night and this morning, and then I did it. I bought a really, really ridiculously expensive macro lens. Also, I love Ken Rockwell. He's my Nikon god. He's almost exhaustively thorough, yet easy to understand, and most importantly, always seems to know what the key points are that I care about. During my research, there were several lenses that came up as a possibility, and no matter how many reviews I read, I still didn't know how to tell the difference between them, or which would be right for me for my purposes. I was able to figure it out w/ Ken's help. Seriously if you have a Nikon go there for answers for any questions you might have.
All right, so I caved and started The Hunger Games. I was considering saving it until around August, when the third and final book is supposed to be out so I would have any between-book angst, but I was really excited to read this one and when you're that excited about a book it's not easy to pretend it doesn't exist. I have a few nitpicks here and there but I'm already totally hooked. HOW in the world is Kat going to kill Peeta?! IS he really just a nice person, or is he a master manipulator? It SEEMED from the beginning that it was Kat/Gale OTP, yet she's not even going to see him again until the Games are over (right now I'm assuming she's not going to die. 'Cause, you know, otherwise, no books). Right? Or is it really going to be Kat/Peeta? And what's up with Cinna? Was Kat's mother really depressed, or had she been deliberately infected with something that caused her to check out? Is Kat's father really dead? How is Kat going to topple the Hunger Games/free the Districts? I can't imagine that that's not the purpose of the series. Not, of course, that I actually want any of these questions answered out right, I'd rather read about it, but my mind's buzzing!
My minor nitpicks: Kat has a vast knowledge of things that seems to belie her poor, self-raised background. For instance, really small thing, but when she and Peeta are introduced at the Games with their flaming capes, she makes a mental note that she's sure she's going to be barbecue. Really, would someone with her background really throw that out so casually? The word "barbecue" to me connotes ease and a casual setting for roasting meat in an outdoor setting. Yeah, technically all it means is cooking meat over a fire/grill. But there are plenty of other, simpler words for that. Even if she cooked her kills outside, which it's never mentioned that she does, she'd probably just refer to it as cooking. I mean, who in her life, especially after her dad was gone -- and she was only 11 then -- would even USE the word "barbecue"?? It wouldn't have been so jarring if she'd said she'd be charred or the equivalent -- something that doesn't make her sound casually ambivalent about a term she shouldn't really be that familiar with.
That on its own might have just been a throwaway thing, something really minor and nitpicky that only bothers ME... but it shows up in other instances, too. It seems to me that her life is about minimalism, or at least it has been for a long time. Yet she seems to recognize all the things she's supposedly never had, or hasn't had since she was a young girl (maybe she has the best memory ever), like the luxurious food she's served once she's on her way to the Games. But even the notion that when her dad was around she got to have all that stuff is hard to believe -- we're told that her mom came from a wealthy (comparatively) family but gave that up to be with her dad and live in the Seam, which is like, the slums. So it seems really unlikely that she would have been exposed to all that stuff. Plus, her entire district seems to be in various levels of poverty -- even the 'rich' people aren't as rich as those in other districts, or so it seems, with District 12 being "the coal town." And yet they have things like sweet shops, bakeries, etc. WHO in District 12 can actually afford those things? Are there people in District 12 other than the Mayor and his family who can afford those things? What do they do for a living?
And finally, I just have to say that characters like Prim bug the shit out of me. The little girl who has to be taken care of, even though Kat was taking care of herself AND a little sister and a mother at the same age, a girl who everyone loves just because she's lovable, who wants to save kitties due to her big heart because she's never had to actually fend for survival, etc. It's a really easy and convenient plot device, and I don't blame writers for using it, but it makes the character totally unlikable.
Every time I watch Gosford Park I like it more. It's just so subtle and brilliant.
