May the odds be EVER in your favor!
May. 11th, 2010 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
I finished Catching Fire.
I ended up liking it very much, even though it didn't start out very strong. I thought re-doing the arena might get tiresome, but it wasn't, primarily due to the new cast of characters. (This reminds me of when Lost S2 was airing; I didn't know or want to know anything about it, since I watch that show on DVD, so I told my mom I wanted no spoilers whatsoever. And she goes, "Oh, no problem. All the characters are different anyway." LOL.) In fact, I have to not allow myself to think too much about some of the technical stuff, like, if the arena was a clock and they knew what was going to happen when, why wouldn't they just stay out of the areas where crap was happening, forevermore? Why even design the arena like that? Or, what if Beetee had died? How would they have gotten rescued? The whole thing was riding on that.
I think my new favorite character is Finnick. I still like Katniss, but I have to say I'm getting a bit tired of Peeta and his 'goodness.' He can be good AND interesting, the way he was in book 1, but now he's become boringly saint like. Anyway, back to Finnick. I love characters like him, good looking, self sufficient, self centered and with seemingly no emotional ties, except for a select few. I don't think I'm really into Finnick/Katniss, but I'm lukewarm about this Annie backstory for him.
I've also wavered on both Katniss ships. I'm not as into Katniss/Peeta anymore, because that relationship is doomed no matter what, and his saintly attempt to get her to see that she could leave and marry Gale, etc., is boring. It's too in your face. I liked it better when he was fierce. Gale is just not in the picture enough to be interesting, at least at the end of book 2. He's just the pretty boy waiting on the side, who doesn't actually DO anything. At least Peeta does stuff, and we see him and Katniss together constantly. Gale has a lot of catching up to do. Though it seems that book 3 will give him more face time, he has a long way to go now for me to see him as the frontrunner for Katniss's affection, given everything Peeta has done. Then there is Katniss herself, who's starting to annoy me just a bit in a Bella-like way with her inability to stay true to supposedly powerful feelings. Her love for Peeta is still mostly platonic, and she's understandably confused since she's constantly thrown into these life-threatening situations with him. I would totally understand if her affections started to turn from Gale to him, but they haven't really though. She still supposedly loves Gale best. In which case, stop having real feelings for Peeta and worse, leading him on by sleeping (literally) with him, then kissing him with real feeling, etc. It's really this that's cruel, just like Bella. In book 1 it was fine because she never really 'cheated' on Gale in her heart, and she didn't know how Peeta felt about her. Now she knows both how Peeta feels and about her own feelings for Gale, so doing what she's doing in leading Peeta on is pretty selfish. At least Katniss makes up for this by trying to keep him alive in the arena, whereas Bella leading Jacob on again and again and again, knowing how he feels and how she supposedly feels for Edward, is just inexcusable.
Anyway. The confirmation of Earth -- I mean, District 13 -- was kind of anticlimactic. "They went, it's real, and yes they have defense capabililities." Um, okay.
I'm glad Johanna made it out alive, even if she's in the hands of the Capitol. I grew to like her. Hopefully she and Peeta will both be rescued. Peeta isn't REALLY going to be killed off this way, is he? I'm still convinced though that he does have to die at some point, probably in self sacrifice for Katniss. Otherwise no one will really have a satisfying ending. Except maybe Prim, who gets to have everything for nothing. :P
If this were a TV show, Katniss's father would be alive and well, and like, the leader of the resistance movement and has been in District 13 this whole time. I don't know if Suzanne Collins is planning to go there though, and it would be pretty cliche.
Very fun read, all in all. I do have to say, with some relief, that at least at the end of book 2 I didn't find the fact of District 12 being obliterated interesting enough (or the relationship stuff compelling enough) to be dying over not having the 3rd book. Will be looking forward to reading it in August though!
Last night's fried chicken dinner at Spring Hill was very good. Fried chicken is one of my favorite foods. There was SO MUCH chicken. The sides were rather skimpy, but there was a pile of chicken, even more than it appeared initially. Since the kids only had 1 piece each and there's only so much my mom, K., and I can eat, we had lots of leftover chicken. Since reheating fried chicken never works out well, I'll probably use my share of the leftovers to make some other chicken dish. The batter on the chicken was tasty and super crispy, my favorite. Sides were: mashed potatoes with gravy, macaroni & cheese (made with Beecher's, one of my favorite cheddars), jalapeno cornbread with honey butter, crispy oven-baked broccoli, and lightly seasoned spears of cucumber. We thought WE were hardcore because we got the dinner with basically just 3 adults eating (D. ordered a Caesar salad and basically ate that plus some sides), and behind us was a table of 6 adults who got the same thing (the dinner is supposed to serve 4). But then the table next to us put us to shame... 3 adults and a little girl, and not only did they get the fried chicken dinner they also ordered a side of Spring Hill's Monday spaghetti entree (which is not small) as well as two huge meatballs. I have photos, but they're on my SD card at home. D'oh.
Not sure if anyone remembers this, but back in November I was rear ended. Over the next 3 months I went to physical and massage therapy, then I had to wait and wait and wait for them to gather all the expenses and what not to make me an offer of settlement. At long last, after some back and forth, I think the whole thing is going to be settled, which is one less thing for me to worry about, so yay.
K.'s birthday is coming up and it's a big one, so I am thinking of being a good cousin and making her a vegan chocolate cake since she's off dairy right now. I can't imagine a vegan cake actually being any good, but if you know of a recipe for a good one, let me know please.
I ended up liking it very much, even though it didn't start out very strong. I thought re-doing the arena might get tiresome, but it wasn't, primarily due to the new cast of characters. (This reminds me of when Lost S2 was airing; I didn't know or want to know anything about it, since I watch that show on DVD, so I told my mom I wanted no spoilers whatsoever. And she goes, "Oh, no problem. All the characters are different anyway." LOL.) In fact, I have to not allow myself to think too much about some of the technical stuff, like, if the arena was a clock and they knew what was going to happen when, why wouldn't they just stay out of the areas where crap was happening, forevermore? Why even design the arena like that? Or, what if Beetee had died? How would they have gotten rescued? The whole thing was riding on that.
I think my new favorite character is Finnick. I still like Katniss, but I have to say I'm getting a bit tired of Peeta and his 'goodness.' He can be good AND interesting, the way he was in book 1, but now he's become boringly saint like. Anyway, back to Finnick. I love characters like him, good looking, self sufficient, self centered and with seemingly no emotional ties, except for a select few. I don't think I'm really into Finnick/Katniss, but I'm lukewarm about this Annie backstory for him.
I've also wavered on both Katniss ships. I'm not as into Katniss/Peeta anymore, because that relationship is doomed no matter what, and his saintly attempt to get her to see that she could leave and marry Gale, etc., is boring. It's too in your face. I liked it better when he was fierce. Gale is just not in the picture enough to be interesting, at least at the end of book 2. He's just the pretty boy waiting on the side, who doesn't actually DO anything. At least Peeta does stuff, and we see him and Katniss together constantly. Gale has a lot of catching up to do. Though it seems that book 3 will give him more face time, he has a long way to go now for me to see him as the frontrunner for Katniss's affection, given everything Peeta has done. Then there is Katniss herself, who's starting to annoy me just a bit in a Bella-like way with her inability to stay true to supposedly powerful feelings. Her love for Peeta is still mostly platonic, and she's understandably confused since she's constantly thrown into these life-threatening situations with him. I would totally understand if her affections started to turn from Gale to him, but they haven't really though. She still supposedly loves Gale best. In which case, stop having real feelings for Peeta and worse, leading him on by sleeping (literally) with him, then kissing him with real feeling, etc. It's really this that's cruel, just like Bella. In book 1 it was fine because she never really 'cheated' on Gale in her heart, and she didn't know how Peeta felt about her. Now she knows both how Peeta feels and about her own feelings for Gale, so doing what she's doing in leading Peeta on is pretty selfish. At least Katniss makes up for this by trying to keep him alive in the arena, whereas Bella leading Jacob on again and again and again, knowing how he feels and how she supposedly feels for Edward, is just inexcusable.
Anyway. The confirmation of Earth -- I mean, District 13 -- was kind of anticlimactic. "They went, it's real, and yes they have defense capabililities." Um, okay.
I'm glad Johanna made it out alive, even if she's in the hands of the Capitol. I grew to like her. Hopefully she and Peeta will both be rescued. Peeta isn't REALLY going to be killed off this way, is he? I'm still convinced though that he does have to die at some point, probably in self sacrifice for Katniss. Otherwise no one will really have a satisfying ending. Except maybe Prim, who gets to have everything for nothing. :P
If this were a TV show, Katniss's father would be alive and well, and like, the leader of the resistance movement and has been in District 13 this whole time. I don't know if Suzanne Collins is planning to go there though, and it would be pretty cliche.
Very fun read, all in all. I do have to say, with some relief, that at least at the end of book 2 I didn't find the fact of District 12 being obliterated interesting enough (or the relationship stuff compelling enough) to be dying over not having the 3rd book. Will be looking forward to reading it in August though!
Last night's fried chicken dinner at Spring Hill was very good. Fried chicken is one of my favorite foods. There was SO MUCH chicken. The sides were rather skimpy, but there was a pile of chicken, even more than it appeared initially. Since the kids only had 1 piece each and there's only so much my mom, K., and I can eat, we had lots of leftover chicken. Since reheating fried chicken never works out well, I'll probably use my share of the leftovers to make some other chicken dish. The batter on the chicken was tasty and super crispy, my favorite. Sides were: mashed potatoes with gravy, macaroni & cheese (made with Beecher's, one of my favorite cheddars), jalapeno cornbread with honey butter, crispy oven-baked broccoli, and lightly seasoned spears of cucumber. We thought WE were hardcore because we got the dinner with basically just 3 adults eating (D. ordered a Caesar salad and basically ate that plus some sides), and behind us was a table of 6 adults who got the same thing (the dinner is supposed to serve 4). But then the table next to us put us to shame... 3 adults and a little girl, and not only did they get the fried chicken dinner they also ordered a side of Spring Hill's Monday spaghetti entree (which is not small) as well as two huge meatballs. I have photos, but they're on my SD card at home. D'oh.
Not sure if anyone remembers this, but back in November I was rear ended. Over the next 3 months I went to physical and massage therapy, then I had to wait and wait and wait for them to gather all the expenses and what not to make me an offer of settlement. At long last, after some back and forth, I think the whole thing is going to be settled, which is one less thing for me to worry about, so yay.
K.'s birthday is coming up and it's a big one, so I am thinking of being a good cousin and making her a vegan chocolate cake since she's off dairy right now. I can't imagine a vegan cake actually being any good, but if you know of a recipe for a good one, let me know please.
