A Wrinkle in Time (Movie Review)

We interrupt your normal stream of food and fitness for our occasional wandering into movies or travel! There may be spoilers in this review.

There have been many highly anticipated films in 2018. Some performed well, critically and/or in the box office, while others didn’t meet expectations. If you read our review for Black Panther, you’d know that we absolutely loved the film. With some huge blockbusters slated for summer release, Disney wanted to try to take control of Winter/Spring, and their adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time would help do that, or so they hoped.

A Wrinkle in Time didn’t meet the studio’s expectations, as box office numbers were mediocre and it failed to capture the hearts of critics. Still, we were undeterred and wanted to see if they could recreate a story that we both grew up reading. A Wrinkle in Time wasn’t summer reading in my school, it was part of the curriculum. We read it in class (I believe in 5th grade, possibly 6th) and would discuss it every day, reflecting on it through homework assignments. I would often skip summer reading, but that couldn’t be done here. While I didn’t love the critical analysis in class, I was amazed by the images and adventure. That is exactly what I associate with this story.

Apr082017

Frostbeard Studio Candles: Coziness You Can Smell

My friends at work make fun of me all the time for my new-found love of candles. Well, maybe not that I just love candles, but my weird rules that I make up for using them. I like different candles for different seasons (usually just centered around Fall and Winter), but I also don’t put a candle away until it’s done–I must burn it all the way through! I had underestimated my winter candle’s length of burning time and I was two weeks late for my Spring candle I’ve been so excited about (weird, I know). I recently got into candles in the past year. I started out with normal candles you’d find at Marshall’s or whatnot, but I found a wealth of more fun-themed candles online. These include nerdy candles (duh, have you ever met me?!). I’ve found a particularly excellent collection over at Frostbeard Studio.

Mar312017

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Since Fantastic Beasts was released just a few days ago (Blu-Ray, DVD, etc.) and many people we know still haven’t seen it, we wanted to say a few words to help you decide whether you want to see it or not. The general idea is that, if you’re a Potter fan… like a TRUE fan of the HP Universe, you will enjoy this movie. You might not enjoy it as much as you wanted to, but it definitely adds to the cinematic universe that they created. It doesn’t (really) work against it in any significant way, so it does feel like Rogue One’s relationship to Star Wars, in that way.

Now, if you haven’t ever watched any of Screen Junkies Honest Trailers, and you appreciate some satirical comedy, we highly recommend you check out their YouTube page. They had the same idea about Fantastic Beasts this week, so they just released their own Honest Trailer, and while their job is to be hard on movies, we do think that this film deserves some credit. It does, after all, have a 73% on the Tomato Meter with an 81% from audience, as well as a 7.5/10 on IMDB.

Mar222017

City Lights Bookstore

City Lights is an independent bookstore in San Francisco. There’s a certain appreciation that someone can have for a place like this. We were visiting from LA and walked past by chance while exploring, so we returned later that day to see if they had some more obscure books that were on our reading list and… they did. Both of us went in with a certain edition of a certain book, which they had, at reasonable prices. After browsing through the relatively clearly labeled and organized store, we ended up with a few new books that we never knew existed.

Jan242017

24 Books a Year: Goal Completed

Last year, I set a goal for myself: to read 24 books in 2016 (two books a month). Why did I set this goal? Well, for a few reasons, really…

I love to read and want to consume more unread books in our library.
Reading is one of the best ways to learn how to write better.
Reading is great for inspiration.
I love a good challenge.

Aug192016

Keep It Moving: A Must-Read Book

Just the other day, we were reflecting on how often the solution to a major problem is so painfully simple. Sometimes, it could just be the flip of a switch to give power to a whole building when a surge turns off everyone’s lights all of a sudden. Someone knows where that switch is, but if that someone isn’t around or hasn’t shared that knowledge, how does that help us as a community?

Carl Bresk has over thirty years of experience in the field of health and wellness. For those three decades, Carl has taken a formal education (and degree) in kinesiology (anatomy, exercise science, etc.), the experiences of an elite athlete (as a competitive rower), and specialized training from working at a fitness facility where he teaches classes and clients, in order to find some part of the fountain of youth. Carl shares his secrets in his book “Keep It Moving” because he sincerely wants everyone to achieve a greater level of health and wellness.

Aug082016

Our Week(end) in Pictures

Did a mini road trip (60 miles) to run up the miles in order to get our car fixed

Jun132016

Our Weekend (and Some From the Week) in Pics

Yummy food

Jun112016

A Book to Inspire You: Big Magic

I forget where I first heard of Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, but I’m very grateful to that unknown source. I’ve been writing my whole life–I’m no master, but I have always enjoyed creating stories. It’s a hobby of mine I hope to focus on now that the big wedding is done and that I have a little bit more time on my hands. But writing, or being creative in general, isn’t as easy as putting pen to paper (or brush to canvas or hands to flowers)–though, technically that’s what you need. Sometimes, you need a little bit of inspiration. This book more than does that.

Jan102016

What Game of Thrones is Missing

The Greyjoys.

Recently, as I was driving through LA, I saw this apple TV banner. While I haven’t watched Game of Thrones since the end of the first season came out live, I’ve heard a lot about it from others. Since we read the books before the TV series was out, we were shocked to find out they were making a series in the first place. No one else knew what A Song of Ice and Fire was since it came out in the early 90s. I can’t imagine there were too many people out there that were more excited about this show than us.