The things & nothing but the things

Short and simple. Doings & opinions.Books:Still working on the Grace Burrowes ouvre, because I heart it.  I'll be at this a while at roughly 3-5 books a week. She's written a lot.The Soul of an Octopus. More non-fiction for the year!!! Both the book itself and my continuing a non-fiction book completion streak are worthy of multiple exclamation points (in all defiance of Proper Grammar)  What's the book about? Cephalopods, the Universe & Everything. But mostly cephalopods. Lots of fascinating facts beautifully wrapped in the personal story of the author's relationship with several octopuses on exhibit at the Boston Aquarium.Movies:Edge of Tomorrow. Entirely decent action SF saddled with a baffling name and trailers that didn't do it justice. If I had to pitch it, I would call it Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers by way of Full Metal Jacket, but it's too complex to lend itself to soundbites or easy explanations or anything except saying, "No, seriously, it's damned good stuff." It got a little too "hey, kids, let's-MEGASIZE-the-action" near the end, and the inevitable hetero pair=romance issue wasn't handled adroitly, but it also didn't devolve into gooey absurdity. And it had a damned fine ending. So, then. TL;DR review: I liked it.Yellow Submarine. One of my workmates is a huge Beatles fan. We got to talking, I decided I had to re-view the movie. So trippy. I'd forgotten how trippy.  Forever fab.Genius. A movie about the editor Max Perkins and his protege Thomas Wolfe in the 1920's and 30's, not the series about Albert Einstein. Very romantic look at "How Publishing Used To Work"  Beyond that it was not memorable despite solid performances by Colin Firth and Jude Law.Warcraft. A somewhat murky animated fantasy epic. The animation nearly climbed out of  the Uncanny Valley and nailed some great action scenes. I'm sure it was fabulous fun for its target market  (World of Warcraft players, past players, and readers of the novels to name a few groups.)  Okay by me.Guardians of the Galaxy. Had to prep for Volume 2, didn't I? Still haven't seen the second one. Maybe next week. Something tells me it's going to be a round a while.The Help. I was underwhelmed. Yes, important topics and historical period handled in a fine dramatic fashion. Yes, phenomenal performances, all the awards definitely deserved. And yet...I would have preferred lots MORE about the people whose stories the protagonist was trying to tell and less of the racist white folk caricatures. I know, I'm oversimplifying, but for me the presence of racist straw figures easily defeated by spunky defiance and clever opposition detracted from the power of the story.Television:Not much.  Feud ended beautifully, but it's over, other shows are on mid-season break, and I don't have the cable channels I need to watch American Gods or Handmaid's Tale or other shows I can't recall at the moment. The important thing is that I'm spending more time on creating and less on consuming things that don't inspire creating. So hopefully it's an everyone-wins scenario.On the other fronts:There was travel to Seattle to visit Spouseman's mom and other relatives, hence the picture of Mt Rainier adorning this post.  Physically exhausting for him, stressful and emotionally draining for us both, and yet wonderful and invigorating and tremendously needful for both of us. SpouseMom is in her middling nineties, so...yeah. Good to visit and hug and listen to family stories.My hair is short again and also blue. No longer blue enough to stain towels, clothes or pillowcases, but still a deep, vibrant shade I love spotting in windows as I walk past.I have a new audio for one of my not-new novellas, and I'm working on that print edition of my story collection. BECAUSE PRINT LIVES!The dryer died and I fixed it, the stove died, and we're getting a new one. Given the ages of our other appliances, I really must stop referring to them as the "new" ones and bump up the saving for inevitable breakage. Hard to believe, but come Memorial Day, we'll have been 20 years in our first little house.Upcoming: a trip to Pittsburgh for the SFWA conference and much learning about writing and publishing stuff. And hanging out with friends.That's all there be for now.