A Retro Review: Digital Fortress

I know lots of people are Dan Brown fans. My mother is one of those people. I have a nook and lots of time, right now, so I figured I would give it a try. Sort of one of those "Mom reads these books and she doesn't read a whole lot, so it should be okay, right?" Plus, I wanted to read his few books in order (not succession, that is far too large for Mr. Brown) which took me to his first: Digital Fortress.

Published in 1998, Dan Brown's first novel takes place in Seville, Spain and in DC at the NSA's headquarters. The two main characters, Susan Fletcher and David Becker, are working two sides of a problem that include computer algorithms and encoded rings. The story starts simply enough: Becker, a linguist, gets called to pick up a passkey from someone in Spain. Meanwhile, Fletcher does what she does best and attempts to break a code that has the NSA's main computer - TRANSLTR - stuck in an endless loop typical of a virus. Why no one had checked the encryption key it was processing for mutation strings sooner is beyond me, but that is the way the story rolls.

Anyway... there are car/bus/Vespa chases, a fight, murders left and right, a hit man, and a Catholic church in this book. Of course, our hero tag team saves the day, the second in command goes crazy and stuff, everything fits at the last second.... blah blah.

Personally, I couldn't get into this book. It should not have taken me this long to read the almost 300 pages of ridiculously simplistic text. The fact that they are all supposed to be the best in the country at what they do leads me to question where they are recruiting from. I have never see this level of conversation for the degree of scholastic achievement they have. Not to say that people from a certain scholarly level are held to a higher standard than most. Not at all. I just expect them to be able to communicate to each other in a more proficient way. The conversations on Dawson's Creek were far more intellectually stimulating. Also, weak plot twists and super predictability left me a bit saddened. I have read teen books with more umph. Fear Street, anyone?

I was hoping to get something out of this and was left looking at a last page wondering if that was the rough draft.

Sadly, I will continue to read his books and hope that this was just a bad first book. I look forward to my next book: Angels and Demons. I hear it's pretty good!

Marilyn Monroe Movie

I am a bit disappointed to find out that Michelle Williams was cast as Marilyn Monroe for an upcoming movie, My Week with Marilyn. Really disappointed. I don't care for her much. I just can't see it, even though I have seen pictures:

Um.... do you not remember what she looks like. No.

I think Marion Cotillard would have been a great Marilyn. I only really know her from Nine, though I know I have seen her in other films. She is so unusually pretty, though. Plus, in Nine, she showed such a vulnerability coupled with sex appeal that really captures the essence of Marilyn to me. If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

Plus, she is just pretty. :) But seriously, watch this clip to see what I mean about Marilyn-esque. Musical phobic types be warned:




Seriously... Michelle Williams?!?!?!?!?! ARGH!

Stupidity Unleashed

I wish there was some way I could capture the essence of stupid. Use it when I want to just not think about things all the time. Unleash it and leave people a bumbling mess of drool and incoherent speech patterns. In a recent stint of stupidity I had, I left something dear to me somewhere unknown. I thought and looked and frustrated myself beyond all help. Then it hit me. Like a ton of feathers (still weigh a ton, but more tickley). It was right where I left it. Really obvious. My soul almost melted away.

Ah, the stupid.
At least it isn't contagious.

Weather Conspirators

They must exist. I finally have a day off(ish) and was planning a fabulous beach day with some friends and dear Floyd, and it's cloudy and poopy. The weather networks say sunny high of 82! What the heck!? I guess I will just hang out here! This could have been poor Floyd today. She needs a doggy beach day badly. *sniff* The weathermen are conspiring against me... I just know it!

The Confusion of Speech

I know I may not be the most eloquent person in the world. I also have the tendency to not be able to filter adequately the things that pop out of my mouth. Part of it is there is so much going on in my noisy brain that I can't keep it all in and part of it is mostly I am not even talking to the people around me but having a running dialogue with myself. Obviously this leads to a lot of fights and confusion on my part and leaves me with a small group of friends. The worst of all of this is my stupid lack of gray area in anything pertaining to opinion.

I never feel "okay" with anything. I either greatly like (love, become obsessed with) or strongly dislike (more like hate, loathe, despise) things. There isn't a whole lot of things I am just so-so about. I don't know why. Because of this, people think I am volatile and maybe I am. I just don't think I am in the way people think. If I feel like I am doing something stupid and state "this is stupid," I don't want people to tell me that I am wrong or try to build up my confidence. I just want you to agree. Why you should ever agree with someone telling themselves that they suck is beyond me, but I have the tendency to blow up if things go otherwise. I have tried really hard to work on this, but I can't seem to change my evil ways. Maybe it is because unless I know something is really wrong that will be the only way I will fix it. If you say it's all okay, then why improve at all?

This often leads to many bouts miscommunication in my life and for that I am eternally apologetic. I then end up overly apologetic and this grates people even more. I hate when things get lost in translation, but I wish there were some way to explain to people how my brain worked. I hate arguing with people. I always feel guilty afterward because I know it's my fault in the end. I wish there were a way we could all communicate on the same level of understanding, but because of different past experiences and levels of comprehension, this is usually easier said than done. That is part of the reason I wrote this post. Occasionally I seem to be better at getting my point across in written word. It forces me to stay focused and I feel like just for a moment, I can't get interrupted and the responses I get I have to treat with the same respect. I know it isn't easy to deal with people like me, but maybe this helps. I don't really know.

How do you deal with miscommunication? Do you find writing letters to help?

Oh no! I'm SICK!

I feel like ground beef today. Or oozing garbage. All of my muscles ache. I have no voice. I'm so tired and shouldn't be. Argh... tourists and their germs. I am pretty sure it's the flu. Gross. I was feeling pretty horrible about the fact that I was getting one of the most painful flus I think I have ever had 'til I saw something adorable on ThinkGeek.com.
If you can't tell what it is, it is a plush microbe. This is the latest addition to the family, the H1N1 flu microbe. Cute, huh? I love plush microbes. They come in oversized petri dishes and are just too freaking cute, in that really disturbing, science geek sort of way. I am a really big fan of the common cold plush, krill plush, and herpes plush (it looks like a flower, I swear). All of them come with pictures of the actual microbe and information on it. What will they think of next?

What sort of cooky thing do you think is fun?

The feeling of yuk.

I know I should be motivated to paint. I love it. I should be motivated to read. Today. Nothing. I feel motivated to nap and play mindless games online. Argue with 13 year olds. Stuff. I feel guilty because I should be doing more. Is there a magic cure for this. I tried drinking tea, playing happy music (it ended up on my nerves) playing with Floyd. All to no avail.

Exhibit A (to the right) shows the level of my lack of motivation. Okay, sure, this was taken like 2 months ago, but you catch my drift, right?

I thought I was tired. I napped. I had a plethora of bad dreams. I am attributing this to my meds. It still sucks though.

So tell me, blogsosphere, what is your motivation? Does it REALLY work? Should I drink more coffee/tea? Should I have a shot of whiskey (had to throw it in, lol)? Maybe I just need someone to motivate me. What is your secret? You can tell me. I can keep a secret. :o)