1 Year

Dad

I love you

Excited

I am so excited!! My mom is only a couple of hours away from arriving at my house. I haven't seen her since my dad's funeral last year. She is the most amazing woman, great friend and simply a lot of fun to be around. I feel so privileged to be able to have her for about a week. My brother and a couple of my other brother's kids are also coming up. Great opportunity for a few of the cousins to get to know each other.

Looking forward to all the fun we're going to have. 24th is my bro's 40th b-day. Birthday = CAKE!!! Yum! I get to do my mom's hair - perm and cut - maybe color. We will be heading to the "beach" next week, exploring a new cave we've never been to, swimming, setting off some fireworks. So exciting to get a break from the regular day to day stuff.

Read the book . . . Watch the movie

Ok . . . I have always been plagued with the question of which to do first. Read the book that a movie was made about or watch the movie that was made from the book?

I watched all the currently made Harry Potter films first (4). I was impatient to find out how it all ends so I read the entire series from the beginning. It was a nice refresher of the plot and subplots. I have now read all 5 books and am quite interested to see how they decide to pull off the last book. I thought they did an adequate job transferring the book into a film. Granted, a lot of little "extras" can only be found in the books.

Because I had seen the films already, I knew quite well how the different characters walked and talked. When I read the books I was able to "hear" the characters speaking their lines as the film played on in my mind. It was neat to read the scenes that were cut from the film. Like getting a bonus track on the DVD only in book form. It is an easier read for me to already have the character created than to have to come up with my own visualization based on what was written. There are details in an image of a character that books simply cannot supply. The opposite is true about the details a book can give about a character's mental state/thoughts that a film cannot.

At times it can be a bit distracting though. I spent too much time comparing my memory of the film with the book I was reading. I would make mental notes where the film or story deviated from one another. Sometimes I was pleasantly surprised while others I was bummed that one or the other was not the "real" presentation.



Not too long ago I went to the theater to watch "Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1: The Lightning Thief". Visually it was a lot of fun. The story moved along well. Sometimes I thought they rushed it a bit but over all opinion was positive.

Well, now I'm reading the book:



I am only about 1/4 of the way into the book but it almost feels like a completely different story. I am even more excited to read the book. I realize that despite the fact that I have seen the film, I have no clue how the story is supposed to go. While Harry Potter's screenwriter (Steve Kloves) did a great job working with JK Rowling to get the movie to be quite close to the books I feel that Craig Titley (the screenwriter for the Percy Jackson film) did it all on his own without consulting the author. He has a rather short filmography and I believe he simply lacks the experience to take a big action novel and turn it into a true to the book movie. I'm bummed that I saw the movie first.

Do you have a preference when there is a book and a film out and you have neither read the book nor seen the film? Which gets your attention first?

1 Year now...

It's been 1 year since I joked with my dad...

Since I saw him smile at his last grandchild...
(she was not quite 2 months old yet - his eyes lit up and danced as she laid on his chest... sharing each other's warmth. Dad always loved babies.)

Since I helped him get a drink of water...

Since I watched him laugh...

This was the last week I saw my dad alive.........


I miss you dad . . .