(Not really – I pre-loaded this post before we left on our trip as it’s always one of my favourite posts of the year and an interesting way to look back at the past twelve months…)
January – “How often can Throwback Thursday be a clip from the day before and also last year?” February – “Didn’t post this weekend as I was away at my brother-in-law’s wedding.” March – “Remember how, in the old days, you’d try to maximize your $14.99 (or $19.99 or more!) when buying a cassette or CD?” April – “BuzzFeed has some pretty accurate listicles sometimes.” May – “Microsoft recently launched a new site called How-Old.net that went viral due to its use of fancy math algorithms to guess the ages of people in pictures you upload.” June – “Country music always makes me think of summer and camping and all that other good stuff all rolled up in one.” July – “We’ve had a wonderful tree in our yard (even better, in our neighbour’s yard with big branches hanging over the fence providing us shade and a place to hang a swing) since we bought this house.” August – “Back from nearly two weeks straight of camping.” [Note: This is also a record as I had to go to August NINTH to find my first post of that month. I usually post something within the first couple days of the month going back to 2006!] September – “Shea ended up posting all these annual “Pace’s First Day of School” pics on Facebook so I thought I’d post them here for posterity as well.” October – “It’s hard to know where to begin with a series of posts about why the Conservatives deserve to be turfed from power.” November – “So much openness.” December – “I couldn’t resist posting this.”
What a perfect song for today’s Music Monday post as this song compares and contrasts traditional Christian holiday celebrations with those who are not…
They’re not allowed to say “Christmas” but this year, his grade sang a recognizable Christmas song (“Let It Snow”) [Edit: oh, that’s funny. I looked back at my post from three years ago about Pace’s first school concert and what song did I suggest would be a good, non-offensive choice but still “Christmasy”? Someone from Pace’s school apparently reads my blog!)]
There was even an appearance by Santa – something I don’t think we’ve seen in three years of Christmas, sorry, Winter Concerts at Pace’s school. Plus someone did some really cool video clips that played on a screen as they shuttled the different grades off and on the stage so this was probably one of my favourite years ever.
Not often I get to combine my Throwback Thursday and Friday Fun Link but after making a fairly spontaneous decision to go to a midnight showing of the new Star Wars movie last night, I thought posting this picture was a bit of both categories.
I’ll try to keep it spoiler-free as I give a few random thoughts…
I was surprised how empty the theatre was – maybe 40 people? December 18 was widely advertised as opening day so I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple evening showings on Thursday December 17 and that’s probably part of it. I also went to a non-3D, non-IMAX showing and I bet those ones were a lot busier.
(Ah, read something online – sounds like December 18 was the US release date but other parts of the world – the UK, Canada – got it a day early!)
That also meant not many people in costumes, not a lot of excitement in the theatre (a bit of uncertain clapping at the opening crawl then nothing at other high points) which is very different then when I went to the opening day of Episode One.
Movie was amazing. Much more in the spirit of the original trilogy than the prequels. Definitely made me feel like a kid again!
The “reveals” of the three main characters who were in the originals – Luke, Leia and Han Solo – were all awesomely done although I thought we’d see more of one of them.
At least one shocking twist mid-movie but I think most people saw it coming if you’ve seen the original trilogy.
Lots of similar themes to the original trilogy as well – especially relationships between fathers & sons, destiny and the nature of good & evil.
Minor quibble – the setting is 30 years after the originals but some characters pick up the skills of the Force fairly quickly whereas Luke underwent massive amounts of training, even as strong as he was with the Force.
No Jar Jar Binks!
Loved the “new” R2D2, BB8.
Lots of great humour as well.
Unfortunately, also typical of Star Wars, the love story that’s included is somewhat forced and unbelievable.
Here’s a 5-Star Review (also spoiler free) from the Guardian newspaper.
…and here’s the spoiler-loaded thread for the movie featuring the hardcore nerds of Reddit which I’d recommend that you check out after you’ve seen the movie!
They lift the kid by his blood-dimmed sweater and hang him on a coatrack. Madness on their faces. The mantis gone moronic. The squat’s tonsured head like some wardfled lobotomite
