RANDOM MUSINGS

Good Monday morning to you! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. It's been a very busy summer for me so far, but hopefully things will calm down a bit now. We've had family in town and swimming lessons, and my husband and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary last Thursday. It seems incomprehensible to me that we've been married that long! It really feels sort of like just yesterday. And yet, it's been 10 years, 3 apartments, 1 house, and 2 (almost 3!) kiddos... and I love him so much more today than I did 11 years ago when I said, "Yes."

Yeah, I'm sappy.

I'm also feeling just a bit scatter-brained, so you're going to get a weird post today - mostly my random musings... in bullet-point style... and no particular order:

• Why did Marvel feel the need to ruin the character of Cyclopes in the movies? It seems wholly strange to me that he is such a vastly different character in the movies than he is in the cartoon. I don't read comics, so maybe he is a whiny, insecure character there, but in the 90s cartoons he was a hero, a leader, and he and Wolverine got along just fine. They weren't buddies or best friends, but they weren't really rivals, either. Cyclopes wasn't threatened by Wolverine, and Jean Gray wasn't torn between the two men. Yeah, she pitied Wolverine and her empathetic telepathy made him someone she was drawn to with a desire to help him heal... but she wasn't ever in love with anyone but Scott. (At least, in the cartoons...)
• If you like rice krispy treats and a combination of peanut butter and chocolate, you really have to try this recipe. Seriously. It's simple and delicious.
• Dwayne Johnson. I really have a hard time watching him in movies. I'm not sure if this is because I really don't like him as an actor, or because my roommate in college freshman year decided to hang an almost life-size poster of him on our door (as The Rock) and I constantly felt like he was creepily watching me do my homework all year. Either way, I'm having a hard time getting at all excited about the new "Hercules" movie coming out soon.
• I am currently re-reading Ender's Shadow (yes, finally, it's only been on my to-read list for 3 months now) and am being reminded all over again why I like this book better than Ender's Game, and, correspondingly, why I love Bean so much more than I like Ender. More to come on that later.
• I have also just started reading some of the Sherlock Holmes adventures for the first time. I know, that's probably a bit shocking. I love the old movies, the new movies, the BBC show "Sherlock," and even - to some lesser extent - the show "House" simply because of all the Holmesian parallels... but I've never read the books. Well, it's time to remedy that! I'm actually surprised at how similar the plot-lines are, so far, to the BBC show. With Sherlock being set in present day, I just sort of assumed the stories themselves would be nothing alike.
• It actually cooled off here for a bit last week, dropped down to the high 70s - low 80s, and we even had a few thunderstorms. It was glorious.
• I got a ton of editing done last week, and I think I'll definitely be finished with the first pass of content-editing and writing of new scenes that need to be added by the end of July. There will still be a lot that needs to be done: cover art, line editing, and any last-minute changes suggested by beta readers, but this first edit is always the most severe and the most time-consuming.
• Speaking of beta readers, if anyone out there would like to be one for Yorien's Hand, and has time to read a book quickly this Fall (October time frame is my best guess right now), please let me know - either in the comments, the "contact me" page, or by emailing me directly at: jenelle@jenelleschmidt.com
• I am really looking forward to Doctor Who season 8... even if I'm not sure about the new Doctor (really, who is ever sure about the new Doctor right away? It always takes a bit to get used to the new actor, and I'll probably never be quite "over" David Tennant)... but still... the trailers look amazing. Almost makes me wish I had cable. Almost. But then I'd have to deal with commercials. I'm happy waiting for the DVD version - even if it does mean I'm a bit behind. Nobody go sharing any SPOILERS now!
• Speaking of sci-fi television, we've been watching Continuum, and I think I like it. I'm not sure, because they're being cagey with their plot and not revealing a whole lot or giving away very many clues as to what this show is actually about (and we're in season 2), but it's intriguing. And fairly clean. So I think I like it.
• What's your favorite sci-fi show? Mine will forever and always be Stargate SG-1. Followed by Stargate Atlantis. Followed... probably... by Doctor Who. Hmmm, now I've got a hankering to go re-watch some SG-1. :)
• I really want to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.
• Scarlett O'Hara was a major jerk.
• While I do enjoy the Wheel of Time books, I think Robert Jordan probably read far too much Charles Dickens before he ever started writing. Or possibly while he was writing.
• This makes me laugh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3E9U3GDrmI

How about you, dear Reader? What are some of your random musings? (Or feel free to comment on any of mine that strike your fancy)! Happy Monday!