OK, so I love animated movies. But I love GOOD animated movies. The last one was Kung Fu Panda, and before that, Ratatouille.
WALL-E is by far the best animated movie I’ve seen in a long time. It’s not just an animated movie, it’s a sci-fi movie. It’s also a romantic comedy. It’s just great. The animation is brilliant, the characters are delightful.

WALL-E, for those of you that don’t know, stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth class.
The same guy that created the “voice” of R2D2 also created the voice of WALL-E. At first, I thought it was a little off-putting that the main character of the movie didn’t actually have a voice, but by the end of the movie I couldn’t imagine it having been done any other way.
The thing with animated movies, I think, is that they struggle to entertain both kids and adults. There are a lot of movies that fail to do one or the other or both. This is not one of those. WALL-E pulls it off brilliantly. There is enough cutesy-ness for kids, but enough substance to the story for adults.
What else can I say except “Go see it!”

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is one of the worst books I’ve read in a long time. It’s part of Oprah’s book club, and was recommended by my mom and her husband. This is not a book I would normally have picked up for myself from the bookstore, but it was close enough to the type of books that I like, so I thought I’d give it a try.
The story is a first person narrative by the character Calliope who was born (and raised) as a girl, but as a teenager learns that due to a chromosomal mutation, she is actually genetically male and a hermaphrodite. This fact was conveniently missed at birth, and thus the story ensues.
Normally, I can finish a good book within a week, and a long book in 2-3 weeks. This book felt like it took months to read. After every few pages, I’d check the clock because it felt like I’d been reading for hours. Even in 10 minute increments, this book felt long, dry, and difficult. Difficult not because it was literarily challenging, or challenging in any way other than the story was completely boring and the progress of the narrative was so slow.
The narrative starts in the first person, but quickly changes to Calliope telling the story of her grandparents and then her parents, intermixed with not nearly enough about Calliope’s own life. It is not until the end of the novel that it dives into Calliope’s life and transformation from girl to hermaphroditic male.
Calliope’s brother also has a role in the story, and he is referenced as only “Chapter Eleven”, which bugged me from the beginning because I knew that couldn’t actually be his name but reference and it’s source is not revealed until the very end of the book. I found this to detract rather than add to the story.
All in all, I felt this book was a huge waste of time, and in the future I think I am going to be less likely to pick a up book based on the “Oprah’s Book Club” sticker on the front. This is the second disappointing selection, the first being Love in the Time of Cholera, which I found to be almost as terrible as Middlesex.

Since I broke my ankle in February, I’ve spent the last 4 weeks in physical therapy re-learning how to walk properly and regaining my range of motion.
I’ve been going to BreakThrough Physical Therapy in Sunnyvale, and despite referring to my appointments as “physical torture”, I don’t think I could ask for a better therapist.
Sarah is quite wonderful, and while my visits tend to be quite painful, that is to be expected after 10 weeks on crutches. My surgery and lack of use and any motion in that joint really resulted in a mess. When I got my cast off, my ankle was still VERY swollen and my range of motion consisted of being able to wiggle my toes and not much else.
Thanks to Sarah (and all the other dedicated people at BreakThrough), I am back to walking normally (with only a slight limp on more painful days) and can actually go up (and down!) stairs again. Hopefully soon I will be able to return to climbing, but for now I am happy with walking.
More about BreakThrough PT:
The location is quite nice, they are just 5 minutes down the street from me in Sunnyvale. Appointment times are for 40 minutes and usually the entire 40 minutes are spent with Sarah, my physical therapist. However, they have a lot of exercises for me to do, plus ice + electric “stim” for 15 minutes at the end, so I usually end up being there for almost an hour and a half.
They have lockers and a place to change, several exercise bikes, a hand bike, balance balls, and a total gym, among other more injury specific tools. Everyone is extremely friendly and the place is very well maintained.
For me, a typical appointment consists of 10 minutes on the bike, 4 sets of 20 double leg press, 3 sets of 10 heel raises, 3 sets of 10 other heel raise thingys, 2 sets of 20 on the circle board (for ankle range of motion), 2 sets of 20 on the balance board, 10 “static” squats for 10 secs each, 3 minutes of “resisted walking” and then 40 minutes of deep tissue massage and ankle manipulation, followed by ice + “stim”.

When I first heard about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street I couldn’t wait to see it. I won’t say that I’m a fan of every Tim Burton movie, but I have always loved Beetle Juice. Also, over the years I have grown to love Johnny Depp, especially as Captain Jack Sparrow!
David was nice enough to rent the movie from Blockbuster for me, and we finally watched it a few days ago. I think he was a bit surprised when the movie opened with Johnny Depp’s character, Sweeney Todd, singing Broadway musical style. The movie is based on the Broadway musical of the same name, which, I haven’t had a chance to see. After seeing Johnny Depp’s version, I don’t think I would want to see the musical.
This movie definitely would not appeal to everyone, there is a fair amount of blood (but not too much gore), and a LOT of singing (hey – it’s a musical!).
The movie centers around Todd’s transformation from Benjamin Barker into the demon barber Todd. Barker is sentenced to life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, by a judge who is infatuated with his beautiful wife. 15 years go by, and Barker, released from prison, sets up a barber shop in downtown London, using the name Sweeney Todd, while he seeks vengeance and revenge. It is here that the sinister, demonic nature of his barber shop becomes apparent, along with his partnership with Mrs. Lovett who runs the meat pie shop downstairs.
I love the cinematic style of the movie, with bold, dark colors and only the rare bright colors. I also loved the look of Victorian era London, and would be curious to know if the movie depicted this accurately or not.
Despite all of that, I did feel that the middle of the movie dragged on a bit. I was hoping for a bit more action, and plot narrative and for me, the middle was just a little boring. However, in the end, the movie definitely redeemed itself.
It’s certainly not one of my favorite movies, or even one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, but I did enjoy it and I’m happy to have finally seen it.