Jonathan's blog

Tonight we watched Lucky (2010):

An entertaining and candid look at the seduction of the lottery, and what hitting the jackpot does to both the winners themselves and the people around them.

I've never played the lottery or gambled at a casino or placed a bet on a sporting event...not that I have a strong moral opposition to things like that (if I chose to gamble in moderation, I would probably think about it in about the same way that I do spending money on any other form of entertainment), it's just not something that has interested me.  At one point the film points out that Americans spend $7 billion per year on movies, $16 billion on sporting events, $24 billion on books, and $62 billion on lottery tickets.  I would not have guessed that.  There were some real characters that the documentary profiled.  I'm sure "normal" people win the lottery too, but the folks depicted in Lucky were strange.

I give it 4 out of 5.

On the way to our week’s vacation in CT a few weeks back, we stopped at Niagara Falls for the day.  Here are some photos:

Update 2010-07-31:

I forgot to add this video

Today some power line troubles in our backyard led to firework-like explosions, a 911 call, and a fire truck response.  Consumers Energy ended up shutting off the power on our block, driving a truck into our yard, and cutting back the trees.  With the power off, neighbors gathered to watch the high wire work.  Here are some photos:

After Thrones I went straight to A Clash of Kings.  I got a little bogged down at the beginning but then regained my momentum and read much of it on vacation in CT.  By the end I was quite engaged again.  After one of the last chapters ended in an unexpected and disappointing way, I actually flipped ahead over the final few chapters to see which characters narrated them (hoping that what had apparently just happened actually hadn't...though I managed to miss the one that thankfully showed it hadn't).

I give it 4 out of 5.

On now to A Storm of Swords.

A while back on old friend recommended George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.  When I heard that the first book, A Game of Thrones, was set to become TV series on HBO, I bumped it up to the top of the "To Read" list.

From Wikipedia:

The series is set in a fictitious world reminiscent of Medieval Europe, primarily on a continent called Westeros. In this world the seasons can last for many years, sometimes decades.

I enjoyed it.  It's been quite a while (nearly 20 years?) since I'd read anything similar (Stephen R. Donaldson? I take that back; I read a couple of Donaldson books during the last few years).  I read much of Thrones during a day and a half I spent in bed with back pain.

I give it 4 out of 5.