Jurassic World (no spoilers)

It's been more than five years since I last saw a movie in the theater, and after seeing Jurassic World, I can say it will likely be a lot longer before I go again.

I decided on the 2D showing, so $7 for a ticket.

I wanted popcorn. $6! Gods above, how in the world do people live with themselves selling it for that price? And on top of that, it was stale.

But, price aside, how was the movie? Meh.

When I saw the first movie, Jurassic Park, it was magical. Seeing the "live" dinosaurs was the most amazing movie experience I ever had -- it was like really seeing them for real. Jurassic World? Never felt even close to that. The dinosaurs looked realistic, but I never once felt like they were.

I spent much of the movie wondering why that was. Was Jurassic Park the first time we saw realistic dinosaurs on a screen? Were effects less advanced back then, so Jurassic Park was cutting edge? Probably both of those reasons were the cause.

Okay, so the dinosaurs were, at best, nice special effects, but how was the storyline? Bad. The movie logic? Meh. The characters/their actions? Utterly unbelievable.

( A few minor spoilers )

I'm just so annoyed at so much of the logic (or lack thereof) in the movie.

Then there was the movie "experience" itself. Aside from the $6 popcorn, gone was that movie trivia that used to play before the movie (which, okay, I never liked much), replaced with 20+ minutes of commercials! And then, when the commercials finally ended, there was another 15-20 minutes of trailers for things I generally had zero interest in. The movie was billed as starting at 12:15, but it didn't start until well after 12:30. And yes, even that early, I was already checking my watch.

I checked my watch more than a dozen times, and at one point almost decided to just leave early (luckily the post-dinosaur wrap-up didn't last long at all, and the movie ended before I could decide to just go).

The one single good part about the experience was how empty the theater was. There were less than 15 people there total, and I had a row nearly to myself. The seats were comfortable enough, but the screen was a lot smaller than I remember movie screens being. There was no surround sound that I could hear.

It wasn't an awful movie, I just see zero (less than zero!) benefits to seeing a movie in the theater. It's going to take a hell of a lot to get me to go to a movie theater ever again.

Three more hours to go... zzzz

I'm too old for this.

The MMO I play (FFXIV) has a new expansion coming out tonight. Current players get a couple days of early access. For most players, it starts at a reasonable 5 AM (east coast of the US), late morning/noon-ish for EU, and JP afternoonish.

For me, on the west coast of the US, it's 2 AM.

Of course everyone, me included, wants to log on as soon as possible to play with the new stuff. If I lived anywhere else but the west coast, I could get a whole night of sleep. But 2 AM? Blah. I did try to go to sleep early, but my neighbors ensured that I couldn't sleep. That and the fact it was still daylight out.

It's only 11 PM, an hour after my bedtime, and I already feel braindead. Times like this make me wish I drank coffee!

In other news:

- Work actually has good stuff happening. I'm getting a new desk! Recall that my current desk is next to the guy who literally narrates every moment of his day out loud. "Oh I just got a new email. I'm clicking it, I'm opening it. I'll read it now. Oh I know him! *leans over* Hey, [Thistle], I just got email from [person]! Okay, checking to see if I have a meeting now. Two meetings this afternoon, one at 2 and one at 4. Okay, now I'll look into that bug-- Oh I guess it's coffee time. [Thistle] I'll be back in a few minutes..." etc. And he doesn't talk to himself, he talks loud enough for people to hear rows away. And he endlessly treats me like his secretary/personal tech support/audience. I can get nothing done because of him. Also, my desk is in the worst position, as that anyone and everyone who enters our floor looks directly at my monitors. Ugh!

My new location is just the opposite: Perfectly private, and I even have half of a window! Natural light! Eeeee! It's going to be so wonderful!

- I haven't written about my bariatric surgery in a while. It's been nine months since then (wow, almost to the day: Nine months and three days), and I think I've settled into my new normal. I'm pretty okay with life/my new diet. I feel like I can eat just about everything I want (other than sugar, though I don't miss that), just in much smaller amounts. I tried fried pickles for the first time last week! (They were on my food bucket list -- I love pickles. Apparently I don't love them enough to like fried pickles though.) Usually, for "bad" foods, I eat just a couple (couple fries, couple fried pickle chips) and throw the rest out. And when I say a couple, I mean it: Like four or five fries, and I'm usually good. Food lasts a lot longer, which is nice (like two slices of pizza becomes four meals/my whole day of food).

The only thing I really miss is 'grazing'. Eating a whole pack of Oreos while on the computer in the evening, things like that. I don't miss the Oreos, just the 'eating as much as I want, nonstop' thing.

Not drinking until an hour after I'm done eating is a pain, but I'm pretty much getting used to it. I'm still hungry a lot of the time, but I can cope with that.

So: Good work stuff. New game stuff. Okay diet stuff. Week of vacation. Things are looking up! Yayzzzzzz