Week 27 - 100in1001

I signed up for Netflix this week and got my first movie: Blade Runner (Final Cut). It happens to be #97 on the AFI list so good news there. The problem with it is that I didn't find the movie all that great. After watching I read up on the movie and it appears that on release it got very mixed reviews and was often cited for poor pacing. I completely agree with this assessment: it was portrayed as a type of action film but ends up being a slow drama. I, and the friends I watched it with, were sometimes confused as to what was going on (like why were they in that hotel where the scale was found?). I read up on the themes and arcs, which I found sensible, but I wasn't thinking about these things the entire time I was watching and I feel they could have been portrayed much better than came across. The question posed to Decker if he was ever mistaken and retired a human was good but the part I found the most impacting is when the soldier replicant gives his little speech and retires in the rain. His dialog there was great and I wish the movie had tried a little harder to make moments like these. I have a feeling that if I give it another try I will find it a much better film.

I also started on The Inferno by Dante. I am not very far in but I am having a bit of a hard time reading it. Not so much because it is hard to follow but because there are so many endnotes (they are almost literally half the book), almost one per line or two. At first I was reading them all but then I realized more than half of them were explaining themes or references that I already understood. I've started skipping some but I always have the urge to look because I feel like I will miss out on something important. The problem is flipping back to all these endnotes really ruins my immersion in the poem itself.

Other than that I've now completed weeks 1 and 2 of the 100 pushups challenge. Week 3 is where I stalled out last time--partially me, partially life getting in the way--so I'm looking forward to making further progress. I've also started playing more disc golf again and, despite a terrible round yesterday, I feel that I'm playing well and my drives are again starting to improve a bit. School starts in a week and I really need to get moving on getting stuff ready for my classes!