Jillapalooza

IM IN UR OCEAN. EATIN UR CARDZ.

The Wal-Mart Effect

Earlier this year I read listened to The Wal-Mart Effect by Charles Fishman. The book states facts about Wal-Mart and their business practices in a way that kept my attention and left me wanting more. The author does a good job at staying neutral concerning his opinion of the company. Wal-Mart itself is neither good nor bad, but it has a very strong impact on our society—the world, actually—and that is the Wal-Mart effect.

Going into the book, I had a pretty negative opinion of Wal-Mart. I can’t say that has changed, per say; I still don’t particularly like it, and I won’t shop there unless it’s completely necessary. Now, however, I can see the positive effect Wal-Mart has as well. I’m not sure if the benefit of always bringing customers low prices is worth all of the people and businesses it hurts. Should the consumer be put first at the expense of the business? Is Wal-Mart keeping our society in check, or will the strain it puts on businesses negatively impact society and leave it worse off? Only time will tell.

Whether you do or don’t like Wal-Mart, even if you don’t give a hoot one way or another, I think you will learn a lot of interesting little tidbits from this book. It is like an economics lesson all packed in to an interesting little package.

Cosmopolis

After struggling through Cosmopolis: A Novel by Don DeLillo for over a year, I am very happy to report that I’ve finished reading it. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. Okay, that’s a lie. I know exactly how I feel; I’m just too nice to say it.

Now, I admit that I only read this book because Robert Pattinson is in the movie version, which is coming out later this year. And I really don’t care that I thought it was kind of terrible, because as long as I have an excuse to sit in a theater for a couple hours and stare at him in a role other than a pasty vampire who does (or does not as the case may sometimes be) sparkle, my inner fangirl will be happy.

In all honestly, though, the upcoming movie is not the reason I finished the book. After all, I only got two chapters in to Bel Ami, another book-to-movie adaptation coming out this year that Pattinson stars in, before I called it quits. So then why did I keep reading? you ask. Well, because I was fairly positive at some point there would be an eye-opening “Oh, now I get it!” moment and the entire novel would become clear to me. Yeah, that didn’t really happen.

At all.

I scratched my head until the very end. And when it was over, I’m pretty sure I gasped out a “Huh?” as I was busting my ass on the stair machine. I just . . . I don’t know. I don’t even have words for this book. It made about as much sense as the dreams I have on any given night. How they made it into a movie, I can’t even imagine. Aside from not making sense, it’s all very stream of consciousness. There’s a lot of thinking (weird thinking), and the sparse dialog that exists read very choppy and unnatural to me. It was also a struggle to figure out who was talking at times. I want to believe it’s because I had a janky electronic copy and the paragraphs got messed up and dialog tags went missing, but something tells me that’s not the case.

There is, however, a positive side to having read the book: I won’t walk out of the theater thinking what the f*** just happened? Also, I’ll be prepared for the WTF scenes, like the rectal exam and the water bottle. And the ending. This is one of those rare cases where I don’t think the book will help the movie make sense, but at least I can go into it knowing that I’m not going to understand anything, and I can put more effort into ogling The Pretty.

Someone on Twitter said they saw the trailer and were left completely confused. I replied by saying I read the book and I’m just as confused. For your viewing pleasure, here is the Cosmopolis trailer:

COSMOPOLIS – TRAILER (VO) from Cosmopolis on Vimeo.

Flickr

After my unsuccessful attempt at upgrading Gallery2 to Gallery3, and the additional time it takes to back it up, I decided to give Flickr a try. So far I’m digging it. I’m not sure if it will be better than having an open source gallery; there are benefits and downfalls to each. Hopefully if I switch plugins or something breaks or I delete my Flickr account in a paranoid fit of rage, no one will notice the lack of galleries and broken links in my posts.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a photo set of Boo! Look at her tongue in the second one. And her toes in the last one! She’s so cute I just want to OMNOMNOM her to pieces.

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157629429152230″]

Movies: I See Them (and I Do Other Stuff)

So… much… popcorn.

That’s how I feel with all the movies I watched this week. It all started Tuesday when I saw The Hunger Games for the second time, this time with Susie and Sara from dance. We didn’t have class because it was spring break. Really, spring break as an adult seems like such an odd concept. I don’t get to do the extracurricular activities that I enjoy, but I still have to work. What a joke.

We had dinner and drinks at Malone’s before the movie. I ordered fish and chips.

The Hunger Games was just as enjoyable the second time through. I cried at all the same places, which my cold, black heart of stone could once again not comprehend. Good thing the drunk guy in the row behind us kept offering comic relief (“Oh, nooooo”).

On Thursday BRK and I had dinner and a movie as well. We went to Stella’s Fish Cafe because I had a LivingSocial deal that was expiring on the 11th. I had fish and chips and drinks. Is there a pattern developing?

Stella isn’t necessarily an expensive restaurant, but add in 4 drinks and a crab artichoke dip, and before you know it, you’ve spent damn near $100. It was good though. I think I speak for both BRK and I when I say we’d definitely do it again. We also had good dinner conversation and made travel plans. Summer 2013: Paris, here we come.

The awesomeness of dinner made up for the lackluster movie. I’m sure we’ve seen a few terrible films on culture night that I can’t quite remember, but this one might take the cake. The premise had potential, but it was poorly executed. It was called Apart. You can Google it if you’re interested. Or not.

Tonight Nick and I decided to see an impromptu movie while we were in Maple Grove shopping for fabric (for him not me). Fortunately there’s an AMC Stubs app for iPhone because my rewards card was at home. We ended up seeing American Reunion, and it was pretty awesome. I loved American Pie when it came out. I felt like I could relate because they were Class of ’99, and hey! So was I. Same goes for this movie. I haven’t felt like I’ve gotten any older in the past 13 years, even though I know I have. It was interesting to see that portrayed on the big screen with the same characters I related to so many years ago. *tear*

Okay, enough touchy feely crap for one night.

BRK and My Shopping Extravaganza

Last Saturday, BRK and I went for a little shopping trip.

We started with lunch at Colossal Cafe. Kristen saw it on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and was craving their pancakes or flappers or something like that. It was definitely the smallest restaurant I’d ever been in. It made me feel claustrophobic and slightly awkward. Unfortunately they were out of pancakes, despite serving breakfast all day (all day being until 3 PM when they close). BRK made due with oatmeal, while I ordered mushroom wild rice soup and a salad. We had to sit outside because there were no tables inside, which was fine by me. At least outside no one was invading our personal space. The food was good, though. I’d definitely go back again.

After we filled our bellies, we ventured to Edina. First we went to Athleta. I spent way too much money on a glass water bottle, headband, and shorts for dance.

We stopped at a store with a bunch of blingy stuff and old lady lipstick because a purse in the window caught our eyes. BRK ended up buying it. It’s pretty awesome. I don’t remember the name of the store, something with “Me” I believe. Anyway, it was across the hall from Title Nine, which was the next store we stopped in. I tried on an awesome skirt, but it didn’t fit me right. (It was actually a skort, but you’d never know. (Don’t judge, we were in an athletic clothing store, and it would have been perfect for dance.))

Oh, we also went to Sweet Retreat, a cupcake boutique we found while looking for parking. We ate cupcakes. They. Were. Awesome. I ordered Mocha, BRK ordered Lemon Lovers.

Once we had our fill of Edina, we high-tailed it to St. Louis Park to hit up Lululemon. Kristen bought a bunch of fun stuff. I bought another headband (had to test multiple brands, you know). There was a pair of shorts I really liked there as well, but the bins near the bottom were empty #ifyouknowwhatimean. It would have been nice to try them on; maybe if I knew they didn’t fit I wouldn’t be considering ordering $48 shorts online right now.

Here are my headbands. Unfortunately after testing them both, they don’t hold any better than what I’ve bought at Target. At least they are cute.

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