Zombies? For Me? You Shouldn't Have!

32 years ago today my mother looked into my eyes for the first time and made the choice not to smother me to death with a pillow. When she finally decided she had made a mistake in letting me live I was sixteen, and strong enough to throw her and her over-sized Serta pillow out of my room. Her initial failure was my success and is what has made it possible for me to be the undereducated, overly sarcastic cubicle dweller I am today. Thanks, mom.

It's been a decent day so far. I came back from getting my first glass of water for the day to find printed photos of zombies all over my desk along with birthday wishes on them. I'm sure the two of you reading this know already, but I love me some zombies. Slow, fast, clever, stupid...they all have a place in my heart. My favorite shot hanging on my desk is from 28 Weeks Later. It's a still of a field full of zombies right before they get mowed down by a helicopter blade. Quality. Straight up quality.

Everyone here in the office also chipped in on a Best Buy gift card (my usual bottle of whiskey for my birthday wasn't an option because of the stupid diet) and so I have enough to run out and grab a new Blu Ray or maybe put it toward a new game. Tough choices, but fortunately I am equipped to make such decisions. That'll probably be it on the present front though. Jen made it clear that our new home theater should suffice as a present, a point I'm not sure I agree with but am hesitant to argue since the whole thing was my idea. I'll let it go. For now.

I plan on spending my evening huddled over the 8 1/2" X 11' pages of friends recently completed manuscript making notes here and there. My heart is really in it, but I suck at being a critical reader. When it comes to theme, tone, etc. it all just washes over me. I find myself just reading for the story. If the story is engaging and the characters are good, I like the book. I'm not complicated. It makes me a good reader, but a terrible critique partner. Fortunately, the author knows who he's dealing with. Oh, did I mention the book is chock full of zombies? How could I not love it? He's just playing to his audience at this point.

Last thing I've been thinking about is "I Am Legend". Jen and I saw the movie and I thought it was ok. I didn't get super excited about it, but didn't think it was bad. I read some reviews in a horror publication (Rue Morgue) where they just trashed it. They hated everything about the movie. They hated the fact that it was Will Smith. They hated that he said the best album recorded of all time was "Legend" by Bob Marley (this is a greatest hits package, not a stand alone album), and on and on and on. I didn't get it. Why hate this movie? Again, not great, but not worthy of six paragraphs trashing it either.

Then I started reading the book. Now that I get to see the original character and story-line, I have to say that I fucking hate the movie. Instead of working within the limitations that a novel set in the past creates, they loosely used the idea from the novel and then just made up a story. A story that is not half as interesting as the original. Give me a character that is starting to get turned on by the bodies of female vampires because it's been so long since he's seen a real person...not Will Smith talking to a dummy.

If I wanted to see Will Smith talk to a dummy I'd watch Wild Wild West.