Jade's Babblings

As you all know, I'm a member of the 501st Stormtrooper Legion. The Legion's creator, Albin, has a daughter Katie who has cancer. Our group has been doing a lot of charity work to raise money for Katie, but we just got a rather depressing update from Albin on our legion message board. I've taken out their home address, but besides that everything is the original. We met with the doctors on Wednesday to discuss the recent PET scans. The information confirmed that the gray masses in the MRI scans are indeed cancerous. The tumor has been growing aggressively and now threatens Katie's life. The doctors were very direct with us, telling us that the chemo and radiation could be considered a failure, and that now medical science had nothing more to offer Katie. We have been told to prepare for the end. Referrals have been made to Hospice and we are making arrangements for how we want to treat Katie with 'comfort medicine' in the final stages of the disease. We have n...

As we all know, and as was brought to my attention once again recently, those TV shows that always try to do the top 100 countdown of movie quotes never quite get it right. They get all the logical ones in (for the most part), but tend to forget some really memorable lines. Now, I’m not saying that my taste would suit everyone, but I’d like to give it a shot in the tiny forum I have available to me – my blog. They won’t be in any particular order. That’s just too much for me to think about. And instead of my top 100 movie quotes, I’m going to do my top 50 movie quotes and my top 50 book quotes. Books are just as important, if not more so, so they get included too. First off – movies then the next entry will be about books (and maybe some other quotes too). I know there's no possible way I'm going to get every quote I want in. I'm sure that weeks from now I'll still keep coming back to this entry and thinking, "Why didn't I include THAT?" But I'll t...

This is a mini review because the guys at L&N line already did it a bunch of times and said everything I have to say so go read theirs too. There are no spoilers in mine, I don't think. This movie redeems Batman. And I don't mean the character; I mean the films. I've loved Batman forever, but I could never stomach the movies. They were always poorly done and too comic-bookish. I know that everyone says they are a comic book and so should look like that, but the film makers really sacrificed style for comic book look. Batman Begins doesn't do that. A quick summary - Christian Bale is my new favorite actor (okay, not really. Patrick Stewart still takes the cake, but he's close). Katie Holmes' character could have been played by anyone, but she was fine and didn't ruin the film or anything. Morgan Freeman is outstanding as always and makes the line "Didn't you get the memo?" one of the most memorable this year. Gary Oldman is actually a norma...

I'm so excited! Let me start at the beginning. Yesterday morning John and I got up and went to early mass at his church . Father Kevin did it this time. He's John's age. The other priest, Father Mike, is older. I liked Father Kevin. He seems pretty nice. And he looks EXACTLY like Mark Green from ER. Anyway, I sat there quietly through the whole thing. I don't say "amen" because I was taught that when you say that it means you're in full agreement with the prayer that was just offered and since JWs pray in a different way (ours aren't rehearsed and recited together. They're done by one person and they're all individual unique prayers) I don't say "amen". But I still listened and sang along for the most part. Then we filed out and waited until Kevin was not talking to others before we went up to say hi. He seemed to be waiting for us to say something besides the chatting. Maybe it was because I looked so obviously out of place. No ...

For our nine month anniversary John got me a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card. Here is how I spent it: Hinterland – I just finished this and it was not quite what I expected. The back made it sound like an investigative reporter gets caught up in a skins gang. Not quite. It’s more just a bunch of nutty terrorists who lead cultish lives. It was disappointing in that I expected something else, but if I had read it without any perceptions I would have liked it more. To Have and to Hold – I’m reading this now. It’s a typical Jane Green novel. But I find them comforting. I love her novel Bookends. Uncle Tom’s Cabin – despite having knowledge of this book and what it’s about (I haven’t been living in a cave for my entire life) I have never read it. I found it on the summer reading list book table and thought “why not?” I haven’t gotten to it yet. I’m not in the mood for something depressing right now. But I will. I got the next Dragonlance book that comes after the Legends serie...