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Heather Moore-Farley

Heather Moore-Farley

software engineer, knitter, bicyclist

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The Fire Thief

June 5, 2021

Book review of The Fire Thief by Terry Deary

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🔗 Clue

https://imdb.com/title/tt0268126

May 27, 2021

Since implmenting screen-free Sundays, we've been playing more board games and Clue is one of those featured. We decided to share this with the kids and they really loved it. We tried to explain the multiple endings and I can't wait until they are older and can see other classic Tim Curry works.

Poetry for Kids: Emily Dickinson

May 24, 2021

Book review of Poetry for Kids: Emily Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson and Susan Snively (editor)

Read this aloud to my kids, one poem a day. I'm glad it had a couple of her classics and ones I remembered from my mom's Dickinson book from when I was a kid. The illustrations were lovely, too. Good for elementary and middle school. A high schooler might enjoy it too, but as it's more of a picture book, it may turn them off.

🔗 I Had an Abortion

https://imdb.com/title/tt0815754

May 21, 2021

Watching "I Had an Abortion" on Kanopy. It's distributed by Women Make Movies. It chronologically highlights the experiences of women who had abortions in the 1930s up until the move was created in 2005. This includes famous Gloria Steinem, but also, at the 34:20 mark, a woman named Jenny Egan, who grew up Mormon. Some women already had children, some would later have children, and some never had any. With 1/4 women in the United States having an abortion at some point in her life, it's important to listen to these stories and keep abortion safe and legal.

Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Other Stories

May 10, 2021

Book review of Hellboy: The Troll Witch and Other Stories

I really love how experimental Mignola is with the Hellboy stories. Love the poetry, love the connections to myths from varying cultures. Would read again.

🔗 The Mitchells vs the Machines

https://imdb.com/title/tt7979580

May 6, 2021

Another family movie night flick. This one was really good. The same studio made Into the Spiderverse and you can tell they are testing the bounds of computer animation in this new one just as much as the Spiderverse. I told my husband that it's like Pixar isn't even trying anymore and now Sony Animation is giving them a run for their money and being the creative leaders in the animation space.

🔗 All Bodies on Bikes

https://youtu.be/JytAXpxmmQY

May 5, 2021

This short came out a couple of months ago, but since I'm revisiting stuff for National Bike Month, I thought I'd share it here.

Very important stuff about weight and fatness and perception about what different bodies are capable of and are allowed to do. This is definitely more of a beginning of a conversation and not an end. Maybe Shimano will make more? I'm not sure if they will. I went ahead and followed Kailey and Marley on social media anyway. Bikes are not just for thin or straight-sized people.

🔗 I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle

https://imdb.com/title/tt0097550

May 1, 2021

This is one of those movies where I used a random number generator to pick the movie and so I watched it. It's a British comedy horror film from 1990. That'll tell you enough about the level of humor and scariness there is. It's all very highly contrived, but does keep to the vampire tropes of anti-sunlight, anti-garlic, wooden stakes, crucifixes, and drinking blood. So there's that.

Bonus surprise: Anthony Daniels (C3PO) is the priest.

Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea

April 25, 2021

Book review of Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea by Mike Mignola

This is a great short and it took me way too long to read it because my life is too busy. I loved the inclusion of the poetry (poetry + comics = love) and it’s just a nice Hellboy adventure. I need to re-read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

🔗 Chaplains - On the Frontlines of Faith

https://kanopy.com/video/chaplains

April 17, 2021

I knew about prison, hospital, and military chaplains and have friends who have been prison and hospital chaplains, but I learned that Tyson Foods employs 200 chaplains for their meat facilities, and that there are Nascar Chaplains. I also learned more about the Chaplain of the United States Senate (and apparently, House of Representatives). I think that attending to people's spiritual and emotional needs, non-denominationally, is a vital part of humanity that gets overlooked.

I've linked to the Kanopy page for watching it since it is free through many libraries, including my local Oakland Library.

IMDB link

🔗 Crip Camp

https://imdb.com/title/tt8923484

April 13, 2021

I expected this to be mainly about the camp, but it is really mostly about how Section 504 and the ADA came to be. This is very important history and too recent- we should have had these changes much sooner, and there is so much to do yet for disability rights. It should have won the Oscar over My Octopus Teacher, absolutely. Should be required watching for teens when learning about civil rights- disabilty rights are just not taught about in school. And anyone at any time can become disabled. So important for everyone.

🔗 School of Rock

https://imdb.com/title/tt0332379

April 8, 2021

Now here's a classic I never got around to watching as a teen! I'm glad I got to watch it with my kids, though. Jack Black does everything right here and the kids are outstanding (some even went on to become professional musicians). Wonderful messages about drive, learning, and body confidence. Definitely recommend. Remind yourself what learning is really about, especially in this virtual schooling pandemic time.

🔗 Buffy the Vampire Slayer

https://imdb.com/title/tt0118276

April 8, 2021

I did not watch this as it came out- I was a little young when it started and busy with my life by the time I was a teen. I started watching Buffy from the beginning 8 years ago when it was on Netflix, but then it was moved off and we watched it on Facebook Watch and then to Hulu, which we just recently got. A lot has happened in those 8 years and the whole last season was colored by Charisma Carpenter's startements of how terrible Whedon is. Veronica Mars. We watched Angel concurrently with Buffy so that we could watch where the crossovers happen. I absolutely believe Carpenter and I wish there was something I could enjoy without knowing that slimy people were behind it. I wish Gellar had more gumption about making statements like Carpenter does, but I also understand if she wants a break from that mess. It's easy to get typecast. As with everyone else, "Once More With Feeling," was a lot of fun. I think if you want to watch a show that takes place in SoCal with a blonde, early college-aged woman tackling issues like sexual assault in the early 2000s, you'll do better to watch

I Gave Her a Name

April 7, 2021

Book review of I Gave Her a Name by Rachel Hunt Steenblik

I think I prefer the shorter book, Mother's Milk, by Steenblik. This had some lovely poems in it, though. Maybe it suffers from the lack of novelty that the first book had? I liked it. I didn't get the version with the color images, so I can't say anything about that. Absolutely would gift this book.

The Fire Next Time

April 3, 2021

Book review of The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

This is a very quick listen/read, but you need to pause and think about it. Very important reading- they should have had us read this in school. It consists of two letters and the letter format makes it really accessible. We still have so far to go with racism in this country.

🔗 My Octopus Teacher

https://imdb.com/title/tt12888462

March 31, 2021

The story of this octopus is a sad one. I was not interested in Foster's story or why he ended up filming in a South African kelp forest. White man tears. But the octopus- I really liked her. Foster forms this friendship, but when the octopus is in need in a shark attack where she loses an arm, he doesn't do anything. I just think that if this octopus is as advanced as a dog or cat, she probably felt a little bit betrayed that her human friend just stood by. I get that he wanted to "leave nature alone" but he wasn't doing that to start with. Introducing an observer absolutely changes the environment.

But did I get teary when she died and meditate on my own mortality? Yes, I did.

Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers

March 30, 2021

Book review of Trans-Galactic Bike Ride: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories of Transgender and Nonbinary Adventurers by Lydia Rogue

We Bike Book Club April 2021

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. In other feminist sci-fi short story compilations by Microcosm Publishing, you get a few inexperienced writers and the writing suffers from that, but this collection is full of professional writers, which made it really enjoyable to read. Definitely recommend for the bicycle science fiction readers out there.

🔗 Icarus

https://imdb.com/title/tt6333060

March 26, 2021

I don't know why I started watching this- I think because it started related to biking, though I'm not really into road bike racing. And then it turned into quite the affair! Fogel really hit the jackpot by starting to work with Rodchenkov just before all the Russian drugging scandal happened. It was really interesting. I didn't pay much attention to the Russian doping scandal when it happened, but since the Olympics are this summer again, it's good to catch up on it.

🔗 Back to the Future Parts II and III

https://imdb.com/title/tt0096874

March 25, 2021

These were definitely made to be watched together, so here they are. Lots of plot holes, if you give it a think. Do they really think leaving Jennifer in the future would work? Also, if going forward to the future and then back splits timelines so much, how come future Biff's travel back and forward didn't split the timeline? Also, typical Hollywood portrayal of Native Americans, so that's not cool.

But the kids found it very fun.

🔗 Restful Fingerless Mitts

https://ravelry.com/projects/TopHat/restful-fingerless-mitts

March 19, 2021

This was from the Knitcrate box in February; I like to work the pattern that comes with the yarn because I'm really into randomness and I like doing things I didn't have to plan myself. These took 2 weeks to make- one week for each sleeve. I had to use smaller needles so I went up to the XL size. They are a gift for someone and from the pictures I have of her, I think they'll fit. I have beefy biceps so if it fits me, it's probably good.

Not sure what to do with the leftovers. Maybe baby booties.

Passing

March 19, 2021

Book review of Passing by Nella Larsen

Read this for the RS book group April 21.

I listened to the audiobook. It was very quick. I started it before I knew that it is counted among the works created during the Harlem Renaissance.

It was easy to listen to and you are definitely left with questions. I'm on side "she was pushed."

🔗 Murder Among the Mormons

https://imdb.com/title/tt13987620

March 8, 2021

Having been Mormon and interested in Mormon history, the Hoffman forgeries and bombings were not unknown to me and I new the basic story. This fleshes out what I knew, but leaves out some key aspects: that one of the keys aspects of putting Hoffman on the suspect list was the differing story he told about how he was blown up in the car vs. the story that forensics found (that he wasn't fully sitting in the car, otherwise how would he have been blown across the street). It doesn't go into why we was there messing with the bomb in his car, either.

But very importantly, it completely skips the women involved, particularly Kathy Sheets. Because she wasn't a targeted victim, the documentary doesn't go into her story or the people she left behind. Leave it to men- tangentially-related-to-Mormonism to leave women out of their documentary. I'd also be interested in what has happened to Hoffman's wife in the years since. They interviewed her, but mostly on the past. She's still around so maybe that was left out for privacy reasons.

 

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