Blogocentric Formulations

Landscaping Injuries & The Fault In Our Stars

PROMPT: Your worst DIY disaster(s).


The worst DIY disaster I've been a part of - by far - is when my grandparents first bought a house when they moved back to Northern California. This was more than a decade ago at this point, but they had retired to Montana a number of years ago and then moved back to the Sacramento area once they got to a point where they needed help taking care of a house. After they bought the house and we had started helping clean up and landscape the place, we realized that the lawn in the backyard wasn't faring so well because it was a thin layer of soil over the top of a filled-in swimming pool. Since the swimming pool had never been removed, no roots ever took under the soil since there was concrete about two inches under the surface. My grandparents decided to take the swimming pool out entirely, and the whole family came out to help them remove it.

During the course of breaking up the concrete footprint of the pool, carting it out of the backyard, and filling the hole in with real soil, assorted family members suffered the following various injuries: concrete fragment in the eye, concrete block dropped on the foot, several pulled muscles, a pick axe to the foot, a hammer to the hand, and - worst of all - a concrete chip that lodged in an uncle's finger until the nail, which nail had to be removed so the hospital could surgically remove the concrete. By the end of the whole ordeal, over half the family was nursing some kind of soreness or injury. We began to think that pool was covered in the first place because it was cursed!

Ultimately, we did successfully remove the pool and get a lawn and other landscaping installed, so I suppose, disaster or not, it was an overall success.

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PROMPT: What upcoming show or movie are you most eagerly anticipating and why?

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582846/

There are a ton of movies I'm looking forward to this year, even a few sequels which I usually don't enjoy. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 is exciting because I absolutely loved the first one, and 22 JUMP STREET is near the top of my list because the original - almost inexplicably - ended up being incredibly funny and even a little smart. Plus there's the obligatory superhero movies that I can't wait for (X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2), and a few other assorted projects (NEIGHBORS, JUPITER ASCENDING, SIN CITY 2: A DAME TO KILL FOR, GONE GIRL, etc.). But there's usually a specific reason why I'm looking forward to a particular movie, and it's rare that there's a project that I'm generally looking forward to for a variety of reasons. The last one was DIVERGENT (which I actually saw tonight), and it just so happens that the next one is a Shailene Woodley project as well: THE FAULT IN OUR STARS.

Here's the trailer:

And here's a small list of reasons why I think this is going to be great:

          Starring Shailene Woodley (DIVERGENT, THE SPECTACULAR NOW, THE DESCENDANTS)
          Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael Weber (500 DAYS OF SUMMER, THE SPECTACULAR NOW)
          Based on a critically-acclaimed book by John Green
          Directed by Josh Boone (STUCK IN LOVE)

This was one of my favorite books that I read last year, and I think Shailene Woodley is one of the most talented young actresses working today. I'm incredibly excited to see how they translate the story to the screen... and I don't have to wait very long because it's coming out in June!