Safety not Guaranteed

Every once in a while a movie comes along that pleasantly surprises you. Safety not Guaranteed is one of those films. Although made with relatively unknown actors, this cast of characters brings something fresh to the screen.

Safety not Guaranteed is a fairly understated & genuine film about taking chances. There is also an underlying message about regret and how we should cope with it, either by living with it, forgetting it, or changing it.

The movie begins at a Seattle magazine where the boss (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is looking for story ideas. Jake Johnson who plays Jeff suggests investigating a bizarre classified ad that reads:

"Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed."  The three journalists who investigate this "time traveler" are all on different tracks in their lives as far as time goes. They're all on a journey of self discovery.

So many movies like this starts off strongly and then  peter out in a swirl of poor writing. However this gem was quite the opposite.As the movie progresses, little by little you find yourself rooting for the "crazy time traveler" and really hope that he travel back in time despite the fact it is obvious he will not. (Not a spoiler)


For me, Safety not Guaranteed struck a long and very deep note, as we are all unfortunately time travelers, but the opportunity to go back and repair however a bit cliched, is what we as humans have longed for since the beginning of time.

I love my Kindle!

I love my kindle, words I'd never ever in a million years thought I'd say. Well, my friends, it looks like I have finally crossed over into the 21st century of reading! For the past few years whenever someone has mentioned  how much they adore their kindle, or other ereader, I have gotten this look of horror on my face, isn't that blaspheme?(especially if you are a book lover?) How could anyone who enjoys curling up with a good book, curl up with an ereader?

I just didn't get it. I love the smell of a new crisp book, the way it feels in my hands as I turn the page. I love that when I am tired and ready for bed, and struggle to see the print because my eyes are glazing over, I place my book mark into my last page read and then lay it on my night stand and turn out the light.

I have been an avid reader since I was 6 years old. I love knowledge that comes with reading a book. I love the escapism that comes with reading a book. I realized a very long time ago that a library was my window to the world. I have read in my lifetime hundreds of books, from fiction to nonfiction. If I want to learn more about a topic, I read. If I want to learn more about an occurrence or happening, I read about it. If I am feeling sad, I read. If I am feeling happy, I read just because I can!

So by now you are probably wondering...why did I decide to get a kindle? Actually I didn't, a friend offered my hubby and me his, and we accepted.(A big thank you to Jared) So after about a week of it laying on my nightstand I decided to familiarize myself with it. Our friend had a few books already loaded on it and I decided to read one (Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury). When I first began it felt a little weird, it seemed cold, very stiff. However the more I read, the more I began to enjoy it. A few days later when I had finished the novel, my first thought was...WOW I need to get more books on this thing! My second thought was....WOW how am I going to afford this? One face palm later it dawned on me; I have a world of books at my fingertips every single day of the year! I work at a library! And the library has a collection of eAudio as well as eBooks.

Before this day I hadn't really thought much about our eBook collection. I looked upon it more as a nuisance than a great service, due to the fact I maintain the library's database and have to make sure that all eBook records are complete and correct.(Which isn't a horrible job, just time consuming)

I decided I needed to try to check out a few of these eBooks and see how difficult the process was downloading them to my kindle. After going to the eBook website and figuring out how to do it, I learned I was able to check out 10 items for 7 days. That first day I downloaded 4 different books that I had been wanting to read. I was able to use my library card number, peruse the catalog by marking all books available in kindle form and then choosing from a list I was able to download them and save the file to my pc and transfer them over to the kindle. With the four books loaded I was ready to roll.

At home that evening I created a monster. I read and read and read until I could no longer keep my eyes open. I was a little bit worried about closing up my kindle for the night, worried that I would lose my place, however the next day when I opened the kindle back up, it went right back to the page I was on the night before.(who needs a bookmark?)

I have to confess my kindle and I are rarely separated now. I have over 24 books loaded onto it, some are on loan, others I downloaded from free sites like www.gutenberg.org. Even Amazon offers some free books for download. Will I ever go back to a good old regular book? As long as I have my kindle the world may never know.