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OCT

09

2015

the weather forecast from last night said rain wouldn't start until after 3pm today. with that in mind, that's how i planned my day. of course there'd be no painting. and since it wouldn't be raining until later in the afternoon, i could still ride my motorcycle. the centerpiece of this friday was seeing the martian at the assembly row AMC. for some reason the 3D matinee was $13, so i opted for the non-3D $6 version instead starting at 11:15am. prior to that, i went to rite aid to pick up my amlodipine besylate prescription, then to union square to deposit some money at the bank. finally i made it to assembly row with 45 minutes to spare. i parked in the general lot across the street, that realizing the theatre had an adjoining multi-story parking garage.

the unique thing about the assembly row AMC are tickets have assigned seating. but there weren't that many people in my screening room - about a dozen - yet even then everyone crowded around me. nobody sat directly next to me though (just in front) like what happened last time, but still, you figured in a large mostly-empty theatre, people would spread out a little bit.

having recently just read the book, i watched the martian already knowing the plot. it didn't make the money any less enjoyable, but i kept comparing it to the version i saw in my head while i read the book. since i already saw the trailer before reading, i inserted the actors into my personal version of the film. i think for the most part the movie was pretty faithful to the book. the book goes into a little more technical explanation regarding the various survival sciences, which wasn't necessary for the film version.

spoiler alert! the movie did make some changes from the book. in the book, mark whatney loses communication with NASA at one point because he fries his communication equipment. that doesn't appear in the movie. whatney also tumbles his rover into the crater while approaching the ares IV launch site, that's not in the movie either. and there's a big part of the book where he gets caught in a massive dust storm that threatens to block his source of solar electricity that's also gone. the film ending for the fateful rescue is different, with commander lewis in a more heroic role as she mans a space jetback to retrieve whatney from space; i actually don't mind that ending, since it gives her some redemption over having left behind one of her crew members on mars, it's actually a perfect hollywood ending. some of the asian elements in the film are different versus the book. mindy park - the satellite technician who first discovers whatney is still alive - is played by blue-eyed blonde mackenzie davis (halt catch fire). when i read the book, i naturally thought she was korean with a last name of park. that miscasting wasn't as glaring as how the US and china space agencies decided to work together. in the book, but it was of a scientific cooperation, but in the movie it's played off because one of the chinese-american space engineer has a relative in the chinese space agency; i'm not sure why they made that change in the movie, and it's kind of done for laughs, even though the movie has a built-in china audience some china plays a part in the rescue. finally, at the very end, there's a scene not in the book, where mark whatney is now a teacher training future astronauts about off-world survival. i actually don't mind that scene, because it shows they've successfully made it back to earth, whereas in the book that's just assumed.

of course prior to the start of the movie there was 20 minutes worth of additional trailers. i nearly finished my jujyfruits before the movie even started! next time i'll need to buy 2 boxes. after the movie, i moved my bike closer to ac moore and went inside to get my mother a skein of yarn. then i went to home depot to look for some slide-on door sweeps but they seemed to be all sold out of the one i wanted. i ended up buying a spool of EPDM rubber weatherseal instead. i also bought an insert for our old doorbell; i could pop out the damaged assembly and put in this new one. the whole time the sky looked ominously grey with strong winds. but i put my trust in the weather forecast that said it wouldn't rain until after 3pm.

i found ana in the living room talking on the phone when i got back. she almost never comes into the living room, that seems to be my domain while she has all of the kitchen area. she said her doctor researcher friend still wants to live here at my place while she's gone for 2 weeks, and would even be willing to pay me money in additional the money he'd pay ana for essentially subletting my place. but i was already looking forward to having 2 roommate-free weeks, so i told her no.

soon after 3pm it really did start to rain. i quickly raced outside to put the cover on the motorcycle but the bike was already wet. i may need a new bike cover anyway, the one that i have doesn't seem to be very water resistant anymore, and the whole thing sort of gets saturated with water and sags during rainstorms.

waiting for ana to leave, i had a greek yogurt for lunch. she finally left by 4:30pm. i immediately went to go use the bathroom without any interruptions. afterwards i was still hungry and had an instant cup of noodles (chicken). later in the evening i made myself some cheese shells for dinner.