Last night, once the dust settled, I went into the bedroom and put Lake House in the DVD player. Honestly, I was tired of thinking about the temporal anomalies in Primer, and wanted to wrap my head around something else. Then, while the movie was getting started (I had seen the beginning already), I went back to my office and got involved in writing up Terranova Habitat for the space-themed Multiverser Triple Play worlds package. I did that for a while, and then went back, rewound the movie (which seems entirely the wrong word for a DVD) to a point that looked familiar, and watched the rest.

Lake House is going to be a lot easier than Primer; on the other hand, it’s not going to be reconcilable. The story collapses within the first ten minutes, but it’s watchable because you aren’t given the proof that those first ten minutes are impossible until the last ten minutes. It has a happy, if totally impossible, ending, and is an enjoyable film whether or not you like its stars. I’ve been a fan of stories about architecture since having been forced to read ninety percent of Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead in high school, and some of the comments on architecture are insightful. There are a few spots where they get gimmicky, treating correspondence as if it were dialogue, which will have to be addressed; but in the main, it’s pretty clear what is supposed to have happened, and equally clear why none of it could have.

So I’ve accomplished something, but not nearly enough. Let me press on through today; maybe I can accomplish more.

–M. J. Young

I have continued to fight my way through the analysis of Primer, writing as I reason, and challenging my understanding of the film with each step. I need to view it again before I can finish it, because there is an extended segment about a guy with a shotgun at a party that I’ve not quite fit into the story yet.

I have also started on Lake House. It seems that on Friday night, my college son and his girlfriend decided they wanted to watch it, so I opened it and set it up. Then her phone rang, and he decided to get something else done while she was on the phone, and I decided to get something else done while awaiting them, and in the end she fell asleep on the couch and he decided not to watch it. I watched more than half an hour of it, but had to run a scheduled errand and never got back to it. However, it is already interesting, even if part of my interest stems from the fact that I was told something about it in advance which informs my understanding of one of the earliest scenes in the film. I’m already labeling it “Frequency by mail”, because it has that aspect of sending information through time.

Meanwhile, our intended Collision rehearsal collapsed, because the brakes on the new car quit, apparently blowing a major leak in the line to the rear brakes. My houseguests have concluded that this is not something they can fix here without a lift, so we are temporarily without a vehicle. On the other hand, they don’t think it will take long for a mechanic to fix it tomorrow, so that’s the plan.

In the midst of this, our washing machine decided to start spewing water onto the floor. This created a serious complication, as my wife has to have clean uniforms for work every day, and that includes doing laundry before tomorrow afternoon–not to mention that everyone else in the house needs clothes as well. Fortunately, our houseguests were able to find and repair that problem, so this is up and running. I must also extend my thanks to Grey Vanaman of Audio-clear, who has extended to us the use of one of his equipment transport vans to handle our necessary transportation.

I need to get a few things done before I lose the light, and figure out what I’m making for dinner, but hopefully I should be back to the forums before long.

–M. J. Young

Most of what I wrote on Friday has followup news today, but there’s not much that’s new. I have been running pretty solidly since Friday, and was late to more than one engagement, but everything that needed to be done was done–some of it a bit less than smoothly.

The person I brought here Friday night for today’s meeting has tentatively decided to stay the night and return tomorrow, which saves me some driving since I have to make half the journey anyway, to get my mother-in-law to the store yet again. That complicates tomorrow’s work, but it simplifies tonight immensely.

Tonight I have to launch the new study in I Corinthians, but otherwise I’m in the winding down phase of the day.

On a subject that has not been mentioned for a while, I’ve suddenly got a stack of stuff for the Temporal Anomalies site. I have been struggling with Primer–a movie that I have thus far found very nearly unwatchable for how slowly it moves, although this might in part be because I’m always starting it sometime around midnight. I also have a copy of Lakehouse, provided at the same time by the same reader. Today I was handed two more films, Next with Nicholas Cage and Premonition with Sandra Bullock. I’m not certain whether either actually is a time travel movie, but one way or another I’ll watch them and reach some conclusion.

Speaking of conclusions, I’m hoping to reach one early tonight–that is, of my work for the day. I’ve a long drive tomorrow on top of a lot of work that normally hits on Monday, so I’d like an early night and an early start in the morning. Maybe I can get that.

–M. J. Young