Getting Unstuck, and Bond-ology

I was muddling through Thursday wondering what I was going to do through the weekend. The last dump of snow was so de-motivating. Initially, I was just in no mood to take on any extra home projects, but then I looked in my fridge. I've been trying to eat healthier again, buying more fruits and veggies, but with the neglect because of the long days at work, I discovered that it was looking more and more like a regular bachelor's refrigerator. It was coming close to the point when brown stuff was turning green, and when the green stuff starts turning brown. In another couple of days, I'm sure I'd be able to roll up the lettuce and smoke it. Without intending to do so, I managed to create my most efficient mise en place ever. I created a lot of recipes, some classy ones, for very cheap. It was my first measure for getting unstuck. The fates conspired to push me along through the process further yet in an interesting way.

With the return of warmer weather, I had to take advantage of trying to put some effort into getting more physically active. Motivation to move though has still been lacking. My performance in both running and skiing has been erratic and more taxing on me than usual. My lung capacity is still greatly diminished, and it's putting more strain on my breathing and circulation than I find comfortably acceptable. I decided that I needed to get the compatible heart rate monitor that transmits the reading to my GPS sports watch for biofeedback. It seems like I have to outsource my willpower in the form of gadgets and apps. I went to three different stores before I finally found it. At the place I found it at, the price tag listed it at $79.99 before taxes, I paid with plastic. When I collected the receipt, I saw that I was charged only $21.99 after tax. Either there was a flyer discount I wasn't aware of, or some scanning error that perhaps rang in the wholesale price instead; whatever the case I didn't argue about it. CoincidentalIy, I have to note that I checked my lotto tickets earlier and won twenty two dollars. It was a fluke that it covered almost the exact cost of the monitor. This bit of serendipitous luck was as if karma was dictating and making it such that I had to have this unit. All in all, my heart monitor really only cost me three bucks, the price of the lotto ticket. As it has been though, nothing else was mentally making it anymore inspiring to run harder, and while I was skiing this weekend, imagery of machine gun toting henchmen pursuing me didn't make me move any faster, which leads me to the next subject.

The final thing that has been giving me a bit more inspiration to move more is the 50th anniversary set of the 007 movies on loan to me, and watching my more favoured of the action-packed series all weekend. Thus comes the list part of my entry:

Top 10 Favourite Bond Films

1. Skyfall
2. Casino Royale
3. Goldfinger
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. Dr. No
6. Quantum of Solace
7. Goldeneye
8. Die Another Day
9. The Living Daylights
10. View to a Kill

My Choices for the Five Worst Bond Films

1. Never Say Never Again*
2. Live and Let Die
3. Moonraker
4. Licensed to Kill
5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

My Five Favourite Bond Villians

1. Le Chifre (Mads Mikkelson)
2. Silva (Javier Bardem)
3. Jaws (Richard Kiel)
4. Max Zorin (Christopher Walken)
5. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence)

My 15 Favourite Bond Girls

1. Melina Havelock, For your Eyes Only (Carole Bouquet)
2. Jill Masterson, Goldfinger (Shirley Eaton)
3. Major Asimova/XXX, The Spy Who Loved Me, (Barbara Bach)
4. Honey Rider, Dr. No (Ursula Anders)
5. Severine, Skyfall (Berenice Marlohe)
6. The Cigar Girl/Assassin, The World is Not Enough (Maria Grazia Cucinotta)
7. Christmas Jones, The World Is Not Enough (Denise Richards)
8. Pussy Galore, Goldfinger (Honor Blackman)
9. Xenia Onatopp, Goldeneye (Famke Janssen)
10. Domino, Thunderball (Claudine Auger)
11. Solange, Casino Royale (Carterina Murino)
12. Elektra King, The World Is Not Enough (Sophie Marceau)
13. Miranda Frost, Die Another Day (Rosamund Pike)
14. Plenty O'Toole, Diamonds Are Forever (Lara Wood0
15. Naomi, The Spy Who Love Me (Caroline Munro)

My 10 Favourite Action Scenes

1. The showdown at Skyfall Manor (Skyfall)
2. The little yellow car chase (For Your Eyes Only)
3. The Tank in Moscow Scene (Goldeneye)
4. The Parkour Chase in the Madagascar Construction Site (Casino Royale)
5. The Miami Airplane Fuel Truck Ride (Casino Royale)
6. The ski jump parachute scene (The Spy Who Loved Me)
7. The Ski/Motorcycle Chase (For Your Eyes Only)
8. The Thailand Canal Boat Chase (The Man with the Golden Gun)
9. The Fencing Club Dual (Die Another Day)
10. The Port au Prince Boat Chase (Quantum of Solace)

Ten Stupid/Sucky Things of the Bond Films

1. For Your Eyes Only - A glaring technical mistake about the oxygen/helium respirator mixture. If their tanks were full of  helium, they would have been speaking like Munchkins.
2. Diamonds Are Forever - Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint. Enough said.
3. Never Say Never Again - Not being able to classify Kim Basinger as a Bond girl, because this movie can't be ever thought of as a Bond film
4. Man With the Golden Gun - The midget Nick Nack, and funhouse props juxtaposed to a state of the art solar energy converter, WTF??!!
5. Moonraker - Mr. Drax, like come on. . . if you are going to be a bat shit crazy megalomaniacal villain, at least try to have a personality that varies a bit from that of a brown sock.
6. The Living Daylights/License to Kill - Locking Timothy Dalton's place as the "spazzy" Bond.
7. Thunderball - The underwater battlefield scene was rather slow for an action scene, the bubbles do a lot to obscure the shots. The "airlift" ending was pretty cheesy too.
8. Sean Connery - Hey, I like the guy; but is it just me, or do other people find it as freaky and distracting upon noting how the far ends of his eyebrows almost appear to be trying wrap themselves around to the back of his head? I guess tweezing wasn't a popular option back in the sixties.
9. Octopussy - I think you've lost more than a bit of screenwriting talent when you are trying to introduce a rotary saw yo-yo thing as a legitimate possibility for an assassin's weapon. 
10. Live and Let Die - I hated this instance and effort on the part of the franchise to mess around with Blaxploitation, no matter how cool they thought it was to do at the time.

*- Never will this be ever considered a proper Bond film.