Felicia Fredlund

Writer. Editor. Reader.

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Great Music: The Corrs

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This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.

They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.

They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.

Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci

The Corrs

I’ve listened to The Corrs for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t something I chose myself.

I was more Spice Girls, Aqua, Backstreet Boys, etc. when I was a kid.

During summer vacation, we’d often go somewhere by car, visiting my much older half-brother or driving over to Denmark to vacation at the beach and visit Legoland.

On those long car rides, when my dad picked the music, we often listened to The Corrs. At least, that is the only music outside a few things us kids loved that I remember hearing.

I love listening to The Corrs. Whenever I’m on a bus, train, plane or other transport and I want music, The Corrs is my most often picked music.

Nostalgia is definitely a part of it, but it is also pretty calm (country-ish) and cheerful (I can’t speak for the lyrics (I honestly haven’t listened to the lyrics much), but the sound is cheerful). Basically, it is very easy to listen to and it doesn’t jar me out of thoughts or out of naps.

What more can I ask of music while traveling?

Great Web Comic: XKCD by Randall Munroe

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This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.

They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.

They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.

Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci

XKCD by Randall Munroe

I don’t remember who introduced me to XKCD, a webcomic I’ve enjoyed immensely for years, even if I don’t always understand them.

There is a lot of physics, maths, and other sciences, but I read for the humor and the cutely funny ones. I also do find the science ones interesting, at least when I understand them!

The one thing to know is that after you finish reading the comic, you should hover your mouse over it and read the text that pops up. Those are the best.

The comic is made by Randall Munroe.

A few years back I bought a couple of the comics in print. I can share those comics here, Munroe allows it, and I will share my absolute favorite, but for the others, I’d rather link so you can potentially go down the rabbit hole of the wonderful and sciency weird.

Jealousy

XKCD Loves the Discovery Channel

Lastly I want to share one that kinda transcends the comic format. I was reading XKCD regularly when this one came out, so I got to follow it in real time. It is called Time and is more like a cartoon/animated movie, except you can pick the pace yourself, or let it go through the many many frames automatically.

Click the play button in the top left to let it run with some pauses on key frames. You can adjust the speed in the same area. Or you can step through the frames with your arrow keys or the buttons in the top right.

Have fun with this last one. I have no idea how long he worked on that one, but it is long.

Great Movie: Die Hard and Die Hard 4.0

Posted:

This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.

They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.

They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.

Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci

Die Hard and Die Hard 4.0

My movie taste runs primarily action. And a classic action movie that I like to rewatch regularly is Die Hard. I also love rewatching Die Hard 4.0 (while double checking the name of Die Hard 4.0 (as I know it), I learned that the North American name for the movie was Live Free or Die Hard).

(Die Hard 2, Die Hard with a Vengeance (3), and A Good Day to Die Hard (5) are also good, but if I’m not planing to rewatch all Die Hards, I always pick 1 or 4.)

I don’t know that there is much to say about Die Hard (1) that hasn’t already been said.

Christmas, great action, and fun interplay between characters.

Basically feel good with explosions.

Instead I’ll talk about Die Hard 4.0. If I have to pick between watching 1 or 4, I might actually pick 4 because it hits a few more of my favorite things.

I like hacker/action movies.

So what 4 adds is a sidekick that I find funny, a bit sweet, and just the right amount of snark/wit. There are also strong women, a villain that is very Die Hard, and one specific one-liner from the sidekick that I love.

I watch action movies for relaxed fun. Give me some entertaining characters and great action and I’m good. That is what I look for in my action movies. So if that is your thing, Die Hard (all of them) are a good choice.

Great Book: Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

Posted:

This series of posts are about entertainment that I recommend when people ask me for recommendations. It also includes place-specific “entertainment”, such as beautiful gardens; it might be stretching the definition of entertainment, but I enjoy myself in the places I recommend.

They are not universal recommendations. I wouldn’t recommend a dark thriller to someone looking for something nice and happy; I’d recommend a romance.

They aren’t perfect or without mistakes.

Art is never finished, only abandoned. ~ Leonard da Vinci

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

When I decided I wanted to do this series, I always knew what the first post would be.

Once a upon a time, when I was a little girl, I found reading boring. It was hard work and not fun at all.

Until…

I picked up Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce on one of the regular school visits to a library.

I was eleven years old and after reading that book, I’ve been a reader and later it lead me down the writing path.

Alanna was great, both the character and the book. It is a young adult book, at least that is where I would put it, especially with the later books seeing Alanna go from 10-11 years old to 18+. (The series is called Song of the Lioness.)

I loved the book because it fulfilled my biggest fantasies at that age: being a knight in training (aka a page), a girl, and having great magic.

I don’t want to spoil the books even though they are decades old. Let’s just say as the series goes on, it fulfilled more fantasies and went in direction I didn’t expect.

This isn’t Tamora Pierce’s best book (or series) in my opinion, but it was the book that made me a reader, so how could I not love it?

I’ve reread it many times. I read a lot of Tamora Pierce’s work and I’ll feature more of them in this series in the future.

If you like to read fantasy, like empowered girls/women, and like knights, castles, some fighting, magic, and adventure, this is a book for you.

Also, the rest of the series is also great; the fourth book is my favorite, but it is best when read after reading the first three.