Roberto Benigni was wrong
I am now convinced that I shouldn’t watch any more foreign films.
Yep, I’m embracing my American-ness. Foreign films are just too…. foreign.
Watched Biutiful tonight.
Cancer. Sucks.
Mental illness. Sucks.
The human condition. Sucks.
Life. Sucks.
Javier Bardem did a good job. But it’s just so hard to relate to such a foreign story. By the end of the movie, I was actually feeling sick to my stomach, this movie was so depressing.
If there’s one thing I can take from the movie, it is this: Suck it up, Sean. Your life could be SO. MUCH. WORSE!
So, sorry to be the sterotypical Ugly American. Sorry I’m not one of the cultural elite who probably LOVE this movie. Sorry that, after seeing this movie and a few others lately, I’m desperate for a ‘feel good’ movie.
28/56. The Challenge begins to take it’s toll.
Just another manic Monday
My salsa wasn’t really any better after chilling for a day. Ah well. I’ll use more tomatoes next time. And leave out the onion and garlic. I’ll use less cilantro too. I hate wasting food. 🙁 So I’m going to knuckle down and finish off this batch. It’s not terrible, just not good.
I only work the equivalent of 11 months per year. My office is kind enough to let me spread out my month off over the entire year. So I take off 14.5 hours each month. This month that means that I’ll take this Friday off and the 25th as well. Add to that the fact that President’s Weekend is 4 days, and I’m looking forward to some extra LOTRO and TV time. And it’s a good thing cause I’m falling way behind on both those things.
Biutiful tomorrow night and Harry Potter 7.1 on Wednesday.
Finished that steaming pile of crap called Dogtooth tonight. Blech!
26/56
Weekend recap
Kind of a quick weekend, but too busy as usual. Friday evening I went to a local photography meetup. It was alright. It’ll be better once the group figures out what it wants to be. Watched a movie to finish out the night.
Saturday, I went to my friend, Sarah’s, book launch. Her book is called The Latte Rebellion. I bought a copy and had her sign it. I did take some photos.
Afterwards, I stopped by the supermarket and bought some of the ingredients for the cabbage salsa I’ll be making for work. Then home to watch the second movie in the Harry Potter series.
In the evening, I went to my aunt & uncle’s place for a birthday / anniversary party. I was there for a couple of hours then I went over to Dorinda & Holly’s to watch another of the Harry Potter movies. That was just about all I could fit into the day and there was nothing left to do but go to bed.
Today, I watched 2 more HP movies on DVD, saw Country Strong at the theater, and finished up the evening with Winter’s Bone (from Netflix). Somewhere in there, I made a test batch of the salsa. I’m not real happy with it. I’m glad I tested before I inflicted it upon my coworkers.
Oscar count – 25/56
Couple of cousins
This is a photo of me with my cousins Reggie and Andy.
Taken at my aunt’s house following my uncle’s funeral Mass.
I imagine that right now, youre feeling a bit like Alice.
From IMDB: Rabbit Hole – Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Rabbit Hole was a good movie; very bitter sweet. It may be the most ‘real’ of any of the movies I’ve seen this season. I thought that Nicole Kidman did a great job… But so did Aaron Eckhart. In fact, I think I liked his performance better! I really don’t understand the Academy sometimes. But that’s ok.
My total count is now 23/56.
Scotty…
When teleportation is finally possible, where will you beam yourself first?
Inherent in the question is the idea that this new technology will allow me to go someplace that I really want to go or someplace that’s difficult to go to. I mean, why would I say, “The kitchen”? That would be really stupid and a waste. Will this technology be more cost effective than what we have now? You know, it is possible to purchase trips to space, to the international space station. Just takes money. Will teleportation cost as much? Will it be cheaper to drive or fly to any of the places I’d like to go? Will teleportation be a novelty and ultimately nothing more than a fad? I’m not one to jump on bandwagons for their own sake.
Let’s assume that it’s cheap/free to use this technology. When will it actually arrive? Tomorrow? Then I’ll go to Portland. 5 years from now? Then it will depend on where I haven’t gotten to by then. I’ll tell you what it will do if this is a cheap and ubiquitous means of travel. It will prompt me to live in a more remote area than I would currently accept. If I can get back and forth to people and services, why live in a crowded area at all?
Harrumph! You kids get out of my yard!
In general I consider myself an animal lover. Well, a dog lover anyway. I always try to say hello and give lots of attention to dogs when I encounter them. But I am really tired of dog owners afflicting their pets on me out in public. What is it that happens to people when they have pets? So many of them have no concern whatsoever about their dogs running up to me, barking, pawing at me, maybe biting. When my former roommate, Letitia got a dog, we used to walk Micky to the park. She thought nothing of letting Micky run free in unfenced areas. Who cares if he runs up on people or other animals? Hahaha! Just laugh it off. After all, Letitia knew that Micky meant no harm, and other people are supposed to read her mind and know that too, right? It always annoyed me. I’m a rather high self monitor I think. I often seem to be overly aware and concerned about how my actions may be affecting others around me. If only I could be truly anti-social and just not care.
Anyway, I hope I wasn’t like that when I had my dog, Chloe.
G’day Bruce!
Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Why or why not?
In theology/philosophy, there is a tension between the ideas of free will and predestination. The whole how can we have free will at the same time that God is almighty and has a plan for us debate. I really don’t see the contradiction here. To my thinking, we have absolute free will AND God knows exactly what and how we will choose and what the effect will be of that and every other choice. Really people, we cannot comprehend the massiveness, the awesomeness, of God. Anything we think we understand and know, it’s like nothing compared to the understanding and knowledge of God.
So to answer the question, I do believe everything happens for a reason. Because of choices that were made by someone or more likely many someones; because of the way God set up the universe, the laws of physics, nature. Even if we have to trace the cause of the thing back to the beginning of time, there is a reason.
Maybe what this question should have been is, “Is there meaning to everything that happens?” That, my friends, is a significantly different question.
Now for the rest of the story
Ok, so in my earlier post, I had arrived at the church. The church itself was sort of unimpressive but the campus was pretty nice. What was impressive was the number of people in attendance. There were so many people there who loved my uncle. That was really nice. Mass seemed haphazard and rather lazily put together. I won’t get into the specifics but it was a little frustrating and disappointing. My uncle had served in the army and received military honors at the cemetery. The Church could learn a thing or three from the military. These guys understand the value and power of ritual. The lone bugle playing Taps and the words spoken to my aunt when the soldiers presented the flag to her were the most moving moments I’d witnessed in some time.
Back at the house, there was a seemingly endless influx of people bringing food or coming by to spend some time remembering my uncle. It really was a wonderful celebration of Doug’s life. I got to spend lots of good time with family.
I did sneak in a nap, and when I woke up, almost everyone had gone. I and my cousin, and a friend of his finished up the evening playing some games.
I’d hoped and intended to leave to come home at 8:00 or so, but didn’t end up leaving until 9:30. I had something to be back in Modesto for at 2:00. I was an hour late. But that’s not too bad.
Despite the long road trip down south and the rapid turn-around to come home, nevermind the accompanying lack of sleep! this was surprisingly one of the most restorative weekends I’ve had in a while. Maybe it had something to do with it being a four day weekend. Or maybe it had more to do with seeing family. Maybe it was about who wasn’t going to be in the office when I came in this morning. But I actually felt rested when I went back to work today.
My crack dispenser
What’s one piece of technology you can’t live without?
I guess the obvious answer is the internet. It’s so useful for so many things. Certainly email and web browsing, but I use it all the time for playing MMOs, Lord of the Rings Online in particular. I spend hours and hours playing this game.
Another obvious guess would be my iPhone. Obvious in the sense that I can’t stop using it to check statuses and updates on facebook and twitter.
But I’ll make my official answer… my TiVO. I used to be running two or three VHS recorders multiple nights of the week. Keeping track of the tapes and making sure to watch them in the correct order to clear up space to do it all again was logistically challenging. TiVO was made for me! I recently upgraded to the Premiere box. 5 times as much storage, HD if I want it, download directly from Netflix and YouTube, and I can use it as my cable tuner box. Lovely! So TiVO gets my vote.
