Monday, July 21, 2008

Beau has a poll here. Go vote, will you?

It is hard to believe we leave on Saturday for California. I’m so not ready. That said, a lot has been done to prepare:

1. Mail is on hold starting on Saturday.

2. We have a friend scheduled to come check on the cat.

3. I have a full mp3 player (thanks, Dad! - it’s actually only half full and I have 5 books and about 100 songs on there).

4. I mailed a package with Jesse things to Beau’s uncle on Friday. I was assured that it will arrive by Thursday.

5. Jesse is mostly packed. Because we’ll be in both hot and cooler weather areas, we’re packing two sets of clothes. Layers. Although for Jesse we’re including long and short pants as well as long sleeved shirts and a fleece in case the evenings get cold enough. I have yet to pack a thing for the adults.

6. Jesse’s diaper bag is pretty much ready to go with only enough diapers to get through day/night one, jarred food, two small milk cartons and two bottles of Pediasure, disposable utensils/sippy cup. Another carry-on tote bag contains two boxed meals for toddlers, the DVD player, DVDs and CDs (in a small case to save space), books for Jesse. To be added to that tote are his Moo-Moo and a blanket for the plane. The third carry-on tote will have to contain the stuff that both Beau and I want to take on the plane. This is where the tiny mp3 player is crucial for space saving. We’ll probably have additional Jesse things in there, too.

7. The car seat/stroller adapter thingy needs testing. We need to actually practice attaching the car seat to the thing so that when we get to the airport it isn’t a frustrating battle.

8. My Mom is adding pockets to the Mei Tai child wearing carrier that I bought. This means that I can wear Jesse without having to deal with my purse. We plan to buy an umbrella stroller once we’re there, so we’ll have that, too.

It’s going to be a busy week.

No doubt the book is better than the movie, but The Kite Runner (movie) is one of my favorite movies in the past few months, if not this year.

After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.

From his first words, Hassan broke my heart.

The movie is hard to watch at times. The cinematography is beautiful (it was filmed in China) and brutal. The story is compelling - two boys living in a harsh country whose lives are torn apart by one pivotal incident and then a war, and then the man who returns to his homeland as an adult to find that things are worse.

I highly recommend the movie, with 4 stars out of 5.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

I bought Shane and Shane‘s Pages CD a few weeks ago and finally gave it a listen the other day. They write beautiful songs and their musicality is a gift.

Today’s Song of the Day is Healed.

Healed
by Shane and Shane

When I think about the Lord
How He saved me, how he raised me
How He filled me with the Holy Ghost
How He healed me to the uttermost

When I think about the Lord
How He picked me up and turned me around
How He set my feet, on solid ground

It makes me wanna shout;
“Hallelujah, thank you Jesus,
Lord you’re worthy of all the glory
and all the honor, and all the praise!”

I’ve read two three reviews of The Dark Knight by bloggers whom I respect. Their opinions are sharply different.

First is Kevin D at Dean’s World. A snippet:

Unlike, say, Iron Man, I didn’t walk out of the theater completely excited.  I knew I liked what I saw but I wasn’t giddy like I was after even Batman Begins.  This made articulating my feelings about the film difficult.  Looking back I think I now know why.

Many people are calling The Dark Knight a great superhero film.  Maybe even the greatest.  But in my ears it sounds like they’re saying, “The Dark Knight is great - for a superhero movie.” As if the film was king of its own genre and should be happy with that.  And, maybe it should.  But then I realized why I didn’t feel giddy.  I didn’t feel that way because in my heart I didn’t feel I really saw a great superhero movie.  I just saw a plain great movie.

And I think that should be the legacy of The Dark Knight.  It transcended its genre like The Return of the King did for the fantasy movie genre.  They’re each great films, not just great superhero or fantasy films.

He then goes on to discuss Heath Ledger’s performance and the themes within the movie.

Next is Brant Hansen of Letters from Kamp Krusty. A snippet:

At one level, this movie is a bunch of violent, purposeless noise.

But there is a second deeper level.  At that level, “The Dark Knight” is a discourse on the nature of evil.

And then… there is a third, still deeper, final level.

At that final level, this movie is a bunch of violent, purposeless noise.

[...]

“The Dark Knight” is cultural rigormortis.  It’s what happens when we are done, and we are done.  Jacques Barzun had it right, when he wrote a history of western culture up through the 1990s, and said, certainly, that our age is defined by boredom.  We are excited by nothing, really, but maybe for a moment here, or a moment there, we can try to be turned on.  Sex can do it (or fake sex, much more likely) but brutal violence can work, too, if for a short time.

Our culture is lying on the table, and “The Dark Knight” is just another jolt before the flatline resumes.

Brant didn’t like the movie at all. Go read his entire review - it makes one think twice about seeing it.

So will I see it? Probably, but I’ll wait for the DVD. I doubt we’ll be able to get to a theater to see it, and while Kevin D liked it, his and Brant’s reviews have given me enough misgivings about it that I’m reluctant to spend the money on the tickets and a babysitter to see it in the theater.

[UPDATE 7/20]: The third is Philip of The Thinklings. He is a Batman fan to the nth degree. A snippet:

This is the Batman movie that mature (or should I say adult?) Batman fans have been waiting for. I thought it was “Batman Begins” which is awesome, but nope. The Dark Knight is it. “Finally”, we grown-up Batman fans are thinking, “the rest of the world will understand why we like Batman so much.”

This the Batman the world has been deprived of for so long by all the other attempts. Batman is not a superhero, so much as he’s the anti-anti-hero. Batman, as we fanboys know him, is a dark, conflicted character that escorts us into a journey into human nature that is so scary that we’re glad to have him as a guide, even though we know he’d never let any of us actually be friends with him.

I kept asking myself if I liked the movie throughout the movie. I realized when it was over that I should have been asking myself, “why so serious?”, which is the promotional tagline of the film, and is spoken by The Joker. I was so serious because this is a serious film. It is not a summer super-hero popcorn flick. It explores the dark side of human nature in such a way that forced me to ask “where is the hope?” when I left. There is an answer found in the self-sacrifice of some of the characters of the film. But wow, what a journey.

He likes it and gives a good review for why he likes it without giving too much away in spoilers. Thanks for the warning to parents, Philip. 

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Beau is starting a blog. We got him set up over here. Posting to start soon, I’m sure.

Here.

There is adult content.

Quote of the Day: Home is where the heart is, so your real home’s in your chest.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Hey, Mom - the Beck 08 show is coming to DVD at some point. So you’ll get to see it. And I plan to buy it.

Going back to the funny thing that Glenn Beck did last night about silly laws on the books in our country, here are a few in California alone that just boggle the mind:

1. It is illegal to set a mousetrap without a hunting license. (Beck mentioned this one.)

2. In L.A. it is against the law to complain through the mail that a hotel has cockroaches, even if it is true.

3. In Blythe, California, a person must own two cows in order to legally wear cowboy boots in public.

4. Redwood City has outlawed the frying of gravy.

5. In Los Angeles, you cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time. (I wonder how many parents break this law daily?)

I couldn’t watch yesterday, but here’s the link to Dr. Horrible, Act II.

I love the first song.

The Glenn Beck show was fantastic. We laughed ourselves silly and had moments with misty eyes and left inspired. I’m half tempted to write in his name when I vote in November.

One thing Beck mentioned that had us howling (among many, actually) that I knew I had to look up is the story about the warning from feds about the increase in TB cases because of Mexican illegal street cheese.

Or “bathtub cheese” as it is also called.

Bathtub cheese.

He also mentioned the crazy laws in California. My favorites:

1. A regulation in San Francisco makes it unlawful to use used underwear to wipe off cars in a car wash.

2. No person shall produce, test, maintain, or store within the city a nuclear weapon, component of a nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon delivery system, or component of a nuclear weapon delivery system under penalty of Chapter 9.60.030 of the Chico Municipal Code.

He mentioned that #2 was actually about nuclear weapon detonation and a $500 fine for whomever detonated the nuke. Funny, right? We howled. But that one turns out to be an urban legend.

Anyway, the show was very fun and well worth the cost of the tickets, gas, babysitter, and lack of sleep.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

She’s hilarious.

And I totally agree with her. Choice quote:

I read a LOT of blogs, and I also read a LOT of blogs written by females (I’d say 75% of the blogs I read are written by women) (and WOW I am apparently really in love with percentages today). So all this week I’ve been rather bored by The Topic of BlogHer.

[...]

What sucks is that - all next week? Guess what I get to read?

A. BLOGHER WAS AWESOME! I met Dooce! She was SO COOL. And tall. And just as funny in person. She promised she’d visit my blog! Hi, Heather! *

Go read the whole thing, please, to get the rest of the multiple choice answers.

My cohort asked our boss about the promotion. He said there’s a slight delay because the Chief wants to interview the candidates.

*sigh*

I asked how many made the cert list - 4. This means me, Amazing One, Useless One, and my cohort. I know that my cohort scored an 84. I scored a 92. I have no clue what the others scored.

Useless One is out of the office until next week and the Chief wants to interview when we’re all here. So the earliest we could do that is next week. Otherwise it will be after I get back from vacation - early August.

*sigh*

So I can’t get the super mp3 player for our trip either. Instead I’ll buy a cheaper replacement mp3 player for Beau’s busted one. This puts the super player back on the Christmas wish list, by the way.

I’m not feeling as confident about it now, which completely sux.

Oh, and I asked my boss this - there’s a huge budgeting portion in the listed duties for the promotion. If I don’t get it, how does that affect my job? Some of my budget monitoring duties switch to that person. I’ll be interested to see how that works, especially since two people have jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with budgeting. But they made the cert list so their resumes must have had enough of the key words to pass muster with HR.

*new wrinkle*

Boss just came in and mentioned the eventual retirement of Disgruntled One. Now, I really have no interest in that job so I haven’t paid too much attention to what she does. I only have peripheral working with her group. But the boss mentioned that Amazing One has been working with Disgruntled One to learn that side of things. Very interesting.

Still no word on the promotion. The Chief has not made an appearance in the office yet. *sigh*

Beau’s mp3 player died yesterday. We tried to troubleshoot last night - the player won’t turn on, but seems to receive data. We reformated the thing and I was able to transfer a book to it, but it will not turn on. It is not a battery problem - it had a new battery in it and Beau did switch for a new one, too. It’s a stumper and a bummer. So he said that if I get the promotion that I can buy the one that I want for myself. I found it at Walmart for significantly cheaper than anywhere else, so I’m anxious to get an answer on the job for a couple of reasons now.

I’m not sure if we’ll be able to look at houses this weekend. We have a BBQ for small group leaders on Saturday afternoon and then church that evening. So if we go out to look, it’ll have to be Sunday, which neither of us wants to do. And it will depend on our realtor’s availability. If we don’t then we won’t see anything until after we get back from California. Man, we leave in a week for California already. I need to mail that package of Jesse stuff to Beau’s uncle no later than tomorrow so that it arrives on time.

We go to the Glenn Beck simulcast tonight and I’m very excited. He was talking yesterday about the special “The Twenty” pre-show thing that they’ve done for the theaters hosting the simulcast. Apparently, they were able to convince the theater chains to run his version for his show. So we have to get there at least 20 minutes early because I want to see that, too.

It’s a very nerve-wracking day. But in a totally good way.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

I finished listening to Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline on the commute this morning. I have two major points to share:

1. If you’re a fan of Scottoline, then you will most likely enjoy this novel. I prefer her Rosato firm centered stories, of which this is one. The story was good, the characters were colorful, the mystery took a turn I didn’t quite expect. And we learned a bit more about Mary D.

2. If you’re a fan of Scottoline, then you must listen to her novels instead of reading the dead tree versions. Especially if they are narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. She is the best audiobook narrator I’ve listened to - I laughed out loud a lot - partly because of the spot on dialects she did for the characters and partly because it was written well. She is fantastic.

4 stars out of 5.