Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Dang it!

I was going for the R rating but I just can't do anything right lately ;)

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

Ice Cream!

Got this from a friend recently.
Some may not agree but it sure seems to be this way to me.

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Ice Cream & The Election

Excellent analogy!
From a teacher in the Nashville area.

Who worries about "the cow" when it is all about the "Ice Cream?

The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade this year.
The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest.
I decided we would have an election for a class president.
We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote.
To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members.
We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have.
We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot.
The class had done a great job in their selections.

Both candidates were good kids. I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never met Olivia's parents.

The day arrived when they were to make their speeches. Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make our class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best.

Everyone applauded. He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise. She said, "If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream." She sat down.

The class went wild. "Yes! Yes! We want ice cream." She surely could say more. She did not have to.

A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn't sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it? She didn't know. The class really didn't care. All they were thinking about was ice cream.

Jamie was forgotten.

Olivia won by a landslide.

Every time Barack Obama opened his mouth he offered ice cream and fifty-two percent of the people reacted like nine year olds. They want ice cream.

The other forty-eight percent of us know we're going to have to feed the cow and clean up the mess.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A Good "Drug" Problem

A colleague of mine sent this around the other day.
Very profound.

The following letter has appeared on the internet and was viewed by many readers.

The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a Methamphetamine lab had been found in a old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, "Why didn’t we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?"
I replied, I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather. I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn’t put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me. I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom’s garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad’s fields. I was drug to the homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood, and if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today’s children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

5 Word Reviews - Revolutionary Road




Revolutionary Road
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates

Sad Story
Great Acting
Boring
Lackluster
Sterile

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

What a day!

Hah, This comic is pretty dang funny.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

5 Word Review - Defiance




Defiance
Starring: Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Alexa Davalos

Nothing surprising
True Story
Medium Quality WWII flick
Attempt at depth
Farcical dialect/accent work

Great Day!

January 20th, 2009
Today is a great day!
I've been waiting for this day for a long time.
Since last Wednesday.
There is another episode of American Idol on tonight!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

5 Word Review - Last Chance Harvey




Last Chance Harvey
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson

Surprisingly Good
Painful
Sweet
Slow
Date Movie for the over 40 crowd

5 Word Review - Gran Torino




Gran Torino
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her

Vintage Eastwood
Gritty
Surprising tenderness
Old school racial slurs
Sacrifice

5 Word Review - Slumdog Millionaire




Slumdog Millionaire
Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto

Gut Wrenching
Great Story
Engrossing
Brutal
Oscar worthy

5 Word Review - Tale of Despereaux




The Tale of Despereaux
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffmna, Emma Watson

Soup
Rats
Beautiful Animation
Dark
Predictable

5 Word Review - Yes Man




Yes Man
Starring: Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel

Funny
Disappointing
Spontaneous
Entertaining
Naughty

5 Word Review - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond

Subtle
Beautiful
Love
Odd
No Answers

Friday, January 16, 2009

5 Word Review - Doubt




Doubt
Starring: Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Heavy Dialogue
Great Acting
Thinking
Unemotional
Flat

5 Words Review - Marley & Me




Marley & Me
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson

Sweet
Romping
Tears
Family
Woof!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

5 Word Review - Valkyrie




Valkyrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh

Surprising
Educational
Riveting
Intimate
Bold

5 Word Review - Seven Pounds




Seven Pounds
Starring: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson

Forgettable
Wanting
Hollow
Disappointing
Unintelligent


5 Word Review - Bedtime Stories




Bedtime Stories
Starring: Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Guy Pearce

Fun
Silly
Entertaining
Family Flick
A Little too Cute

Kevin's Five Word Reviews


A new year and a new attempt to review all the movies I take in. I am nuts about movies. I absolutely love going to the movies. I am an addict. Please God don't let anyone ever come up with a movie lovers anonymous 12 step program.
This year I thought I would convey my thoughts about movies in a very simple way. I am going to try using only 5 words or 5 short phrases to describe my thoughts about a movie. This came from thinking about the conversations I have with most people about movies. They usually go something like this:

Did you see "X"?
Yes I did.
What did you think?
I thought it was...
1. Good.
2. Slow moving.
3. Fun family flick.
4. Funny.
5. Well written.

etc. etc. etc.

We'll see how it goes. I have 10 movies I've seen since Christmas that I will review below. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Lasagne al forno - Guad Style


This New Years Eve was special. We were graced by Chef Guad and his travelling band of Eyetallian Coreeans.
Chef Guad's specialty is Lasagne. No you silly Americans, not 'Lasagna'.
This was a 2 day event. One day for the shopping alone. I neglected to take pics of that event. It was a mistake because we took a detour to the Magic Harmons grocery store. Specifically the Bangerter Crossing location. If you are anywhere near Draper Utah and can drop in you should. It is an experience. I personally haven't seen it's equal since the Larry's Markets in the Seattle area (since gone bankrupt).
The second day was for the cooking. As you can see in the montage above Chef Guad was very busy.
The result was a delight and a treat for us heathens used to buying our 'lasagna' in a cardboard box at Costco. It was so good I didn't want to swallow, I just wanted to keep savoring the amazing mixture of meats, sauce and spices forever. Oh, and as a nice side benefit, we won't need to worry about any Vampires around here anytime soon. There was enough garlic in this masterpiece to make Stephenie Meyer start writing episodes of Sponge Bob Square Pants.
So, it's a hearty Happy New Years to our visiting Chef! Thanks! And, double thanks for making 2 ginormous pans of this Italian candy so that we could live off the leftovers until Presidents Day!

***BOOK REVIEW*** Thunderstruck by Erik Larson




I asked for and received this book for Christmas. I started reading it on Christmas day and finished about a week later. This is fairly quick for me especially recently. This book was recommended by a Co-worker. In that recommendation I understood the story to be more inspirational than it turned out to be. So, in light of my expectation that there would be some inspiration in this book I was a bit disappointed. However, after finishing the book and resetting my expectation I can report that I enjoyed this book.
There are 2 main stories in this 'true story' based book. The author switches back and forth between one story based on Guglielmo Marconi the 'inventor' of wireless communication, and another story, a murder mystery. The story takes place in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It takes until the last few pages of the book before we know the connection between the 2 stories. This was a little annoying. I kept wondering if I missed something somewhere that gave me the connection.
Erik Larson did a good job using materials and reports written by and/or about the 2 main characters to construct a novel-like experience. However, there were times when the story started to feel a little like a travelogue especially concerning the Marconi character.
The book did a good job of making me attempt to place myself in the time of the story. Especially the ending, which I won't divulge here, really made me wonder what it would have been like to live in the time when it first became possible to communicate around the globe in a matter of seconds.
In the form of a story I was able to learn how wireless communication was invented. I found it fascinating to learn about the forces that conspired against Marconi in competition to monetize this emerging technology. It was an interesting note to learn that around the turn of the century many scientists were caught up in researching supernatural forces, seances, ouija boards etc. instead of focusing on the hard sciences and competing with Marconi. Marconi, a non-scientist, kept working and building and trying to make the technology work even without any of the underlying knowledge of the technical science of what he was working with. I learned that unlike many inventors that work without any backing and largely alone, Marconi had 10 of millions of dollars of backing and capital to work with. He became a very wealthy man at a very young age and it was directly due to the invention he was working on.
If you are interested in history and in invention around the turn of the century then you may enjoy this book that also wraps a true life murder mystery in between the scientific discovery.